With MariaDB itself locked down nice and tight, and by using good password practices, we now need to look at the computer that MariaDB is running on.

If we are running MariaDB on our own desktop or laptop, and we are the only one who can log into it, then there's not much to worry about apart from the normal things we do to keep our computer secure, such as virus and malware protection, system updates, keeping it in a secure location, and so on. It is also useful to encrypt our hard drives, or at least our home folders, using an operation supported by most modern operating systems.

When we install MariaDB on a dedicated server then there is more that we have to worry about. Servers are almost always multiuser, so as part of server security, we need to know who can log in and most importantly, who has root or administrator access. If we are the administrator of the machine, we can ensure that only those we want to have access to the administrator or root have access. If we're using MariaDB on a machine that our IT department gave us access to, then we need to find out who has access and what their rights are, so that we know who has sufficient rights on the server to make any changes, including those that could be harmful.