Forum Thread: Being Anonymous

You can use a proxy (or a lot of proxies) to remain almost fully anonymous (since everything has its limits). A lot of proxies don't keep logs and you can use a simple program called proxychains. Master OTW wrote a tutorial on that tool (I don't have the link). Hope I helped.

Edit: Also helps not to use a proxy of the same country as you are. Use a proxy from places your country can't easily get information from. Also, for more anonymity, don't hack from home, hack from a public space that you don't usually go to, far away from your house.

Happy hacking,
Funest

While your questions would require a very long answer, I leave you this interesting video that shows how many tor deanonmization are mostly the result of epic opsec fails.

Also, you can buy VPN/VPS with bitcoins, no need for CC.
Sorry for the brevity, I will deliver more tips later on.

thank you for your answers

Funest: I know proxychains, but I have doubt about them. They can be a honeypot, I don't know who controlls them and what they logging. Thats the reason I want an own proxy (or more) or a private VPN. I agree with you that using a different network can help a lot.

Triphat: Thanks for the link. It was interesting. It is very easy to do a mistake and only one mistake can be enough to get cought. Thats why I am interested in anonymity, it is part of the game.

I dont want to buy VPN because I dont trust VPN providers. Buying VPS for BTC could be a good idea. However, if I remember correctly, once I read an article, which contained a story about a man who was able to track someone trough BTC. Can I be tracked back when I use BTC?

Also VPN or proxys would be better for programs like nmap?

Perhaps I seem to be paranoid but imo there are only a few rules in hacking.
# Trust no one
# Be paranoid

Fellow hacker,

I agree with being paranoid, but it's one of the best 'anonymous' paying methods around (between quotes because it's not really anonymous).

If you use any real information in bitcoin, you'll get caught through it, though.
Quote from the official Bitcoin website:

"Bitcoin is often perceived as an anonymous payment network. But in reality, Bitcoin is probably the most transparent payment network in the world. At the same time, Bitcoin can provide acceptable levels of privacy when used correctly. Always remember that it is your responsibility to adopt good practices in order to protect your privacy. [...]All bitcoin transactions are PUBLIC, TRACEABLE and permanently stored in the Bitcoin network."

So maybe Bitcoin might not be perfect when it comes to secrecy. But anything beats Credit Card transactions in that matter. But it's possible not to be traced. "At the same time, Bitcoin can provide acceptable levels of privacy when used correctly."

Funest

Thank you Funest,

I know BTC. However, I've never used it. There are a lot of tutorials out there but could you recommend me some good practices that help me protect privacy? So how to stay 'anonym' with BTC.

Thank you

Hedge Knight:

It's very simple, actually. Bitcoin does not require any authentication to create a wallet, you simply download a virtual wallet and get its number, so every transaction can be done via that character + number address of your wallet.

I'm not a big user of Bitcoin myself, but I can try and give a few tips.

1. If your computer is compromised by any malware, chances are your Bitcoin aren't safe.
2. When switching between wallets/devices, don't forget to back your money up, otherwise you lose it (true for most wallets, if not all).
3. The problem is that, unless you're lucky to find someone to exchange cash to bitcoin near you (look for them in LocalBitcoins), you'll need to use your credit card to get them, and credit cards can and will screw you over if given the chance.
4. The other way is to mine Bitcoin, an incredibly slow way to acquire those, but as long as you use a different username than the one you use normally and do not give personal information, you'll probably not be tracked.
5. You can also get Bitcoins by selling products or services. Also, there are some 'Bitcoin Faucets' (for example: Land of Bitcoin) that allow you to mine bitcoins easily and slowly, but it does have anonymity, since it does not require all that information.

You should check out some basic tutorials just to get the hang of the basics, though.

Edit: When buying via Cash Deposit on LocalBitcoin, according to some people (some people report that happens, but some do not) the bank teller do not ask for your ID. But I've no idea if it's true, since I don't live in the US and those people are US citizens, and maybe it's usual not to ask for any identification when making a deposit there.

If you are interested in buying Bitcoins on cash deposit, read this.

P.S.: I welcome actual Bitcoin users to add any information or correct me.

(Sorry for any English mistakes, this was long and English is not my primary language.)

Funest

Great tips, a little precisation on point 5. Faucets don't allow you to 'mine', they are giving out free money, really. Small amounts, equal to fraction of cents, but enough to make you started and interested in the business. While it's not a big loss in term of money for the faucet owner (they usually rely on free donations made by users), their goal (and also the donor's goal) are to build up a community of people that accept and exchange this new kind of money. The more people use it, the more it's worth... besides, what's the point of having some kind of money that just a few people accept ?

Also, when buying/selling, you will often be refused any kind of reversible payment (ex. CC, Paypal..) because a BTC payment is irreversible. There is no bank-call that will give you the money back. Once the money is on the wire, it's gone. Scams happen very often, but fortunately there are specialized forums, websites, reddit community that help you avoid such scams and veridied sellers that won't just ruin their business to scam you out of 50 bucks. IRL deals are best, if you can set up one. Make sure you know how to verify the transaction on equipment you own and trust.

Thanks Triphat,

I knew it was not mining like 'Bitcoin mining', I think it was just my misuse of the expression. But anyways, thank you for correcting and adding to my answer, I am not an experienced Bitcoin user like I said before.

Also, do you live in the US? Can you confirm if no documents are used to make a deposit? It's true for my country and I don't think the bank model differs much.

Keep it neat,
Funest

Thank for the answers

I found sellers on LocalBitcoin so I think I'm gonna buy some btc and use them to buy VPS and setup my own VPN. Perhaps I'll buy anonym proxies as well.

I'm still interested in the question that VPS providers (or AWS) do any logging?

bye

Nowadays, EVERYTHING is logged, unless stated otherwise.

And even when they say they are not logging, it's likely that in fact they still do. The best you can do to protect yourself is encrypt all your traffic, so at best they have only metadata (connection duration, bytes tx/rx, source, destination...) and still that can be enough for a correlation attack like explained in the vid above.

At last of course, not doing anything illegal helps a lot in not being in trouble.

Sorry for the late respond and thanks for the answers

Triphat: yeah, that correlation attack is suck

Phoenix750: your article was interesting and useful

I don't want to do any illegal. I'm just interested in hacking. Every week or month a big hack happen. People hack people just for and so on. When some of the hackers get cought (sometimes they do stupid mistakes) and arrested I wonder how would I do it. And lots of them don't get be cought and I wonder how they do it?

Being anonymous is part of the game and it is a skill that must be learnt.