What not to do when you're anonymous, if you want to stay that way

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/07/31/tradecraft-for-anonymity.html

2 Likes

Moscow Rules.

4 Likes

anonymity has long since died.

the word itself is a “weekend at bernies”-ism. Dead but you keep it around for the laughs.

2 Likes

Not discussing any of your political views or hobbies or activities would defeat the purpose of posting online in the first place. I think anonymity tools should be thought of as similar to having a home security system - it won’t guarantee against a break-in but just make it more likely that ‘they’ will go after easier to identify people first.

3 Likes

Also writing style is something important to consider as analysis of one’s anonymous communications can be done to tie it to your public communications. I have no tips for dealing with this, though as far as i know typing as The Hulk apparently works :stuck_out_tongue:

4 Likes

Has Control gone potty, George?

1 Like

I have the opposite take. I think you should deliberately do many of those things. But use false information. Talk about tattoos you do not have, the weather in a city where you do not live, hobbies you do not pursue, etc. The goal being to muddy the waters so that any true disclosures you make by mistake will be contradicted by the other information you’ve put out there on purpose.

15 Likes

“Try to vary connection times”, I do not think this is a good idea. Unless you follow an alternative sleep pattern, randomizing your connection times within your regular awake time leaks far more information about your sleep pattern and time zone than connecting at the same hour every day.

7 Likes

The authorities shut down Alphabay, a very large marketplace on the darkweb, last week, in part because they were supposedly able to track the comings and goings of the site operator when he accidentally handled some routine maintenance chores using a yahoo email account.

There are probably ways to automate posts being released for you at given times?

“The more identities a man has, the more they express the person they conceal.”

4 Likes

Although if you have to find out about those hobbies and weather by googling them and reading the wikipedia entry before you post, it might not help.

Not just that, but write up dossiers for your different alter egos, and physically switch your notebooks out periodically.

Good thing thrift stores are littered with crap like woodworking series and scrapbooking*

*although that’s probably just a western thing

They’re go ahead boys, George. A bit like us when we were younger.

my approach is security through obscurity

Do not make any mistakes whatsoever

This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.