I am pretty security/privacy conscious, but lack technical knowledge. Not a good combination I know only too well!
I was looking in the BIOS settings on my Dell 5420 laptop, and saw a lot of options under security. Is it best to avoid trying these in case of messing up Fedora?
Intel TME - sounds good, encrypt RAM to protect against physical/malware attacks. It’s off, wondering about turning on .
BIOS password - I see loads of passwords all disabled in my BIOS/Security area. Should I at least have a BIOS password, maybe some of the other ‘admin’ and ‘setup’ passwords, I could just use my drive encryption key (which I have to enter every boot anyway), and add some security. Sounds sensible to add security where it’s available, but thought I’d check first before I do something I regret!
My choice is to not use them since I seldom travel.
Bios passwords are great, but are also a major burden.
If you do a lot of traveling the bios password is great security should the laptop get misplaced/stolen. If not traveling and the laptop is always at home then a password is probably not necessary.
The biggest problem is that if you ever lose the bios password then the laptop is likely toast. If you sell or give it away and you fail to remove the password or the new owner does not have your password the laptop is likely toast.
You certainly may use the password, but be aware of the risks.
Most have 2 passwords. One for booting and one for admin and they serve different purposes when set. The boot password must be used every time you power on or reboot. The admin password must be used when you wish to make any changes in the bios settings.
Thanks very much Jeff. I have no concerns about losing/forgetting password so I might give it a go.
I noticed more than 2 passwords in my Bios, in fact i think it was 4, but definitely at least 3.
The last one was ‘BIOS password’, which I assume is only needed when entering the BIOS. The Admin one seemed for something else, it isn’t explained very well, and didn’t impress me that Dell has badly formed English in the BIOS!
It is still the same identifying name and function as before uefi was developed. Basic Input Output System (BIOS) is the bootstrap hardware startup software to cold start the system.