Silk Road forums
Discussion => Security => Topic started by: Cynosure on March 26, 2013, 01:19 am
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I'd like to see how you guys have your security set up for maximum safety. I've been hoping to improve mine a bit here and am out of ideas/suggestions. I've read many articles, books, etc. and have taken advice from all over. I was thinking of opening a VPN but, according to many reports, this extra level of abstraction doesn't seem to help any.
Are you simply using the TOR Browser or are you going above and beyond?
Do you use your normal OS or are you booting from a temporary removeable device?
Do you encrypt your entire file system? Part of it? None of it?
Are you using your own ISP/internet line? Leaching someone elses? Going to a public location?
Any accounts of a VPN helping?
I've seen quite a few accounts of people using their mobile devices. That doesn't seem too intelligent to me. Anyone here do that?
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I wouldn't list any exact specific setups, but I'll give you some general suggestions:
If you are just buying from SR and not vending, then an anonymous operating system is probably the best option Both Tails or Liberte are good choices that allow you to boot from a CD or USB key to access SR securely through TOR without leaving traces on your primary operating system that you have installed on your computer.
Tails: https://tails.boum.org/
Liberte: http://dee.su/liberte
I don't find a VPN neccesary for SR access since TOR encrypts all data that is sent between you and SR since it stays in the onion/tor network and not on the clearnet.
If you have any persistence storage, or use TOR from the operating system installed on your hard drive or VM then you definitely want to encrypt the file system.
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Honestly, this topic has been discussed to death. Do a forum search for words like: VPN, bridge, proxy, encrypt, PGP, GPG, Linux, Tails, Liberte, secure, erase/erasure/wipe, hard drive, thumb drive, "best security", "most secure", etc.
Start by limiting the search to topic subjects and sort by largest topic.
Look for comments by me, kmfkewm, SelfSovereignty, pine, LouisCyphre and NightCrawler.
There's been a lot of debate about the best security setups, and volumes have been written about it.
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I agree with Euphoric.
Specifics shouldn't be listed. The less info about your personal security setup the better. Makes profiling a tad harder hehe
They have already addressed this topic quite a bit.
Best security setup imo is common sense and a willingness to keep a technical edge.
The best security setup now might not be the best security setup in 6 months or even next week.
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The complexity of your security setup is going to be based on how you use SR too.
Ex: An average buyer buying a little weed on SR, a bootable Tails CD or USB key would be more than sufficient.
Someone who is buying harder drugs in large quantities or especially vendors will require more secure/complex setups which I personally won't go into because I'm keeping my setup to myself. I spent a lot of time in configuring a system thats very secure and meets my specific needs. Do some research and find what will best meet your needs :)
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Using VMs to isolate tor. Nothing really special past that.
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Depends on what you're using the SR for...