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OPSEC - it's an acronym for
"OPERATIONAL SECURITY".!
Today, we shall talk about OS (Operating Systems) and how it can affect our work, security and privacy. And also the best operating systems to go for or to use.
So think about this for a second, what if one day cops or feds come to your door knocking while you weren't expecting them. You will be wondering, what have I done wrong or what are cops doing here at this time in my house. You should note that, there's a problem with your opsec if you have committed a big crime and they were investigating.
In any of these instances, the Feds will try to take a look at your data on your PC (personal computer). Now ask yourself, What will they find on your PC?
On my fully encrypted Windows, Mac, and Linux laptops they would find nothing but a blank screen prompting them for a boot password. My entire hard drives, including the operating system, are encrypted and the devices will not boot without the correct password. Replace my computer with that of most users, and the answer is likely to be People's information, credit reports, medical documents, resumes, family photos, saved logins, credit cards, financial information, internet browsing history, hobbies, sexual affinities, criminal evidence, and much more. All of this information, can be used to harass, blackmail, extort, or further exploit you. It could be used to steal your identity, open lines of credit, or commit crimes in your name, leaving you to clean up the mess. For any of us committing fraud and other similar criminal activities online, this information WILL be used in court to put you in jail for many years. Unfortunately, the US government has a reputation for not going easy on cyber-criminals and if you ever get caught, be sure they will do everything in their power to land you in jail for as many years as they possibly can.
Although basic security is boring, without it, we cannot rely on the more “advanced” security measures we will discuss later in the future. This chapter should serve as a good review of your baseline digital perimeter.
All of the techniques that will be presented in this tutorial, rely upon the assumption that you have a personal computer that is reasonably secure and free of malware. If your computer is in any way, infected with malware, or is at risk for malware infection, you should fix this before continuing. Some of the most common forms of malware are Spyware, Key Loggers, Ransomware, RAT (Remote Access Trojan) and Scareware ext. Simple Google searches will explain you further about each of these viruses if you wish to read more about it, I will not get into that for now.
WHICH OPERATING SYSTEM SHOULD I USE?
This is probably THE most important aspect of your security. If you are using an OS, which is closed-source, full of exploitable bugs and easy to hack into, then you are in for a lot of headache. I see a lot of cyber-criminals working with Windows and Mac, and let me tell you, this is absolutely wrong. If you want to be a criminal, then do your homework (Sperate work from real and personal life). Both of these operating systems are closed-source, which means only the developers of Microsoft and Apple are able to look and modify the code of the operating system. This is really bad because we don’t know what kind of backdoors there may be in these operating systems. Law Enforcement agencies could very well have easy access to devices running these Operating Systems. This was the case with Windows 8 and 10 recently, where it was found that NSA had a backdoor into it, which in turn allowed them to control and monitor any machine running the
operating system. See where I’m going with this?
This is not the only problem with these operating systems. Windows is full of zero-day exploits, bugs, and every single day THOUSANDS of new viruses and exploits are deployed for the Windows OS. The reason for that is because the majority of the world population uses Windows, which means hackers can infect a lot more computers, and earn much more money with Windows than with any other OS.
Mac is definitely much more secure than Windows, and Apple has been firm in their stance to not cooperate with authorities. We’ve seen this recently when the FBI contacted them so they could build a backdoor into the iPhone OS and open the terrorist’s iPhone and Apple refused. However, one common misconception I see a lot is that people think Mac computers are simply immune to viruses, and that is completely wrong. Mac computers are as vulnerable to viruses as any other OS. They just have a much smaller user base than Windows, and so developing
viruses and exploits for the Mac OS, is not even close to being profitable like it is with Windows machines. Windows machines are used everywhere, Macs are not. There are exploitable flaws in all operating systems and OS X is no exception.
For us cyber-criminals, the best operating system BY FAR, is Qubes OS. This operating system allows us to run isolated environments. It is basically a giant virtual box. You can run different OSs in Qubes as different virtual machines. For example, we have a virtual machine for the Whonix OS, another for Fedora, Debian, and those are only the VMs that come pre-installed with the OS. You can install Kali Linux in Qubes, Windows, and all kinds of different OSs. If one of these VMs ever get compromised by a virus, we are okay. We simply delete the VM and create a new one. If you want to learn more about the Qubes OS, then navigate to the link below, it is full of tutorials and even videos about the OS so you can get a good look at what we’ll be working with. https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/
Qubes has a very small compatibility range and so will not work with most computers unfortunately. However, if you want to become truly a professional cyber-criminal, then I highly recommend you invest in a new computer. Don’t be Relaxed or close-fisted with security, as that will lead to problems and much headache for you in the future, trust me on that.
CAMERA AND MICROPHONE :
You should seriously consider physically disabling the camera on your computer. On machines that permit opening of the case, I prefer to physically disconnect cameras and microphones to ensure they are not being eavesdropped upon. In the case of laptops, this means opening the case and physically severing connections to the camera and microphone. This may sound like an extreme measure, but software protections like disabling the microphone or turning on a light when the camera is on can be overridden by sufficiently sophisticated spyware. Disabling the hardware is the only sure defense, but I realize that the vast majority of individuals will not take it this far. At a minimum, I recommend blocking the camera with tape, a post-it note, or a dedicated sticker.
PHYSICAL SECURITY :
With physical access to your device, there are a number of attacks that may be carried out successfully against your computer. This includes the “Evil Maid”
bootloader attack to capture your full disk encryption password. USB or optical media attacks work by bypassing your OS password, or the installation of hardware key loggers that cannot be detected by antivirus applications. Though I will not get much in-depth into this, I will give you some basic suggestions to secure yourself against these type of attacks.
I strongly recommend that you carefully control the physical access to your computer, especially when traveling. Though it would be possible for someone to covertly enter your home and exploit your computer, it is not very likely. It is much more likely when traveling, so be especially cautious in hotel rooms. Even though you have locked the door, hotel doors and locks are susceptible to dozens of defeats, not to mention the fact that management, housekeeping, and maintenance all have operating keys to your room. Do not walk away from your computer to go to the restroom in a coffee shop. Do not leave it in your rental car, and do not leave it sitting in the conference room when you break for lunch. If you must leave it unattended in a hotel room or elsewhere,
Take the following physical security precautions :
o Turn off ALL interfaces including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
o Ensure your computer is full-disk encrypted and completely shut down
o Remove all external media including CDs/DVDs, SD cards, USB drives, external HDDs,/SSD's etc. and take them with you.
o Take any transmitting devices, such as a wireless mouse and its dongle, with you when you leave
o Store your computer inside of a safe or in a safe place.
All of the above precautions will give you a fighting chance. However, against a very skilled adversary, they cannot assure or guarantee your computer’s security. Again, the absolute best practice is to avoid relinquishing physical control of your devices.
OS UPDATES :
Keeping your operating system up to date is one of the most important steps in securing a computer. As software ages, security holes are discovered in it, and attacks are written to take advantage of these holes. Though software updates are occasionally released to add features and to deal with bugs, they are often written specifically to patch security holes. If your software is outdated, it is vulnerable to holes that are, in addition to everything else, well-publicized by virtue of the fact
that a patch exists to fix them.
In Qubes OS, you should check for updates on all of your TemplateVMs and dom0 on a DAILY basis. This should take no more than 30 minutes if no major updates were released.
APPLICATION UPDATES :
Just as vulnerabilities in the operating system may be exploited, security holes in your installed programs can be used as attack vectors. It is important to keep all software up to date. It is also extremely important to limit the number of installed applications on your device to an absolute minimum. Each application represents potential undiscovered security flaws. I recommend scrubbing your list of installed applications every three months and uninstalling anything you have not used during the previous three-month period.
CONCLUSION :
Securing your devices is very important and essential when it comes to working on the Internet. Hope this guide will help you with the basics of OPSEC and securing your computer.
GOOD LUCK! ?
"OPERATIONAL SECURITY".!
Today, we shall talk about OS (Operating Systems) and how it can affect our work, security and privacy. And also the best operating systems to go for or to use.
So think about this for a second, what if one day cops or feds come to your door knocking while you weren't expecting them. You will be wondering, what have I done wrong or what are cops doing here at this time in my house. You should note that, there's a problem with your opsec if you have committed a big crime and they were investigating.
In any of these instances, the Feds will try to take a look at your data on your PC (personal computer). Now ask yourself, What will they find on your PC?
On my fully encrypted Windows, Mac, and Linux laptops they would find nothing but a blank screen prompting them for a boot password. My entire hard drives, including the operating system, are encrypted and the devices will not boot without the correct password. Replace my computer with that of most users, and the answer is likely to be People's information, credit reports, medical documents, resumes, family photos, saved logins, credit cards, financial information, internet browsing history, hobbies, sexual affinities, criminal evidence, and much more. All of this information, can be used to harass, blackmail, extort, or further exploit you. It could be used to steal your identity, open lines of credit, or commit crimes in your name, leaving you to clean up the mess. For any of us committing fraud and other similar criminal activities online, this information WILL be used in court to put you in jail for many years. Unfortunately, the US government has a reputation for not going easy on cyber-criminals and if you ever get caught, be sure they will do everything in their power to land you in jail for as many years as they possibly can.
Although basic security is boring, without it, we cannot rely on the more “advanced” security measures we will discuss later in the future. This chapter should serve as a good review of your baseline digital perimeter.
All of the techniques that will be presented in this tutorial, rely upon the assumption that you have a personal computer that is reasonably secure and free of malware. If your computer is in any way, infected with malware, or is at risk for malware infection, you should fix this before continuing. Some of the most common forms of malware are Spyware, Key Loggers, Ransomware, RAT (Remote Access Trojan) and Scareware ext. Simple Google searches will explain you further about each of these viruses if you wish to read more about it, I will not get into that for now.
WHICH OPERATING SYSTEM SHOULD I USE?
This is probably THE most important aspect of your security. If you are using an OS, which is closed-source, full of exploitable bugs and easy to hack into, then you are in for a lot of headache. I see a lot of cyber-criminals working with Windows and Mac, and let me tell you, this is absolutely wrong. If you want to be a criminal, then do your homework (Sperate work from real and personal life). Both of these operating systems are closed-source, which means only the developers of Microsoft and Apple are able to look and modify the code of the operating system. This is really bad because we don’t know what kind of backdoors there may be in these operating systems. Law Enforcement agencies could very well have easy access to devices running these Operating Systems. This was the case with Windows 8 and 10 recently, where it was found that NSA had a backdoor into it, which in turn allowed them to control and monitor any machine running the
operating system. See where I’m going with this?
This is not the only problem with these operating systems. Windows is full of zero-day exploits, bugs, and every single day THOUSANDS of new viruses and exploits are deployed for the Windows OS. The reason for that is because the majority of the world population uses Windows, which means hackers can infect a lot more computers, and earn much more money with Windows than with any other OS.
Mac is definitely much more secure than Windows, and Apple has been firm in their stance to not cooperate with authorities. We’ve seen this recently when the FBI contacted them so they could build a backdoor into the iPhone OS and open the terrorist’s iPhone and Apple refused. However, one common misconception I see a lot is that people think Mac computers are simply immune to viruses, and that is completely wrong. Mac computers are as vulnerable to viruses as any other OS. They just have a much smaller user base than Windows, and so developing
viruses and exploits for the Mac OS, is not even close to being profitable like it is with Windows machines. Windows machines are used everywhere, Macs are not. There are exploitable flaws in all operating systems and OS X is no exception.
For us cyber-criminals, the best operating system BY FAR, is Qubes OS. This operating system allows us to run isolated environments. It is basically a giant virtual box. You can run different OSs in Qubes as different virtual machines. For example, we have a virtual machine for the Whonix OS, another for Fedora, Debian, and those are only the VMs that come pre-installed with the OS. You can install Kali Linux in Qubes, Windows, and all kinds of different OSs. If one of these VMs ever get compromised by a virus, we are okay. We simply delete the VM and create a new one. If you want to learn more about the Qubes OS, then navigate to the link below, it is full of tutorials and even videos about the OS so you can get a good look at what we’ll be working with. https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/
Qubes has a very small compatibility range and so will not work with most computers unfortunately. However, if you want to become truly a professional cyber-criminal, then I highly recommend you invest in a new computer. Don’t be Relaxed or close-fisted with security, as that will lead to problems and much headache for you in the future, trust me on that.
CAMERA AND MICROPHONE :
You should seriously consider physically disabling the camera on your computer. On machines that permit opening of the case, I prefer to physically disconnect cameras and microphones to ensure they are not being eavesdropped upon. In the case of laptops, this means opening the case and physically severing connections to the camera and microphone. This may sound like an extreme measure, but software protections like disabling the microphone or turning on a light when the camera is on can be overridden by sufficiently sophisticated spyware. Disabling the hardware is the only sure defense, but I realize that the vast majority of individuals will not take it this far. At a minimum, I recommend blocking the camera with tape, a post-it note, or a dedicated sticker.
PHYSICAL SECURITY :
With physical access to your device, there are a number of attacks that may be carried out successfully against your computer. This includes the “Evil Maid”
bootloader attack to capture your full disk encryption password. USB or optical media attacks work by bypassing your OS password, or the installation of hardware key loggers that cannot be detected by antivirus applications. Though I will not get much in-depth into this, I will give you some basic suggestions to secure yourself against these type of attacks.
I strongly recommend that you carefully control the physical access to your computer, especially when traveling. Though it would be possible for someone to covertly enter your home and exploit your computer, it is not very likely. It is much more likely when traveling, so be especially cautious in hotel rooms. Even though you have locked the door, hotel doors and locks are susceptible to dozens of defeats, not to mention the fact that management, housekeeping, and maintenance all have operating keys to your room. Do not walk away from your computer to go to the restroom in a coffee shop. Do not leave it in your rental car, and do not leave it sitting in the conference room when you break for lunch. If you must leave it unattended in a hotel room or elsewhere,
Take the following physical security precautions :
o Turn off ALL interfaces including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
o Ensure your computer is full-disk encrypted and completely shut down
o Remove all external media including CDs/DVDs, SD cards, USB drives, external HDDs,/SSD's etc. and take them with you.
o Take any transmitting devices, such as a wireless mouse and its dongle, with you when you leave
o Store your computer inside of a safe or in a safe place.
All of the above precautions will give you a fighting chance. However, against a very skilled adversary, they cannot assure or guarantee your computer’s security. Again, the absolute best practice is to avoid relinquishing physical control of your devices.
OS UPDATES :
Keeping your operating system up to date is one of the most important steps in securing a computer. As software ages, security holes are discovered in it, and attacks are written to take advantage of these holes. Though software updates are occasionally released to add features and to deal with bugs, they are often written specifically to patch security holes. If your software is outdated, it is vulnerable to holes that are, in addition to everything else, well-publicized by virtue of the fact
that a patch exists to fix them.
In Qubes OS, you should check for updates on all of your TemplateVMs and dom0 on a DAILY basis. This should take no more than 30 minutes if no major updates were released.
APPLICATION UPDATES :
Just as vulnerabilities in the operating system may be exploited, security holes in your installed programs can be used as attack vectors. It is important to keep all software up to date. It is also extremely important to limit the number of installed applications on your device to an absolute minimum. Each application represents potential undiscovered security flaws. I recommend scrubbing your list of installed applications every three months and uninstalling anything you have not used during the previous three-month period.
CONCLUSION :
Securing your devices is very important and essential when it comes to working on the Internet. Hope this guide will help you with the basics of OPSEC and securing your computer.
GOOD LUCK! ?
