Silk Road forums

Discussion => Security => Topic started by: slanker on April 05, 2013, 07:51 am

Title: setting up a secure laptop
Post by: slanker on April 05, 2013, 07:51 am
So here is my plan. I buy a new laptop. I forget the reason why but you can be tracked by using an old comp.

Than use Liberté Linux on a USB 3 stick also true crypt on top of that.

Than to get online i would go to a Starbucks or something to access the for network.

Are there any holes things I should do besides this
Title: Re: setting up a secure laptop
Post by: slanker on April 05, 2013, 08:17 am
I was thinking of setting up a private wallet to pay for them vpn with bit coins. Can btc really be tracked back to where I bought them?
Title: Re: setting up a secure laptop
Post by: PathSeeker on April 05, 2013, 11:28 am
I wanna know too!!!
Where'd you hear about the using an old comp = bad?  Is that a network card thing like do they ad a signature to packets maybe?
One suggestion I got from a friend is remove the hard drive from said laptop and just use usb sticks and ram.
They used Tails live usb at the library or on a harddiskless laptop on public wifi...
I'm also curious about Tails vs other linux versions as you can't run software like gpg4usb which I like on Tails...  I was going to try damn small linux.  I also know very little about linux  ???
Title: Re: setting up a secure laptop
Post by: slanker on April 05, 2013, 01:04 pm
my x-stepfather use to be a blackhatter. He told me about it and I have found somethingon here about it a few months back. There is something stronger than those to. Search tail vs liberte its a vm within a vm. From lurking I have found using public wifis is a bad idea and MOST vpns don't do you any good. You are better off using a wps hacker and jacking someone's Wi-Fi with a range extender
Title: Re: setting up a secure laptop
Post by: eddiethegun on April 05, 2013, 01:55 pm
Not to plug my products, but check out the item description on my Security-hardened laptop. It might provide you some ideas:
http://silkroadvb5piz3r.onion/silkroad/item/1b52d9a7e4

Or the X1 Carbon version:
http://silkroadvb5piz3r.onion/silkroad/item/2a8c69213f

Title: Re: setting up a secure laptop
Post by: slanker on April 06, 2013, 04:57 am
Your markup is high on the laptop. Well what I'm really looking at right now if its safe to use public wifi like at mcdonalds or starbucks. Most of the chains don't install cameras at their locations. It is easier to into that than hack someone WPS. Hacking the WPS is hard due to the fact of signal strength on most people's home routers. Right now I'm thinking the best option is using a new laptop and a USB 3 for the OS. Its much easier to hide a USB stick from the cops somewhere. They could spend years trying to find something that small.
Title: Re: setting up a secure laptop
Post by: blowmanthesnowman on April 06, 2013, 06:35 pm
VPN's are no good because they can log your shit. What you want is a private bridge-https://cloud.torproject.org/. IMO if you're going to be at McDonald's anyway you don't even need that because you're going to be moving around.
Title: Re: setting up a secure laptop
Post by: slanker on April 06, 2013, 08:04 pm
This looks interesting, changes the ip and what not but I don't see the increased security in it. I'm not that tech savy maybe someone could explain it.
Title: Re: setting up a secure laptop
Post by: Torquemada on April 06, 2013, 11:27 pm
I might recommend using a live CD rather than a USB, with stuff kept online or in a small portable hard drive (for the simple fact that they are much easier to wipe entirely) but other than that it sounds pretty reasonable. However if you can be forced by law to give over encryption passwords then ignore my last point and use a micro sd, very easy to hide and has even been suggested you could swallow it!
Title: Re: setting up a secure laptop
Post by: uyjulian on April 06, 2013, 11:43 pm
Micro SD - easy to hide from law enforcement! Don't forget to encrypt as usual!
Title: Re: setting up a secure laptop
Post by: slanker on April 10, 2013, 01:36 pm
Wouldn't a micro SD be horrid for running an OS on? I have a 16g one just no adapter for it.
Title: Re: setting up a secure laptop
Post by: eddiethegun on April 10, 2013, 03:02 pm
Your markup is high on the laptop. Well what I'm really looking at right now if its safe to use public wifi like at mcdonalds or starbucks. Most of the chains don't install cameras at their locations. It is easier to into that than hack someone WPS. Hacking the WPS is hard due to the fact of signal strength on most people's home routers. Right now I'm thinking the best option is using a new laptop and a USB 3 for the OS. Its much easier to hide a USB stick from the cops somewhere. They could spend years trying to find something that small.

Markup isn't all that high. The extra expense is mostly due to the encrypted SSD we replace the stock hard drive with. Only $100 is labor/custom configuration.
Title: Re: setting up a secure laptop
Post by: SelfSovereignty on April 10, 2013, 03:15 pm
Your markup is high on the laptop. Well what I'm really looking at right now if its safe to use public wifi like at mcdonalds or starbucks. Most of the chains don't install cameras at their locations. It is easier to into that than hack someone WPS. Hacking the WPS is hard due to the fact of signal strength on most people's home routers. Right now I'm thinking the best option is using a new laptop and a USB 3 for the OS. Its much easier to hide a USB stick from the cops somewhere. They could spend years trying to find something that small.

So, public wifi is iffy.  I read a story about a disgruntled employee who walked away from a company and used his knowledge to blackmail the employer who fired him.  He did everything right, they had no idea who the guy was until the end of his little plan.  Then (as usual) he went to a McDonald's and used their open wifi.  But this time he also bought a milkshake.  He paid with a credit card.  They of course found the address he was at easily, matched the purchase records against the time he sent a message, got his name from the credit card, and had him in cuffs within hours.

What I take away from that is two things -- one, don't do what he did.  Two, you're probably going to fuck up somewhere along the way, and if you're going to just hand over where you were at that point in time (like by using public wifi), one slip means game over.
Title: Re: setting up a secure laptop
Post by: slanker on April 11, 2013, 09:24 am
Using your own connection with a vpn and bridge seems dumb.I know some vpns that take btc and claim not to log but if le ask them to let them to investigate they will corporate. A bridge I really don't understand how that works ontop of tor
Title: Re: setting up a secure laptop
Post by: pine on April 12, 2013, 07:40 pm
Pine thoughts:

1. Using a laptop (they are super cheap nowadays and more than powerful enough) you bought with *cash* is a good idea.

2. Loading your data onto a microSD is a good idea. Very easy to hide such a thing. Use your imagination. Running an OS from a microSD or a USB (apart from 1.0) won't be a problem at all, just get a decent one with decent speed (they have different up/down data transfer speeds depending on what you pay).

3. If you take out the battery and run from power source, and you have your OS running in RAM e.g. live-usb, then there is literally zero evidence unless a SWAT team  to freeze your RAM stick. Highly unlikely, it's a specialized operation. If somebody suddenly comes up behind you, simply moving the laptop 1/4 inch wipes everything. You could put all your stuff online in the cloud encrypted to the nth degree and download it onto an encrypted volume USB/microSD each time you use the laptop. Probably not necessary though unless you live in a totalitarian country which puts you in prison for not handing over your passphrase. Just encrypt it on the cloud or your USB/microSD.

4. Buying hardware or software on SR is a dumb idea and it ALWAYS will be. Don't go down this path. Every time I hear about this being proposed it's such a WTF moment for me. Yes I'm looking at you "eddiethegun" and any others like you. What are you even thinking? Trustmeabsolutely.com in here.

5. A bridge is used in a similar way to a proxy when you don't want your ISP or others doing preliminary traffic analysis (the list of Tor entry guards is public, so if you have traffic going to those IP addresses then your ISP knows you're using Tor) and then knowing that you're using the Tor network. Getting a public bridge is easy and probably everybody should get a public or private bridge. Obtain one and then hop to Tor -> Settings -> Tick "My ISP blocks connections to the Tor network." -> Add Bridges. Like somebody else said, you can make your own private bridge.

6. Using a VPN is a good idea if you want all your regular internet traffic encrypted and can serve a similar purpose to the use of bridges to prevent people knowing you're using Tor. Deep Packet Inspection is defeated by a VPN unless they are working with LE. This is why all Bittorent users should be using them. VPNs don't exist to make you anonymous, this is a misconception, they exist to provide data privacy between two points, data from your computer to the VPN's servers is fully encrypted, which can be a useful thing if you're searching for "silk road" on filternet (you don't search for silk road on the regular web do you...? It's a no-no...). But don't pay with credit card obviously.

7. Don't use a traceable payment method for your internet access. If you can't help this, then you need to invest in learning some of the above techniques. If the LE agents trace communications to your real IP, although damning, it's not evidence of anything. So if you had adopted the 'live laptop' approach, there's not much they could do (unless you regularly have kilos of weed and coke deposited about your dwelling, I mean WTF people! Why does this always happen! Why am I always reading about these guys?!)

8. Ultimately everything just mentioned is icing on the cake. Nice-to-haves. Your threat model should determine how paranoid you are. Use Tor, use PGP, use your common sense and don't tell people you're from Ontario Canada like a guy just did in another thread.

9. Buy bitcoins using OTC methods. Then launder them to boot. Major pain in the butt for LE. Do it. It's like putting a needle in a skyscraper made out of haystacks in Haystack City.
Title: Re: setting up a secure laptop
Post by: v01d on April 12, 2013, 10:07 pm
Here's a guide I wrote AWHILE back for newbies to SR. Might be a bit out of date in the bitcoin department, but everything else should be sort of relevant.
http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=9067.0


Download link:
http://4eiruntyxxbgfv7o.onion/paste/show.php?id=fcc21f55e8225274