How to make your Linux laptop more secure in 7 steps
How to make your Linux laptop more secure in 7 steps
https://www.howtogeek.com/make-your-linux-laptop-more-secure-in-7-steps/
Publish Date: 2026-02-05 14:00:00
Source Domain: www.howtogeek.com
Chances are that part of the reason you broke away from Microsoft and switched to Linux is the open-source OS’s reputation for greater security. That doesn’t mean your Linux distro is impenetrable, though, and certainly not out of the box. Here are seven steps you can take to make your Linux laptop more secure.
If you’re still looking to make the jump, check out our selection of the best Linux laptops.
Encrypt your hard drive
Credit: Jordan Gloor / How-To Geek
One of the most important steps you can take to secure your Linux laptop is also one of the easiest, namely, to encrypt your hard drive. With most distros, while setting up your OS you will be prompted to encrypt your hard drive and set a password.
Doing this will mean that nobody who gains access to your laptop while it is off will be able to access your files. If your laptop gets stolen or lost, you won’t have to worry about any data stored on it. It’s a very easy way to greatly reduce risk.
Note that on most distros, full-disk encryption is only possible during setup. While we recommend encrypting the whole hard drive, you can also choose to just secure partitions or folders.
Set a system password
In a similar vein, you should also always set a system password, which you enter to unlock the laptop on startup or when unlocking the screen—which we talk about in our next entry. This is a…
