Pre-order here. This is for a turnkey privacy-enhancing wifi device with TOR built into it, ready to go to work for you, your non-techie family members, and your houseguests.
Original post and discussion here.
Remember that no single device or app can guarantee complete security under all circumstances. For instance, you don’t want to be using TOR (which this device provides) while inputting personally identifiable information. However, for your private surfing needs, this may be as easy as basic protection gets.
Its maker, Scott, will be around to answer questions.
Is this only for Linux, or for Windows too? As my HD is partitioned, I would need both.
(In fact Windows may need it more, because it is less trustworthy.)
Pat, it’s a WiFi access point that you would log in to, so it’s OS agnostic. That’s why it’s useful for tablet & smartphone users. If you’re using a wired PC that doesn’t have wifi, I would recommend using the TOR Bundle to protect that PC. The TOR Bundle is available for all flavors of OSes.
Well, as long as what The Fat Guy is offering to sell is a user-friendly version of it, then that’s realistic. At that point, it just depends on how much he wants for it, and whether there is any way to discretely ship it (as you would erotic toys, for instance).
CORRECTION CORRECTION CORRECTION
The Fat Guy said he’s selling them for ~ $100.
My only other concern (besides discrete shipping) is whether there is a Mac version available as well?
Kyle, as long as the Mac in question has wifi and logs into the TOR router (see my answer above about Win/Lin dual boot).
It is plug-n-play. I’m writing the Setup doc right now.
It ships in a USPS flat-rate box…no external markings.
Thanks, Scott.
I’ve read and viewed (videos) the Tor Bundle, and it doesn’t seem to give me any more security than StartPage HSSTP which I already have.
I do have Wi-Fi/Bluetooth on Win, and Bluetooth on Linux.
I went to a computer security talk recently and the speaker was talking up an OS called “Tails” (https://tails.boum.org/) that you can install onto a bootable USB thumbdrive. It boots into a anonymous-and-secure-by-default OS (e.g. everything through Tor), warns you whenever you’re about to do something that might leak info, and, when you remove the USB thumbdrive from the computer, wipes the computer’s memory clean before shutting down. Pretty neat stuff.
It was a bit of a pain to get up and running (you have to download a largeish .iso image, burn that to a DVD, boot up from the DVD, then burn your USB thumbdrive from there), but then seemed to work pretty well. It would be ideal for a bug-out bag.
A good use case for it is when using sketchy internet hotspots when on the road, internet cafes while travelling, etc. If I were away from home and wanted to file a report on something the gov’t would rather not have known, I’d totally do it from Tails.
I’m not sure if I totally trust Tor. The more I read about how it works, and it’s history, the more I’m thinking that there are fed.gov run Tor exit nodes that are monitored and analyzed. Considering that Tor was developed by the United States Navy in the first place, it’s foolish to think that the fed.gov doesn’t somehow have it’s fingers embedded in the system to allow monitoring. Tor may protect the transportation of data, but it has to exit somewhere, and at that point it must be decrypted, where it can be read by the owner of the node. An interesting article about this: http://www.cryptogon.com/?p=15762
I don’t think Tor folks make any claim that content from the exit node onward can be hidden, but only that the sender remains anonymous. Even if govco operated an exit node, which I consider likely, it can look at the stuff going through but not know who sent or received it. Tor would be useful even if govco operated EVERY exit node. Users of Tor should simply assume that, just as they should assume all American ISPs and many foreign ones are feeding data to govco.
If you really needed to protect content as well, just encrypt the content before shipping it off. And, if you are visiting a website, can’t you just use https to hide all the content?
I’m no Tor expert, but my guess is that these issues are known and people find use for Tor anyway.
Best security primer/howto I’ve seen in a long time:
https://pressfreedomfoundation.org/encryption-works
Sounds like TAILS now has a provision for persistent storage. While that might be a bit of a security risk, I found earlier versions of TAILS essentially unusable without it.
I have a Tivo connected to the Internet to stream Netflix, Pandora and Amazon. Does the Onion Pi work with connected devices like this?
The TOR Router will work but it will be noticeably slower, I would imagine, given the extra routing that’s going on. And it doesn’t offer any benefits, either, since every one of those web sites know who you are already.
The TOR Router is intended for anonymous surfing. It would be useful for other devices in the household, probably, if you were diligent about logging in to it when you wanted TOR anonymity.
Scott:
If you have a chance, drop a promo piece to me at wrsa@hushmail.com .
I’ll post again on WRSA and try to get you some more biz.
Thanks,
ca
wrsa
Email sent…muchos Garcias.