How secure is openSUSE?

English Install/Boot/Login
1

If I had a computer with openSUSE, how secure would it be if someone else had physical access to my computer?

If they turned it on and they didn’t know the password, could they use a password cracker to find the password? Does the password use encryption?

If they removed my hard drive and plugged it into their computer, can they see and read all my files? Are the files encrypted?

What malware/virus protection features does openSUSE have included?

Does openSUSE have a basic firewall that lets users choose which programs can access the internet and which can’t?

2

If someone has access to your computer like you suggest and you are considering this as a serious possibility,consider using an encrypted file system.
Because unless you employ a BIOS password, they wouldn’t need to crack a password, or remove the HD, they could just boot a live cd and copy all your files from your HD.

Assuming you use it properly, as a user and Don’t login as root, you should be OK.
Virus are not an issue.

3

First, welcom to the forums !!! These questions would be best answered by the suggestion to read about this in the wiki.

There are many options to secure your data, excryption is just one of them, firewall another one, all available. Forget about virusses, malware, spyware etc, you’re on linux. Everything is there to make your computer a true vault.

4

Physical access is the first breach in security, no matter what system used.

Yes, the password will be encrypted, but that will not safe your data from being read if somebody has physical access if the data is unencrypted.

If you actually use encryption, yes, if not, no.

None by default, the best protection is always “brain 1.0 or higher”, software does not solve the main poroblem about malware, the (most times dumb acting to get infected) user.

Yes there is a “basic firewall” and no it does not let you configure which programs are not allowed to contact the net.

The reason is simple, although “personal firewalls” claim and pretend to do that, it does not work and makes no sense at all.
If you don’t trust an application, simply don’t use it.

If configured correctly, there is not even the need for a firewall, especially on a desktop system.

There is AppArmor but it is not easy to configure, however, configured correctly it may help “restricting” certain applications, still, simply not using them is the easier and much more logical way.

The main key to security is the user, not some fancy software telling you “you are secure now”.

Security is a concept, not a piece of software.