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Old 2nd April 2012
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jggimi jggimi is offline
More noise than signal
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: USA
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Quote:
I'm concerned about how OpenBSD can be better used as a worksation with all security features...
You are considering privacy and security as if they were a single concept. There are correlations, but the two are not identical.

The applications you mentioned communicate outside your workstation. Therefore, you must consider the applications themselves. Ask questions such as:
  • How do client and server(s) communicate?
  • Is there authentication? How does it function?
  • What happens to data in motion?
  • What happens to data at rest?
Please take a moment to read those questions again. Note, in your second reading -- how much does having an OpenBSD workstation have to do with the answers?

OpenBSD may be able to provide "features" to help you manage network communication; and it may be able to provide "features" to help you manage built in applications or applications you elect to install and run. It cannot protect you from yourself.

"IT Security" is not a product you install. It is an active process, and requires consideration of many aspects of your technology implementation choices. "Privacy" is not granted merely by having a secure workstation. Both require a great deal of thought.

It is good that you ask questions. But now you need to begin asking the right questions, starting with obtaining an understanding of the applications you elect to run. How they work, how they communicate, how privacy can or can not be obtained, what security implications the use of these applications have for YOU. These are not BSD questions, and you should not have BSD questions until you are ready to configure one of these applications for use, after having a grasp of how they operate on the network.
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