Internet Privacy/Security

[andrewmitch]

Does anyone have any advice on how to secure their indentity on-line?

I'd like to use an off shore server from a country with no Information Sharing Agreement/Treaty w/ the US, Inc. Pay them with a Post Office Money Order.

Use a free email account, again from an off shore country.

Encrypt my email communications.

I'd like to ensure my surfing and posting to message boards is untracable.

Privatize and Encrpyt Chat/IM.

And prevent anyone from hacking into my emails and hard drive.

Anyone use any specific software or company?

Anyone know what countries could be trusted?

[netwrkranger]

My opinions on the matters:

Does anyone have any advice on how to secure their indentity on-line?

First off, there is the matter of the line and who paid for the service. In who's name is the service? One way to address that issue is to have a strawman (third party) pay for the line, but the line is connected to your residence....

Second, the line is using public access from your house to the Central Office (CO). The CO is owned by a corporation who is a creature of government. Not to mention the surveillance programs going on Internet backbones...

Some basic things you can do are use SSL whenever you can. Also, you can do your Internet surfing from a RAMDrive or a Live Boot Linux CD to ensure you leave no tracks on your machine. Also, software harddrive shredders are good to use on a periodic basis. I would recommend using Firefox or Opera for a browser. There are security plug-ins you can install in your Firefox browser.

I'd like to use an off shore server from a country with no Information Sharing Agreement/Treaty w/ the US, Inc. Pay them with a Post Office Money Order.

That may be a little difficult to do, but you do have the option of searching for free proxy servers or using Tor (Tor is slow for surfing though). There is also the issue of who is the owner of the service and what agreements (explicit or implicit) they have with government agencies.

Use a free email account, again from an off shore country.

Encrypt my email communications.

For e-mail encryption, I like FireGPG. Works with Google Mail too.

I'd like to ensure my surfing and posting to message boards is untracable.

Find proxy servers or use Tor. I recommend Tor.

Privatize and Encrpyt Chat/IM.

For IM encryption, there are third party encryption tools. Just query for IM encryption. My preference is to use Trillian since they have encryption built into the IM software.

And prevent anyone from hacking into my emails and hard drive.

If your e-mails are housed by a third-party provider, then they are at risk for public exposure. If you want to encrypt your harddrive, you could use Truecrypt or switch to Linux and setup an encrypted harddrive partition.

Anyone use any specific software or company?

Some of the best encryption and security tools are free. You can find them on the Internet. If you go with other third-party solutions, it will cost you.

Anyone know what countries could be trusted?

I am not sure if any countries can be trusted. No security is foolproof. Anyone with sufficient time, energy, resources, and determination can break any security measures. It is often said the most secure server is one not connected to the Internet.

[Jerry Pitts]

Originally Posted by netwrkranger

My opinions on the matters:

As an alternative:

Build your own DSL system, and launch your own satellites. Absolutely no dependence upon commercial systems and their ties to the government. Of course I know the impractical nature of such a suggestion. But that is just about the extreme that you will have to go to in order to maintain such privacy as you are seeking.

Jerry Carlos
Ambassador of Jesus, the Christ.

[netwrkranger]

Well said, Jerry. A lot of truth in your statements.

- netwrkranger

[andrewmitch]

thanks for the advice

i was trying to start w/ the shredder

i found a few downloads but one wanted money after i went through the "free" DL and the others i wasn't sure how to work it. they ask you which folders you want to "shred". i believe it wanted me to determine what folder had stuff that should be deleted and would delete the entire folder. i thought the program would scan my entire drive and then recommond specific files that should be deleted?

[netwrkranger]

There is a free program called 'Eraser'. That is the program I would use for shredding drives. The application can be made portable as well.

There is another app called 'Cybershredder'. That's good for shredding files. That application is portable.

If you going to go to that length, I recomend setting up a RAMdisk or dividing the drive into a SYSTEM and DATA partition. Keep data files strictly on the DATA partition. You'll need to shred the SYSTEM and TEMP file folders from time to time. I don't recommend using IE because where you surf are stored in system.dat files. At least with Firefox you can designate where the profile files will be kept.

You best bet would be to use a live boot linux CD. Everything would be in RAM. Store personal files on a server. Access the server when you need to use the files. You can remix the live boot CD to suit your preferences.

[andrewmitch]

thank you....which files do I select for the program to delete. I started to do this last night and it asked for folders or drives to "shred". I selected my C Drive until I realized it was about to kill everything on it (I think)! I thought the program would automatically find Temp Files, Cookies, Swap Files, etc and then delete. But I think I have to ask it what to delete and frankly I don't know. I can direct it to my temp folder and my cookie folder but that's it. I am not trying to clean my entire hard drive - just remove the tracking junk.......

[netwrkranger]

If you are talking about the Eraser program....

Eraser can shred the free space of your drives. That is what I primarily use the program for. I would dump all temp files. Shred the free space once. Defrag the drive. Shred it again. You want to do a minimum 7 pass wipe, DoD standard shred. More wipes are better, but take more time.

You will need to find another program for shredding temp files and swap space. If you query Google, I am certain you will be able to find something for free. If you are unable, I will dig through my store to see what I have to fit the bill.

There is a program called 'Spider' which I use to dump where you have been surfing in system.dat files used by Internet Explorer and other programs.

Have you switched to Firefox or Opera yet?

- netwrkranger

[andrewmitch]

thanks again....so it is the "FREE SPACE" you want to shred. OK, I saw that as an option. For the temp files and cookies will a regular delete work?

i am planning on Switching to Firefox within a couple of days. The only concern I have is can I import my Favorites (w/ the organized folders) from IE? I could still switch but I would literally take me at least half a day or more to rebuild all of my favorites.

I was doing some more research on off shore ISP's and Email. Do we know which countries are safer to use (ie don't have agreements w/ the US)? I know I want to stay out of Europe other than maybe Switzerland - maybe Malaysia? Panama? Belize? New Zealand? Bahamas?

I was also thinking that for utility programs such as Anti-Bot that using a software company, again, out of the reach of Unlce Sam would be good way to go given a US company would have to divulge its code to Ol Sam if asked....

[netwrkranger]

Temp files will need to be dumped manually. Cookies can be deleted through the browser.

Yes, you can import your IE favorites into Firefox.

I don't have any information concerning ISPs for security.

Generally speaking, securing a system is an art of striking a balance between security and usability (the two being inversely proportional to each other).

As for guidelines, you should secure your system in layers such as using a common user account instead of an administrator account for everyday usage. Anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-keyloggers, and anti-rootkit software are always good to have. Centralizing the temp files of the OS (Windows) will help for quick deletes. Separating system and data files by partitions is also good. RAMdisk is useful to have.

You know.... you could setup Linux in VMWare with the Linux partition setup as an encrypted partition. You would surf the web through the VMWare image. If you are new to Linux, I recommend Ubuntu or Linux Mint.