Perfect OpSEC - Become Invisible Online

This series is for educational purposes only. To get back to top-level table click here.

Internet Connection

You're going to need to connect to the internet, there's a lot we do to make our traffic anonymous - most of that work has the goal of protecting this first hop. The first jump from your network to whatever is where you're exposed the most. If you intend to be completely invisible you need this source internet network to not be linked to you in any way. Accomplishing this will heavily depend on your location and environment, but let's discuss what not to do.

Home Network

If any organization in the world knows where you live (someone absolutely does) or if you've paid your ISP with fiat linked to you (you almost certainly have) then don't use your home network. If you do - know that if your next hop, likely a VPN, is compromised you're done for.

Neighbor's Wifi You Hacked

If you can't use your own network, hacking your neighbors is a close second best option. But it doesn't take much calculous when the feds knock on your neighbor's door to know that the elderly couple living there didn't breach the Kremlin's personal pornhub mirror. They'll start looking into all the houses within radio range pretty quickly.

Public Open Wifi

A logical next step is to venture outside your basement, this what I think the current best solution is. However you need to take some careful steps here, too. Make sure there's no cameras on you. It would also be ideal if no camera's could see you in transit to this location. In today's world this is nearly impossible, so if you're really serious about this have an alibi that logical for if you're going to this place everyday. Also beware of MITM attacks on this network - enforcing HTTPS at a firewall level and using a VPN will suffice here, which you should be doing regardless. Also mind how you look. If you're sitting in a cafe and everyone can see your leet haxz0r colorful terminal normal people are going to be suspicious. Heck, even if someone see you writing some code in public they're going to be suspicious. And if you're actually dressed like the hackers in a movie you're an idiot, obviously.