Leaving no trace in a digital world

NOTE: I should have this formatted by the end of the day 7/24

Leaving No Trace In A Digital World

Purpose: To learn how to communicate safely, to protect your data and to obfuscate your identity and browsing history online and on your computer. Because of it's use within the TOR project, we will focus soley on using Firefox.

Forms of snooping

Physical

• Privacy screens
• Not typing passwords or using sensitive sites that may reveal an identity in front of others
• Physical keyloggers
  • Checking the back of the machine if possible
  • Using another keyboard (Roll-up)
  • On-screen keyboard

DNS/OpenDNS

• Explanation of Domain Name System
• How it can be tracked through things like OpenDNS
• Tor vs. Tor Browser Bundle – DNS leaks

Computer Software

• Malware or legitimate tracking software
  • Anti-spyware/root-kit/virus
• Temporary files / Cookies / Browser History
  • Clearing in Windows
• Universal privacy setting in Ubuntu

Route of Communications

• Router Logs
  • VPNs – Privoxy/Hamachi/Proxy Switchy
• Traceroute Example
• ISP
• Backbones
• Government
• End Site

Neutral Online Identity

• Emails
• User names
• Firewalling real vs. nom-de-guerre
  • Never use “real” connection for alternate identity
• What you write/release online

Portable TOR

Portable TOR is a program that runs without installation from USB or drive. It comes configured for pretty good anonymity out of the box – https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en

• Plugin caveat
• TBB Firefox vs. regular Firefox

TAILS

TAILS is an amnesiac LiveCD/USB that writes nothing to the hard drive. It contains TOR, Pidgin, encryption tools and more - https://tails.boum.org/index.en.html

Suggested Firefox Plugins

• Adblock plus - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/adblock-plus – Blocking ads blocks some tracking
  • Download EasyList and Fanboy's list.
• Better Privacy - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/betterprivacy –
  • Deletes LSOs (Flash Cookies).
  • Set to delete upon exit.
• Cookie Monster - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/.../cookie-monster -
  • Check all options but “Block All Cookies” and the ones about the dialog and icon.
• Flash Block - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/flashblock – Block ads/flash tracking
  • Enable and choose to block Silverlight as well
• RefControl - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/refcontrol – Changes referrer on website headers
  • Choose “Forge” for sites not listed
• HTTPS Everywhere - https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere/ - Included in TBB and TAILS.
  • Make sure it is enabled and never turn this off
• Noscript - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/noscript – Included in TBB
  • Choose to Forbid Scripts Globally
• TORButton - https://www.torproject.org/torbutton – Included in TBB and TAILS.
  • Too many features to list ( https://www.torproject.org/torbutton/torbutton-options.html.en )
  • Refer to TBB settings and choose more if wanted (suggested) but do not uncheck anything they've selected there.
• CAVEAT: Any extraneous applications may be able to track you

Email Encryption

Thunderbird

• https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/

GPG

• http://www.gnupg.org/

Enigmail plugin

• http://enigmail.mozdev.org/home/index.php.html

Miscellaneous

Pidgin – IM/IRC/Skype – On TAILS with OTR

• OTR plugin - http://www.cypherpunks.ca/otr/
• End to end encryption for chats
• Pidgin TOR set-up
  • Accounts → Choose account → Proxy Tab → Use “Tor/Privacy (SOCKS5)” → Set host to 127.0.0.1 and port to 9050

Disk Encryption

• Ubuntu encryption on install - $HOME
• LUKS - https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt_with_LUKS
  • gdecrypt as GUI
    • http://gdecrypt.pentabarf.de/screenshots.html
• Truecrypt
  • http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads
  • http://linuxandfriends.com/2010/02/03/how-to-truecrypt-setup-on-ubuntu-linux/
• Going through customs – outer encryption vs. inner hidden encryption - plausible deniability

Erasing Files

• Why they are not erased
• secure-delete - http://superuser.com/questions/19326/how-to-wipe-free-disk-space-in-linux/19377#19377

Environment Checks

• http://ip-check.info/?lang=en
• http://www.cotse.com/proxycheck2.htm

Steganography

Ixquick.com – non-logging search engine