TAILS: How to ensure your privacy

[Trollbeater]

First I would like to say that I would have preferred to put this in the Junior Idol section since it is really only particularly important to Junior Idol fans, that is, those that have a reason to keep their online activities private, but I am concerned that if I do so my post may be deleted for being off-topic. I hope members who need this the most will stumble upon my post here.

TAILS, or The Amnesic Incognito Live System, is a brilliant innovation for users who like to ensure their privacy is protected online. TAILS is a Live CD, or Live USB, that allows users to boot into a Debian-based operating system entirely from your CD or USB. It comes pre-installed with all the programs you will need to surf the web anonymously, chat, send e-mails, access pictures and videos and ensure your privacy. It includes TOR and the latest in cryptographic encryption including Truecrypt.

When you load the Live CD or USB it bypasses your hard drive entirely. Data is stored entirely in RAM and erased when your computer is turned off so no trace exists of your activities. While you are online everything is routed through TOR, a free service which encrypts all your internet connections and helps you defend against network surveillance by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world, making it virtually impossible to determine your IP. Files can be saved to an additional external device and encrypted using several different encryption methods, including Truecrypt.

Truecrypt is a leader in encryption technology that allows you to create encrypted folders. And in case, you reside in a country which can compel you by court order to provide a password to encrypted files, Truecrypt provides a method of 'plausible deniability'. By allowing you to create a hidden folder within an encrypted file it becomes impossible to determine if the hidden folder even exists.

With TAILS you can even protect yourself with the click of a button, that is by turning the power off. Even if you have saved files to a hidden folder, simply by turning off the power the files are automatically encrypted and protected by 'plausible deniability'. Virtually foolproof.

Check it out!!!

https://tails.boum.org/index.en.html

 

[Ceewan]

First I would like to say that I would have preferred to put this in the Junior Idol section since it is really only particularly important to Junior Idol fans

This is a good post but I have to disagree with this particular line of reasoning. There are many people who don't like having their internet activity spied upon by their ISPs'. Nor would I think that those that frequent the Jr Idol forum are all that concerned with this particular topic, nor should they be. This type of security is pretty useless for P2P anonymity yet it is very useful if you are surfing anti-government websites in countries that have strict laws concerning what websites one is allowed to visit or what information or dialogue one is allowed to publically have with others. There are such repressive laws in most countries, in one form or another.

I have posted links to both Truecrypt and Tor in the general discussion threads before myself. They are very unique tools that can provide protection or at least piece of mind to those that really need it.

Thx again for the share.

 

[Trollbeater]

Well, a few points in that regard...

If one is concerned with having their internet activity spied on by their ISPs, or accessing information or websites that are restricted by repressive governments, then TOR alone would be sufficient. There would be no need to use TAILS, since TOR would protect your privacy and does not retain any history.

TAILS is useful when you wish to use TOR to download pictures and videos, since Windows and applications running in a Windows environment retain information about your activity and it is often time-consuming and confusing to find all those instances and delete them.

Junior Idol fans living in repressive governments like the United States should be concerned. The legality of Junior Idol pictures and videos is questionable at best. It is always better to err on the side of caution. Why take risks unnecessarily.

You are right that TAILS and TOR do not handle p2p well. For that you should pay for a proxy service for torrents.

 

[Ceewan]

TAILS is useful when you wish to use TOR to download pictures and videos, since Windows and applications running in a Windows environment retain information about your activity and it is often time-consuming and confusing to find all those instances and delete them.

Junior Idol fans living in repressive governments like the United States should be concerned. The legality of Junior Idol pictures and videos is questionable at best. It is always better to err on the side of caution. Why take risks unnecessarily.

That is one use but Akiba-Online has visitors from China, Vietnam and Indonesia....to name but a few. If you think the United States is repressive, (I admit that can be), maybe you should try to live in one of these places. Junior Idols may not be a big deal but political blogging and the sharing of anti-government documents or storing such files on your computer can get you and your familly into serious trouble in some countries. In many muslim countries, (and I play chess regularly with someone from Tehran), porn in any form is illegal. The jails in third world countries leave a lot to be desired, (of course jail itself is nothing to be recommended anywhere).

TrueCrypt is great for hiding such information in plain site where even a forensics expert could miss it. This way you can store sensitive information in order to pass it on or just save it for later viewing or reference.

It is a bigger world out there than just the Junior Idol squad good buddy. Computer security is an issue world wide, so feel free to pass it on. You never know who might need the information or why. This may sound silly but something you share here could save a life one day, (probably not but...maybe). The internet just doesn't feel like it is bigger than any single government, it is bigger. We need to keep it that way and to do that we have to put aside our small differences and think of the bigger picture.

 

[hothothot]

Thx

The correct Tor URL is: https://www.torproject.org

 

[rawblog]

www.torproject.org <<< what is it ????

 

[Ceewan]

www.torproject.org <<< what is it ????

That is kind of asking what "Windows" is. It is a computer software program that you can run on your computer. It does not install anything on your computer by going to the link so just go to the link and read what it is all about.
Do a little leg work for Petes' Sake.

 

[rawblog]

thank you ceewan

 

[asianphreak]

... then TOR alone would be sufficient. There would be no need to use TAILS, since TOR would protect your privacy and does not retain any history.

TAILS is useful when you wish to use TOR to download pictures and videos, since Windows and applications running in a Windows environment retain information about your activity and it is often time-consuming and confusing to find all those instances and delete them.

Junior Idol fans living in repressive governments like the United States should be concerned. The legality of Junior Idol pictures and videos is questionable at best. It is always better to err on the side of caution. Why take risks unnecessarily.

Ok there's so many things that are wrong with what you've said. First, the United States is NOWHERE near as repressive as other countries which actively filter and block sexual content of ANY nature. I know this because I travel extensively for work and can tell you that without Tor on my tablet AND Tails on my laptop, that it's damn near impossible to surf freely.

Tails is useful because it doesn't store ANYTHING ANYWHERE. So, let's say your laptop is confiscated at the border. You can rest knowing that there's nothing which might be legal in your home country but illegal in the country you visited... on your hard drive. Even if you've "deleted" it, they can still retrieve it.

Long story short: Tails is excellent especially for the extra safety in knowing that you didn't leave anything behind. Cookies. Images. History. You name it.

 

[WillEater]

FYI: http://www.networkworld.com/article...eeded--tor-created-for-u-s--gov-t-spying.html

 

[WillEater]

Feds Accused Of Distributing Malware That De-Anonymizes Tor Users
from the left-hand,-meet-the-anonymous-right-hand dept
It's somewhat well known that the popular Tor anonymous browsing system gets a significant amount of funding from the US government. In the past, the suggestion had always been that the State Department was a major supporter because of its belief that Tor would help dissidents in other countries communicate better via anonymous systems. However, now there's a lot of buzz because it appears that a bit of malware that was discovered this weekend targeting Tor users, may have come directly from the FBI itself. The implication isn't against the Tor project at all, but rather it appears that whoever pushed out this malware did so by using a vulnerability targreting people using the Tor Browser Bundle -- a Firefox bundle that builds in Tor -- browsing a variety of hidden sites (available only to Tor users) hosted by the somewhat infamous Freedom Hosting. Freedom Hosting's boss, Eric Eoin Marques was arrested in Ireland last week as the US is trying to extradite him. But, what was more interesting was what some people discovered on all Freedom Hosting pages: Shortly after Marques' arrest last week, all of the hidden service sites hosted by Freedom Hosting began displaying a “Down for Maintenance” message. That included websites that had nothing to do with child pornography, such as the secure email provider TorMail.

Some visitors looking at the source code of the maintenance page realized that it included a hidden iframe tag that loaded a mysterious clump of Javascript code from a Verizon Business internet address located in eastern Virginia.

By midday Sunday, the code was being circulated and dissected all over the net. Mozilla confirmed the code exploits a critical memory management vulnerability in Firefox that was publicly reported on June 25, and is fixed in the latest version of the browser.

Though many older revisions of Firefox are vulnerable to that bug, the malware only targets Firefox 17 ESR, the version of Firefox that forms the basis of the Tor Browser Bundle – the easiest, most user-friendly package for using the Tor anonymity network. So why do people think the feds are involved? The bit of malware scoops up various identifying information -- MAC address and Windows hostname -- and then sends it to a server in Virginia to find the real IP address of the computer in question. The Virginia server is controlled by the infamous contractor SAIC, who works with numerous government agencies.

It's no secret that law enforcement has wanted to identify folks who are trying to be anonymous. And, as discussed just last week, the FBI has been using malware at an increasing rate. So it wouldn't be a huge surprise to find out that little tricky bit of malware was designed to provide more info on Tor users who might be up to nefarious activity (or, you know, they might just want to surf anonymously). I imagine that this is not the end of this particular story...