Need to know about my safety.
Need to know about my safety.
You're just starting out with cybersecurity. Feel free to ask, and we'll try to figure these out together.
1) With normal browsing and popular sites, the risk of infection is low unless you're using outdated software or weak security settings. If you're using Windows without antivirus, UAC disabled, firewall off, and Wi-Fi connected, it's still pretty safe. But if something malicious tries to exploit vulnerabilities, it could happen.
2) Yes, visiting a suspicious website can definitely track your IP address. Even after closing the browser, some malware might remain active or use residual connections to continue monitoring you. This is common in ads and tracking practices.
3) You're not overly concerned about your accounts yet, but it's wise to be aware. Common ways people get compromised include phishing, malware downloads, and social engineering. Don't forget to update regularly and enable strong passwords.
4) Running Linux daily can expose you if you download untrusted files or scripts. Attackers often hide malicious commands in seemingly harmless software. The risk is real, especially with systems like Arch Linux that lack built-in protections. Understanding how these attacks work helps you stay safer.
1) Feasible? Yes. Probable? No Most of this would involve harmful ads or actions on page load, which isn't very likely and seems rare.
2) How it actually functions? Your IP identifies your connection to websites, helping direct traffic back to you (along with a port). You can't pinpoint someone by their IP alone. At most, you might learn their general location, but not their exact identity. They can't simply reconnect automatically after you close the session.
3) Depends on your security setup? If you employ MFA/2FA and strong, unique passwords, it increases safety.
4) Unless you mark the file as executable, then no.
The password should be long enough and include a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols. Bash scripts must be marked as executable, not saved as binary files, since this can lead to unwanted behavior or unintended calls to bash. Even after using Linux for some time, I still find it confusing that this remains an issue.
If you're handling scripts that might execute with elevated privileges, both Windows and Linux require running them as admin or root to access and modify important files. Once you reach that level, any malicious or unauthorized actions are difficult to prevent unless you've already downloaded and executed the file under those permissions.