setting up an online anonymous presence.

[fx9]

the main readon that it's unattainable is that all telecommunications systems have some way of tracing you to the devices you use. Assuming that this is malicious by itself just leads to paranoia: it is scary if you value your safety, but just remember that ease of communication was always important, no matter how far back you go in history. If you catch someone using the internet in a way that's disgusting to you...there's not always something you can do about it. Ignore cyberbullies or talk smack about them to someone who's sympathetic. Study social engineering, internet, and phone scams so that you don't become a victim. I haven't read this yet but will try to later today:

Social engineering (security) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I still get these scam emails every once in a while claiming my paypal has been compromised, but it never comes from @paypal.com .

I have a very unique situation to most. I live very rural. 1/4 mile from neighbor to neighbor. Someone needs to come down my driveway and get within my range of sight to access my wifi. I don't like my phone, I don't use it for much other than calls, emails, and maps. I don't answer calls from numbers that are not in my address book, I have voice messaging if it's important.

Same with emails, I don't open links I'm not expecting. I don't share any personal info when requested. I don't travel with my computer often. I don't use public wifi. I run a business from home, so I don't leave often. There is someone else here at least, so little threat of break ins as well.

I've had my bouts on FB and other sites with people of differing opinions and I realized arguments never get resolved, it just stays childish no matter how reasonable you are. Haters gonna hate. I only engage online with other like minded folks, this forum for example, wine making, just sharing opinions and asking advice.

I get all kinds of scam emails, but they are so common they are pretty obvious, especially as pointed out with the addresses they come from if you have any questions about their legitimacy.

I moved away from Microsoft because I got sick of computers slowing down and becoming useless every 3 years. I was pretty naive when I got my Chromebook, who doesn't love Google, it's so clean and convenient... When you realize what you are trading for convenience it's pretty frustrating. Google is so sleazy they just give you a death date for your Chromebook instead of bogging it down with updates like microsoft so you buy a new one. After said date there is no support, no updates, no security. With everything in the cloud it becomes useless. That was the final straw for me.

I'll never be the solution, but I can stop supporting such sh**** business practices. I really wanted to stick up a finger and cover my tracks so all the info I handed over is all they'll ever get, but that's clearly not gonna happen. I'm totally willing to make my browsing experience painful while trying though. hahah

 

[BoringZombie]

I have a very unique situation to most. I live very rural. 1/4 mile from neighbor to neighbor. Someone needs to come down my driveway and get within my range of sight to access my wifi. I don't like my phone, I don't use it for much other than calls, emails, and maps. I don't answer calls from numbers that are not in my address book, I have voice messaging if it's important.

Same with emails, I don't open links I'm not expecting. I don't share any personal info when requested. I don't travel with my computer often. I don't use public wifi. I run a business from home, so I don't leave often. There is someone else here at least, so little threat of break ins as well.

I've had my bouts on FB and other sites with people of differing opinions and I realized arguments never get resolved, it just stays childish no matter how reasonable you are. Haters gonna hate. I only engage online with other like minded folks, this forum for example, wine making, just sharing opinions and asking advice.

I get all kinds of scam emails, but they are so common they are pretty obvious, especially as pointed out with the addresses they come from if you have any questions about their legitimacy.

I moved away from Microsoft because I got sick of computers slowing down and becoming useless every 3 years. I was pretty naive when I got my Chromebook, who doesn't love Google, it's so clean and convenient... When you realize what you are trading for convenience it's pretty frustrating. Google is so sleazy they just give you a death date for your Chromebook instead of bogging it down with updates like microsoft so you buy a new one. After said date there is no support, no updates, no security. With everything in the cloud it becomes useless. That was the final straw for me.

I'll never be the solution, but I can stop supporting such sh**** business practices. I really wanted to stick up a finger and cover my tracks so all the info I handed over is all they'll ever get, but that's clearly not gonna happen. I'm totally willing to make my browsing experience painful while trying though. hahah

Check out these sites, I use these:

https://www.minds.com/
https://gab.com/
https://element.io/

 

[CrazedNerd]

That's actually a pretty clever use of a hacked account. It's kinda brilliant in its simplicity.

I am pretty sure you can do 2FA with Amazon now. Without some serious effort (or just a stolen phone), like IEMI/SIM cloning, 2FA can be pretty secure. Heck, even my lowly Linux Tips site supports a couple of methods of 2FA.

(I take my site's security pretty seriously. That one site has some personal information that I've been entrusted with. They're just email addresses and usernames - and passwords but those are salted and hashed - but I still take my obligation to secure them seriously.)

well now they force you to do 2FA. I don't see how they made any money using my account that way, i guess someone was paying them a few dollars per review or something, wierd. If you can shed some light on this, then i'd be very happy!

 

[CrazedNerd]

I have a very unique situation to most. I live very rural. 1/4 mile from neighbor to neighbor. Someone needs to come down my driveway and get within my range of sight to access my wifi. I don't like my phone, I don't use it for much other than calls, emails, and maps. I don't answer calls from numbers that are not in my address book, I have voice messaging if it's important.

Same with emails, I don't open links I'm not expecting. I don't share any personal info when requested. I don't travel with my computer often. I don't use public wifi. I run a business from home, so I don't leave often. There is someone else here at least, so little threat of break ins as well.

I've had my bouts on FB and other sites with people of differing opinions and I realized arguments never get resolved, it just stays childish no matter how reasonable you are. Haters gonna hate. I only engage online with other like minded folks, this forum for example, wine making, just sharing opinions and asking advice.

I get all kinds of scam emails, but they are so common they are pretty obvious, especially as pointed out with the addresses they come from if you have any questions about their legitimacy.

I moved away from Microsoft because I got sick of computers slowing down and becoming useless every 3 years. I was pretty naive when I got my Chromebook, who doesn't love Google, it's so clean and convenient... When you realize what you are trading for convenience it's pretty frustrating. Google is so sleazy they just give you a death date for your Chromebook instead of bogging it down with updates like microsoft so you buy a new one. After said date there is no support, no updates, no security. With everything in the cloud it becomes useless. That was the final straw for me.

I'll never be the solution, but I can stop supporting such sh**** business practices. I really wanted to stick up a finger and cover my tracks so all the info I handed over is all they'll ever get, but that's clearly not gonna happen. I'm totally willing to make my browsing experience painful while trying though. hahah

yeah well your choice to stick with linux is a good one, it has it's problems but the kernel is pretty standardized and used by all sorts of corporate folks now. I'm also done with microsoft, when my windows 10 PC stops working i'm going to start messing around with linux gaming.

And yes people on the internet just argue about the same things forever, that's why in general i think "gentle critique" is much better than trying to prove someone that they are wrong or put them down. Arguing is part of being human, but nobody likes hostile and angry people.

 

[KGIII]

I don't see how they made any money using my account that way,

Not directly, but people saw the reviews/review numbers and based their purchasing decisions on those numbers. People frickin' love the review system and base a whole lot on it - that's why the companies use it. (There are a couple of studies on the matter, though I've only read the abstracts. I could probably dig them up if needed.)

So, this is a brilliant use of a hacked account. They get to make the products they're affiliated with look better and their competition's products look worse. Like a giant number of people place reviews as one of their biggest concerns when purchasing a product online. Even though they know the system can be gamed, they still base purchasing decisions on it. Many of them intentionally ignore negative reviews because they think the negative reviews are biased and the good reviews are more accurate.

I shall digress a moment...

The human brain is still not all that distant from our lizard brain. I keep tabs on stuff like this because I used to own a company that modeled traffic. We eventually expanded to include pedestrian traffic - among which was optimizing foot traffic for retail facilities. That was far more lucrative and we eventually built our own lab where you could create a shopping environment and then test the results for even the smallest minutia. There's a reason stores are set up the way they are.

The human shopping brain is pretty hardwired and you, yes even you, are easily manipulated. No, you're not immune...

 

[CrazedNerd]

The human shopping brain is pretty hardwired and you, yes even you, are easily manipulated. No, you're not immune...

No need to preach to the choir with me (the choir being the thoughts in my head), that's probably the thing that scares me the most...however, studying the world around you and asking questions can help with letting you choose how you want to be manipulated.

 

[KGIII]

you choose how you want to be manipulated.

More less. Even I'm susceptible. What made my company stand out was the way we handled the data and how we weighted external stimuli. Even the font on a street sign matters. You can even determine a value for the amount of light reflected off lane marking paint.

In a store, say a grocery store, you're first bombarded with colors and smells. They may even pipe in fake smells, like a bakery smells. We humans want to turn right, as a general rule, when entering a building. So, that's why you're urged to go right (in most savvy stores). There you might see stuff like big boxes of cereal or whatnot. They may even have flowers next - or baked goods that appeal to our sweet tooth - making us salivate. It's good for business the longer they can keep you in the store and the amount of hunger they can generate. (Milk, eggs, and packaged bread is usually in the left-rear part of the store - or bread will be on a strange aisle for no apparent reason.)

Where this all ties back is that it's very much a form of social engineering - and it works.

Our lab was pretty high security, complete with armed security at the gate and things like man traps. We trained and trained our employees but humans are the weakest link. I'd do stuff like leave a few USB thumbdrives around to see who was dumb enough to plug them into a work computer and then send them for more training. It was a never-ending battle.

You can have all the security in the world, and it all goes to hell when you add a human to the mix.

 

[CrazedNerd]

We humans want to turn right,

Does that apply in countries where people drive on the left side of the road?

 

[KGIII]

Does that apply in countries where people drive on the left side of the road?

I assume as much. I didn't do the research, it was handed to me to use as a weighted value. I did do some work outside the US, but none of that was for commercial space.

I sold and retired well over a decade ago. I kinda miss it. There were some neat challenges and we did a lot of great things - and some not so great things. I've sometimes pondered the morality of manipulating people into spending more money by applying stimuli they're ill equipped to deal with.

On the other hand, we did things like model large commercial buildings to ensure egress is possible during emergencies. And, well, our vehicular modeling has saved countless hours, countless lives, and countless barrels of oil.

We've digressed (an act for which I'm frequently guilty) well beyond the point of this thread. We can take this up in PM or off-topic.

 

[fx9]

A couple questions about VPN. I've had some issues with no internet. Phone rings I put the computer aside, come back and unlock. No internet. 1st time I couldn't figure it out and just restarted. Seems if I disable and reconnect VPN I'm good. Is this my killswitch?

Other times I've had internet and no VPN connection. What happens in this case? Say 3 open tabs, computer wakes up. No VPN. Check vpn status online, reconnect and make no actions on the tabs. Does it only make a difference if I connect to a new site creating data transfer, or if the vpn drops off do sites immediately get my real IP?

 

[KGIII]

Is this my killswitch?

It may very well be that. The software from the VPN provider may well include that these days, as a lot of folks have been asking about it.

My VPN is NordVPN and I don't bother with the software, I just use the browser extension. I don't care about the VPN otherwise.

 

[CrazedNerd]

A couple questions about VPN. I've had some issues with no internet. Phone rings I put the computer aside, come back and unlock. No internet. 1st time I couldn't figure it out and just restarted. Seems if I disable and reconnect VPN I'm good. Is this my killswitch?

Other times I've had internet and no VPN connection. What happens in this case? Say 3 open tabs, computer wakes up. No VPN. Check vpn status online, reconnect and make no actions on the tabs. Does it only make a difference if I connect to a new site creating data transfer, or if the vpn drops off do sites immediately get my real IP?

VPNs slow down your connection, but if it's a well maintained one then it won't noticeably. Proton VPN has never given me any trouble.

Do you have a killswitch? I wouldn't assume anything beyond an internet connection issue.

 

[fx9]

I do, I am using surfshark. last time I just gave it 5 minutes to see if it would connect. Had to turn off the VPN and turn back on. When I kill the VPN I get a wifi disconnect message. Must be the killswitch and I am tripping it by not turning things off.

I couldn't get things to work at all through the terminal. I installed and updated everything, but the terminal wouldn't let me put in my password to turn it on. I installed the Surfshark GUI which is working, but seems a little finicky.

 

[Andreac81]

very interesting thread to better understand how tracking works and how hackers hide their identities. Thinking about the following use case: An hacker open his PC, he create a fake email address and he send a phising email to someone. The person that receives the email try to identify the sender and he (or better some authorities) asks to the email provider data about the sender, which data the email provider can have?