Silk Road forums
Discussion => Security => Topic started by: NoDough on September 19, 2013, 09:36 am
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Sometimes you need clearnet to pass through some things, examples btc-exchanges(torflagged pages). Ive red that these prep simcards are pretty anonymous. I guess LE can pinpoint my location when used at home so i must use it "outside"?
Any other things i should think about when using these cards?
Pretty new to this so sorry for newb questions.
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Any cell communications device, modem or phone or whatever, has a unique number associated with it. If the modem you use can be traced to you from your purchase, then it doesn't matter whether the SIM card is anonymous, you can still be tracked. If the modem was purchased with cash and you provided no name or contact info, and the same with the SIM, then you should be okay.
As long as none of the components can be traced back to you (modem, SIM) its a more anonymous solution than a regular VPN, although its a pain to have to use it away from your regular locales.
What's potentially worse about it (than a VPN) is that if you are ever arrested and it is confiscated, any online activities you performed while using it can be discovered. That's the thing people always forget about burners and the like: if you are arrested with it on you, its no longer anonymous. Kind of obvious but I figured I'd point it out anyway.
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Ah nice, no bought it with cash so thats fine.
So its really important to be out of home? But i can use my regular "shadycomputer"?
Thanks for really good info!
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Well, if you live in an apartment you could probably use it at home as there is no easy way for the signal to be triangulated to an exact apartment. But for a single-family type dwelling they can pretty accurately pinpoint where the signal is coming from.
As for your "shadycomputer", I'm not sure exactly what you mean by that, but if you are using Tor and/or a VPN, these help to hide your actual IP address/location. Of course remember that there are javascript browser hacks that can work around your hidden IP so its best to shut that off for activity you don't want traced back to you at a later date. Tor is generally better than a VPN for privacy, and not all VPNs are created equal. I'd go for one located in Scandinavia or Germany that takes bitcoin (although the fact that you connect directly to the VPN provider kind of removes any anonymity you might want between you and the VPN provider, which is one reason Tor is better).
I haven't used those services where you basically rent a portion of a server that runs an OS like linux that you can install OpenVPN on and then you've basically created your own VPN service, but they sound pretty damn good.
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FBI reprogrammed some guy's USB 3G modem from OTA (over the air updates) and set it to send them a copy of everything he was doing, and ping surrounding towers at all times to give away his location. They are firmware blackboxes you have no access to.