Hide information and yourself on the internet!
Every time you connect to the internet you run the risk of your information being stolen!
Today I am going to explain how to better hide yourself as an everyday normal person just trying to live. So, you can be a bit more secure when you connect to your local coffee shop or go to the airport to catch that flight.
If you are learning to hack or already a hacker for good, of course, you are probably in some places that might not be so good to get caught.
You might be doing some recon on the dark web or a pen test for a client, and one of the rules of engagement is you cannot be tracked back. How do you hide in this situation?
The best way I found to do this is well three tools and a network of amazing people who believe in privacy. Read on to find out more about this network and the three tools.
The First tool is a VPN!
Get A VPN!
A vpn should really be the first layer of a multi-layer strategy to hide here. Everyone should have a vpn it is not the end all be all but with a good vpn and strong malware scanner like Malwarebytes you can breathe a lot easier.
Vpns can usually change your i.p address once, but it also encrypts your data and a good vpn doesn’t keep any logs. So, with no logs there is no key left after the connection is closed to decrypt your information even if the government wanted to request your information from the vpn provider.
Think of it as shredding your mail instead of simply throwing it out. You need to know they will still have your i.p, so while your information might be hidden from most, you can still be found.
However, whenever you connect to an open network, such as an airport, coffee shop, or bookstore, you should use a vpn at 100%.
This will help to stop people from being able to, just see everything you are doing with a few clicks. For the most part. This is not full proof, and there are still ways around it, but you are much more secure than before.
Even at home a vpn can stop your ISP (Internet Service Provider) from snooping on your traffic. If you need a free vpn I recommend proton vpn they claim to keep no logs and 100 percent free unlimited data, it might not be the fastest. However, free is free if you want more; you will have to pay for it.
The Next Layer is going to be the network I spoke of.
The network is called Tor.
The way it works is that your information is bounced off three nodes and then sent to where it needs to be. It is encrypted when it enters the first node, and then a piece is decrypted every nod it hits thereafter.
So, it arrives at its destination as it left. This is great because it bounces off three nodes and has a different I.P (Internet Protocol) every time, so it’s virtually impossible to track someone.
But anyone can spin up one of these nodes and go live with it. This means that you can simply take a copy of the information when traffic leaves the last node.
Fun fact this is how wiki leaks started from what I understand.
Therefore, you use a vpn while on the Tor network. This will encrypt your information before it reaches the first node, so it is not so easy to simply take and see.
The vpn will also add another node so now you have bounced three times just like in the movies.
There are two ways to use Tor one is extremely easy, and anyone can do it that is our next tool.
The Tor Browser!
Now you have your vpn encrypting your traffic with one i.p jump let’s add in three more i.p jumps so you are really hidden just like in the moves.
Side note Mr. Robot is a good show and most of the hacking done in the show is real.
You have two ways of doing this that I have found the first is the Tor browser.
Easy to install easy to use and coupled with your vpn will hide you very well.
Anyone can use this for protection this is going to be slower and sometimes images are not going to load. You are also going to have to confirm you are not a robot more than a few times.
Other than these setbacks you use Tor browser just like your regular browse. It will even give you a crash course the first time you boot it up.
The last tool is more for hackers to hide them self's proxychains.
The last tool Proxychains!
That brings me to our last tool but the one I use the most myself Proxychains.
With Proxychains you get everything that you get with tor browser, but you can also run some other common tools through it.
So, you install proxychains (sudo apt install proxychains4) set it up with dynamic_chain and proxy_dns. To do this you edit the /etc/proxychains4.conf comment out strict uncomment dynamic_chain proxy_dns should already be uncommented but check it.
Proxy dns will make sure your Isp is not still showing this is called a dns leak.
Now you are set up and ready to run, first we start tor with (service tor start) then (service tor status) to make sure it is running.
Now that we know the Tor network is running, we can open Firefox with proxychains (proxychains Firefox).
There we have it!
With our vpn tor and proxychains we are now on an encrypted tunnel with 4 total node jumps.
Now the good thing about funneling Tor through proxychains is that you can run other tools with it like Nmap (proxychains Nmap) and hide yourself while scanning.
Links to installs and more information.
ProtonVPN: https://protonvpn.com/
More information about ProtonVPN: https://www.reviews.org/vpn/is-protonvpn-safe/
Tor Browser: https://www.torproject.org/download/
How to install Tor Browser: https://tb-manual.torproject.org/installation/
More Information on the Tor network: https://vpnpro.com/data-protection/is-tor-browser-safe/
More Information and installation for proxychains: https://medium.com/swlh/proxying-like-a-pro-cccdc177b081