PGP, TAILS, VIRTUAL BOX
So keep in mind that if you are a user of Silk Road, or any other form of activism, you never want to enter any identifying details about yourself online. Make it so that even if the NSA intercepted and decrypted, or compromised Silk Road that the only information they have against you is your username and password. How safe is that username and password? Does your password contain any identifying information? Is it the same password that you use for your personal email? Does it contain a name of somebody you know personally? Always keep all of these factors in mind.
Another step you must take, especially when communicating with other users on sites such as Silk Road is using PGP encryption. This is not always possible, such as in cases when you are logging into a website, filling out a form, logging into an email, etc.. Consider any type of information you enter into a website using plain text possibly compromised. Never put anything sensitive is any type of plain text format online. PGP comes into play because it uses a very strong method of encryption called cryptography. PGP stands for Pretty Good Privacy, and it is used for encrypting, decrypting and signing texts, e-mails, files, directories, and whole disk partitions and to increase the security of e-mail communications.
For the more technical users, it uses a serial combination of hashing, data compression, symmetric-key cryptography, and finally public-key cryptography. For the less technical users, the process of encrypting messages using PGP is as follows. You create a private key and a public key. The public key is the key you give out to people you want to send you encrypted messages. Your private key, is kept privately by you. This private key is the only key that can unlock messages that were previously locked with your public key.
If you are still confused, think about it like this. Think about a public key that can go around locking boxes that are intended for you. Anyone can lock a box that is intended for you, but you are the only one with the key to unlock the box. Either if the person who sent you a message locked a box (message) with your public key, they themselves can not unlock it. Only the person possessing the private key can unlock it. If you wish to respond to this person, you must use their public key to encrypt the message you intend to send to them. And they themselves, use their own private key to decrypt the message you sent them.
If you are still with me, I am glad I haven't lost you yet. This is called cryptography and was designed so that anybody intercepting your message could not decrypt the message without your private key. Even if you yourself, lose your private key, there is no method of key recovery. You can consider that message locked forever. So how do you use PGP?
Well before we get to that, I want to introduce you to a Live Operating System, which makes using PGP encryption and decryption very easy. A live operating system is an operating system that you can run on top of your current operating system. So for example, if you are a Windows user, you have 2 choices. You can download the live operating system, burn it to a CD or DVD and then boot your computer from that DVD or CD. This will make sure your computer run as if you have this operating system installed on your computer. However, if you remove the CD or DVD and reboot, then your computer will boot as normal. You can also use a USB drive to perform this same feature.
Secondly, you can run this live operating system in what's called a Virtual Box. The benefits of this are that you can run Windows simultaneously as you run this other operating system and you can easily switch back and forth between them without rebooting the computer. Both methods have their pros and cons. The pros of running a live CD boot, are that reduce the risk of having your computer compromised by viruses, malware and keyloggers that rely on Windows vulnerabilities to run.
If you are going to run this OS from a Virtual Box, I suggest downloading Virtual Box from Oracle. Note the https://
Oracle VM VirtualBox
Next, the live operating system I would encourage you to use is Tails. Tails can be found at the following website.
Tails - Privacy for anyone anywhere
The reason I choose Tails, is because it has many of the security features that you require to stay anonymous already installed. Some users are not happy with Tails, but it really is a great operating system loaded with security features. Many I will talk about in this series on security including PGP encryption and decryption. Make sure you download the Tails ISO file from the official Tails website and you can either load it into Virtual Box or burn it to a DVD or load it onto a USB and booting your computer from that drive.
There are plenty of tutorials on how to load Tails into Virtual Box, so I won't go into much detail other than, make sure you run Virtual Box and Tails from a USB drive or SD card. I would suggest a USB drive however for reasons I will explain later. But basically when when Virtual Box runs directly on your hard drive, it creates a virtual hard drive that is uses as a temporary hard drive while Tails is running. Once Tails is closed, this virtual drive is deleted, but it's not permanently deleted. As we know from the power of recovery tools, deleted files are easily recoverable with the right tools. I will talk about how to protect your files from data recovery tools in future posts but for now, just keep Virtual Box and Tails OFF of your hard drive, and load it either on a USB drive or SD card.
The same goes when booting your computer directly into Tails from a DVD or USB stick. Your hard drive will be used to store files used by Tails, so make sure any files that are saved or accessed using Tails are done from a USB stick or SD card, otherwise they will be recoverable. This is why I prefer using a Virtual Box and running both the Virtual Box and Tails inside of it, off of a USB stick. Keep as much as possible off of your actual hard drive. It is possible to shred files beyond recovery, but it's much easier to do this on a 16gb flash drive, then it is a 1 TB hard drive.
Next post we will get back on topic and start learning how to use PGP. The reason I have to take a detour to using Tails is because we will be using Tails for many of the features from here on out, including PGP.
PGP CONTINUED
Ok, so by now I am assuming you have Tails running. Let's learn how to use PGP within Tails. First thing you are going to want to do is create your own personal key, which consists of your public key that you can give out to people or post in your profiles online. As mentioned before, this is the key people use to encrypt messages to send to you. Your personal key also consists of your private key which you can use to decrypt messages that are encrypted using your PGP public key.
If you look up to the top right area, you will see a list of icons, and one o them looks like a clipboard. You need to click on that clipboard and click Manage Keys
Next click File -> New
Select PGP Key and click Continue
Fill out your full name (I suggest you use your online name, not your real name)
Optionally fill out an email and a comment as well.
Next, click Advanced Key Options.
Make sure Encryption type is set to RSA and set key strength to 4096.
Once you have done this, click Create and it will generate your key.
Once you have done this, you can view your personal key by clicking the tab My Personal Keys. You have now created your personal key! To find your PGP public key, you right click on your personal key and click Copy and it will copy your PGP public key to your clipboard, in which you can paste anywhere you wish. A PGP public key will look something like this.
-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----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=Az2N
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Next, you are going to want to save the private key on a secondary USB drive or SD card. If you are running Tails from a USB drive, then you must use a separate drive to store your key on. If you are running Virtual Box, you want to right click on the icon in the bottom right corner that looks like a USB drive, and select your separate drive that you will be using to store your keys on. Again, never store your private keys on your hard drive, keep them OFF your computer.
To save your private key, you are going to right click on your personal key and click Properties. I know you probably saw where it says Export, but this is not what you want to do. Clicking export will ONLY export your public key and will not save your private key. If you lose your private key, you can never recover it even if you create another personal key using the exact same password. Each private key is unique to the time it was created and if lost, is lost forever. So once you have clicked Properties, go over to the tab Details and click Export Complete Key.
Once you have done this, you have saved your personal key for future use once you restart Tails. Remembering that Tails is not installed on your hard drive, so every time you restart Tails you lose all your keys. By saving your keys onto a USB drive or SD card, you can import your keys for use every time you restart it.
Next you are going to want to learn how to encrypt and decrypt messages using your key. Well, luckily for me, Tails has already made a tutorial on how to do this, so I will refer you to their webpage. But before I do that, I need to mention that you need to find somebody else's PGP public key, or you can practice by using your own. Needless to say, the way you import other people's keys into what's called your key ring is by loading them into a text file. You do this with the program called gedit Text Editor.
Click Applications -> Accessories -> gedit Text Editor and enter in someone's public key and hit save. Next you can return to your key program from the clipboard icon and click File -> Import and select that file. It will import that person's public key into your key ring. To add future public keys to your key ring, I suggest reopening the same file and just adding the next key below the previous key and each time you open that file it will load all keys within that file. This way you can keep all the PGP public keys together in one file and save it on your SD card or USB drive for future use.
Finally you can use the following 2 pages to learn how to encrypt and decrypt messages using PGP.
https://tails.boum.org/doc/encryption_and_privacy/gpgapplet/public-key_cryptography/index.en.html
https://tails.boum.org/doc/encryption_and_privacy/gpgapplet/decrypt_verify/index.en.html
Until next time. Have fun with your new found ability to communicate in PGP!
So keep in mind that if you are a user of Silk Road, or any other form of activism, you never want to enter any identifying details about yourself online. Make it so that even if the NSA intercepted and decrypted, or compromised Silk Road that the only information they have against you is your username and password. How safe is that username and password? Does your password contain any identifying information? Is it the same password that you use for your personal email? Does it contain a name of somebody you know personally? Always keep all of these factors in mind.
Another step you must take, especially when communicating with other users on sites such as Silk Road is using PGP encryption. This is not always possible, such as in cases when you are logging into a website, filling out a form, logging into an email, etc.. Consider any type of information you enter into a website using plain text possibly compromised. Never put anything sensitive is any type of plain text format online. PGP comes into play because it uses a very strong method of encryption called cryptography. PGP stands for Pretty Good Privacy, and it is used for encrypting, decrypting and signing texts, e-mails, files, directories, and whole disk partitions and to increase the security of e-mail communications.
For the more technical users, it uses a serial combination of hashing, data compression, symmetric-key cryptography, and finally public-key cryptography. For the less technical users, the process of encrypting messages using PGP is as follows. You create a private key and a public key. The public key is the key you give out to people you want to send you encrypted messages. Your private key, is kept privately by you. This private key is the only key that can unlock messages that were previously locked with your public key.
If you are still confused, think about it like this. Think about a public key that can go around locking boxes that are intended for you. Anyone can lock a box that is intended for you, but you are the only one with the key to unlock the box. Either if the person who sent you a message locked a box (message) with your public key, they themselves can not unlock it. Only the person possessing the private key can unlock it. If you wish to respond to this person, you must use their public key to encrypt the message you intend to send to them. And they themselves, use their own private key to decrypt the message you sent them.
If you are still with me, I am glad I haven't lost you yet. This is called cryptography and was designed so that anybody intercepting your message could not decrypt the message without your private key. Even if you yourself, lose your private key, there is no method of key recovery. You can consider that message locked forever. So how do you use PGP?
Well before we get to that, I want to introduce you to a Live Operating System, which makes using PGP encryption and decryption very easy. A live operating system is an operating system that you can run on top of your current operating system. So for example, if you are a Windows user, you have 2 choices. You can download the live operating system, burn it to a CD or DVD and then boot your computer from that DVD or CD. This will make sure your computer run as if you have this operating system installed on your computer. However, if you remove the CD or DVD and reboot, then your computer will boot as normal. You can also use a USB drive to perform this same feature.
Secondly, you can run this live operating system in what's called a Virtual Box. The benefits of this are that you can run Windows simultaneously as you run this other operating system and you can easily switch back and forth between them without rebooting the computer. Both methods have their pros and cons. The pros of running a live CD boot, are that reduce the risk of having your computer compromised by viruses, malware and keyloggers that rely on Windows vulnerabilities to run.
If you are going to run this OS from a Virtual Box, I suggest downloading Virtual Box from Oracle. Note the https://
Oracle VM VirtualBox
Next, the live operating system I would encourage you to use is Tails. Tails can be found at the following website.
Tails - Privacy for anyone anywhere
The reason I choose Tails, is because it has many of the security features that you require to stay anonymous already installed. Some users are not happy with Tails, but it really is a great operating system loaded with security features. Many I will talk about in this series on security including PGP encryption and decryption. Make sure you download the Tails ISO file from the official Tails website and you can either load it into Virtual Box or burn it to a DVD or load it onto a USB and booting your computer from that drive.
There are plenty of tutorials on how to load Tails into Virtual Box, so I won't go into much detail other than, make sure you run Virtual Box and Tails from a USB drive or SD card. I would suggest a USB drive however for reasons I will explain later. But basically when when Virtual Box runs directly on your hard drive, it creates a virtual hard drive that is uses as a temporary hard drive while Tails is running. Once Tails is closed, this virtual drive is deleted, but it's not permanently deleted. As we know from the power of recovery tools, deleted files are easily recoverable with the right tools. I will talk about how to protect your files from data recovery tools in future posts but for now, just keep Virtual Box and Tails OFF of your hard drive, and load it either on a USB drive or SD card.
The same goes when booting your computer directly into Tails from a DVD or USB stick. Your hard drive will be used to store files used by Tails, so make sure any files that are saved or accessed using Tails are done from a USB stick or SD card, otherwise they will be recoverable. This is why I prefer using a Virtual Box and running both the Virtual Box and Tails inside of it, off of a USB stick. Keep as much as possible off of your actual hard drive. It is possible to shred files beyond recovery, but it's much easier to do this on a 16gb flash drive, then it is a 1 TB hard drive.
Next post we will get back on topic and start learning how to use PGP. The reason I have to take a detour to using Tails is because we will be using Tails for many of the features from here on out, including PGP.
PGP CONTINUED
Ok, so by now I am assuming you have Tails running. Let's learn how to use PGP within Tails. First thing you are going to want to do is create your own personal key, which consists of your public key that you can give out to people or post in your profiles online. As mentioned before, this is the key people use to encrypt messages to send to you. Your personal key also consists of your private key which you can use to decrypt messages that are encrypted using your PGP public key.
If you look up to the top right area, you will see a list of icons, and one o them looks like a clipboard. You need to click on that clipboard and click Manage Keys
Next click File -> New
Select PGP Key and click Continue
Fill out your full name (I suggest you use your online name, not your real name)
Optionally fill out an email and a comment as well.
Next, click Advanced Key Options.
Make sure Encryption type is set to RSA and set key strength to 4096.
Once you have done this, click Create and it will generate your key.
Once you have done this, you can view your personal key by clicking the tab My Personal Keys. You have now created your personal key! To find your PGP public key, you right click on your personal key and click Copy and it will copy your PGP public key to your clipboard, in which you can paste anywhere you wish. A PGP public key will look something like this.
-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
mQINBFLLWDcBEADEzn3mnLsezUDDAS5Q0lm1f6JdkI534WPuRlAN8pnuQsCSwUQU
hPEAgNCUNhxN4yCJ1mDt9xpXpX8QzsMIcofCHeE9TMLAnHzbmXLLi+D8sPZpLpDN
6jEIFvmBD4dvp5adimvRl8Ce49RpO345VUz8Ac0qLSmsv2u+kQviDQXZkrrxXHnA
IalvgDopXTISa9Sh7J3HHYYQazOZt9mfAjjuuRdaOqmAAtEe9dl43nrx+nSd/fqH
13XvMKhqJhIoJ02CBFfRBm86vtx5yiXqHZX438M9kbASqU0A2jAfRd+IZG5Z9gCI
W6FTror+F4i+bEdAuGTG1XFsQSgjKTIG0vgYiTJ93C2MZxrLvNnJp0g2zD0URyk8
Y2IdyCDfIL10W9gNMqLmjD0z/f/os66wTJkflSGaU9ZsrKHUKFN5OSfOZtNqktWn
fCpY4bigkJ8U/5C8mtr9ZE3Tv+RV4rPY0hAOtZucnhlRmYKVFNjvbS0MjqA1188c
wzBNG0XcpCNtmM5UsSvXwnDoUaEMXe50Hikxdk3d+CJzqYnor72g/WmIDROCiXl6
2D9rJ2JuLpl9bQLM+KCbXJf3kUSvzszZGXL/AwmynvqlruaXqr5975sCdfqXVexx
1sxsLofOzE01xSDEJRWwHQPlxTKPZFnXD709Xumjdinjv1w4onLk04Z96wARAQAB
tC5Kb2xseSBSb2dlciAoVGhleSB3b3VsZCBsaXZlIGFuZCBkaWUgdW5kZXIgaXQp
iQI3BBMBCgAhBQJSy1g3AhsDBQsJCAcDBRUKCQgLBRYCAwEAAh4BAheAAAoJEPuh
6tSg81nyzNsP/2ayrAz4InCK/ZnyRnnsjSHIXMv7t2uDTbYomA/0B6v/S6wHMNZX
G6+sYg41mfMuZEimgavNb0Uc2r6mI7UyWy5lp1Gd/D+all81X7bm5EBpvl1isPgJ
EqjehEdh9FQjrTiRIJafM1m254hIAaZ1RvAphI0tM2lpudk+tNKq+ivV8PpsN9TP
0mg5ZAu1lIKtG9k5vS9HAQ0grJ01TFMEjlifrf7eRyJ1+dmRJ+Xtoy2js8UwS+wM
RrIi3G39P2BfEZFQka3EmQ2JgN4pDWFoI0hODGhTba8Z0XSnVtabOTi1TOWIFmFu
yqA9bNtuOt3KhIC/O+mEATRsc/VPbTY+80kf45LwlDBfKO3PcOXSOG7ygibzEqXn
Ms/Rfe1kNEBeR9Wx2NMJSdxypqGij17CLJwNLC3KypTIQrhzy3YAndeDG4TadW2P
v/FJxhz+MX+s+9VeX2fGC0Fsfp8JbeWMAznp8Rf6O/tzEYW+pbLoLRPdi/DvFBZV
yWGPspzt3Qspm+BHbeW9iFjvCyvP2/DrKmQM7ABuRh/TMZR7uQ5na11L8rf3nzrS
Al/lSul42xLzxG+h9mDixXd1Vh6rVGMbCjL7wO25TUneFo13U5J+klo1blQWV/DL
FZUwhh2utWNCMCtcdRW0HYa14Wdyy7H68WmsJqBWUsbyD9PZ2gSawBy7uQINBFLL
WDcBEACg3IOme+sg0OZN349UYRr9/O6uW2vC5x9/azZrFNSNYh/LFJTt3XI/FsjN
gCj6NxRxbfdyLjL1gxSlJyFtclkFGS0lC0GIz7lINvemkewjde/bHXChz2IIaIli
L2A6Z6w3fP4jlQCw8NoGGJ360WMkZVTDDakYYkb50BrZSx4TVLjrHfFuLMXTE255
gQrId02jYO6240EDIhHITuiSwUQvHtXlOrHSohN83TD1I4H7iH/FLae9gYh4C/Ix
VLkzLUqvpf72Q/xogCZAJl4WEMmWD6dXufvyvhCXQnbjiLuAdQas0ef/t652LPw/
vJFDSDmguw9PXWpv3vFOe13UNU//+nw3kIGxaVWGvazXk8IFiDv9USgEGjcNn4zo
8HQlQrYz9/gyI3XojGV6L8iecWpHSweqR3NxKJmWKWEG1wwnWPL8M+z6OwEvRdxV
spy+eG0Zs+6igbw3tk6gJ4cq5ehdlmD6py27AhRhlj7uLlZxmK3uFV19QjtX/Dyt
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-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Next, you are going to want to save the private key on a secondary USB drive or SD card. If you are running Tails from a USB drive, then you must use a separate drive to store your key on. If you are running Virtual Box, you want to right click on the icon in the bottom right corner that looks like a USB drive, and select your separate drive that you will be using to store your keys on. Again, never store your private keys on your hard drive, keep them OFF your computer.
To save your private key, you are going to right click on your personal key and click Properties. I know you probably saw where it says Export, but this is not what you want to do. Clicking export will ONLY export your public key and will not save your private key. If you lose your private key, you can never recover it even if you create another personal key using the exact same password. Each private key is unique to the time it was created and if lost, is lost forever. So once you have clicked Properties, go over to the tab Details and click Export Complete Key.
Once you have done this, you have saved your personal key for future use once you restart Tails. Remembering that Tails is not installed on your hard drive, so every time you restart Tails you lose all your keys. By saving your keys onto a USB drive or SD card, you can import your keys for use every time you restart it.
Next you are going to want to learn how to encrypt and decrypt messages using your key. Well, luckily for me, Tails has already made a tutorial on how to do this, so I will refer you to their webpage. But before I do that, I need to mention that you need to find somebody else's PGP public key, or you can practice by using your own. Needless to say, the way you import other people's keys into what's called your key ring is by loading them into a text file. You do this with the program called gedit Text Editor.
Click Applications -> Accessories -> gedit Text Editor and enter in someone's public key and hit save. Next you can return to your key program from the clipboard icon and click File -> Import and select that file. It will import that person's public key into your key ring. To add future public keys to your key ring, I suggest reopening the same file and just adding the next key below the previous key and each time you open that file it will load all keys within that file. This way you can keep all the PGP public keys together in one file and save it on your SD card or USB drive for future use.
Finally you can use the following 2 pages to learn how to encrypt and decrypt messages using PGP.
https://tails.boum.org/doc/encryption_and_privacy/gpgapplet/public-key_cryptography/index.en.html
https://tails.boum.org/doc/encryption_and_privacy/gpgapplet/decrypt_verify/index.en.html
Until next time. Have fun with your new found ability to communicate in PGP!
