Silk Road forums

Discussion => Security => Topic started by: philo-juice on November 08, 2012, 01:46 pm

Title: How can I completely wipe off any Tor activity from my computer?
Post by: philo-juice on November 08, 2012, 01:46 pm
Hi,

If I wanted to completely wipe off any Tor-based activity from my computer how would I do this? If the police were to raid my home and take my computer (I dont have any external drivers or the like for maximum security, I am just an occasional buyer for personal use) what precautions should I take? I believe just removing the tor program wouldn't be enough.

Any tips for the scenario for a computer that would get confiscated?

Many thanks!
Title: Re: How can I completely wipe off any Tor activity from my computer?
Post by: thecrackhead on November 08, 2012, 01:59 pm
I'm not an expert but in your case I think you don't have to worry as long as you don't keep any sensitive data on your computer.

By sensitive data I mean username and password on silk road, transactions history and stuff that could incriminate you.

There is one more thing you should be aware of...

Content that is inadvertently saved to your harddisk comes in two flavors
1. Content that is saved to your SWAP space.
2. Content that is saved by applications running on your computer, including your operating
system.
The surest way to prevent content from writing to your SWAP space is to disable your SWAP
space altogether. This may result in your computer running a bit slower than normal, and may
mean that you cannot use ram intensive games and applications during the time your SWAP is
disabled.
Therefore, if you use this method, simply turn back on the SWAP when you want to use those
ram intensive applications. Also, you may choose not to take this step.
Here is how to disable your swap space if you are using Windows 7:
1. From Control Panel, go to "System and Security".
2. Click on "System", and then choose "Advanced system settings" in the left-most menu.
3. Under the "Advanced" tab, under "Performance", click "Settings".
4. Under this "Advanced" tab, under "Virtual Memory", click "Change"
5. Uncheck "Automatically manage paging file sizes for all drives"
6. Select "No paging file"
7. Save, reboot, and follow these same first 5 steps to confirm that "No paging file" is still selected. This
means that you have successfully disabled your swap. This means that *nothing* from RAM will be
inadvertently saved to your harddrive.
To resume using SWAP again, simply click "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives." You can
switch between these two modes as you desire.
Generally speaking, your computer will run fine without a swap file, provided you have enough RAM.

P.S. if you do not save anything on your computer that could be traced to SR and SWAP is not doing it either I personally don't see what evidence police could get from your PC. I might be wrong tho wait for other replies and see what other people are saying,
Title: Re: How can I completely wipe off any Tor activity from my computer?
Post by: s33k3r0069 on November 08, 2012, 06:46 pm
Some good advice about about the page file as well as reformatting your hard drive as the only true way to remove data from your pc. 

Reformatting requires some knowledge of how to do it and also make sure you have all the drivers for your hardware ready to reinstall after you have reformatted the drive.

I personally have TOR and my pgp program located on a removable flash drive, so when I'm done looking at the site, ordering (only done 2), or browsing the forums I remove the usb drive and put it in a safe place.  It would also be easily destroyed if necessary. 
Title: Re: How can I completely wipe off any Tor activity from my computer?
Post by: wretched on November 09, 2012, 12:42 am
How can I completely wipe off any Tor activity from my computer?

THERMITE