TyperTech
Regular Member
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2024
- Posts
- 44
- Reaction score
- 0
- Status
- Offline
- Last Seen
Location > Location > Location- Continued
A Manual for Masters Mastering Staying Safe Online
This is a continuation of Part 1, which started here⚠️.
VPNs and Tor
Privacy is important, but remember from Chapter 1 it's sometimes not enough. When anonymity or pseudonymity are important, it's time to venture beyond the confines of cryptography and into some of the tools available to conceal your Internet Protocol address- the identifier that tells whoever you're sending your messages to where the reply should go.
Sadly, you do need to let them know somehow if you ever want to get an order confirmation, your vendor's catalog, or images of cats in boxes (those are top-secret cats, OK?). A simple trick you might have already heard of is to forward all network requests to a VPN, which then performs them on your behalf and returns the results. It's easy, effective, and widespread, but also not especially anonymous: anybody with insider access or legal power over the VPN provider can see the IPs connecting and where they're headed, defeating the protection entirely. It's even easier for them if you gave personal details or paid with a traceable method (see Chapter 4), or if the provider keeps and provides logs of past activity- a big problem with, but not limited to, free VPNs³⁷. In choosing a VPN these two things should at least be avoided, subscribing to a trusted no-logs VPN such as Mullvad and NordVPN with cryptocurrency.
Better in most cases, though, is Tor. Three separate VPN-like steps²⁴ make it significantly more difficult for an adversary to track back to the originating IP address in the way they could for a VPN. It also supports ".onion" urls such as NSFW, which conceal the IP of a server hosting a website and so are a widely-used and effective choice for many sensitive topics. Even better for users censored or at high risk of surveillance, Tor offers bridges, back roads which obscure and camouflage Tor usage⁴⁰.
Don't rubbish VPNs just yet, though. Many websites discriminate against connections from Tor³⁸, so if one of them is critical to your operation connecting to a VPN (perhaps over Tor) could still be useful. The same applies where accounts or pages only work in a specific location: you could use Tor, but changing circuits until the connection comes from the right location will be a painfully tedious process. And never, ever, ever torrent over Tor. Not only is it pointless³⁹, but remember for people face serious consequences for even suggesting their government makes mistakes the only safe way to speak up is with opsec-supporting technologies. Their eyewitness reports and leaks need Tor's precious donated bandwidth much more than your download of Mariah Carey's Christmas album. Look up I2P if you need it that bad!
A Manual for Masters Mastering Staying Safe Online
This is a continuation of Part 1, which started here⚠️.
VPNs and Tor
Privacy is important, but remember from Chapter 1 it's sometimes not enough. When anonymity or pseudonymity are important, it's time to venture beyond the confines of cryptography and into some of the tools available to conceal your Internet Protocol address- the identifier that tells whoever you're sending your messages to where the reply should go.
Sadly, you do need to let them know somehow if you ever want to get an order confirmation, your vendor's catalog, or images of cats in boxes (those are top-secret cats, OK?). A simple trick you might have already heard of is to forward all network requests to a VPN, which then performs them on your behalf and returns the results. It's easy, effective, and widespread, but also not especially anonymous: anybody with insider access or legal power over the VPN provider can see the IPs connecting and where they're headed, defeating the protection entirely. It's even easier for them if you gave personal details or paid with a traceable method (see Chapter 4), or if the provider keeps and provides logs of past activity- a big problem with, but not limited to, free VPNs³⁷. In choosing a VPN these two things should at least be avoided, subscribing to a trusted no-logs VPN such as Mullvad and NordVPN with cryptocurrency.
Better in most cases, though, is Tor. Three separate VPN-like steps²⁴ make it significantly more difficult for an adversary to track back to the originating IP address in the way they could for a VPN. It also supports ".onion" urls such as NSFW, which conceal the IP of a server hosting a website and so are a widely-used and effective choice for many sensitive topics. Even better for users censored or at high risk of surveillance, Tor offers bridges, back roads which obscure and camouflage Tor usage⁴⁰.
Don't rubbish VPNs just yet, though. Many websites discriminate against connections from Tor³⁸, so if one of them is critical to your operation connecting to a VPN (perhaps over Tor) could still be useful. The same applies where accounts or pages only work in a specific location: you could use Tor, but changing circuits until the connection comes from the right location will be a painfully tedious process. And never, ever, ever torrent over Tor. Not only is it pointless³⁹, but remember for people face serious consequences for even suggesting their government makes mistakes the only safe way to speak up is with opsec-supporting technologies. Their eyewitness reports and leaks need Tor's precious donated bandwidth much more than your download of Mariah Carey's Christmas album. Look up I2P if you need it that bad!