Hello everyone,
Note: This is a proactive post. We have not experienced any security incidents or breaches. It’s meant to reinforce the importance of staying vigilant and to emphasize the respect and awareness we have for the privacy and heightened security needs of a technology-related community.
At LinuxCommunity.io we believe that an open, respectful, technically-rich forum requires a foundation of trust and safety. We’ve implemented our forum environment with the principles of “safe by design” in mind. This means we built for privacy and safety from day one rather than retrofitting them afterwards. Below I’ll walk through key areas of our implementation and how they map to the best-practice framework.
1. Transparent Policies & Data Minimisation
We have clearly published our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy in an easily accessible location. These documents explain which data we collect, how we use it, and how you can control it. This aligns with guidance that user safety policies should be visible, easy to find and written in plain language.
We collect only the data absolutely necessary for membership and forum operation (username, email, IP logs for moderation). We do not require extensive personal profiling at signup. This data-minimisation philosophy helps reduce risk.
2. Access Controls & Trust Levels
The forum uses tiered access (new members → trusted members → moderators) so that privileges increase with demonstrated participation. This is consistent with frameworks that recommend tiered visibility and access based on trust level.
Certain sensitive areas (e.g., the Kernel Lounge > Sudo room ) are restricted to members above specific trust levels. We believe this strikes the right balance between openness and safety.
3. Moderation, Flagging & Governance
We have a moderation team that operates regularly, and all posts can be flagged for review. When a post is flagged for harassment, personal data disclosure, spam, or other violations, our moderators investigate and take corrective action (hide, edit, or delete as needed).
We also document our moderation policies on the Community Rules and Code of Conduct pages.
4. Member Control & Privacy Options
Members can choose whether their profile appears publicly or not. You can use a pseudonym, omit personal details, and adjust how your email or profile is visible. This respects user agency and supports anonymity when desired.
We support two-factor authentication (2FA) for member accounts. We store passwords only as hashed values and follow best security practices for data at rest and in transit. This means we encrypt web traffic end-to-end, secure storage/backups, and actively maintain our infrastructure to minimize risk.
5. Logs and Incident Response
We maintain server and application logs (access, error, moderation actions) so we can investigate incidents if needed. We (will) document any incident-response issues in our Staff area AND publicly in the Community section so that users know what happens if there is a security or privacy event.
6. Education & Community Participation
We provide straightforward help-pages and FAQ links. We also allow community feedback on our policies and periodically review how our safety measures are working. If you ever feel unsafe, or see behaviour you believe violates our community standards, please use the “Flag” button or contact the moderation team.
7. Infrastructure Security, Firewalls & Backups
LinuxCommunity.io is hosted on secure infrastructure managed by StackLinux.com, where security is treated as a top priority. The forum is protected by a layered security approach that includes:
- Firewall and traffic filtering: All inbound and outbound traffic is filtered through a local firewall and additional network-level controls. This helps prevent unauthorized access attempts and mitigates malicious traffic before it reaches the application layer.
- Cloudflare protection: The forum runs behind Cloudflare, which provides advanced DDoS mitigation, proxying, and custom WAF rules. These rules are tailored to block unwanted or abusive traffic while allowing legitimate member access without interruption.
- Active monitoring and alerts: Automated alerts are in place to notify us immediately of unusual activity, including potential DDoS attempts or breach indicators, ensuring rapid response.
- Unattended security updates: The server is configured for automatic, unattended security patching so that critical vulnerabilities are addressed as soon as upstream patches are released.
- Nightly backups and VM snapshots: In addition to daily forum backups, the entire virtual machine is snapshotted nightly. This ensures rapid restoration in the event of a failure or security incident.
- Isolated hosting environment: The forum is hosted in a dedicated and hardened cloud environment, separate from other workloads, (the only website on one VM) minimizing the attack surface and reducing cross-system risk.
This combination of network-level protection, continuous updates, and robust backups ensures that both the platform and our members’ data remain secure and resilient.
Why this matters
As our community grows, especially when we attract expert sysadmin, devops and Linux professionals, the stakes rise: someone may share infrastructure details, or real-world projects, and trust is essential.
Our focus on privacy and safety means we can enable rich technical discussion without exposing members to undue risk.
We want members to engage freely, share deep technical insight, ask questions, and learn from each other in a space where they feel safe.
What you can do to help
- Choose a handle or pseudonym if you prefer not to use your full real name.
- Avoid posting sensitive credentials, personal identification numbers, or passwords (even if disguised).
- If you are discussing a security incident or vulnerability, anonymize where required.
- Use strong, unique passwords and enable 2FA on your account.
- Flag harmful or suspicious posts promptly so moderation can intervene.
- Review the “Help & Safety” section in our forum to familiarize yourself with how we handle data and moderation.
We are committed to continuous improvement. If you have a suggestion for how we could improve our privacy or safety measures, drop a post in the Community category, and the team will review it.
Thanks for being part of LinuxCommunity.io. Let’s keep it open, supportive, technically deep, and, most importantly, safe.
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