Cpgeek

So I suppose the appropriate response would be to document the technical and social bugs that were exploited in the big long line of hackers who have been caught and create protocols for avoiding similar problems.

depending on your level of paranoia, video surveillance could (is probably) in whatever shop you buy that computer from, it's also possible that if you're already on a powerful intelligence agency's radar, that they could trace the currency you use. using TAILS is a pretty good idea imho, but tails has it's share of known bugs that continue to crop up that can reveal your pop, ip, geolocation data with remote code execution possible. Also, it doesn't include any data storage - how would one secure the ~6tb of secret information that you create in your lifetime? it's also possible for the place that you're connecting from logs mac addresses at the switch, router, or other managed network infastructure that logs enabling them to possibly trace the ownership of the computer or wi-fi device you're using.

I work in IT as a combination network administrator and computer consultant. I often get the question of "how do I keep my computer secure", however, despite the normal "best practices" that I typically return to the average people that I help regularly, I always think to myself "you know, I can think of a few ways these normal techniques can be circumvented" or "normal computer security techniques would probably be a joke to circumvent for the $name_of_3_letter_intelligence_organization". So I started thinking... How do government intelligence agencies handle security? If I did want to commit some kind of massive information crime (not that I would ever want to), how could I ensure that nobody could figure out my physical location, and if they do, how could I secure the information on my equipment in such a way that if seized and analysed by the best computer forensics and cryptoanalysts in the world, that they would find none of the incriminating information for prosecution. It occurs to me that most publicly available crypto software is likely either not strong enough to resist the repeated attempts at circumvention by a government agency with as many resources as the NSA. Is there better software available than bitlocker / filevault2 / truecrypt / luks/dmcrypt? How does one mitigate cold boot attacks? What about mitigating against simple coercion? I know that for most standard United States trials, the fifth amendment gives some protection to people against giving up information in their head as they don't make you testify against yourself, but what about those people in non-public situations or outside of the united states on a waterboard? - a system with authentication expiration would probably be a good idea. somehow integrating a dead-man's-switch into the mix. But in all seriousness, in these days of lowered trust in governments and law enforcement officials, with anti-piracy crackdowns and governments like the Koreans and Chinese who have no free speech policies, or simple private communications, how does one create a secure system? can we really trust the common operating systems we use? windows? mac os x? - even linux and it's associated programs that make up standard distributions that are completely open source, do they have the code scrutiny to say "yes, this is completely secure!"? I really don't think so. and then worse, once you get the base system set up (even if you assume it's 100% secure), once you start adding software that you use on a daily basis, things like word processors, video players, graphical window managers, etc. how do we trust that the programs or the interactions between those programs will be secure as well? tl;dr: If you were Batman, Nick Fury, or the CIA or NSA's CIO, what kind of computer systems would you use and how would you make sure that they were totally and completely secure? How would you secure their networking? and if someone were to raid and seize these machines, how would you make it so the expert government agency with virtually unlimited resources can't access any incriminating data?

My name is Josh AKA Cpgeek Favourite game: too many - currently battlefield bad company 2 Favourite OS: depends on what i'm working on. servers/grunts: linux (usually ubuntu) workstation/video/audio: OS X games: Windows Favourite console: original xbox (love the hackability) Nationality: US Accent: some strange combination of new york, boston, and a tiny bit of los angeles with just a touch of surfer and or Australian Sex: Male Age: 28 as of the next couple weeks Race: White American Height: about 6'ish Status: ridiculously / frustratedly single Build: medium / a little chunky around the middle Favourite band: way too many to choose from... cake? mc lars? mc frontalot? nirvana? pendulum? moxy fruvous? tenacious D? days of the new? Favourite book: Just A Geek Favourite author: Jeph Jaques ( questionablecontent.net ) or if you mean dead trees, Douglas Adams Favourite movie: *way* too many... I tend to prefer good scifi (star trek, star wars, the lost room), but headly movies (pi, primer), classics (back to the future, etc.), comedies (bill and ted's excellent adventure, a goofy movie), as well as "real life non-diluted) movies (chasing amy, juno, up in the air) just a whole lot of movies... awesomeness. Favourite director: see movies, but of special note Favourite TV Show: lots here too... big bang theory, lost, fringe, dollhouse, castle, firefly, battlestar galactica, numb3rs, terminator:SCC, i suck at picking from lots of awesome things. Favourite actor: Wil Wheaton Favourite actress: Felicia Day Favourite Pinup: Felicia Day Favourite Comedian: lots here too, Margaret Cho, Robin Williams, Dana Carvey, lots of others Other hobbies: photography, video production, music (keyboard, vocals), automotive hacking... hacking in general. Car: between cars, used to have a 91 toyota camry, currently driving my mom's 94 jeep grand cherokee Occupation: Computer sales / service / repair / a bit of network administration Qualifications: Apple Certified Service Technician