Silk Road forums
Discussion => Security => Topic started by: lion dawg on November 05, 2012, 01:37 am
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Hey guys.
So I recently made my first international purchase (have made a few domestic purchases, which have been no issue at all)
Now, I know this is a rookie error, and was quite silly of me, but as I am going to a camping music festival in early December, I wanted to make sure I had all the goods I wanted in time for the festival, so consequently I have purchased several products (all within the "possession" amounts) from about 5 different vendors around the same time.
I am concerned that although the vendors are from different locations, they will all most likely arrive in my country around the same time, which I am worried will in turn increase the chances of one of the packages getting picked up at customs, and then flagged so that any remaining international packages coming in for the same name and address will be noticed.
I have addressed it to my house, but in the name of a previous tenant (I know there are differing opinions of whether to use your own name, a fake name, or a previous tenants name etc, but I decided that the latter was the best option there - also, whilst most of the mail we get here for said previous tenant is usually just junk mail, I have had domestic goods sent to me in that name, and they have arrived).
When the packages come, I am going to do the whole 'return to sender" and let them sit somewhere in the house for a bit before opening, and have worded my housemates up to do the same thing if they happen to collect the mail - so I feel like I've got that aspect of security covered.
However, Im thinking that purchasing a few things at once was quite a risky (and stupid) thing for me to have done, so Im stressing a bit, and thinking that perhaps I should download some software to wipe my computer clean of evidence. Also, at one point my computer was getting fixed, so i used my housemates laptop to browse SR via TOR on my USB, so Im thinking I should have his computer wiped as well (with his permission, of course). But perhaps this is not necessary, as I didnt actually purchase anything whilst using his computer, I literally just browsed SR via the USB stick.
What are peoples thoughts on this? Am I just over reacting, or should I seriously start taking some steps (ie wiping my computer Hard drive) to cover myself in the case of something coming from this.
I have had a look around the forum and have taken note of some good programs for cleaning hard drives, but am open to any suggestions. There is also a dodgy Asian computer place down the street that I have considered taking my computer to to get it wiped, I dont think they'd ask any questions.
Please help!
Thanks
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oh P.S I also considered the idea of taking my computer over to my girlfriend's house (on the other side of the city), or sending it back to my parents house in the country, and leaving it there for a while, and in the meantime use an old lap top that I have, which has never been used on SR. But there is of course still the issue of my housemates computer, which as I said, I browsed SR on.
Thanks again
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you're a bit paranoid. that's a good thing but don't let it make you do stupid shit.
download and start using truecrypt.
Is there anything in your house? If you don't have any drugs in your house and you're using torbrowser bundle then you don't have anything to worry about even if they search your place you're clean.
Unless you are on parole or some shit then chances of a controlled delivery in any country are very very low.
The last tenant didn't leave a forwarding address with the post office? They wouldn't forward junkmail. Just wondering.
Unless you are ordering a very serious amount of drugs (which you aren't) then they aren't going to deliver and then some in with a search warrant later. This has been done but the only case I've heard of was a very large order of MDMA and that was years ago. And in that case, they did place the package under the bed and moved it to another house before opening it but the dea or whatever had a gps on it.
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A relatively simple program to wipe a computers hard drive is DBAN. You can download it for free at:
http://www.dban.org/
You need to burn it to a CD and then boot from that CD. Keep in mind that you will lose everything on the hard disk. You will have to reinstall windows and have backups of all your files.
There is another way to wipe the hard disk. If you are familiar with the Linux operating system, it is also possible to boot Linux from a CD and instruct it to overwrite the computer's hdd. Let me know if that's what you want to do, then I'll give you the commands for that.
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I'm as paranoid as they come (within reason), and even I think you're going wayyyy overboard. Relax, you're probably good. Besides, there likely isn't any incriminating evidence on the disks in the first place. Bear in mind my perspective is US-based, but as far as my thinking goes, the concern is that they find something in your possession. If they do find something in your possession, they aren't gonna care what's on your hard drive (even if they do, it won't make matters much worse for you). If they don't catch you in possession of something, they aren't going to bother paying hundreds or thousands for a forensics expert to go through your drive(s) on the off-chance that your last edited Word document was a confession or something.
If you didn't save anything to the disk yourself (as in manually), then there's very little that can be recovered of your Silk Road activities. I've read that there may be some small bits of information recoverable from the swap partition in some setups, but unless you're selling and not buying, I don't see why they'd go to the trouble of looking or why you'd cause to worry even if they do.
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I support being paranoid but SelfSovereignity makes a sensible point. From what I've read, there is no real need to freak out.
That said, it doesn't hurt to wipe your disks once in a while. A few times a year I backup my important documents, then wipe the hard drives and reinstall the operating system. This keeps the computer clean and fast, gets rid of any malware infections (which hopefully aren't present) and it wipes the traces of whatever I've been doing. Not a bad practice.
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just keep it at a gf
and i think ur pretty safe..
i mean u could easily lie about it being in the last persons name that lived there..
dont say anything to the cops if they raid or knock ... simply say am i under arrest?
then say i want a lawyer..
then tell your lawyer that story about how its not urz and its the previous tenents
ur good bro
B E Z
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when in doubt, wipe the hard disk out
all johny cockran up in yo ass
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when in doubt, wipe the hard disk out
all johny cockran up in yo ass
If Chewbacca lives on Endor, YOU MUST ACQUIT!
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A relatively simple program to wipe a computers hard drive is DBAN. You can download it for free at:
http://www.dban.org/
You need to burn it to a CD and then boot from that CD. Keep in mind that you will lose everything on the hard disk. You will have to reinstall windows and have backups of all your files.
There is another way to wipe the hard disk. If you are familiar with the Linux operating system, it is also possible to boot Linux from a CD and instruct it to overwrite the computer's hdd. Let me know if that's what you want to do, then I'll give you the commands for that.
+1 for DBAN
It'll wipe the shit out of that drive. It's also completely unnecessary in the situation you describe.
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Just throw your harddrive in the microwave (make sure it's on "high" power), then simply cook for 3-5 minutes, let sit for about a minute after and enjoy.
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Rule Ive lived by for the last 20 years and has kept me safe: You can never be too paranoid.... ever!!
A program called truecrpyt is really handy. Read up about how to use it properly and safely.
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+1 for DBAN
It'll wipe the shit out of that drive. It's also completely unnecessary in the situation you describe.
Using default settings, yes.
You can configure the way you want DBAN to run. You can type "autonuke" and run the default 3 passes, but I never do that. Overwriting with one pass is adequate. I believe the quick command for that is "quick", but you can also press enter and go into advanced mode, and then instruct it on how to wipe.
On modern HDD's it is extremely hard to recover data that has been overwritten once, because there is so much memory on them. Every bit occupies a tiny space, there is almost no room for "ghost data".
I rarely wipe with multiple passes. For entire drives I always use a single pass, which finishes within a few hours. Then I reinstall and it's business as usual.
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+1 for DBAN
It'll wipe the shit out of that drive. It's also completely unnecessary in the situation you describe.
Using default settings, yes.
You can configure the way you want DBAN to run. You can type "autonuke" and run the default 3 passes, but I never do that. Overwriting with one pass is adequate. I believe the quick command for that is "quick", but you can also press enter and go into advanced mode, and then instruct it on how to wipe.
On modern HDD's it is extremely hard to recover data that has been overwritten once, because there is so much memory on them. Every bit occupies a tiny space, there is almost no room for "ghost data".
I rarely wipe with multiple passes. For entire drives I always use a single pass, which finishes within a few hours. Then I reinstall and it's business as usual.
How do we save our files before nuking?
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+1 for DBAN
It'll wipe the shit out of that drive. It's also completely unnecessary in the situation you describe.
Using default settings, yes.
You can configure the way you want DBAN to run. You can type "autonuke" and run the default 3 passes, but I never do that. Overwriting with one pass is adequate. I believe the quick command for that is "quick", but you can also press enter and go into advanced mode, and then instruct it on how to wipe.
On modern HDD's it is extremely hard to recover data that has been overwritten once, because there is so much memory on them. Every bit occupies a tiny space, there is almost no room for "ghost data".
I rarely wipe with multiple passes. For entire drives I always use a single pass, which finishes within a few hours. Then I reinstall and it's business as usual.
Actually used DBAN as the base for a custom order for a client. Re-compiled from source to autonuke on boot (1x wipe), completely silent, displaying no output other than a fake Windows Update screen with ETA. Proud of that one. Very effective tool for killing a target computer with a minimum of hassle.
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There's no reason to freak out.
The laptop and computers will be fine as long as you don't have any data on them to incriminate you.
Download truecrypt (easy to use and very efficient) and use that to encrypt a drive or file or whatever and put incriminating content in that. Then hide the storage device. Use a USB Key really.
Regarding anything on the laptop, as long as you set up tor correctly, there isn't anything to incriminate you beyond the fact that you have TOR to arouse suspicion. Again, you use a USB key, get truecrypt on it, and you're set. Everything on that, and encrypted.
You can flash the memory if you're super paranoid, but don't wipe the computer. You'll be fine.
Happy Crimes!
- The Consultant
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How do we save our files before nuking?
On a USB stick. Use TrueCrypt to encrypt it if the information is sensitive.
Actually used DBAN as the base for a custom order for a client. Re-compiled from source to autonuke on boot (1x wipe), completely silent, displaying no output other than a fake Windows Update screen with ETA. Proud of that one. Very effective tool for killing a target computer with a minimum of hassle.
Sweet. DBAN is OK software, and I've used it to wipe some people's computers with. Another method I like: boot from a Linux live CD and use the command "dd" to overwrite it with zeros.