If you need anonymity while working online, I mean true anonymity, you should not rely on half-measures. Of course, in the modern world, complete anonymity is unattainable, and it would be naive to believe that you will never be tracked, so the most that you can count on in this case is to make the task as difficult as possible.
It should be understood that almost every tool designed to ensure confidentiality has been, or may be, compromised in one way or another, no one is immune from mistakes. However, there are ways that you can use them to make your search so difficult that only the most advanced organizations will be able to pursue you. One of these methods is to run Tor on top of a VPN inside a virtual machine.
A VPN can be very secure, and a good VPN is practically impossible to hack. In this case, it is important to make sure that the service you are using can be trusted, and this is not an easy task. The cornerstone of all VPNs is logs. Many services claim that they do not store logs, while some of them are quite careless about this moment, and some simply mislead customers.
I do not pretend to be true in the last statement, but below are some signs by which you can distinguish a good service from a bad one.
The next thing to look out for is DNS leaking or, in other words, DNS leaks. This is perhaps the most common way to lose your anonymity, even with the best VPN. The problem is that Internet providers assign their own DNS servers to all clients on their network, so they are able to track DNS requests (everything that is written in the address bar of the browser) of their clients.
When you connect a VPN, it is assumed that all DNS requests are sent through the VPN tunnel, like the rest of the traffic, which, in theory, should exclude the ISP from looking at your DNS queries. A leak can happen if the browser forgets that you are using a VPN and starts accessing the default DNS servers.
The problem is easy to solve, but even easier not to be aware of its existence until it is too late. The easiest way to test your VPN for DNS leak is to visit https://www.dnsleaktest.com and run a standard test. If, according to the test results, you see your real location and the list of DNS servers of your provider, then the connection is not completely anonymous. To avoid DNS leaks, always use third-party DNS servers, for example, public DNS servers from Google (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) or from OpenDNS (208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220)
Returning to the main topic of the article, as it is very important to pay attention to the way you buy a VPN. It is important to choose a payment method that does not allow tracking the sender of the payment. If you are not in the know, then most crypto currencies are exactly what you need. Naturally, bitcoin is the first thing that comes to mind.
However, you should not rely on the anonymous nature of bitcoin, and before making a payment, be sure to use the reliable Mixer service in order to completely confuse all the ends. Otherwise, your transaction can be tracked with some probability, since blockchain technology allows you to track all transactions and it's only a matter of time. Take a look at https://www.walletexplorer.com/ and see for yourself.
You don't have to go far for an example, there are cases when the Coinbase service closed the accounts of those users who immediately after buying bitcoins used them to order illegal goods on the darknet.
Don't blindly rely on Tor either, as researchers recently discovered more than 100 malicious Tor nodes that were spying on users. In addition, the FBI has an exploit against the Tor browser, details of which they refuse to disclose.
It is also worthwhile to understand that Tor is just a computer program that necessarily contains security vulnerabilities and bugs, which will only be found out after someone takes advantage of them, and not the fact that it will be the FBI and NSA.
The topic of Tor security has been actively discussed throughout the entire existence of the anonymous network, including by the developers themselves in the official blog. The article "One cell is enough to breakTor's anonymity" well describes how an attacker can de-anonymize network users, having access to the first and last nodes in the chain. This is a very likely scenario, since at the time of this writing, Tor has only about 7000 nodes, which allows an organization with the appropriate resources to launch several hundred new nodes to intercept traffic. The network developers themselves simply do not have enough resources to deal with attacks of this type. In addition, Tor is, first of all, a means of bypassing Internet restrictions and only then a means of ensuring anonymity.
An additional factor to consider when using Tor is that your ISP will know that you are using Tor. In a worst-case scenario, the ability to plausibly deny what was wrong is never superfluous. Such an opportunity would be very useful for a Harvard student who made a false bomb report in 2013 and was disclosed by FBI agents only on the basis that he was using Tor at the time the message arrived.
Undoubtedly, most of the incidents with Tor users are the result of their ignorance or error, but there is always the possibility that the security measures taken will not be enough. That is why we recommend using Tor in conjunction with a VPN.
Related infographics inspired by post one of the reddit users.
Double encryption, in this case, who can be discouraged from even trying to hack a connection established according to this scheme in view of the incredible amount of resources required for this.
The advantages of using a virtual machine can hardly be overestimated. Even if someone penetrates your VPN and Tor, they will not be able to get information about your main system. And in case your virtual machine is completely compromised, it will be enough to simply delete it and destroy all traces by repeatedly wiping free disk space, for example, using ccleaner.
If you have never used virtual machines before, we recommend that you start with VirtualBox. This is a great free program. There are a lot of high-quality instructions and videos on the Internet on how to install and configure VirtualBox. Therefore, in the article we will not dwell on this issue in detail.
We recommend using Ubuntu as a guest OS, however, if you decide to continue with Windows 10, we recommend that you read how to disable spyware functionality in Windows 10.
After you have configured Tor and VPN inside your virtual machine, visit http://whatismyipaddress.com to make sure your IP address is different from that provided by your ISP.
In conclusion, we recommend that you completely encrypt the main system, for example using Bitlocker or VeraCrypt.
It should be understood that almost every tool designed to ensure confidentiality has been, or may be, compromised in one way or another, no one is immune from mistakes. However, there are ways that you can use them to make your search so difficult that only the most advanced organizations will be able to pursue you. One of these methods is to run Tor on top of a VPN inside a virtual machine.
VPN
A VPN can be very secure, and a good VPN is practically impossible to hack. In this case, it is important to make sure that the service you are using can be trusted, and this is not an easy task. The cornerstone of all VPNs is logs. Many services claim that they do not store logs, while some of them are quite careless about this moment, and some simply mislead customers.
I do not pretend to be true in the last statement, but below are some signs by which you can distinguish a good service from a bad one.
- The correct service does not store logs and this is clearly spelled out in the privacy policy or the use of the service without any reservations and restrictions
- The correct VPN is registered in a third country, in a jurisdiction where the legislation does not require mandatory data retention of the activities of telecom customers. For example, countries such as the United States and Hong Kong.
- The right VPN cares about your privacy, so it accepts bitcoin as payment and supports the OpenVPN protocol.
DNS leaking
The next thing to look out for is DNS leaking or, in other words, DNS leaks. This is perhaps the most common way to lose your anonymity, even with the best VPN. The problem is that Internet providers assign their own DNS servers to all clients on their network, so they are able to track DNS requests (everything that is written in the address bar of the browser) of their clients.
When you connect a VPN, it is assumed that all DNS requests are sent through the VPN tunnel, like the rest of the traffic, which, in theory, should exclude the ISP from looking at your DNS queries. A leak can happen if the browser forgets that you are using a VPN and starts accessing the default DNS servers.
The problem is easy to solve, but even easier not to be aware of its existence until it is too late. The easiest way to test your VPN for DNS leak is to visit https://www.dnsleaktest.com and run a standard test. If, according to the test results, you see your real location and the list of DNS servers of your provider, then the connection is not completely anonymous. To avoid DNS leaks, always use third-party DNS servers, for example, public DNS servers from Google (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) or from OpenDNS (208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220)
Bitcoin and mixers
Returning to the main topic of the article, as it is very important to pay attention to the way you buy a VPN. It is important to choose a payment method that does not allow tracking the sender of the payment. If you are not in the know, then most crypto currencies are exactly what you need. Naturally, bitcoin is the first thing that comes to mind.
However, you should not rely on the anonymous nature of bitcoin, and before making a payment, be sure to use the reliable Mixer service in order to completely confuse all the ends. Otherwise, your transaction can be tracked with some probability, since blockchain technology allows you to track all transactions and it's only a matter of time. Take a look at https://www.walletexplorer.com/ and see for yourself.
You don't have to go far for an example, there are cases when the Coinbase service closed the accounts of those users who immediately after buying bitcoins used them to order illegal goods on the darknet.
TOR
Don't blindly rely on Tor either, as researchers recently discovered more than 100 malicious Tor nodes that were spying on users. In addition, the FBI has an exploit against the Tor browser, details of which they refuse to disclose.
It is also worthwhile to understand that Tor is just a computer program that necessarily contains security vulnerabilities and bugs, which will only be found out after someone takes advantage of them, and not the fact that it will be the FBI and NSA.
The topic of Tor security has been actively discussed throughout the entire existence of the anonymous network, including by the developers themselves in the official blog. The article "One cell is enough to breakTor's anonymity" well describes how an attacker can de-anonymize network users, having access to the first and last nodes in the chain. This is a very likely scenario, since at the time of this writing, Tor has only about 7000 nodes, which allows an organization with the appropriate resources to launch several hundred new nodes to intercept traffic. The network developers themselves simply do not have enough resources to deal with attacks of this type. In addition, Tor is, first of all, a means of bypassing Internet restrictions and only then a means of ensuring anonymity.
An additional factor to consider when using Tor is that your ISP will know that you are using Tor. In a worst-case scenario, the ability to plausibly deny what was wrong is never superfluous. Such an opportunity would be very useful for a Harvard student who made a false bomb report in 2013 and was disclosed by FBI agents only on the basis that he was using Tor at the time the message arrived.
Undoubtedly, most of the incidents with Tor users are the result of their ignorance or error, but there is always the possibility that the security measures taken will not be enough. That is why we recommend using Tor in conjunction with a VPN.
Related infographics inspired by post one of the reddit users.
Double encryption, in this case, who can be discouraged from even trying to hack a connection established according to this scheme in view of the incredible amount of resources required for this.
Virtual machine
The advantages of using a virtual machine can hardly be overestimated. Even if someone penetrates your VPN and Tor, they will not be able to get information about your main system. And in case your virtual machine is completely compromised, it will be enough to simply delete it and destroy all traces by repeatedly wiping free disk space, for example, using ccleaner.
If you have never used virtual machines before, we recommend that you start with VirtualBox. This is a great free program. There are a lot of high-quality instructions and videos on the Internet on how to install and configure VirtualBox. Therefore, in the article we will not dwell on this issue in detail.
We recommend using Ubuntu as a guest OS, however, if you decide to continue with Windows 10, we recommend that you read how to disable spyware functionality in Windows 10.
After you have configured Tor and VPN inside your virtual machine, visit http://whatismyipaddress.com to make sure your IP address is different from that provided by your ISP.
In conclusion, we recommend that you completely encrypt the main system, for example using Bitlocker or VeraCrypt.
