DEV Community: alevoski

Escape from big tech companies - 1 year away from Microsoft Windows

alevoski — Sat, 13 Mar 2021 23:30:18 +0000

[This is my first article of a series about escaping "big tech" companies, sometime referred as GAFAM.
My goal is to see if you can efficiently and simply use information and communications technology without the big IT providers like Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Dropbox and Amazon.
What are the alternatives ? Could they be open source ? Are they usable for everyone ? How much does they cost ? Do they respect your privacy ?
I am not the first to write something about this subject and I will not be the last I hope !]

It has been a year since I moved from Windows to Linux for a daily use. In this article I will explain why I did that, what are the benefits and the drawbacks.

I was a Windows user for several years, remembering the good old days of Windows 95/98 with a touch of nostalgia.
Then it was the XP time for quite long and after a frustrating moment with Vista I stayed with 7 almost 10 years.

7 was quite an OS, very easy to use as a simple user and also easy to set as an IT guy.
8 then 10 came, I tested them but I was not convinced (you will see later why).
So I directly switched back to 7.
Then, in January 2020, Microsoft eventually dropped support of this great OS.
It means no more security updates ! I was faced with a dilemma :

Do I take the risk to stay with a no more patched OS with all the security risk it includes ?
Do I finally migrate to 10 and suffer at home all the issues I face everyday at work ? (Coincidentally, I am sticked with Windows 10 in my professional life.)
Do I migrate to Linux and say goodbye forever to Windows ?

One thing was certain, I could not stay with a not updated OS !
Okey, no more 7 but at this state I was not able to make a decision. I needed some more thinking.

Why I don't want Windows 10 ?

Very poor update service : I don't know anybody who likes to be interrupted in a middle of something and forced to have their computer rebooted for an update !
Performance : 10 can take many resources in order to run. And some software like Firefox could eat literally all your RAM if you open more than 10 tabs... I don't want to buy a new computer to stay updated !
Not very secure : It is a known fact that the majority of viruses / malware are targeting Windows OS or software Windows version (it depends of course of the usage, I am sure a well managed Windows will not be hacked that easily).
Not privacy oriented : many trackers are installed by default
Far too fancy : I just cannot take the modern interface !
Too much unnecessary thing by default : why all this non needed preinstalled software ? (Cortana, OneDrive and many apps)
Proprietary : I want to use as much as possible open source OS and software
Compatibility : I found after installing 10 on some (not that) old computers that it's simply not usable (loop reboot, freezing screen, etc), like I am beta testing an OS I bought !

Why and how everyday am I using a computer or what is my daily use ?

To surf the web, enjoying streamed videos and musics, editing office documents, reading/writing emails, chating with my friends including videoconferencing, coding stuffs and virtualizing, backuping some files in the cloud somewhere, sometimes gaming.
I respect as much as possible security best practices by staying up to date, not installing any kind of software I don't really need, encrypting my system, most of my data and also my passwords.

More precisely, what kind of software do I use on Windows and what are their equivalents on Linux ?

Web surfing : there is Firefox or Chrome !
Cloud clients : you can find all sort of cloud sync tools (ie rclone), I use Nextcloud and there is a Linux client for it : nice
Office work : there is Libre Office and many PDF viewer, Freemind, LateX !
Coding : Atom is a very good replacement of Notepad++ and many programming languages are available
Emails : there is Thunderbird if I want my emails when I am offline
IM/Videoconf : almost all chat services I have ever tested (Skype, Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal) have a web version and some have a Linux version
Video/music : there is VLC which can read almost all format you want
Virtualization : there are many virtualization softwares like KVM, Virtualbox or simply virt-manager.
Manage remote systems : SSH client (replace putty)
Files transfert : scp and tftp and if you want a GUI use Filezilla (replace winscp)
VPN clients : many VPN providers have a Linux version of their clients
Encryption : You can use Luks to do a full disk encryption (natively), use Vera Crypt to have safe container, KeepassXC to store your passwords
Games : I am not playing as much I used to do but there is a Linux version of Steam and it can run many games very well thanks to the Proton emulator

At this state of thinking, I knew I could migrate to Linux without regret but one question remained : what distribution to choose ?
I need performance and reliability in an handy system, I tested some Linux OS :

Ubuntu : Work well !
CentOS : Work well too but it remembered me too much of a Linux OS I used at work
Linux Mint : yeah quite right but it lakes some packages in their repo (note : I use it daily as a nomad setup)
Debian : yeah that the thing I am talking about !

Pros :

Package/software management is wonderfully simple and it doesn't need to reboot your system : magic !

To update your OS and your software :

apt update
apt upgrade
apt full-upgrade

To uninstall a software and its dependencies and to remove unnecessary packages :

apt purge
apt autoremove

A computer much more responsive than with Windows (even with 30+ Firefox tabs !) and very quick to start up and to shut down
I found all the software equivalents I needed and they all work as expected
The native multiple workspaces ! (ok 10 too can do that but Linux was first)
It's free and open source (of course) !
It won't play with your privacy

Some cons because nothing is perfect :

Debian : at the beginning I had difficulties with microphone support during videoconf
Mint : after a long time running (several days without reboot), the system sometime lost its Internet connection

To conclude, I found Debian and Mint far better for a daily use than Windows 10, that's all I wanted !

Things to consider before migration :

you are an IT guy/gal and/or you like to learn : go Debian, have in mind you need to use the terminal for some basics operations like update/upgrade/install
you are a regular user and/or you want an OS very easy to use : go Linux Mint (normally you won't have to use the Linux terminal), nice gui update manager
you use specific software like Adobe Premier : test the Linux equivalents (in a virtual machine) before migration !

In all case, ~~Google~~ Duckduckgo is your friend !

ScanPC, your new (open source) tool for Windows compliance audits

alevoski — Wed, 10 Jun 2020 13:09:38 +0000

Hi,
Let me introduce you to ScanPC, a useful Python script I have been developing since 2016.
It aims to help you quickly assess a Windows computer with the gathering of information like :

the user accounts list
the password policy
the share folders list
the hardware configuration
the OS version
the network interfaces
the Windows updates (KB) list
the softwares installed
the firewall state
the processes list
the services list
the antivirus state

Those information are then showable in an HTML report.

Compatibility
You can run it on the following Microsoft Windows systems :

XP x86
7 x86 and x64
10 x86 and x64

You don't even need to have Python installed on those computers !
Thanks to pyinstaller, you can compile the code into an executable.
You will just need them to have Visual C++ 2010 x86 (which is quite common).

Use case
You work in an IT Security team who do compliance audits.
Some of the computer you must assess are not connected to the network for verious reasons.
You put an executable of a compiled ScanPC on your auditor USB key and go scan those computers.

Demo

Interested : visit my website
This tool is open source and I wish it will make your day brighter !

You want to contribute or you find an issue : please pull a request or open an issue on its Github repo !

If you like this project, please share it and star it !
You can also buy me a coffee ;) !

PS : Be carreful when you put USB devices in one computer to one another, you should always check your USB key for viruses after each scan !
Thankfully, the usb devices cleaning station I have been developing at the same time, Decontamine will help you keep your keys clean.

Decontamine_Linux, your usb devices cleaning station

alevoski — Wed, 04 Mar 2020 21:33:57 +0000

You are an IT security specialist in your firm and you are always wondering "How the heck can I limit virus spreading from USB devices in this damn information system ?"

Your boss won't let you buy this very expensive USB kiosk you saw during your last trip in a cyber security trade show ?

The tool I'm going to present you might be the solution !

Decontamine_Linux, a Python script I have been working on, aims to scan and clean your USB devices (keys, hard drives) from viruses. It can also scan CD/DVD in read only mode.
It automatically detects your devices, lets you choose the one you want to scan then runs scanning tools in multiple threads.

It asks you if you want to delete viruses and eventually generates a report you can read and save on your device.

Currently its compatible with 3 antivirus:
- Clamav
- Sophos
- F-Secure
I have been planning to add more and also add other (open source) scanning tools targeting specific files.

Use case

Setup an hardening Debian system on a computer with antivirus and Decontamine_Linux
Enable persistence of the script
Kindly ask your colleagues, with the blessing of your boss, to systematically scan their USB devices before plugging in their computer
Marvel about the decreased of security incidents related to USB devices in your company

Demo

Interested ? : visit my website !

You want to contribute or you find an issue : please pull a request or open an issue on its Github repo !

If you like this project, please share it and star it !
You can also buy me a coffee ;) !

PS : Why this name ? At the beginning, I created Decontamine to run on Windows (there are still running Windows Decontamine stations at the organization I originally developed it between 2015 and 2018), one day I realize it would be better to run it on Linux.
So, after this former employer had accepted this software to go open source, I have been rewriting everything especially for Linux.

PS2 : As a cybersecurity specialist, you should sensitize your colleagues to the hazardousness of USB devices !