Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Edited by Cirkhan, Zack, Anonymo, Teresa and 17 others
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It seems like many people would like to be anonymous. It's not just a matter of free speech but also a way to create multiple accounts on social networks or avoid censoring of your government or company. This article tells you how to be anonymous and why you are like an open book right now.

Edit Steps

  1. 1
    Why be anonymous? There are endless reasons to be anonymous or to increase your privacy. The most obvious is your personal freedom. It is rarely in your interest that your government, your Internet provider's administrators/supporters or your company knows what you are doing online. What illness are you googling about? What porn do you watch? What political party do you favor? Do you search pirated software? The list is endless and everyone is affected.There are more reasons to be anonymous. You could register multiple accounts on social networks (facebook, youtube, myspace, gmail, your favorite Internet forum...) if you were anonymous. This is something a lot of people require once in a while, most get caught doing it because they lack knowledge.
  2. 2
    The first step is gaining knowledge. To speak the truth: the Internet just looks simple from the user point of view but in reality the protocols used to make this possible are very complex. The Internet was never designed to be an anonymous platform and as it grew the different governments of course had no interest that people could speak anonymously.I can only write about the simplest facts, everything "deeper" would make this article unreadable to most of the potential readers. Every connection on the Internet has one thing in common: the IP Address. The data sent and received always contains a destination and a source IP Address, no matter what you did (email, surfing, file sharing, listening to a music stream or watching a video). This IP Address can be used to identify you (through the help of your provider, to break into your computer or to deny you access or track your access.

    When surfing (using a browser like Firefox, Chrome or Opera to access HTTP pages) there is more information transmitted than you would ever guess! Your browser sends information about itself, about your operating system, your language and much more information. This information also tells a lot about your identity and can be used to give you customized text but also against you.
  3. 3
    The next Step is to know what has to be done to gain anonymity. The main factor is your IP Address, it needs to be obfuscated. Next your cookies need to be removed and finally your user agent should be changed. Changing the IP requires a tool/service called proxy the cookies can be removed through your browser settings and the user-agent is also part of your browser configuration.
  4. 4
    The Proxy.
    There are a lot of ways to change your IP Address through various proxy servers! A proxy server can be configured in your browser network-connection settings. When using a online proxy your browser will send all data requests to the proxy, the proxy will route it to the destination and send you back the data. This is "transparent" to you as user; the destination will only see the proxy IP Address.

    Open proxies - Open proxies are free proxies that can be found on the Internet. There are hundreds of thousands open proxies but be aware that using them can be dangerous. Most open proxies run against the will of their server owner sometimes through hacking the server and installing it. Using such a proxy includes a very high risk that all of your data is read by the operator of the proxy. Passwords, Email addresses and similar are not protected.
    One more important fact about open proxies is that many of them send your real IP as hidden variable to the web-server. You can use the analyzer (see previous step) to test if your real IP was sent or not. Proxies that do not send your real IP address are called Anonymous proxies or Elite proxies. It is suggested you not use such a proxy if you do not have to. Private proxies - These are proxies that require a login and password; usually you pay monthly to receive this information. Such proxies are much more secure than open proxies IF the commercial operator is a trustworthy source. In case someone offers thousands of proxies you should take a very good look at it as this is a sign of a so called bot network. Using a bot network as proxy can get you to court even if you thought you were using a legal service! So after all: look exactly who you give your money, do they look professional? Web proxies - Such proxies are usually web scripts that allow you to enter a URL and forward all traffic for you. There are thousands of free web proxies available but all of them have got their downsides. The positive side: you do not need to configure anything, as long as you just want to browse the web they are the easiest thing to use. But a lot of websites do not work proper if you use a web-proxy, also java applets or scripts can still catch your real IP. And last but not least it is a fact that most of those proxies log your data connection, steal your passwords and sneak advertisements into your traffic. At least most web proxies are operated by their legal owner, so you don't risk more than your privacy and data security when using them. Anonymizing networks - Networks like Tor are free to use, provide very high anonymity and privacy. They tunnel your connection encrypted through several proxies resulting in the fact that even your proxy does not know who the source of the request was. Those are very secure and as good as always legally operated. But as usual we have got a downside: They are so slow that people often cannot use them and they do not allow you to choose a IP, they give the IP randomly to increase anonymity. Also they are often not easy to operate. Commercial high anonymity providers - At this time only one provider exists, called Cloakfish. They offer very detailed information about anonymity and how to get anonymous. Cloakfish works like an anonymity network but with high performance and more control by the user in mind.
    You can choose the IP from a long list of IPs instead of getting it randomly assigned. Cloakfish is an excellent source for information about privacy and anonymity but the service is not free (1$ and more per month).
  5. 5
    Keep in mind that using a proxy can be not enough to be anonymous. If your OS has proprietary, non-opensource code it may contain built-in spyware making all your security efforts useless. At present Tails and Whonix OS are recommended for anonymous browsing. Tails is an incognito amnestic OS running from a USB-stick or a CD and relying on the Tor network to keep the user secure with the consequent wipe of all browsing traces at reboot or shutdown. Whonix implements the workstation-gateway design based on the free VirtualBox virtual machine to achieve three anonymity goals: 1. The virtual machine's hardware data instead of the real hardware data are transmitted; 2. All connections from Whonix to the Internet are established through the secure hardened Torrified gateway, thus limiting the malware adverse impact on anonymity; 3. The user is allowed to save own configurations of the software including any changes made to the OS and the OS snapshots which can be used later to roll back to a previous anonymity state or as "other virtual identities". Also multiple browser profiles may be enabled for additional virtual identities.

Edit Tips

  • Learn more about anonymity if you really need to be anonymous. Read details about cookies, proxies, the user agent, browser variables and the Internet protocol. This topic is not simple, if you really rely on anonymity you should get an expert! Many countries hit hard on bloggers, journalists, or even surfers looking for a piece of erotic. If you live in a country where death is a possible end to a man or woman looking for a bit of freedom in the Internet then please inform yourself before using a cheap proxy.
  • Keep in mind that using a proxy can be not enough to be anonymous. If your OS has proprietary, non-opensource code it may contain built-in spyware making all your security efforts useless. At present Tails and Whonix OS are recommended for anonymous browsing. Tails is an incognito amnestic OS running from a USB-stick or a CD and relying on the Tor network to keep the user secure with the consequent wipe of all browsing traces at reboot or shutdown. Whonix implements the workstation-gateway design based on the free VirtualBox virtual machine to achieve three anonymity goals: 1. The virtual machine's hardware data instead of the real hardware data are transmitted; 2. All connections from Whonix to the Internet are established through the secure hardened Torrified gateway, thus limiting the malware adverse impact on anonymity; 3. The user is allowed to save own configurations of the software including any changes made to the OS and the OS snapshots which can be used later to roll back to a previous anonymity state or as "other virtual identities". Also multiple browser profiles may be enabled for additional virtual identities.

Edit Warnings

  • Private proxies are often operated on botnetworks, if a private proxy providers offers thousands of proxies then avoid him!
  • Know what you are doing, 3rd world states or repressive states like China are experts in breaking your anonymity. Become an expert yourself!
  • Open proxies are evil, do not use them! The EU Cybercrime Convention from 2001, as well as the U.S. Computer Fraud & Abuse Act both define that entering a proxy or computer without permission is a crime!
  • Webproxies will log your passwords and can change the website content, keep that in mind when using them.

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Article Info

Categories: Internet Security
Recent edits by: Lutherus, Frostmaker84, ZackBPro
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