Silk Road forums

Discussion => Security => Topic started by: Dontarrestme on September 21, 2012, 01:02 pm

Title: Cleaning up my tracks (Can someone give me a guide for dummies)
Post by: Dontarrestme on September 21, 2012, 01:02 pm
Hey Guys,

I have been around for a little while now (under a dif name) and was so mesmerized by what I had found here that I went a little mental with my ordering and had complete disregard for security.

I cant change the orders I have in transit or what I have already done but I can change my behavior moving forward. I want to start a clean slate and was hoping someone could post a link or a how to guide on removing any SR tracks from my PC.

My PC has very important personal documents on it so I have to be sure I dont f%^& it up.

Also, I note there are pre set up USBs for sale on silk road. Is this asking for trouble or a viable alternative for newbies like me with minimal IT knowledge??

I saw the complete how to guide and will use this if the USBs for purchase are not worth considering.

Thanks
Dontarrestme

 
Title: Re: Cleaning up my tracks (Can someone give me a guide for dummies)
Post by: BigEasy on September 21, 2012, 02:01 pm
Best and most secure bet is to backup your important files, use something like DBAN to securely erase your hard drive, re-install your operating system. Set up an encrypted drive or partition of a drive for use for silk road and use it for SR activity in the future or create your own USB drive with Liberte or Tails. Don't trust your security/life to a darknet USB that you have no idea whom produced...
Title: Re: Cleaning up my tracks (Can someone give me a guide for dummies)
Post by: painbow on September 21, 2012, 03:25 pm
Best and most secure bet is to backup your important files, use something like DBAN to securely erase your hard drive, re-install your operating system. Set up an encrypted drive or partition of a drive for use for silk road and use it for SR activity in the future or create your own USB drive with Liberte or Tails. Don't trust your security/life to a darknet USB that you have no idea whom produced...

Solid advice!  I would just go with an USB route.
Title: Re: Cleaning up my tracks (Can someone give me a guide for dummies)
Post by: AdmiralSpanky on September 21, 2012, 03:37 pm
With your current setup, delete everything that may be associated with SR from the computer, after any necessary backups of this info. Then, look around for a free - open source if possible - secure free space wiping program. These will fill the harddrive's free space with junk multiple times in order to securely wipe any leftovers from deleted files.

Not sure what OS you use, but there are multiple programs like this for all OSs.
Title: Re: Cleaning up my tracks (Can someone give me a guide for dummies)
Post by: kingpinirl on September 21, 2012, 04:26 pm
Not to criticize AdmiralSpanky; but do those cleaner programs really wipe the info out?  I would go with dban, complete wipe.  If these other programs do work, they would be a much easier solution, but I don't think they do.  Can anyone speak on this?
Title: Re: Cleaning up my tracks (Can someone give me a guide for dummies)
Post by: BigEasy on September 21, 2012, 07:10 pm
Not to criticize AdmiralSpanky; but do those cleaner programs really wipe the info out?  I would go with dban, complete wipe.  If these other programs do work, they would be a much easier solution, but I don't think they do.  Can anyone speak on this?

Not for windows, I don't use it for anything like SR and would never trust or recommend Windows for such uses. Windows keeps too many caches in too many places and wouldn't trust any software had got rid of all "evidence". 

Format and overwrite the drive then reinstall preferably with FDE.
 
Bleach bit works well on linux, srm and shred work for cli solutions.

Title: Re: Cleaning up my tracks (Can someone give me a guide for dummies)
Post by: AdmiralSpanky on September 21, 2012, 07:39 pm
DBAN is the best option, of that I have no doubt. I only recommended the free space wiper since the OP mentioned they don't want to nuke the whole computer. We still don't know what OS they're using. I've used Bleach Bit before for my linux boxes.
Title: Re: Cleaning up my tracks (Can someone give me a guide for dummies)
Post by: painbow on September 21, 2012, 08:05 pm
Not to criticize AdmiralSpanky; but do those cleaner programs really wipe the info out?  I would go with dban, complete wipe.  If these other programs do work, they would be a much easier solution, but I don't think they do.  Can anyone speak on this?

Not for windows, I don't use it for anything like SR and would never trust or recommend Windows for such uses. Windows keeps too many caches in too many places and wouldn't trust any software had got rid of all "evidence". 

Format and overwrite the drive then reinstall preferably with FDE.
 
Bleach bit works well on linux, srm and shred work for cli solutions.

So, can I just use a windows machine for normal use and use an USB with tails on the same machine for SR use?
Title: Re: Cleaning up my tracks (Can someone give me a guide for dummies)
Post by: BigEasy on September 21, 2012, 08:30 pm
Yes you can start up your computer from a secure system on your USB drive and use Tor to connect to SR.

Take a look at Liberte and Tails, search on here and read what people have to say about both. They have different pluses and minuses.

http://dee.su/liberte

https://tails.boum.org


Title: Re: Cleaning up my tracks (Can someone give me a guide for dummies)
Post by: Electroplasm on September 21, 2012, 08:45 pm
Is there a way to do this for OSX? Also, do I NEED to delete everything? This computer is also my "work station" so I don't really want to reformat.

Also, if I'm just a buyer of personal amounts, should I even be paranoid? Or should I get paranoid until I see a red flag? I've been so paranoid lately that I've been looking out the window nonstop for a few weeks to the point where I know when my neighbors go in and out.

Sorry for hijacking this thread.
Title: Re: Cleaning up my tracks (Can someone give me a guide for dummies)
Post by: catfishinmysocks on September 21, 2012, 11:21 pm
One thing I will mention is that when wiping a drive all you need to is a SINGLE pass of zero's. It isn't even theoretically possible to recover any data after that because the theoretic papers refer to drives tens of thousands times less dense.

Is there a way to do this for OSX? Also, do I NEED to delete everything? This computer is also my "work station" so I don't really want to reformat.

Also, if I'm just a buyer of personal amounts, should I even be paranoid? Or should I get paranoid until I see a red flag? I've been so paranoid lately that I've been looking out the window nonstop for a few weeks to the point where I know when my neighbors go in and out.

Sorry for hijacking this thread.

Disk utility lets you erase free space.

Paranoia is a personal thing. ;)
Title: Re: Cleaning up my tracks (Can someone give me a guide for dummies)
Post by: BigEasy on September 22, 2012, 01:29 am
Is there a way to do this for OSX? Also, do I NEED to delete everything? This computer is also my "work station" so I don't really want to reformat.

Also, if I'm just a buyer of personal amounts, should I even be paranoid? Or should I get paranoid until I see a red flag? I've been so paranoid lately that I've been looking out the window nonstop for a few weeks to the point where I know when my neighbors go in and out.

OS-X cleaning is a little easier, but in the end it all depends on how secure you want/need to be, and how paranoid you are...

There are numerous utilities that work for Mac, unfortunately I cant recommend any myself.