Manual CryptoParty Handbook

the CryptoParty handbook
Version: 2015-07-14
2
Contents
1 Introducing Cryptoparty 13
1.1 About This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.2 A CryptoParty Manifesto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.3 How To CryptoParty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.4 Party like it’s december 31st 1983 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.4.1 What is CryptoParty? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.5 Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
1.6 Why Privacy Matters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2 Understanding Email 23
2.1 Basic Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.1.1 In brief: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.1.2 Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.1.3 Reading Email in Public Places . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.1.4 Cache Cunning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.1.5 Securing your communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.1.6 DNSSEC & DANE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.1.7 Account Separation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.1.8 A note about hosted email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.2 Types of Email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.2.1 Remotely hosted email (‘webmail’), resourced using a web browser 26
2.2.2 Remotely hosted email, resourced using an email program or using
a web browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.2.3 Context considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.2.4 Email & Metadata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.2.5 Self-administered email server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.2.6 ‘Free’ email services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.2.7 Non-profit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.2.8 Notes on email forwarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.3 Fears . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.3.1 Random abuse and theft by malicious hackers . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.3.2 Targeted abuse, harassment, and spying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.3.3 When Encryption Goes Wrong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.4 Secure Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
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Contents
2.4.1 Can other people read along when I check my email? . . . . . . . 32

2.4.2 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.5 Secure Emails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.5.1 What software can I use to encrypt my email? . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3 Understanding Browsing 35
3.1 Basic Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.1.1 In Brief: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.1.2 Your browser talks about you behind your back . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.1.3 Web sites can track you as you browse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.1.4 Searching online can give away information about you . . . . . . 36
3.1.5 More eyes than you can see . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.1.6 Your right to be unknown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.2 Fears . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.2.1 Social Networking - what are the dangers? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.2.2 Who can steal my identity? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.2.3 Can I get in trouble for Googling weird stuff? . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.2.4 Who is keeping a record of my browsing and am I allowed to hide
from them? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.2.5 How to not reveal my Identity? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.2.6 How to avoid being tracked? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.3 What happens when you browse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.3.1 A topography of you: footprints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.4 Accounts and Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.4.1 Can malicious web sites take over my accounts? . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.5 Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.5.1 How do they track us? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.5.2 How can I prevent tracking? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.5.3 A word of warning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.6 Anonymity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.6.1 Intro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.6.2 Proxy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.6.3 Tor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.7 VPN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
4 Publishing And Distribution 57

4.1 Publishing Anonymously . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.1.1 Several Don’ts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
4.2 Anonymous Email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.2.1 Sending From Throw-away Email Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.2.2 Be Careful about what you say! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
4.3 File Sharing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
4.3.1 BitTorrent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.3.2 SoulSeek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
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4.3.3 I2P . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
5 Secure Calls And Sms 65

5.1 Secure Calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.1.1 iOS - Installing Signal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.1.2 Android - Installing RedPhone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.2 Secure Messaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
5.2.1 Android . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
6 Basic Email Security 67

6.1 Start Using Thunderbird . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
6.1.1 Installing Thunderbird on Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
6.1.2 Installing Thunderbird on Ubuntu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
6.1.3 Installing Thunderbird on Ubuntu 12.04 or newer . . . . . . . . . 72
6.1.4 Installing Thunderbird on Mac OS X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
6.1.5 Starting Thunderbird for the first time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
6.2 Setting up secure connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
6.2.1 Configuration requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
6.2.2 Preparing a Gmail account for use with Thunderbird . . . . . . . 77
6.2.3 Configuring Thunderbird to use SSL/TLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
6.2.4 Manual setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
6.2.5 Finishing the setup, different encryption methods . . . . . . . . . 82
6.2.6 Returning to the configuration screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
6.3 Some Additional Security Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
6.3.1 Junk mail settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
6.3.2 Scam detection and warning system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
6.3.3 Anti-virus integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
6.3.4 Set a master password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
6.3.5 Adaptive junk mail controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
7 Email Encryption 93
7.1 Introducing mail encryption (PGP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
7.1.1 Using a key-pair to encrypt your mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
7.1.2 Sending encrypted mails to other people: you need their public key 94
7.1.3 Receiving encrypted mails from other people: they need my pub-
lic key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
7.1.4 Conclusion: encryption requires public key distribution! . . . . . 94
7.2 Installing PGP on Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
7.2.1 Installing PGP (GPG) on Microsoft Windows . . . . . . . . . . . 95
7.2.2 Installing with the Enigmail extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
7.2.3 Installation steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
7.3 Installing PGP on OSX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
7.3.1 Getting started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
7.3.2 Downloading and installing the Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
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7.3.3 Installing up Engimail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

7.4 Installing PGP on Ubuntu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
7.5 Installing GPG on Android . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
7.5.1 APG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
7.5.2 GPG enabled e-mail on Android: K-9 Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
7.6 Creating your PGP keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
7.7 Daily PGP usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
7.7.1 Encrypting attachments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
7.7.2 Entering your pass-phrase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
7.7.3 Receiving encrypted e-mails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
7.7.4 Sending and receiving public keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
7.7.5 Receiving public keys and adding them to your keyring . . . . . . 125
7.7.6 Using public key servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
7.7.7 Signing emails to an individual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
7.7.8 Sending encrypted mails to an individual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
7.7.9 Automating encryption to certain recipients . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
7.7.10 Verifying incoming e-mails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
7.7.11 Revoking your GPG key-pair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
7.7.12 What to do when you have lost your secret key, or forgot your
passphrase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
7.7.13 What to do when your secret key has been stolen, or compromised142
7.7.14 Receiving a revocation certificate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
7.7.15 Preparing for the worst: backup your keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
7.7.16 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
7.8 Webmail and PGP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
8 Safer Browsing 147

8.1 Why Firefox? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
8.2 Accessing Firefox on Ubuntu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
8.3 Installing on Mac OS X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
8.4 Installing Firefox on Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
8.4.1 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
8.5 Extending Firefox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
8.5.1 HTTPS Everywhere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
8.5.2 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
8.5.3 Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
8.5.4 Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
8.5.5 If networks block HTTPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
8.5.6 Adding support for additional sites in HTTPS Everywhere . . . . 163
8.5.7 Enforcing secure HTTPS server connections . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
8.5.8 Adblock Plus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
8.5.9 Getting started with Adblock Plus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
8.5.10 Choosing a filter subscription . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
8.5.11 Creating personalized filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
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Contents
8.5.12 Enabling and disabling AdBlock Plus for specific elements or Web
sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
8.5.13 Other extensions that can improve your security . . . . . . . . . . 166
8.6 Proxy Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
8.6.1 Default Firefox proxy configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
8.7 Using Tor? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
8.7.1 Using Tor Browser Bundle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
8.7.2 Downloading Tor Browser Bundle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
8.7.3 Running a Relay or Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
8.8 Extending Google Chrome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
8.8.1 Disabling Instant Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
8.8.2 AdBlock for Chrome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
8.8.3 HTTPS Everywhere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
8.8.4 PrivacyFix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
9 Passwords 173
9.1 Keeping passwords safe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
9.1.1 Password length and complexity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
9.1.2 Easy to remember and secure passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
9.1.3 Minimizing damage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
9.1.4 Using a password manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
9.1.5 Physical protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
9.1.6 Other caveats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
9.2 Installing KeePass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
9.2.1 Installing KeePassX on Ubuntu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
9.2.2 Installing KeePass on Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
9.2.3 Installing KeePass on Mac OS X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
9.3 Encrypting Passwords with a Password Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
9.3.1 Encrypting Passwords with KeePassX on Ubuntu . . . . . . . . . 189
9.3.2 Encrypting Passwords with KeePass on Windows . . . . . . . . . 195
9.3.3 Encrypting Passwords with Keychain on Mac OSX . . . . . . . . 201
10 Using Vpn 205

10.1 Getting, setting-up and testing a VPN account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
10.1.1 An account from a commercial VPN provider . . . . . . . . . . . 205
10.1.2 Setting up OpenVPN client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
10.1.3 Caveats & Gotchas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
10.2 VPN on Ubuntu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
10.2.1 Preparing Network Manager for VPN networks . . . . . . . . . . 208
10.2.2 Configuring an OpenVPN network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
10.2.3 Using your new VPN connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
10.3 VPN on MacOSX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
10.3.1 Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
10.4 VPN on Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
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Contents
10.4.1 Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

10.5 Making Sure Your VPN Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
11 Disk Encryption 249

11.1 Installing TrueCrypt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
11.1.1 Installing on Ubuntu/Debian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
11.1.2 Installing on OSX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
11.1.3 Installing on Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
11.2 Using TrueCrypt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
11.2.1 Creating a TrueCrypt Container . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
11.2.2 Mounting the Encrypted Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
11.2.3 What does this mean? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
11.2.4 Remember to dismount! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
11.3 Setting up a hidden volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
11.4 Securely destroying data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
11.4.1 A note on Solid State Hard Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
11.4.2 Securely delete data under Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
11.4.3 Securely delete data under MacOSX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
11.4.4 Securely delete data under Ubuntu/Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
11.5 About LUKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
11.5.1 Starting Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
11.5.2 Encrypting a device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
11.5.3 Using an encrypted device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
12 Call Encryption 293

12.1 Installing CSipSimple . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
12.1.1 Introducing The OSTN Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
12.1.2 CSipSimple . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
13 Instant Messaging Encryption 299

13.1 Setting up Encrypted Instant Messaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
13.1.1 Android - Installing Gibberbot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
13.1.2 iOS - Installing ChatSecure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
13.1.3 Ubuntu - Installing Pidgin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
13.1.4 OS X - Installing Adium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
13.1.5 Windows - Installing Pidgin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
13.1.6 All OS - crypto.cat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
13.1.7 Chat Log Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
14 Secure File Sharing 303

14.1 Installing I2P on Ubuntu Lucid Lynx (and newer) and derivatives like
Linux Mint & Trisquel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
14.2 Instructions for Debian Lenny and newer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
14.3 Starting I2P . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
8
Contents
14.4 Anonymous Bittorrent with I2PSnark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
15 Appendices 309
15.1 Cryptography and Encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
15.1.1 Encryption examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
15.1.2 A Warning! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
15.1.3 Historical ciphers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
15.1.4 Modern ciphers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
15.1.5 Quantum Cryptography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
15.1.6 Challenges & Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
15.2 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
15.2.1 aggregator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
15.2.2 anonymity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
15.2.3 anonymous remailer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
15.2.4 ASP (application service provider) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
15.2.5 backbone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
15.2.6 badware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
15.2.7 bandwidth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
15.2.8 bash (Bourne-again shell) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
15.2.9 BitTorrent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
15.2.10 blacklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
15.2.11 bluebar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
15.2.12 block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
15.2.13 bookmark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
15.2.14 bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
15.2.15 brute-force attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
15.2.16 cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
15.2.17 censor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
15.2.18 censorware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
15.2.19 CGI (Common Gateway Interface) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
15.2.20 chat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
15.2.21 cipher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
15.2.22 circumvention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
15.2.23 Common Gateway Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
15.2.24 command-line interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
15.2.25 cookie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
15.2.26 country code top-level domain (ccTLD) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
15.2.27 cryptography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
15.2.28 DARPA (Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency) . . . . . . 319
15.2.29 decryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
15.2.30 disk encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
15.2.31 domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
15.2.32 DNS (Domain Name System) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
15.2.33 DNS leak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
9
Contents
15.2.34 DNS server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

15.2.35 DNS tunnel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
15.2.36 Eavesdropping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
15.2.37 e-mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
15.2.38 embedded script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
15.2.39 encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
15.2.40 exit node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
15.2.41 file sharing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
15.2.42 file spreading engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
15.2.43 filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
15.2.44 Firefox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
15.2.45 forum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
15.2.46 frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
15.2.47 FTP (File Transfer Protocol) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
15.2.48 full disk encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
15.2.49 gateway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
15.2.50 GNU Privacy Guard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
15.2.51 GPG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
15.2.52 honeypot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
15.2.53 hop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
15.2.54 HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
15.2.55 HTTPS (Secure HTTP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
15.2.56 IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) . . . . . . . . . . . 323
15.2.57 ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) 323
15.2.58 Instant Messaging (IM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
15.2.59 Intermediary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
15.2.60 Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
15.2.61 IP (Internet Protocol) Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
15.2.62 IRC (Internet relay chat) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
15.2.63 ISP (Internet Service Provider) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
15.2.64 JavaScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
15.2.65 KeePass, KeePassX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
15.2.66 keychain software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
15.2.67 keyword filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
15.2.68 latency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
15.2.69 log file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
15.2.70 low-bandwidth filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
15.2.71 malware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
15.2.72 man in the middle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
15.2.73 middleman node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
15.2.74 monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
15.2.75 network address translation (NAT) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
15.2.76 network operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
15.2.77 node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
10
Contents
15.2.78 non-exit node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

15.2.79 obfuscation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
15.2.80 open node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
15.2.81 OTR/Off-the-Record messaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
15.2.82 packet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
15.2.83 password manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
15.2.84 pastebin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
15.2.85 peer-to-peer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
15.2.86 perfect forward secrecy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
15.2.87 Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
15.2.88 PHP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
15.2.89 plain text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
15.2.90 plaintext . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
15.2.91 privacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
15.2.92 private key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
15.2.93 POP3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
15.2.94 port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
15.2.95 protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
15.2.96 proxy server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
15.2.97 Psiphon node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
15.2.98 private node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
15.2.99 public key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
15.2.100 public key encryption/public-key cryptography . . . . . . . . . . 329
15.2.101 publicly routable IP address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
15.2.102 regular expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
15.2.103 remailer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
15.2.104 router . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
15.2.105 root name server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
15.2.106 RSS (Real Simple Syndication) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
15.2.107 scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
15.2.108 shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
15.2.109 SOCKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
15.2.110 screenlogger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
15.2.111 script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
15.2.112 smartphone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
15.2.113 spam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
15.2.114 SSH (Secure Shell) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
15.2.115 SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
15.2.116 steganography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
15.2.117 subdomain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
15.2.118 threat analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
15.2.119 Top-Level Domain (TLD) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
15.2.120 TLS (Transport Layer Security) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
15.2.121 TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol over Internet Protocol) . 332
11
Contents
15.2.122 Tor bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

15.2.123 traffic analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
15.2.124 tunnel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
15.2.125 UDP (User Datagram Packet) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
15.2.126 URL (Uniform Resource Locator) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
15.2.127 Usenet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
15.2.128 VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
15.2.129 VPN (virtual private network) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
15.2.130 whitelist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
15.2.131 World Wide Web (WWW) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
15.2.132 Webmail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
15.2.133 Web proxy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
15.2.134 WHOIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
15.3 The necessity of Open Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
12
1 Introducing Cryptoparty
1.1 About This Book

The CryptoParty Handbook was born from a suggestion by Marta Peirano (http:
//petitemedia.es) and Adam Hyde (http://booksprints.net) after the first Berlin
CryptoParty, held on the 29th of August, 2012. Julian Oliver (http://julianoliver.
com) and Danja Vasiliev (http://k0a1a.net), co-organisers of the Berlin CryptoParty
along with Marta were very enthusiastic about the idea, seeing a need for a practical
working book with a low entry-barrier to use in subsequent parties. Asher Wolf, origi-
nator of the CryptoParty movement, was then invited to run along and the project was
born.
This book was written in the first 3 days of October 2012 at Studio Weise7, Berlin,
surrounded by fine food and a small ocean of coffee. Approximately 20 people were
involved in its creation, some more than others, some local and some far.
The writing methodology used, BookSprint (http://booksprints.net), is all about
minimising any obstruction between expertise and the published page. Face-to-face dis-
cussion and dynamic task-assignment were a huge part of getting the job done, like any
good CryptoParty!
The open source, web-based (HTML5 and CSS) writing platform BookType (http:
//booktype.pro) was chosen for the editing task, helping such a tentacular feat of parallel
development to happen with relative ease. Asher also opened a couple of TitanPad pages
to crowd-source the Manifesto and HowTo CryptoParty chapters.
Combined, this became the official CryptoParty Handbook by midnight October the
3rd, GMT+1.
The Book Sprint was 3 days in length and the full list of onsite participants included:
• Adam Hyde (facilitator)

• Marta Peirano
• Julian Oliver
• Danja Vasiliev
• Asher Wolf (http://cryptoparty.org)
• Jan Gerber
• Malte Dik
• Brian Newbold
• Brendan Howell (http://wintermute.org
• AT
• Carola Hesse
13
• Chris Pinchen (http://chokepointproject.net).

• Cover art by Emile Denichaud (http://about.me/denichaud)
This version of the handbook has since moved to github to collaboratively edit it.
Find it at https://github.com/cryptoparty/handbook. If you see areas that need
improvement or simply come across a typo, create a github account and start editing,
commenting or creating issues. For help using git and github, see https://help.github.
com/.
CryptoParty HandBook Credits
Facilitated by:
• Adam Hyde
Core Team:
• Marta Peirano
• Asher Wolf
• Julian Oliver
• Danja Vasiliev
• Malte Dik
• Jan Gerber
• Brian Newbold
• Brendan Howell
Assisted by:
• Teresa Dillon
• AT
• Carola Hesse
• Chris Pinchen
• ‘LiamO’
• ‘l3lackEyedAngels’
• ‘Story89’
• Travis Tueffel
Github migration, packaging and maintenance by:
• Yuval Adam
• Samuel Carlisle
• Daniel Kinsman
• pettter
• Jens Kubieziel
• Uwe Lippmann
• Kai Engert
14
1.2 A CryptoParty Manifesto
Cover Image by Emile Denichaud.

Other material included:
• https://www.flossmanuals.net/bypassing-censorship
The manuals used in the second half of this book borrow from 2 books sprinted by
FLOSS Manuals:
• “How to Bypass Internet Censorship” 2008 & 2010 Adam Hyde (Facilitator), Al-
ice Miller, Edward Cherlin, Freerk Ohling, Janet Swisher, Niels Elgaard Larsen,
Sam Tennyson, Seth Schoen, Tomas Krag, Tom Boyle, Nart Villeneuve, Ronald
Deibert, Zorrino Zorrinno, Austin Martin, Ben Weissmann, Ariel Viera, Niels El-
gaard Larsen, Steven Murdoch, Ross Anderson, helen varley jamieson, Roberto
Rastapopoulos, Karen Reilly, Erinn Clark, Samuel L. Tennyson, A Ravi
• “Basic Internet Security” 2011 Adam Hyde (Facilitator), Jan Gerber, Dan Hassan,
Erik Stein, Sacha van Geffen, Mart van Santen, Lonneke van der Velden, Emile
den Tex and Douwe Schmidt
All content in the CryptoParty Handbook is licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0).
All chapters Âľ the contributors unless otherwise noted below.
1.2 A CryptoParty Manifesto

“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a
mask, and he will tell you the truth.” - Oscar Wilde
In 1996, John Perry Barlow, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF),
wrote ‘A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace’. It includes the following
passage:
Cyberspace consists of transactions, relationships, and thought itself, arrayed

like a standing wave in the web of our communications. Ours is a world that
is both everywhere and nowhere, but it is not where bodies live.
We are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice
accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth.
We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her
beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or
conformity.
15
Sixteen years later, and the Internet has changed the way we live our lives. It has
given us the combined knowledge of humankind at our fingertips. We can form new
relationships and share our thoughts and lives with friends worldwide. We can organise,
communicate and collaborate in ways never thought possible. This is the world we want
to hand down to our children, a world with a free Internet.
Unfortunately, not all of John Perry Barlow’s vision has come to pass. Without access
to online anonymity, we can not be free from privilege or prejudice. Without privacy,
free expression is not possible.
The problems we face in the 21st Century require all of humanity to work together. The
issues we face are serious: climate change, energy crises, state censorship, mass surveil-
lance and on-going wars. We must be free to communicate and associate without fear.
We need to support free and open source projects which aim to increase the commons’
knowledge of technologies that we depend on http://opensourceecology.org/wiki
Contribute!
To realise our right to privacy and anonymity online, we need peer-reviewed, crowd-
sourced solutions. CryptoParties provide the opportunity to meet up and learn how to
use these solutions to give us all the means with which to assert our right to privacy and
anonymity online.
1. We are all users, we fight for the user and we strive to empower the user. We assert
user requests are why computers exist. We trust in the collective wisdom of human
beings, not software vendors, corporations or governments. We refuse the shackles
of digital gulags, lorded over by vassal interests of governments and corporations.
We are the CypherPunk Revolutionaries.
2. The right to personal anonymity, pseudonymity and privacy is a basic human right.
These rights include life, liberty, dignity, security, right to a family, and the right
to live without fear or intimidation. No government, organisation or individual
should prevent people from accessing the technology which underscores these basic
human rights.
3. Privacy is the right of the individual. Transparency is a requirement of governments

and corporations who act in the name of the people.
4. The individual alone owns the right to their identity. Only the individual may
choose what they share. Coercive attempts to gain access to personal information
without explicit consent is a breach of human rights.
5. All people are entitled to cryptography and the human rights crypto tools afford,
regardless of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national
or social origin, property, birth, political, jurisdictional or international status of
the country or territory in which a person resides.
6. Just as governments should exist only to serve their citizens - so too, cryptography
should belong to the people.Technology should not be locked away from the people.
16
1.3 How To CryptoParty
7. Surveillance cannot be separated from censorship, and the slavery it entails. No

machine shall be held in servitude to surveillance and censorship. Crypto is a key
to our collective freedom.
8. Code is speech: code is human created language. To ban, censor or lock cryptog-
raphy away from the people is to deprive human beings from a human right, the
freedom of speech.
9. Those who would seek to stop the spread of cryptography are akin to the 15th cen-
tury clergy seeking to ban the printing press, afraid their monopoly on knowledge
will be undermined.

• Throw a party. All you need is a time, a date and a location. Add it to the wiki:
https://cryptoparty.org.
• Make sure you have Internet connectivity and enough power sources for all devices.
If you do not have a place to hold a CryptoParty, find a pub or park where you
can meet and squeeze the public bandwidth. That will really hone your skills!
• Bring USB sticks and printed handouts for those who need them, and set up old
computers for people to fiddle with and try out new skills.
• Talk about Linux to everyone you meet at your CryptoParty. If you are new to
CryptoParties - ask someone “what is Linux?” ASAP.
• Make entry free for all if possible - CryptoParties are not-for-profit, not commer-
cially aligned and especially important for those without other resources.
• Teach basic cryptographic tools to the masses. Crowd-source the best crypto. We
suggest PGP, OTR, and Tor as the first tools to install.
• Invite experts and non-experts from all fields. Everyone is an expert on something.
• If you want CryptoParty to do something, start doing it. Organise organically and
chaotically. Have no clear leadership. Urge people to take on a sudo leadership role
- take a tutorial, fix the wifi, update the wiki, or organise the next CryptoParty. If
someone claims others are doing it wrong - invite them to nominate themselves to
do it better.
• Ask for feedback. Assimilate critics - ask them for their help in creating a better
CryptoParty. Do not be scared to troll the trolls back or boot them from your
space. Share feedback on the wiki. Iterate.
• A successful CryptoParty can have as many or as few as two people. Size doesn’t
count, it’s what you do with it that matters. The criterion for success should be
that everyone had fun, learned something and wants to come to the next party.
17
• Think of the CryptoParty movement as a huge Twitter hive ready to swarm at

any moment. Tweet a lot, and make your tweets meaningful. ReTweet other
CryptoPartiers frequently.
• Make sure the way crypto is taught at your party could be understood by a 10 year
old. Then have the 10 year old teach it to an 80 year old. Breach the digital divide
with random acts of awesomeness such as unfettered use of images of kittens in all
CryptoParty literature. Red underpants on heads is only mandatory if you wish to
bid in our spectrum auction.
• Consider hosting private, off-the-radar CryptoParties for activists, journalists and

in individuals working in dangerous locations.
• Don’t scare non-technical people. Don’t teach command lines before people know
where the on-off buttons are located on their laptops. Everyone learns at their own
pace - make sure there is support for those in need of help.
• Doing excellent stuff at CryptoParty does not require permission or an official

consensus decision. If you’re uncertain about the excellence of something you want
to do, you should ask someone else what they think.
• Consider the need for a bouncer, particularly if your CryptoParty expects over 50
people. Dress the bouncer up as a Sumo wrestler. Do not be afraid to bounce
people who breach CryptoParty’s anti-harassment policy.
• CryptoParty is dedicated to providing a harassment-free sharing experience for

everyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance,
body size, heritage, or religion. Behaving like an arsehole may mean you are per-
manently uninvited to CryptoParties events. Harassment includes:
– hurtful or offensive comments
– deliberate intimidation
– direct or indirect threats
– stalking
– following
– inappropriate physical contact
– unwelcome sexual attention.
• Encourage a culture of sharing. Encourage advanced users to help not-so advanced

ones. Delegate.
• Use online meeting platforms like mumble, or even chatrooms (e.g. #cryptoparty
room on http://occupytalk.org/) when physical meetups are not possible or im-
practical.
• Copy from other cryptoparties. Remix, Reuse and Share. Create a basket of old
devices people are willing to donate to more needy CryptoPartiers.
18
• Get the word out! Print posters and/or flyers and distribute them in your neigh-
bourhood, post online versions to social networks and mail them to friends, for
them to distribute the info even further.
• Don’t sell out to sponsors for pizza and beer money. Ask people to try and bring
food and drink to share. Host CryptoPicnics as often as possible. Make friends
with librarians. They wield power over keys to local, public meeting rooms that
may be free of charge to utilize.
• Invite all the people. Bring people together who have a wide range of skills and
interests - musicians, political pundits, activists, hackers, programmers, journalists,
artists and philosophers. Spread the love.
• Invite the graphic designers and illustrators you know to contribute new ways to
help people understand crypto.
• Invite everyone to share their knowledge and their skills. Individuals with little or
no coding, programming, hacking or crypto skills can change cultures by promoting
the idea that privacy is a fundamental right.
• Share music, beers, & chips. Bond together over eclectic music, cheeseballs, in-
stalling GPG, TrueCrypt, OTR and Tor, as well as watching movies together. We
recommend Hackers, The Matrix, Bladerunner, Tron, Wargames, Sneakers, and
The Net.
• Do not work too hard. Take breaks. Eat popcorn together. Create slang, phrases,
memes.
• When people at CryptoParties ask for advice on “hacking the Gibson” refer them
to episodes of ‘My Little Pony’.
• Create fliers and advertise using slogans like: “CryptoParties: If there is hope, it
lies in the proles” and “CryptoParty like it’s 1984.” CryptoParty all the things to
avoid oppression and depression.
• Seed CryptoParties in your local communities - at nursing homes, scout groups,
music festivals, universities, schools. Take CryptoParty to isolated and remote
communities. Make friends in far away places and travel whenever possible. Ask
people in rural farming communities if they’d like to CryptoParty.
• Share shimmering opportunities of crowd-sourced privacy: swap cheap, pre-paid
SIMs, handsets and travel cards.
• Create logos in bright pink and purple, with hearts all over them. Promote Cryp-
toParties to rebellious 13 year old girls. Declare success if rebellious 13 year old
girls demand to attend your parties.
• Become friends with journalists. Invite them to your parties. Teach them crypto.
Do not scare them by discussing Assassination Markets.
19
• Strew CryptoParty sigils across your city in 3am post-party raids. Make lots of
stickers, paste them everywhere.
• Experiment, constantly. Do not be afraid to make mistakes. Encourage people to

tinker. Assume all mistakes are meant to be made. Most people under intel agency
scrutiny have electronic devices already compromised before they walk in the door.
Teach people to install tools from scratch, so they can do it on a new machine,
away from prying eyes.
• Assume intel agencies send representatives to CryptoParties. Acknowledge their

presence at the start of your meeting, ask them to share their crypto skills. Joke
about paranoia as often as possible without instilling panic. Wear tinfoil hats.
• Be excellent to each other and CryptoParty on.
1.4 Party like it’s december 31st 1983

1.4.1 What is CryptoParty?
CryptoParty is a decentralized, global initiative to introduce basic tools for protecting
privacy, anonymity and overall security on the Internet to the general public.
The idea was conceived in the wake of the Australian Cybercrime Legislation Amend-
ment Bill 2011 and the reasoning is that laws like this are without substance when
everybody encrypts their communication.
CryptoParties are neither commercially nor politically aligned, and free and open to
attend for everyone as long as they live the following guiding principles:
Be excellent to each other

CryptoParties are environments where people feel welcome and safe to learn and teach no
matter their background or level of expertise. All questions are relevant, all explanation
shall be targeted at the person with least pre-knowledge.
This also means that any form of harassment or other behaviour that makes people
uncomfortable has no place at CryptoParties. In our experience situations like these (as
seldom as they occur) stem rather from social ineptitude than malice and can thus be
resolved by making people aware of their behaviour and its effect on others, but in last
consequence it is on the organizers of the CryptoParty to ask people to leave if they
don’t adhere to this very simple rule. Be excellent to each other. Awareness is key in
this regard.
Do things
CryptoParties happen because people make them happen. The most amazing and un-
foreseen learning experiences happen because people make them happen. If you are
uncertain if what you have in mind is on topic or if other people are interested as well:
20
1.5 Preface
Propose it anyway and see what other people have to say. If you are too shy to propose
to the whole room: Ask the person standing next to you first.
On a more global scale, there is a mailing list [email protected] which is open
for questions and discussion of all kind, as well as country and city-specific mailing lists
and other resources which can be found on https://cryptoparty.in .
For a guide on how to organize CryptoParties please be referred to the chapter of the
same name.
1.5 Preface
This book is a collective and ongoing effort in that it is based on the two FLOSS Manuals
How to Bypass Internet Censorship and Basic Internet Security and collaboratively edited
on Github although other venues of collaborative editing are investigated.
Its goal is to give a comprehensive resource to people who would like to attend or
organize a CryptoParty but lack the local expertise or just confidence in doing so. All
chapters are designed to be self-contained.
All content in the CryptoParty Handbook is licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0). The authors are listed in Ap-
pendix A: Contributions.
1.6 Why Privacy Matters

Privacy is a fundamental human right. It is recognized in many countries to be as central
to individual human dignity and social values as Freedom of Association and Freedom
of Speech. Simply put, privacy is the border where we draw a line between how far a
society can intrude into our personal lives.
Countries differ in how they define privacy. In the UK for example, privacy laws can
be traced back to the 1300s when the English monarchy created laws protecting people
from eavesdroppers and peeping toms. These regulations referred to the intrusion of a
person’s comfort and not even the King of England could enter into a poor persons house
without their permission. From this perspective, privacy is defined in terms of personal
space and private property. In 1880 American lawyers, Samuel Warren and Louis Bran-
deis described privacy as the ‘right to be left alone’. In this case, privacy is synonymous
with notions of solitude and the right for a private life. In 1948, the Universal Dec-
laration of Human Rights specifically protected territorial and communications privacy
which by that became part of constitutions worldwide. The European Commission on
Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights also noted in 1978 that pri-
vacy encompasses the right to establish relationships with others and develop emotional
well-being.
Today, a further facet of privacy increasingly perceived is the personal data we provide
to organizations, online as well as offline. How our personal data is used and accessed
drives the debate about the laws that govern our behavior and society. This in turn has
knock-on effects on the public services we access and how businesses interact with us. It
21
even has effects on how we define ourselves. If privacy is about the borders which govern
who we give permission to watch us and track aspects of our lives, then the amount and
type of personal information gathered, disseminated and processed is paramount to our
basic civil liberties.
An often heard argument, when questions of privacy and anonymity come up, goes
along the lines of, “I only do boring stuff. Nobody will be interested in it anyway” or, “I
have nothing to hide”. Both of these statements are easily defeated.
Firstly, a lot of companies are very interested in what boring things you do precisely
so they have opportunity to offer “excellent” products fitting interests. In this way their
advertising becomes much more efficient - they are able to tailor specifically to assumed
needs and desires. Secondly you do have lots to hide. Maybe you do not express it in
explicitly stated messages to friends and colleagues, but your browsing - if not protected
by the techniques laid out in this book - will tell a lot about things you might rather
keep secret: the ex-partner you search for using Google, illnesses you research or movies
you watch are just few examples.
Another consideration is that just because you might not have something to hide at
this moment, you may very well in future. Putting together all the tools and skills to
protect yourself from surveillance takes practice, trust and a bit of effort. These are
things you might not be able to achieve and configure right when you need them most
and need not take the form of a spy movie. An obsessed, persistent stalker, for example,
is enough to heavily disrupt your life. The more you follow the suggestions given in this
book, the less impact attacks like this will have on you. Companies may also stalk you
too, finding more and more ways to reach into your daily life as the reach of computer
networking itself deepens.
Finally, a lack of anonymity and privacy does not just affect you, but all the people
around you. If a third party, like your Internet Service Provider, reads your email, it is
also violating the privacy of all the people in your address book. This problem starts
to look even more dramatic when you look at the issues of social networking websites
like Facebook. It is increasingly common to see photos uploaded and tagged without the
knowledge or permission of the people affected.
While we encourage you to be active politically to maintain your right to privacy, we
wrote this book in order to empower people who feel that maintaining privacy on the
Internet is also a personal responsibility. We hope these chapters will help you reach a
point where you can feel that you have some control over how much other people know
about you. Each of us has the right to a private life, a right to explore, browse and
communicate with others as one wishes, without living in fear of prying eyes.
22
2 Understanding Email
2.1 Basic Tips

Just as with other forms of communication on the web, some basic precautions always
ought to be taken to ensure you have the best chance at protecting your privacy.
2.1.1 In brief:
• Passwords shouldn’t relate to personal details and should contain a mix of a rea-
sonable amount of letters and other characters.
• To change passwords regularly is important as they might have been stolen, cracked
or exposed to others in the meantime.
• Always be sure your connection is secure when reading email on a wireless network,
especially in Internet cafes.
• Temporary files (the ‘cache’) on the computer that you use to check your email can
present some risks. Clear them often.
• Create and maintain separate email accounts for different tasks and interests.
• Encrypt any message you wouldn’t feel comfortable sending on a post card.
• Be aware of the risks of having your email hosted by a company or organization.
2.1.2 Passwords
Passwords are a primary point of vulnerability in email communication. Even a secure
password can be read in transit unless the connection is secure (see TLS/SSL in the
glossary). In addition, just because a password is long doesn’t mean it cannot be guessed
by using knowledge of you and your life to determine likely words and numbers.
The general rule for creating passwords is that it should be long (8 characters might
be cracked within few hours) and have a mix of letters and other characters (numbers
and symbols, which means you could just choose a sentence). Combining your birthday
with that of a family name is however a great example of how not to do it. This kind
of information is easy to find using public resources. A popular trick is to base it on a
favourite phrase and then, just to throw people off, sprinkle it with a few numbers. Best
of all is to use a password generator, either on your local system or online.
Often such passwords are difficult to remember and a second point of vulnerabil-
ity is opened up – physical discovery. Since there is no better means of storing a
password than in your own brain, services like OnlinePasswordGenerator (http://www.
onlinepasswordgenerator.com/) offer a great compromise by randomly generating pass-
words that vaguely resemble words and present you with a list to choose from.
23
If you do choose to store your password outside your head, you have the choice to
either write it down or use keychain software. This can be a risky decision, especially if
the email account and password are on the same device like your phone or computer.
Keychain software, like Keepass, consolidates various passwords and passphrases in one
place and makes them accessible through a master password or passphrase. This puts
a lot of pressure on the master password. If you do decide to use a keychain software,
remember to choose a secure password.
Finally, you should use a different password for different accounts. In that way, if one
of them gets hijacked, your other accounts remain safe. Never use the same password for
your work and private email accounts. See section Passwords to learn more about how
to secure yourself.
2.1.3 Reading Email in Public Places

One of the great conveniences of wireless networking and ‘cloud computing’ is the ability
to work anywhere. You may often want to check your email in an Internet cafe, on open
networks or public location. Spies, criminals and mischievous types are known to visit
these locations in order to take advantage of the rich opportunities offered for ID theft,
email snooping and hijacking bank accounts.
Here we find ourselves within an often underestimated risk of someone listening in on
your communications using network packet sniffing. It matters little if the network itself
is open or password secured. If someone joins the same encrypted network, s/he can
easily capture and read all unsecured (see chapter Secure Connection for TLS and
VPN solutions) traffic of all of other users within the same network. A wireless key can
be acquired for the cost of a cup of coffee and gives those that know how to capture and
read network packets the chance to read your password while you check your email if the
connection to that service is not secured.
Here a simple general rule always applies: if the cafe offers a network cable connection,
use it! Finally, just as at a bank machine, make sure no one watches over your shoulder
when you type in the password.
2.1.4 Cache Cunning

Here again convenience quickly paves the road to bad places. Due to the general annoy-
ance of having to type in your password over and over again, you ask the browser or local
mail client to store it for you. This is not bad in itself, but when a notebook or phone
gets stolen, it enables the thief to access the owner’s email account(s). The best practice
is to clear this cache every time you close your browser. All popular browsers have an
option to clear this cache on exit.
One basic precaution can justify you holding onto your convenient cache: disk encryp-
tion. If your notebook is stolen and the thief reboots the machine, they’ll be met with an
encrypted disk. It is also wise to have a screen lock installed on your computer or phone.
If the machine is taken from you while still running your existing browsing session, it
cannot be accessed.
24
2.1 Basic Tips
2.1.5 Securing your communication
Whenever you write and send email in a browser or use an email program (Outlook
Express, Mozilla Thunderbird, Mail.app or Mutt), you should always ensure to use en-
cryption for the entire session. This is easily done due to the popular use of TLS/SSL
(Secure Socket Layer) connections by email servers (See glossary TLS/SSL).
If using a browser to check your email, check to see if the mail server supports SSL
sessions by looking for https:// at the beginning of the URL. If not, be sure to turn
it on in your email account settings, such as Gmail or Hotmail. This ensures that not
just the login part of your email session is encrypted but also the writing and sending of
emails. Furthermore check the cetificate details and take TLS pinning into account and
endorse browser extensions that warn about changing or disfunctional certificates (e.g.
Certificate Patrol ) and make use of TLS secured version of the website the default (e.g.
HTTPS everywhere).
The email service provider you select, should provide you with the mail server details.
These details can often be found in the settings option. If your email service provider
does not offer you a cryptographic protocol (TLS/SSL) to encrypt your data on the
network, then it is advised to stop using it. Even if your emails are not important, you
might find yourself ‘locked out’ of your account one day with a changed password!
When using an email program to check your email, be sure that you are using TLS/SSL
in the program options. For instance in Mozilla Thunderbird the option for securing your
outgoing email is found in Tools -> Account Settings -> Outgoing Server (SMTP)
and for incoming email in Tools -> Account Settings -> Server Settings. This
ensures that the downloading and sending of email is encrypted, making it very difficult
for someone on your network, or on any of the networks between you and the server, to
read or log your email. Encrypting the email itself
Even if the line itself is encrypted using a system such as SSL, the email service provider
still has full access to the email because they own and have full access to the storage
device where you host your email. If you want to use a web service and be sure that
your provider cannot read your messages, then you’ll need to use something like GPG
(Appendix for GnuPG) with which you can encrypt the email. The header of the email
however will still contain the IP (Internet address) that the email was sent from alongside
other compromising details. Worth mentioning here is that the use of GPG in webmail is
not as comfortable as with a locally installed mail client, such as Thunderbird or Outlook
Express.
2.1.6 DNSSEC & DANE
certificate information can be stored in DNS records and therefore be regarded more
relyable. Check the availability of DNSSEC and especially regarding email services
DANE with your service providers. Here again browser extensions (e.g. DNSSEC/TLSA
Validator ) can assist to control the availability of these security measures.
25
2.1.7 Account Separation

Due to the convenience of services like Gmail, it is increasingly typical for people to have
only one email account. This considerably centralises the potential damage done by a
compromised account. More so, there is nothing to stop a disgruntled Google employee
from deleting or stealing your email, let alone Google itself getting hacked. Hacks happen.
A practical strategy is to keep your personal email, well, personal. If you have a
work email then create a new account if your employers haven’t already done it for you.
The same should go for any clubs or organisations you belong to, each with a unique
password. Not only does this improve security, by reducing the risk of whole identity
theft, but greatly reduces the likelihood of spam dominating your daily email.
2.1.8 A note about hosted email

Those that provide you with the service to host, send, download and read email are
not encumbered by the use of TLS/SSL. As hosts, they can read and log your email
in plain text. They can comply with requests by local law enforcement agencies who
wish to access email. They may also study your email for patterns, keywords or signs
of sentiment for or against brands, ideologies or political groups. It is important to
read the EULA (End-user license agreement) of your email service provider and do some
background research on their affiliations and interests before choosing what kind of email
content they have access to. These concerns also apply to the hosts of your messages’
recipients.
2.2 Types of Email

The use of email almost always comes in two forms:
• Email read, written and sent in the browser (webmail via HTTP) and stored on a
providers server, and/or
• Email read, written, sent and stored using an email program, like e.g. Mozilla
Thunderbird, Mail.App or Outlook Express by utilizing protocols like SMTP, POP
and IMAP.
These two models might be mixed in practice, especially by using IMAP. Whilst the
webmail solution is more convinient to use and easier to maintain for end users on different
computers compared to the more powerful solution (less limits on storage, better search
options and direct control over data) based on native applications.
2.2.1 Remotely hosted email (‘webmail’), resourced using a web browser

Email sent using the browser, sometimes referred to as webmail, typically assumes an
account with a remote email host like Google (Gmail), Microsoft (Hotmail) or Yahoo
(Yahoo Mail). The business opportunities opened up by hosting other people’s email
26
2.2 Types of Email
are many: contact with other services offered by the company, brand exposure and most
importantly, mining your plain text email for patterns that can be used to evaluate your
interests – something of great value to the advertising industry (alongside certain Gov-
ernments). For the reason of datamining those companies have no interest in encouraging
their users to use encryption to secure privacy and/or signatures for integrity/authenticity
of communication.
2.2.2 Remotely hosted email, resourced using an email program or using a

web browser
Email sent using an email program like Outlook, Thunderbird, Mail.App aso. can also be
used with a webmail service like Gmail or your company’s email service. In either case,
email may still be downloaded onto your computer but is retained on the email server
(e.g. Gmail). Done this way, accessing email doesn’t require the browser at all, but you
are still using Gmail, Hotmail as a service. The difference between storing email on your
computer with an email program and having it stored remotely on an email server (like
Hotmail, Gmail or your University’s service) on the Internet can appear confusing at
first.
Finally, email can also be sent to an email server but not stored there at all, merely
volleyed onto its’ destination as soon as the email reaches the email forwarding server.
Google and Microsoft do not allow for this sort of setup. Rather this is typically some-
thing your university or company will provide for you. Bear in mind that this comes
with the risk of the email administrator on that system still secretly copying the email
as it reaches and leaves the server.
Generally, using webmail alongside downloading it using an email program is the best
approach. This approach adds redundancy (local backups) alongside the option to delete
all email from the remote server once downloaded. The latter option is ideal for content
sensitive information where the possibility of account hijacking is high but risks total loss
of email should the local machine go missing, without backups. Secondly, when using
an email program, we have the option of using Email Encryption such as the popular
OpenPGP implementation GPG, something not easily set up and used with browser-only
webmail services. In any case, disk encryption on the local machine is highly advisable
(Appendix Disk Encryption).
2.2.3 Context considerations

You may be a server administrator yourself and run your own email service. Or your
email could be stored on your company or bosses’ server. Finally you may be using a
service provided by a corporation, like Google (Gmail) or Microsoft (Hotmail). Each
comes with its own interesting mix of considerations that relates precisely to the basic
fact that unless the email itself is encrypted, the administrator of the email server can
still secretly copy the email the moment it reaches the server. It doesn’t matter that
you may be using TLS/SSL (Appendix SSL) to login and check your email as this only
protects the connection between your local machine and the server.
27
As always, if you know the risks and feel concerned it is wise to listen to them - don’t
send sensitive email using a service you don’t trust. Employer/Organisation
Your employer or an organisation that you are involved with is in a very good position
to take advantage of your trust and read the emails of your business email account that
is stored on their email server, perhaps in an effort to learn about you, your motivations,
agendas and interests. Such cases of employer->employee spying are so typical they do
not bear mention. Your only measure against it is to use an email encryption solution
like GPG (Appendix GPG).
2.2.4 Email & Metadata

The actual content information of mails might be preserved utilizing OpenPGP or S/MIME
but the metadata - the association of persons, addresses, time and used software/services
- is stored by several stakeholders. Government services might store such data as well
as any company involved in transmitting them. In regards of header information Email
remains a risk for communication as long as the accounts used can be connected to
individuals or groups.
2.2.5 Self-administered email server

Generally speaking this is the ideal hosting configuration, but requires a higher level of
technical skill. Here, in general, the risks to privacy are not only in protecting your
own email against attempts at exploit (poor passwords, no SSL) but in that you have
a responsibility, and perhaps a temptation, to read the emails of those you provide a
service for.
2.2.6 ‘Free’ email services

As mentioned above the risks of storing and sending your email using a service provided
by a corporation are rather high if respect of your civil right to privacy is valued. The
companies hosting your love letters, random expressions and diaries are always at risk
of yielding to pressures from political, economic and law enforcement interests of the
country to which they are legally subject. A Malaysian Gmail user, for instance, risks
exposing her interests and intents to a government she did not elect, not to mention
business partners of Google interested in expanding their market reach.
2.2.7 Non-profit
Several non-profit web hosts offer free email accounts to organisations that are themselves
non-profit or philanthropic. Some of them even offer wikis, mailing lists, chats and social
networks. A consideration for organisations working in a political field may be differences
of interests between the state in which the email is hosted and the political interests of
the organisation using that service. Such risks would ideally be reflected in the End User
License Agreement.
28
2.3 Fears
2.2.8 Notes on email forwarding

Email forwarding services provide the great convenience of ‘linking’ one email account
to another as the user sees fit. This of course is most commonly used when an account
holder is on holiday and would like email forwarded from their work account to another
used during travel or otherwise inaccessible outside the workplace. The risk with any
external email forwarding service is the same as with remotely hosted emails through
Gmail for instance: it can be copied and stored. Here email encryption using a system
such as GPG (Appendix GPG) will ensure that if it is copied at least it cannot be read.
2.3 Fears
Who can read the email messages that I have already sent or received?
Who can read the emails I send when they travel across the Internet?
Can the people I send emails to share them with anybody?
Emails that are sent “in the clear” without any encryption (which means the vast
majority of email sent and received today) can be read, logged, and indexed by any
server or router along the path the message travels from sender to receiver. Assuming
you use an encrypted connection (see glossary for TLS/SSL) between your devices and
your email service provider (which everybody should), this means in practice that the
following people can still read any given message:
1. You
2. Your email service provider
3. The operators and owners of any intermediate network connections (often ambigu-
ous multinational conglomerates or even sovereign states)
4. The recipient’s email service provider
5. The intended recipient
Many webmail providers (like Gmail) automatically inspect all of the messages sent
and received by their users for the purpose of showing targeted advertisements. While
this may be a reasonable compromise for some users most of the time (free email!),
it is disturbing for many that even their most private communications are inspected
and indexed as part of a hidden and potentially very insightful profile maintained by a
powerful corporate giant with a profit motive.
Additionally, somebody who can legally pressure the groups above could request or
demand:
1. logged meta-data about email (lists of messages sent or received by any user, subject
lines, recipients), in some jurisdictions even without a warrant.
2. messages sent and received by a specific user or group, with a warrant or court
order in some jurisdictions.
3. a dedicated connection to siphon off all messages and traffic, to be analyzed and
indexed off site.
29
In cases where a user has a business or service relationship with their email provider,
most governments will defend the privacy rights of the user against unauthorized and
unwarranted reading or sharing of messages, though often it is the government itself
seeking information, and frequently users agree to waive some of these rights as part
of their service agreement. However, when the email provider is the user’s employer or
academic institution, privacy rights frequently do not apply. Depending on jurisdiction,
businesses generally have the legal right to read all of the messages sent and received by
their employees, even personal messages sent after hours or on vacation.
Historically, it was possible to “get away” with using clear text email because the
cost and effort to store and index the growing volume of messages was too high: it was
hard enough just to get messages delivered reliably. This is why many email systems
do not contain mechanisms to preserve the privacy of their contents. Now the cost of
monitoring has dropped much faster than the growth of internet traffic and large-scale
monitoring and indexing of all messages (either on the sender or receiving side) is reason-
able to expect even for the most innocuous messages and users. [CITE:corporate email
archiving/spying, blue coat, Syrian monitoring, USA Utah data center, USA intercept
scandals]
For more about legal protections of email messages “at rest” (technical term for mes-
sages stored on a server after having been delivered), especially regarding government
access to your email messages, see:
• https://ssd.eff.org/3rdparties/govt/stronger-protection (USA)
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Protection_Directive (EU)
Just like there are certain photos, letters, and credentials that you would not post “in
the clear” on the Internet because you would not want that information to get indexed
accidentally and show up in search results, you should never send email messages in the
clear that you would not want an employer or disgruntled airport security officer to have
easy access to.
2.3.1 Random abuse and theft by malicious hackers

What if somebody gets complete control of my email account?
I logged in from an insecure location. . . how do I know now if my account has been
hacked?
I’ve done nothing wrong. . . what do I have to hide?
Why would anybody care about me?
Unfortunately, there are many practical, social, and economic incentives for malicious
hackers to break into the accounts of random Internet individuals. The most obvious
incentive is identity and financial theft, when the attacker may be trying to get access to
credit card numbers, shopping site credentials, or banking information to steal money.
A hacker has no way to know ahead of time which users might be better targets than
others, so they just try to break into all accounts, even if the user doesn’t have anything
to take or is careful not to expose his information.
30
2.3 Fears
Less obvious are attacks to gain access to valid and trusted user accounts to collect
contact email addresses from and then distribute mass spam, or to gain access to par-
ticular services tied to an email account, or to use as a “stepping stone” in sophisticated
social engineering attacks. For example, once in control of your account a hacker could
rapidly send emails to your associates or co-workers requesting emergency access to more
secured computer systems.
A final unexpected problem affecting even low-profile email users, is the mass hijacking
of accounts on large service providers, when hackers gain access to the hosting infras-
tructure itself and extract passwords and private information in large chunks, then sell
or publish lists of login information in online markets.
2.3.2 Targeted abuse, harassment, and spying

Something I wrote infuriated a person in power. . . how do I protect myself ?
If you find yourself the individual target of attention from powerful organizations,
governments, or determined individuals, then the same techniques and principles will
apply to keeping your email safe and private, but additional care must be taken to protect
against hackers who might use sophisticated techniques to undermine your devices and
accounts. If a hacker gains control of any of your computing devices or gets access to
any of your email accounts, they will likely gain immediate access both to all of your
correspondence, and to any external services linked to your email account.
Efforts to protect against such attacks can quickly escalate into a battle of wills and
resources, but a few basic guidelines can go a long way. Use specific devices for specific
communication tasks, and use them only for those tasks. Log out and shutdown your
devices immediately when you are done using them. It is best to use open software
encryption tools, web browsers, and operating systems as they can be publicly reviewed
for security problems and keep up to date with security fixes.
Be wary of opening PDF files using Adobe Reader or other proprietary PDF readers.
Closed source PDF readers have been known to be used to execute malign code embedded
in the PDF body. If you receive a .pdf as an attachment you should first consider if you
know the supposed sender and if you are expecting a document from them. Secondly,
you can use PDF readers which have been tested for known vulnerabilities and do not
execute code via java script.
Linux: Evince, Sumatra PDF
OS X: Preview
Windows: Evince
Use short-term anonymous throw away accounts with randomly generated passwords
whenever possible.
2.3.3 When Encryption Goes Wrong

What happens if I lose my “keys”? Do I lose my email?
Rigorous GPG encryption of email is not without its own problems.
31
If you store your email encrypted and lose all copies of your private key, you will be
absolutely unable to read the old stored emails, and if you do not have a copy of your
revocation certificate for the private key it could be difficult to prove that any new key
you generate is truly the valid one, at least until the original private key expires.
If you sign a message with your private key, you will have great difficulty convincing
anybody that you did not sign if the recipient of the message ever reveals the message and
signature publicly. The term for this is non-repudiation: any message you send signed is
excellent evidence in court. Relatedly, if your private key is ever compromised, it could be
used to read all encrypted messages ever sent to you using your public key: the messages
may be safe when they are in transit and just when they are received, but any copies are
a liability and a gamble that the private key will never be revealed. In particular, even
if you destroy every message just after reading it, anybody who snooped the message on
the wire would keep a copy and attempt to decrypt it later if they obtained the private
key.
The solution is to use a messaging protocol that provides perfect forward secrecy by
generating a new unique session key for every conversation of exchange of messages in a
random way such that the session keys could not be re-generated after the fact even if the
private keys were known. The OTR chat protocol provides perfect forward secrecy (http:
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_forward_secrecy) for real time instant messaging,
and the SSH protocol provides it for remote shell connections, but there is no equivalent
system for email at this time.
It can be difficult to balance the convenience of mobile access to your private keys with
the fact that mobile devices are much more likely to be lost, stolen, or inspected and
exploited than stationary machines. An emergency or unexpected time of need might
be exactly the moment when you would most want to send a confidential message or a
signed message to verify your identity, but these are also the moments when you might
be without access to your private keys if your mobile device was seized or not loaded
with all your keys.
2.4 Secure Connections

2.4.1 Can other people read along when I check my email?
As discussed in the Chapter Basic Tips, whether you use webmail or an email program
you should always be sure to use encryption for the entire session, from login to logout.
This will keep anyone from spying on your communication with your email provider.
Thankfully, this is easily done due to the popular use of TLS/SSL connections on email
servers (See appendix TLS/SSL).
A TLS/SSL connection in the browser, when using webmail, will appear with https
in the URL instead of the standard http, like so:
https://gigglemail.com
If your webmail host does not provide a TLS/SSL service then you should consider
discontinuing use of that account; even if your emails themselves are not especially private
or important, your account can very easily be hacked by “sniffing” your password! If it is
32
2.5 Secure Emails
not enabled already be sure to turn it on in your account options. At the time of writing,
Google’s Gmail and Hotmail / Microsoft Live both automatically switch your browser
to using a secure connection.
If you are using an email program like Thunderbird, Mail.app or Outlook, be sure
to check that you are using TLS/SSL in the options of the program. See the chapter
Setting Up Secure Connections in the section Email Security.
2.4.2 Notes
It’s important to note that the administrators at providers like Hotmail or Google, that
host, receive or forward your email can read your email even if you are using secure
connections. It is also worth nothing that the cryptographic keys protecting a TLS/SSL
connection can be deliberately disclosed by site operators, or copied without their permis-
sion, breaching the confidentiality of that connection. It is also possible for a Certificate
Authority to be corrupted or compromised so that it creates false certificates for keys
held by eavesdroppers, making it much easier for a Man In The Middle Attack on con-
nections using TLS/SSL (See Glossary for “Man in the Middle Attack”). An example of
compromised E-mail providers is discussed here, implicating America’s NSA and several
email providers: http://cryptome.info/0001/nsa-ssl-email.htm
We also note here that a Virtual Private Network also a good way of securing your
connections when sending and reading email but requires using a VPN client on your
local machine connecting to a server. See the chapter Virtual Private Networking in
the Browsing section.
2.5 Secure Emails

It is possible to send and receive secure email using standard current email programs by
adding a few add-ons. The essential function of these add-ons is to make the message
body (but not the To:, From:, CC: and Subject: fields) unreadable by any 3rd party that
intercepts or otherwise gains access to your email or that of your conversation partner.
This process is known as encryption.
Secure email is generally done using a technique called Public-Key Cryptography.
Public-Key Cryptography is a clever technique that uses two code keys to send a mes-
sage. Each user has a public key, which can only be used to encrypt a message but not
to decrypt it. The public keys are quite safe to pass around without worrying that some-
body might discover them. The private keys are kept secret by the person who receives
the message and can be used to decode the messages that are encoded with the matching
public key.
In practice, that means if Rosa wants to send Heinz a secure message, she only needs
his public key which encodes the text. Upon receiving the email, Heinz then uses his
private key to decrypt the message. If he wants to respond, he will need to use Rosa’s
public key to encrypt the response, and so on.
33
2.5.1 What software can I use to encrypt my email?

The most popular setup for public-key cryptography is to use Gnu Privacy Guard (GPG)
to create and manage keys and an add-on to integrate it with standard email software.
Using GPG will give you the option of encrypting sensitive mail and decoding incoming
mail that has been encrypted but it will not force you to use it all the time. In years
past, it was quite difficult to install and set up email encryption but recent advances
have made this process relatively simple.
See section Email Encryption for working with GPG in the scope of your operating
system and email program.
If you use a webmail service and wish to encrypt your email this is more difficult. You
can use a GPG program on your computer to encrypt the text using your public key or
you can use an add-on, like Lock The Text (http://lockthetext.sourceforge.net/).
If you want to keep your messages private, we suggest using a dedicated email program
like Thunderbird instead of webmail.
34
3 Understanding Browsing
3.1 Basic Tips

3.1.1 In Brief:
• When you visit a website you give away information about yourself to the site
owner, unless precautions are taken.
• Your browsing on the Internet may be tracked by the sites you visit and partners
of those sites. Use anti-tracking software.
• Visiting a website on the Internet is never a direct connection. Many computers,
owned by many different people are involved. Use a secure connection to ensure
your browsing can not be recorded.
• What you search for is of great interest to search providers. Use search anonymising
software to protect your privacy.
• It is wiser to trust Open Source browsers like Mozilla Firefox as they can be more
readily security audited.
3.1.2 Your browser talks about you behind your back

All browsers communicate information to the web server serving you a web page. This
information includes name and version of the browser, referral information (a link on
another site, for instance) and the operating system used.
Websites often use this information to customise your browsing experience, suggesting
downloads for your operating system and formatting the web page to better fit your
browser. Naturally however, this presents an issue and regards the user’s own anonymity
as this information becomes part of a larger body of data that can be used to identify
you individually.
Stopping the chatter of your browser is not easily done. You can, however, falsify some
of the information sent to web servers while you browse by altering data contained in the
User Agent, the browser’s identity. There is a very useful plugin for Firefox, for instance,
called User Agent Switcher that allows you to set the browser identity to another profile
selected from a drop down list of options.
3.1.3 Web sites can track you as you browse

Small files, called cookies, are often written onto your computer by web sites. Cookies
present certain conveniences, like caching login data, session information and other data
that makes your browsing experience smoother. These small pieces of data however
35
present a significant risk to your right to anonymity on the web: they can be used to
identify you if you return to a site and also to track you as you move from site to site.
Coupled with the User-Agent, they present a powerful and covert means of remotely
identifying your person.
The ideal solution to this problem is deny all website attempts to write cookies onto
your system but this can greatly reduce the quality of your experience on the web.
See the section Tracking for guides as to how to stop web servers tracking you.
3.1.4 Searching online can give away information about you

When we search online using services like Bing or Google our right to privacy is already
at risk, vastly more so than asking a person at an Information Desk in an airport, for
instance.
Combined with the use of cookies and User Agent data this information can be used
to build an evolving portrait of you over time. Advertisers consider this information very
valuable, use it to make assumptions about your interests and market you products in a
targeted fashion.
While some customers may sing the praises of targeted advertising and others may
not care, the risks are often misunderstood. Firstly, the information collected about you
may be requested by a government, even a government you did not elect (Google, for
instance, is an American company and so must comply with American judicial processes
and political interests). Secondly there is the risk that merely searching for information
can be misconstrued as intent or political endorsement. For instance an artist studying
the aesthetics of different forms of Religious Extremism might find him or herself in
danger of being associated with support for the organisations studied. Finally there is
the risk that this hidden profile of you may be sold on to insurance agents, provided
to potential employers or other customers of the company whose search service you are
using.
Even once you’ve ensured your cookies are cleared, your User Agent has been changed
(see above and chapter Tracking) you are still giving away one crucial bit of information:
the Internet Address you are connecting from (see chapter What Happens When
You Browse). To avoid this you can use an anonymising service like Tor (see chapter
Anonymity). If you are a Firefox user be sure to install the excellent Google Sharing
add-on, an anonymiser for Google search. Even if you don’t consciously use Google, a
vast number of web sites use a customised Google Search bar as a means of exploring
their content.
With the above said, there are no reasons to trust Google, Yahoo or Bing. We rec-
ommend switching to a search service that takes your right to privacy seriously: Duck-
DuckGo (http://duckduckgo.com/).
3.1.5 More eyes than you can see

The Internet is a big place and is not one network but a greater network of many smaller
interconnected networks. So it follows that when you request a page from a server on the
36
3.2 Fears
Internet your request must traverse many machines before it reaches the server hosting
the page. This journey is known as a route and typically includes at least 10 machines
along the path. As packets move from machine to machine they are necessarily copied
into memory, rewritten and passed on.
Each of the machines along a network route belongs to someone, normally a company
or organisation and may be in entirely different countries. While there are efforts to stan-
dardise communication laws across countries, the situation is currently one of significant
jurisdictional variation. So, while there may not be a law requiring the logging of your
web browsing in your country, such laws may be in place elsewhere along your packet’s
route.
The only means of protecting the traffic along your route from being recorded or
tampered with is using end to end encryption like that provided by TLS/Secure Socket
Layer (See chapter Encryption) or a Virtual Private Network (See chapter VPN).
3.1.6 Your right to be unknown

Beyond the desire to minimise privacy leakage to specific service providers, you should
consider obscuring the Internet Address you are connecting from more generally (see
chapter What Happens When You Browse). The desire to achieve such anonymity
spurred the creation of the Tor Project.
Tor uses an ever evolving network of nodes to route your connection to a site in a way
that cannot be traced back to you. It is a very robust means of ensuring your Internet
address cannot be logged by a remote server. See the chapter Anonymity for more
information about how this works and how to get started with Tor.
3.2 Fears
3.2.1 Social Networking - what are the dangers?
The phenomenon of Internet based Social Networking has changed not just how people
use the Internet but its very shape. Large data centers around the world, particularly
in the US, have been built to cater to the sudden and vast desire for people to upload
content about themselves, their interests and their lives in order to participate in Social
Networking.
Social Networking as we know it with FaceBook, Twitter (and earlier MySpace) are
certainly far from ‘free’. Rather, these are businesses that seek to develop upon, and then
exploit, a very basic anxiety: the fear of social irrelevance. As social animals we can’t
bear the idea of missing out and so many find themselves placing their most intimate
expressions onto a businessman’s hard-disk, buried deep in a data center in another
country - one they will never be allowed to visit.
Despite this many would argue that the social warmth and personal validation acquired
through engagement with Social Networks well out-weighs the potential loss of privacy.
Such a statement however is only valid when the full extent of the risks are known.
The risks of Social Networking on a person’s basic right to privacy are defined by:
37
• The scope and intimacy of the user’s individual contributions.
• A user posting frequently and including many personal details constructs a body
of information of greater use for targeted marketing.
• The preparedness of the user to take social risks.
• A user making social connections uncritically is at greater risk from predators and
social engineering attacks.
• The economic interests and partners of the organisation providing the service.
• Commissioned studies from clients, data mining, sentiment analysis.
• Political/legal demands exerted by the State against the organisation in the juris-
diction(s) in which it is resident.
• Court orders for data on a particular user (whether civilian or foreigner).
• Surveillance agendas by law enforcement or partners of the organisation.
• Sentiment analysis: projections of political intent.
With these things in mind it is possible to chart a sliding scale between projects like
Diaspora and Facebook: the former promises some level of organisational transparency, a
commitment to privacy and a general openness, whereas Facebook proves to be an opaque
company economically able to gamble with the privacy of their users and manage civil
lawsuits in the interests of looking after their clients. As such there is more likelihood of
your interactions with a large Social Network service affecting how an Insurance company
or potential employer considers you than a smaller, more transparent company.
3.2.2 Who can steal my identity?

This question depends on the context you are working within as you browse. A weak
and universal password presents a danger of multiple services from Social Networking,
Banking, WebMail etc being account hijacked. A strong and universal password on a
wireless network shared with others (whether open or encrypted) is just as vulnerable.
The general rule is to ensure you have a strong password (see section on Passwords).
Wireless networks
Here we find ourselves amidst an often underestimated risk of someone listening in on
your communications using network packet sniffing. It matters little if the network itself
is open or password secured. If someone uses the same encrypted network, he can easily
capture and read all unsecured traffic of other users within the same network. A wireless
key can be acquired for the cost of a cup of coffee and gives those that know how to
capture and read network packets the chance to read your password while you check
your email.
38
3.2 Fears
A simple rule always applies: if the cafe offers a network cable connection, use it!
Finally, just as at a bank machine, make sure no one watches over your shoulder when
you type in the password.
The browser cache
Due to the general annoyance of having to type in your password repeatedly, you allow
the browser or local mail client to store it for you. This is not bad in itself, but when a
laptop or phone gets stolen, this enables the thief to access the owner’s email account(s).
The best practice is to clear this cache every time you close your browser. All popular
browsers have an option to clear this cache on exit.
One precaution can justify you holding onto your convenient cache: disk encryption. If
your laptop is stolen and the thief reboots the machine, they’ll be met with an encrypted
disk. It is also wise to have a screen lock installed on your computer or phone. If the
machine is taken from you while still running your existing user session, it cannot be
accessed.
Securing your line
Whenever you log into any service you should always ensure to use encryption for the
entire session. This is easily done due to the popular use of TLS/SSL (Secure Socket
Layer).
Check to see the service you’re using (whether Email, Social Networking or online-
banking) supports TLS/SSL sessions by looking for https:// at the beginning of the
URL. If not, be sure to turn it on in any settings provided by the service. To better
understand how browsing the World Wide Web works, see the chapter What Happens
When I Browse?
3.2.3 Can I get in trouble for Googling weird stuff?

Google and other search companies may comply with court orders and warrants targeting
certain individuals. A web site using a customised Google Search field to find content on
their site may be forced to log and supply all search queries to organisations within their
local jurisdiction. Academics, artists and researchers are particularly at risk of being
misunderstood, assumed to have motivations just by virtue of their apparent interests.
3.2.4 Who is keeping a record of my browsing and am I allowed to hide

from them?
It is absolutely within your basic human rights, and commonly constitutionally protected,
to visit web sites anonymously. Just as you’re allowed to visit a public library, skim
through books and put them back on the shelf without someone noting the pages and
titles of your interest, you are free to browse anonymously on the Internet.
39
3.2.5 How to not reveal my Identity?

See the chapter on Anonymity.
3.2.6 How to avoid being tracked?

See the chapter on Tracking.
3.3 What happens when you browse

Browsing the web is communicating. You might not send as much text in terms of number
of words, but it is always the browser which initiates and maintains the communication
by requesting the bits and pieces which are woven into what is eventually displayed on
your screen.
Browsers like Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, Safari & Internet Explorer all
work in a similar manner. When we type a URL (e.g. “http://happybunnies.com”) in
the address bar, the browser requests the website (which is just a special kind of text)
from a remote server and then transforms it into colored blocks, text and images to be
displayed in the browser window. To see the text the way the browser sees it, one just
has to click on the View --> Page source menu entry in the browser. What comes up
is the same webpage but in HTML – a language mainly concerned with content, context
and links to other resources (CSS and JavaScript) which govern the way these contents
are displayed and behave.
When the browser tries to open a webpage – and assuming there are no proxies involved
– the first thing it does is to check its own cache. If there is no past memories of such
website, it tries to resolve the name into an address it can actually use. It is an internet
program, so it needs an Internet Protocol address (IP address or just IP). To get this
address it asks a DNS Server (kind of a telephone book for internet programs) which is
installed in the router of your internet access by default. The IP address is a numerical
label assigned to every device in the (global) network, like the address of a house in the
postal system – and as the address of your home, you should be very careful to whom
you hand out the IP address you are browsing from (by default this is: to everyone).
Once the IP address has been received, the browser opens a TCP (just a communication
protocol) connection to the destination host and starts sending packages to a port at this
address, typically no. 80 (ports are like doors to the servers, there are many but usually
only a few are open), unless another path is specified. These packages travel through
a number of servers on the internet (up to a couple of dozens depending on were the
target address is located). The server then looks for the requested page and, if found,
delivers it using the HTTP protocol. (To prevent others from reading or altering the
data, TLS/SSL can be used to below HTTP to secure the connection)
When the HTTP response arrives, the browser can close the TCP connection or reuse
it for subsequent requests. The response can be one of many things, from some sort of
redirection or a classic Internal Server Error (500). Provided the response proceeds as ex-
pected the browser will store the page in a cache for further use, decode it (uncompress it
40
3.3 What happens when you browse
if compressed, rendered if video codec, etc) and display/play it according to instructions.

Now, the process can be illustrated in a little conversation between browser (B) and
server (S):
B: “Hallo.”
S: “Hey!”
B: “May I get that page with the happy bunnies, please?”
S: “Well, here you are.”
B: “Oh, maybe you could also give me a big version of that picture of that bunny baby
cuddling a teddy bear.”
S: “Sure, why not.”
[. . . ]
B: “That’s all for now. Thank you. Bye.”
Note that there are lots of activities happening parallel to this TCP/IP exchange.
Depending on how you have configured its options, your browser might be adding the
page to browser history, saving cookies, checking for plugins, checking for RSS updates
and communicating with a variety of servers, all while you’re doing something else.
3.3.1 A topography of you: footprints

Most important: you will leave footprints. Some of them will be left on your own
computer – a collection of cache data, browsing history and naughty little files with
elephantine memory called cookies. They are all very convenient; speed up your browser’s
performance, reduce your data download or remember your passwords and preferences
from Social Networks. They also snitch on your browsing habits and compile a record of
everywhere you go and everything you do there. This should bother you if you are using
a public computer station at a library, work at a cybercafe, or share your apartment with
a nosey partner!
Even if you configure your browser to not keep a history record, reject cookies and
delete cached files (or allocate zero MB of space for the cache), you would still leave
breadcrumbs all over the Internet. Your IP address is recorded by default everywhere,
by everyone and the packets sent are monitored by an increasing number of entities -
commercial, governmental or criminal, along with some creeps and potential stalkers.
Democratic governments everywhere are redesigning regulations to require Internet
providers to keep a copy of everything so they can have later access to it. In the USA,
section 215 of the American PATRIOT act ‘prohibits an individual or organization from
revealing that it has given records to the federal government, following an investigation’.
That means that the company you pay every month as a customer to provide you with
Internet access can be ordered to turn over your browsing and email records without
your knowledge.
Most of the time, though, surveillance is not a 1984 affair. Google collects your searches
along with your browser identification (user agent), your IP and a whole bunch of data
that can eventually lead to your doorstep, but the ultimate aim is usually not political
repression but market research. Advertisers don’t fuss about advertising space any more,
they just want to know everything about you. They want to know your dietary and
41
medication habits, how many children you have and where you take them on holidays;
how you make your money, how much you earn and how you like to spend it. Even
more: they want to know how you feel about stuff. They want to know if your friends
respect those feelings enough so that you can convince them to change their consumption
habits. This is not a conspiracy, but rather the nature of Information Age capitalism.
To paraphrase a famous observation of the current situation, the best minds of our
generation are thinking about how to make people click ads.4
Some people think ads can be ignored or that having advertisers cater for our specific
needs is a win-win situation, because at least they are spammed with things they may
actually want. Even if that was the case (it isn’t): should we trust Google with such
intimate details of our life? Even if we trust Google to ‘do no evil’, it can still be bought
by someone we do not trust; benevolent Larry Page and Sergey Brin could be overruled
by their own Board, or their data base be sequestered by a fascistic government. One of
their 30,000 employees worldwide could cut loose and run with our data. Their servers
can be hacked. And in the end, they are just interested in their customers, the companies
paying for advertising. We are just the product being sold.
Moreover; in the Social Networks our browsing habits are generating a Permanent
Record, a collection of data so vast that the information that Facebook keeps about a
given user alone can fill 880 pages. Nobody will be surprised to learn that Facebook’s
purpose is not to make us happy – again: if you are not paying for it, you’re not the
customer, you’re the product. But even if you don’t care about their commercial goals,
consider this: the platform has publicly admitted hackers break into hundreds of thou-
sands of Facebook accounts every day.
For a taste of what lurks behind the curtains of the websites you visit, install a
plugin/add-on called Ghostery to your browser. It’s like an x-ray-machine which reveals
all the surveillance technology which might be (and often is) embedded in a web page,
normally invisible to the user. In the same line, Do Not Track Plus and Trackerblock
will give you further control over online tracking, through cookie blocking, persistent
opt-out cookies, etc. Our following chapter Tracking will equip you with expertise in
such topics.
Even in between your computer and the router, your packages can easily be intercepted
by anyone using the same wireless network in the casual environment of a cafe. It is a
jungle out there, but still we choose passwords like “password” and “123456”, perform
economic transactions and buy tickets on public wireless networks and click on links
from unsolicited emails. It is not only our right to preserve our privacy but also our
responsibility to defend that right against the intrusions of governments, corporations
and anyone who attempts to dispossess us. If we do not exercise those rights today, we
deserve whatever happens tomorrow.
1. If you are a Unix user, you can use the tcpdump command in the bash and view
real time dns traffic. It’s loads of fun! (and disturbing) ˆ
2. See list of TCP and UDP port numbers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_
of_TCP_and_UDP_port_numbers)
3. If this exchange is happening under an HTTPS connection, the process is much
42
3.4 Accounts and Security
more complicated and also much safer, but you will find out more about that in a
most fascinating chapter called Encryption. ˆ
4. This Tech Bubble Is Different (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/
11_17/b4225060960537.htm), Ashlee Vance (Businessweek magazine) ˆ
3.4 Accounts and Security

When you browse, you may be logged into various services, sometimes at the same time.
It may be a company website, your email or a social networking site. Our accounts are
important to us because highly sensitive information about us and others is stored on
machines elsewhere on the Internet.
Keeping your accounts secure requires more than just a strong password (see section
Passwords) and a secure communication link with the server via TLS/SSL (see chapter
Secure Connection). Unless specified otherwise, most browsers will store your login
data in tiny files called cookies, reducing the need for you re-type your password when
you reconnect to those sites. This means that someone with access to your computer or
phone may be able to access your accounts without having to steal your password or do
sophisticated snooping.
As smart phones have become more popular there has been a dramatic rise in account
hijacking with stolen phones. Laptops theft presents a similar risk. If you do choose to
have the browser save your passwords then you have a few options to protect yourself:
• Use a screen lock. If you have a phone and prefer an unlock pattern system get in
the habit of wiping the screen so an attacker can not guess the pattern from finger
smears. On a Laptop, you should set your screensaver to require a password as
well as a password on start-up.
• Encrypt your hard disk. TrueCrypt is an open and secure disk encryption system
for Windows 7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X and Linux. OSX and most Linux distributions
provide the option for disk encryption on install.
• Android Developers: do not enable USB debugging on your phone by default. This
allows an attacker using the Android adb shell on a computer to access your phone’s
hard disk without unlocking the phone.
3.4.1 Can malicious web sites take over my accounts?

Those special cookies that contain your login data are a primary point of vulnerability.
One particularly popular technique for stealing login data is called click-jacking, where
the user is tricked into clicking on a seemingly innocuous link, executing a script that
takes advantage of the fact you are logged in. The login data can then be stolen, giving
the remote attacker access to your account. While this is a very complicated technique,
it has proven effective on several occasions. Both Twitter and Facebook have seen cases
of login sessions being stolen using these techniques.
It’s important to develop a habit for thinking before you click on links to sites while
logged into your accounts. One technique is to use another browser entirely that is not
43
logged into your accounts as a tool for testing the safety of a link. Always confirm the
address (URL) in the link to make sure it is spelled correctly. It may be a site with a
name very similar to one you already trust. Note that links using URL shorteners (like
http://is.gd and http://bit.ly) present a risk as you cannot see the actual link you are
requesting data from.
If using Firefox on your device, use the add-on NoScript as it mitigates many of the
Cross Site Scripting techniques that allow for your cookie to be hijacked but it will
disable many fancy features on some web sites.
3.5 Tracking
When you browse the web tiny digital traces of your presence are left behind. Many
web sites harmlessly use this data to compile statistics and see how many people are
looking at their site and which pages are popular, but some sites go further and use
various techniques to track individual users, even going as far as trying to identify them
personally. It doesn’t stop there however. Some firms store data in your web browser
which can be used to track you on other web sites. This information can be compiled
and passed on to other organizations without your knowledge or permission.
This all sounds ominous but really who cares if some big company knows about a few
web sites that we have looked at? Big web sites compile and use this data for “behavioral
advertising” where ads are tailored to fit your interests exactly. That’s why after looking
at say, the Wikipedia entry for Majorca, one may suddenly start seeing lots of ads for
packaged vacations and party hats. This may seem innocent enough, but after doing a
search for “Herpes Treatments” or “Fetish Communities” and suddenly seeing listings for
relevant products, one may start to feel that the web is getting a bit too familiar.
Such information is also of interest to other parties, like your insurance company. If
they know you have been looking at skydiving sites or forums for congenital diseases,
your premiums may mysteriously start going up. Potential employers or landlords may
turn you down based on their concerns about your web interests. In extreme instances,
the police or tax authorities may develop an interest without you ever having committed
a crime, simply based on suspicious surfing.
3.5.1 How do they track us?

Every time you load a web page, the server software on the web site generates a record
of the page viewed in a log file. This is not always a bad thing. When you log in to a
website, there is a need for a way to establish your identity and keep track of who you
are in order to save your preferences, or present you with customized information. It
does this by passing a small file to your browser and storing a corresponding reference on
the web server. This file is called a cookie. It sounds tasty but the problem is that this
information stays on your computer even after leaving the web site and may phone home
to tell the owner of the cookie about other web sites you are visiting. Some major sites,
like Facebook and Google have been caught using them to keep track of your browsing
even after you have logged out.
44
3.5 Tracking
Supercookies / Evercookie / Zombie Cookies?
3.5.2 How can I prevent tracking?
The simplest and most direct way to deal with tracking is to delete the cookie files in
your browser:
In Firefox: 1. Click the Firefox menu. 2. Click Options. 3. Click Privacy. 4.

Click Clear your recent history.
5. Make sure Time range

to clear is set to Everything. 6. Tick Cookies.
45
7. Click Clear now.

In Chrome: 1. Click the Chrome menu. 2. Click Tools. 3. Click Clear browsing
data. 4. Make sure Obliterate the following items from is set to The beginning
of time. 5. Tick Delete cookies and other site and plug-in data. 6. Click Clear
browsing data.
Figure 3.1: Delete Chrome Cookies
In Internet Explorer: 1. Click the Tools button (shaped like a gear). 2. Click
Safety. 3. Click Delete Browsing History. 4. Tick Cookies. 5. Click Delete.
46
3.5 Tracking
Figure 3.2: Delete IE Cookies
47
The limitation to this approach is that you will receive new cookies as soon as you
return to these sites or go to any other pages with tracking components. The other dis-
advantage is that you will lose all of your current login sessions for any open tabs, forcing
you to type in usernames and passwords again. A more convenient option, supported by
current browsers is private browsing or incognito mode. This opens a temporary browser
window that does not save the history of pages viewed, passwords, downloaded files or
cookies. Upon closing the private browsing window, all of this information is deleted.
You can enable private browsing:
In Firefox: 1. Click the Firefox menu. 2. Click Start Private Browsing.
3. If prompted, click Start Private Brows-

ing again.
4. The Firefox menu

button turns purple, showing that private browsing is on.
Figure 3.3: Firefox Private Browsing
In Chrome: 1. Click the Chrome menu. 2. Click New incognito window.
48
3.5 Tracking
3. The spy icon in the top-left of

the browser window shows that private browsing is on.
Figure 3.4: Chrome Private Browsing
In Internet Explorer: 1. Click the Tools menu, shaped like a gear. 2. Click Safety.
3. Click InPrivate Browsing.
4. The InPrivate
logo appears in the top-left of your browser window, showing that private browsing is
on.
Figure 3.5: IE Private Browsing
49
This solution also has its limitations. We cannot save bookmarks, remember passwords,
or take advantage of much of the convenience offered by modern browsers. Thankfully,
there are several plugins specially designed to address the problems of tracking. The
most extensive, in terms of features and flexibility, is Ghostery. The plugin allows you to
block categories or individual services that track users. Here’s how you install Ghostery:
1. In Firefox, click the Firefox menu and select Add-ons.
2. In the Search box, type “ghostery”, then

click the Search icon or press Enter.
3. Find Ghostery in the list of Add-

ons, and click Install.
4. Restart your browser

by clicking Restart Now.
50
3.5 Tracking
5. Click the Ghostery

toolbar and select Options. Do the walkthrough and/or play with Ghostery’s settings,
if you want.
6. Visit a web page

and have a look at its trackers.
Figure 3.6: Ghostery
Another option is to install an ad-blocking plugin like AdBlockPlus. This will auto-
matically block many of the tracking cookies sent by advertising companies but not those
used by Google, Facebook and other web analytics companies. [expand on this maybe,
explain “web analytics”]
How can I see who is tracking me?
The easiest way to see who is tracking you is to use the Ghostery plugin. There is a
small icon on the upper right or lower right corner of your browser window that will tell
you which services are tracking you on particular web sites.
{Suggestion: Add Abine.com’s Do Not Track add-on. I suggest using both Ghosterly
and DNT, as occasionally they block a different cookie. Abine also has Privacy Suite,
recently developed which can give a proxy telephone and proxy email, similar to 10
Minute Mail or Guerrilla Mail for fill- in emails for forms.}
51
3.5.3 A word of warning

If you block trackers, you will have a higher level of privacy when surfing the net. How-
ever, government agencies, bosses, hackers and unscrupulous network administrators will
still be able to intercept your traffic and see what you are looking at. If you want to
secure your connections you will need to read the chapter on encryption. Your identity
may also be visible to other people on the internet. If you want to thoroughly protect
your identity while browsing, you will need to take steps toward online anonymity which
is explained in another section of this book.
3.6 Anonymity
3.6.1 Intro
Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:
“Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Decla-
ration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language,
religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth
or other status.
Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, juris-

dictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person
belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any
other limitation of sovereignty.“.
One way of enforcing this basic right in hostile environments is by means of anonymity,
where attempts to connect an active agent to a specific person are blocked.
Acting anonymously is also a great way to help others with a high need for protection
– the bigger the herd of sheep, the harder it is to target a specific one. An easy way to
do so is by using Tor, a technique which routes internet traffic between users of a special
software, thus making it untraceable to any specific IP address or person without having
control over the whole network (and nobody has that yet in the case of the internet).
A highly functional means to protect ones own identity is by using anonymous proxy
servers and Virtual Private Networks (VPN).
3.6.2 Proxy
“An anonymizer or an anonymous proxy is a tool that attempts to make
activity on the Internet untraceable. It is a proxy [server] computer that
acts as an intermediary and privacy shield between a client computer and the
rest of the Internet. It accesses the Internet on the user’s behalf, protecting
personal information by hiding the client computer’s identifying information.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymizer)
52
3.6 Anonymity
The main purpose behind using a proxy is to hide or to change Internet address (IP
address) assigned to user’s computer. There can be a few reasons for needing to do so,
for example:
• To anonymize access to particular server(s) and/or to obfuscate traces left in the

log files of a web-server. For instance a user might need/want to access sensi-
tive materials online (special materials, research topics or else) without triggering
authorities attention.
• To break through firewalls of corporations or repressive regimes. A corporation/government
can limit or completely restrict Internet access for a particular IP address or a range
of IP addresses. Hiding behind a proxy will help to trick these filters and access
otherwise forbidden sites.
• To watch online video and streams banned in your country due to legal issues.
• To access websites and/or materials available only for IP addresses belonging to a
specific country. For example, a user wants to watch a BBC video stream (UK-only)
while not residing in the UK.
• To access the Internet from a partially banned/blocked IP address. Public IP
addresses can often have “bad reputation” (bandwidth abuse, scam or unsolicited
email distribution) and be blocked by some web-sites and servers.
While a usual scenario would be to use proxy for accessing the Web (HTTP), practically
Internet protocol can be proxied - i.e. sent via a remote server. Unlike a router, proxy
server is not directly forwarding remote user requests but rather mediates those requests
and echos responses back to remote user’s computer.
Proxy (unless setup as “transparent”) does not allow direct communication to the
Internet thus applications such as browsers, chat-clients or download applications need
to be made aware of the proxy server (see Safer Browsing/Proxy settings chapter)
3.6.3 Tor
• Tor prevents anyone from learning your location or browsing habits.
• Tor is for web browsers, instant messaging clients, remote logins, and
more.
• Tor is free and open source for Windows, Mac, Linux/Unix, and An-
droid. (https://www.torproject.org)
Tor is a system intended to enable online anonymity, composed of client software

and a network of servers which can hide information about users’ locations and other
factors which might identify them. Imagine a message being wrapped in several layers
of protection: every server needs to take off one layer, thereby immediately deleting the
sender information of the previous server.
Use of this system makes it more difficult to trace Internet traffic to the user, including
visits to Web sites, online posts, instant messages, and other communication forms. It is
intended to protect users’ personal freedom, privacy, and ability to conduct confidential
53
business, by keeping their internet activities from being monitored. The software is
open-source and the network is free of charge to use.
Tor cannot and does not attempt to protect against monitoring the traffic entering and
exiting the network. While Tor does provide protection against traffic analysis, it cannot
prevent traffic confirmation (also called end-to-end correlation). End-to-End Correlation
is a way of matching an online identity with a real person.
A recent case of this involved the FBI wanting to prove that the man Jeremy Hammon
was behind an alias known to be responsible for several Anonymous attacks. Sitting
outside his house, the FBI were monitoring his wireless traffic alongside a chat channel
the alias was known to visit. When Jeremy went online in his apartment, inspection of
the wireless packets revealed he was using Tor at the same moment the suspected alias
associated with him came online in the surveilled chat channel. This was enough to
incriminate Jeremy and he was arrested.
See section Safer Browsing/Using Tor for setup instructions.
3.7 VPN
The way your data makes it to the desired server and back to your laptop computer or a
mobile device is not as straightforward as it might first seem. Say, you are connected to a
wireless network at home and opening a wikipedia.org page. The path your request (data)
takes will consist of multiple middle points or “hops” - in network-architect terminology.
At each of these hops (which are likely to be more then 5) your data can be scooped,
copied and potentially modified.
• Your wireless network (your data can be sniffed from the air)
• Your ISP (in most countries they are obliged to keep detailed logs of user activity)
• Internet Exchange Point (IXP) somewhere on another continent (usually more
secure then any other hop)
• ISP of the hosting company that hosts the site (is probably keeping logs)
• Internal network to which the server is connected
• And multiple hops between. . .
Any person with physical access to the computers or the networks which are on the
way from you to the remote server, intentionally or not, can collect and reveal the data
that’s passing from you to the remote server and back. This is especially true for so
called ‘last mile’ situations - the few last leaps that an internet connection makes to
reach a user. That includes domestic and public wireless or wired networks, telephone
and mobile networks, networks in libraries, homes, schools, hotels. Your ISP can not be
considered a safe, or ‘data-neutral’ instance either - in many countries state agencies do
not even require a warrant to access your data, and there is always the risk of intrusion
by paid attackers working for a deep-pocketed adversaries.
VPN - a Virtual Private Network - is a solution for this ‘last-mile’ leakage. VPN is
a technology that allows the creation of a virtual network on top of an existing infras-
tructure. Such a VPN network operates using the same protocols and standards as the
54
3.7 VPN
underlying physical network. Programs and OS use it transparently, as if it was a sepa-

rate network connection, yet its topology or the way how network nodes (you, the VPN
server and, potentially, other members or services available on VPN) are interconnected
in relation to the physical space is entirely redefined.
Imagine that instead of having to trust your data to every single middle-man (your
local network, ISP, the state) you have a choice to pass it via a server of a VPN provider
whom you trust (after a recommendation or research) - from which your data will start its
journey to the remote location. VPN allows you to recreate your local and geo-political
context all together - from the moment your data leaves your computer and gets into
the VPN network it is fully secured with TLS/SSL type encryption. And as such it will
appear as pure random noise to any node who might be spying after you. It is as if your
data was traveling inside a titanium-alloy pipe, unbreakable on all the way from your
laptop to the VPN server. Of course one could argue that eventually, when your data
is outside the safe harbour of VPN it becomes just as vulnerable as it was - but this is
only partially true. Once your data exits the VPN server it is far away from you - way
beyond the reach of some creeps sniffing on the local wireless network, your venal ISP
or a local government obsessed with anti-terrorism laws. A serious VPN provider would
have their servers installed at a high-security Internet exchange location, rendering any
physical human access, tapping or logging a difficult task.
“Today everything you do on the Internet is monitored and we want to change

that. With our fast VPN service you get totally anonymous on the Inter-
net. It’s also possible to surf censored web sites, that your school, ISP,
work or country are blocking. [DarkVPN] will not only help people to surf
anonymously, it also helps people in countries like China to be able to surf
censored web pages. Which is your democratic right. DarknetVPN gives
all VPN users an anonymous IP address. All electronic tracks will end
up with us. We do not save any log files in order to achieve maximum
anonymity. With us you always surfing anonymously, secure and encrypted.”
(http://www.darknetvpn.com/about.php)
Another interesting and often underrated features of VPN is encoded in its name -
besides being Virtual and Private it is also a Network. VPN allows one not only to
connect via the VPN server to the rest of the world but also to communicate to other
members of the same VPN network without ever having to leave the safety of encrypted
space. Through this functionality Virtual Private Network becomes something like a
DarkNet (in a broader sense of the definition) - a network isolated from the Internet and
inaccessible to “others”. Since a connection to VPN server, and thus the private network
it facilitates, require a key or a certificate, only “invited” users are allowed. There is no
chance that Internet stranger would gain access to what’s on a VPN without enrolling as
a user or stealing someones keys. While not referred to as such, any corporate Intranet
type of network is a DarkNet too.
“A virtual private network (VPN) extends a private network across a public

network, such as the Internet. It enables a computer to send and receive data
55
across shared or public networks as if it were directly connected to the private

network, while benefitting from the functionality, security and management
policies of the private network.”(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_
private_network)
Many commercial VPN providers stress the anonymity that their service provides.
Quoting Ipredator.org page (a VPN service started by the people behind The Pirate Bay
project):
“You’ll exchange the IP address you get from your ISP for an anonymous IP
address. You get a safe/encrypted connection between your computer and
the Internet”. (https://www.ipredator.se)
Indeed, when you access the Internet via a VPN connection it does appear as if the
connection is originating from the IP address of IPredator servers.
56
4 Publishing And Distribution
4.1 Publishing Anonymously

Whether you are an activist operating under a totalitarian regime, an employee deter-
mined to expose some wrongdoings in your company or a vengeful writer composing a
bitchy portrait of your ex-wife, you need to protect your identity. If you are not collab-
orating with others, the focus lies on anonymity and not encryption or privacy.
If the message is urgent and the stakes are high, one easy way to just get it out quickly
is going to an internet cafe one usually does not frequent, create accounts specifically
set up for the task, deliver the data and discard those accounts right after that. If you
are in a hurry, consider MintEmail (http://www.mintemail.com/) or FilzMail (http:
//www.filzmail.com/), where your address will expire from 3 to 24 hours respectively.
Do not do anything else while you’re there; don’t check your Gmail account, do not have
a quick one on Facebook and clear all cache, cookies and history and close the browser
before you leave.
If you keep these basic rules, the worst – though highly improbable – thing that could
happen would be that the offered computer is compromised and logging keystrokes,
revealing passwords or even your face, in case an attached webcam is remotely operated.
Don’t do this at work or in a place where you are a registered member or a regular visitor,
like a club or a library.
If you want to maintain a constant stream of communication and maybe even establish
an audience, this method quickly becomes quite cumbersome, and you might also run out
of unused internet cafes. In this case you can use a machine you own, but, if you cannot
dedicate one especially to this purpose, boot your computer with a different operating
system (OS). This can be easily done by using a USB stick to boot a live operating
system like Tails (https://tails.boum.org/), which comes with Tor enabled by default
and includes state-of-the-art cryptographic tools. In any case, use Tor to disguise your
IP.
Turn off all cookies, history and cache options and never use the same profile or the
same browser for other activities. Not only would that add data to your topography
as a user in the Net, but it also opens a very wide window for mistakes. If you want
extra support, install Do Not Track Plus and Trackerblock or Ghostery in your browser
add-ons menu.
Use passwords for different accounts and choose proper passwords or even passphrases
(more about that in the basic tips section). Protect your entire system with a general
password, change it often and do not share it with anyone, especially not your lover.
Install a keystroke logger to see if someone sneaks into your email, especially your lover.
Set up your preferences everywhere to log out of every service and platform after 5
57
minutes of non-use. Keep your superhero identity to yourself.

If you can mantain such level of discipline, you should even be capable of using your
own internet connection. But consider this: not using a dedicated system makes it
incredibly difficult to keep all the different identities separated in a safe way, and the
feeling of safety often leads to carelessness. Keep a healthy level of neurosis.
Today there are many publishing possibilities, from cost-free blogging sites (Blogspot,
Tumblr, WordPress, Identi.ca) to PasteBins (see glossary) and some specifically catered
to anonymous users like BlogACause. Global Voices Advocacy recommends using Word-
Press through the Tor network. Keep a sane level of cynicism; they all act in commercial
interests that you use for ‘free’ and so cannot be trusted at all, especially in that they
may be bound to the demands of a legal juristiction that is not your own. All providers
are, when it comes down to it, traitors.
If registration with these services requires a working email address, create one dedicated
solely to this purpose. Avoid Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and other big commercial platforms
with a history of turning over their users and go for an specialized service like Hushmail
(https://www.hushmail.com/). For more on anonymous email, please find the chapter
Anonymous email in the previous section.
4.1.1 Several Don’ts

Don’t register a domain. There are services that will protect your identity from a
simple who is query, like Anonymous Speech or Silent Register, but they will know who
you are through your payment data. Unless you have the chance to purchase one in
BitCoins, limit yourself to one of the domains offered by your blogging platform like
yourblogname.blogspot.com and choose a setting outside your native country. Also, find
a name that doesn’t give you away easily. If you have problems with that, use a blog
name generator online.
Don’t open a social network account associated to your blog. If you must,
keep the level of hygiene that you keep for blogging and never ever login while using your
regular browser. If you have a public social network life, avoid it all together. You will
eventually make a mistake.
Don’t upload video, photo or audio files without using an editor to modify or
erase all the meta data (photos contain information up to the GPS coordinates of the
location the photo was taken at) that standard digital cameras, SmartPhones, recorders
and other devices add by default. The Metadata Anonymisation Toolkit or ExifTool
might help you with that.
Don’t leave a history. Add X-Robots-Tag to your http headers to stop the searching
spiders from indexing your website. That should include repositories like the Wayback
Machine from archive.org. If you don’t know how to do this, search along the lines of
“Robots Text File Generator”.
Don’t leave comments. If you must, maintain the levels of hygiene that you use
for blogging and always logout when you’re done and for god sakes do not troll around.
Hell hath no fury like a blogger scorned.
Don’t expect it to last. If you hit the pot and become a blogging sensation (like
58
4.2 Anonymous Email
Belle de Jour, the British PhD candidate who became a sensation and sold a book and
mused two TV shows about her double life as a high escort) there will be a legion of
journalists, tax auditors and obsessive fans scrutinizing your every move. You are only
human: they will get to you.
Don’t linger. If you realize you have already made any mistakes but nobody has
caught you yet, do close all your accounts, cover your tracks and start a totally new
identity. The Internet has infinite memory: one strike, and you’re out of the closet.
4.2 Anonymous Email

Every data packet traveling through the Internet contains information about its sender
and its recipient. This applies to email as well as any other network communication.
There are several ways to reduce identifying information but no way to remove it com-
pletely.
4.2.1 Sending From Throw-away Email Accounts

One option is to use a throw-away email account. This is an account set up at a service
like Gmail or Hotmail, used once or twice for anonymous exchange. When signing up for
the account, you will need to provide fake information about your name and location.
After using the account for a short amount of time, say 24 hours, you should never log
in again. If you need to communicate further, then create a new account.
It is very important to keep in mind that these services keep logs of the IP addresses
of those using them. If you are sending highly sensitive information, you will need to
combine a throw away email account with Tor in order keep your IP address hidden.
If you are not expecting a reply, then an anonymous remailer like AnonEmail or
Silentsender may be a useful solution. A remailer is a server that receives messages
with instructions on where to send the data and acts as a relay, forwarding it from a
generic address without revealing the identity of the original sender. This works best
when combined with an email provider like Hushmail or RiseUp who are specially set up
for secure email connections.
Both of these methods are useful, but only if you always remember that the interme-
diary himself knows where the original message came from and can read the messages as
they come in. Despite their claims to protect your identity, these services often have user
agreements that indicate their right “to disclose to third parties certain registration data
about you” or they are suspected to be compromised by secret services. The only way
to safely use this technique is to not trust these services at all, and apply extra security
measures: send via Tor using a throw-away email address.
If you only need to receive email, services like Mailinator and MintEmail give you an
email address that destroys itself after a few hours. When signing up for any account,
you should provide fake information about your name and location and protect yourself
by using Tor.
59
4.2.2 Be Careful about what you say!

The content of your message can give away your identity. If you mention details about
your life, your geography, social relations or personal appearance, people may be able
to determine who is sending the message. Even word choice and style of writing can be
used to guess who might be behind anonymous emails.
You should not use the same user name for different accounts or use a name that
you are already linked to like a childhood nickname or a favorite book character. You
should never use your secret email for normal personal communication. If someone knows
your secrets, do not communicate with that person using this email address. If your life
depends on it, change your secret email address often as well as between providers.
Finally, once you have your whole email set up to protect your identity, vanity is your
worst enemy. You need to avoid being distinct. Don’t try to be clever, flamboyant or
unique. Even the way you break your paragraphs is valuable data for identification,
especially these days when every school essay and blog post you have written is available
in the Internet. Powerful organizations can actually use these texts to build up a database
that can “fingerprint” writing.
4.3 File Sharing

The term File Sharing refers to the practice of sharing files on a network, often with
widest possible distribution in mind. Unfortunately in recent years the term has come to
be popularly associated with the distribution of content registered under certain copy-
right licenses that disallow the distribution of copies (eg. supposed criminal activity).
Regardless of this new association, file sharing remains a vital tool for many world wide:
from academic groups to scientific networks and open source software communities.
In this book we wish to help you learn to privately distribute files, with other consenting
people, without the content of that exchange known to others or the transaction stopped
by an external party. Your basic right to anonymity and to not be spied upon protects
that. Suspicions that those things might have been stolen and are not yours to give does
not undermine that same and original right to privacy.
The history of the internet is littered with attacks of different types on publication
and distribution nodes, conducted by different means (court order, Distributed Denial of
Service attacks). What such events have demonstrated is that if one wants information
to be persistently available and robust against attack, it is a mistake to rely upon a single
node which can be neutralised.
This has recently been demonstrated by the takedown of the direct download service
Megaupload, whose disappearance led to the loss of massive amounts of its users’ data,
much of it extraneous even to the alleged copyright infringements which formed the
pretext for its closure. In similar vein ISPs will often take down web sites containing
disputed material merely because it is cheaper for them to do so than to go to court
and have a judge decide. Such policies leave the door open to groundless bullying by all
manner of companies, organisations and individuals ready and willing to make aggressive
use of legal letters. Both direct download services and ISPs are examples of centralised
60
4.3 File Sharing
structures which cannot be relied upon both because they are a single point of failure for
attack, and because their commercial interests are not aligned with those of their users.
Spreading files through distribution, decentralising the data, is the best way to defend
against such attacks. In the following section two realms of filesharing are profiled.
The first are standard p2p technologies whose technical design is determined by the
efficiency of the networks in enabling speed of distribution and discovery of content
through associated search mechanisms. The second focuses on I2P as an example of a
so-called darknet, its design prioritises security and anonymity over other criteria offering
a robust, if less resource efficient, path to persistent availability.
The means of sharing files mentioned below are just some examples of the many P2P
technologies that were developed since 1999. BitTorrent and Soulseek have very different
approaches, both however were designed for easy usability by a wide public and have
significant user communities. I2P is of more recent development and has a small user
base.
BitTorrent has become the most popular P2P file-sharing system. The controversy
that surrounds it nowadays ironically seems to help the community grow, while police,
lobbied by powerful copyright holders seize torrent-tracker server hardware and pursue
their operators, sometimes to the point of jailing them as in the case of The Pirate Bay.
Soulseek - while it has never been the most popular file-sharing platform, neither did
it ever have the ambition. Soulseek focuses on the exchange of music between enthusiasts,
underground producers, fans and researchers. The system and the community around
it is completely isolated from the Web: Soulseek files can’t be linked to. They are kept
exclusively on the hard-disks of Soulseek users. The content of the network fully depends
on how many members are connected and what they share. Files are transferred only
between two users at a time and nobody but those two users are involved. Because of
this ‘introverted’ character - and the specificity of its content - Soulseek has stayed out
of sight of legislation and non-pro-copy copyright advocates.
I2P is one of several systems developed to resist censorship (others include FreeNet
and Tor) and has a much smaller user community, it is highlighted here because of its
inclusion of Bit Torrent functionality within its basic installation. These systems can
also be used to provide hidden services, amongst others, enabling you to publish web
pages within their environments.
4.3.1 BitTorrent
BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer (P2P) protocol that facilitates distribution of data stored
across multiple nodes/participants of the network. There are no central servers or hubs,
each node is capable of exchanging data with any other node, sometimes hundreds of
them simultaneously. The fact that data is exchanged in parts between numerous nodes
allows for great download speeds for popular content on BitTorrent networks, making it
quickly the de facto P2P file-sharing platform.
If you are using BitTorrent to circulate material of ambiguous legality, you should
know that enforcement agents typically collect information on allegedly infringing peers
by participating in torrent swarms, observing and documenting the behaviour of other
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peers. The large number of users creates a difficulty for the enforcement system simply at
the level of scaling up - there simply are not the resources to pursue every user. Any court
case will require actual evidence of data transfer between your client and another (and
usually evidence of you uploading), it is enough that you provide even part of the file,
not the file in its entirety, for a prosecution to have legs. But if you prefer to lean towards
greater caution, you should use a VPN to route your BitTorrent traffic, as detailed in
the Using VPN chapter.
Leeching (downloading) of a file from BitTorrent network begins with a torrent file or
magnet link. A torrent file is a small file containing information on the larger files you
want to download. The torrent file tells your torrent client the names of the files being
shared, a URL for the tracker and a hash code, which is a unique code representing, and
derived from, the underlying file - kind of like an ID or catalog number. The client can
use that hash to find others seeding (uploading) those files, so you can download from
their computers and check the authenticity of the chunks as they arrive.
A Magnet Link does away with the need for a torrent file and is essentially a hyperlink
containing a description for that torrent, which your torrent client can immediately use
to start finding people sharing the file you are willing to download. Magnet links don’t
require a tracker, instead they rely on Distributed Hash Table (DHT) - which you can
read more about in the Glossary - and Peer Exchange. Magnet links do not refer to a
file by its location (e.g. by IP addresses of people who have the file, or URL) but rather
defines search parameters by which this file can be found. When a magnet link is loaded,
the torrent client initiates an availability search which is broadcast to other nodes and
is basically a shout-out “who’s got anything matching this hash?!”. Torrent client then
connects to the nodes which responded to the shout-out and begins to download the file.
BitTorrent uses encryption to prevent providers and other man-in-the-middle from
blocking and sniffing your traffic based on the content you exchange. Since BitTorrent
swarms (flocks of seeders and leechers) are free for everyone to join it is possible for
anyone to join a swarm and gather information about all connected peers. Using magnet
links will not prevent you from being seen in a swarm; any of the nodes sharing the same
file must communicate between each-other and thus, if just one of the nodes in your
swarm is rogue, it will be able to see your IP address. It will also be able to determine
if you are seeding the data by sending your node a download request.
One important aspect of using BitTorrent is worth a special mention. Every chunk
of data that you receive (leech) is being instantly shared (seeded) with other BitTorrent
users. Thus, a process of downloading transforms into a process of (involuntary) pub-
lishing, using a legal term - making available of that data, before the download is even
complete. While BitTorrent is often used to re-distribute freely available and legitimate
software, movies, music and other materials, its “making available” capacity created a lot
of controversy and led to endless legal battles between copyright holders and facilitators
of BitTorrent platforms. At the moment of writing this text, the co-founder of The Pi-
rate Bay Gottfrid Svartholm is being detained by Swedish police after an international
warrant was issued against him.
For these reasons, and a public relations campaign by copyright holders, use of Bit-
Torrent platforms has become practically analogous to piracy. And while the meaning
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4.3 File Sharing
of terms such as piracy, copyright and ownership in digital context is yet to be settled,
many ordinary BitTorrent users have been already prosecuted on the basis of breaking
copyright laws.
Most torrent clients allow you to block IP addresses of known copyright trolls us-
ing blacklists. Instead of using public torrents one can also join closed trackers or use
BitTorrent over VPN or Tor.
In situations when you feel that you should be worried about your BitTorrent traffic
and it’s anonymity go through the following check-list:
• Check if your torrent client supports peer-blacklists.

• Check if the peer-blacklist definitions are updated on a daily basis.
• Make sure your client supports all recent protocols - DHT, PEX and Magnet links.
• Choose a torrent client that supports encrypted peers and enable it.
• Upgrade or change your torrent client if any of the above mentioned options is not
available.
• Use VPN connection to disguise your BitTorrent traffic from your ISP. Make sure
your VPN provider allows P2P traffic. See more tips and recommendations in
Using VPN chapter.
• Do not leech and seed stuff you don’t know much about.
• Be suspicious of high ratings and overly-positive comments regarding particular
torrent link.
4.3.2 SoulSeek
As a peer to peer (P2P) file sharing program, the content available is determined by
the users of the Soulseek client, and what files they choose to share. The network has
historically had a diverse mix of music, including underground and independent artists,
unreleased music, such as demos and mix-tapes, bootlegs, etc. It is is entirely financed
by donations, with no advertising or user fees.
“Soulseek does not endorse nor condone the sharing of copyrighted materials.
You should only share and download files which you are legally allowed to,
or have otherwise received permission to, share.” (http://www.soulseekqt.
net)
Soulseek network depends on a pair of central servers. One server supports the original
client and network, and the other supporting the newer network. While these central
servers are key to coordinating searches and hosting chat rooms, they do not actually
play a part in the transfer of files between users, which takes place directly between the
users concerned.
Users can search for items; the results returned being a list of files whose names match
the search term used. Searches may be explicit or may use wildcards/patterns or terms
to be excluded. A feature specific to the Soulseek search engine is the inclusion of the
folder names and file paths in the search list. This allows users to search by folder name.
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The list of search results shows details, such as the full name and path of the file,
its size, the user who is hosting the file, together with that users’ average transfer rate,
and, in the case of mp3 files, brief details about the encoded track itself, such as bit
rate, length, etc. The resulting search list may then be sorted in a variety of ways and
individual files (or folders) chosen for download.
Unlike BitTorrent, Soulseek does not support multi-source downloading or “swarming”
like other post-Napster clients, and must fetch a requested file from a single source.
While the Soulseek software is free, a donation scheme exists to support the pro-
gramming effort and cost of maintaining the servers. In return for donations, users are
granted the privilege of being able to jump ahead of non-donating users in a queue when
downloading files (but only if the files are not shared over a local area network). The
Soulseek protocol search algorithms are not published, as those algorithms run on the
server. However several Open Source implementations of server and client software exist
for Linux, OS X and Windows.
Regarding privacy and copyright issues Soulseek stand quite far away from BitTorrent
too. Soulseek has been taken to court only once, in 2008, but even that did not go
anywhere. There are no indications of Soulseek users ever being brought to court or
accused of illegal distribution of copyrighted materials or any other ‘digital-millenium’
crimes.
If you want to use the Soulseek network with some degree of real anonymity, you will
need to use it over a VPN.
4.3.3 I2P
I2P began as a fork from the Freenet project, originally conceived as a method for
censorship-resistant publishing and distribution. From their website:
The I2P project was formed in 2003 to support the efforts of those trying to
build a more free society by offering them an uncensorable, anonymous, and
secure communication system. I2P is a development effort producing a low
latency, fully distributed, autonomous, scalable, anonymous, resilient, and
secure network. The goal is to operate successfully in hostile environments
- even when an organization with substantial financial or political resources
attacks it. All aspects of the network are open source and available without
cost, as this should both assure the people using it that the software does
what it claims, as well as enable others to contribute and improve upon it to
defeat aggressive attempts to stifle free speech. (http://www.i2p2.de/)
For a guide to installing the software and configuring your browser see section on Secure
Filesharing - Installing I2P. Once complete, on launch you will be brought to a console
page containing links to popular sites and services. In addition to the usual webpages
(referred to as eePsites) there are a range of applications services available ranging from
the blogging tool Syndie to a built in BitTorrent client which functions through a web
interface.
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5 Secure Calls And Sms
5.1 Secure Calls

Phone calls made over the normal telecommunications system have some forms of pro-
tection from third party interception, i.e. GSM mobile phones calls are encrypted. GSM
calls are not encrypted end-to-end however and telephone providers are increasingly
forced to give governments and law enforement organisations access to your calls. In
addition to this the encryption used in GSM has been cracked and now anyone with
enough interest and capital can buy the equipment to intercept calls. A GSM Intercep-
tor (http://en.intercept.ws/catalog/2087.html is an off the shelf device to record
mobile phone conversations when in the vicinity of the call. Centralised or proprietary
systems like Skype also encrypt calls but have built in backdoors for secret services and
governments and are at the behest of their owner (in Skype’s case Microsoft). Addition-
ally, there are a whole classification of devices called IMSI catchers which can further
gather information about mobile phones, including the content of your communication.
However, there are a variety of tools you can use to secure your phone using end-to-end
encryption.
5.1.1 iOS - Installing Signal

From the makers of TextSecure is a free and open source tool named Signal. https://
itunes.apple.com/us/app/signal-private-messenger/id874139669?mt=8 Signal uses
similar same encryption methods as SilentCircle but provides their service with free and
using open source tools. Additionally, the GUI is extremely easy to use. Signal will
transparently detect if you are calling a fellow Signal user and ask if you wish to make a
“secure call” (with Signal) or “insecure call” (without end-to-end encryption).
5.1.2 Android - Installing RedPhone

Also from the makers of Signal, there is a free and open source tool named Redphone.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.thoughtcrime.redphone&hl=
en Again, RedPhone uses the similar encryption methods as SilentCircle but provides
their service with free and using open source tools. Again, the GUI will transparently
detect if you are calling a fellow Signal or RedPhone user and ask if you wish to make
a “secure call” (with RedPhone) or “insecure call” (without end-to-end encryption). Un-
fortunately, RedPhone requires the Google Play framework so it will not work on phones
without it (stock Cyanogenmod or similar ROMs).
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5 Secure Calls And Sms
5.2 Secure Messaging

SMS are short messages sent between mobile phones. The text is sent without encryption
and can be read and stored by mobile phone providers and other parties with access to
the network infrastructure to which you’re connected. To protect your messages from
interception you need to use end-to-end encryption on your text messages.
5.2.1 Android
• TextSecure - WhisperSystems provide an SMS encryption system for Android
called TextSecure, based on public key cryptography which ensures that messages
are encrypted on the wire and are also stored in an encrypted database on the
device, however to ensure encryption on the wire, both parties must be using the
application. It is Open Source and available through the Play Store
The encryption technology behind it (named //axolotl//) extends the OTR protocol
so that messages can be encrypted and send even if not all of the communicating parties
are online.
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6 Basic Email Security
6.1 Start Using Thunderbird
Figure 6.1: Thunderbird
In upcoming sections, we will be using Mozilla’s Thunderbird e-mail program to show

you how to configure your e-mail client for maximum security. Similar to Mozilla’s Firefox
browser, Thunderbird has many security advantages over its counterparts like Apple Mail
and Outlook.
Thunderbird is a so-called “mail user agent” (MUA). This is different from web-based e-
mail services like Google’s Gmail. You must install the Thunderbird application on your
computer. Thunderbird has a nice interface and features that enable you to manage
multiple mailboxes, organize messages into folders, and search through mails easily.
Thunderbird can be configured to work with your existing e-mail account, whether
that account is through your Internet Service Provider (such as Comcast) or through an
web-based email provider (such as Gmail).
Using Thunderbird has many advantages over using web-based e-mail interfaces. These
will be discussed in the following chapter. To summarize, though, Thunderbird enables
much greater privacy and security than web-based e-mail services.
This section provides information on how to install Thunderbird on Windows, Mac OS
X, and Ubuntu.
6.1.1 Installing Thunderbird on Windows

Installing Thunderbird involves two steps: first, download the software and then run the
installation program.
1. Use your web browser to visit the Thunderbird download page at http://www.
mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/. This page detects your computer’s
operating system and language, and recommends the best version of Thunderbird
for you to use.
If you want to use Thunderbird in a different language or with a different operating

system, click the Other Systems and Languages link on the right side of the page and
select the version that you need.
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Figure 6.2: Thunderbird Install
2. Click the download button to save the installation program to your computer.
Click the Save button to save the Thunderbird Setup file to your computer.
3. Close all applications running on your computer.

4. Find the setup file on your computer (it’s usually in the Downloads folder or on
your desktop) and then double-click it to start the installation. The first thing that
the installer does is display the Welcome to the Mozilla Thunderbird Setup
Wizard screen.
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Click the Next button to start the installation. If you want to cancel it, click the
Cancel button.
5. The next thing that you see is the Setup Type screen. For most users the Stan-
dard setup option is good enough for their needs. The Custom setup option is
recommended for experienced users only. Note that Thunderbird installs itself as
your default mail application. If you do not want this, clear the checkbox labeled
Use Thunderbird as my default mail application.
Click the Next button to continue the installation.
6. After Thunderbird has been installed, click the Finish button to close the setup
wizard.
If the Launch Mozilla Thunderbird now checkbox is selected, Thunderbird starts

after it has been installed.
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6.1.2 Installing Thunderbird on Ubuntu

There are two different procedures for installing Thunderbird on Ubuntu: one for version
10.04 or later, and one for earlier versions of Ubuntu. We describe both below.
Thunderbird will not run without the following libraries or packages installed on your
computer:
• GTK+ 2.10 or higher

• GLib 2.12 or higher
• Pango 1.14 or higher
• X.Org 1.0 or higher
Mozilla recommends that a Linux system also has the following libraries or packages
installed:
• NetworkManager 0.7 or higher

• DBus 1.0 or higher
• HAL 0.5.8 or higher
• GNOME 2.16 or higher
6.1.3 Installing Thunderbird on Ubuntu 12.04 or newer

If you’re using Ubuntu 12.04 or newer, the easiest way to install Thunderbird is through
the Ubuntu Software Center.
1. Type Software in the Untiy search window.
2. Click on ‘Ubuntu Software Center’
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3. Type “Thunderbird” in the search box and press the Enter on your keyboard. The
Ubuntu Software Center finds Thunderbird in its list of available software.
4. Click the Install button. If Thunderbird needs any additional libraries, the Ubuntu
Software Center alerts you and installs them along with Thunderbird.
You can find the shortcut to start Thunderbird in the Internet option under the Ap-
plications menu:
6.1.4 Installing Thunderbird on Mac OS X

To install Thunderbird on your Mac, follow these steps:
1. Use your web browser to visit the Thunderbird download page at http://www.
mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/. This page detects your computer’s
operating system and language, and it recommends the best version of Thunderbird
for you to use.
2. Download the Thunderbird disk image. When the download is complete, the disk
image may automatically open and mount a new volume called Thunderbird.
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If the volume did not mount automatically, open the Download folder and double-click
the disk image to mount it. A Finder window appears:
3. Drag the Thunderbird icon into your Applications folder. You’ve installed Thun-
derbird!
4. Optionally, drag the Thunderbird icon from the Applications folder into the Dock.
Choosing the Thunderbird icon from the Dock lets you quickly open Thunderbird
from there.
Note: When you run Thunderbird for the first time, newer versions of Mac OS X
(10.5 or later) will warn you that the application Thunderbird.app was downloaded from
the Internet.
If you downloaded Thunderbird from the Mozilla site, click the Open button.
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6.1.5 Starting Thunderbird for the first time
After you have installed Thunderbird for the first time you will be guided through the
configuration of your mail account. These settings are defined by your e-mail provider
(your Internet Service Provider or web-based e-mail service provider). The next chapter
describes how to set up your account and configure it for maximum security.
6.2 Setting up secure connections
There is a right (secure) way to configure your connection to your provider’s mail servers
and a wrong (insecure) way. The most fundamental aspect of e-mail security is the type
of connection that you make to your e-mail provider’s mail server.
Whenever possible, you should connect using the SSL (Secure Socket Layer) and TLS
(Transport Layer Security) protocols. (STARTTLS, which is another option available
when configuring an account, is a variation of SSL / TLS.) These protocols prevent
your own system (beyond Thunderbird) and any points between your system and the
mail server from intercepting and obtaining your password. SSL / TLS also prevent
eavesdroppers from reading the content of your messages.
These protocols, however, only secure the connection between your computer and the
mail server. They do not secure the information channel all the way to the message
recipient. Once the mail servers forward the message for delivery, the message may be
intercepted and read by points in between the mail server and the recipient.
This is where PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) comes in, which is described in the next
chapter.
The first step in establishing e-mail security is a secure connection between your system
and the mail servers. This chapter describes how to set up your e-mail account the right
way.
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6.2.1 Configuration requirements

When you configure an account, Thunderbird attempts to determine (from the email
account and the account details that you provide) the connection parameters to your
email provider. While Thunderbird knows the connection parameters for many email
providers, it does not know them all. If the parameters are not known to Thunderbird,
you will need to provide the following information to configure your account:
• Your username
• Your password
• Incoming server: name (such as imap.example.com), protocol (POP or IMAP),
port (by default, 110), and security protocol
• Outgoing server: name (such as smtp.example.com), port (by default, 25), and
security protocol
You should have received this information from your hosting provider. Alternatively,
you can usually find this information on the support pages on the website of your hosting
provider. In our example we will be using the Gmail server configuration. You can use
Thunderbird with your Gmail account. To do so, you must change a configuration setting
in your account. If you are not using a Gmail account, skip the next section.
6.2.2 Preparing a Gmail account for use with Thunderbird

Log in to your Gmail account in your browser. Select Settings from options in the top
right, then go to the tab Forwarding and POP/IMAP. Click Enable IMAP and
then Save Changes.
Figure 6.13: Gmail enable IMAP
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6.2.3 Configuring Thunderbird to use SSL/TLS

When you start up Thunderbird for the first time, you will enter a step-by-step config-
uration procedure for setting up your first account. (You can invoke the account setup
interface any time by selecting File | New | Mail Account). On the first screen, you
will be asked for your name, your email-address and your password. The value you enter
for your name does not have to be your real name. It will be shown to the recipient of
your messages. Enter the information and click Continue.
Figure 6.14: Thunderbird Configure
On the next screen, Thunderbird will attempt to determine the server names based
on your email address. This may take some time, and will only work if Thunderbird
knows the settings for the mail servers for your email provider. In either case you will
be presented with a window where you can modify the settings. In the example be-
low, Thunderbird has detected the settings automatically. You can see the protocol at
the right side of the server names. This should be either SSL/TLS or STARTTLS.
Otherwise your connection is insecure and you should attempt manual setup.
When you are finished, click Create account. If Thunderbird could not determine
your server settings, click on Manual setup to configure the server names yourself.
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6.2.4 Manual setup

Use the Account Settings interface to manually configure accounts in Thunderbird. The
Account Settings dialog will automatically open if you select Manual setup in the
configuration wizard. In this case we are only interested in the incoming and outgoing
mail server names, and the protocol we use to connect with them. As you can see in the
examples below, we enter the Gmail server names and we force them to use TLS/SSL,
a secure method to connect to the servers.
Under ‘Server Settings’, we will find only the incoming (IMAP) server and its settings
for that specific account.
After Server Name enter the name of the IMAP server, in this case mail.gmail.com.
As you can see we have selected ‘SSL/TLS’ under the connection security setting.
This enforces encryption. Do not be scared by the authentication method Normal
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password. The password will be automatically encrypted due to our secured connections
to the server.
Finally, configure the outgoing server for the account. Click on Outgoing Server
(SMTP) in the left panel.
Again, we have selected SSL/TLS under Connection security. The port will default
to 465 and this should generally not have to be changed.
6.2.5 Finishing the setup, different encryption methods

Test your Thunderbird setup by trying to send and receive mails. Some email hosting
providers may not support the SSL/TLS protocol, which is the preferred choice. You will
get an error message saying the authentication protocol is not supported by the server.
You may then switch to using STARTTLS instead. In the above two screens, select
‘STARTTLS’ under ‘Connection security’. If this method also fails, contact your email
hosting provider and ask them if they provide another way to securely connect to their
servers. If they do not allow you to securely connect to their servers, then you should
complain and seriously consider switching to a different provider.
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6.3 Some Additional Security Settings
6.2.6 Returning to the configuration screens

At any time you can reconfigure your email accounts by going to the Thunderbird menu
bar and clicking Edit | Account Settings (Linux), Tools | Account Settings (Win-
dows and Mac OS X).

Thunderbird provides additional security measures to protect you from junk mail, identity
theft, viruses (with the help of your anti-virus software, of course), intellectual property
theft, and malicious web sites.
We will look at the following Thunderbird security features. First a little background
on why you need to consider some of these measures:
• Adaptive junk mail controls. Adaptive junk mail controls allow you to train
Thunderbird to identify junk email (SPAM) and remove it from your inbox. You
can also mark messages as junk mail manually if your email provider’s system
misses the junk mail and lets it go through.
• Integration with anti-virus software. If your anti-virus software supports
Thunderbird, you can use that software to quarantine messages that contain viruses
or other malicious content. If you’re wondering what anti-virus software works with
Thunderbird, you can find a list here: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Antivirus_
software.
• Master password. For your convenience, you can have Thunderbird remember
each of your individual passwords of your e-mail accounts. You can specify a
master password that you enter each time you start Thunderbird. This will enable
Thunderbird to open all your email accounts with your saved passwords.
• Restrictions on cookies. Some blogs and websites attempt to send cookies
(a piece of text that stores information from Web sites on your computer) with
their RSS feeds. These cookies are often used by content providers to provide
targeted advertising. Thunderbird rejects cookies by default, but you can configure
Thunderbird to accept some or all cookies.
In the Security Preferences section of Thunderbird’s Options/Preferences dialog box

you can set up the preferences for these features.
• In Windows and Mac OS X, go to the ‘Tools’ menu and click ‘Options’.

• On Ubuntu or other versions of Linux, go to the ‘Edit’ menu and click ‘Preferences’.
6.3.1 Junk mail settings

1. In the Preferences/Options dialog box, click ‘Security’ and then click the ‘Junk’
tab.
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Figure 6.19: Thunderbird Security
2. Do the following:
• To tell Thunderbird that it should handle messages marked as junk, select the
check box labelled ‘When I mark message as junk’.
• To have Thunderbird move these messages to a junk folder, select the ‘Move
them to account’s ’Junk’ folder’ radio button.
• To have Thunderbird delete junk mail upon receiving it, select the ‘Delete
them’ radio button.
3. Thunderbird will mark junk message as read if you select the check box labeled
‘Mark messages determined to be Junk as read’.
4. If you want to keep a log of junk mail received, select the ‘Enable junk filter logging’
check box.
5. Click the ‘OK’ button to close the ‘Options/Preferences’ dialog box.
6.3.2 Scam detection and warning system

1. In the Preferences/Options dialog box, click ‘Security’ and then click the ‘E-mail
Scams’ tab.
2. To have Thunderbird warn you about possible email scams, select the check box
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labelled ‘Tell me if the message I’m read is a suspected email scam’. To turn off
this feature, deselect this check box.
6.3.3 Anti-virus integration

1. In the Preferences/Options dialog box, click ‘Security’ and then click the ‘Anti-
Virus’ tab.
2. To turn on anti-virus integration, select the check box labeled ‘Allow anti-virus
clients to quarantine individual incoming messages’. To turn off this feature, dese-
lect this check box.
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6.3.4 Set a master password

1. In the Preferences/Options dialog box, click ‘Security’ and then click the ‘Pass-
words’ tab.
2. Select the check box labeled ‘Use a master password’.

3. Enter your password into the ‘Enter new password’ and ‘Re-enter password’ fields.
4. Click the ‘OK’ button to close the Change Master Password dialog box.
5. If you want to see the passwords that you have saved in Thunderbird, click the
‘Saved Passwords’ button. This will open the ‘Saved Passwords’ dialog box.
6. To see the passwords, click the ‘Show Passwords’ button.
7. Click the ‘Close’ button to close ‘Saved Passwords’ dialog box.

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6.3.5 Adaptive junk mail controls

You need to first open Account Settings window. Note that settings configured in the
Account Settings window apply only to the account that you select in the Folders pane.
You must configure local folders separately.
1. In the Folders pane right-click on an account name and select ‘Settings’.
2. In Windows or Mac go to the ‘Tools’ menu and select ‘Account Settings’. In Linux,
go to the ‘Edit menu’ and select ‘Account Settings’.
3. To set adaptive junk mail controls for a specific account, pick an account and click
‘Junk Settings’.
4. To turn on the controls, select the check box labeled ‘Enable adaptive junk mail
controls for this account’. To turn them off, deselect this check box.
5. If you want the controls to ignore mail from senders in your Address Book, select
the check boxes next to any of the listed address books.
6. To use a mail filter such as SpamAssassin or SpamPal, select the check box labelled
‘Trust junk mail headers sent by:’ and pick a filter from the menu.
7. Select the check box labeled ‘Move new junk messages to’ if you want to move junk
mail to a specified folder. Then select the destination folder to be either at your
email provider or a local folder on your computer.
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8. Select the ‘Automatically delete junk mail other 14 days’ check box to have Thun-
derbird regularly remove junk mail. To change the time period for this process,
enter a different number (in days) in the text box.
9. Click ‘OK’ to save your changes.
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7.1 Introducing mail encryption (PGP)
Figure 7.1: PGP
This chapter will introduce you to some basic concepts behind mail encryption. It is
important to read to get some feeling of how mail encryption actually works and what its
caveats and limitations are. PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) is the protocol we shall use for
e-mail encryption. This protocol allows us to digitally sign and encrypt mail messages.
It works on an end-to-end basis: messages will be encrypted on your own computer and
will only be decrypted by the recipient of the message. There is no possibility for a
‘man-in-the-middle’ to decipher the contents of your encrypted message. This excludes
the subject lines and the ‘from’ and ‘to’ addresses, which unfortunately are not encrypted
in this protocol.
After having introduced these basic concepts, the next chapters will give you a hands-
on guide to install the necessary tools on your operating system and get encryption up
and running. We will focus on using Enigmail which is an extension for Thunderbird that
helps you manage PGP encryption for your email. The installation process for Enigmail
/ PGP is different for Mac OSX, Windows and Ubuntu so please see the appropriate
chapters in this section for instructions.
Figure 7.2: GPG Schema
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7.1.1 Using a key-pair to encrypt your mail

A crucial concept in mail encryption is the usage of so-called key-pairs. A key-pair is just
two separate files sitting on your harddisk or USB stick. Whenever you want to encrypt
mails for a certain mail-account, you will need to have these files available to yourself
in some form. If they are sitting at home on your computer, you will not be able to
decrypt mail at the office. Putting them on a USB stick should provide a solution to this
problem.
A key-pair consists of the two different keys: a public key and a secret key.
The public key: you can give this key to other people, so they can send you encrypted
mails. This file does not have to be kept secret.
The secret key: this basically is your secret file to decrypt emails people send to you.
It should never be given to someone else.
7.1.2 Sending encrypted mails to other people: you need their public key
I have five colleagues at work and I want to send encrypted mails to them. I need to have
public keys for each of their addresses. They can send me these keys using ordinary mail,
or they can give them to me in person, or put them on a USB stick, or they can have
their keys on a website. It doesn’t matter, as long as I can trust those keys really belong
to the person I want to correspond with. My software puts the keys on my ‘keyring’, so
my mail application knows how to send them encrypted mails.
7.1.3 Receiving encrypted mails from other people: they need my public
key
For my five (or thirty) colleagues to be able to send me encrypted mails, the process goes
the other way around. I need to distribute my public key to each of them.
7.1.4 Conclusion: encryption requires public key distribution!

All the people in a network of friends or colleagues wanting to send each other encrypted
emails, need to distribute their public keys to each other, while keeping their secret keys
a closely guarded secret. The software described in this chapter will help you do this key
management.
7.2 Installing PGP on Windows

To complicate matters a little - PGP is the protocol used for encrypting e-mail by various
softwares. To get PGP to work with Thunderbird we need to install GPG - a free software
implementation of PGP and Enigmail - an extension of Thunderbird that allows you to
use GPG. . . Confused?! Don’t worry about it, all you have to know is how to encrypt
your email with PGP and you need to install both GPG and Enigmail. Here is how to
do it. . .
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7.2.1 Installing PGP (GPG) on Microsoft Windows

The GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG) is software which is required to send PGP encrypted
or signed emails. It is necessary to install this software before being able to do any
encryption.
Head to the website of the Gpg4win project. Go to http://gpg4win.org/
On the left side of the website, you will find a ‘Download’ link. Click on it.
Figure 7.3: GPG Windows
This will take you to a page where you can download the Gpg4Win. Click on the
button which offers you the latest stable version (not beta) of Gpg4Win.
Figure 7.4: GPG Windows
This will download you an .exe file. Depending on your browser, you may have to
double-click on this downloaded file (named something like gpg4qin-2.1.0.exe) before
something happens. Windows will ask you if you are sure you want to install this pro-
gram. Answer yes.
Then complete the installation by agreeing to the license, choosing appropriate lan-
guage and accepting the default options by clicking ‘Next’, unless you have a particular
reason not to.
The installer will ask you where to put the application on your computer. The default
setting should be fine but make a note of it as we may need this later. Click on ‘Next’
when you agree.
7.2.2 Installing with the Enigmail extension

After you have successfully installed the PGP software as we described above you are
now ready to install the Enigmail add-on.
Enigmail is a Thunderbird add-on that lets you protect the privacy of your email
conversations. Enigmail is simply an interface that lets you use PGP encryption from
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within Thunderbird.
Enigmail is based on public-key cryptography. In this method, each individual must
generate her/his own personal key pair. The first key is known as the private key. It is
protected by a password or passphrase, guarded and never shared with anyone.
The second key is known as the public key. This key can be shared with any of
your correspondents. Once you have a correspondent’s public key you can begin sending
encrypted e-mails to this person. Only she will be able to decrypt and read your emails,
because she is the only person who has access to the matching private key.
Similarly, if you send a copy of your own public key to your e-mail contacts and keep
the matching private key secret, only you will be able to read encrypted messages from
those contacts.
Enigmail also lets you attach digital signatures to your messages. The recipient of your
message who has a genuine copy of your public key will be able to verify that the e-mail
comes from you, and that its content was not tampered with on the way. Similarly, if you
have a correspondent’s public key, you can verify the digital signatures on her messages.
7.2.3 Installation steps

To begin installing Enigmail, perform the following steps:
1. Open Thunderbird, then Select Tools > Add-ons to activate the Add-ons win-
dow; the Add-ons window will appear with the default Get Add-ons pane enabled.
2. Enter enigmail in the search bar, like below, and click on the search icon.
Figure 7.5: Enigmail Install
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3. Simply click on the ‘Add to Thunderbird’ button to start the installation.
4. Thunderbird will ask you if you are certain you want to install this add-on. We
trust this application so we should click on the ‘Install now’ button.
5. After some time the installation should be completed and the following window
should appear. Please click on the ‘Restart Thunderbird’ button.
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7.3 Installing PGP on OSX

The GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG) is software which enables you to send PGP encrypted
or signed emails. It is necessary to install this software before being able to do any
encryption. This chapter covers the installation steps required to install GnuPG on Mac
OSX.
7.3.1 Getting started

For this chapter we assume you have the latest version of:
• OSX installed (10.6.7)

• Thunderbird (3.1.10)
Note on OSX Mail: It is possible to use PGP with the build-in mail program of
OSX. But we do not recommend this because this option relies on a hack of the program
which is neither open or supported by its developer and breaks with every update of
the mail program. So unless you really have no other option we advice you to switch to
Mozilla Thunderbird as your default mail program if you want to use PGP.
7.3.2 Downloading and installing the Software

1. For OSX there is a bundle available which will install everything you need in one in-
stallation. You can get it by directing your browser to http://www.gpgtools.org/
and clicking on the big blue disk with “Download GPGTools Installer” written under
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it. It will redirect you to another page on http://www.gpgtools.org/installer/

index.html where you can actually download the software.
(nb. We are using the latest version Firefox for this manual, so the screens might look
a little bit different if you are using a different browser)
2. Download the software by choosing ‘Save File’ and clicking ‘OK’ in the dialogue.
3. Navigate to the folder where you normally store your downloads (Mostly the desk-
top or the downloads folder surprisingly) en double click the ‘.DMG’ file to open
the virtual disk containing the installer.
4. Open the installer by double-clicking on the icon.
5. The program will check your computer to see if it can run on the computer.
(Note, if you’re Mac is bought before 2006 it will not have an intel processor required
to run this software and the installation will fail. Sadly it is beyond the scope op this
manual to also take into account computers over five year old)
You will be guided by the program through the next steps like accepting the license
agreement. But stop pressing all the OK’s and Agrees as soon as you come to the
‘Installation Type’ screen:
6. Clicking ‘Customize’ will open this screen where you several options of programs
and software to install. You can click on each one of them to get a little bit of
information on what is is, what it does and why you might need it.
As said in the intro; we advise against using Apple Mail in combination with PGP.
Therefore you won’t be needing ‘GPGMail’, as this enables PGP on Apple Mail, and you
can uncheck it.
‘Enigmail’ on the other hand is very important as it is the component that will enable
Thunderbird to use PGP. In the screen shot here it is greyed out as the installer wasn’t
able to identify my installation of Thunderbird. Since this seems to be a bug. You can
also install Enigmail from within Thunderbird as is explained in another chapter.
If the option is not greyed out in your installation, you should tick it.
After you checked all the components you want to install click ‘Install’ to proceed. The
installer will ask you for your password and after you enter that the installation will run
and complete; Hooray!
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Figure 7.8: GPG Install
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7.3.3 Installing up Engimail

1. Open Thunderbird, then Select Tools > Add-ons to activate the Add-ons win-
dow; the Add-ons window will appear with the default Get Add-ons pane enabled.
In the Add-On window, you can search for ‘Enigmail’ and install the extension by
clicking ‘Add to Thunderbird . . . ’
2. After you open the Add-On window, you can search for ‘Enigmail’ and install the
extension by clicking ‘Add to Thunderbird . . . ’
3. Click on ‘Install Now’ to download and install the extension.
Be aware that you will have to restart Thunderbird to use the functionality
of this extension!
Now that you have successfully downloaded and installed Enigmail and PGP you can
go on to the Chapter that deals with setting up the software for use.
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7.4 Installing PGP on Ubuntu

We will use the Ubuntu Software Centre for installing PGP (Enigmail and accessories).
First open the Ubuntu Software Center through the Unity menu by typing ‘software’ into
the Unity search area
Figure 7.18: PGP Install
Click on the ‘Ubuntu Software Center’.

Type into the search field ‘Enigmail’ and search results should be returned automati-
cally:
Highlight the Enigmail item (it should be highlighted by default) and click ‘Install’
and you will be asked to authenticate the installation process.
Enter your password and click ‘Authenticate’. The installation process will begin.
When the process is completed you get very little feedback from Ubuntu. The progress
bar at the top left disappears. The ‘In Progress’ text on the right also disappears.
Enigmail should now be installed.
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7.5 Installing GPG on Android
Figure 7.19: PGP Install
7.5 Installing GPG on Android

With the growing usage of mobile phones for e-mail, it’s interesting to be able to use
GPG also on your mobile. This way you can still read the messages sent to you in GPG
on your phone and not only on your computer.
Install the Android Privacy Guard (APG) and K-9 Mail applications to your Android
device from the Google Play Store or another trusted source.
1. Generate a new private key that uses DSA-Elgamal with your PC’s GPG installa-
tion (You can only create keys with up to 1024bit key length on Android itself).
2. Copy the private key to your Android device.
3. Import the private key to APG. You may wish to have APG automatically delete
the plaintext copy of your private key from your Android device’s filesystem.
4. Set-up your e-mail accounts in K-9 Mail.
5. In the settings for each account, under Cryptography, make sure that K-9 Mail
knows to use APG. You can also find options here to make K-9 Mail automatically
sign your messages and/or encrypt them if APG can find a public key for the
recipient(s).
6. Try it out.
7.5.1 APG
This is a small tool which makes GPG encryption possible on the phone. You can use
APG to manage your private and public keys. The options in the application are quite
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straightforward if you are a little knowledge of GPG in general.

Management of keys is not very well implemented yet. The best way is to manually
copy all your public keys to the SD card in the APG folder. Then it’s easy to import
your keys. After you’ve imported your public and private keys, GPG encrypting, signing
and decrypting will be available for other applications as long as these applications have
integrated encryption/GPG.
7.5.2 GPG enabled e-mail on Android: K-9 Mail

The default mail application does not support GPG. Luckily there is an excellent alter-
native: K-9 Mail. This application is based on the original Android mail application but
with some improvements. The application can use APG as it’s GPG provider. Setting
up K-9 Mail is straightforward and similar to setting up mail in the Android default mail
application. In the settings menu there is an option to enable “Cryptography” for GPG
mail signing.
If you want to access your GPG mails on your phone this application is a must have.
Please note, due to some small bugs in K-9 Mail and/or APG, it’s very advisable to
disable HTML mail and use only Plain text. HTML mails are not encrypted nicely and
are often not readable.
7.6 Creating your PGP keys

Enigmail comes with a nice wizard to help you create a public/private key pair (see the
chapter introducing PGP for an explanation). You can start the wizard at any time
within Thunderbird by selecting OpenPGP > Setup Wizard from the menu on top.
1. This is what the wizard looks like. Please read the text on every window carefully. It
provides useful information and helps you setup PGP to your personal preferences.
In the first screen, click on Next to start the configuration.
2. The wizard asks you whether you want to sign all your outgoing mail messages.
Signing all your messages is a good choice. If you choose not to, you can still
manually decide to sign a message when you are composing it. Click on the ‘Next’
button after you have made a decision.
3. On the following screen, the wizard asks you whether you want to encrypt all your
outgoing mail messages. Unlike signing of mails, encryption requires the recipient
to have PGP software installed. You should probably answer ‘no’ to this question,
so that you will send normal (unencrypted) mail by default. After you have made
your decision, click on the ‘Next’ button.
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Figure 7.20: GPG Keys
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4. On the following screen the wizard asks if it can change some of your mail formatting
settings to better work with PGP. It is a good choice to answer ‘Yes’ here. This
will mean that by default, mail will be composed in plain text rather than HTML.
Click on the ‘Next’ button after you have made your decision.
5. In the following screen, select one of your mail accounts; the default is selected
for you if you only have one. In the ‘Passphrase’ text box you must enter a pass-
word. This is a new password which is used to protect your private key. It is
very important to remember this password, because you cannot read your own
encrypted emails if you forget it. Make it a strong password, ideally 20 characters
or longer. Please see the chapter on passwords for help on creating unique, long
and easy to remember passwords. After you have selected your account and created
a passphrase, click on the ‘Next’ button.
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6. In the following screen the wizard summarizes the actions it will take to enable
PGP encryption for your account. If you are satisfied, click the ‘Next’ button.
7. Your keys will be created by the wizard, which will take some time. When com-
pleted, click on the ‘Next’ button.
8. You now have your own PGP key-pair. The wizard will ask you if you also want to
create a ‘Revocation certificate’. This is a file which can be used to inform everyone
if your private key is compromised, for example if your laptop is stolen. Think of
it as a ‘kill switch’ for your PGP identity. You may also wish to revoke the key
simply because you have generated a new one, and the old one is obsolete.
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9. If you decided to generate a revocation certificate, the wizard will ask you where
the file should be saved. The dialog will look different depending on which oper-
ating system you use. It is a good idea to rename the file to something sensible
like my_revocation_certificate. Click on ‘Save’ when you you have decided on a
location.
10. If you decided to generate a revocation certificate, the wizard informs you it has
been successfully stored. You may want to print it out or burn it to a CD and keep
it in a safe place.
11. The wizard will inform you it has completed.
Congratulations, you now have a fully PGP-configured mail client. In the next chapter
we will explain how to manage your keys, sign messages and do encryption. Thunderbird
can help you do a lot of these things automatically.
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7.7 Daily PGP usage

In the previous chapters we have have explained how to set up a secure mail environment
using Thunderbird, GPG and Enigmail. We assume you have installed the software and
have successfully followed the wizard instructions to generate an encryption key-pair as
described in the previous chapter. This chapter will describe how to use your secured
Thunderbird in daily life to protect your e-mail communication. In particular we will
focus on:
1. Encrypting attachments
2. Entering your pass-phrase
3. Receiving encrypted e-mail
4. Sending and receiving public keys
5. Receiving public keys and adding them to your key ring
6. Using public key servers
7. Signing e-mails to an individual
8. Sending encrypted e-mails to an individual
9. Automating encryption to certain recipients
10. Verifying incoming e-mails
11. Revoking your GPG key pair
12. What to do when you have lost your secret key, or forgot your passphrase
13. What to do when your secret key has been stolen, or compromised
14. Backing up your keys
First we shall explain two dialog windows that will inevitably appear after you start
using Thunderbird to encrypt your emails.
7.7.1 Encrypting attachments

The dialog window below will pop-up whenever you are sending an encrypted email
with attachments for the first time. Thunderbird asks a technical question on how to
encrypt attachments to your mail. The second (default) option is the best choice, because
it combines security with the highest compatibility. You should also select the ‘Use the
selected method for all future attachments’ option. Then click ‘OK’ and your mail should
be sent with no further delay.
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Figure 7.31: Daily GPG Usage
7.7.2 Entering your pass-phrase
For security reasons, the pass-phrase to your secret key is stored temporarily in memory.
Every now and then the dialog window below will pop-up. Thunderbird asks you for
the pass-phrase to your secret key. This should be different from your normal email
password. It was the pass-phrase you have entered when creating your key-pair in the
previous chapter. Enter the pass-phrase in the text-box and click on ‘OK’
7.7.3 Receiving encrypted e-mails
The decryption of e-mails is handled automatically by Enigmail, the only action that
may be needed on your behalf is to enter the pass-phrase to your secret key. However, in
order to have any kind of encrypted correspondence with somebody, you will first need
to exchange public keys.
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7.7.4 Sending and receiving public keys

There are multiple ways to distribute your public key to friends or colleagues. By far
the simplest way is to attach the key to a mail. In order for your friend to be able to
trust that the message actually came from you, you should inform them in person (if
possible) and also require them to reply to your mail. This should at least prevent easy
forgeries. You have to decide for yourself what level of validation is necessary. This is
also true when receiving emails from third-parties containing public keys. Contact your
correspondent through some means of communication other than e-mail. You can use a
telephone, text messages, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) or any other method, but
you must be absolutely certain that you are really talking to the right person. As a result,
telephone conversations and face-to-face meetings work best, if they are convenient and
if they can be arranged safely.
Sending your public key is easy.
1. In Thunderbird, click on the icon.
2. Compose a mail to your friend or colleague and tell them you are sending them
your PGP public key. If your friend does not know what that means, you may have
to explain them and point them to this documentation.
3. Before actually sending the mail, click to OpenPGP > Attach My Public Key op-
tion on the menu bar of the mail compose window. Next to this option a marked
sign will appear. See the example below.
4. Send your mail by clicking on the button.
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7.7.5 Receiving public keys and adding them to your keyring

Lets say we receive a public key from a friend by mail. The key will show up in Thun-
derbird as an attached file. Scroll down the message and below you will find tabs with
one or two file names. The extension of this public key file will be .asc, different from
the extension of an attached GPG signature, which ends with .asc.sig
Look at the example email in the next image, which is a received, signed GPG mes-
sage containing an attached public key. We notice a yellow bar with a warning message:
‘OpenPGP: Unverified signature, click on ’Details’ button for more information’. Thun-
derbird warns us that the sender is not known yet, which is correct. This will change
once we have accepted the public key.
What are all those strange characters doing in the mail message? Because Thunderbird
does not yet recognize the signature as valid, it prints out the entire raw signature, just
as it has received it. This is how digitally signed GPG messages will appear to those
recipients who do not have your public key.
The most important thing in this example is to find the attached GPG public key.
We mentioned it is a file that ends with .asc. In this example it’s the first attachment
on the left, in the red circle. Double-clicking on this attachment will make Thunderbird
recognize the key.
After we have clicked on the attachment, the following pop-up will appear.
Thunderbird has recognized the GPG public key file. Click on ‘Import’ to add this key
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7.7 Daily PGP usage
to your keyring. The following pop-up should appear. Thunderbird says the operation
was successful. Click on ‘OK’ and you are almost done.
We are back in the main Thunderbird screen and we refresh the view on this particular
example message, by clicking on some other message and back for example. Now the
body of the message looks different (see below). This time Thunderbird does recognize
the signature, because we have added the public key of the sender.
There is still one thing that remains. While Thunderbird now recognizes the signature,
we should explicitly trust that the public key really belongs to the sender in real life. We
realize this when we take a closer look at the green bar (see below). While the signature
is good, it is still UNTRUSTED.
We will now decide to trust this particular public key and the signatures made by
it. We can do this immediately by clicking on ‘Details’. A small menu will appear (see
below). From this menu we should click on the option ‘Sign Sender’s Key . . . ’.
After we have selected ‘Sign Sender’s Key . . . ’ we will get another selection window
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(see below). We are requested to state how carefully we have checked this key for validity.
The explanation of levels of trust and trust networks in GPG falls outside the scope of
this document. We will not use this information, therefore we will just select the option
‘I will not answer’. Also select the option ‘Local signature (cannot be exported)’. Click
on the ‘OK’ button to finishing signing this key. This finishes accepting the public key.
You can now send encrypted mail to this individual.
7.7.6 Using public key servers

Another method of distributing public keys is by putting them on a public key server.
This allows anyone to check whether your email address has GPG support, and then
download your public key.
To put your own key on a keyserver, take the following steps.
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1. Head to the key manager by using the Thunderbird menu and click on OpenPGP >
Key Management
2. The key management window will be displayed and looks like this:
3. You need to have selected the ‘Display All Keys by Default’ option to get a list
of all your keys. Look up your own email address in the list and right click on
the address. A selection window will appear with some options. Select the option
‘Upload Public Keys to Keyserver’.
4. You will see a small dialog window like below. The default server to distribute your
keys to is good. Press ’OK" and distribute your public key to the world.
To look up whether some email address has a public key available on a server, take
the following steps.
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1. Head to the key manager by using the Thunderbird menu and click on OpenPGP >
Key Management
2. In the key manager window menu bar, select Keyserver > Search for Keys
3. In this example we will look-up up the key for the creator of PGP software, Philip
Zimmermann. After we have entered the email address, we click on ‘OK’.
4. The next window displays the result of our search. We have found the public key.
It is automatically selected. Just click on ‘OK’ to import the key.
5. Importing the key will take some time. On completion you should see a pop-up
window like below.
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6. The final step is to locally sign this key, to indicate that we trust it. When you
are back in the key manager, make sure you have selected the ‘Display All Keys by
Default’ option. You should now see the newly imported key in the list. Right-click
on the address and select the option ‘Sign Key’ from the list.
7. Select the options ‘I will not answer’ and ‘Local signature (cannot be exported)’,
then click on ‘OK’. You are now finished and can send Philip Zimmermann en-
crypted mail.
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7.7.7 Signing emails to an individual

Digitally signing email messages is a way to prove to recipients that you are the actual
sender of a mail message. Those recipients who have received your public key will be
able to verify that your message is authentic. However, take note that signing an email
will make it very hard (if not impossble) to deny that you are the author of the message.
1. Offer your friend your public key, using the method described earlier in this chapter.
3. Before actually sending the mail, enable the OpenPGP > Sign Message option via
the menu bar of the mail compose window, if it is not enable already. Once you
have enabled this option, by clicking on it, a marked sign will appear. Clicking
again should disable encryption again. See the example below.
4. Click on the button and your signed mail will be sent.
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7.7.8 Sending encrypted mails to an individual

1. You should have received the public key from the friend or colleague you want to
email and you should have accepted their public key, using the method describe
earlier in this chapter.
3. Compose a mail to the friend or colleague, from who you have previously received
their public key. Remember the subject line of the message will not be
encrypted, only the message body itself, and any attachments.
4. Before actually sending the mail, enable the OpenPGP > Encrypt Message option
via the menu bar of the mail compose window, if it is not enabled already. Once
you have enabled this option, by clicking on it, a marked sign will appear. Clicking
again should disable encryption again. See the example below.
5. Click on the button and your encrypted mail will be sent.
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7.7.9 Automating encryption to certain recipients

You will often want to make sure all your messages to a certain colleague or friend are
signed and encrypted. This is good practice, because you may forget to enable the
encryption manually. You can do this by editing the per-recipient rules. To do this we
access the OpenPGP per-recipient rule editor.
Select OpenPGP > Preferences from the Thunderbird menu bar.
The preferences window will appear like below. We need to click on ‘Display Expert
Settings’.
New menu tabs will appear in the window. Go to the tab ‘Key Selection’ and then
click on the button labeled ‘Edit Rules . . . ’
We are now shown the per-recipient rules editor (see below). This editor can be used
to specify the way how messages to certain recipients are sent. We will now add a rule
saying we want to encrypt and sign all mail messages to [email protected]
First click on the ‘Add’ button.
Now the window to add a new rule will be shown.
The first thing we should enter is the email address of the recipient. In the example
below we have entered [email protected]
Now we will set the encryption defaults by using the drop-downs below. For Signing
select ‘Always’. For Encryption also select ‘Always’.
Finally we have to select the public key of the recipient, with which to encrypt our
messages. Do not forget this important step, otherwise the e-mail will not be encrypted.
Click on the button labeled ‘Select Key(s). . . ’. The key selection window will show up.
The most obvious key will be selected by default. In the example below, we only have
one public key available. We can select keys by clicking on the small box next to the
address. Then we click ‘OK’ and close all relevant windows and we are finished.
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7.7.10 Verifying incoming e-mails

Decrypting email messages sent to you will be fully automatic and transparent. But it is
obviously important to see whether or not a message to you has in fact been encrypted
or signed. This information is available by looking at the special bar above the message
body.
A valid signature will be recognized by a green bar above the mail message like the
example image below.
The last example message was signed but not encrypted. If the message had been
encrypted, it would show like this:
When a message which has been encrypted, but not signed, it could have been a forgery
by someone. The status bar will become gray like in the image below and tells you that
while the message was sent securely (encrypted), the sender could have been someone else
than the person behind the email address you will see in the ‘From’ header. The signature
is neccessaty to verify the real sender of the message. Of course it is perfectly possible
that you have published your public key on the Internet and you allow people to send
you emails anonymously. But is it also possible that someone is trying to impersonate
one of your friends.
Similarly if you receive a signed email from somebody you know, and you have this per-
sons public key, but still the status bar becomes yellow and displays a warning message,
it is likely that someone is attempting to send you forged emails!
Sometimes secret keys get stolen or lost. The owner of the key will inform his friends
and send them a so-called revocation certificate (more explanation of this in the next
paragraph). Revocation means that we no longer trust the old key. The thief may
afterwards still try his luck and send you a falsely signed mail message. The status bar
will now look like this:
Strangely enough Thunderbird in this situation will still display a green status bar!
It is important to look at the contents of the status bar in order to understand the
encryption aspects of a message. GPG allows for strong security and privacy, but only if
you are familiar with its use and concepts. Pay attention to warnings in the status bar.
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7.7.11 Revoking your GPG key-pair

Your secret key has been stolen by somebody. Your harddisk crashed and you have lost
all your data. If your key is lost, you can no longer decrypt messages. If your key has
been stolen, somebody else can decrypt your communication. You need to make a new
set of keys. The process of creating keys, using the OpenPGP wizard in Thunderbird,
has been described in this manual. But first you want to tell the world that your old
public key is now worthless, or even dangerous to use.
7.7.12 What to do when you have lost your secret key, or forgot your
passphrase
During the creation of your key-pair, the OpenPGP wizard offered you the possibility
to create a so-called revocation certificate. This is a special file you send to others in
the advent you have to disable your key. If you have a copy of this file, sending the
revocation key is simply sending the file as an attachment to all your friends. You can no
longer send signed mails (obviously, because you have lost your secret key). That doesn’t
matter. Send it as a normal mail. The revocation certificate file could only have been
created by the owner of the secret key and proves he or she wants to revoke it. That’s
why it should normally be kept hidden from others.
If you do not have the revocation certificate, there exists no other option than for
you to contact your friends personally and convince them your key is lost and that they
should no longer trust it.
7.7.13 What to do when your secret key has been stolen, or compromised
If you have reason to believe your secret key has been compromised, or worse your secret
key and passphrase, it is very important to contact others that they should stop sending
you encrypted messages. With your secret key, other persons will be able to break the
encryption of your e-mail messages if they also have your passphrase. This is also true
for those messages you have send in the past. Cracking the passphrase is not trivial, but
it may be possible if the party has lots of resources, like a state or a big organization for
example, or if your passphrase is too weak. In any case you should assume the worst and
assume your passphrase may have been compromised. Send a revocation certificate file
to all your friends or contact them personally and inform them of the situation.
Even after you have revoked your old key pair, the stolen key may still be used to
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decrypt your previous correspondence. You should consider other ways to protect that
old correspondence, for instance by re-encrypting it with a new key. The latter operation
will not be discussed in this manual. If you are uncertain you should seek assistance from
experts or look up more information on the web.
7.7.14 Receiving a revocation certificate

If one of your friends sends you a revocation certificate, s/he asks you to distrust his public
key from now on. You should always accept such a request and ‘import’ the certificate
to disable their key. The process of accepting a revocation certificate is exactly the same
as accepting a public key, as has already been described in the chapter. Thunderbird
will ask you if you want to import the ‘OpenPGP key file’. Once you have done so, a
confirmation pop-up should be displayed like below.
7.7.15 Preparing for the worst: backup your keys

Your keys are usually stored on your hard disk as normal files. They may get lost if your
computer gets damaged. It is strongly advised to keep a backup of your keys in a safe
place, like a vault. Making a a backup of your secret key has another security advantage
as well. Whenever you fear your laptop or computer is in immediate danger of being
confiscated, you can safely delete your key-pair. Your email will be rendered unreadable
immediately. At a later stage, you can retrieve your keys from the vault and re-import
them in Thunderbird.
To make a backup of your key-pair, first head to the key manager by using the Thun-
derbird menu and click on OpenPGP > Key Management.
You need to have selected the ‘Display All Keys by Default’ option to get a list of all
your keys. Lookup your own email address in the list and right click on the address. A
selection window will appear with some options. Select the option ‘Export Keys to File’.
Now we will save the key-pair to a file. Thunderbird asks us if we want to include
the secret key as well. We do want to include the secret key, therefore we select ‘Export
Secret Keys’.
Finally Thunderbird asks us for the location of the key file. You can store the file
anywhere you like, network disk, USB-stick. Just remember to hide it away from other
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people.
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7.7.16 Further reading

More documentation on using GPG with Thunderbird can be found on the website of
the Enigmail plugin. The Enigmail handbook is the guide you will want to use.
http://enigmail.mozdev.org/documentation/handbook.php.html
7.8 Webmail and PGP

The only safe way of encrypting email inside of the browser window is to encypt it outside
and then copy & paste the encrypted text into the browser window.
For example, write the text in a text editor like gedit, vim or kate and save it as .txt
file (in this example “message.txt”. Then type
gpg -ase -r <recipients email/gpg id> -r <your gpg id> message.txt
A new file called “message.asc” will be created. It contains the encrypted message
and can thus be either attached to an email or its content safely copy & pasted into the
browser window.
To decrypt a message from the browser window, simply type gpg into the command
line and hit Enter. Then copy & paste the message to be decrpyted into the commandline
window and after being asked for your passphrase hit Ctrl+D (this enters a end-of-file
character and prompts gpg to output the cleartext message).
If using the commandline seems too cumbersome to you, you might consider installing a
helper application like gpgApplet, kgpg or whatever application ships with your operating
system.
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8.1 Why Firefox?
Firefox is open source software, developed by the non-profit organisation, the Mozilla
Foundation. As such, it is independent from the interests of any one specific company
although a large portion of its funding comes from Google for its placement as the default
search engine within the Firefox browser. It is also highly extensible through the add-ons
and plugins, which allows users greater control over how the browser acts as compared
to Internet Explorer or Chrome (and it’s open-source’d version, Chromium). It should
however be noted that this extensibility through add-ons is a double-edged sword and as
such add-ons also have great power to subvert the browsers normal activities as well as
enhance them.
If you are uncomfortable with Google as the default search engine, this can be changed
through the ‘Manage Search Engines. . . ’ option from the pull-down menu of the search
box. Some more pro-privacy search engines that are worth considering are Startpage and
DuckDuckGo.
8.2 Accessing Firefox on Ubuntu

Firefox is already installed on Ubuntu by default. To open it, click on the Unity side bar
where you see the Firefox icon:
Figure 8.1: Firefox on Ubuntu
Firefox starts and a welcome window opens:
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Figure 8.2: Firefox on Ubuntu
8.3 Installing on Mac OS X

1. To download Firefox, visit https://www.mozilla.org/firefox and click on the
big green button labeled “Firefox Free Download”. The download should start
automatically, if it does not, click the link to download it manually.
2. When prompted, click OK.
Once the download is complete a window similar to this appears:
3. Click and drag the Firefox icon on top of the Applications icon.
4. When the installation is finished, close the two small Firefox windows.
5. Eject the Firefox disk image. If this does not work by normal means, select the
disk image icon and then, in the Finder menu, select File > Eject Firefox.
6. Now, open the Applications directory and drag the Firefox icon to the dock:
7. Click the Firefox icon in the Dock to start Firefox. The Import Wizard dialog
box appears:
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Figure 8.3: Mac OS X Firefox Install
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8.4 Installing Firefox on Windows
8. To import your bookmarks, passwords and other data from Safari, click Continue.
If you don’t want to import anything, just select Cancel.
Congratulations, you are now ready to use Firefox!

1. To download Firefox, visit https://www.mozilla.com/firefox/.
2. Click the download button and the installation file will begin to download to your
computer.
3. Once the download is complete, double-click the installation file to start the Firefox
installation wizard.
• If you are running Windows Vista, you may get a User Account Control
prompt. In this case, allow the setup to run by clicking Continue.
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Figure 8.9: Windows Firefox Install
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• If you are running Windows 7, you will be asked whether to allow Firefox to
make changes to your computer. Click on Yes.
A welcome screen appears.
4. Click Next to continue. You will be asked if you would like the standard installa-
tion, or whether you would like to customize it. Choose the standard installation
and click Next.
5. You will be asked if you want Firefox to be your default browser. This is recom-
mended.
6. Click Install.
7. To import your bookmarks and other data from other browsers (for example Inter-
net Explorer), click Continue. If you don’t want to import anything, just select
Cancel.
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8.5 Extending Firefox
8. Once Firefox has been installed, click Finish to close the setup wizard.
If the Launch Firefox now check box is checked, Firefox will start after you click
Finish. Otherwise you can launch Firefox through the start menu.
Windows Vista Users

If at any time throughout the installation process you are prompted with a User Account
Control (UAC) window, press Continue, Allow, or Accept.
8.4.1 Troubleshooting
If you have problems starting Firefox, see https://support.mozilla.com/kb/Firefox+
will+not+start

When you first download and install Firefox, it can handle basic browser tasks immedi-
ately. You can also add extra capabilities or change the way Firefox behaves by installing
add-ons, small additions that extend Firefox’s power.
Firefox extensions can pimp your browser, but they can also collect and transmit
information about you. Before you install any add-on, keep in mind to choose add-ons
from trusted sources. Otherwise, an add-on might share information about you without
your knowing, keep a record on the sites you have visited, or even harm your computer.
There are several kinds of add-ons:
• Extensions add functionality to Firefox
• Themes change the appearance of Firefox.
• Plugins help Firefox handle things it normally can’t process (i.e. Flash movies, Java
applications).
For the topics covered in this book we are only going to need extensions. We will
look at some add-ons that are particularly relevant for dealing with Internet security.
The variety of available extensions is enormous. You can add dictionaries for different
languages, track the weather in other countries, get suggestions for Web sites that are
similar to the one you are currently viewing, and much more. Firefox keeps a list of cur-
rent extensions on its site (https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox), or you can browse
them by category at https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/browse.
Caution: We recommend that you never install an add-on for Firefox unless it is
available from the Firefox add-on pages. You should also never install Firefox unless you
get the installation files from a trusted source. It is important to note that using Firefox
on someone else’s computer or in an Internet caf increases your potential vulnerability.
Know that you can take Firefox on a CD or USB-stick (check our chapter on that issue).
While no tool can protect you completely against all threats to your online privacy and
security, the Firefox extensions described in this chapter can significantly reduce your
exposure to the most common ones, and increase your chances of remaining anonymous.
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8.5.1 HTTPS Everywhere

HTTP is considered unsafe, because communication is transmitted in plain text. Many
sites on the Web offer some support for encryption over HTTPS, but make it difficult
to use. For instance, they may connect you to HTTP by default, even when HTTPS is
available, or they may fill encrypted pages with links that go back to the unencrypted
site. The HTTPS Everywhere extension fixes these problems by rewriting all requests
to these sites to HTTPS. Although the extension is called “HTTPS Everywhere”, it only
activates HTTPS on a particular list of sites and can only use HTTPS on sites that have
chosen to support it. It cannot make your connection to a site secure if that site does
not offer HTTPS as an option.
Figure 8.13: HTTPS Schema
Please note that some of those sites still include a lot of content, such as images or icons,
from third party domains that is not available over HTTPS. As always, if the browser’s
lock icon is broken or carries an exclamation mark, you may remain vulnerable to some
adversaries that use active attacks or traffic analysis. However, the effort required to
monitor your browsing should still be usefully increased.
Some Web sites (such as Gmail) provide HTTPS support automatically, but using
HTTPS Everywhere will also protect you from TLS/SSL-stripping attacks, in which an
attacker hides the HTTPS version of the site from your computer if you initially try to
access the HTTP version.
Additional information can be found at: https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere.
8.5.2 Installation
First, download the HTTPS Everywhere extension from the official Web site: https:
//www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Select the newest release. In the example below, version 2.2 of HTTPS Everywhere
was used. (A newer version may be available now.)
Click on “Allow”. You will then have to restart Firefox by clicking on the “Restart
Now” button. HTTPS Everywhere is now installed.
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Figure 8.14: HTTPS Everywhere
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8.5.3 Configuration
To access the HTTPS Everywhere settings panel in Firefox 4 (Linux), click on the Tools
menu at the top of your screen and then select Add-ons. (Note that in different versions of
Firefox and different operating systems, the Add-ons Manager may be located in different
places in the interface.)
Click on the Preferences button.
A list of all supported Web sites where HTTPS redirection rules should be applied will
be displayed. If you have problems with a specific redirection rule, you can uncheck it
here. In that case, HTTPS Everywhere will no longer modify your connections to that
specific site.
8.5.4 Usage
Once enabled and configured, HTTPS Everywhere is very easy and transparent to use.
Type an insecure HTTP URL (for example, http://www.google.com).
Press Enter. You will be automatically redirected to the secure HTTPS encrypted Web
site (in this example: https://encrypted.google.com). No other action is needed.
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8.5.5 If networks block HTTPS

Your network operator may decide to block the secure versions of Web sites in order
to increase its ability to spy on what you do. In such cases, HTTPS Everywhere could
prevent you from using these sites because it forces your browser to use only the secure
version of these sites, never the insecure version. (For example, we heard about an
airport WiFi network where all HTTP connections were permitted, but not HTTPS
connections. Perhaps the WiFi operators were interested in watching what users did.
At that airport, users with HTTPS Everywhere were not able to use certain Web sites
unless they temporarily disabled HTTPS Everywhere.)
In this scenario, you might choose to use HTTPS Everywhere together with a circum-
vention technology such as Tor or a VPN in order to bypass the network’s blocking of
secure access to Web sites.
8.5.6 Adding support for additional sites in HTTPS Everywhere

You can add your own rules to the HTTPS Everywhere add-on for your favorite Web
sites. You can find out how to do that at: https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere/
rulesets. The benefit of adding rules is that they teach HTTPS Everywhere how to
ensure that your access to these sites is secure. But remember: HTTPS Everywhere does
not allow you to access sites securely unless the site operators have already chosen to
make their sites available through HTTPS. If a site does not support HTTPS, there is
no benefit to adding a ruleset for it.
If you are managing a Web site and have made an HTTPS version of the site available,
a good practice would be to submit your Web site to the official HTTPS Everywhere
release.
8.5.7 Enforcing secure HTTPS server connections

Even if you instruct your browser to use the HTTPS protocol when communicating with
a web server, it is still possible that the server (due to unsecure configuration on its
own side) enforces a unsecure SSL cipher protocol for the connection. The only way to
prevent this is by telling the browser to not accept such unsecure SSL protocols (like
those based on RC4 encryption).
To disable RC4 encryption for HTTPS connections you have to switch those off in
Firefox. In an empty address bar type “about:config”, press return and close the warning
dialog displayed next (you can disable this dialog if you want for the next time you
configure Firefox). In the search field enter “rc4” and look at the list displayed as a
search result:
Any entry with a “true” in the last column (“Value” field) is activated and should be de-
activated. Simply right-click on the entry and “Toggle” the value field to false. Proceed
for all entries until all of them have a value of “false”.
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Figure 8.20: Disable RC4
8.5.8 Adblock Plus

Adblock Plus (http://www.adblockplus.org) is mainly known for blocking advertise-
ments on websites. But it also can be used to block other content that may try to track
you. To keep current with the latest threats, Adblock Plus relies on blacklists maintained
by volunteers.
Extra Geek info: How does Adblock Plus block addresses?
The hard work here is actually done by Gecko, the engine on top of which Firefox,
Thunderbird and other applications are built. It allows something called “content poli-
cies”. A content policy is simply a JavaScript (or C++) object that gets called whenever
the browser needs to load something. It can then look at the address that should be
loaded and some other data and decide whether it should be allowed. There is a number
of built-in content policies (when you define which sites shouldn’t be allowed to load im-
ages in Firefox or SeaMonkey, you are actually configuring one of these built-in content
policies) and any extension can register one. So all that Adblock Plus has to do is to
register its content policy, other than that there is only application logic to decide which
addresses to block and user interface code to allow configuration of filters.
8.5.9 Getting started with Adblock Plus

Once you have Firefox installed:
1. Download the latest version of Adblock Plus from the Add-On database of Firefox
2. Confirm that your want Adblock Plus by clicking “Install Now”.
3. After Adblock Plus has been installed, Firefox will ask to restart.
8.5.10 Choosing a filter subscription

Adblock Plus by itself doesn’t do anything. It can see each element that a Web site
attempts to load, but it doesn’t know which ones should be blocked. This is what
Adblock’s filters are for. After restarting Firefox, you will be asked to choose a filter
subscription (free).
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Figure 8.21: Ad Block Plus
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Which filter subscription should you choose? Adblock Plus offers a few in its dropdown
menu and you may wish to learn about the strengths of each. A good filter to start
protecting your privacy is EasyList (also available at http://easylist.adblockplus.
org/en).
As tempting as it may seem, don’t add as many subscriptions as you can get, since some
may overlap, resulting in unexpected outcomes. EasyList (mainly targeted at English-
language sites) works well with other EasyList extensions (such as region-specific lists
like RuAdList or thematic lists like EasyPrivacy). But it collides with Fanboy’s List
(another list with main focus on English-language sites).
You can always change your filter subscriptions at any time within preferences. Once
you’ve made your changes, click OK.
8.5.11 Creating personalized filters

AdBlock Plus also lets you create your own filters, if you are so inclined. To add a filter,
start with Adblock Plus preferences and click on “Add Filter” at the bottom left corner of
the window. Personalized filters may not replace the benefits of well-maintained blacklists
like EasyList, but they’re very useful for blocking specific content that isn’t covered in
the public lists. For example, if you wanted to prevent interaction with Facebook from
other Web sites, you could add the following filter:
||facebook.*$domain=~facebook.com|~127.0.0.1
The first part (||facebook.*) will initially block everything coming from Facebook’s
domain. The second part ($domain=~facebook.com|~127.0.0.1) is an exception that
tells the filter to allow Facebook requests only when you are in Facebook or if the Face-
book requests come from 127.0.0.1 (your own computer) in order to keep certain features
of Facebook working.
A guide on how to create your own Adblock Plus filters can be found at http://
adblockplus.org/en/filters.
8.5.12 Enabling and disabling AdBlock Plus for specific elements or Web
sites
You can see the elements identified by AdBlock Plus by clicking on the ABP icon AdBlock
Plus icon in your browser (usually next to the search bar) and selecting “Open blockable
items”. A window at the bottom of your browser will let you enable or disable each
element on a case-by-case basis. Alternatively, you can disable AdBlock Plus for a
specific domain or page by clicking on the ABP icon and ticking the option “Disable
on [domain name]” or “Disable on this page only”.
8.5.13 Other extensions that can improve your security

Below is a short list of extensions that are not covered in this book but are helpful to
further protect you.
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8.6 Proxy Settings
• Flagfox - puts a flag in the location bar telling you where the server you are visiting
is most probably located. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/
flagfox/
• BetterPrivacy - manages “cookies” used to track you while visiting websites.

Cookies are small bits of information stored in your browser. Some of them are
used to track the sites you are visiting by advertisers. https://addons.mozilla.
org/en-US/firefox/addon/betterprivacy/
• GoogleSharing - If you are worried that google knows your search history, this
extension will help prevent that. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/
addon/googlesharing/
• NoScript - Although not friendly for beginners, this addon will block scripts and
third party plugin content (eg, Adobe Flash) unless specifically allowed by the
user, it also provides general protection against simple cross site scripting vectors.
http://noscript.net/
• User Agent Switcher - Your browser supplies large amounts of identifying infor-
mation to any remote server through the ‘User-Agent’ header, including Operating
System and specific version information. This addon allows you to supply either
a fake or generic User-Agent to the server. http://chrispederick.com/work/
user-agent-switcher/
8.6 Proxy Settings

A proxy server allows you to reach a Web site or other Internet location even when
direct access is blocked in your country or by your ISP. There are many different kinds
of proxies, including:
• Web proxies, which only require that you know the address to the proxy Web site,
which may have a URL similar to http://proxy.com/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi
• HTTP proxies, which require that you modify your Browser settings. HTTP proxies
only work for Web content. You may get the information about a HTTP proxy in
the format proxy.example.com:3128 or 192.168.0.1:8080.
• SOCKS proxies, which also require that you modify your Browser settings. SOCKS
proxies work for many different Internet applications, including e-mail and instant
messaging tools. The SOCKS proxy information looks just like HTTP proxy infor-
mation.
You can use a Web proxy directly without any configuration by typing in the URL.
The HTTP and SOCKS proxies, however, have to be configured in your Web browser.
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8.6.1 Default Firefox proxy configuration

In Firefox you can change the settings for using a proxy. You’ll need to open the Options
or Preferences window of Firefox. You can find this in the menu, by clicking on the
top of the Window and selecting Edit > Preferences on Linux or Tools > Options on
Windows.
Go to the Network section and open the Advanced tab.
Figure 8.22: Firefox Proxy Settings
Select Settings, click on “Manual proxy configuration” and enter the information of the
proxy server you want to use. Please remember that HTTP proxies and SOCKS proxies
work differently and have to be entered in the corresponding fields. If there is a colon (:)
in your proxy information, that is the separator between the proxy address and the port
number. Your screen should look like this:
After you click OK, your configuration will be saved and your Web browser will au-
tomatically connect through that proxy on all future connections. If you get an error
message such as, “The proxy server is refusing connections” or “Unable to find the proxy
server”, there is a problem with your proxy configuration. In that case, repeat the steps
above and select “No proxy” in the last screen to deactivate the proxy.
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8.6 Proxy Settings
Figure 8.23: Firefox Proxy Settings
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8.7 Using Tor?

Tor is a system intended to enable online anonymity, composed of client software and
a network of servers which can hide information about users’ location and other factors
which might identify them. Imagine a message being wrapped in several layers of pro-
tection: every server is only able to take off one layer, thereby immediately deleting the
sender information of the previous server.
If Alice wants to view Bob’s website, instead of directly talking to Bob like this:
Alice -> Bob
This is fine, and Alice and Bob can use end to end cryptography to ensure privacy,
integrity and authenticity of their communications, however if Alice does not want Bob
to know that she is viewing his website or does not want Eve (a hypothetical evesdropper,
on Alice or Bobs side of the connection) to know she and Bob are communicating, extra
steps must be taken.
Alice instead makes an encrypted connection to an EntryNode on the Tor network,
here they establish a TLS connection and the EntryNode allows Alice to make a further
connection through it. Once again a TLS connection is established this time through the
already encrypted EntryNode connection, and once again the process is repeated through
the RelayNode to the ExitNode. Now, Alice is encrypting the data 3 times, first for the
ExitNode, then for the RelayNode and finally for the EntryNode. Creating a network
path like this:
Alice -> EntryNode -> RelayNode -> ExitNode -> Bob
When the EntryNode receives Alice’s data it is still encrypted for the RelayNode
and ExitNode, it knows where the data is coming from but not the final destination
or the message content, it then passes the data on to the RelayNode. The RelayNode
receives the data but it is still encrypted for the ExitNode, it knows it is coming from
the EntryNode and going to the ExitNode but does not know the final destination or the
original sender, it then passes the data to the ExitNode which removes the final layer of
encryption, the ExitNode knows what the message is, that it came from RelayNode but
does not know where it entered the network, or who sent it.
This layered approach is where Tor derives it’s name from (The Onion Router), each
‘layer’ knows only of the layer on either side of it, meaning that none in the chain except
Alice knows the full path the data is taking, however Alice, Bob and the ExitNode are all
able to see the message content, thus end-to-end cryptography is still required to ensure
privacy, integrity and authenticity of the communications across the Tor network.
Use of this system makes it more difficult to trace internet traffic to the user, including
visits to Web sites, online posts, instant messages, and other communication forms. It is
intended to protect users’ personal freedom, privacy, and ability to conduct confidential
business, by keeping their internet activities from being monitored. The software is
open-source and the network is free of charge to use.
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8.7 Using Tor?
Like all current low latency anonymity networks, Tor cannot and does not attempt
to protect against monitoring of traffic at the boundaries of the Tor network, i.e., the
traffic entering and exiting the network. While Tor does provide protection against traffic
analysis, it cannot prevent traffic confirmation (also called end-to-end correlation)
Caution: As Tor does not, and by design cannot, encrypt the traffic between an exit
node and the target server, any exit node is in a position to capture any traffic passing
through it which does not use end-to-end encryption such as TLS. (If your postman is
corrupt he might still open the envelope and read the content). While this may or may
not inherently violate the anonymity of the source, if users mistake Tor’s anonymity
for end-to-end encryption they may be subject to additional risk of data interception by
third parties. So: the location of the user remains hidden; however, in some cases content
is vulnerable for analysis through which identifying or revealing information about the
user may be gained.
8.7.1 Using Tor Browser Bundle

The Tor Browser Bundle lets you use Tor on Windows, OSX and/or Linux without
requiring you to configure a Web browser. Even better, it’s a portable application that
can be run from a USB flash drive, allowing you to carry it to any PC without installing
it on each computer’s hard drive.
8.7.2 Downloading Tor Browser Bundle

You can download the Tor Browser Bundle from the torproject.org Web site (https:
//www.torproject.org).
If the torproject.org Web site is filtered from where you are, type “tor mirrors” in your
favorite Web search engine: The results probably include some alternative addresses to
download the Tor Browser Bundle.
Please follow the instructions on the Tor Project Website on how to install the Tor
Browser.
Caution: When you download Tor Bundle (plain or split versions), you should check
the signatures of the files. This step ensures that the files have not been tampered
with. To learn more about signature files and how to check them, read https://www.
torproject.org/docs/verifying-signatures
8.7.3 Running a Relay or Bridge

Tor is a network of volunteers who run relays and bridges. If you would like to grow the
Tor network by contributing bandwidth and spare CPU cycles, consider running a relay.
Plus, running a relay may improve your anonymity since an attacker can’t distinguished
between traffic that originated from you or from the relay. See the Tor FAQ for more
details.
However, if you do run a relay, your IP address will be listed on the Internet as a Tor
relay. Tor clients depend on this list, provided by Tor Directory Servers, so that they can
build circuits. If you wish to contribute to Tor, but do not want to run a public relay,
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consider running a bridge. Since Tor relays are public, some ISP block access to the Tor
network by blocking all the relays. Tor Bridges are unlisted are therefore, more difficult
to find.
Tor’s goal is to protect anonymity on the Internet, but sometimes Tor is used for
illegal purposes. As a relay operator, consult the Legal FAQ, written by the Electronic
Frontier Foundation (EFF). The EFF is a U.S. based non-profit organization whose
mission is to “protect your digital right.” Other countries should seek the advice of
similar organizations. However, legal risks can be minimized by running a non-exit relay
or bridge.
If you’d like to configure your computer to run a relay or a bridge, visit the Tor website
for thorough instructions.
8.8 Extending Google Chrome

Chrome is Google’s browser. Here are some useful tips and extensions:
8.8.1 Disabling Instant Search

Chrome can search as you type. The advantage of this is that you get search suggestions
and can use Google’s predictions - but the disadvantage is that every character you type
is sent to Google’s servers, where it may be logged.
To disable, open Chrome’s settings by clicking the menu button at the right of the
address bar and clicking Settings. Or, simply type chrome://settings/ in your address
bar.
Ensure that the Enable Instant for faster searching (omnibox input may be
logged) checkbox is unchecked.
8.8.2 AdBlock for Chrome

Just like Firefox, AdBlock removes ads. Install from this Chrome Webstore page.
8.8.3 HTTPS Everywhere

Forces encrypted https connections wherever possible. Installation link can be found on
the EFF HTTPS Everywhere homepage.
8.8.4 PrivacyFix
PrivacyFix (beta) gives you a dashboard view of your privacy settings on Facebook and
Google, as well as Do-Not-Track headers and tracking cookies. It provides links to quickly
change these privacy settings without digging through many drilldown pages. Install from
the Chrome web store page
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9.1 Keeping passwords safe
Passwords are like keys in the physical world. If you lose a password you will not be able
to get in, and if others copy or steal it they can use it to enter. A good password should
not be easy for others to guess and not easy to crack with computers, while still being
easy for you to remember.
9.1.1 Password length and complexity

To protect your passwords from being guessed, length and complexity are important.
Passwords like the name of your pet or a birth date are very unsafe, as is using single
word that can be found in a dictionary. Do not use a password containing only numbers.
Most importantly a secure password is long. Using combinations of lower case letters,
capitals, numbers and special characters can improve the security, but length is still the
most important factor.
For use with important accounts like the pass phrase which protects your PGP/GPG
or TrueCrypt encrypted data, or the password for your main email account, use 20
characters or more, the longer the better. See this XKCD cartoon "correct horse
battery staple" vis-Ãă-vis "Tr0ub4dor&3" for an explanation.
9.1.2 Easy to remember and secure passwords

One way to create strong and easy to remember passwords is to use sentences.
A few examples:
• IloveDouglasAdamsbecausehe'sreallyawesome.
• Peoplelovemachinesin2029A.D.
• BarneyfromHowIMetYourMotherisAWESOME!
Sentences are easy to remember, even if they are 50 characters long and contain up-
percase characters, lowercase characters, symbols and numbers.
9.1.3 Minimizing damage

It is important to minimize the damage if one of your passwords is ever compromised.
Use different passwords for different websites or accounts, that way if one is compromised,
the others are not. Change your passwords from time to time, especially for accounts
you consider to be sensitive. By doing this you can block access to an attacker who may
have learned your old password.
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9.1.4 Using a password manager

Remembering a lot of different passwords can be difficult. One solution is to use a ded-
icated application to manage most of your passwords. The next section in this chapter
will discuss Keepass, a free and open source password manager with no known vulnera-
bilities, so long as you chose a sufficiently long and complex “master password” to secure
it with.
For website passwords only, another option is the built-in password manager of the
Firefox browser. Make sure to set a master password, otherwise this is very insecure!
9.1.5 Physical protection

When using a public computer such as at a library, an internet cafe, or any computer you
do not own, there are several dangers. Using “over the shoulder” surveillance, someone,
possibly with a camera, can watch your actions and may see the account you log in to
and the password you type. A less obvious threat is software programs or hardware
devices called “keystroke loggers” that record what you type. They can be hidden inside
a computer or a keyboard and are not easily spotted. Do not use public computers to
log in to your private accounts, such as email. If you do, change your passwords as soon
as you get back to a computer you own and trust.
9.1.6 Other caveats

Some applications such as chat or mail programs may ask you to save or “remember” your
username and password, so that you don’t have to type them every time the program
is opened. Doing so may mean that your password can be retrieved by other programs
running on the machine, or directly from your hard disk by someone with physical access
to it.
If your login information is sent over an insecure connection or channel, it might fall
into the wrong hands. See the chapters on secure browsing for more information.
9.2 Installing KeePass

We will cover installing KeePass on Ubuntu and Windows.
Mac OSX comes with an excellent built-in password manager called Keychain that is
just as safe. Downsides are that it isn’t Open Source and doesn’t work on other systems.
If you’d need to take your passwords from one Operating System to another it is better
to stick with Keepass after all. How to use Keychain is covered in the next chapter.
9.2.1 Installing KeePassX on Ubuntu

To install on Ubuntu we will use the Ubuntu Software Center. Type KeePass in the
search field at the top right and the application KeePassX should automatically appear
in the listing.
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Highlight the item (it may already be highlighted by default) and then press ‘Install’.
You will be asked to Authorise the installation process:
Figure 9.1: Keepass Install
Enter your password and press ‘Authenticate’ the installation process will then begin.
Ubuntu does not offer very good feedback to show the software is installed. If the
green progress indicator on the left has gone and the progress bar on the right has gone
then you can assumed the software is installed.
9.2.2 Installing KeePass on Windows

First visit the KeePass download webpage and choose the appropriate installer. For this
chapter we are using the current installer.
Download this to your computer then double click on the installer. You will first be
asked to select a language, we will choose English:
Press ‘OK’ and you will be shown the following screen:
Just press ‘Next >’ and go to the next screen:
In the screen shown above we must select ‘I accept the agreement’ otherwise we will
not be able to install the software. Choose this option and then press ‘Next >’. In the
next screen you will be asked to determine the installation location. You can leave this
with the defaults unless you have good reason to change them.
Click on ‘Next >’ and continue.
The above image shows the KeePass components you can choose from. Just leave the
defaults as they are and press ‘Next >’. You will come to a new screen:
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This doesn’t do anything but give you a summary of your options. Press ‘Install’ and
the installation process will begin.
9.2.3 Installing KeePass on Mac OS X

Although Keychain in Mac OS X does an excellent job of storing your passwords, you may
want to run your own password database and manager. KeePass allows this added flexi-
bility. First visit the KeePass download webpage http://keepass.info/download.html
and choose the appropriate installer. Although the official installers are listed at the top
of the page, there are unofficial/contributed installers further down. Scroll down to find
[KeePass 2.x for Mac OS X][http://keepass2.openix.be/](http://keepass2.openix.be/):
As this is an external link, your browser will be redirected to http://keepass2.
openix.be/:
Note here that you must install the Mono framework first, so that KeePass can run in
OS X. So click on each of the links Mono 2.10.5 and KeePass2.18 to download the DMG
files to your computer. Double-click on each of the DMGs in your downloads folder to
unpack the volumes to your desktop.
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The Mono Package installer is in case called something similar to ‘MonoFramework-

MRE-2.10.5_0.macos10.xamarin.x86.pkg’, so double-click on this document:
The installer will open and run:

Follow each of the steps by clicking ‘Continue’, the next step being ‘Read Me’. Inhere
is important information such as all of the files that the package will install, including
information on how to uninstall Mono:
Click ‘Continue’ to the next screen, the license. Clicking ‘Continue’ on the license
screen pops up the agree/disagree dialogue box. If you agree with the license conditions,
the installation will continue:
The following two steps in the installation ask you to choose an installation destination,
and check there is enough space on the install disk. When the installation has completed,
you will see this screen:
Now you can quit the installer. Next take a look at the KeePass disk image, double-
click to open it, and drag the KeePass application into your Applications folder:
Now KeePass is ready to use for Mac OS X.
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9.3 Encrypting Passwords with a Password Manager

To encrypt password we use KeePass on Windows and KeePassX Ubuntu, and Keychain
on OSX. The basic principle is the same; you have a file on your computer which is
encrypted with one single very secure password. This is sometimes referred to as a ‘Master
Password’, ‘Admin-Password’, ‘Root-Password’ etc. but they are all the ultimate key to
all your other keys and secure data. For this reason you can’t and shouldn’t think to
light about creating this password.
If a password manager is part of your OS (like it is with OSX) it unlocks automatically
for you after you login to your account and so opening secure information like passwords.
For this, and other, reasons you should disable ‘Automatically Login’. When you start-
up your computer you should always have to login and, even better, set your computer
to automatically logout or lock the screen after a set amount of time.
9.3.1 Encrypting Passwords with KeePassX on Ubuntu

First open KeePassX from the Applications->Accessories -> KeePassX menu.
The first time you use KeePassX you need to set up a new database to store your
passwords. Click on File->New Database
You will be asked to set a master key (password).
Figure 9.17: Password Manager
Choose a strong password for this field - refer to the chapter about passwords if you
would like some tips on how to do this. Enter the password and press ‘OK’. You then
are asked to enter the password again. Do so and press ‘OK’. If the passwords are the
same you will see a new KeePassX ‘database’ ready for you to use.
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Now you have a place to store all your passwords and protect them by the ‘master’
password you just set. You will see two default categories ‘Internet’ and ‘Email’ - you
can store passwords just under these two categories, you can delete categories, add sub-
groups, or create new categories. For now we just want to stay with these two and add a
password for our email to the email group. Right click on the email category and choose
‘Add New Entry. . . ’:
So now fill this form out with the details so you can correctly identify which email
account the passwords are associated with. You need to fill out the fields ‘Title’ and the
password fields. All else is optional.
KeePassX gives some indication if the passwords you are using are ‘strong’ or ‘weak’.
As may be obvious, you should try to use stronger passwords. For advice on this see
the chapter on creating good passwords. Press ‘OK’ when you are done and you will see
something like this:
To recover the passwords (see them) you must double click on the enter and you will
see the same window you used for recording the information. If you click on the ‘eye’
icon to the right of the passwords they will be converted from stars (***) to the plain
text so you can read it.
Now you you can use KeePassX to store your passwords. However before getting too
excited you must do one last thing. When you close KeePassX (choose File->Quit) it
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asks you if you would like to save the changes you have made.
Press ‘Yes’. If it is the first time you used KeePassX (or you have just created a new
database) you must choose a place to store your passwords. Otherwise it will save the
updated information in the file you have previously created.
When you want to access the passwords you must then open KeePassX and you will
be asked for the master key. After typing this in you can add all your passwords to
the database and see all your entries. It is not a good idea to open KeePassX and have
it open permanently as then anyone could see your passwords if they can access your
computer. Instead get into the practice of just opening it when you need it and then
closing it again.
9.3.2 Encrypting Passwords with KeePass on Windows

After you installed KeePass on Windows you can find it in the application menu. Launch
the application and the following window should appear.
You start by making a database, the file which will contain your key. From the menu
select File > New. You have to chose the name and the location of the file in the dialog
window below. In this example we call our database my_password_database.
The next screen will ask you for the master password. Enter the password and click
on ‘OK’. You will not need to select anything else.
The next window allows you to configure your new database. We do not need to edit
anything. Just click on ‘OK’.
Now the main window appears again and we see some default password categories on
the left side. Lets add a new password in the category ‘Internet’. First click on the word
‘Internet’, then click on the add entry icon under the menu bar.
A window will appear like below. Use the fields to give a description of this particular
password, and of course, enter the password itself. When done, click on ‘OK’.
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9.3.3 Encrypting Passwords with Keychain on Mac OSX

Mac OSX comes pre-installed with the build in password manager ‘Keychain’. Because
of it’s tight integration with the OS most of the time you will hardly know it exists. But
every now and then you will have a pop-up window in almost any application asking
‘do you want to store this password in your keychain?’. This happens when you add
new email accounts to your mail client, login to a protected wireless network, enter your
details in your chat client etc. etc. etc.
Basically what happens is that Mac OSX offers you to store all that login data and
different passwords in an encrypted file which it unlocks as soon as you login to your
account. You can then check your mail, logon to your WiFi and use your chat client
without having to enter your login data all the time over and over again. This is a fully
automated process, but if you want to see what is stored where and alter passwords, or
lookup a password you will have to open the Keychain program.
You can find the Keychain program in the Utilities folder which lives in the Applications
folder.
When you open it you will see that your ‘Login’ keychain is unlocked and see all the
items contained in it on the right bottom side of the window.
(note: the window here is empty because it seemed to be deceiving the purpose of this
manual to make a screenshot of my personal keychain items and share it here with you)
You can double click any of the items in the Keychain to view it’s details and tick
‘Show password:’ to see the password associated with the item.
You will note that it will ask you for your master or login password to view the item.
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You can access modify any of the items and also use the Keychain to securely save any
bits and pieces of text using the notes. To do this click on notes and than choose ‘New
secure Note item’ from the file menu.
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10.1 Getting, setting-up and testing a VPN account

In all the VPN systems, there is one computer set up as a server (in an unrestricted
location), to which one or more clients connect. The set up of the server is out of the
scope of this manual and the set up of this system is in general covered by your VPN
provider. This server is one of the two ends of the encrypted tunnel. It is important that
the company running this server can be trusted and is located in an area you trust. So
to run a VPN, an account is needed at such a trusted server.
Please keep in mind that an account can often only be used on one device at a time.
If you want to use a VPN with both your mobile and laptop concurrently, it is very well
possible you need two accounts.
10.1.1 An account from a commercial VPN provider

There are multiple VPN providers out there. Some will give you free trial time, others
will begin charging right away at an approximate rate of e5 per month. Look for a VPN
provider that offers OpenVPN accounts - it is an Open Source, trusted solution available
for Linux, OS X, and Windows, as well as Android and iOS.
When choosing a VPN provider you need to consider the following points:
• Information that is required from you to register an account - the less that is needed
the better. A truly privacy concerned VPN provider would only ask you for email
address (make a temporary one!), username and password. More isn’t required
unless the provider creates a user database which you probably don’t want to be a
part of.
• Payment method to be used to pay for your subscription. Cash-transfer is probably
the most privacy-prone method, since it does not link your bank account and your
VPN network ID. Paypal can also be an acceptable option assuming that you can
register and use a temporary account for every payment. Payment via a bank
transfer or by a credit card can severely undermine your anonymity on and beyond
the VPN.
• Avoid VPN providers that require you to install their own proprietary client soft-
ware. There is a perfect open source solution for any platform, and having to run
a “special” client is a clear sign of a phony service.
• Avoid using PPTP based VPNs, as several security vulnerabilities exist in that
protocol. In fact, if two providers are otherwise equal, choose the one not offering
PPTP if feasible.
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• Look for a VPN provider that’s using OpenVPN - an open source, multi-platform
VPN solution.
• Exit gateways in countries of your interest. Having a choice of several countries
allows you to change your geo-political context and appears to come from a different
part of the world. You need to be aware of legislation details and privacy laws in
that particular country.
• Anonymity policy regarding your traffic - a safe VPN provider will have a non-
disclosure policy. Personal information, such as username and times of connection,
should not be logged either.
• Allowed protocols to use within VPN and protocols that are routed to the Internet.
You probably want most of the protocols to be available
• Price vs. quality of the service and its reliability.
• Any known issues in regard to anonymity of the users the VPN provider might
have had in the past. Look online, read forums and ask around. Don’t be tempted
by unknown, new, cheap or dodgy offers.
There are several VPN review oriented places online that can help you make the right
choice:
• http://www.bestvpnservice.com/vpn-providers.php
• http://vpncreative.com/complete-list-of-vpn-providers
• http://en.cship.org/wiki/VPN
Setting up your VPN client
“OpenVPN [..] is a full featured SSL VPN software solution that integrates
OpenVPN server capabilities, enterprise management capabilities, simplified
OpenVPN Connect UI, and OpenVPN Client software packages that accom-
modate GNu/Linux, OSX, Windows and environments. OpenVPN Access
Server supports a wide range of configurations, including secure and granu-
lar remote access to internal network and/or private cloud network resources
and applications with fine-grained access control.” (http://openvpn.net/
index.php/access-server/overview.html)
There is a number of different standards for setting up VPNs, including PPTP, LL2P/IPSec
and OpenVPN. They vary in complexity, the level of security they provide, and which
operating systems they are available for. Do not use PPTP as it has several security
vulnerabilities. In this text we will concentrate on OpenVPN. It works on most versions
of GNU/Linux, OSX, Windows. OpenVPN is TLS/SSL-based - it uses the same type
of encryption that is used in HTTPS (Secure HTTP) and a myriad of other encrypted
protocols. OpenVPN encryption is based on RSA key exchange algorithm. For this to
work and in order to communicate, both the server and the client need to have public
and private RSA keys.
Once you obtain access to your VPN account the server generates those keys and you
simply need to download those from the website of your VPN provider or have them sent
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to your email address. Together with your keys you will receive a root certificate (*.ca)
and a main configuration file (*.conf or *.ovpn). In most cases only the following files
will be needed to configure and run an OpenVPN client:
• client.conf (or client.ovpn) - configuration file that includes all necessary param-
eters and settings. NOTE: in some cases certificates and keys can come embedded
inside the main configuration file. In such a case the below mentioned files are not
necessary.
• ca.crt (unless in configuration file) - root authority certificate of your VPN server,
used to sign and check other keys issued by the provider.
• client.crt (unless in configuration file) - your client certificate, allows you to com-
municate with VPN server.
Based on a particular configuration, your VPN provider might require a username and
password to authenticate your connection. Often, for convenience, these can be saved
into a separate file or added to the main configuration file. In other cases, key-based
authentication is used, and the key is stored in a separate file:
• client.key (unless in configuration file) - client authentication key, used to authen-

ticate to the VPN server and establish an encrypted data channel.
In most cases, unless otherwise necessary, you don’t need to change anything in the
configuration file and (surely!) do not edit key or certificate files! All VPN providers
have thorough instructions regarding the setup. Read and follow those guidelines to make
sure your VPN client is configured correctly.
NOTE: Usually it’s only allowed to use one key per one connection, so you probably
shouldn’t be using the same keys on different devices at the same time. Get a new set
of keys for each device you plan to use with a VPN, or attempt to set up a local VPN
gateway (advanced, not covered here).
Download your OpenVPN configuration and key files copy them to a safe place and
proceed to the following chapter.
10.1.2 Setting up OpenVPN client

In the following chapters some examples are given for setting up OpenVPN client soft-
ware. On any flavor of GNU/Linux use your favorite package manager and install open-
vpn or openvpn-client package.
If you want to use OpenVPN on Windows or OSX, have look at:
• http://openvpn.se (Windows interface)

• http://code.google.com/p/tunnelblick (OSX interface)
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10.1.3 Caveats & Gotchas

Although a VPN will obfuscate your IP address, due to the nature of most VPNs your
TCP/IP stack meta-data and other identifying information will be sent across the wire
as-is.
This may seem trivial, but consider, a standard IP header is 20 bytes in size, some
of this is covered by required obvious information, (4 bytes for source IP, 4 bytes for
destination IP), etc but some of this header may be other arbitrary options, the TCP
header is at least 20 bytes also, with the potential for another 20 bytes of options.
The specific configuration of these options varies between operating systems, and even
versions of operating system, as such a single TCP SYN packet is often enough to identify
a users operating system, version and other potentially revealing information, like the
systems uptime. There are readily available tools which you can use to fingerprint this
information, as a test, try connecting to a server running this tool with your normal
internet connection, then connecting again over your VPN. You will most likely find that
the fingerprints are an identicle match both with and without the VPN, and that if your
friend were to connect their fingerprint would be different.
As such, it is important to remember some facts: * No one will go to jail for you, if
your VPN provider is served a legal request for information about you, they will provide
it. Just because they claim they don’t log, does not mean they do not have logs. *
VPNs provide privacy, they do not provide anonymity, regardless of the advertising and
marketing materials provided.
10.2 VPN on Ubuntu

If you use Ubuntu as your operating system, you can connect to a VPN by using the
built-in NetworkManager. This application is able to set up networks with OpenVPN.
PPTP should not be used for security reasons. Unfortunately at the time of writing a
L2TP interface is not available in Ubuntu. (It can be done manually, but it goes beyond
the scope of this document).
The following example will explain how to connect with an OpenVPN-server. Under
all situations we assume you already have a VPN account as described earlier in this
section.
10.2.1 Preparing Network Manager for VPN networks

For Ubuntu there is an excellent network utility: Network Manager. This is the same
utility you use to set up your Wireless (or wired) network and is normally in the upper
right corner of your screen (next to the clock). This tools is also capable of managing
your VPNs, but before it can do so, it’s necessary to install some extensions.
Installing OpenVPN extension for Network Manager

To install the plugins for Network Manager we will use the Ubuntu Software Center.
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1. Open the Ubuntu Software Center by typing software in the Unity search bar
Figure 10.1: VPN on Ubuntu
2. The Ubuntu Software Center enables you to search, install and remove software on
your computer. Click on the search box at the top right of the window.
3. In the search box, type in “network-manager-openvpn-gnome” (which is the ex-

tension that will enable OpenVPN). It’s necessary to type the full names because
the packages are classified as “technical” and don’t pop-up earlier. These packages
include all the files you need to establish a VPN connection successfully.
4. Ubuntu may ask you for additional permissions to install the program. If that
is the case, type in your password and click Authenticate. Once the package is
installed, you can close the Software Center window.
5. To check if the extensions are correctly installed, click on the NetworkManager (the
icon at the left of your system clock) and select VPN Connections > Configure
VPN.
6. Click Add under the VPN tab.
7. If you see a pop-up asking for the type of VPN and the tunnel technology (Open-
VPN) option is available, this means that you have installed the VPN extension in
Ubuntu correctly. If you have your VPN login information ready, you can continue
right away, else you first have to get a VPN account from a VPN-provider. If this
is the case, click cancel to close the Network Manager.
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10.2.2 Configuring an OpenVPN network

Let us assume you have received your configuration files and credentials from your VPN
provider. This information should contain the following
• an *.ovpn file, ex. air.ovpn

• The file: ca.crt (this file is specific for every OpenVPN provider)
• The file: user.crt (this file is your personal certificate, used for encryption of data)
• The file: user.key (this file contains your private key. It should be protected in a
good manner. Losing this file will make your connection insecure)
In most cases your provider will send these files to you in a zip file. Some openvpn
providers use username and password authentication which will not be covered.
1. Unzip the file you have downloaded to a folder on your hard drive (for example
“/home/[yourusername]/.vpn”). You should now have four files. The file “air.ovpn”
is the configuration file that you need to import into NetworkManager.
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2. To import the configuration file, open NetworkManager and go to VPN Connections

> Configure VPN.
3. Under the VPN tab, click Import.
4. Locate the file air.ovpn that you have just unzipped. Click Open.
5. A new window will open. Leave everything as it is and click Apply.
6. Congratulations! Your VPN connection is ready to be used and should appear on

the list of connections under the VPN tab. You can now close NetworkManager.
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10.2.3 Using your new VPN connection

Now that you configured NetworkManager to connect to a VPN service using the Open-
VPN client, you can use your new VPN connection to circumvent Internet censorship.
To get started, follow these steps:
1. In the NetworkManager menu, select your new connection from VPN Connections.
2. Wait for the VPN connection to be established. When connected, a small padlock
should appear right next to your NetworkManager icon, indicating that you are
now using a secure connection. Move your cursor over the icon to confirm that the
VPN connection is active.
3. Test your connection, using the method described in the “Make sure it works”
section of this chapter.
4. To disconnect from your VPN, select VPN Connections > Disconnect VPN in the
NetworkManager menu. You are now using your normal connection again.
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10.3 VPN on MacOSX

Setting up a VPN on MacOSX is very easy once you have your account details ready,
Let’s assume have your credentials from your VPN provider for L2TP/IPSec connection
ready. This information should contain the following:
• Username, ex. bill2

• Password, ex. verysecretpassword
• VPN server, ex. tunnel.greenhost.nl
• A Pre-Shared-Key or Machine-certificate
10.3.1 Setup
1. Before getting started, please be sure you’ve read the paragraph “testing before
and after account set up”, this way you will be able to validate if your connection
is actually working after set up.
2. A VPN is configured in the network settings, that are accessible via “System Pref-
erences..” in the Apple menu.
3. Next, open the Network preferences.
4. OSX uses this nifty system to lock windows. To add a VPN it is necessary to
unlock the screen: you can do this by clicking on the lock on the left bottom of the
screen.
5. Enter our user credentials
6. Now we can add a new network. Do this by clicking on the “+” sign
7. In the pop-up you need to specify the type of connection. In this case choose an
VPN interface with L2TP over IPSec. This is the most common system. Also don’t
forget to give the connection a nice name.
8. Next comes the connection data. Please fill in the provided server name and user
name (called ‘Account Name’). If this is done, click on the “Authentication Set-
tings. . . ” button
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10.3 VPN on MacOSX
Figure 10.17: VPN on Mac OS X
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10.3 VPN on MacOSX
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9. In the new pop-up you can specify connection specific information. This is the way
the user is authenticated and how the machine is authenticated. The user is very
commonly authenticated by using a password, although other methods are possible.
Machine authentication is often done by a Shared Secret (Pre-Shared-Key/PSK),
but also quite often by using a certificate. In this case we use the Shared Secret
method. When this is done click OK.
10. Now you return back to the network screen. The next step is very important, so
click on “Advanced. . . ”
11. In the new pop up you will see an option to route all traffic through the VPN
connection. We want to enable this, so all our traffic is encrypted.
12. Well, all is done. Now hit the Connect button!
13. A pop-up appears. You need to confirm your changes, just hit “Apply”
14. After a few seconds, on the left side the connection should turn green. If so, you
are connected!
15. Ok, now test your connection!
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10.3 VPN on MacOSX
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10.4 VPN on Windows
10.4 VPN on Windows

Setting up a VPN on Windows is very easy once you have your account details ready.
Let’s assume have your credentials from your VPN provider for L2TP/IPSec connection
ready. This information should contain the following:
• Username, ex. bill2

• Password, ex. verysecretpassword
• VPN server, ex. tunnel.greenhost.nl
• A Pre-Shared-Key or Machine-certificate
10.4.1 Setup
1. Before getting started, please be sure you’ve read the paragraph “testing before
and after account set up”, this way you will be able to validate if your connection
is actually working after set up.
2. We need to go to the “Network and Sharing Center” of Windows to create a new

VPN connection. We can access this center easily by clicking on the network icon
next to the systemclock en click on “open Network and Sharing Center”
Figure 10.30: VPN on Windows
3. The “Network and Sharing Center” will popup. You will see some information about
your current network. Click on “Connect to a network” to add a VPN connection.
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10.4 VPN on Windows
4. The wizard to setup a connection will popup. Choose the option to “connect to a
workplace”, which is Microsoft’s way of naming a VPN connection.
5. The next screen asks us if we want to use our Internet connection or an old-school
phone line to connect to the VPN. Just choose the first option then.
6. The next screen asks for the connection details. Enter here the server of your VPN-
provider (called “Internet address” in this dialog). On the bottom please check the
box “Don’t connect now; just set it up”. Using this option the connection will be
automatically saved and it’s easier to control extra settings. If this is all done, hit
the “next” button
7. Next up are your username and password. Just give them like you received them
from your VPN-provider. If the connection fails, Windows forgets them. So keep
them with you, you maybe need them later. If this is done. Click “create”.
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10.4 VPN on Windows
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10.4 VPN on Windows
8. Your connection is now available, if you click the the network icon again, you will
see a new option in the network menu, the name of your VPN connection, just click
it to connect.
9. And click “connect”
10. A VPN connection dialog appears. This give us the opportunity to review our
settings and to connect. You can try to connect, Windows will try to discover all
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10.4 VPN on Windows
other settings automatically. Unfortunately, this does not always work, so if this is
not working for you, hit the “properties” button.
11. The properties windows appear. The most important page is the “Security” page,
click on the Security tab to open it.
12. In the security tab you can specify VPN type, normally L2TP/IPSec. Do not use
PPTP as it has several security vulnerabilities. For L2TP/IPSec also have a look
at the Advanced settings.
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13. In the Advanced Settings window, you can specify if you are using a pre-shared
key or a certificate. This depends on your VPN-provider. If you have received a
pre-shared-key, Select this option and fill in this key. Hit ok afterwards. You will
return to the previous window, click ok there also
14. Back in to connection window try to connect now. Please be sure your username
and password are filled out.
15. A connection popup will appear
16. Online! Don’t forget to check if your VPN is working properly.
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10.5 Making Sure Your VPN Works

Once you’re done setting up your VPN, one of the first things you should do is test
whether your data is actually being transferred through your VPN network. The simplest
way to test this is to check your public IP address, which is the IP address you’re exposing
to the internet.
There are numerous websites that will tell you what your IP address is, and where that
IP address is located (also known as its geolocation). Many search engines will report
your IP address if you search for “My IP,” but you can also use dedicated services like
http://www.myip.se and http://www.ipchicken.com.
Check your IP address before connecting to your VPN. Once you connect to your VPN,
your computer’s public IP address should change to match that of your VPN server, and
your geolocation should change to wherever your VPN server is located.
Once your external IP is the same as the IP of your VPN server, you can rest assured
your communication is encrypted.
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11.1 Installing TrueCrypt

TrueCrypt can be installed on Windows, Linux, or Mac OSX. The installation files are
available here: http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads
The following three sections give complete details on how to install TrueCrypt for each
of these Operating Systems, starting with Ubuntu and Debian.
11.1.1 Installing on Ubuntu/Debian

TrueCrypt is not available in the standard Ubuntu repositories. This means you cannot
use the Ubuntu Software Center or apt-get (a command line method for installing software
on Ubuntu) to install it. Instead you must first visit the TrueCrypt downloads page
(http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads).
You will see a drop-down menu under the heading Linux.
Figure 11.1: Dropdown menu on the download page
From the ‘(Select a package)’ drop down menu you can choose from four options:
Figure 11.2: Choosing the correct package to download
This is a little technical - the console version is the one you choose if you are either very
technical and don’t like Graphical User Interfaces or you wish to run this on a machine
that you have only a terminal (command line or ‘shell’) access to (like a remote server
for example).
Assuming you are running this in your laptop its best to choose the easy ‘standard’
option - this will give you a nice user interface to use. From these two options you need
to choose the one most suitable for the architecture of your machine. Don’t know what
this means? Well, it basically comes down to the type of hardware (processor) running
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on your computer, the options are 32-bit or 64-bit. Unfortunately Ubuntu does not make
it easy for you to find this information if you don’t already know it. You need to open a
‘terminal’ from the Applications->Accessories menu and type the following, followed by
the [enter] key
uname -a
The output will be something like Linux bigsy 2.6.32-30-generic #59-Ubuntu SMP
Tue Mar 1 21:30:46 UTC 2011 x86_64 GNU/Linux. In this instance you can see the
architecture is 64-bit (x86_64). In this example I would choose the ‘Standard - 64-bit
(x64)’ option. If you see i686 somewhere in the output of the uname command then you
would choose the other standard option to download.
Once selected press the ‘download’ button and save the file to somewhere on your
computer.
So the installation process is still not over. The file you downloaded is a compressed
file (to make downloading it faster) and you need to first de-compress the file before
you install it. Fortunately Ubuntu makes this easy - simply browse to the file on your
computer and right click on it and choose ‘Extract Here’.
Figure 11.3: Right click and ‘extract here’
You will see a new file appear next to the compressed file:
Nearly done! Now right click on the new file and choose ‘open’:
If all is well you will see a window open like this:
Choose ‘run’ and you see the following:
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Figure 11.4: The extracted file
Figure 11.5: Right click and ‘open’
Figure 11.6: Window opens to confirm you want to ‘run’ the file
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Figure 11.7: Truecrypt installer starts. . .
Now we are getting somewhere. . . press ‘Install TrueCrypt’. You will be displayed a
user agreement. At the bottom press ‘I accept and agree to be bound by the license
terms’ (sounds serious). You will then be shown another info screen telling you how
to uninstall TrueCrypt. Press ‘OK’ then you will be asked for your password to install
software on your computer. Enter your password and then you will finally see a screen
like this:
Figure 11.8: Truecrypt install finished. . . ‘press Enter to exit’
Believe it or now your are done. . . TrueCrypt is installed and you can access it from the
Applications->accessories menu. . . close the setup window. Now proceed to the chapter
on Using TrueCrypt.
11.1.2 Installing on OSX

1. To install TrueCrypt on OSX first visit the download page (http://www.truecrypt.
org/downloads) and press the download button under the OSX section.
2. Download this to your computer find the .dmg file and open it to access the instal-
lation package.
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Figure 11.9: Download button
Figure 11.10: Open the .dmg file
3. Open the installation package, and click through the dialogues.
4. Choose the standard installation. You can choose to do a customized installation

and deselect FUSE, but why would you? You need it!
5. After the installation finishes you can find the program in your ‘Applications’ folder.
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Figure 11.11: Click through the dialogues
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Figure 11.12: Choose standard installation
Figure 11.13: Truecrypt launcher now in Applications
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11.1.3 Installing on Windows

To install TrueCrypt on Windows first visit the download page (http://www.truecrypt.
org/downloads) and press the download button under the Windows section.
Download this to your computer and then double click on the file. You will see a
license agreement.
Click on ‘I accept and agree to be bound by the license terms’ and then click ‘Accept’.
Leave the above screen with the defaults and press ‘Next >’ and you will be taken to
the Setup Options window:
You can leave this with the defaults. If you want to set up TrueCrypt just for yourself
then consider not selecting the ‘Install for all users’. However if you are installing this
on your own machine and no one else uses the computer then this is not necessary. You
may also wish to consider installing TrueCrypt in a folder other than the default. In
which case click ‘Browse’ and choose another location. When you are done click ‘Install’
and the process will proceed:
When the installation is complete you will get a verification popup that it was suc-
cessful. Close this window and click ‘Finish’ and all is done. Now proceed to the chapter
on Using TrueCrypt.
11.2 Using TrueCrypt

The following are step-by-step instructions on how to create, mount, and use a TrueCrypt
volume.
11.2.1 Creating a TrueCrypt Container

1. Install TrueCrypt. Then launch TrueCrypt by
• double-clicking the file TrueCrypt.exe in Windows
• opening Applications->Accessories->TrueCrypt in Ubuntu
• on MacOSX open it by clicking Go > Applications. Find TrueCrypt in the
Applications folder and double click on it.
2. When the main TrueCrypt window appears. Click Create Volume.
3. You should see the TrueCrypt Volume Creation Wizard window appear on screen.
Where do you want to create the TrueCrypt volume? You need to choose now. This
can be in a file, which is also called a container, in a partition or drive. The following
steps will take you through the first option creating a TrueCrypt volume within a file.
You can just click Next, as the option is selected by default,
4. Next you need to choose whether to create a standard or hidden TrueCrypt volume.
We will walk you through the former option and create a standard TrueCrypt
volume.
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Figure 11.14: Using TrueCrypt
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You can just click Next, as the option is selected by default.

5. Now you have to specify where to have the TrueCrypt volume (file container)
created. Note that a TrueCrypt container behaves like any normal file. It can be
moved or deleted as any normal file.
Click Select File.

The standard file selector will now appear on screen (the TrueCrypt Volume Creation
Wizard remains open in the background). You need to browse to the folder that the file
should be created in and then type into the ‘name’ field the name for the file you wish
to create.
We will create our TrueCrypt volume in the folder ‘adam/true’ and the filename of
the volume (container) will be ‘myencryptedfile’. You may, of course, choose any other
filename and location you like (for example, on a USB stick). Note that the file ‘myen-
cryptedfile’ does not exist yet - TrueCrypt will create it. Press ‘Save’ when you are ready.
The file selector window should close.
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IMPORTANT: Note that TrueCrypt will not encrypt any existing files. If an existing
file is selected in this step, it will be overwritten and replaced by the newly created volume
(the contents of the existing file will be lost). You will be able to encrypt existing files
later on by moving them to the TrueCrypt volume that we are creating now.
6. In the Volume Creation Wizard window (which was previously running in the
background), click Next.
7. Here you can choose an encryption algorithm and a hash algorithm for the volume.
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The TrueCrypt manual suggests that if you are not sure what to select here, you can
use the default settings and click Next (for more information about each setting have a
look at the TrueCrypt documentation website).
8. Now choose the size of your container. You should be fine with 1 megabyte but for
this example we will enter ‘20’ into the available field.
You may, of course, specify a different size. After you type the desired size in the input
field, click Next.
9. This step is really important, choosing a password.
The information displayed in the Wizard window about what is considered a good
password, should be read carefully.
Choose a strong password, type it in the first input field. Then re-type it in the input
field below the first one.
When you are done click Next.
10. Now you must choose the format of your partition (this step may not be available
for you under windows or OSX). If using Ubuntu you can choose a Linux file type
or FAT (Windows) for simplicity leave it at the default.
Then press Next.
11. Next TrueCrypt tries to generate random information to help encrypt your con-
tainer. For 30 seconds move your mouse as randomly as possible within the Volume
Creation Wizard window. Move the mouse as much as possible for up to a minute.
This significantly increases security by increasing the cryptographic strength of the
encryption keys. security). Move your mouse around until you are bored.
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Then Click Format.

TrueCrypt will now create a file in the folder you selected with the name you chose.
This file will be a TrueCrypt container, containing the encrypted TrueCrypt volume.
This may take some time depending on the size of the volume. When it finishes this
should appear:
Click OK to close the dialog box.
12. Well done! You’ve just successfully created a TrueCrypt volume (file container).
In the TrueCrypt Volume Creation Wizard window, click Exit.
11.2.2 Mounting the Encrypted Volume

1. Open up TrueCrypt again.
2. Make sure one of the ‘Slots’ is chosen (it doesn’t matter which - you can leave at
the default first item in the list). Click Select File.
The standard file selector window should appear.
3. In the file selector, browse to the container file (which we created earlier) and select
it.
Click Open (in the file selector window).

The file selector window should disappear.
4. In the main TrueCrypt window, click Mount.
Password prompt dialog window should appear.
5. Type the password in the password input field.
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11.3 Setting up a hidden volume
6. Click OK in the password prompt window.
TrueCrypt will now attempt to mount the volume. If the password is correct, the
volume will be mounted.
If the password is incorrect (for example, if you typed it incorrectly), TrueCrypt will
notify you and you will need to repeat the previous step (type the password again and
click OK).
7. We have just successfully mounted the container as a virtual disk 1. The container
will appear on your Desktop or you will see it in your file browser.
11.2.3 What does this mean?

The disk that you have just created is completely encrypted and behaves like a real disk.
Saving (moving, copying, etc) files to this disk will allow you to encrypt files on the fly.
You’ll be able to open a file which is stored on a TrueCrypt volume, which will auto-
matically be decrypted to RAM while it is being read, and you won’t need to enter your
password each time. You’ll only need to enter this when your mounting the volume.
11.2.4 Remember to dismount!

To do this right click on the drive and select unmount. This will automatically happen
when you turn off your computer but will not happen if you just put the computer on
sleep.

A TrueCrypt hidden volume exists within the free space of a typical TrueCrypt volume.
Given then the ‘outer volume’ is accessed it is (almost) impossible to determine if there
is a hidden volume within it. This is because TrueCrypt always fills the empty space of
an encrypted volume with random data. So a hidden volume looks the same as an empty
TrueCrypt volume.
To create and use a hidden volume you need two passwords - one each for the outer
and inner (hidden) volumes. When you mount (open) the volume you can use either
password and that will determine which of the two is opened. If you want to open just
the hidden volume you use one password, and if you want to access just the non-hidden
encrypted volume you use the other password.
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Figure 11.30: Hidden volumes
To create a hidden volume open TrueCrypt and press the ‘Create Volume’ button:
The options for half of this process are almost the same as for setting up a standard
TrueCrypt volume and then the process continues for setting up the hidden volume but
lets go through the entire process step by step anyway. In the screen shown below you
just want to stay with the default setting ‘Create an encrypted file container’:
Press ‘Next >’ and continue to the next screen.

In the above screen you want to be sure that you choose the second option ‘Hidden
TrueCrypt Volume’. Select this and click on ‘Next >’ you will then be asked to choose
the location and name of the TrueCrypt outer volume.
Click ‘Select File. . . ’ and browse to a location for a new TrueCrypt volume. We will
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use the name ‘myencryptedfile’ in this example. Its the same name as we used in the
last example so be aware that if you have just followed those instructions you must now
create a new volume with a new name.
Browse to the directory where you want to put the outer volume and enter the name
of the volume in the field named ‘Name’ as in the example above. When you are satisfied
all is well click on ‘Save’. The file browser will close and you return to the Wizard.
Click ‘Next >’. Here you are presented with some very technical choices. Don’t worry
about them. Leave them at the defaults and click ‘Next >’. The next screen asks you to
determine the size of the outer volume. Note that when you do this the maximum inner
‘hidden’ volume size is determined by TrueCrypt. This maximum size will of course be
smaller that the size you are setting on this screen. If you are not sure what the ratio of
outer volume size to inner (hidden) volume size is then go through the process now as
a ‘dummy’ run - you can always trash the encrypted volume and start again (no harm
done).
So choose the size of the outer volume, I will choose 20MB as shown below:
You cannot set the outer volume size to be larger than the amount of free space you
have available on your disk. TrueCrypt tells you the maximum possible size in bold
letters so create a volume size smaller than that. Then click ‘Next >’ and you will be
taken to a screen asking you to set a password for the outer (not the hidden, this comes
later) volume.
Enter a password that is strong (see the chapter on creating good passwords) and press
‘Next >’. Next TrueCrypt wants you to help it create the random data it will fill the
volume up with. So wave your mouse around, browse the web, and do whatever you want
for as long as you can. When you feel TrueCrypt should be happy then press ‘Format’.
You will see a progress bar zip by and then you will be presented with the next screen:
You can open the outer volume if you like but for this chapter we will skip that and
go ahead to create the hidden volume. Press ‘Next >’ and TrueCrypt will work out how
the maximum possible size of the hidden volume.
When you see the above screen just press ‘Next >’. Now you must choose the encryp-
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268
tion type for the hidden volume. Leave it at the defaults and press ‘Next >’.
Now you will be asked to choose the size of the hidden volume.
I have set (as you see above) the maximum size as 10MB. When you have set your
maximum size press ‘Next >’ and you will be prompted to create a password for the
hidden volume.
When creating the password for the hidden volume make sure you make it substantially
different fro the password for the outer volume. If someone really does access your
drive and finds out the password for the outer volume they might try variations on this
password to see if there is also a hidden volume. So make sure the two passwords are
not alike.
Enter your password in the two fields and press ‘Next >’.
Leave this window at the defaults and press ‘Next >’ and you will be presented with
the same screen you have seen before to generate random data for TrueCrypt. When you
are happy click ‘Format’ and you should see the following :
The TrueCrypt manual it is referring to is not this manual. They mean this manual :
http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/
Click ‘OK’ and keep and exit TrueCrypt. You can now mount the volume as noted in
the previous chapter.
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11.4 Securely destroying data

Just hit the delete button and you are done! No it’s not that easy. To understand how
to securely delete data, we have to understand how data is stored. In an analogy to the
real world, an explanation of how data is stored follows:
Assume you have a small notebook with 10 pages and you want to write some data in
this notebook. You just start writing on the first page up to the end of the notebook.
Maybe you decide the information on page 5 must be destroyed. Probably you will just
take out the page and burn it.
Unfortunately data on a harddisk doesn’t work this way. A harddisk contains not ten
but thousands or maybe even millions of pages. Also it’s impossible to take out a “page”
of a harddisk and destroy it. To explain how a harddisk work, we will continue with our
10-page notebook example. But now we will work a little bit different with it. We will
work in a way similar to how a harddisk works.
This time we use the first page of our notebook as an index. Assume we write a piece
about “WikiLeaks”, then on the first page we write a line “piece about WikiLeaks: see
page 2”. The actual piece is then written on page 2.
For the next document, a piece about “Goldman Sachs” we add a line on page 1,
“Goldman Sachs: see page 3”. We can continue this way till our notebook is full. Let’s
assume the first page will look like this:
• WikiLeaks -> see page 2

• Goldman Sachs -> see page 3
• Monstanto scandal -> see page 4
• Holiday pictures -> see page 5
• KGB Investigation -> see page 6
• Al Jazeeraa contacts -> see page 7
• Iran nuclear program -> see page 8
• Sudan investigation -> see page 9
• Infiltration in EU-politics -> see page 10
Now, let’s decide you want to wipe the “Goldman Sachs” piece, what a harddisk will
do, it will only remove the entry on the first page, but not the actual data, your index
will be:
• WikiLeaks -> see page 2

• Monstanto scandal -> see page 4
• Holiday pictures -> see page 5
• KGB Investigation -> see page 6
• Al Jazeeraa contacts -> see page 7
• Iran nuclear program -> see page 8
• Sudan investigation -> see page 9
• Infiltration in EU-politics -> see page 10
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What we did, we removed only the reference to the article, but if we open page 3, we
will still able to read the Goldman Sachs piece. This is exactly the way what a harddisk
does when your “delete” a file. With specialized software it still able to “recover” page 3.
To securely delete data, we should do the following:
1. Open the “Goldman Sachs” page (page 3)
2. Use an eraser to remove the article there, if done return to page 1
3. Delete the reference in the index on page 1
Well you will be surprised by the similarity between this example and the real world.
You know when you removed the article on page 3 with an eraser, it is still possible to
read the article slightly. The pencil leaves a track on the paper because of the pressure
of the pencil on the paper and also you will be unable to erase all of the graphite. Small
traces are left behind on the paper. If you really need this article, you can reconstruct
(parts) of it, even if it’s erased.
With a harddisk this is very similar. Even if you erased every piece of data, it is
sometimes possible with (very) specialized hardware to recover pieces of the data. If the
data is very confidential and must be erased with the greatest care, you can use software
to “overwrite” all pieces of data with random data. When this is done multiple times,
this will make the data untraceable.
11.4.1 A note on Solid State Hard Drives

The instructions below explain how to use file deletion tools to securely delete files from
your hard drives. These tools rely on the Operating System you are using being able to
directly address every byte on the hard drive in order to tell the drive “set byte number
X to 0”. Unfortunately, due to a number of advanced technologies used by Solid State
Drives (SSDs) such as TRIM, it is not always possible to ensure with 100% certainty
that every part of a file on an SSD has been erased using the tools below.
11.4.2 Securely delete data under Windows

For Windows there is a good open source tool called “File Shredder”. This tool can be
downloaded from http://www.fileshredder.org
The installation is very straightforward, just download the application and install it
by hitting the next button. After installation this application will automatically start.
You can then start using it for shredding files. However the best part of the program is
that you can use it from within windows itself by right clicking on a file.
1. Click right on the file you want to shred, and choose File Shredder -> Secure delete
files
2. A pop-up asks if you really want to shred this file
3. After confirming, there your file goes. Depending on the size of the file this can
take a while
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Figure 11.36: Destroying data
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11.4.3 Securely delete data under MacOSX

There are basically to build-in steps to make to securely delete your data on Mac OSX.
1. Erase the free-space on your hard-drive containing all the data of items which are
deleted in an insecure way.
2. Make sure that every file from then on is always securely deleted.
We start with the first one:
Erasing Free Space
1. Open Disk-Utility which resides in the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder.
2. Select your hard drive and click on ‘Erase Free Space’.
3. Three options will appear, from top to bottom more secure, but also they take
much more time to complete. Read the descriptions on each one of them to get an
idea from what will happen if you use them and then choose which one might suite
your needs the best and click ‘Erase free Space’.
If time is no issue, then use the most secure method and enjoy your free time to get a
good coffee while you Mac crunches away on this task. If the crooks are already knocking
on your front-door you might want to use the fastest way.
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Securely Erasing Files

Now that your previously deleted data is once and for ever securely erased you should
make sure that you don’t create any new data that might be recovered at a later date.
1. To do this open the finder preferences under the Finder Menu.
2. Go to the advanced tab and tick ‘Empty trash securely’. This will make sure that
every time you empty your trash all the items in it will be securely deleted and are
really gone!
Note: Deleting your files securely will take longer then just deleting them. If you have
to erase big portions of unimportant data (say your movie and mp3 collection) you may
wanna untick this option before doing so.
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11 Disk Encryption
11.4.4 Securely delete data under Ubuntu/Linux

Unfortunately currently there is no graphical user interface available for Ubuntu to delete
files secure. There are two command-line programs available though:
• shred
• wipe
Shred is installed in Ubuntu by default and can delete single files. Wipe is not installed
by default but can easily be installed with using Ubuntu Software Center or if you
understand the command line you can install it with apt-get install wipe. Wipe is a
little more secure and has nicer options.
It is possible make access to these program’s easy by adding it as an extra menu option
1. We assume you are familiar with the Ubuntu Software Center. To add the securely
wipe option, it’s required to install these two programs wipe and nautilus-actions
If the two programs are installed follow the following steps. If they are not installed
use the Ubuntu Software Center to install them or on the command line simply type
apt-get install nautilus-actions wipe
2. Open the “Nautilus Actions Configuration” from the System -> Preferences menu
3. We have to add a new action. To do this, start clicking on the “create new action
button”, the first option in the toolbar
4. Next is describing the new action. You can give the action every name you wish.
Fill out this title in the “Context label” field. In this example we used “Delete file
securely”
5. Click on the second tab (“Command”), here is how we specify the action we want.
In the field “Path”, type “wipe”, in the field parameters type “-rf %M”, please be
sure about the capitalisation of all characters here, this is very important.
6. Next is specifying the conditions, click on the conditions tab and choose the option
“Both” in the “Appears if selection contains. . . ” box. With this option you can
wipe both files and folders securely. If done, click the save button (second item on
the icon bottom toolbar) or use the menu File->Save
7. Now close the Nautilus Actions Configuration tool. Unfortunately, after this, you
have to re-login into your system, so ether reboot or logout/login.
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11 Disk Encryption
280
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11 Disk Encryption
282
283
11 Disk Encryption
284
11.5 About LUKS
8. Now browse to the file you want to securely delete and right click:
Choose ‘Delete File Securely’. The file will then be wiped ‘quietly’ - you do not get
any feedback or notice that the process has started or stopped. However the process is
underway. It takes some time to securely delete data and the bigger the file the longer it
takes. When it is complete the icon for the file to be wiped will disappear. If you would
like to add some feedback you can change the parameters field in Nautilius Actions
Configuration tool to this:
-rf %M | zenity --info --text "your wipe is underway, please be patient.
The file to be wiped will disappear shortly."
The above line will tell you the process is underway but you will not know the file is
deleted until the icon disappears.
11.5 About LUKS

LUKS, short for Linux Unified Key Setup, is the default method for disk encryption
on Linux. It can be used to enable Full Disk Encryption during installation with a
single click, or to encrypt individual partitions on external hard disks or usb sticks later
on. Please note that Full Disk Encryption is hard to enable after the installation as it
requires moving all existing files temporarily as encrypting a device requires formatting
it.
• Advantages: LUKS is available through dm-crypt which is part of the Linux kernel,
so it doesn’t need any further software to be installed.
• Disadvantages: Unlike with Truecrypt, it is not possible to use it with other Oper-
ating Systems (yet), so if you use LUKS to encrypt a USB drive, you can only use
it on Linux machines, but not on Windows or Mac OS.
If you want to encrypt a device after the Linux installation completed, you can use the
Disks utility which can be found in most Linux distribution’s System Settings.
11.5.1 Starting Disks

On Ubuntu, start Disks by pressing the Windows key and A, typing “disks” and selecting
the corresponding program as shown below:
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11 Disk Encryption
Figure 11.50: Launching Disks
286
11.5 About LUKS
11.5.2 Encrypting a device
Figure 11.51: Disks main window
On the left hand side you will find a list of all storage devices plugged into your
computer.
Select the one you want to encrypt (step 1) (in this case a usb stick), and then on the
right hand side, click on the cog wheels and “Format. . . ”. A dialog will appear where
you can select if the existing data on the device shall be completely overwritten (that
can take up to several hours depending on the size and performance of the device) or
just formatted. Please note that even if you choose to encrypt the device, data, that was
present before will be recoverable if you don’t choose to overwrite it completely.
No matter what you choose for the field Erase, select “Encrypted, compatible with
Linux systems (LUKS+Ext4)” for Type, give it a name and a strong passphrase (see
chapter 8 on that matter), and click Format. . .
On the confirmation screen make sure you selected the correct device as data recovery
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11 Disk Encryption
Figure 11.52: “Format. . . ” dialog
288
11.5 About LUKS
is a cumbersome tasks – if possible at all.
Figure 11.53: Confirmation step
Back on the main window the device now consists of two layers. One is the physical
storage (here called “Partition 1”) and the other a virtual device which is created by the
LUKS system to give you access to the encrypted device (here called “cryptostick”). The
pad lock on “Partition 1” is open as the Disks utility needed to open it in order to create
a file system (how would you store files on a device without a file system?). You can
click on the (other) pad lock as shown below to close the decryption channel and the
eject button in the upper right corner to safely remove the device.
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11.5 About LUKS
11.5.3 Using an encrypted device

This is quite straight-forward. Plug it in, enter the passphrase and click Connect. If the
file manager does not open automatically, the device will be available when you do.
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11 Disk Encryption
Figure 11.54: Eject the LUKS device
292
12 Call Encryption
12.1 Installing CSipSimple
CSipSimple is a program for Android devices that allows for making encrypted calls.
Naturally the calling software isn’t enough on its own and we need a communication
network to enable us to make calls.
12.1.1 Introducing The OSTN Network
If you already know about OSTN and have an account, you can skip this section.
The Guardian Project’s OSTN (Open {Secure, Source, Standards} Telephony Network
- https://guardianproject.info/wiki/OSTN) is an attempt to define a standard Voice
over IP (VoIP) setup using the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) that enables end-to-end
encrypted calls. Similar to e-mail, SIP allows people to choose their service provider
while still being able to call each other even if they are not using the same provider. Yet,
not all SIP providers offer OSTN and both providers have to support OSTN for the call
to be secure. Once a connection between two people is established, the audio data is
exchanged directly between the two parties. Data is encrypted according to the Secure
Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP).
A majority of encrypting VoIP applications currently use Session Description Proto-
col Security Descriptions for Media Streams (SDES) with hop-by-hop Transport Layer
Security (TLS) to exchange secret master keys for SRTP. This method is not end-to-end
secure as the SRTP keys are visible in plaintext to any SIP proxy or provider involved
in the call.
ZRTP is a cryptographic key-agreement protocol to negotiate the keys for encryption
between two parties. ZRTP end points use the media stream rather than the signaling
stream to establish the SRTP encryption keys. Since the media stream is a direct con-
nection between the calling parties, there is no way for the SIP providers or proxies to
intercept the SRTP keys. ZRTP provides a useful reassurance to end-users that they
have a secure line. By reading and comparing a word pair, users can be certain that the
key exchange has completed.
Open Secure Telephony (https://ostel.me/) is a testbed for OSTN that worked well at
the time of writing this book. At https://ostel.me/users/sign_up you can sign up and
create an account. You can also check the OSTN page listed above for other providers.
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12 Call Encryption
12.1.2 CSipSimple
CSipSimple is a free and open source client for Android that works well with OSTN. You
can find it at https://market.android.com/details?id=com.csipsimple
To use CSipSimple with ostel.me, select OSTN in the generic wizards when creating
an account and enter username, password and server as provided after signing up at
https://ostel.me/users/sign_up
Once you call another party with CSipSimple you see a yellow bar with ZRTP and the
verification word pair. You now have established a secure voice connection that cannot
be intercepted. Still, you should be aware that your phone or the phone of the other
party could be set up to record the conversation.
Basic steps:
1. Install CSipSimple from Google Play store or other trusted source

2. Start it up and choose if you want to make SIP calls via data connection or only
WiFi
3. Configure your account
To use CSipSimple with ostel.me, select OSTN in the Generic Wizards section when
creating an account. You can toggle off the “United States” providers by clicking on
“United States”. Now select OSTN :
Now you can enter your username (number), password and server (ostel.me) as pro-
vided after signing up at https://ostel.me/users/sign_up.
Now you can make a call. The first time you connect to someone with ZRTP you have
to verify that the key exchange was successful. In the example below the confirmation
word is “cieh”, you can already talk to the other party and make sure you both see the
same word. Once done, press ok.
You now have established a secure voice connection that cannot be intercepted. Beware
that your or the phone of the other party could be recording your conversation.
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297
13 Instant Messaging Encryption
13.1 Setting up Encrypted Instant Messaging

13.1.1 Android - Installing Gibberbot
https://guardianproject.info/apps/gibber/
Gibberbot is a secure chat client capable of end-to-end encryption. It works with
Google, Facebook, any Jabber or XMPP server. Gibberbot uses the Off-The-Record
encryption standard (OTR) to enable true verifiable end-to-end encrypted communica-
tions.
You can install Gibberbot through the Google Play store or from another trusted
source.
You can securely chat with other programs with OTR support such as Adium, Pidgin
on the desktop, Gibberbot on Android or ChatSecure on iOS.
13.1.2 iOS - Installing ChatSecure

http://chrisballinger.info/apps/chatsecure/
ChatSecure is a secure chat client capable of end-to-end encryption. It works with
Google, Facebook, any Jabber or XMPP server. ChatSecure uses the Off-the-Record
encryption standard (OTR) to enable true verifiable end-to-end encrypted communica-
tions.
You can install ChatSecure through the iTunes store
13.1.3 Ubuntu - Installing Pidgin

http://pidgin.im/
Pidgin is a secure chat client capable of end-to-end encryption. It works with Google,
Facebook, any Jabber or XMPP server. Pidgin uses the Off-the-Record encryption stan-
dard (OTR) to enable true verifiable end-to-end encrypted communications.
You can install via Ubuntu Software Center, search for pidgin-otr to install pidgin and
the pidgin otr plugin.
Once installed you can enable otr for any account you setup in pidgin.
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13 Instant Messaging Encryption
13.1.4 OS X - Installing Adium

http://www.adium.im/
Adium is a secure chat client capable of end-to-end encryption. It works with Google,
Facebook, any Jabber or XMPP server. Adium uses the Off-the-Record encryption stan-
Installing Adium is similar to installing most Mac OS X applications.
1. Download the Adium disk image from http://www.adium.im/.

2. If an Adium window does not open automatically, double click the downloaded file
3. Drag the Adium application to your Applications folder.
4. “Eject” the Adium disk image, which has an icon of a drive
5. The Adium disk image will still be present in your download folder (probably on
your desktop). You can drag this file to the trash, as it is no longer needed.
6. To load Adium, locate it in the Applications folder and double click.
13.1.5 Windows - Installing Pidgin

http://pidgin.im/
Pidgin is a secure chat client capable of end-to-end encryption. It works with Google,
Facebook, any Jabber or XMPP server. Pidgin uses the Off-the-Record encryption stan-
To use Pidgin with OTR on Windows, you have to install Pidgin and the OTR plugin
for Pidgin.
1. Download the latest version of Pidgin for Windows from http://www.pidgin.im/

download/windows/
2. Run the Pidgin Installer
3. Download the latest version of “OTR plugin for Pidgin” at http://www.cypherpunks.
ca/otr/#downloads
4. Run the OTR Plugin Installer
Now you can use OTR with any account you setup in Pidgin.
13.1.6 All OS - crypto.cat

https://crypto.cat
Cryptocat is an open source web application intended to allow secure, encrypted online
chatting. Cryptocat encrypts chats on the client side, only trusting the server with data
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13.1 Setting up Encrypted Instant Messaging
that is already encrypted. Cryptocat is delivered as a browser extension and offers plugins
for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari.
Cryptocat intends to provide means for impromptu, encrypted communications that
offer more privacy than services such as Google Talk, while maintaining a higher level
of accessibility than other high-level encryption platforms, and furthermore allows for
multiple users in one chat room.
13.1.7 Chat Log Files

Some of the Chat Clients listed above e.g. Adium, store plaintext, unencrypted Chat
Logs, often by default, even when the OTR “security / privacy” plug-in is installed.
If you are taking OTR precautions to protect your chats from snoopers over the wire
or over the air, you should either double check that you have manually switched off Chat
Session Logging, or ensure that the Chat Logs you deliberately intend to keep are created
on an encrypted disk drive or volume, in case your computer is lost, stolen or seized. It
is also worth asking the person you are chatting with if they are inadvertently logging
the chat with their own Chat Client software.
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14 Secure File Sharing
14.1 Installing I2P on Ubuntu Lucid Lynx (and newer) and
derivatives like Linux Mint & Trisquel
1. Open a terminal and enter:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:i2p-maintainers/i2p

This command will add the PPA to /etc/apt/sources.list.d and fetch the gpg key that
the repository has been signed with. The GPG key ensures that the packages have not
been tampered with since being built.
2. Notify your package manager of the new PPA by entering
sudo apt-get update

This command will retrieve the latest list of software from each repository that is
enabled on your system, including the I2P PPA that was added with the earlier command.
3. You are now ready to install I2P!
sudo apt-get install i2p
4. Your browse should open up with your local I2P router console, to browse i2p
domains you have to configure your browser to use the i2p proxy. Also check your
connection status on the left side on the router console. If your status is Network:
Firewalled your connection will be rather slow. The first time you start I2P it
may take a few minutes to integrate you into the network and find additional peers
to optimize your integration, so please be patient.
From the Tools menu, select Options to bring up the Firefox settings panel. Click the
icon labelled Advanced, then click on the Network tab. In the Connections section, click
on the Settings button. You’ll see a Window like the following:
In the Connection Settings window, click the circle next to Manual proxy configuration,
then enter 127.0.0.1, port 4444 in the HTTP Proxy field. Enter 127.0.0.1, port 4445 in
the SSL Proxy field. Be sure to enter localhost and 127.0.0.1 into the “No Proxy for”
box.
For more information and proxy settings for other browsers check https://www.i2p2.
de/htproxyports.htm
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Figure 14.1: I2P
304
14.1 Installing I2P on Ubuntu Lucid Lynx (and newer) and derivatives like Linux Mint & Trisquel
Figure 14.2: I2P
305
14.2 Instructions for Debian Lenny and newer

For more information visit this page https://www.i2p2.de/debian.html
14.3 Starting I2P

Using these I2P packages the I2P router can be started in the following three ways:
• “on demand” using the i2prouter script. Simply run “i2prouter start” from a com-
mand prompt. (Note: Do not use sudo or run it as root!).
• as a service that automatically runs when your system boots, even before logging
in. The service can be enabled with “dpkg-reconfigure i2p” as root or using sudo.
This is the recommended means of operation.
14.4 Anonymous Bittorrent with I2PSnark

We can use the I2P network to share and download files without the entire world knowing
who is sharing them. or even the fact that you are running a torrent client, since i2p
network is end-to-end encrypted the only thing known to outsider is you are running I2P.
I2p come with a built-in torrent client that run inside the browser called I2PSnark.
You can access it through this direct link:
http://localhost:7657/i2psnark/
or through the router console: http://localhost:7657/ and clicking on the torrent
icon. Once started you should see a screen similar to the following:
Figure 14.3: I2P
You can search for a torrent using one of following bittorrent trackers:
• http://tracker.postman.i2p/
• http://diftracker.i2p/
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14.4 Anonymous Bittorrent with I2PSnark
Copy the torrent or magnet link and past it in the I2PSnark window, and click Add
torrent. the file will be downloaded inside the /home/user/.i2p/i2psnark folder.
NOTE:
• Since I2P is a closed network, you can’t download normal torrents found on regular
internet with it, and it can’t be used to make downloading them anonymous!
• The speed seems to be slightly lower than usual which is caused by the anonymiza-
tion. I think that the download rates are still acceptable if you consider that you
download and share anonymously.
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15 Appendices
0xcaca0 Adam Hyde Ahmed Mansour Alice Miller A Ravi Ariel Viera Asher Wolf AT
Austin Martin Ben Weissmann Bernd Fix Brendan Howell Brian Newbold Carola Hesse
Chris Pinchen Dan Hassan Daniel Kinsman Danja Vasiliev DÃľvai NaÌĄndor djmat-
tyg007 Douwe Schmidt Edward Cherlin Elemar Emile Denichaud Emile den Tex Erik
Stein Erinn Clark Freddy Martinez Freerk Ohling Greg Broiles Haneef Mubarak he-
len varley jamieson Janet Swisher Jan Gerber Jannette Mensch Jens Kubieziel jmorahan
Josh Datko Joshua Datko Julian Oliver Kai Engert Karen Reilly l3lackEyedAngels leoj3n
LiamO Lonneke van der Velden Malte Malte Dik Marta Peirano Mart van Santen mdim-
itrova Michael Henriksen Nart Villeneuve Nathan Andrew Fain Nathan Houle Niels El-
gaard Larsen Petter Ericson Piers Plato Punkbob Roberto Rastapopoulos Ronald Deib-
ert Ross Anderson Sacha van Geffen Sam Tennyson Samuel Carlisle Samuel L. Tennyson
Seth Schoen Steven Murdoch StooJ Story89 Ted W Ted Wood Teresa Dillon therealplato
Tomas Krag Tom Boyle Travis Tueffel Uwe Lippmann WillMorrison Ximin Luo Yuval
Adam zandi Zorrino Zorrinno
15.1 Cryptography and Encryption

Cryptography and encryption are similar terms, the former being the science and latter
the implementation of it. The history of the subject can be traced back to ancient
civilisations, when the first humans began to organise themselves into groups. This was
driven in part by the realisation that we were in competition for resources and tribal
organisation, warfare and so forth were necessary, so as to keep on top of the heap. In
this respect cryptography and encryption are rooted in warfare, progression and resource
management, where it was necessary to send secret messages to each other without the
enemy deciphering ones moves.
Writing is actually one of the earliest forms of cryptography as not everyone could
read. The word cryptography stems from the Greek words kryptos (hidden) and graphein
(writing). In this respect cryptography and encryption in their simplest form refer to
the writing of hidden messages, which require a system or rule to decode and read
them. Essentially this enables you to protect your privacy by scrambling information in
a way that it is only recoverable with certain knowledge (passwords or passphrases) or
possession (a key).
Put in another way, encryption is the translation of information written in plaintext
into a non-readable form (ciphertext) using algorithmic schemes (ciphers). The goal is
to use the right key to unlock the ciphertext and return it back into its original plain
text form so it becomes readable again.
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15 Appendices
Although most encryption methods refer to written word, during World War Two, the
US military used Navajo Indians, who traveled between camps sending messages in their
native tongue. The reason the army used the Navajo tribe was to protect the informa-
tion they were sending from the Japanese troops, who famously could not decipher the
Navajo’s spoken language. This is a very simple example of using a language to send
messages that you do not want people to listen into or know what you’re discussing.
Why is encryption important? —————————-
Computer and telecommunication networks store digital echoes or footprints of our
thoughts and records of personal lives.
From banking, to booking, to socialising: we submit a variety of detailed, personalised
information, which is driving new modes of business, social interaction and behavior. We
have now become accustomed to giving away what was (and still is) considered private
information in exchange for what is presented as more personalised and tailored services,
which might meet our needs, but cater to our greed.
But how do we protect who sees, controls and uses this information?
Lets consider a scenario whereby we all thought it was fine to send all our communica-
tion on open handwritten postcards. From conversations with your doctor, to intimate
moments with our lovers, to legal discussions you may have with lawyers or accountants.
It’s unlikely that we would want all people to be able to read such communications.
So instead we have written letters in sealed envelopes, tracking methods for sending
post, closed offices and confidential agreements, which help to keep such communication
private. However given the shift in how we communicate, much more of this type of
interaction is taking place online. More importantly it is taking place through online
spaces, which are not private by default and open to people with little technical skills to
snoop into the matters that can mean the most to our lives.
Online privacy and encryption is something we therefore need to be aware of and
practice daily. In the same way we would put an important letter into an envelope or have
a conversation behind a closed door. Given that so much of our private communication
is now happening in networked and online spaces, we should consider the interface, like
envelopes or seals, which protect this material as a basic necessity and human right.
15.1.1 Encryption examples

Throughout history we can find examples of cipher methods, which have been used to
keep messages private and secret.
15.1.2 A Warning!
“There are two kinds of cryptography in this world: cryptography that will
stop your kid sister from reading your files, and cryptography that will stop
major governments from reading your files” - Bruce Schneier, Applied Cryp-
tography, 1996
This chapter first explains a number of historical cryptographic systems and then
provides a summary of modern techniques. The historical examples illustrate how cryp-
310
tography emerged, but are considered broken in the face of modern computers. They
can be fun to learn, but please don’t use them for anything sensitive!
15.1.3 Historical ciphers

Classical ciphers refer to historical ciphers, which are now out of popular use or no
longer applicable. There are two general categories of classical ciphers: transposition
and substitution ciphers.
In a transposition cipher, the letters themselves are kept unchanged, but the order
within the message is scrambled according to some well-defined scheme. An example
of a transposition cipher is Skytale, which was used in ancient Rome and Greece. A
paperstrip was wrapped around a stick and the message written across it. That way the
message could not be read unless wound around a stick of similar diameter again.
Figure 15.1: Cryptography
Image: Skytale taken from Wikimedia Commons (3.10.12)

A substitution cipher is a form of classical cipher whereby letters or groups of letters
are systematically replaced throughout the message for other letters (or groups of letters).
Substitution ciphers are divided into monoalphabetic and polyalphabetic substitutions.
The Caesar Shift cipher is common example of amonoalphabetic substitution ciphers,
where the letters in the alphabet are shifted in one direction or another.
Image: Caesar Shift Cipher taken from Wikimedia Commons (3.10.12)

Polyalphabetic substitutions are more complex than substitution ciphers as they use
more than one alphabet and rotate them. For example, The Alberti cipher, which was the
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15 Appendices
first polyalphabetic cipher was created by Leon Battista Alberti, a 15th century Italian,
Renaissance polymath and humanist who is also credited as the godfather of western
cryptography. His cipher is similar to the VigenÃĺre cipher, where every letter of the
alphabet gets a unique number (e.g. 1-26). The message is then encrypted by writing
down the message along with the password repeatedly written beneath it.
In the VigenÃĺre cipher the corresponding numbers of the letters of message and key
are summed up (with numbers exceeding the alphabet being dragged around the back)
making the message so unreadable that it couldn’t be deciphered for centuries (nowadays,
with the help of computers, this obviously isn’t true anymore).
312
Image: VigenÃĺre cipher taken from Wikimedia Commons (3.10.12)

During World War 2 there was a surge in crypography, which lead to the development of
new algorithms such as the one-time pad (OTP). The OTP algorithm combines plaintext
with a random key that is as long as the plaintext so that each character is only used
once. To use it you need two copies of the pad, which are kept by each user and exchanged
via a secure channel. Once the message is encoded with the pad, the pad is destroyed
and the encoded message is sent. On the recipient’s side, the encoded message has a
duplicate copy of the pad from which the plaintext message is generated. A good way to
look at OTP is to think of it as a 100% noise source, which is used to mask the message.
Since both parties of the communication have copies of the noise source they are the only
people who can filter it out.
OTP lies behind modern day stream ciphers, which are explained below. Claude
Shannon, (a key player in modern cryptography and information theory), in his seminal
1949 paper “Communication Theory of Secrecy Systems” demonstrated that theoretically
all unbreakable ciphers should include the OTP encryption, which if used correctly are
impossible to crack.
15.1.4 Modern ciphers

Post the World Wars the field of cryptography became less of a public service and fell
more within the domain of governance. Major advances in the field began to reemerge
in the mid-1970s with the advent of personalised computers and the introduction of the
Data Encryption Standard (DES, developed at IBM in 1977 and later adopted by the
U.S government). Since 2001 we now use the AES, Advanced Encryption Standard),
which is based on symmetric cryptography forms.
Contemporary cryptography can be generally divided into what is called symmetric,
asymmetric and quantum cryptography.
Symmetric cryptography, or secret key, cryptography refers to ciphers where the same
key is used to both encrypt and decrypt the text or information involved. In this class of
ciphers the key is shared and kept secret within a restricted group and therefore it is not
possible to view the encrypted information without having the key. A simple analogy to
secret key cryptography is having access to a community garden, which has one key to
open gate, which is shared by the community. You cannot open the gate, unless you have
the key. Obviously the issue here with the garden key and with symmetric cryptography
is if the key falls into the wrong hands, then an intruder or attacker can get in and the
security of the garden, or the data or information is compromised. Consequently one of
the main issues with this form of cryptography is the issue of key management. As a result
this method is best employed within single-user contexts or small group environments.
Despite this limitation symmetric key methods are considerably faster than asymmetric
methods and so are the preferred mechanism for encrypting large chunks of text.
Symmetric ciphers are usually implemented using block ciphers or stream ciphers.
Block ciphers work by looking at the input data in 8 or 16 or 32 byte blocks at a time
and spreading the input and key within those blocks. Different modes of operation are
performed on the data in order to transform and spread the data between blocks. Such
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15 Appendices
ciphers use a secret key to convert a fixed block of plain text into cipher text. The same
key is then used to decrypt the cipher text.
In comparison stream ciphers (also known as state cipher) work on each plaintext digit
by creating a corresponding keystream which forms the ciphertext. The keystream refers
to a stream of random characters (bits, bytes, numbers or letters) on which various addi-
tive or subtractive functions are performed and combined to a character in the plaintext
message, which then produces the ciphertext. Although this method is very secure, it is
not always practical, since the key of the same length as the message needs to be trans-
mitted in some secure way so that receiver can decypher the message. Another limitation
is that the key can only be used once and then its discarded. Although this can mean
almost watertight security, it does limit the use of the cipher.
Asymmetric ciphers work much more complex mathematical problems with back doors,
enabling faster solutions on smaller, highly important pieces of data. They also work on
fixed data sizes, typically 1024-2048 bits and and 384 bits. What makes them special is
that they help solve some of the issues with key distribution by allocating one public and
one private pair per person, so that everyone just needs to know everyone else’s public
portion. Asymmetric ciphers are also used for digital signatures. Where as symmetric
ciphers are generally used for message authenticity. Symmetric ciphers cannot non-
repudiation signatures (i.e., signatures that you cannot later deny that you did not sign).
Digital signatures are very important in modern day cryptography. They are similar to
wax seals in that they verify who the message is from and like seals are unique to that
person. Digital signatures are one of the methods used within public key systems, which
have transformed the field of cryptography are central to modern day Internet security
and online transactions.
15.1.5 Quantum Cryptography

Quantum cryptography is the term used to describe the type of cryptography that is
now necessary to deal with the speed at which we now process information and the
related security measures that are necessary. Essentially it deals with how we use quan-
tum communication to securely exchange a key and its associated distribution. As the
machines we use become faster the possible combinations of public-key encryption and
digital signatures becomes easier to break and quantum cryptography deals with the
types of algorithms that are necessary to keep pace with more advanced networks.
15.1.6 Challenges & Implications

At the heart of cryptography lies the challenge of how we use and communicate informa-
tion. The above methods describe how we encrypt written communication but obviously
as shown in the Navajo example other forms of communication (speech, sound, image
etc) can also be encrypted using different methods.
The main goal and skill of encryption is to apply the right methods to support trust-
worthy communication. This is achieved by understanding the tradeoffs, strengths and
weaknesses of different cipher methods and how they relate to the level of security and
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15.2 Glossary
privacy required. Getting this right depends on the task and context.
Importantly when we speak about communication, we are speaking about trust. Tra-
ditionally cryptography dealt with the hypothetical scenarios, where the challenge was
to address how ‘Bob’ could speak to ‘Alice’ in a private and secure manner.
Our lives are now heavily mediated via computers and the Internet. So the boundaries
between Bob, Alice + the ‘other’ (Eve, Oscar, Big Brother, your boss, ex-boyfriend or the
government) are a lot more blurred. Given the quantum leaps in computer processing,
in order for ‘us’, Bob’s and Alice’s to have trust in the system, we need to know who we
are talking too, we need to know who is listening and importantly who has the potential
to eavesdrop. What becomes important is how we navigate this complexity and feel in
control and secure, so that you can engage and communicate in a trustful manner, which
respects our individual freedoms and privacy.
15.2 Glossary
Much of this content is based on http://en.cship.org/wiki/Special:Allpages
15.2.1 aggregator
An aggregator is a service that gathers syndicated information from one or many sites
and makes it available at a different address. Sometimes called an RSS aggregator, a feed
aggregator, a feed reader, or a news reader. (Not to be confused with a Usenet News
reader.)
15.2.2 anonymity
(Not be confused with privacy, pseudonymity, security, or confidentiality.)
Anonymity on the Internet is the ability to use services without leaving clues to one’s
identity or being spied upon. The level of protection depends on the anonymity tech-
niques used and the extent of monitoring. The strongest techniques in use to protect
anonymity involve creating a chain of communication using a random process to select
some of the links, in which each link has access to only partial information about the
process. The first knows the user’s Internet address (IP) but not the content, destina-
tion, or purpose of the communication, because the message contents and destination
information are encrypted. The last knows the identity of the site being contacted, but
not the source of the session. One or more steps in between prevents the first and last
links from sharing their partial knowledge in order to connect the user and the target
site.
15.2.3 anonymous remailer

An anonymous remailer is a service that accepts e-mail messages containing instructions
for delivery, and sends them out without revealing their sources. Since the remailer
has access to the user’s address, the content of the message, and the destination of the
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15 Appendices
message, remailers should be used as part of a chain of multiple remailers so that no one
remailer knows all this information.
15.2.4 ASP (application service provider)

An ASP is an organization that offers software services over the Internet, allowing the
software to be upgraded and maintained centrally.
15.2.5 backbone
A backbone is one of the high-bandwidth communications links that tie together networks
in different countries and organizations around the world to form the Internet.
15.2.6 badware
See malware.
15.2.7 bandwidth
The bandwidth of a connection is the maximum rate of data transfer on that connec-
tion, limited by its capacity and the capabilities of the computers at both ends of the
connection.
15.2.8 bash (Bourne-again shell)

The bash shell is a command-line interface for Linux/Unix operating systems, based on
the Bourne shell.
15.2.9 BitTorrent
BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file-sharing protocol invented by Bram Cohen in 2001. It
allows individuals to cheaply and effectively distribute large files, such as CD images,
video, or music files.
15.2.10 blacklist
A blacklist is a list of forbidden things. In Internet censorship, lists of forbidden Web
sites or the IP addresses of computers may be used as blacklists; censorware may allow
access to all sites except for those specifically listed on its blacklist. An alternative to
a blacklist is a whitelist, or a list of permitted things. A whitelist system blocks access
to all sites except for those specifically listed on the whitelist. This is a less common
approach to Internet censorship. It is possible to combine both approaches, using string
matching or other conditional techniques on URLs that do not match either list.
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15.2 Glossary
15.2.11 bluebar
The blue URL bar (called the Bluebar in Psiphon lingo) is the form at the top of your
Psiphon node browser window, which allows you to access blocked site by typing its URL
inside.
See also Psiphon node
15.2.12 block
To block is to prevent access to an Internet resource, using any number of methods.
15.2.13 bookmark
A bookmark is a placeholder within software that contains a reference to an external
resource. In a browser, a bookmark is a reference to a Web page – by choosing the
bookmark you can quickly load the Web site without needing to type in the full URL.
15.2.14 bridge
See Tor bridge.
15.2.15 brute-force attack

A brute force attack consists of trying every possible code, combination, or password
until you find the right one. These are some of the most trivial hacking attacks.
15.2.16 cache
A cache is a part of an information-processing system used to store recently used or
frequently used data to speed up repeated access to it. A Web cache holds copies of Web
page files.
15.2.17 censor
To censor is to prevent publication or retrieval of information, or take action, legal or
otherwise, against publishers and readers.
15.2.18 censorware
Censorware is software used to filter or block access to the Internet. This term is most
often used to refer to Internet filtering or blocking software installed on the client machine
(the PC which is used to access the Internet). Most such client-side censorware is used
for parental control purposes.
Sometimes the term censorware is also used to refer to software used for the same
purpose installed on a network server or router.
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15 Appendices
15.2.19 CGI (Common Gateway Interface)

CGI is a common standard used to let programs on a Web server run as Web applications.
Many Web-based proxies use CGI and thus are also called “CGI proxies”. (One popular
CGI proxy application written by James Marshall using the Perl programming language
is called CGIProxy.)
15.2.20 chat
Chat, also called instant messaging, is a common method of communication among two
or more people in which each line typed by a participant in a session is echoed to all
of the others. There are numerous chat protocols, including those created by specific
companies (AOL, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Google, and others) and publicly defined protocols.
Some chat client software uses only one of these protocols, while others use a range of
popular protocols.
15.2.21 cipher
In cryptography, a cipher (or cypher) is an algorithm for performing encryption or de-
cryption
15.2.22 circumvention
Circumvention is publishing or accessing content in spite of attempts at censorship.
15.2.23 Common Gateway Interface

See CGI.
15.2.24 command-line interface

A method of controlling the execution of software using commands entered on a keyboard,
such as a Unix shell or the Windows command line.
15.2.25 cookie
A cookie is a text string sent by a Web server to the user’s browser to store on the
user’s computer, containing information needed to maintain continuity in sessions across
multiple Web pages, or across multiple sessions. Some Web sites cannot be used without
accepting and storing a cookie. Some people consider this an invasion of privacy or a
security risk.
15.2.26 country code top-level domain (ccTLD)

Each country has a two-letter country code, and a TLD (top-level domain) based on it,
such as .ca for Canada; this domain is called a country code top-level domain. Each
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15.2 Glossary
such ccTLD has a DNS server that lists all second-level domains within the TLD. The
Internet root servers point to all TLDs, and cache frequently-used information on lower-
level domains.
15.2.27 cryptography
Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the
presence of third parties (called adversaries). More generally, it is about constructing
and analyzing protocols that overcome the influence of adversaries and which are related
to various aspects in information security such as data confidentiality, data integrity,
authentication, and non-repudiation. Modern cryptography intersects the disciplines of
mathematics, computer science, and electrical engineering. Applications of cryptography
include ATM cards, computer passwords, and electronic commerce.
15.2.28 DARPA (Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency)

DARPA is the successor to ARPA, which funded the Internet and its predecessor, the
ARPAnet.
15.2.29 decryption
Decryption is recovering plain text or other messages from encrypted data with the use
of a key.
See also encryption.
15.2.30 disk encryption

Disk encryption is a technology which protects information by converting it into unread-
able code that cannot be deciphered easily by unauthorized people. Disk encryption uses
disk encryption software or hardware to encrypt every bit of data that goes on a disk or
disk volume. Disk encryption prevents unauthorized access to data storage.
15.2.31 domain
A domain can be a Top-Level Domain (TLD) or secondary domain on the Internet.
See also Top-Level Domain, country code Top-Level Domain and secondary domain.
15.2.32 DNS (Domain Name System)

The Domain Name System (DNS) converts domain names, made up of easy-to-remember
combinations of letters, to IP addresses, which are hard-to-remember strings of num-
bers. Every computer on the Internet has a unique address (a little bit like an area
code+telephone number).
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15 Appendices
15.2.33 DNS leak

A DNS leak occurs when a computer configured to use a proxy for its Internet connec-
tion nonetheless makes DNS queries without using the proxy, thus exposing the user’s
attempts to connect with blocked sites. Some Web browsers have configuration options
to force the use of the proxy.
15.2.34 DNS server

A DNS server, or name server, is a server that provides the look-up function of the
Domain Name System. It does this either by accessing an existing cached record of the
IP address of a specific domain, or by sending a request for information to another name
server.
15.2.35 DNS tunnel

A DNS tunnel is a way to tunnel almost everything over DNS/Nameservers.
Because you “abuse” the DNS system for an unintended purpose, it only allows a very
slow connection of about 3 kb/s which is even less than the speed of an analog modem.
That is not enough for YouTube or file sharing, but should be sufficient for instant
messengers like ICQ or MSN Messenger and also for plain text e-mail.
On the connection you want to use a DNS tunnel, you only need port 53 to be open;
therefore it even works on many commercial Wi-Fi providers without the need to pay.
The main problem is that there are no public modified nameservers that you can use.
You have to set up your own. You need a server with a permanent connection to the
Internet running Linux. There you can install the free software OzymanDNS and in
combination with SSH and a proxy like Squid you can use the tunnel. More Information
on this on http://www.dnstunnel.de.
15.2.36 Eavesdropping
Eavesdropping is listening to voice traffic or reading or filtering data traffic on a telephone
line or digital data connection, usually to detect or prevent illegal or unwanted activities
or to control or monitor what people are talking about.
15.2.37 e-mail
E-mail, short for electronic mail, is a method to send and receive messages over the
Internet. It is possible to use a Web mail service or to send e-mails with the SMTP
protocol and receive them with the POP3 protocol by using an e-mail client such as
Outlook Express or Thunderbird. It is comparatively rare for a government to block
e-mail, but e-mail surveillance is common. If e-mail is not encrypted, it could be read
easily by a network operator or government.
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15.2 Glossary
15.2.38 embedded script

An embedded script is a piece of software code.
15.2.39 encryption
Encryption is any method for recoding and scrambling data or transforming it mathe-
matically to make it unreadable to a third party who doesn’t know the secret key to
decrypt it. It is possible to encrypt data on your local hard drive using software like
TrueCrypt (http://www.truecrypt.org) or to encrypt Internet traffic with TLS/SSL or
SSH.
See also decryption.
15.2.40 exit node

An exit node is a Tor node that forwards data outside the Tor network.
See also middleman node.
15.2.41 file sharing

File sharing refers to any computer system where multiple people can use the same
information, but often refers to making music, films or other materials available to others
free of charge over the Internet.
15.2.42 file spreading engine

A file spreading engine is a Web site a publisher can use to get around censorship. A
user only has to upload a file to publish once and the file spreading engine uploads that
file to some set of sharehosting services (like Rapidshare or Megaupload).
15.2.43 filter
To filter is to search in various ways for specific data patterns to block or permit com-
munications.
15.2.44 Firefox
Firefox is the most popular free and open source Web browser, developed by the Mozilla
Foundation.
15.2.45 forum
On a Web site, a forum is a place for discussion, where users can post messages and com-
ment on previously posted messages. It is distinguished from a mailing list or a Usenet
newsgroup by the persistence of the pages containing the message threads. Newsgroup
and mailing list archives, in contrast, typically display messages one per page, with nav-
igation pages listing only the headers of the messages in a thread.
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15 Appendices
15.2.46 frame
A frame is a portion of a Web page with its own separate URL. For example, frames are
frequently used to place a static menu next to a scrolling text window.
15.2.47 FTP (File Transfer Protocol)

The FTP protocol is used for file transfers. Many people use it mostly for downloads; it
can also be used to upload Web pages and scripts to some Web servers. It normally uses
ports 20 and 21, which are sometimes blocked. Some FTP servers listen to an uncommon
port, which can evade port-based blocking.
A popular free and open source FTP client for Windows and Mac OS is FileZilla. There
are also some Web-based FTP clients that you can use with a normal Web browser like
Firefox.
15.2.48 full disk encryption

see disk encryption.
15.2.49 gateway
A gateway is a node connecting two networks on the Internet. An important example is
a national gateway that requires all incoming or outgoing traffic to go through it.
15.2.50 GNU Privacy Guard

GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG or GPG) is a GPL Licensed alternative to the PGP suite
of cryptographic software. GnuPG is compliant with RFC 4880, which is the current
IETF standards track specification of OpenPGP.
see also Pretty Good Privacy (PGP).
15.2.51 GPG
see GNU Privacy Guard.
15.2.52 honeypot
A honeypot is a site that pretends to offer a service in order to entice potential users to
use it, and to capture information about them or their activities.
15.2.53 hop
A hop is a link in a chain of packet transfers from one computer to another, or any
computer along the route. The number of hops between computers can give a rough
measure of the delay (latency) in communications between them. Each individual hop is
also an entity that has the ability to eavesdrop on, block, or tamper with communications.
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15.2 Glossary
15.2.54 HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol)

HTTP is the fundamental protocol of the World Wide Web, providing methods for re-
questing and serving Web pages, querying and generating answers to queries, and access-
ing a wide range of services.
15.2.55 HTTPS (Secure HTTP)

Secure HTTP is a protocol for secure communication using encrypted HTTP messages.
Messages between client and server are encrypted in both directions, using keys generated
when the connection is requested and exchanged securely. Source and destination IP
addresses are in the headers of every packet, so HTTPS cannot hide the fact of the
communication, just the contents of the data transmitted and received.
15.2.56 IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority)

IANA is the organization responsible for technical work in managing the infrastructure
of the Internet, including assigning blocks of IP addresses for top-level domains and
licensing domain registrars for ccTLDs and for the generic TLDs, running the root name
servers of the Internet, and other duties.
15.2.57 ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers)

ICANN is a corporation created by the US Department of Commerce to manage the
highest levels of the Internet. Its technical work is performed by IANA.
15.2.58 Instant Messaging (IM)

Instant messaging is either certain proprietary forms of chat using proprietary protocols,
or chat in general. Common instant messaging clients include MSN Messenger, ICQ,
AIM or Yahoo! Messenger.
15.2.59 Intermediary
See man in the middle.
15.2.60 Internet
The Internet is a network of networks interconnected using TCP/IP and other commu-
nication protocols.
15.2.61 IP (Internet Protocol) Address

An IP address is a number identifying a particular computer on the Internet. In the
previous version 4 of the Internet Protocol an IP address consisted of four bytes (32
bits), often represented as four integers in the range 0-255 separated by dots, such as
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15 Appendices
74.54.30.85. In IPv6, which the Net is currently switching to, an IP address is four times
longer, and consists of 16 bytes (128 bits). It can be written as 8 groups of 4 hex digits
separated by colons, such as 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334.
15.2.62 IRC (Internet relay chat)

IRC is a more than 20-year-old Internet protocol used for real-time text conversations
(chat or instant messaging). There exist several IRC networks – the largest have more
than 50 000 users.
15.2.63 ISP (Internet Service Provider)

An ISP (Internet service provider) is a business or organization that provides access to
the Internet for its customers.
15.2.64 JavaScript
JavaScript is a scripting language, commonly used in Web pages to provide interactive
functions.
15.2.65 KeePass, KeePassX

KeePass and KeePassX are types of Password Manager.
15.2.66 keychain software

see Password Manager.
15.2.67 keyword filter

A keyword filter scans all Internet traffic going through a server for forbidden words or
terms to block.
15.2.68 latency
Latency is a measure of time delay experienced in a system, here in a computer network.
It is measured by the time between the start of packet transmission to the start of packet
reception, between one network end (e.g. you) to the other end (e.g. the Web server).
One very powerful way of Web filtering is maintaining a very high latency, which makes
lots of circumvention tools very difficult to use.
15.2.69 log file

A log file is a file that records a sequence of messages from a software process, which can
be an application or a component of the operating system. For example, Web servers
or proxies may keep log files containing records about which IP addresses used these
services when and what pages were accessed.
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15.2 Glossary
15.2.70 low-bandwidth filter

A low-bandwidth filter is a Web service that removes extraneous elements such as adver-
tising and images from a Web page and otherwise compresses it, making page download
much quicker.
15.2.71 malware
Malware is a general term for malicious software, including viruses, that may be installed
or executed without your knowledge. Malware may take control of your computer for
purposes such as sending spam. (Malware is also sometimes called badware.)
15.2.72 man in the middle

A man in the middle or man-in-the-middle is a person or computer capturing traffic on
a communication channel, especially to selectively change or block content in a way that
undermines cryptographic security. Generally the man-in-the-middle attack involves im-
personating a Web site, service, or individual in order to record or alter communications.
Governments can run man-in-the-middle attacks at country gateways where all traffic
entering or leaving the country must pass.
15.2.73 middleman node

A middleman node is a Tor node that is not an exit node. Running a middleman node
can be safer than running an exit node because a middleman node will not show up in
third parties’ log files. (A middleman node is sometimes called a non-exit node.)
15.2.74 monitor
To monitor is to check a data stream continuously for unwanted activity.
15.2.75 network address translation (NAT)

NAT is a router function for hiding an address space by remapping. All traffic going out
from the router then uses the router’s IP address, and the router knows how to route
incoming traffic to the requestor. NAT is frequently implemented by firewalls. Because
incoming connections are normally forbidden by NAT, NAT makes it difficult to offer a
service to the general public, such as a Web site or public proxy. On a network where
NAT is in use, offering such a service requires some kind of firewall configuration or NAT
traversal method.
15.2.76 network operator

A network operator is a person or organization who runs or controls a network and thus
is in a position to monitor, block, or alter communications passing through that network.
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15 Appendices
15.2.77 node
A node is an active device on a network. A router is an example of a node. In the
Psiphon and Tor networks, a server is referred to as a node.
15.2.78 non-exit node

See middleman node.
15.2.79 obfuscation
Obfuscation means obscuring text using easily-understood and easily-reversed transfor-
mation techniques that will withstand casual inspection but not cryptanalysis, or making
minor changes in text strings to prevent simple matches. Web proxies often use obfusca-
tion to hide certain names and addresses from simple text filters that might be fooled by
the obfuscation. As another example, any domain name can optionally contain a final
dot, as in “somewhere.com.”, but some filters might search only for “somewhere.com”
(without the final dot).
15.2.80 open node

An open node is a specific Psiphon node which can be used without logging in. It
automatically loads a particular homepage, and presents itself in a particular language,
but can then be used to browse elsewhere.
See also Psiphon node.
15.2.81 OTR/Off-the-Record messaging

Off-the-Record Messaging, commonly referred to as OTR, is a cryptographic protocol
that provides strong encryption for instant messaging conversations.
15.2.82 packet
A packet is a data structure defined by a communication protocol to contain specific
information in specific forms, together with arbitrary data to be communicated from one
point to another. Messages are broken into pieces that will fit in a packet for transmission,
and reassembled at the other end of the link.
15.2.83 password manager

A password manager is software that helps a user organize passwords and PIN codes.
The software typically has a local database or a file that holds the encrypted password
data for secure logon onto computers, networks, web sites and application data files.
KeePass http://keepass.info/ is an example of a password manager.
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15.2 Glossary
15.2.84 pastebin
A web service where any kind of text can be dumped and read without registration. All
text will be visible publicly.
15.2.85 peer-to-peer
A peer-to-peer (or P2P) network is a computer network between equal peers. Unlike
client-server networks there is no central server and so the traffic is distributed only among
the clients.This technology is mostly applied to file sharing programs like BitTorrent,
eMule and Gnutella. But also the very old Usenet technology or the VoIP program
Skype can be categorized as peer-to-peer systems.
See also file sharing.
15.2.86 perfect forward secrecy

In an authenticated key-agreement protocol that uses public key cryptography, perfect
forward secrecy (or PFS) is the property that ensures that a session key derived from a
set of long-term public and private keys will not be compromised if one of the (long-term)
private keys is compromised in the future.
15.2.87 Pretty Good Privacy (PGP)

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) is a data encryption and decryption computer program
that provides cryptographic privacy and authentication for data communication. PGP
is often used for signing, encrypting and decrypting texts, e-mails, files, directories and
whole disk partitions to increase the security of e-mail communications.
PGP and similar products follow the OpenPGP standard (RFC 4880) for encrypting
and decrypting data.
15.2.88 PHP
PHP is a scripting language designed to create dynamic Web sites and web applications.
It is installed on a Web server. For example, the popular Web proxy PHProxy uses this
technology.
15.2.89 plain text

Plain text is unformatted text consisting of a sequence of character codes, as in ASCII
plain text or Unicode plain text.
15.2.90 plaintext
Plaintext is unencrypted text, or decrypted text.
See also encryption, TLS/SSL, SSH.
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15 Appendices
15.2.91 privacy
Protection of personal privacy means preventing disclosure of personal information with-
out the permission of the person concerned. In the context of circumvention, it means
preventing observers from finding out that a person has sought or received information
that has been blocked or is illegal in the country where that person is at the time.
15.2.92 private key

see public key encryption/public-key cryptography.
15.2.93 POP3
Post Office Protocol version 3 is used to receive mail from a server, by default on port
110 with an e-mail program such as Outlook Express or Thunderbird.
15.2.94 port
A hardware port on a computer is a physical connector for a specific purpose, using a
particular hardware protocol. Examples are a VGA display port or a USB connector.
Software ports also connect computers and other devices over networks using various
protocols, but they exist in software only as numbers. Ports are somewhat like numbered
doors into different rooms, each for a special service on a server or PC. They are identified
by numbers from 0 to 65535.
15.2.95 protocol
A formal definition of a method of communication, and the form of data to be transmitted
to accomplish it. Also, the purpose of such a method of communication. For example, In-
ternet Protocol (IP) for transmitting data packets on the Internet, or Hypertext Transfer
Protocol for interactions on the World Wide Web.
15.2.96 proxy server

A proxy server is a server, a computer system or an application program which acts as
a gateway between a client and a Web server. A client connects to the proxy server to
request a Web page from a different server. Then the proxy server accesses the resource
by connecting to the specified server, and returns the information to the requesting site.
Proxy servers can serve many different purposes, including restricting Web access or
helping users route around obstacles.
15.2.97 Psiphon node

A Psiphon node is a secured web proxy designed to evade Internet censorship. It is
developed by Psiphon inc. Psiphon nodes can be open or private.
328
15.2 Glossary
15.2.98 private node

A private node is a Psiphon node working with authentication, which means that you
have to register before you can use it. Once registered, you will be able to send invitations
to your friends and relatives to use this specific node.
See also Psiphon node.
15.2.99 public key

see public key encryption/public-key cryptography.
15.2.100 public key encryption/public-key cryptography

Public-key cryptography refers to a cryptographic system requiring two separate keys,
one of which is secret and one of which is public. Although different, the two parts of
the key pair are mathematically linked. One key locks or encrypts the plaintext, and the
other unlocks or decrypts the ciphertext. Neither key can perform both functions. One
of these keys is published or public, while the other is kept private.
Public-key cryptography uses asymmetric key algorithms (such as RSA), and can also
be referred to by the more generic term “asymmetric key cryptography.”
15.2.101 publicly routable IP address

Publicly routable IP addresses (sometimes called public IP addresses) are those reachable
in the normal way on the Internet, through a chain of routers. Some IP addresses are
private, such as the 192.168.x.x block, and many are unassigned.
15.2.102 regular expression

A regular expression (also called a regexp or RE) is a text pattern that specifies a set
of text strings in a particular regular expression implementation such as the UNIX grep
utility. A text string “matches” a regular expression if the string conforms to the pattern,
as defined by the regular expression syntax. In each RE syntax, some characters have
special meanings, to allow one pattern to match multiple other strings. For example, the
regular expression lo+se matches lose, loose, and looose.
15.2.103 remailer
An anonymous remailer is a service which allows users to send e-mails anonymously.
The remailer receives messages via e-mail and forwards them to their intended recipient
after removing information that would identify the original sender. Some also provide
an anonymous return address that can be used to reply to the original sender without
disclosing her identity. Well-known Remailer services include Cypherpunk, Mixmaster
and Nym.
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15 Appendices
15.2.104 router
A router is a computer that determines the route for forwarding packets. It uses address
information in the packet header and cached information on the server to match address
numbers with hardware connections.
15.2.105 root name server

A root name server or root server is any of thirteen server clusters run by IANA to direct
traffic to all of the TLDs, as the core of the DNS system.
15.2.106 RSS (Real Simple Syndication)

RSS is a method and protocol for allowing Internet users to subscribe to content from a
Web page, and receive updates as soon as they are posted.
15.2.107 scheme
On the Web, a scheme is a mapping from a name to a protocol. Thus the HTTP scheme
maps URLs that begin with HTTP: to the Hypertext Transfer Protocol. The protocol
determines the interpretation of the rest of the URL, so that http://www.example.com/
dir/content.html identifies a Web site and a specific file in a specific directory, and
mailto:[email protected] is an e-mail address of a specific person or group at a
specific domain.
15.2.108 shell
A UNIX shell is the traditional command line user interface for the UNIX/Linux oper-
ating systems. The most common shells are sh and bash.
15.2.109 SOCKS
A SOCKS proxy is a special kind of proxy server. In the ISO/OSI model it operates
between the application layer and the transport layer. The standard port for SOCKS
proxies is 1080, but they can also run on different ports. Many programs support a
connection through a SOCKS proxy. If not you can install a SOCKS client like FreeCap,
ProxyCap or SocksCap which can force programs to run through the Socks proxy using
dynamic port forwarding. It is also possible to use SSH tools such as OpenSSH as a
SOCKS proxy server.
15.2.110 screenlogger
A screenlogger is software able to record everything your computer displays on the screen.
The main feature of a screenlogger is to capture the screen and log it into files to view
at any time in the future. Screen loggers can be used as powerful monitoring tool. You
should be aware of any screen logger running on any computer you are using, anytime.
330
15.2 Glossary
15.2.111 script
A script is a program, usually written in an interpreted, non-compiled language such as
JavaScript, Java, or a command interpreter language such as bash. Many Web pages
include scripts to manage user interaction with a Web page, so that the server does not
have to send a new page for each change.
15.2.112 smartphone
A smartphone is a mobile phone that offers more advanced computing ability and connec-
tivity than a contemporary feature phone, such as Web access, ability to run elaborated
operating systems and run built-in applications.
15.2.113 spam
Spam is messages that overwhelm a communications channel used by people, most no-
tably commercial advertising sent to large numbers of individuals or discussion groups.
Most spam advertises products or services that are illegal in one or more ways, almost
always including fraud. Content filtering of e-mail to block spam, with the permission of
the recipient, is almost universally approved of.
15.2.114 SSH (Secure Shell)

SSH or Secure Shell is a network protocol that allows encrypted communication between
computers. It was invented as a successor of the unencrypted Telnet protocol and is also
used to access a shell on a remote server.
The standard SSH port is 22. It can be used to bypass Internet censorship with port
forwarding or it can be used to tunnel other programs like VNC.
15.2.115 SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)

SSL (or Secure Sockets Layer), is one of several cryptographic standards used to make
Internet transactions secure. It is was used as the basis for the creation of the related
Transport Layer Security (TLS). You can easily see if you are using SSL by looking at the
URL in your Browser (like Firefox or Internet Explorer): If it starts with https instead
of http, your connection is encrypted.
15.2.116 steganography
Steganography, from the Greek for hidden writing, refers to a variety of methods of
sending hidden messages where not only the content of the message is hidden but the
very fact that something covert is being sent is also concealed. Usually this is done by
concealing something within something else, like a picture or a text about something
innocent or completely unrelated. Unlike cryptography, where it is clear that a secret
message is being transmitted, steganography does not attract attention to the fact that
someone is trying to conceal or encrypt a message.
331
15 Appendices
15.2.117 subdomain
A subdomain is part of a larger domain. If for example “wikipedia.org” is the domain
for the Wikipedia, “en.wikipedia.org” is the subdomain for the English version of the
Wikipedia.
15.2.118 threat analysis

A security threat analysis is properly a detailed, formal study of all known ways of
attacking the security of servers or protocols, or of methods for using them for a particular
purpose such as circumvention. Threats can be technical, such as code-breaking or
exploiting software bugs, or social, such as stealing passwords or bribing someone who
has special knowledge. Few companies or individuals have the knowledge and skill to do
a comprehensive threat analysis, but everybody involved in circumvention has to make
some estimate of the issues.
15.2.119 Top-Level Domain (TLD)

In Internet names, the TLD is the last component of the domain name. There are
several generic TLDs, most notably .com, .org, .edu, .net, .gov, .mil, .int, and one two-
letter country code (ccTLD) for each country in the system, such as .ca for Canada. The
European Union also has the two-letter code .eu.
15.2.120 TLS (Transport Layer Security)

TLS or Transport Layer Security is a cryptographic standard based on SSL, used to make
Internet transactions secure.
15.2.121 TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol over Internet Protocol)

TCP and IP are the fundamental protocols of the Internet, handling packet transmission
and routing. There are a few alternative protocols that are used at this level of Internet
structure, such as UDP.
15.2.122 Tor bridge

A bridge is a middleman Tor node that is not listed in the main public Tor directory, and
so is possibly useful in countries where the public relays are blocked. Unlike the case of
exit nodes, IP addresses of bridge nodes never appear in server log files and never pass
through monitoring nodes in a way that can be connected with circumvention.
15.2.123 traffic analysis

Traffic analysis is statistical analysis of encrypted communications. In some circum-
stances traffic analysis can reveal information about the people communicating and the
information being communicated.
332
15.2 Glossary
15.2.124 tunnel
A tunnel is an alternate route from one computer to another, usually including a protocol
that specifies encryption of messages.
15.2.125 UDP (User Datagram Packet)

UDP is an alternate protocol used with IP. Most Internet services can be accessed using
either TCP or UDP, but there are some that are defined to use only one of these alterna-
tives. UDP is especially useful for real-time multimedia applications like Internet phone
calls (VoIP).
15.2.126 URL (Uniform Resource Locator)

The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of a Web site. For example, the
URL for the World News section of the NY Times is http://www.nytimes.com/pages/
world/index.html. Many censoring systems can block a single URL. Sometimes an
easy way to bypass the block is to obscure the URL. It is for example possible to
add a dot after the site name, so the URL http://en.cship.org/wiki/URL becomes
http://en.cship.org./wiki/URL. If you are lucky with this little trick you can access
blocked Web sites.
15.2.127 Usenet
Usenet is a more than 20-year-old discussion forum system accessed using the NNTP
protocol. The messages are not stored on one server but on many servers which distribute
their content constantly. Because of that it is impossible to censor Usenet as a whole,
however access to Usenet can and is often blocked, and any particular server is likely to
carry only a subset of locally-acceptable Usenet newsgroups. Google archives the entire
available history of Usenet messages for searching.
15.2.128 VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)

VoIP refers to any of several protocols for real-time two-way voice communication on the
Internet, which is usually much less expensive than calling over telephone company voice
networks. It is not subject to the kinds of wiretapping practiced on telephone networks,
but can be monitored using digital technology. Many companies produce software and
equipment to eavesdrop on VoIP calls; securely encrypted VoIP technologies have only
recently begun to emerge.
15.2.129 VPN (virtual private network)

A VPN (virtual private network) is a private communication network used by many
companies and organizations to connect securely over a public network. Usually on the
Internet it is encrypted and so nobody except the endpoints of the communication can
look at the data traffic. There are various standards like IPSec, SSL, TLS. The use of a
333
15 Appendices
VPN provider is a very fast, secure and convenient method to bypass Internet censorship
with little risks but it generally costs money every month. Further, note that the VPN
standard PPTP is no longer considered secure, and should be avoided.
15.2.130 whitelist
A whitelist is a list of sites specifically authorized for a particular form of communication.
Filtering traffic can be done either by a whitelist (block everything but the sites on the
list), a blacklist (allow everything but the sites on the list), a combination of the two, or
by other policies based on specific rules and conditions.
15.2.131 World Wide Web (WWW)

The World Wide Web is the network of hyperlinked domains and content pages accessible
using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol and its numerous extensions. The World Wide
Web is the most famous part of the Internet.
15.2.132 Webmail
Webmail is e-mail service through a Web site. The service sends and receives mail mes-
sages for users in the usual way, but provides a Web interface for reading and managing
messages, as an alternative to running a mail client such as Outlook Express or Thun-
derbird on the user’s computer. For example a popular and free webmail service is
https://mail.google.com/
15.2.133 Web proxy

A Web proxy is a script running on a Web server which acts as a proxy/gateway. Users
can access such a Web proxy with their normal Web browser (like Firefox) and enter
any URL in the form located on that Web site. Then the Web proxy program on the
server receives that Web content and displays it to the user. This way the ISP only sees
a connection to the server with the Web proxy since there is no direct connection.
15.2.134 WHOIS
WHOIS (who is) is the aptly named Internet function that allows one to query remote
WHOIS databases for domain registration information. By performing a simple WHOIS
search you can discover when and by whom a domain was registered, contact information,
and more.
A WHOIS search can also reveal the name or network mapped to a numerical IP
address
334
15.3 The necessity of Open Source
15.3 The necessity of Open Source

The last 20 years have seen network technology reaching ever more deeply into our lives,
informing how we communicate and act within the world. With this come inherent risks:
the less we understand the network environment we depend upon, the more vulnerable
we are to exploitation.
This ignorance is something traditionally enjoyed by criminals. In recent years how-
ever some corporations and governments have exploited civilian ignorance in a quest for
increased control. This flagrant and often covert denial of dignity breaches many basic
rights, the right to privacy, in particular.
Closed source software has been a great boon to such exploitation – primarily due
to the fact there is no code available for open, decentralised security auditing by the
community . Under the auspices of hiding trade secrets, closed-source software developers
have proven to be unwilling to explain to users how their programs work. This might
not always be an issue were it not for the high stakes: identity theft, the distribution of
deeply personal opinion and sentiment, a persons diverse interests and even his/her home
increasingly come into close contact with software in a world-wide network context. As
such, many people find themselves using software for personal purposes with full trust
that it are secure. The Windows operating system itself is the most obvious real-world
example. Apple’s OS X follows close behind, with large portions of the operating system’s
inner-workings barred from public inspection.
In Cryptography there is a strong principle, established in the 19th century by Auguste
Kerckhoff (and hence named after him) which demands that
“[the encryption method] must not be required to be secret, and it must be

able to fall into the hands of the enemy without inconvenience”.
While this principle has been taken further by most scientific and (of course) open
source communities – publishing their methods and inner-workings upfront, so potential
weaknesses can be pointed out and fixed before further distribution – most distributors
of proprietary software rely on obfuscation to hide the weaknesses of their software. As
such they often prove to address newly discovered vulnerabilities in a non-transparent
way – leaving many trusting users at risk of exploitation.
Of course it must be said that Open Source Software is as secure as you make it (and
there is a lot of OSS written by beginners). However there are many good examples of
well written, well managed software which have such a large (and concerned) user base
that even the tiniest of mistakes are quickly found and dealt with. This is especially the
case with software depended upon in a network context.
To use closed source software in a network context is not only to be a minority, it is
to be overlooked by a vast community of concerned researchers and specialists that have
your privacy and safety in mind.
N.B. There is also a more cynical view of Open Source Software, which points out that
since nobody is paid full time to constantly review and regression test the latest tinkering
by unskilled or deliberately malicious programmers, it can also suffer from major security
335
15 Appendices
weaknesses which go undetected for long periods of time in complicated software, leaving
it vulnerable to hackers, criminals and intelligence agencies etc. e.g. the (now fixed)
Debian Linux predictable random number generator problem which led to the creation
of lots of weak cryptographic keys.
336

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the CryptoParty handbook

2.4.1 Can other people read along when I check my email? . . . . . . . 32

4 Publishing And Distribution 57

5 Secure Calls And Sms 65

6 Basic Email Security 67

7.3.3 Installing up Engimail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

8 Safer Browsing 147

10 Using Vpn 205

10.4.1 Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

11 Disk Encryption 249

12 Call Encryption 293

13 Instant Messaging Encryption 299

14 Secure File Sharing 303

14.4 Anonymous Bittorrent with I2PSnark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

15.2.34 DNS server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

15.2.78 non-exit node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

15.2.122 Tor bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

1.1 About This Book

• Adam Hyde (facilitator)

• Chris Pinchen (http://chokepointproject.net).

Github migration, packaging and maintenance by:

Cover Image by Emile Denichaud.

1.2 A CryptoParty Manifesto

Cyberspace consists of transactions, relationships, and thought itself, arrayed

3. Privacy is the right of the individual. Transparency is a requirement of governments

7. Surveillance cannot be separated from censorship, and the slavery it entails. No

1.3 How To CryptoParty

• Think of the CryptoParty movement as a huge Twitter hive ready to swarm at

• Consider hosting private, oﬀ-the-radar CryptoParties for activists, journalists and

• Doing excellent stuﬀ at CryptoParty does not require permission or an oﬃcial

• CryptoParty is dedicated to providing a harassment-free sharing experience for

• Encourage a culture of sharing. Encourage advanced users to help not-so advanced

• Experiment, constantly. Do not be afraid to make mistakes. Encourage people to

• Assume intel agencies send representatives to CryptoParties. Acknowledge their

• Be excellent to each other and CryptoParty on.

1.4 Party like it’s december 31st 1983

Be excellent to each other

1.6 Why Privacy Matters

2.1 Basic Tips

2.1.3 Reading Email in Public Places

2.1.4 Cache Cunning

2.1.5 Securing your communication

2.1.6 DNSSEC & DANE

2.1.7 Account Separation

2.1.8 A note about hosted email

2.2 Types of Email

2.2.1 Remotely hosted email (‘webmail’), resourced using a web browser

2.2.2 Remotely hosted email, resourced using an email program or using a

2.2.3 Context considerations

2.2.4 Email & Metadata

2.2.5 Self-administered email server

2.2.6 ‘Free’ email services

2.2.8 Notes on email forwarding

2.3.1 Random abuse and theft by malicious hackers

2.3.2 Targeted abuse, harassment, and spying

2.3.3 When Encryption Goes Wrong

2.4 Secure Connections

2.5 Secure Emails

2.5.1 What software can I use to encrypt my email?

3.1 Basic Tips