--Re (Tech): Anonymous Browsing (Pt. 1)

--Re (Tech): Anonymous Browsing (Pt. 1)

Recently, I have been getting a lot of questions regarding what would have to be done to have an anonymous browsing experience. Certifications aside, if someone wants to monitor you, and they have an incredible amount of money and time, they can probably accomplish the task. You learn very quickly in the tech industry (and from life in general) that everything is “hackable”. The variable that you can effectively control is the amount of TIME it takes to reach that information by an adversary. Varying levels of encryption, virtual private networks and browsers (like the “Tor” browser) provide a relatively comfortable amount of anonymity. I will provide some links to some of the tools that I use whenever I feel the need to be anonymous.

The Tor Browser Bundle (Browser)

--https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en

From the site:

“Tor was originally designed, implemented, and deployed as a third-generation onion routing project of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. It was originally developed with the U.S. Navy in mind, for the primary purpose of protecting government communications. Today, it is used every day for a wide variety of purposes by normal people, the military, journalists, law enforcement officers, activists, and many others. Tor is a network of virtual tunnels that allows people and groups to improve their privacy and security on the Internet. It also enables software developers to create new communication tools with built-in privacy features. Tor provides the foundation for a range of applications that allow organizations and individuals to share information over public networks without compromising their privacy.”

The site does a fantastic job of explaining why their FREE browser bundle works. The short, crude summary is that it allows your data to be anonymized by passing through multiple interfaces via a randomized path. While not perfect, it certainly does keep the above average traffic analyzer guessing. The adversary will see that you are connected to the TOR network, but they will not be able to see what exactly it is you are doing. However, your data will be routed through these other anonymous devices, so there is a slight possibility that your data could be compromised by one of these nodes (but not significant).

Tails (Operating System)

--https://tails.boum.org/

Linux Penguin

From the site:

“Tails is a live system that aims at preserving your privacy and anonymity. It helps you to use the Internet anonymously almost anywhere you go and on any computer but leave no trace using unless you ask it explicitly. It is a complete operating-system designed to be used from a DVD or a USB stick independently of the computer's original operating system. It is Free Software and based on Debian GNU/Linux.Tails comes with several built-in applications per-configured with security in mind: web browser, instant messaging client, email client, office suite, image and sound editor, etc.”

Tails furthers the anonymous browsing objective by allowing anyone to browse on virtually any computer anonymously. It is a live OS, so it can be booted from a CD or USB stick with any computer. Even better, it utilizes TOR as it's browser by default and its GUI (Graphical User Interface) can be made to look like windows xp. Booting from external devices is perfect if a computer is compromised with some sort of spyware, especially if it is a live image utilizing Linux. Instructions on the site are extremely basic, and the GUI looks like Windows XP if you choose that option!

In part two, I will cover further ways to stay anonymous utilizing other solutions such as VPN's. If you have any additional comments, do not hesitate to comment or contact me. Stay safe.