Awesome. I'm finishing up the process of getting my quasi sensitive files together for the first true crypt steps. Once I finish those I'm going to wipe this system completely and start fresh using this guide.

Instead of using Ubuntu I'm going to use Linux Mint 12 (Lisa) for the main OS.

I'm pretty stoked about this project.

it would seem somebody is a little unfamiliar with sarcasm.

this is a HUGE post and a lot of stuff to read.
thanks for contributing this, it IS very useful information to have in these uncertain times, and for some people here on the nexus.

i however just run chrome and have adblock. i have ccleaner and i dont support - i repeat I DO NOT SUPPORT - international terrorist organisations.
i think im good.
i dont really fancy having to go through all of that hassle just to watch videos on youtube, shop online,etc. its a bit excessive for some.
i installed tor last year. used it once. cbf with it.

however, as an internet user, and as a geek, thanks for sharing this
its appreciated. but yeah i so totally saw all that and was waiting for the tl;dr

Yeah, I suck at sarcasm and tend to take most things too literally.

This is absolutely overkill for the average user but could quite literally save someone's life in an extreme scenario. I just hope it helps someone gain a little piece of mind.

I was gonna edit out the tl;dr but now that you say that, I'll leave it in there. Thanks for comments.

I haven't read all the posts here but a couple tools I find invaluable:

Privoxy


I2P


JAP/JonDo

Very few people need to go to these lengths. For most people (who need it at all) it is enough just to have a dual boot system with one system being linux (assuming they still want to use windows for most things), use windows for the vast majority of things and use linux and tor for sensitive things (certain hidden market places spring to mind). Have an encrypted pen drive and save anything sensitive (bitcoin wallet etc) onto that using truecrypt.

Ive not really heard of a legitimate, non sinister reason for people to go to those lengths unless they are involved in leaking government info or something, or live in china.

Tor is horribly slow just now but I think that as internet freedom erodes, things like tor and VPN's will become much faster and more reliable. It will probably end up with full system encryption being the norm for anyone who wants to download movies or visit sites without pesky government firewalls stopping them, especially if SOPA and PIPA go through in the states.

Very useful thread, thanks for compiling. I've been running ubuntu from a virtual machine environment for virus-free browsing for a while. Planning a full reformat soon, might as well go all way on a clean install.

Sure you need to get something called meta data remover, google it, which gets rid of information on a photo. If you use an iphone or any smartphone then yes there will be data that will tie the photo to you.

AFAIK trav has it set up so the nexus does this automatically

Yup...any attached pictures or images uploaded to the Nexus are scrubbed of their meta data.

Excellent freakin post MelCat!!

I know how much time that took to go through, documenting and then writing it up. You've crossed all your T's and dotted your i's for certain. I know what I'll be doing for the next month, Lol! No sarcasm whatsoever intended I'm impressed.

Melcat<3
What an amazing effort and share,
Way to watch out for the nexen's got alot of info from it that i did not know..
Big hug to ya!

My pleasure guys and gals, glad you are finding it useful.

Just to reiterate, I didn't write this post, I'm just passing it along because I think it's important information for people to have in this turbulent political climate we're finding ourselves in these days.

This sharing of knowledge is exactly what I have come here for.

Thank you, MelCat.

While this may be "overkill" as some users state for the average internet surfer, this is still invaluable info to have regardless!

Well done!

Great contribution melcat!

Personally, i think its alot easier to get a decently fast flash drive, or build a compact flash/sd card usb ssd if you want speed, and install a live ubuntu disto on it. Make a persistent partition, truecrypt it just for good measure, and do any kind of sensitive browsing/computer use with this. Possibly even truecrypt the whole drive and use the truecrypt bootloader before grub loads ubuntu, that would be the most secure option, i haven't tried it yet. Use public wifi AP's, spoof your mac address, use tor, and remember anything transmitted over the net is never fully secure.

I want to to try and do it with a 16GB flash drive i'm setting up for anonymous browsing though. Ideally, if you can TC the whole drive, use the TC bootloader pre grub, then boot to a persistent ubuntu(or other linux distro), thats pretty much foolproof. Easy to destroy quickly if need be, or store in a secret location not on your property/in your posession.

Having encrypted partitions, or encrypted data seized, arouses suspicion as to whats on that device. You can even get charged with contemt of court, tampering with evidence, or some other BS iirc for not turning over passwords for those encrypted partitions if subpeonead/a warrant is obtained. Might be wrong there as you could argue thats self incrimination

Making it easy to destroy quickly using a flash drive, or just storing the drive not on your property in a waterproof storage box solves that issue. Its not about encrypting your sensitive data, its about making it impossible to determine you even have encrypted data to hide at all.

Its like that don't get busted dvd, where the ex-narcotics officer tells you to consent to a search if you have hidden your stuff properly. Refusing, or having partitions/files/drives that aren't just random 0's, they can tell something is hidden there. Forensic data analysis is no joke, and theres always a bootloader, or something to give it away that its not just a unformatted drive with no data on it.

Having stuff life that seized puts up a big red flag, this guy/gal has something to hide. Play dumb, and they will afford you the same level of skill when looking into someone who doesn't stand out as trying to hide something. If you bend over and take the abuse, chances are you will end up on top. They look for signs that people are hiding something above all else. Because very few people use these tactics to protect their sensitive non-incriminating data.

Thats why i won't try and hide/encrypt data on internal hard drives, or any OS i use on a daily basis. Keep it sterile by keeping what you need to keep private, seperate from what would not incriminate you if seized, and theres no appearance that your trying to hide something.

Its just a pita to boot up that flash drive every time you need to use it, but worth it for stuff thats especially incriminating.

And above all else, don't EVER cross borders with encrypted sensitive/incriminating data. You will get harassed, you will get profiled, they will consider that you may be affiliated with terrorist/criminal organizations, and strip you of your constitutinal PRIVLIDGES, as shown time and time again.

Ash - The site I got the guide from has been taken down but all the directions are in the first 20 posts of this thread...

The fastest, easiest and simplest way to surf anonymous is the following:

(1) Download the Tails Linux distro from https://tails.boum.org

(2) Download and run Unetbootin from: http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

(3) use Unetbootin to create a bootable Tails USB stick from the Tails ISO

(4) Boot from the USB stick and choose "Live" from the Tails menu

(5) Leave the password blanc

(6) Enjoy

- All internet is channeled through a torr network
- There is no access to your HDD

---

The Amnesic Incognito Live System (Tails) is a Debian-based live CD/USB with the goal of providing complete Internet anonymity for the user. The product ships with several Internet applications, including web browser, IRC client, mail client and instant messenger, all pre-configured with security in mind and with all traffic anonymised. To achieve this, Incognito uses the Tor network to make Internet traffic very hard to trace.

- use the Internet anonymously almost anywhere you go and on any computer:
- all connections to the Internet are forced to go through the Tor network;
- leave no trace on the computer you're using unless you ask it explicitly;
- use state-of-the-art cryptographic tools to encrypt your files, email and instant messaging.

Note:

It is possible to burn the ISO to a CDROM. When you boot into Tails from the CDROM you can create a bootable persistent USB from there. However this method does not work with all motherboards it seems. It didn't with mine. You could also use "Universal USB Installer" instead of Unetbootin. However it doesn't contain the latest Tails version yet (0.15). You will have to wait for it. Unetbootin works fine, but you won't have a persistant system.

What you can do is create 2 partitions on the USB. One FAT partition big enough for the ISO. Install the ISO here using the bootable USB software. Boot Tails from the USB, insert an admin password, and create an additional password protected encrypted ext3 partition on your USB device. Here you can store all your files. Again, the operating system itself will not be persistant. Personally I prefer it not to be. Safety comes at the cost of comfortability.

When you boot Tails it asks you to insert an admin password. If you don't, a limited user account will be created without access to the internal HDD and other resources. This is safer than inserting a password, so don't. Unless you need access to your HDD or format your USB etc. When doing so, don't connect to the internet and reboot before you do.

As an additional safety precausion, password protect you HDD in BIOS. When you boot, boot straight from the USB without inserting the HDD password. This creates a physical barier to your HDD. If your computer doesn't have the option to password protect you HDD, you can encrypt it for the same effect. Truecrypt offers the option to encrypt and password protect the entire HDD. Truecrypt might be NSA, but on the level of this forum (discussing banned plants) I wouldn't worry.

Even if someone somehow hacks your Tails OS and is able to gain sudo power, which is probably not possible if you leave the password blanc, he will not be able to access the HDD to identify you. In theory, this should be just as safe as a virtual machine. In my opion, even safer as running a virtual machine your main OS. If your main OS gets hacked, keylogs can show your virtual machine login and encryption passwords and eveything you do in you vitual machine might be exposed. Governments are known to infiltrate citizens computers (Google: R2D2 Trojan).

My two cents.

Thank you for the contribution some one, lots of valuable information that ties right in with what The Day Tripper was saying. I'll give it a shot here soon and report back.

Nice, some one...dloading now for a trial...
Can you say whether this method is as sloooow as Tor seems to be?

Yes Tails linux always uses the tor network so internet is slow.. I only use it for very specific purposes. Like posting on forums without needing to use the SWIM word and such When I'm done I return to my daily OS. I recommend it to be used as such.

For more comfort and the ability to switch tor internet on/off, i would install an encrypted linux distro next to an encrypted OS for daily use like others have mentioned. The encyrption will act as a barrier between both operating systems. Keep your identity out of the linux OS (don't use google or social media services with your real name, etc) and password protect the partition. That should be sufficient protection.

I doubt they'd go this deep for users posting on forums, so i'm not worrying. But who knows maybe it might be possible to ID a computer user by hacking his system and checking its hardware (service tag, etc). Or by obtaining the IP after taking over the system. If you are worried, you could setup a linux virtual machine in your linux encrypted OS like the topic starter explains. You could even setup Tails as the virtual OS.

Remember to take care of your identity. If you use google while logged in, google stores all you data. Same for yahoo etc. Even if you're not logged in, your data is connected to your IP. Two things can happen. One is that the government demands that the internet company gives your personal data (search history etc). Second is that the internet company gets hacked and all your search data is out in the open. Eg. "How to administer DMT anally" next to you name, etc. How will that look to your next employer googling your name? So, try to keep your identity safe. Example by using alternative search engines:

https://www.duckduckgo.com
https://startpage.com

Anyone familiar with this guide/process please help out this member, his thread is here https://www.dmt-nexus.me...aspx?g=posts&t=42178