Security.

How to keep your Local AI stack secure: access control, network isolation, updates, and backups. Your data and models stay on your hardware—you decide who can use them and how they are protected.

Access control

Open WebUI roles, user accounts, and network rules limit who can chat, use RAG, or administer the stack. Align with your existing identity and policies.

Network isolation

Run Ollama and Open WebUI on an internal network or VLAN. No need to expose the AI to the internet; only authorised clients reach it.

Updates & backups

Keep Ollama, Open WebUI, and the OS updated. Back up configs, model lists, and RAG data so you can recover or replicate the setup.

Access control

Who can use the AI, and on what data? Local AI gives you the levers:

  • Open WebUI roles and users. Create accounts, assign roles (admin, user, etc.), and control who can create chats, use RAG workspaces, or change settings. Integrate with OAuth or your directory if needed.
  • RAG and knowledge bases. Restrict which documents or workspaces each user or group can query. Sensitive data stays in scoped indexes.
  • Host and API. Only trusted machines need to reach Ollama. Use firewall rules and (optionally) TLS so that API traffic stays internal or encrypted.

Network security

Keep the Local AI stack inside your perimeter:

  • Internal only. Run Ollama and Open WebUI on a LAN or VLAN. Do not expose them to the public internet unless you add strong auth and TLS and accept the risk.
  • VPN or zero trust. Remote users can reach the AI via your existing VPN or zero-trust access so that access is logged and policy-driven.
  • No outbound model calls. By default, inference runs locally. If you later add a proxy or fallback to a cloud API, do it explicitly and with the same security and compliance in mind.

Updates and maintenance

A secure stack is a maintained stack:

  • OS and packages. Apply security updates to the host (macOS, Linux) and any base images if you run in containers or VMs.
  • Ollama and Open WebUI. Follow release notes and upgrade when fixes address issues that affect your deployment. Test in a staging copy if you have one.
  • Backups. Back up configuration, environment files, and (if feasible) model manifests and RAG data. Document restore steps so you can recover or rebuild.

Security and compliance go together. For how Local AI supports data sovereignty and GDPR-aligned processing, see the Data sovereignty page.

Next steps

Want help designing access control, network layout, or backup strategy for your Local AI stack? Book a session and we’ll align the setup with your security and compliance requirements.

Talk about security & Local AI