this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2024
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Imagine thinking you’re immune to malware
Nobody is immune to it, but it's a lot less common for sketchy websites to provide malware downloads specifically targeting Linux PCs. The market share is nonexistent, the average user is more technically inclined, and the desktop environment ecosystem is full of variations that make it difficult to develop a one-size-fits-all solution.
It simply isn't worth it for most malware creators to focus on Linux desktops. Servers are a different story, but that malware is planted by humans or automated intrustion tools.
That being said, none of this precludes stupidity. If somebody downloads
Oppenheimer-1080p.mkv.exeand opens it in WINE, you can bet your ass that the ransomware malware will do its job just fine.Don't download shady exes, run ublock origin, force https, use a vpn, and reroute your DNS lookups. It's super easy to not download viruses and malware.
I agreed with you up to the "use a vpn" part. That's just wasting money and adding extra steps for the sake of paranoia.
If you're using SSL/TLS and not blindly bypassing invalid certificate warnings, you're not going to have your device or accounts compromised by the hacker boogeyman.
My VPN saves me 100s of dollars a year I would otherwise be spending on subscription services.
You have a good reason to use a VPN: bypassing region restrictions (or piracy). The people subscribed to a VPN service for security reasons usually don't*.
* Excluding those living under a censorship heavy government.
Some VPNs advertise they stop malware so I get why they say that but you're right.
They hide your browsing from your ISP (and probably your government)
They hide your origin and substitute another for web sites.
I'd say a VPN is only useful to people engaging in crime, or things that look like crime and those buying services that are priced differently around the world
That provide no protection against things you might click on
There are far more uses for a VPN. For instance if I want to access my NAS while outside my home.
Sure, but that's not generally a thing the commercial VPNs offer, and I thought we were talking about commercial VPNs
But some VPNs do provide you a little protection on things you might click on. Ublock and not being a dummy will get you around most of that use but for general users it is more safe.
Sure, but that's not VPN action, it's routing or filtering
Sure but when I'm not on my network a VPN doing that is good.