Practical anonymity: hiding in plain sight online

136 Pages·2013·2.02 MB·English

by  Peter Loshin

Practical Anonymity
Hiding in Plain Sight Online
Peter Loshin
Table of Contents
Cover image
Title page
Copyright
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Anonymity and Censorship Circumvention
1.1 What Is Anonymity
1.2 What Is Tor
1.3 Why Use Tor
1.4 What Tor Can’t Do
1.5 How Tor Works
1.6 Who Uses Tor
1.7 How Do I Use Tor
1.8 Using Tor Safely
Chapter 2. Using the Tor Browser Bundle
2.1 What Is Bundled In The Tor Browser Bundle
2.2 Using Tor Browser Bundle
2.3 Settings
2.4 Using Tor Browser
2.5 When Tor Won’t Connect
Chapter 3. Using Tails
3.1 What Is In Tails
3.2 Setting Up For Tails
3.3 Using Tails
Chapter 4. Tor Relays, Bridges, and Obfsproxy
4.1 When Basic Tor Is Not Enough
4.2 Bridge Relays
4.3 Setting Up To Use A Bridge Relay
4.4 Pluggable Transports And Obfsproxy
Chapter 5. Sharing Tor Resources
5.1 How (And Why) I Should Contribute Services
5.2 What Are Your Options
5.3 What Do You Risk
5.4 Configuring As A Tor Relay
5.5 Requirements And Consequences
5.6 Nonexit Relay
5.7 Exit Node
5.8 Bridge Relay
Chapter 6. Tor Hidden Services
6.1 Why? Why People Want To Use Hidden Services
6.2 How Tor Hidden Services Work
6.3 How To Set Up A Tor Hidden Service
Chapter 7. E-mail Security and Anonymity Practices
7.1 One-Time (Throwaway) Accounts
7.2 Anonymous Remailer Services
7.3 Anonymous E-Mail Through Tor
7.4 Anonymous E-Mail As A Tor Hidden Service
7.5 Anonymity And Pseudonymity
7.6 Tips For Emailing Anonymously
7.7 Step-By-Step: Setting Up Anonymous E-Mail
Appendix A. Validating Tor Software
A.1 Validating Tor Software With Gnu Privacy Guard
A.2 Validating Tails Distribution With GnuPG
A.3 Which PGP Keys Sign Which Packages
Appendix B. When Tor Downloads Are Blocked
B.1 Tor Mirrors
B.2 Tor Via E-Mail
B.3 Other Options
Appendix C. Getting Help and Finding Answers
C.1 Tor
C.2 About The Tor Project
Copyright
Publisher: Steve Elliot Development Editor: Benjamin Rearick Project
Manager: Mohana Natarajan Syngress is an imprint of Elsevier
225 Wyman Street, Waltham, MA 02451, USA
First published 2013
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Notices
Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing.
As new research and experience broaden our understanding,
changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical
treatment may become necessary.
Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own
experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information,
methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using
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Preface
Google CEO Eric Schmidt ignited a firestorm in 2009 when he declared
“Privacy is dead.” He said:
If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you
shouldn’t be doing it in the first place, but if you really need that kind of
privacy, the reality is that search engines including Google do retain this
information for some time, and it’s important, for example that we are all
subject in the United States to the Patriot Act. It is possible that that
information could be made available to the authorities.
For those with legitimate reason to use the Internet anonymously—diplomats,
military and other government agencies, journalists, political activists, IT
professionals, law enforcement personnel, political refugees, and others—
anonymous networking provides an invaluable tool, and many good reasons that
anonymity can serve a very important purpose.
Anonymous use of the Internet is made difficult by the many websites that
know everything about us, by the cookies and ad networks, IP-logging ISPs, and
even nosy officials may get involved. It is no longer possible to turn off browser
cookies to be left alone in your online life.
For many, using any of the open source, peer-reviewed tools for connecting to
the Internet via an anonymous network may be (or seem to be) too difficult, as
most of the information about these tools is burdened with discussions of how
they work and how to maximize security. Even tech-savvy users may find the
burden too great—but actually using the tools can be pretty simple.
For many users, being able to use the Internet anonymously can literally be a
matter of life and death, so no one should be prevented from using anonymity
tools because they can be too confusing—particularly if the need is urgent. This
book will provide the know-how to get vulnerable users online, anonymously, as
quickly and safely as possible.
Read on to discover how to use the most effective and widely used anonymity
tools—the ones that protect diplomats, military and other government agencies,
journalists, political activists, law enforcement personnel, political refugees, and
others. This practical guide skips the theoretical and technical details and focuses
on getting from zero to anonymous as fast as possible.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank all those who have contributed to the Tor Project for their
important contributions to this important enterprise. In particular, I want to
express my gratitude to those people connected with the Tor Project who were
kind enough to help me complete this project:
Karsten Loesing, Metrics Researcher and Project Manager, who was kind
enough to find time in his busy schedule to review this book for technical
correctness.
Runa A. Sandvik, Developer, Security Researcher, and Translation
Coordinator, who was gracious and helpful in answering some of my peskier
questions about Tor—and shared some insights into the difficulties of writing
about Tor.
Roger Dingledine, Project Leader and one of the original developers of Tor,
who very patiently spent close to an hour explaining to me how Tor works at the
2013 Tor Project hack day in Boston.
Andrew Lewman, Executive Director, without whose assistance I would not
have been able to complete this project.
As always, I am grateful for the skilled professionals at Elsevier, starting with
Syngress publisher Steve Elliot who convinced me to start writing books again,
and Ben Rearick, Editorial Project Manager, and Mohana Natarajan, Production
Manager, who helped guide the whole project to completion.