I've Used Linux for 30 Years, and This Free Security Suite Does It All, Almost Perfectly
ZDNET, Thursday, July 23rd, 2026
BastionGuard 2.0 bundles ransomware protection, VPN, backup and phishing scanning for Linux desktops.
Jack Wallen reviews BastionGuard, a Linux security platform its developer describes as built for users who want deterministic behavior, explicit policies and visible decisions.
The suite includes Endpoint, Backup, Secure Connection and Recovery Data components, offering real-time scanning, ransomware protection, a safe-financial-institution list, USB blocking, a phishing scanner, password manager, snapshot-based backup, Samba scanner, WireGuard VPN and ClamScam email scanning.
It detected sample ransomware files every time in testing. Wallen hit a bug where quarantining one file quarantined the entire Downloads folder and the quarantine list showed nothing.