COMPUTERS DO NOT MAKE YOU ANONYMOUS! YOU CAN BE ARRESTED! Protect yourself

[White Israelite]

OK guys, I want to cover this since I work as a network administrator for a webhosting company, a lot of people here post like it's no biggy and probably don't take into account how networking, routing, packets, and all that good stuff works.

First of all, as you may know, government is getting more restrictive on our rights and people are being convicted of crimes merely for speaking their opinion or being framed for something they didn't do.

You all remember the scare we had about a year or so ago when Tina Greco was spamming kiddie porn on the forums, first of all, for those of you who have little to no idea how computers work, you need to realize the legal liability of all of this.

First of all, every single post you make, every single website you visit, every chat program you use, every email you check, these are all located somewhere in the world.

Say you are accessing JTF, when you type http://www.jtf.org into your browser, the domain (JTF.org) is located on a physical server usually within a allocated area of space and broadcasted through a webserver of some sort (generally Apache)

Now then, this is how you can identify where JTF is located via the following traceroute (anyone can do this)



Tracing route to jtf.org [74.55.233.18]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     2 ms     2 ms     2 ms  192.168.3.1
  2     8 ms    10 ms    10 ms  10.17.8.1
  3    12 ms    11 ms     9 ms  ip68-1-11-17.at.at.cox.net [68.1.11.17]
  4     9 ms    14 ms    11 ms  pnscsysr01-atm1401.pn.at.cox.net [68.1.10.65]
  5    11 ms     9 ms     9 ms  ftwlcmtc04.at.at.cox.net [68.1.10.226]
  6    31 ms    26 ms    30 ms  dalsbbrj02-ae4.r2.dl.cox.net [68.1.1.234]
  7    44 ms    39 ms    35 ms  et1-1.ibr01.hstntx2.theplanet.com [70.87.253.50]

  8    33 ms    32 ms    50 ms  et3-3.ibr01.hstntx1.theplanet.com [70.87.253.153
]
  9    37 ms    42 ms    35 ms  po1.car06.hstntx1.theplanet.com [207.218.223.22]

 10    33 ms    33 ms    33 ms  12.e9.374a.static.theplanet.com [74.55.233.18]

Trace complete.

C:\Documents and Settings\******>

Now lets go through each line and I will explain whats occuring here

I am using a simple command called "tracert" which trace routes where a server is located, it's a simple command, no knowledge required.

The 1st line is me leaving my router (192.168.3.1)

Second line is me hitting the COX (my ISP) and their first NODE, usually a bunch of users in the neighborhood share one node

Third line is going through COX's datacenter in Atlanta

Fourth and fifth line are still in Atlanta and the query request is seen on COX's end that I am requesting JTF's website.

Six and seven are where COX connects me from there infrastructure to THE PLANET which is the datacenter where JTF's server is located, probably a dedicated server.

skip to the 10th line and after 10 hops, I have hit JTF's server, 33 MS which means 33 milisecond response time, about normal for broadband.

Data is traveling back and forth instantaneously between myself and JTF as I read these forums....

According to http://whois.domaintools.com/jtf.org , the IP address is located in

- Texas - Dallas - Theplanet.com Internet Services Inc

Now this could be the IP address location or the physical server location as well.


Now then, to explain IP ADDRESSES

What is an IP address? Think of an IP address like a telephone number, or a house address. The only difference is that having a persons IP address does not give you their EXACT location, you may get the state and perhaps the city at most. Every single user has an IP address.

There are two kinds of IP addresses we can cover here, private network IP's (192.168.***.***) or ISP assigned IP's. Most computers nowadays are given private network IP's and only the router is given the ISP assigned IP address, a private network IP is useless outside of that network. A router being a device that splits the connection between multiple computers.

Usually servers are given their own static or ISP assigned IP addresses.

Why is this important?

Several reasons.....


LIABILITY/CRIMINAL CHARGES

A lot of folks nowadays are using wireless routers like it's no big thing, they buy them from walmart and figure nothing of it, these are "OPEN" networks and anyone in your neighborhood can connect to them. When you sign up with your ISP, you have your name and credit card on file. Usually you are assigned a "dynamic" IP address, any website you visit, your data is logged by the ISP in the form of packet headers and the website also records your IP address.

Leaving a wireless router open is like letting any stranger walk in your home, you JUST don't do it! You don't know who is connecting to your router, you don't know what the users intent is. If you have a next door neighbor going online browsing kiddie porn or downloading piracy, your IP address which is "tied" to YOUR name are in those logs, and YOU will be held liable/criminally responsible. Secure your router with WPA, don't use WEP anymore, it's insecure. Read the manual if you don't know how or PM me if you need assistance.

I've seen way too many people with open routers and they get MPAA letters for downloading some pirated movie that they never downloaded before because they left their router, or some guy facing 10 years in prison and sex offender status, because his neighbor used his open network to look at kiddie porn.


LOGGING/TRACKING of a user

Some of you may have knowledge with computers, infact I know i'm not the only one here. Some of us are aware of methods to hide our true IP address while webbrowsing, but it's simply not enough.

I'll give you some examples.

If you've ever been to a website before, you are sending GET queries.

I'll give you an example when I visit my own website

http://www.fwbairsoft.com

When I visit the site, files are automatically loaded on my computer regardless if I want them to or not merely by going to that page. For example, images are loaded, a cookie is loaded that tells that webserver information on what webbrowser, operating system, and my IP address is, and more.

Here is an example of the log

Host: 98.174.***.*** 
 /
 Http Code: 200 Date: Mar 04 20:39:27 Http Version: HTTP/1.1 Size in Bytes: 7644
 Referer: -
 Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; Media Center PC 4.0; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648; InfoPath.1)
 
 
 
 
 
 /includes/tiny_mce/tiny_mce.js
 Http Code: 200 Date: Mar 04 20:39:27 Http Version: HTTP/1.1 Size in Bytes: 101393
 Referer: http://fwbairsoft.com/
 Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; Media Center PC 4.0; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648; InfoPath.1)
 
 
 
 
 
 /includes/tiny_mce/themes/default/editor_template.js
 Http Code: 200 Date: Mar 04 20:39:29 Http Version: HTTP/1.1 Size in Bytes: 9082
 Referer: http://fwbairsoft.com/
 Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; Media Center PC 4.0; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648; InfoPath.1)
 
 
 
 
 
 /includes/tiny_mce/langs/english.js
 Http Code: 200 Date: Mar 04 20:39:29 Http Version: HTTP/1.1 Size in Bytes: 2175
 Referer: http://fwbairsoft.com/
 Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; Media Center PC 4.0; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648; InfoPath.1)
 
 
 
 
 
 /themes/Milo/style/editor.css
 Http Code: 200 Date: Mar 04 20:39:30 Http Version: HTTP/1.1 Size in Bytes: 2122
 Referer: http://fwbairsoft.com/
 Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; Media Center PC 4.0; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648; InfoPath.1)
 
 
 
 
 
 /themes/Milo/style/style.css
 Http Code: 200 Date: Mar 04 20:39:30 Http Version: HTTP/1.1 Size in Bytes: 2778
 Referer: http://fwbairsoft.com/
 Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; Media Center PC 4.0; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648; InfoPath.1)
 


Now as you can see, my IP address is censored in the post but you can see where I requested information, it identifies I am using Microsoft Internet Explorer, my version of Windows (XP) and a few other things. This is common on any website you access as you are using "HTTP", so you are engaging with a connection to another server and your ISP is sending requests to you and your sending requests to them to pull that site, all that data is forwarded over multiple nodes to get to your location hence how the internet works (made up of numerous connections).


WRONGLY ACCUSED

Here is where a huge liability comes into play, now that you understand a little bit about how IP addresses/internet works, lets see how it can be used against users for the wrong posts.

I've seen a few posts here lately that shouldn't have been made such as users making death threats or advocating violence which could hold them liable against government for civil or criminal charges. Do not assume you are safe behind a computer screen.

I'll give you an example, remember how those logs show how anyone accessing that website, their IP is logged?

Much like JTF, your IP is logged in a apache server, no biggy right? Well, here's another issue.

3rd party images.

You guys remember when Tina Greco spammed kiddie porn on the forums? Technically when you enter a image tag, your putting in

As you can see, you are connecting as a proxy to yourself but the software is broadcasting and acting as a node between other users, almost a separate network of it's own. Your rerouting your own traffic and all traffic is encrypted between all users so no one knows who is browsing what/etc. The packet headers aren't identifiable by the ISP because all they see is the user connected to the I2P network.

TOR does the same thing.

http://www.i2p2.de

This explains more how I2P works.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I2P

http://www.i2p2.de/how.html

http://www.i2p2.de/techintro.html

There are numerous reasons people are using this program, some for good reasons, some for bad reasons. Good example is that many people in China use this software because China blocks any websites that have to do with human rights or voice chat programs or any site they don't approve of.

Europe bans all Neo Nazi websites.

The US has not yet banned any websites, but if things get worse under the marxist dictatorship under this country, this is your link to the outside world.


Unfortunately, running I2P2 does not make you 100 percent anonymous. I2P2 only covers the HTTP link, so if your making a purchase with a credit card through a SSL encrypted website such as HTTPS, your true IP address is shown. Also any programs you would use that require HTTPS perhaps email or a chat program, your IP is exposed unless I2P releases a SOCKS proxy and a HTTPS proxy.

There are also other security issues, if you have your cookies enabled to accept from third party or the site, there are sometimes tracking cookies which identify sites your going to and coming from. Javascript and Java can be exploited too, but to access JTF, you don't need Java enabled.

Other applications can identify you as well such as Flash or live audio streams.

This does boost you anonymous activity however and is completely legal.

ENCRYPTION OF YOUR DATA/HARDDRIVE

Don't believe for a second that your data is safe. Guards at the border can now confiscate your laptop if your leaving the country, laptops are stolen, and sensitive material is lost all the time.

I recommend checking out Truecrypt. I use this to encrypt all my thumbdrives and my harddrive.

http://www.truecrypt.org/

Truecrypt is wonderful that it provides advanced encryption and hidden partitions (a partition would be for example your C drive which is a virtual partition of a physical harddrive). Your able to encrypt an entire physical drive or a partition.

TrueCrypt is a software application used for real-time on-the-fly encryption. It can create a virtual encrypted disk within a file or a device-hosted encrypted volume on either an individual partition or an entire storage device. It supports Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux and encrypted volumes can be made portable. The version for Windows Vista or XP can encrypt the boot partition or entire boot drive and has the ability to create and run a hidden encrypted operating system whose existence is deniable. TrueCrypt is distributed under the TrueCrypt Collective License.

Anytime I encrypt my system, I use two encryption methods and I always use Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) which is military standard encryption.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Encryption_Standard

Generally I encrypt an entire harddrive or thumb drive but I don't post the data within the harddrive, I also encrypt a container that requires a key file and password within the already encrypted partition. Law Enforcement and even Government are having a difficult time dealing with this, while it's possible to retrieve a set of files, the files are full of bogus data and are impossible to use. While that doesn't mean I encourage illegal activity with it, that gives you an idea how difficult it is for someone to steal information from your computer.

Unfortunately, there is a weak point to encryption. The method to defeating encryption is by removing the physical memory (RAM) from the machine and doing a memory dump which sometimes can recover the key used for the encryption or any data that was dumped before the last reboot. Memory slowly removes any data intact.

I use truecrypt for customer data as well.

WHEN YOU DELETE A FILE, IT IS STILL THERE

Contrary to popular belief, you may think when you delete a file that it is gone. It isn't. If your on JTF, then you may have cleared your temporary files, but the HTML pages are still on your system and can be recovered. Any pictures or media can also be recovered. I tested this method using EnCase (forensics tool) to recover data from a formatted harddrive, I was able to retrieve full pictures and executables intact. Some files were slightly corrupt but enough fragments none the less.

Generally in the case that forensic analysis is done on a harddrive by law enforcement or a private company, data intact is easily retrieved, your little windows password won't protect you.

Generally there are 2 methods that are used, EnCase where a harddrive is connected and a clone/copy or mirror is made of the harddrive, the original drive is put in evidence if it's a criminal case. The mirror is analyzed and fragments of data are infact recoverable.

The 2nd method from a physically damaged harddrive is Magnetic Force Microscope which recovers data from a low frequency.

A magnetic force microscope is a type of atomic force microscope (AFM). Unlike typical AFM, magnetic materials are used for the sample and tip, so that the tip-sample magnetic interactions are detected. Many kinds of magnetic interactions are measured by MFM, including magnetic dipolar interaction. MFM scanning often uses non-contact AFM (NC-AFM).

In MFM measurements, the magnetic force between the sample and tip is given by:

F = (m .∇)H
m: magnetic moment of the tip
H: magnetic stray field from the sample
Because the magnetic stray field from the sample will affect the magnetized state and vice versa, in most cases it is difficult to obtain quantitative information from the MFM measurement. To interpret the information quantitatively, the configuration of the tip must be known. With this measurement, a typical resolution of 30 nm can be achieved (Abelmann, 1998). Although resolutions as high as 10 nm are attainable (Nanoscan AG, February 2008).

A potential method of increasing the resolution would involve using an electromagnet on the tip instead of a permanent magnet. Enabling the magnetic tip only when placed over the pixel being sampled could increase the resolution.


Usually deleting your data is a good idea especially if you let others use your computer. It's also important that if you buy a used computer or harddrives from ebay or someone, always wipe your harddrive with a harddrive scrubber.

I personally use Terminus 6 which has multiple wipe methods including what is known as GUTMANN method.

Gutmann method

The Gutmann method is an algorithm for securely erasing the contents of computer hard drives, such as files. Devised by Peter Gutmann and Colin Plumb, it does so by writing a series of 35 patterns over the region to be erased.

The selection of patterns assumes that the user doesn't know the encoding mechanism used by the drive, and so includes patterns designed specifically for three different types of drives. A user who knows which type of encoding the drive uses can choose only those patterns intended for their drive. A drive with a different encoding mechanism would need different patterns. Most of the patterns in the Gutmann method were designed for older MFM/RLL encoded disks. Relatively modern drives no longer use the older encoding techniques, making many of the patterns specified by Gutmann superfluous

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutmann_method

There is a myth that 35 wipes are required to remove data permanently, but that's a myth, only 1 overwrite is required. But I guess if it makes someone safer, more freedom to them.

I always wipe my temporary files and at work, we wipe all old server harddrives as we don't know the contents on them since users are not monitored and one can be held criminally liable for data on a disk if they are "aware" of it.

You can obtain Terminus 6 or any data scrubber.

http://www.e-f-w.com/content.php?cid=t6-intro

And this article explains why it's near impossible to recover any data that's been overwritten

http://sansforensics.wordpress.com/2009/01/15/overwriting-hard-drive-data/ (his last names Cohen too)

The only thing about overwritten data is that if there is a bad sector in the harddrive, that data will not be overwritten and can sometimes be recovered if the physical drive platter is moved.


Anyways, keep safe guys, I think too many people here use the internet without thinking about the liability out there.

[muman613]

Very informative... Since I work in the industry I already knew all this... I have written much of the TCP/IP stack implementation for embedded systems and have been encrypting my hard drives for many years now. I used Linux which makes it so much easier to implement a loopback device using DES or AES encryption.

[White Israelite]

Very informative... Since I work in the industry I already knew all this... I have written much of the TCP/IP stack implementation for embedded systems and have been encrypting my hard drives for many years now. I used Linux which makes it so much easier to implement a loopback device using DES or AES encryption.

I'd use linux on my laptop but unfortunately need windows on it to use outlook exchange as we're required to use it at work :-/

I used to run Fedora Core and CentOS.

I run OpenBSD or FreeBSD on my servers.

I wish more people would ask questions about this stuff because people don't even consider this stuff until it's too late. Better to be safe than sorry.

I used to do computer repair as a free lancer for people at the restaurant I used to work for, almost all the computers were heavily porn infested, and all the free porn sites are infected with browser hijackers or iframes with harmful content launched via activex, pdf trojans, or infected quicktime trojans. Some even offer fake codecs.

I remember plugging in a clients computer and our ISP disconnected us the following day because they said the computer was sending our DDoS attacks and spam. Who knows what else it was being used for. Most people just think they have a slow computer because it's old but yet it's probably infected with all kinds of garbage and malware. People have been sent to prison over this stuff.

[Abben]

very good thread can we sticky this?

[muman613]

Very informative... Since I work in the industry I already knew all this... I have written much of the TCP/IP stack implementation for embedded systems and have been encrypting my hard drives for many years now. I used Linux which makes it so much easier to implement a loopback device using DES or AES encryption.

I'd use linux on my laptop but unfortunately need windows on it to use outlook exchange as we're required to use it at work :-/

I used to run Fedora Core and CentOS.

I run OpenBSD or FreeBSD on my servers.

I wish more people would ask questions about this stuff because people don't even consider this stuff until it's too late. Better to be safe than sorry.

I used to do computer repair as a free lancer for people at the restaurant I used to work for, almost all the computers were heavily porn infested, and all the free porn sites are infected with browser hijackers or iframes with harmful content launched via activex, pdf trojans, or infected quicktime trojans. Some even offer fake codecs.

I remember plugging in a clients computer and our ISP disconnected us the following day because they said the computer was sending our DDoS attacks and spam. Who knows what else it was being used for. Most people just think they have a slow computer because it's old but yet it's probably infected with all kinds of garbage and malware. People have been sent to prison over this stuff.

Another reason I like Linux... I know what is running and should not be running... I monitor processor usage and if I see spikes in usage which shouldnt be happening I suspect that a rogue process has started. Linux puts much more control in the administrators hand... Many times I dont know what the heck windows is doing when it takes 5-10 minutes to reboot...

PS: I stickied this post... I hope that nobody complains...

[White Israelite]

Very informative... Since I work in the industry I already knew all this... I have written much of the TCP/IP stack implementation for embedded systems and have been encrypting my hard drives for many years now. I used Linux which makes it so much easier to implement a loopback device using DES or AES encryption.

I'd use linux on my laptop but unfortunately need windows on it to use outlook exchange as we're required to use it at work :-/

I used to run Fedora Core and CentOS.

I run OpenBSD or FreeBSD on my servers.

I wish more people would ask questions about this stuff because people don't even consider this stuff until it's too late. Better to be safe than sorry.

I used to do computer repair as a free lancer for people at the restaurant I used to work for, almost all the computers were heavily porn infested, and all the free porn sites are infected with browser hijackers or iframes with harmful content launched via activex, pdf trojans, or infected quicktime trojans. Some even offer fake codecs.

I remember plugging in a clients computer and our ISP disconnected us the following day because they said the computer was sending our DDoS attacks and spam. Who knows what else it was being used for. Most people just think they have a slow computer because it's old but yet it's probably infected with all kinds of garbage and malware. People have been sent to prison over this stuff.

Another reason I like Linux... I know what is running and should not be running... I monitor processor usage and if I see spikes in usage which shouldnt be happening I suspect that a rogue process has started. Linux puts much more control in the administrators hand... Many times I dont know what the heck windows is doing when it takes 5-10 minutes to reboot...

Not only that, but Windows has HORRIBLE memory leaks, I had a headache at work when MYSQL was eating up all the memory and we would have random server crashes/bog down because it would eat up all the memory. A reboot always fixed it, I would have to reboot it once a day until I fixed the virtual memory settings but still not efficient.

I've run linux servers for a year never being shut down, and I agree 100 percent with ya.

[White Israelite]

I guess it got unstickied, why not a computer subsection? That could come in use especially for people with computer problems. Computers are very important for information and what not and users who are infected could be held liable and viruses that collect personal information. Cyberterrorism is as big of a problem as legitimate terrorism.

[Chaim Ben Pesach]

No one is going to get arrested if they do not break the law. This alarmist thread will unnecessarily frighten people.

You might know computers, but I know the law. As long as our members do not say stupid things about violently overthrowing the U.S. government or other obviously illegal statements, no one will have any legal problems being involved with JTF because JTF is a law-abiding organization. The United States is not yet a Bolshevik dictatorship.

[muman613]

Abuses of 'existing laws' could leave people without any protection. I think it is best for people to be computer literate. While the law may say that we are innocent till proven guilty, or that there must be probable cause to stop or arrest a person, I believe the bar is being lowered.

What if the 'powers that be' were to consider that visiting JTF, ArutzSheva, and TorahAnyTime.com would indicate that a person may have interest in Israeli politics. Although it is not a crime it is possible that a person may end up on a list which could be monitored more closely by Net Robots which will record keystrokes and network traffic.

I have foreseen an age where computers will be used like Big Brother (from Orwells 1984) to watch the entire population. In my sci-fi scenario {which gets more and more possible each day}, the government makes a deal with MicroSoft in order to avoid prosecution for unlawful business practices so that MS embeds code to allow keystroke monitoring of Windows platforms. Couple this with a law the government promises MS that every non-MS OS is illegal {MS once claimed Linux inspires piracy} and we will have Windows on every desktop... The potential for abuse is INCREDIBLE...

I say we should remain LEGAL and still make sure our data is secure. I seldom use google because I am concerned they are keeping track of my search terms {mostly Torah related searches}. Remember that in the past the Greeks tried to outlaw Torah study... Who is to say if it is made illegal again...

[briann]

I think there are certain times when it is good to be anonymous.   And there are certain guidelines you can follow.   When I am at another individuals house, using their computer, I always use a web proxy when I go to jtf.org, not because Im doing anything illegal, but just out of respect for their computer.  I personally like  www.guardster.com , since it allows posting and removing images.

Other than that, its good to be anonymous... NOT because we are engaging in illegal activities, but because we are worried that Muslims and Nazis will track us down.

But in the future.. who knows??? maybe we will need to treat the web like the Chinese citizens treat the web... with caution and secrecy.

[briann]

Truecrypt is by far the best.   It is free, open sourced (For the paranoid types), portable, customizable and it has hidden drives (Never used it... since I really don't need plausible deniability).  I DO use it for encrypting partitions and a windows system within that partition.  I have certain files that I dont want my wife or kids to get into, and this guarantees they wont accidentally open them up.

[White Israelite]

Truecrypt is by far the best.   It is free, open sourced (For the paranoid types), portable, customizable and it has hidden drives (Never used it... since I really don't need plausible deniability).  I DO use it for encrypting partitions and a windows system within that partition.  I have certain files that I dont want my wife or kids to get into, and this guarantees they wont accidentally open them up.

I use the traveler edition of truecrypt as it doesn't leave a memory footprint, but I've learned a lot of this from reading and studying forensics books. I'd love to get involved in forensics as a career to go after true criminals. Unfortunately, people will abuse the technology for bad things, and I don't defend those people, what I fear is that the government will eventually make certain things illegal like muman has predicted.

For example, any information I have on firearms stays encrypted, not that i'm doing anything illegal, but that I fear one day, the government will make the innocent into criminals, and the criminals innocent. That is already happening however.

[GoIsraelGo!]

No one is going to get arrested if they do not break the law. This alarmist thread will unnecessarily frighten people.

You might know computers, but I know the law. As long as our members do not say stupid things about violently overthrowing the U.S. government or other obviously illegal statements, no one will have any legal problems being involved with JTF because JTF is a law-abiding organization. The United States is not yet a Bolshevik dictatorship.

I have to agree, as long as no laws are broken, we have the freedom to speak our minds. This site is know throughout the World and if anything illegal was ever done or threats were made, they would have shut down the JTF. If this site was ever shut down for no reason other than they don't like what we think and say, then they would be faced with a Mega lawsuit. Thank G-d we have not lost our First Amendment right!

[muman613]

No one is going to get arrested if they do not break the law. This alarmist thread will unnecessarily frighten people.

You might know computers, but I know the law. As long as our members do not say stupid things about violently overthrowing the U.S. government or other obviously illegal statements, no one will have any legal problems being involved with JTF because JTF is a law-abiding organization. The United States is not yet a Bolshevik dictatorship.

I have to agree, as long as no laws are broken, we have the freedom to speak our minds. This site is know throughout the World and if anything illegal was ever done or threats were made, they would have shut down the JTF. If this site was ever shut down for no reason other than they don't like what we think and say, then they would be faced with a Mega lawsuit. Thank G-d we have not lost our First Amendment right!

Thank G-d that JTF is only shut down in observance of Shabbat.

[Cato]

very good thread can we sticky this?

Perhaps a special forum, even. More use than the dating sites, in my opinion.

[SavetheWest]

Thanks for the great info....it can't hurt to follow some basic precautions.  There's always the possibility of an internet cafe in an Asian neighborhood where they don't check id to get on the computers. 

[Cato]

For those of us who live outside the USA, the situation is far from clear concerning what we can or cannot say. In Turkey, for example, JTF is regarded as a "hate site", and banned. However, even in Europe the situation is unclear. I live in the UK, where I have seen enough BNP innocents being persecuted as to make me extremely thoughtful about what I say in public. I feel obliged to moderate what I say and write so as not to fall foul of the Race Relations Act. While the Internet is probably the political battleground of the future, an essential tool in using this will be knowing how to preserve anonymity. Islamic terrorists are probably well ahead of us in this.

[White Israelite]

Thanks for the great info....it can't hurt to follow some basic precautions.  There's always the possibility of an internet cafe in an Asian neighborhood where they don't check id to get on the computers. 

Another method for being nearly 100 percent anonymous would be to get a old primestar satellite dish or a cantenna, you change out the LNBF and you can create an amplifier, get up to 10 miles worth of free wireless connections, use TOR or I2P on top of that and your completely anonymous for the most part, you can change your MAC address as well on the network adapter and it would prove rather difficult to trace you.

[SW]

Thank you for this information. I have 2 questions.

What about private messages? Can the government see them? Can we "break" the law in private messages?

How do islamic terrorists plan their terror attacks online? If every website is under observation by the government how can they still plan or talk about terror attacks?

[muman613]

Thank you for this information. I have 2 questions.

What about private messages? Can the government see them? Can we "break" the law in private messages?

How do islamic terrorists plan their terror attacks online? If every website is under observation by the government how can they still plan or talk about terror attacks?

May use encrypted communications. Have you used on-line banking? They use SSL encryption on the transactions making it very, very hard to crack the communication. It is not imposible for them to break it, but it requires a good deal of work. Encryption is based on the number of bits used in the key. The more bits in the key the harder to crack. Most systems use 128 or 256 bit encryption.

I dont think the admin or PM sections are unreadable by the government. All it takes is a subpeona to the hosting company and they can examine the raw data in the database which drives this kind of forum. Also if they are more persistant they can place a virus on the site which will download to your machine, log your keystrokes, and learn passwords and other important information.

[briann]

Thanks for the great info....it can't hurt to follow some basic precautions.  There's always the possibility of an internet cafe in an Asian neighborhood where they don't check id to get on the computers. 

Another method for being nearly 100 percent anonymous would be to get a old primestar satellite dish or a cantenna, you change out the LNBF and you can create an amplifier, get up to 10 miles worth of free wireless connections, use TOR or I2P on top of that and your completely anonymous for the most part, you can change your MAC address as well on the network adapter and it would prove rather difficult to trace you.

OK... that is the kind of anonymity that you would need if you were truly scared of the government.  By the way.... Very few people leave their wireless unencrypted anymore.

[muman613]

Thanks for the great info....it can't hurt to follow some basic precautions.  There's always the possibility of an internet cafe in an Asian neighborhood where they don't check id to get on the computers. 

Another method for being nearly 100 percent anonymous would be to get a old primestar satellite dish or a cantenna, you change out the LNBF and you can create an amplifier, get up to 10 miles worth of free wireless connections, use TOR or I2P on top of that and your completely anonymous for the most part, you can change your MAC address as well on the network adapter and it would prove rather difficult to trace you.

OK... that is the kind of anonymity that you would need if you were truly scared of the government.  By the way.... Very few people leave their wireless unencrypted anymore.

I leave mine unencrypted currently because we use it with a bunch of laptops and it is difficult to set up WAP on some machines. What I do is use my routers MAC address filter which only lets those MAC addresses use the wireless connection. Of course a crafty hacker could spoof the MAC addresses but I doubt anyone who lives in my neighborhood knows what a MAC address is.

[briann]

Thank you for this information. I have 2 questions.

What about private messages? Can the government see them? Can we "break" the law in private messages?

How do islamic terrorists plan their terror attacks online? If every website is under observation by the government how can they still plan or talk about terror attacks?

Terrorist use something called Steganography.  They take a clean picture (Which was almost always Porn), and they run it through a program... that hides encrypted data in it, then they send that picture through ordinary email.  And the receiving terrorist only needs the steganography software and the secret key to unlock the info.

Its all very easy to do... with software that is easily downloaded.

[White Israelite]

Thank you for this information. I have 2 questions.

What about private messages? Can the government see them? Can we "break" the law in private messages?

How do islamic terrorists plan their terror attacks online? If every website is under observation by the government how can they still plan or talk about terror attacks?

If a subpoena was issued, yes they could.

PM's are stored in the MYSQL database on the server, while the passwords wouldn't be crackable as their encrypted as MD5, the password can be changed from a dumped MYSQL database and all PM's could be read.

That would be an awful lot of PM's to go through however.

[briann]

Thanks for the great info....it can't hurt to follow some basic precautions.  There's always the possibility of an internet cafe in an Asian neighborhood where they don't check id to get on the computers. 

Another method for being nearly 100 percent anonymous would be to get a old primestar satellite dish or a cantenna, you change out the LNBF and you can create an amplifier, get up to 10 miles worth of free wireless connections, use TOR or I2P on top of that and your completely anonymous for the most part, you can change your MAC address as well on the network adapter and it would prove rather difficult to trace you.

OK... that is the kind of anonymity that you would need if you were truly scared of the government.  By the way.... Very few people leave their wireless unencrypted anymore.

I leave mine unencrypted currently because we use it with a bunch of laptops and it is difficult to set up WAP on some machines. What I do is use my routers MAC address filter which only lets those MAC addresses use the wireless connection. Of course a crafty hacker could spoof the MAC addresses but I doubt anyone who lives in my neighborhood knows what a MAC address is.

Yes, I see that alot, and YES, it is very easy to spoof a MAC address.  There are sniffers that can sniff out a Mac addresses of the current users, and then use them.  It has been a problem before.  And once you have 2 users with the same MAC... it can bring down a network.  

I just feel much SAFER with a completely encrypted connection.   I am always transferring documents from 1 computer to another... often wirelessly... and I love the feeling that no one can sniff this information.