For MySQL security, it's as easy as running this:

mysql_secure_installation

I'd also recommend a MySQL dump nightly, like this:

/root/scripts/mysql_backup.sh

#!/bin/bash
USER='backup_user'
PASS='PASSWORD'
### MAKE SURE TO ADD THE TRAILING SLASH ###
DIR='/path/to/backup/to/'
date=`date +"%m-%d-%Y %T"`
if [ ! -d "$DIR" ]; then
   mkdir -p $DIR
fi
mysqldump -u $USER -p"$PASSWORD" --all-databases --master-data |gzip -1 > ${DIR}mysqlbackup_$date.sql.gz
#### You can then add a script to offload to S3/DropBox/e-mail if you like. ####

cron to run:

00 04 * * * /root/scripts/mysql_backup.sh

Thank you JonsJava.
Some more good programs:

• Traffic: iptraf
• Monitor network traffic: jnettop
• For mysql: mytop

Thanks,

More a question than a contribution to the checklist, but is choosing a different port for ssh a good security measure? Something else than the default 22 ?