The IT industry has been obsessed with security for years, so you'd think all our systems would be really, really secure by now. Seriously, though, doesn't it sometimes seem that things are getting worse? In the great security arms race, the attackers are innovating just as quickly as the defenders. What can you do to stay safe? Install updates, don't click on strange links, and tune in to your firewall.

One reason some users tend to avoid configuring firewalls is that they are just too complicated. The Uncomplicated Firewall (ufw) was developed as an attempt to demystify firewall configuration. Ufw, which was created by Ubuntu but is supported in many other GTK-based Linux systems, is a simplified interface for configuring netfilter, the firewall system built down deep into Linux. We'll help you get started with ufw in this month's Linux Voice. Also inside, we introduce you to HedgeDoc, a versatile Markdown editor that lets you convert your documents to HTML and other formats.