In a college campus and had the idea of using my phone to connect to the internet and browse DNMs. Any reason for this to not work, bad opsec?
Using iPhone for personal hotspot while browsing?
In a college campus and had the idea of using my phone to connect to the internet and browse DNMs. Any reason for this to not work, bad opsec?
[3 Points] TheGateKeepah:
[2 Points] None:
Sounds especially bad if you're using an iPhone, phones in general aren't the first thing that comes to mind when I think of good security.
I'd use a VPN too, I do that when browsing /r/DNMs or want to windowshop on a marketplace. As long as you order the drugs with a different account than what you browse with, you should be fine. I'm on Android by the way.
[1 Points] saddatay:
It's a bad idea. There's nothing secure about using an iPhone for internet activity - irrespective of whether you're on the DNMs or otherwise. You could be using a VPN and it still wouldn't really matter.
That said, if all you're doing is browsing and looking around, I don't really see the harm in it. But if you're logging into any DNM accounts, ordering, moving BTC around, etc etc - now you're asking for it.
[1 Points] uEbrjuZxTDEwVhqS:
I wouldn't do it unless you are also using a VPN, and the idea of using a VPN through a phone hotspot sounds like a recipe for frustration.
Why not just use a non-logged VPN and tunnel out through the campus connection? Since you say you are browsing DNMs then that means you will be using TOR already. The only way to get compromised like this is if you get a virus/trojan on your machine (so always use good local protection, I use AVG), or an MITM attack or DNS leak. There are sites that can double-check to make sure your VPN isn't leaking DNS (something you should check anyway). All a network sniffer or logger would see in this case is your computer connecting to a VPN address. It is possible to detect if you are using TOR if you don't connect to a VPN first, simply by comparing to a list of well-known entry nodes. A VPN guards against that.
Without revealing too much OPSEC, I can tell you that I have been able to tunnel out through many different private networks using a VPN without a problem. Even on networks that utilize web-filtering and proxy avoidance. I would be highly surprised if your campus could stop this outbound traffic, unless they are using a captive-portal, but I normally only see that in hotels and hospitals, but even then once you authenticate for layer-2 connectivity you can still hit your VPN client afterwards. Unless they are using a client-based proxy filter requiring local installation, but I haven't seen anyway use that in years. Too much admin overhead.
Edit: And also, to echo what others have said, using phones to directly browse DNMs is a big no-no. I know you said using it as a hotspot, but I am still putting this here just in case. The problem is that phones are even worse than computers for retaining forensic evidence, and they are very hard to reliably wipe. Hotspot maybe not quite as bad, but using phones for this stuff is just a generally bad idea.
[1 Points] Hank_Vendor:
your phone - NO
a phone - sure
Don't ever, ever order anything from those accounts or from mobile.
Allow me to quote the great Mama Boucher:
"iPhones are the Devil!"