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ICMag Security Do's and Don'ts!

G

growcodile

I've never heard of an ISP reporting anyone to LEO. ISP's don't have time or motive to spy on their subscribers as far as I know, unless they are forced by law to do so.

i didnt mean it like that .. i just said the technical background is there and installed at most or many ISP's .. to be on the safer side either dont post at all as you also recommended or do it in a way it cant be traced to you .. stay safe!
 

Bodhi Roach

Member
whats your opinion on posting pictures from the free internet cafes? they may log the IP but , is not the only way to truly identify you by your mac address?
Are these logged as well?
 

alaskan

Member
Don't post pictures of yours from outside hosts like photobucket, imageshack, or flikr, it's easy for anyone to go through the rest of your albums and get an idea of who you are.

Right click the image, select view image, and delete the image name from the url, and it usually puts you into the album the picture was in...
 

Euphrates

Member
DON'T discuss or arrange any illegal activities via ICMag. You will be banned for this.

:rolleyes:
So we shouldn't talk about ordering seeds ?
 

Skip

Active member
Veteran
DON'T discuss or arrange any illegal activities via ICMag. You will be banned for this.

:rolleyes:
So we shouldn't talk about ordering seeds ?

Ordering seeds is perfectly legal in many places, except backwards places.... ;)

Never presume what is illegal where you are is illegal everywhere. That's a big mistake people (esp. conservative americans) make.

Keep up with the news too, cause laws are changing everywhere.
 

Muggle

New member
best anonymous surfing services:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-anonymous-surfing-service.htm blah blah blah

intlplayr: zend2.com and edexcel.info are both good blah blah blah

<sigh>

Anonymity can only be obtained by the eradication of logs by the proxy (privacy) providers. Logs are essential in determining problems, troubleshooting them, etc. anyone who says they don't log, lies and/or they have a shi**y service.

You should not be using any single privacyservice to achieve anonymity (including Tor bundles alone) but multiple services that way by the time anything was traced back through each service, any logs would have rolled. Good privacy providers eradicate (roll) their logs at least weekly.

Obtaining consistent privacy is not difficult or expensive. Obtaining consistent, usable anonymity is quite difficult and truly requires more technical capabilities than 90% of the well informed IT world can muster. But it too is not expensive. Except in terms of the time you have to study to get to anonymity.

Understand the difference. Privacy is like talking through a door where the person on the other side may know a few things about you (male or female, language spoken, etc) but not what you look like or your name. Anonymity is when that same person has no clue whatsoever about you. Nothing. Nada.

The best solutions for the masses who want to surf and participate here?? A strong privacy service and a working Tor package, checking your IP address on the fly, in real time. At least if you screw up Tor, LEO or whoever your adversary might be, will still have to produce a subpoena and catch only a weeks or less of logs. :tiphat:
 

David762

Member
Great basic security advice. Thanks!

Great basic security advice. Thanks!

great basic security advice. thanks!

people on-line here from the USA at least need to keep in mind that 9/11/2001 changed everything regarding privacy.

these days fed, state, and local LEOs have the funds, the cool equipment, the legal authority, and the time on their hands to get into anyones personal business. they can and do, and many seem to really enjoy their new-found powers over the public.
 

supervaca

Member
... so being this my working field, and reading some very wrong things in this thread (as when it comes to computer security often) , I would like to say some things:

-PROXYS: put this in your mind. Using proxies is USELESS, as you can be very easily traced back, all pages now have Jscript, Adwords, etc.... so you can embed a call to the browser and get the real IP.... If you, anyway, use them, use trusted ones, these lists of proxys have a lot of honeypotting... Too, there are different kind of proxies, only trust SOCKS proxies ---> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOCKS

-TOR- Tor is safer, but slow. Some attacks have been done and they work, but as Tor infraestructure passes throuh 3 different computers, you should compromise at least 2 of them.... ALWAYS check wich nodes you are using .... REALLY.... On top of this, you should use something like Privoxym that cleans your data.
For a quickstart you can use Vidalia ---> http://www.torproject.org/vidalia/

So if you need REAL security, use:

For encrypting data, photo, etc: GNUPG --> http://www.gnupg.org/

For surfing: VPNs are the way to go. They can know maybe where are you connecting to, but not the content , as is encrypted. Use a free one, ćuz has no sense to be anonymous and pay with a CCard.... like Alonweb or something similar, check some here:
Link: http://techpp.com/2009/07/09/top-5-free-vpn-clients/

For cleaning your hard drive of inconveniences: use a wiper that is able to rewrite your hd with random data; about 30 cycles.... you then are SAFE. Like http://www.killdisk.com/ or wipe for linux.

E-mail: don't trust this "safe email " services; they all lie. Use GNUPG , link on top. Use a public key and exchange wit your friends. I use a triple AES-Blowfish-Rijndael algorityhm together,don't get scared, you can set this up easily in the options, depending on you OS ;)
Link: http://www.gnupg.org/

Chatting: You can use Pidgin , a multi-platform messesnger that suppots ICQ, MSN, etc etc... and proxies and encryption. Set a SOCKS PROXY in the configuration of the utility and use a plugin called PIDGIN-OTR. OTR is great, and encrypts all your data (RSA 256, fu** NSA :thank you: ).
Link: http://www.cypherpunks.ca/otr/

I would go for a total paranoid use a SOCKS proxy+ VPN, and ALWAYS deactivate Javascript in your browser , THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING,ALWAYS, use something as NoScript for FFox --->https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/722
AND CLEAN YOUR COOKIES and LOGOUT FROM potencially compromising SITES !!!!!!!
And yes, you need a nice AV and a firewall. Comodo is a nice firewall. AVG is a nice free AVirus.

And VERY IMPORTANT: We all know OS like windows are not very safe, and backdoored..... There are some nice Live CDs that let you run your system from a CD , nothing get written in your harddrive..... some of them, as Incognito (now called amnesia, I love it), set ALL TRAFFIC TROUGH TOR, too, cuts JScript, etc.... being one of the easyest and safest bet around. Just download the file and burn it as an ISO image, and just reboot.....safest and easyest, each time you connect to a bad reputation or very dangerous site for stoners or terrorists :tiphat: , just put the cd in and reboot... wait... surf.. and reboot again... everything as before :D
Link:
http://www.anonymityanywhere.com/incognito/

But really, change to Linux (FreeBSD is asking too much, I know) as soon as you can, if security is a big concert for you and you use Windows... you are SOLD. At least, go Mac. But Ubuntu is really easy and (quite) safe if configured properly. Really. Windows is a trap.
All our traffic is being monitored and logged, so if they have some suspices about you, they will have a look to what you made in the Inet for the last 2 years or so..... They cannot use this in court, sure, but is a very handy tool... to get you in the right moment or check your real ID..

If you have any doubt or questions, or see something here incorrect, please let me know.
I wll be glad to share my limited knowledge.

Last time I wrote something like this, I got in troubles. Let's see this time.
Excuse my forgotten English.
Muuuuuu
 

KinðMinð

New member
Computer Safety

Computer Safety

We all know in the physical world, our fingerprints/d.n.a are an identifying mark we leave behind. In the digital world, we have these as well
//
These list of links (below) need to be used everyday. Some programs dont need to be ran all the time with the others, logically you should determine when/what you need on your own accord.
//
http://www.peerblock.com/
^ i use this when d/loading torrents. But, you see how much traffic your network receives. Believe me, it is amazing. Russia/China/Korea/Taiwan and every other IP will try and bounce packets of data around via your network. You can go as far as blocking all your country's IP, then only allowing chosen websites that you have to manually enter. Follow forums and faq for install. Very easy to use/update/etc. just an example.. i have over 4,000,000,000 ip's blocked using this service (ips go all the way from 000.000.000.000 to 255.255.255.255 so just imagine the possibilities!!!!!!!!!)
//
http://www.torproject.org/
similar to previous link, but hides/switches/bounces your ip all over the world via set up relay and networks set up. read up and use forums/faq if need be. very easy install/set up/use
//
http://www.technitium.com/tmac/index.html
MAC address changer
//
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5Z_YAUGVLM&playnext=1&videos=xsmcQqFuk4E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiuEzb_Jv9U&feature=related
^advanced
http://www.youtube.com/user/mushroomHEADBANGERS#p/c/0B27374E0D55A471/26/rS13EMF3M3o
http://www.youtube.com/user/mushroomHEADBANGERS#p/c/0B27374E0D55A471/27/1b80UKCDgi4
many more videos supporting various applications insides users playlist channel. check em out!
//
and lastly, use "spybot - search and destroy" and AVG weekly. defrag weekly or monthly if need be.
//
if anyone has anything to add, PLZ be my guest! id love to learn and employ other security functions on my comp/network
//
KM
 

Motta-Tokka

Member
Fingerprint deadbolts, and notifying your local police about your grow is two really unnecessary things. Ahh yes and for the home security alarm.. Look up Jason Wilcox to see how that backfired real quick. Strike three for Cateros
 

blazeoneup

The Helpful One
Moderator
Chat Moderator
Veteran
Computer & Internet Security!

Computer & Internet Security!

I've noticed a few threads lately about internet security and computer security and so on. I decided to take a little time to share with you some methods I have been using to make my pc and internet browsing more secure.

I've noticed in just about every grow related bust they usually confiscate computers, Well this is a bad thing if your not keeping your pc secure and your browsing history secure. If they come bust you take your pc in and start going through it and you have not taken proper precautions to secure it from the authority then you may find yourself in a pickle. Say they take your pc and you have lot's and lot's of pictures of plants or gardens you've grown over the years or they dig into your internet browser and your history, Say you even have icmag set to auto login without needing to manually login and they are able to check your pm's and post history and gain more evidence against you.

What can we as growers do to protect our security as far as browsing sites like icmag and storing our pictures without fear these pictures and this browsing history may one day be used against you in court.

There is a multitude of ways to secure your pc to prevent any of this evidence from ever being used against you.

1. Setup a proxy server, This allows you to use your internet to connect to a remote server (can be located anywhere in the world) and then connect to the internet through the remote server thus making your ip appear to come from the remote server. Giving you an ip address which would lead back to the remote server not the end user.

The above method is great for preventing anyone from getting your real ip address and provides the security needed to browse this site and related sites without fear of your ip address leading back to you.

2.Setup a encrypted container to store all your pictures and pot related literature hidden and secure, So if the law was ever to confiscate your pc they will not be accessing your pics and such.

3. Setup and install a secondary Operating system inside this encrypted container, using a virtual machine emulator, This can be a multitude of operating systems, windows/linux or os of choice. This will insure that your cookies and your browsing history will be contained inside an encrypted container thus insuring if your pc is confiscated you will have no worries of them obtaining your browser history.

In short if you set up this type of system you will be close to 100% protected and can relax knowing if they ever do confiscate your pc they will get no evidence to use against you.

There is more to the encrypted container, Because the coppers can see that there is an encrypted container of whatever size it is, You have to setup a hidden encrypted container, What this is is a encrypted container with 2 layers one layer is the primary and the other layer is the hidden, When you setup this type of container it allows you to have 2 passwords one which will access the first layer of the container, This is where you can put a crapload of porn video's for them to find if they make you allow them access to the container.

In short, You can browse the web without worry of your ip being obtained. Using the 2nd layer of your encrypted container to store pics and such, as well as for the secondary operating system which loads through virtual machine emulator inside your operating system, Thus keeping your browsing history safe and secure as well.

You can set all this up for free, You boot into your normal operating system then mount your encrypted container and then launch the virtual machine emulator which boots your secondary os inside your running operating system, which is stored inside your encrypted container.

I personally use truecrypt for my encrypted container, and virtualbox for my machine emulator. Both of these are free and truecrypt works well, I have mine setup to use 256bit aes encryption. I am running windows 7 64bit for my standard os and I use windows xp for my virtual machine emulator.


I will finish this thread up a bit later with a guide on how to set everything up from the proxy server to the encrypted container and secondary operating system install using a virtual machine emulator. I need a smoke break and have some runs to make.
 

phrike

Member
Be extra careful if crossing international borders with computers, or cameras, or flash drives with incriminating data etc.

Customs and TSA type people in many countries (including the US) have the right to inspect your computer, pictures, data, etc. I think they're looking mostly for kiddie porn, but they might be interested in anything that looks illegal.


Personally, when not crossing borders, I don't worry too much about computer security. I'm just growing a few for personal.

I DO know a great deal about computer security though; it's my field (Software development). But good computer security is a lot of work and an inconvenient pain, so I don't bother when I'm only growing for personal.

Over the years I've seen TONS of bugs in computer security code, including some systems I played a part in that transfer billions around the planet every day (SWIFT).

So my point is this: If you are a high value target, like a major drug lord, there are MANY ways your security could be compromised, even though you have many very good security measures, given the resources of the likes of the NSA, CIA. etc.

For the guy growing with 10-20k watts though, you likely won't be facing CSI style on your computers, perhaps "Joe Shmoe Cop" who took a few simple courses. JS Cop would likely be stuck if you take decent measures like using true-crypt with hidden volumes.

You can't be too lazy with security though. Leaving a laptop in standby with encrypted volumes unencrypted and your browser at ICMag is convenient, but a big potential problem for JS Cop who simply un-standby's the laptop.


Once again though, for me, for personal, pffft. I don't need no stinking security, just so long as I don't go spreading my real name and pics all over the net. And I keep my illicit activities to a username that no page on the web is associatable to my real identity.

And internet security is not just about legal issues. It's also about privacy and freedom from harrassment. Sometimes some internet nut (or even a neighbor) will take it upon themselves to out you, your name, address, family members, sexual habits, drug issues. etc.

So keep your confidential internet identities unconnectable to yourself. Just one post, or web page, and your secrets may be out forever. The Internet Wayback machine, and other archivers of data, can and do keep some information forever, long after the original pages are gone.
 

blazeoneup

The Helpful One
Moderator
Chat Moderator
Veteran
Be extra careful if crossing international borders with computers, or cameras, or flash drives with incriminating data etc.

Customs and TSA type people in many countries (including the US) have the right to inspect your computer, pictures, data, etc. I think they're looking mostly for kiddie porn, but they might be interested in anything that looks illegal.


Personally, when not crossing borders, I don't worry too much about computer security. I'm just growing a few for personal.

I DO know a great deal about computer security though; it's my field (Software development). But good computer security is a lot of work and an inconvenient pain, so I don't bother when I'm only growing for personal.

Over the years I've seen TONS of bugs in computer security code, including some systems I played a part in that transfer billions around the planet every day (SWIFT).

So my point is this: If you are a high value target, like a major drug lord, there are MANY ways your security could be compromised, even though you have many very good security measures, given the resources of the likes of the NSA, CIA. etc.

For the guy growing with 10-20k watts though, you likely won't be facing CSI style on your computers, perhaps "Joe Shmoe Cop" who took a few simple courses. JS Cop would likely be stuck if you take decent measures like using true-crypt with hidden volumes.

You can't be too lazy with security though. Leaving a laptop in standby with encrypted volumes unencrypted and your browser at ICMag is convenient, but a big potential problem for JS Cop who simply un-standby's the laptop.


Once again though, for me, for personal, pffft. I don't need no stinking security, just so long as I don't go spreading my real name and pics all over the net. And I keep my illicit activities to a username that no page on the web is associatable to my real identity.

And internet security is not just about legal issues. It's also about privacy and freedom from harrassment. Sometimes some internet nut (or even a neighbor) will take it upon themselves to out you, your name, address, family members, sexual habits, drug issues. etc.

So keep your confidential internet identities unconnectable to yourself. Just one post, or web page, and your secrets may be out forever. The Internet Wayback machine, and other archivers of data, can and do keep some information forever, long after the original pages are gone.

Yeah you posted this before I finished the post with instructions above, But it is always wise to unmount the encrypted container at the end of each use otherwise specially a laptop which they can unplug from power source and take down town without ever losing power keeping your encrypted container open for thier viewing pleasure.

With desktops its unlikely that they will be going through your pc at your home they will likely unhook and confiscate and once the desktop is unplugged the container will need mounted and activated with the password before accessing the secured information. I'll finish up my post soon when I do I will be sure to add all the details....
 

stickykool

New member
Hey blazeoneup it seems like you have a pretty good idea of what I want/need to do so I'm anxious to follow this and see exactly how you set up the encrypted container and all because I'm not super skilled with computers and need a more detailed directions lol...

can't wait to see you finish up the details :)
 

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