Thank you for reading the LinuxSecurity.com weekly security newsletter. The purpose of this document is to provide our readers with a quick summary of each week's most relevant Linux security headlines.

Linux: An OS Capable of Effectively Meeting the US Governments Security Needs Heading into 2020 - As Open Source has become increasingly mainstream and widely accepted for its numerous benefits, the use of Linux as a flexible, transparent and highly secure operating system has also increasingly become a prominent choice among corporations, educational institutions and government sectors alike. With national security concerns at an all time high heading into 2020, it appears that the implementation of Linux could effectively meet the United States governments critical security needs for application development and installations.

Linux Kernel Security in a Nutshell: How to Secure Your Linux System - The Linux kernel is the core component of the Linux operating system, maintaining complete control over everything in the system. It is the interface between applications and data processing at the hardware level, connecting the system hardware to the application software. The kernel manages input/output requests from software, memory, processes, peripherals and security, among other hefty responsibilities. Needless to say, the Linux kernel is pretty important.

  Due To New Law, San Diego’s Law Enforcement Facial Recognition Program Will End in 2020 (Dec 18)
 

Thanks to a statewide policy banning law enforcement use of facial recognition for three years, several agencies in San Diego will lose access to a database of facial scans on January 1, 2020. Learn more:
  The VPN is dying, long live zero trust (Dec 17)
 

The traditional VPN is being replaced by a smarter, safer approach to network security that treats everyone as equally untrusted. Learn more about zero trust and how getting started with a zero-trust security model could improve your business's security posture:
  Millions of Children-Tracking Smartwatches Are At Risk Of Being Hacked (Dec 20)
 

New findings by security firm Pen Test Partners reveal that 47 million devices worldwide could be exposed and tracked thanks to a strikingly insecure cloud platform. Learn more about the privacy risks associated with these smartwatches:
  Debian Releases Updated Intel Microcode for Coffe Lake CPUs, Fixes Regression (Dec 16)
 

The Debian Project released a new intel-microcode security update for Intel CPU microarchitectures to address a regression affecting HEDT and Xeon processors, and add mitigations for Coffe Lake CPUs. Learn more about this update:
  Leaked Data Set Reveals Individual Tracking of 12 Million Phones (Dec 20)
 

The New York Times has obtained a massive data set of over 50 billion location pings linked to more than 12 million phones which illustrates the ease with which tech companies can track and identify individuals. What are your thoughts on this? Learn more:
  WireGuard VPN is a step closer to mainstream adoption (Dec 19)
 

Linux network stack maintainer David Miller has committed the WireGuard VPN project into the Linux "net-next" source tree. Miller maintains both net and net-next "the source trees governing the current implementation of the Linux kernel networking stack and the implementation of the next Linux kernel's networking stack, respectively. Learn more:
  Mozilla adds NextDNS to list of DNS-over-HTTPS providers (Dec 18)
 

Are you a Mozilla Firefox user looking to better protect your privacy online? Good news for Firefox users interested in turning on the browsers DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) privacy feature " they now have two providers to choose from. Learn more:
  Lazarus pivots to Linux attacks through Dacls Trojan (Dec 17)
 

Lazarus, an advanced persistent threat (APT) group, has expanded its reach with the development and use of a Trojan designed to attack Linux systems. Learn more:
  Plundervolt – stealing secrets by starving your computer of voltage (Dec 16)
 

The funky vulnerability of the month " what we call a BWAIN , short for Bug With an Impressive Name " is Plundervolt , also known as CVE-2019-11157 . Learn more about this vulnerability, how it works and what actions you should be taking to protect you system in an informative Naked Security article:
  US military loves Linux (Dec 23)
 

The US government is increasingly using open-source software as a way to roll out advanced, highly secure technology in an economical manner. So chances are if you get hit by US munitions chances are the software is open source " which should make you feel better. Learn more: