Tails 1.8 Released For Security-Minded Linux Users

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Tails 1.8 Released For Security-Minded Linux Users

Tails, the privacy-minded Live USB/DVD/SD Linux distribution, released version 1.8 on Tuesday...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Tails-1.8-Released

[Ronshere]

The sick funny thing is Tails users are automatically tracked by the NSA so where is the privacy anyway?

"Turns out that a lot of things can get you on the list, including visiting a number of privacy-related websites, or even running searching for privacy-related tools. For example, a recent analysis of an alleged piece of XKeyscore code revealed that people would be targeted for surveillance if they searched for articles on TAILS, a secure operating system. The code states that TAILS is “advocated by extremists on extremist forums.” (I wonder if they know that it’s also advocated as a very secure Linux distro by tech writers on MakeUseOf.)"

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/interest-privacy-will-ensure-youre-targeted-nsa/

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-03/are-you-targeted-nsa

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-07/04/nsa-targeting-tor-users

[Passso]

The sick funny thing is Tails users are automatically tracked by the NSA so where is the privacy anyway?

Once again we are unable to know what NSA and others really do and can do... such a big fog on all that and only a huge leak may enlight us.
Without it...how to know if it is better to just "play" the simple user or use powerful tools?

[duby229]

The problem with the NSA is that it's an american organization that exerts influence across the world. The only way anything will get done about their crimes against humanity is if americans vote to do something about it. And that's fucked up. The whole world has the right to do something about the NSA.

I'm afraid it'll take nothing less than America being on the losing side of an international war focused on NSA crimes before the NSA would ever get abolished. They are the number one human rights violator in the world by a gigantic margin. Every single country in the world needs to step up and exert their own influences against the NSA.

[duby229]

Don't worry, maybe you aren't on this particular list, but trust me the NSA most definitely has every single one of you on some tracking list somewhere. Considering they are an american organization, they are most definitely breaking american constitutional law.

[Luke]

Several things to remember about the NSA: First, one of the Snowden presentations was them whining "Tor sucks" about how hard it is for them to work around Tor. To do so, they have to get spyware into the computer on the other end, generally Windows spyware. In the attack by the FBI on Freedom Roads, it was plain old Windows malware requiring that javascript be enabled for it to be installed. Tails was utterly immune to that CIPAV. If you layer your defenses and use Tails on public access wifi, you can pretty much forget the FBI, the local cops, and your boss ever tracing back your posting unless they just plain recognize your writing style.

Even if the you roll snake-eyes and the NSA managed to read one of your postings out of 100, odds are they will never see a courtroom due to classification of NSA tools. That means they can't be used for search warrants, raids, arrest warrants, prosecutions, etc. Google and facebook are nowhere near as court-shy, thus they are actually MORE dangerous.

There is one situation TAILS cannot protect you from, and it is Google, not the NSA that is the issue. If the wifi hotspot you use is hooked to Google Fiber, Google can watch all their connections at once plus their server and count bits and timestamps. That permits them to later prove any particular search, post, etc came from a particular Google Fiber connection, known as the "confirmation attack" which Tor is not designed to protect against. It would be very difficult for the NSA to compare a random post on a random website by bits and timestamps to every entry point on Earth to the Internet, but much easier for Google to watch only all Google Fiber connections plus all Youtube/Google/Google services IP addresses.

Thus, no Google services should be used from any connection known, suspected, or possibly connected to Google Fiber. That means no Youtube, Gmail, Google Search, etc. Google has such a strong presence on the Web that unless you are an expert and finding and blocking their 3ed party services on other websites, you should simply make sure never to use a wifi access point that connects to Google Fiber, perhaps by going somewhere Google Fiber does not serve. Also you could possibly not go on your school's own computer network to call the principal a groper on the school's own locally-served webpage for the same reason. Tor is a powerful weapon but does have its limitations.

[bridgman]

Every single country in the world needs to step up and exert their own influences against the NSA.

Perhaps a good first step would be for those countries' security & intel agencies to stop depending so heavily on similar technology and stop working so closely with NSA. At the moment it would be like everyone here rising up against Linus