How to be Invisible Online.
Tahir Abbas ??
Laravel Developer| Software engineer | Information Security | Cybersecurity Enthusiast
The Hard truth behind how to be invisible online.
The current population of world is around 8 billion. 5.3 billion people are part of the internet in 2023, still you are visible on the internet. Each and every transaction is traceable by NSA in US. If you are thinking you can hide your IP and will remain anonymous, this is your mistake in this era. You can hide your IP but surprisingly you are still visible with your identity on the internet. This might be due to insecure browser you are using, unsecure OS.
Few years back, whenever people commit a crime, they were using Neighbour Wi-Fi, and thinking the IP is changed, representing Neighbours network. But the truth is after investigation FBI, NSA figure out a person near the suspected home was involved such activates by hacking the Wi-Fi.
NSA
The National Security Agency (NSA) is a?national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, they are watching each and every user in US what he/she is doing on the internet. They have full control on the internet in the US. So, if you think you are invisible, you are wrong. But it depends in which country you are living, mostly govt is controlling the traffic, they are capturing each and every packet over the internet inside the country.
"Whoever controls final hop, is controlling the network".
Yes, this is true. You might hear this before. If the final hop on the network is not in your hands you are not invisible. Thats what agencies and Govt do, they are controlling, looking each and every packet, what is inside, especially the NSA knows your identity, what is inside your packet, they are saving all the data and traffic in their data center, if you are the target, they will collect more data, each and everything related to you.
All attention on IP: Mostly people think that they have to hide IP, to remain untraceable, NSA knows you are using VPNS, proxy but you don't know where you are leaving traces. All your attention is on hiding the IP address, and this is a mistake. There are many more factors and layers you have to apply, if your privacy matters.
Imagine 329,064,917 is current US population and they all are visible their personal data, their GEO Location, their all transactions. Now if you are thinking Bitcoin is untraceable, Yes Bitcoin in traceable, it is difficult to trace but not impossible. There are many experts in NSA they have a lot of resources and tools they can trace your transections, with identity.
If you are interested in how to protect your personal data, read my 1st article which is all about the personal data security.
The purpose of this information is all about for your privacy, your data security, this is not to encourage you to do unethical activities.
How you can be invisible, what should you do?
Well, this is the main concern, there are many factors we talked above and now we will discuss the steps we should take to protect our identity from NSA, US Govt, and other agencies.
Because privacy is your right, no one can read your messages, access your personal space.
Let's do Particle.
The one thing I like about kali is proxy Chains, which is available in kali Linux, this tool uses single as well as multiple proxies.
Let's see how proxy works. Look into the proxy chains config file.
sudo mousepad /etc/proxychains4.con
This is how it looks like, we can see different types of proxy chains.
You are taking your traffic through proxy and hiding you IP address, if could be single proxy or multiple.
ProxyList forma
#? ? ? ?type? ip? port [user pass]
#? ? ? ?(values separated by 'tab' or 'blank')
#
#? ? ? ?only numeric ipv4 addresses are valid
#
#
#? ? ? ? Examples:
#
#? ? ? ? ? ? socks5 192.168.67.78 1080 lamer secret
# http 192.168.89.3 8080 justu hidden
# socks4 192.168.1.49 1080
# ? ? ? ? http 192.168.39.93 8080
#
#
#? ? ? ?proxy types: http, socks4, socks5, raw
#? ? ? ? ?* raw: The traffic is simply forwarded to the proxy without modification.
#? ? ? ? ( auth types supported: "basic"-http? "user/pass"-socks )
#
[ProxyList]
# add proxy here ...
# meanwile
# defaults set to "tor"
socks4 127.0.0.1 9050
By default, kali is using socks4/socks5 depends on versions, with 127.0.0.1 port number 9050. Which is tor network, it is little slow but secure. It encrypts your traffic hop to hop which is difficult to trace. Keep in mind tor has few issues tor can be cracked by NSA.
Let's run the proxy chains and see how it works.
//it will start tor
$ sudo systemctl start tor
//we are using tor over firefox browser
$ proxychains firefox
领英推荐
Here you see it started, now let's check the IP address and our location.
We can see, its works, slow but more secure. There is another tool, Kali Anon surf, which is also used for tor.
VPNS
Yes they are pretty nice option to use them when it comes to invisible form organizations like Google, google is good, but i never trust google. It takes your data and send back to the google head office. They are collecting all your data and you don't know what is happening behind it.
VPNS can keep your logs, your credit card details when you buy them. You can be traced even using VPN. Agencies can trace you, can collect you all data, log files.
Secure Browser
Always use the secure browser, as we discuss the Google is good, but they are collecting data, your identity, you each and every search, and this is AI era, on the behalf of your previous searches AI can guess the next search you can do.
The one i found secure is Firefox, and Brave. Brave never keep you data, like google does, make sure use DuckDUCKGO over brave to add more layer of anonymity.
Cookies
Always disable the cookies in your browser, in cookies there is plain text file, which keep your identity who you are, by disable it, every time you will open the website like Facebook you have to login again. It is seeming messy but one more layer of privacy.
Secure OS
Linux is one of the best operating system in terms of privacy. Always use Linux for your privacy, because windows and Mac is always collecting your data, which also contains your unique device id, you can be identified, because only you have that one unique id of device around the world.
Use Linux, but on separate machine, on separate network, never use with your normal machine, and keep in mind do not use the information you are using on your normal computer you can be traced back, with space information on both devices, ultimately it reflects you interest on two different devices, same browser history. Always use two different devices, use fake data on the devices you are using for anonymity on internet. This is another extra layer to help you remain invisible on the internet.
You can use live boot USB to remove traces, but again RAM also send back the data into hard drive when there is no free memory left, and that information is enough to trace you. Agencies has some tools, experts they will find you.
Star links (Internet)
Star links is best option of your second internet connection, because it is use for anonymity, it never assigns you IP on the bases of Geo-location. And they are using thousands of satellites for connectivity. But if someday Star links get compromised your real data can be traced and IP as well. Because there is no Geo location associated with you IP, it only shows the Star links office location only. ISP matters a lot in your anonymity.
Email Services
The most trusted email services I found is Proton Mail. They are end-to-end encrypted and Swiss based. Which is interesting because Swiss has some laws regarding users' data privacy, they are serious about privacy. Proton is better than Google Mail, and other. Because email contains more information about your identity, ultimately if you are not using secure email services, you are giving you data with your hands to the agencies, organizations.
What about smartphones?
If you need anonymity, do not use your smartphone for any sensitive activity, because they are easy to hack, by using Pegasus spyware, if it is iPhone or any android phone. Agencies have many tools, to access you all data, your activities you are doing on phone, like every text you are sending, Mic, camera, you all personal data is now in their hands.
Use the Burner phone, and do not keep it with your android or iPhone. You are giving clue that you are the same user, because android and iPhone is giving Geo location to the cell phone tower.
if you can afford, make sure have must have two different setups, one for normal work, second is for anonymity, with new fake identity.
Disclaimer
All the content is for educational purposes and for your personal data security, to keep yourself invisible on internet.
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