Silk Road forums

Discussion => Security => Topic started by: phubaiblues on June 27, 2011, 06:55 am

Title: 'Tails' USB drive ... need online backup
Post by: phubaiblues on June 27, 2011, 06:55 am
After trying all kinds of shit, the deal that works the best for me, is Tails: usb linux flash drive, TOR, and seems the best for automatic wireless, no problems--and usually I do.  I liked privatix also, but hardly any english support, while tails is pretty good forums and stuff...bummer of Tails--or maybe a good thing--is it has no persistence, but that makes it way safer...once it's gone from RAM, it's all gone.

I make it work by having junk I need every time in a secure online backup...but I need an encrypted online site, so I can keep keepass and some bookmarks I need to use whenever I bring up Tails...anybody got any suggestions in this area...I figure Dropbox isn't all that healthy a spot, if shit goes down...

Anyway, after going thru slax, puppylinux, xpud, tor itself, and privatix, somebody on here said I should try out tails, and I like it best...they say they're working on a good persistence addition, and that could make it easier, but if I could find agood free online backup site I could trust, then I can work with this...
https://tails.boum.org/about/index.en.html
Title: Re: 'Tails' USB drive ... need online backup
Post by: rake on June 27, 2011, 12:14 pm
I'm yet to find anywhere totally secure that I can trust.  Dropbox has had its issues and sites inside the onion I feel are more than likely to be some kid running a web server on his mom's DSL net connection.  Luckily I have access to a few data centres around the world where I can host some files surreptitiously.
Title: Re: 'Tails' USB drive ... need online backup
Post by: Fishtaco on June 27, 2011, 04:55 pm
Keepass files are already encrypted, but for other files/bookmarks, what about having a second thumb drive containing a truecrypt volume?
Title: Re: 'Tails' USB drive ... need online backup
Post by: bollocks on July 21, 2011, 03:04 pm
Check out Wuala (i think the website is wuala.com). I created an account there and used it to backup my truecrypt volume and keepass. You can find referral links through google that will give you 2gigs for free.
Title: Re: 'Tails' USB drive ... need online backup
Post by: phubaiblues on July 21, 2011, 06:09 pm
A 2nd thumbdrive works, but it's adding to the complexity for me.  Tho I've done that.  The real problem is lack of discipline on my part: if I have this stuff on my main pc, it's just too easy to get careless, and to start saving stuff, and leaving it around...and since I just don' like VM's I find that if I use a flash drive with tails or privatix, I'm forced to stay safe, as I can get rid of it easy enough--privatix is actually my favorite, since it's encrypted also...

But what I've been using is tails on the flash, and swissdisk.com for storage.  I see Wuala as a great backup also.  I just keep all the stuff I need in one folder, then as soon as I get tails up and running, I can download the foler with all my latest passwords and updates, and go from there. 

It's also, as you know, conducive to signing on from libraries, and other places where we're harder to trace...ideally we could do all the chatting and checking without worrying so much...but for orders it'd be safer to trot somewhere else, and order from there....
Title: Re: 'Tails' USB drive ... need online backup
Post by: RedRocket on July 26, 2011, 02:05 am
haha complexity??cant you swallow two microsd's??lol....only realised today that tails cant save shit after downloading it,its a neat set up though...even managed to get skype on it and another voip program but it dissapeared when i shutdown
Title: Re: 'Tails' USB drive ... need online backup
Post by: MarketMaker on July 26, 2011, 08:55 pm
I like tails also and found out about it on here. 

There are 2 things I don't like about it though.

One is it's a bitch to have to update my repo list and dowload GPA everytime I boot into but I'm sure there is a way to download it as an installable package on the second usb device (yeah I prefer 1 just for the OS and the other for my private keys and public keys, I don't know if it helps but I never bring any files onto either of the devices from anywhere except tails.)

I wish it were like Puppy where you could choose ahead of time what additional packages you wanted bundled with the downloadable ISO.  Then you download the live distro and it already has the shit you want.

The other thing I don't like and worries me is the very first time I booted into Tails It did not recognize my mouse.  It did recognize the keyboard though.

I waited or everything to load and then rebooted and my mouse worked and it has worked ever since what has changed from the first time I booted into it and the second time I booted into it?

I think I'm going to power down at some point today and remove my hard drive and memory for a little while and search for another stick of ram to put in after waiting a bit.  If I boot up and it does the same thing it did the very first time, not find the mouse I'm going to get a little worried.

Has anyone noticed this?  How hard would it be for a manufacterer to stick a solid state storage device on the motherboard without the public finding out about it?

Title: Re: 'Tails' USB drive ... need online backup
Post by: loginathome on July 28, 2011, 05:24 am
You are making this more difficult than it has to be.
There is a very simple solution.

I assume you are on linux. 
Download unetbootin.
use this to write the tails cd image to the flash drive.
Boot the flash drive to make sure it works.
now, using gparted or other partition system, shrink the partition as far as you can.
Nothing is ever saved there, so you can shrink all the way.
Create another partition of 512MB or something.
Search the internet for portable linux apps.  I don't remember where they are, but I trust your google fu.
find truecrypt and put it on the second partition.
Format the third partition to be whatever you want, you are going to encrypt it with truecrypt.

Now you can boot tails, which will never save anything within the OS,
You have an unencrypted place to store stupid stuff that doesn't need to be encrypted.  Such as any apps you want as well as your wireless keys and what not.
and an encrypted place place to store everything that is sensitive.  Like your PGP keys and the address of Silk road.

Easy.  (although you kinda have to know how)
If you need your hand held, or you have a specific question, just send me a pm and I'll see what I can do.
I used a microcd card, and it works perfectly.

I help you, now  give me money!  (jk)  but seriously.
Title: Re: 'Tails' USB drive ... need online backup
Post by: loginathome on July 28, 2011, 05:43 am
I like tails also and found out about it on here. 


There are 2 things I don't like about it though.

One is it's a bitch to have to update my repo list and dowload GPA everytime I boot into but I'm sure there is a way to download it as an installable package on the second usb device (yeah I prefer 1 just for the OS and the other for my private keys and public keys, I don't know if it helps but I never bring any files onto either of the devices from anywhere except tails.)

I wish it were like Puppy where you could choose ahead of time what additional packages you wanted bundled with the downloadable ISO.  Then you download the live distro and it already has the shit you want.

The other thing I don't like and worries me is the very first time I booted into Tails It did not recognize my mouse.  It did recognize the keyboard though.

I waited or everything to load and then rebooted and my mouse worked and it has worked ever since what has changed from the first time I booted into it and the second time I booted into it?

I think I'm going to power down at some point today and remove my hard drive and memory for a little while and search for another stick of ram to put in after waiting a bit.  If I boot up and it does the same thing it did the very first time, not find the mouse I'm going to get a little worried.

Has anyone noticed this?  How hard would it be for a manufacterer to stick a solid state storage device on the motherboard without the public finding out about it?

You can download GPA to a custom location and copy that folder to either storage partition.  And now you have GPA permanently on the tails folder.

Also it'd be impossible for someone to put a ssd on a device without anyone knowing.  How would it know what to store? how would the manufacturer get the info off the device?
It would present some kind of interface to the OS, which would be a huge red flag.  It would  also be visible on the device.  Your just paranoid.
Title: Re: 'Tails' USB drive ... need online backup
Post by: MarketMaker on July 29, 2011, 09:58 pm
@dudeabove me.

Yeah I use unetbootin, that's sort of the only way I put live images on USB keys.

As far as being paranoid after reading a few documents it turns out there is, I didn't find any reference to what can be stored there but apparently the CMOS on newer computers (last 5 years I think it said) have the memory stored on the motherboard.

GPA is great , keyloggers that write info are not. 

Quote
How would it know what to store?

the same way it knows the date, bios admin password, device boot sequence, etc because you or something inputs it.





Title: Re: 'Tails' USB drive ... need online backup
Post by: loginathome on July 30, 2011, 12:50 am
Right.  it knows those things because it has direct access to it.  It cannot possibly have enough room to store every single key press, that would make it useless as a keylogger.  also there are no 'good' ways to get that info off of the device.  If it is going through the network, someone would have detected it.

Lets say you think it is copying the data off the USB drive of hard drive directly, then it would have to have the drivers for pretty much every filesystem type, as well as almost every single metafile type.  It would have no way of communicating through the network.

It's just not possible without embedding another computer within your computer.   WIth an alternate way of communicating with a remote server so that it knows what to go after...
It just reeks of paranoia to me...  It's far too complex to exist without someone noticing it.
Title: Re: 'Tails' USB drive ... need online backup
Post by: RedRocket on July 30, 2011, 02:29 am
millions(well lots) of computer crime court cases are happening every single day around the world,if it was true,it would have to be court admissible evidence,which we definitely would have known by now...hmm....maybe the removing hard drive thing is just paranoia after all....oh well...its a healthy habit