Silk Road forums

Discussion => Security => Topic started by: 29872road3 on November 10, 2012, 07:33 am

Title: Necessary to use USB? Ok to use personal computer?
Post by: 29872road3 on November 10, 2012, 07:33 am
Being a noob, I have been browsing through all of the material reading up on how to successfully use SR. Some guides/posts recommend using USB with Linux or operating system installed on it to access SR. Some don't mention it at all.Is it Ok to use your personal computer to make purchases since your already using Tor, PGP, etc.? What do the majority of members do?
Title: Re: Necessary to use USB? Ok to use personal computer?
Post by: memorandum on November 10, 2012, 08:14 am
I am also a noob, so I could be wrong, but the reasoning behind the USB thing, it seems to me, is that it's easier and more cost effective to get rid of than your computer's HDD. It's probably not necessary, but why take risks that you don't have to take? Would you rather wipe your HDD, or get rid of a $5 USB stick?

If you're doing anything illegal in your country, particularly buying or selling drugs in large quantities, it's probably pretty stupid not to take the extra precaution.

I'm sure there are other factors that come into this, but a more experienced user will have to fill you in.
Title: Re: Necessary to use USB? Ok to use personal computer?
Post by: Sloan on November 10, 2012, 08:35 am
When you run your computer from a hard drive, various bits of information are stored on that drive, that can be recovered by LE.
When your run a bootable USB, all this information is stored in RAM, instead of the hard drive, which is completely erased when it is powered off.
If your not going to use a bootable USB, at least use Truecrypt to encrypt your system partition with a long password
Title: Re: Necessary to use USB? Ok to use personal computer?
Post by: ChineseGeneral on November 10, 2012, 08:37 am
The ChineseGeneral advises all his brothers and sisters not to use any storage media as I possess all the keys. 

Open your Chinese computer, unplug, ground yourself, remove the hard drive ground.  Use usb DVD drive to take with you, steal someones computer and remove the hard drive for extra anon style points.