@johnpoz said in Question re: security and physical access:
So changing your username and redoing certs is fine from actual security stance..
Completely agree these are good steps. Prudent and low cost risk mitigation. Appropriate for OP's home network.
But do you honestly think that either the postal company or netgate or employee of said companies compromised your stuff?
Not the OP's case, but if you deal with "high value" data, that risk has to be considered. However in that case you'd not have returned any non-volatile storage to any vendor to begin with. You eat the costs of those parts when they fail, because it's less expensive than risking your data.
But all the tradeoffs in risks and security could fill a book, several actually. If interested, recommend looking at an outline for Security+, CISSP, or similar certification, just to see the topics.
Or go find the scripts and videos of the DNSSEC root key signing key "ceremonies". They not only need to be secure, but completely transparent, got to be twice as stressful. Can't see them shipping those laptops out for repair.