How to Disappear from the Internet!
Do you know how hackers manage to upload unlawful stuff online while remaining anonymous?
Any insider information? and Do you want to be a whistleblower who distributes information anonymously online?
(The way you view the internet will be fundamentally changed by this article, and I cannot be held responsible for anything you do there)
You should be familiar with your current internet browsing method before learning anything:-
So you simply turn on your computer, launch your browser, and begin browsing the internet. Right?
The bad news is that big firms like Facebook, Google, and Amazon are already profiling you!
You didn’t share your name? Or choose not to create an account with them? However, even without your consent, these great softwares can still track you down.
So in order to maintain anonymity:
I’ll give you three levels of online anonymity in this article.
The highest level of anonymity is Level THREE, and you should be absolutely certain that achieving 100% anonymity is virtually impossible.
Level ONE:
Let’s start off by preventing your Internet Service Provider (ISP), such as AT&T Internet, Verizon or Airtel, from profiling you:
One Sentence, unless you quit using them as your ISP, there is “NO WAY” that you can obtain anonymity from them!
(Don’t forget to refer images)
But even so, all it takes to keep your “Privacy” from them is by using a simple software called a VPN (Virtual Private Network).
00 A little difference between Anonymity & Privacy:
Some info on VPNs:
Consequently, VPNs are secure tunnels that route your internet traffic through a separate server of your choosing (maybe at a different country).
Concerning the VPN server, don’t worry:
Use a VPN that is no-log policied and highly encrypted. (Never use free VPNs).
Your ISP is aware of the VPN and that you are connected to the internet, but they are unaware of what you are browsing!
Let’s take one step forward-
Level TWO:
You are shielded from your ISP, but what about that crazy website you are on, like google(dot)com, which is renowned for creating profiles of its users and knowing them better than anybody else in the world does.
Google can’t see your true IP address since you’re using a VPN, but it still recognises you.
Maintaining anonymity from these businesses, who invest millions of dollars in building their algorithms, is not a cake-walk.
So not creating a Google account would help? Definitely not.
Have you heard that Google is being sued for tracking users while they are using incognito mode? See it yourself here.
The Solution:
Representation of the Tor Network:
Let’s set it up:
- Download the browser from their official website: https://www.torproject.org/
- Links can be modified by a hacker in case of an unsecure network, so I highly recommend to verify the signature of the downloaded file from the tool “gpg4win” by downloading its (dot)sig file too.
A few important things to be mindful of while using Tor:
- Never use Tor in “full monitor” screen, as it can reveal the monitor size and resolution you’re using, in short, fingerprinting you.
- Always check for updates.
- You can configure proxy from the browser’s Network settings (Proxy basically masks your IP address, whereas a VPN masks your whole data).
- Always check the status of your connection before browsing anything from this website.
- An important setting to configure security level of Tor.
If you’re accessing (dot)onion sites from the Tor browser then it means that the site is inside the Tor network & your traffic is fully encrypted!
(refer image below)
If you’re accessing other than (dot)onion sites from the Tor browser, then it means that the site is not a part of Tor network, so you’ve to move the traffic i.e. one node outside the Tor network:
Important to note:
Since the traffic is leaving the Tor network, this node is not encrypted, thus the person running the end node of the Tor network might be able to tell what website you’re looking for!
The same happened in the first scene of Mr Robot webseries where he hacked and reported a guy, running an illicit website, to the police.
Don’t worry, there’s a solution:
So, to protect yourself from the end node! You have to use a fully encrypted network, in simple words, just Force HTTPs everywhere wherever you browse, there are various applications as well as extensions to do it. (So, not going much in detail).
A weird & important thing to note:-
Try to use as many Default Settings as you can, even after making changes, to limit your online fingerprinting.
At the end, use this tool to check the current fingerprinting scale of your browser called as “Panopticlick”.
You might be wondering, why I’m focusing on “Fingerprinting” a lot, so I’ll give you a brief overview of the INFORMATION THEORY now:
Refer wikipedia for going in detail.
Population of earth at the time of writing this article is around 8,008,401,192 (according to https://www.theworldcounts.com).
Therefore, we need Log2(1/8008401192) i.e. around 33 bits of information to deduce the identity of a person!!
Yes, this value is in bits! So, even a little information about you, like your screen size, operating system can easily deanonymize you! Even the apps running over the Tor network can easily deanonymize you as they’re collecting data everytime!
Interesting, isn’t it?
We’re going pro now!-
Level THREE:
Using a completely different Operating System to access the Tor network:
the best one:
TAILS (The Amnesic Incognito Live System) Operating System!
What makes it better than other Operating Systems:
- By default, the Tor network is used for all TAILS OS communications.
- A single USB flash drive can operate the whole operating system!
- It runs on RAM (its volatile), hence it leaves no traces on the computer when turned off. Therefore, TAILS’s operating status in the PC cannot ever be detected by the PC’s owner!
Let’s set it up:
- Download the operating system from their official website: https://tails.boum.org/install/
- Flash the OS to a pendrive of a minimum storage of 8gb using the tool balenaEtcher.
A few important things to be mindful of while using TAILS:
- Your data won’t be stored; instead, you’ll need to make a persistent storage which is encrypted on the flash drive to save your files such as bitcoin keys.
- As I’ve previously talked regarding fingerprinting, keep as many default settings as you can.
- If you’d like, you can run TAILS on the virtual computer, but it won’t be as secure as it would be on a flash drive because VMs can reveal your identity(through RCEs and buffer overflows to be precise).
Now that everything is ready, take advantage of being Anonymous!
Bonus section:
To share the files anonymously over the internet, use the Tor Network service: OnionShare.
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