Want to Access the Site without Big Brother Knowing? Read How

[Lilburner]

I've met dozens of people who would like to, but don't participate in prepping, preparedness, homesteading, etc. types of sites because they don't want the government to know what they're up to. I'm not one of those people, but it's actually possible to participate without leaving a trace

Yes it's free. AND it's super powerful. It was developed for the US Navy and it's currently keeping a whole lot of Russian bloggers out of prison. Journalists use it to hide their location and protect their sources.

The first of two parts of what you need to get started is an anonymous browser. There may be others, but the defacto standard is Tor. Here's an excellent introduction.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/a-beginners-guide-to-tor-how-to-navigate-through-the-underground-internet/

And here's where you get it for Windows, Mac, or *Nix https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en

"But I don't even want them to know I downloaded a powerful tool of freedom". Get it off McDonald's or Starbucks Wifi, or if your tinfoil hat is very tight, just download it on someone else's machine - library, friend, work, etc., and put it on a thumb drive.

Here's what a Tor Browser looks like to the world as it's connected to this site as of this writing.



You can consantly shift and change, too - note the "New Tor Circuit" button - so you could get  different IP route for every page if you were so inclined.

The second part is a WORKING email address separate from the one(s) you use for day to day. Some uf us have pretty much unlimited mail addresses, but some people don't even understand you can have all you want.

Get yourself a (or a dozen) working email address from any of a number of sites where you can both get the address for free and actually read the mail for free.

Here's a recent list of 10 to choose from. I like having multiple GMail accounts and going back and forth between the logins on my browser, but if you want to keep it simple, you could check out the others.

http://email.about.com/od/freeemailreviews/tp/free_email.htm

Hope that helps!

Leave your questions and comments below.

[Nemo]

If you need to read this post to learn, the govt already has every bit of info on you and are tracking you nearly live and in person.

Nemo

[ProGeek]

TOR is know to be infiltrated by the NSA and FBI. It's not secure. You need an encrypted VPN to remain secure. Preferably one not based in the USA that is subject to National Security Letters. Gmail requires a real phone number to create an account, Yahoo does not. Your IP address is saved by Google and other email providers when you create and read your email. So only create it and use it when you are logged into your VPN.  Disable as many programs as you can before you log into the VPN. Many apps "phone home", that is to say they contact their home server for updates and they send your IP address and account/registration info. One example if Norton AV or other AV programs. Others are Skype, OneDrive, Microsoft Office, etc.  When you are connected to the VPN never check your real email, Facebook, or log into anything that is connected to your real identity. Otherwise you might as well not use a VPN or TOR. So shutdown everything, clean your browser cache, disable AV updates, login to the VPN through a country like Germany, read this website, logout of the VPN, clean your browser cache and temp folder, then enable AV updates.  It's can be a pain, but it limits your exposure and traceability to anyone that is collecting data.

[ProGeek]

If you need to read this post to learn, the govt already has every bit of info on you and are tracking you nearly live and in person.

Nemo, it's never too late to start limiting your exposure to tracking.

[Lilburner]

Sounds interesting. Let me clarify, though - and I'm asking because I really don't know.

All of these governments who have tried to crack it unsuccessfully, keeping reporters, bloggers, etc. safe - that's because they don't have a back door, but our own NSA does? Just want to make sure that I'm understanding that it's not so much "easily crackable" as "already compromised".

Sounds like good ideas about VPN. Any advice for people who want to get started?

I'm not an authority or even devotee on the upper reaches of privacy security. I'm happy just to keep people out of my own network. I treat every byte that leaves the machine as already public knowledge. Kind of anomaly. Maybe I'm the most secure of all!

No offense to those who do, and I'll even support people's feelings as someone deeply involved in the internet communications of the preparedness community (ie by starting this post), but I'm just not worried about my activities. I just don't picture myself being first on the list when they start breaking down doors over who hit up the peanut butter sale twice. I just figure I'm far enough down the list if they do start breaking down doors, by the time they get to me, there won't be anything behind mine.

Frankly I'd be more afraid of facial recognition at a Tea Party rally than to talk about canning, camping, first aid, and even an above average enthusiasm for shooting sports on the internet. That's just me, though. Like I said - I'll actively support the people who feel differently. I'd rather have them here participating in a way they feel "safe" than not participating at all.

[Lilburner]

I should clarify.

I do believe in OPSEC of course and practice it.

If you google anything you see about me here, you'd think I was just dropped in from outer space to be a prepper - nothing matches to business and family - not emails, ids, etc. You can find out my real name from my call sign, but that's about it, and my call is OPSECed in its own way. Also notice that while I share it here, it's not in a searchable plain text format.

People doing business with me don't use a "giantprepper" email prefix - the twitter and Pinterest I link to are dedicated, etc.

I'm just not too worried about the NSA descending on me over rice, beans, and peanut butter.

[ProGeek]

These articles suggest that the NSA has cracked the TOR network.

http://thehackernews.com/2013/09/NSA-can-crack-TOR-Encryptio-Snowden-files-.html

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/tor-encryption-cracked-nsa,news-17530.html

[Lilburner]

OK - like I said, I wasn't being argumentative - I really don't know.

And I really would like for you to do something on VPN to help people get started. I'm not qualified.

[ProGeek]

Here is a list of VPNs.  I have no recommendation other than one that is not based in the USA.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2403388,00.asp

https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-that-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2013-edition/

Also, NEVER sign up for "private" email services.  Many are hosted by 3 letter government agencies.  What a racket, you want privacy and you end up using the NSA as your email service.

If you want to encrypt emails you can use PGP that uses public/private keys. http://www.pgpi.org/ or you can create text files and use WinZip http://www.winzip.com to create ZIPX files with AES 256 encryption that you give a strong password then email.  Hushmail may be a viable option http://openpgp.org/members/hush.shtml but I have not checked it out.

For your phone there are encrypted text and voice apps like RedPhone and TextSecure by https://whispersystems.org/ are good.  Again not an endorsement.

[Lilburner]

I read the Tor articles - fortunately it looks like something from a couple years ago saying that they'd cracked 4.3, but 4.4 was already out.

It's definitely a game of leapfrog. You have to stay ahead of the curve.

Before I saw the dates on the articles, I went to check my Tor and it just happened to want an upgrade. I think they do a pretty good job of telling you when it's time to upgrade.



That was wanting to upgrade from 4.53 to 5

I'll reiterate again though, that I'm no authority. I treat every byte that goes into the wire as if it's public anyway. My thing is I just don't care. Any time you read one of those "prepper busted" articles, you get about halfway in and go "well duh". It's never JUST about prepping in the preparedness sense.

[ProGeek]

TOR has its problems. HTTPS has been cracked. Here are some sites that point out the problems and how TOR can be hacked. I'm not sure Private VPNs and AES-256 encryption are secure enough to keep out the NSA.  Given enough time and hardware anything can be cracked.  It's just a matter of who's doing it and how bad they want the information.

http://www.g-loaded.eu/2011/04/02/how-secure-is-the-tor-network-for-everyday-internet-browsing/

http://blog.erratasec.com/2013/08/anonymity-smackdown-nsa-vs-tor.html

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/how-the-nsa-or-anyone-else-can-crack-tors-anonymity

[ProGeek]

Let me be clear. TOR is not bad. I just think the security is questionable. Most people need to focus on the below items first.

1. Use quality antivirus software that is kept up to date several times a day. You get what you pay for. Free AV or Microsoft Defender are not enough. Set it up to do a full systems scan every day/night.

2. Used long passwords that include numbers and symbols. Use different passwords for computer login and websites.  Use different passwords for banking, Amazon, and any other site you purchase anything from and use a credit card not your ATM.  Norton 360 has a password vault that helps with this.

3. Keep Windows up to date. Install those updates!

4. Erase the browser cookies, history, and clear the cache regularly. Apps like ccleaner do this.

5. Backup your computer to an external USB drive. Encrypted would be best.

6. Stop posting what you are doing and thinking on Facebook and Twitter.

7. Don't click on web links you get in emails that are unexpected. It doesn't matter who you think it's from.

[Wabbit]

This thread hasn't been near the top lately & I thought it was time for a brief OPSEC review so I read through it all again.
(1)  Assume that SEPREP - APN & all other prepping, veteran, gun/ammo, patriotic & political site have at least 1 embedded spy-infiltrator that uses human intel who monitors it. 
(2)  Know that web-crawlers are scanning EVERYTHING on every single website you visit for buzz words/group of words & storing flagged content by using algorithyms (sp?)
Don't believe me? Look at the bottom of the forum page.  Spider=webcrawler ... webcrawler=big brother.
(3) This site is fully monitored but if the human spy or spies are too busy, they might miss something but giggle analytics will not.  Notice the typo on "goo gal"   Robots are pretty stupid about some things such as typos.  When analyzing emails, they usually only scan then first 4 lines & not PDF attachments.
(4) Every person in USA has a profile at a fusion center. (don't believe me? - Duckduckgo it. NEVER Gooo gle anything except non-important stuff)   That fusion profile knows everything about every one of us including every website you visit & what you did there.  With  smart TVs, your pro.file also has what TV shows you watch, purchases you make with credit cards are saved easily traced.
(5) Want to confuse your big brother?  Only use debit /ciredit card for emergencies & not gas or prep purchases. Fe MA can confiscate your preps in TEOTWAWKI situation.  OPSEC on every post.  Also, when filling out forms, change your name address & phone every different site.  Stop online purchasing .
(6) talking about SHTF plans? Leave phone in car, use pen & paper, Never on phone or minimal details.

[ProGeek]

Encryption is your friend and use strong passwords for websites!

Again, VPNs encrypt your connection from your computer to there servers, so anyone logging your activity only sees an encrypted stream.

Best VPN Services for 2015
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2403388,00.asp

Best FREE VPN Services for 2015
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2390381,00.asp

[bountyhunter]

If you are not on a govt list by now...you should be ashamed of yourself. If you are a veteran you are already at the top of the list. Not to mention a DL, bank account, SSN, property taxes and the list goes on. Limit your electronic footprint is wise maybe but why live in fear?