Silk Road forums
Discussion => Security => Topic started by: pkizenko98 on April 19, 2013, 06:17 am
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I'm looking to overhaul and update my security with the most trusted methods. Everything from stopping hackers to using the road. Can anyone lend some advise or direct me to the right thread. I have numerous books on these topics, really looking for an update or anything I may have missed. Thank you.
pkizenko98
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This is a complicated topic, and there isn't one central thread about it, more like dozens. Furthermore, there is always a trade off between security and convenience, so it really depends on what you are willing to do.
For example, I would tell you to ditch Windows, but most people aren't willing to do that, or have special requirements for using it.
The simplest advice is to use Tails. It solves a lot of problems for you: it has a suite of torified applications and provides transparent proxying to protect against data leaks. It's Linux, so malware is pretty much nonexistent. It's portable, you can put it on thumb drive which can be flushed down the toilet in an emergency, but you also have the option of enabling a persistent volume, where you can save data like URLs (to protect against phishing) and strong passwords.
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as astor said, tails is the way too go imo
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The simplest advice is to use Tails. It solves a lot of problems for you: it has a suite of torified applications and provides transparent proxying to protect against data leaks. It's Linux, so malware is pretty much nonexistent. It's portable, you can put it on thumb drive which can be flushed down the toilet in an emergency, but you also have the option of enabling a persistent volume, where you can save data like URLs (to protect against phishing) and strong passwords.
I'm curious if the persistent volume in tails has some pretty good encryption? I have zero experience with tails but this seems like a great idea, so long as the persistent volume can't be opened if the USB stick falls into the wrong hands.
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I wasn't able to find specific information about that, but Tails uses LUKS/dm-crypt for encryption, so presumably it implements a safe and standard cipher like AES-256-CBC.
As long as you use a strong password, you should be fine.
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I remember reading something about a linux distro which put every application into a VM within the distro as well. What this did was essentially firewall each individual window which also helped physical security since the instance was destroyed the moment it was closed and a new VM started when the app was reloaded. I thought this was a cool implementation which held plenty of security promise.
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I use Virtual PC (same as vmware but not as crap) with the partition living on a hidden volume on USB stick.. When you put the USB in nothing happens.. you need to start up the hidden program (via cmd) to start up the true crypt process to mount the partitions. I have that double encryption thing so if the cops ever get the USB stick and demand the password it will open up the first partition which just has some random movies and crap there, while the second partition remains hidden.
Its not quite as secure as booting into an o/s living on on a USB stick.... but if cops break in while you are on the PC you are screwed anyways.
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Diskcyptor is decent also for making sure no one can take ur usb and plug it into any comp and see whats on it..
if they do it just shows like it hasnt been used yet
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This is a complicated topic, and there isn't one central thread about it, more like dozens. Furthermore, there is always a trade off between security and convenience, so it really depends on what you are willing to do.
For example, I would tell you to ditch Windows, but most people aren't willing to do that, or have special requirements for using it.
The simplest advice is to use Tails. It solves a lot of problems for you: it has a suite of torified applications and provides transparent proxying to protect against data leaks. It's Linux, so malware is pretty much nonexistent. It's portable, you can put it on thumb drive which can be flushed down the toilet in an emergency, but you also have the option of enabling a persistent volume, where you can save data like URLs (to protect against phishing) and strong passwords.
+1 thanks to all so far. I am curious to know why you say ditch windows, I use a mac primarily, but have multiple devices, some windows!