Privacy and anonymity from the US government

grell · n00b Joined: 02 Feb 2006 Posts: 12

Hello, I was wondering what the best way is to stay safe from government (i.e. the NSA and such) eavesdropping on my computer/Internet activities. I think I can safely assume that since Gentoo is 100% open-source and based on source code (as opposed to binary packages) and that there are no backdoors in it to speak of. Is this indeed the case? Also, is this the case with the Chromium web browser as well? I know Chromium is said to be 100% open source. I want an OS and browser that I can use without having to worry about the government eavesdropping on me. Please tell me the best solution, things are getting pretty scary here in the States and I want to evade the government as much as humanly possible. Thanks in advance guys.

Keruskerfuerst · Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2015 3:31 pm Post subject:

It is better to use a binary distro instead of Gentoo (much work with sysadmin tasks).
If you want to check the source code, control these parts, which connect to the network. E.g.: kernel, glibc, X-Server and so on.
From your country, where you live.
USA: e.g.: Red Hat or Fedora.

Before you install/use Linux, you should read a manual of your distro.

And some books about bash use and so on.

You can also use TOR. This slows down the internet speed much.

But: some goverment institutes use quantum computers to decrypt the crypted internet traffic.
These computers are very expensive (~1.000.000,00€).

If you want to be safe, use the following:
1. highly encrypted electronic mail
2. "normal" mail, registered mail, mail by courier or "high speed" mail.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2015 4:43 pm Post subject:

grell,

If the US government wants your sekrits, they will send you to the experts at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba to extract them from you.
Its much faster that eavesdropping. You can make it harder for the government though

Use encrypted email. These means that all your correspondents need to generate and use key pairs.
Use a paranoid firewall, that stops things going out as well as stops things coming in. This means that some nasties that do get in cannot phone home.
Use a hardened system. It makes all sorts of exploits harder to accomplish.
Check your logs.

Rent a VPS outside of the reach of the USA government and use a VPN tunnel to route all your traffic through it. This is like TOR but faster and with less/no anonamyity.

In the end, security is like the layers of an onion. You need to assess your perceived threat(s) and put in place measures you are prepared to tolerate to combat the threat.
All security measures compromise usability. You choose where you draw the line.

Consider not using the internet for anything ever. That makes electronic eavesdropping really hard but not impossible.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

Keruskerfuerst · Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2015 5:10 pm Post subject:

If you have problems with the goverment, just call federal police.

They arrive within 5 seconds...

steveL · Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2015 12:54 am Post subject:

depontius · Advocate Joined: 05 May 2004 Posts: 3509

Look up the term "rubber-hose cryptanalysis."

Besides, the government is not your biggest fear, in practical terms. There are commercial entities far more likely to abuse your rights and privacy.
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.sigs waste space and bandwidth

gentooP4 · Apprentice Joined: 20 Sep 2010 Posts: 182 Location: NZ

Sorry to jump in, but is surfing the net inside a virtual machine using TOR any more secure than just using Gentoo outright? Just curious
_________________
The United States has announced that it will deploy thoughts and prayers in the battle against online extremism.

If you voted for Trump or Brexit, you were likely influenced by the Cambridge Analytica propaganda machine.

Keruskerfuerst · Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2015 9:58 am Post subject:

depontius · Advocate Joined: 05 May 2004 Posts: 3509