Recently I've been putting a lot of time into researching how to protect my privacy online after really being made aware of the issues surrounding the internet nowadays. After watching a few documentaries & doing some independent research, it really got me paranoid (as it should with everyone) with our ever degrading boundries of online & personal privacy and how our corrupt governments are attempting to censor & control the internet. As such I've taken major steps in attempting to maintain my privacy and in doing so it really got me passionate about security in general & also the hacking culture. The last few days of mine have been really spent researching how to make my systems as secure as possible & what the best environment is for practicing hacking & maintaining a secure system with as much anonymity/privacy as possible, any tips would be handy!
I've got a Macbook 13.3 inch late 2014 model & I want to use this mainly over my desktop for the majority of my programming & "hacking" however I want to know a few things about what to do.
First things first, I want a completely secure environment & I'm not sure I really want to boot linux onto my macbook however this could be an option if it's completely significant. I have seen a few hackers using a macbook pro as their laptop and I'm not sure how they use it as their environment, it would most likely be through a dual boot I assume or what are they using? If so what linux distro would be best for this? I was considering arch-linux allowing me to build my system from the ground up without unneccesary functions. More advice on this would be wonderful!
Quickfire questions:
Best modifications of firewall (or firewalls depending on if it's best to purchase other firewall software with much more control/customisation or can i operate this through the console?) to prevent the box from calling home to the mother-ship?
Best way to route ALL internet traffic on laptop through OpenVPN? (Currently using a VPN service with OpenVPN GUI software)
Best ways of reducing/eliminating OS fingerprint?
Removing OSX, Default app services that make my laptop vunerable?
Best way to setup content scanning capabilities to monitor ex-filtration of unintended data (credit cards, personal info, client info, anonymization, etc)?
Disabling location services/apple ID through the console in anyway? Not sure if this is possible.
Best active exploit detection software such as IDS, AV etc.
Really securing my whole network? I don't know but I was thinking more like setting up a second LAN on my home modem not sure what logic would go into that? Could do with any suggestions if you understand what I'm saying!
Overall, can OSX be a genuinely viable & secure hacking environment and what is your advice?
PS: Specifically I want to be able to use the latop with the WiFi Pineapple etc, write scripts, pentest, do some network snooping and access a few shells. All things hacking!