Internet communications and being clandestine

[barnetmill]

Information is absolutely needed for successful guerrilla actions. A good source is the internet.
I know the title sounds strange, but use of the internet to obtain information via Google earth, a person (People have search detection software these says), or on techniques like making an explosive can bring attention to you.
I know very little about the clandestine use of a computer or other internet devices.
Apparently all computers must have an IP address that can be traced to you if the serial number of the computer was listed with your name. Anyway to get around that?
Apparently it is also possible to trace the physical address where a computer accessed the internet. Anyway to avoid that sort of tracing?
The above also applies to cell phones.

[HamburgO]

Simplest solution: Use pre-paid phones, change them frequently. Conduct your internet business from public wireless access points, and if you want to be really sneaky, keep changing up computers. While not registered to a particular user, a computer's network interface broadcasts a unique identifier known as a MAC address, which can be traced to a location.

Working from a static physical location makes it more difficult. You can route your traffic through proxy servers that basically mask from where that traffic originates - the destination just sees it coming from the proxy server. This is basically how a tool like "Anonymizer" works. Would the information on these proxy servers hold up to a targeted investigation? I wouldn't bet my life on it...

There are other methods that are more secure (although not 100% bulletproof - even talented hackers get caught at times!) , but they become technically rather involved for the average user, and costly as well.

[Nick Randall]

Just remember, there are surveillance cameras all over the place these days. So even if you use a public terminal and be as discreet as you can be, if the authorities review video at/about the time of Internet activity, you might get snagged that way.

There are other ways you can get snagged but I won't go into them.

[ZackW]

Sometimes the best place to hide is in plain sight.

[Fulanito]

What HamburgO said is on target and a great start. Perhaps this will also helop.

-PGP and hushmail are helpful. Have multiple emails accounts. Use certain ones at home and other away. Never mix the two. If and when you use a cafe computer...or otherwise borowed computer, always remember to erase every tract. Dust your tracks before you depart.

-Encryption - You can protect your data by installing an e-mail and file encryptor. PGP Security makes encryption software that renders your data into unreadable characters unless you enter the proper password. Use encryption for important e-mail, tax information, and bank account numbers. Try IRONKEY for secure surfing, encryption and flash-trash protection against tampering.

-Surfing The Web - Browse the web with cookies disabled. Only allow cookies from web site you will revisit. Consider using a web browser other than Microsoft Internet Explorer. Explorer is a prime target of hackers. Try Mozila Firefox or Safari along with Anonymizer (covers your IP address).
o Don’t save log-on information. Always log out of Web sites by clicking "log out". Many programs (especially instant messenger programs) include automatic login features that will save your user name and password. Disable this option so no one can log in as you. This applies especially if you have typed in sensitive information.
o Erase your tracks. Web browsers such as Internet Explorer can keep a record of your passwords and every page you visit, even after you’ve closed them and logged out.
o Before you go to the web: Tools, Internet options, content, Autocomplete (disable the feature that remembers your Passwords and Forms.
o To delete your temporary Internet files and your history
When you finish your use of a public computer or someone else’s, you should delete all the temporary files, Cookies and your Internet history.

[Dorkface]

All computer network cards have MAC address which is unique to that card. Mac addresses are pretty easy to change but aren't really the traceable part of your online activity. Your IP address is. Your IP address tells most everything about whom your ISP is and where you are and such. Check this link out http://whatismyipaddress.com/

If someone were always accessing public wifi sites then the Mac address would start to play more of a roll plus there's all sorts of meta data that is transmitted.

Another thing you can do is to throw all sorts of data out there to create noise. Firefox has an add on called Track Me Not that submits searches to all of the most popular search engines, like google, and is fed off of RSS feeds. I put all sorts of RSS feeds from all over to get a good cross section of terms. Don't forget to put in ones from things you are interested in otherwise things like searches on guns would stand out like a sore thumb lol.

The question is "Just how far down the rabbit hole do you wanna go?" lol.

[OdieWon]

Well it sounds like a pain in the a@@ to stay anonymous. Which is exactly what I would expect. I would say the most effective thing would be to use everyone's computer but your own to do whatever you need to be clandestine about, and never use the same computer twice. Easier said than done. One could conceivably use the same laptop as long as it was never found by the investigating group. The best they could do would be to locate the city and locations that you were using, correct?

We should really address the question of what does one DO when he/she wants to learn (for educational purposes only) something that he can't learn in person from someone he knows, but that would be questionable to search for openly?

For the same reason why many threads are closed, because this website has NOTHING to do with questionable actions.

Say I have "X" skill, and you have "H" skill, and we want to swap skill sets. Perhaps we could set up some way to connect with other WT members for such purposes, as sharing cigars, whiskey, and skill sets that aren't necessarily worthy of a full class curriculum?

[Nick Randall]

It doesn't even seem to me these days that there are a whole lot of "Internet cafes." Not like there once was...

[NoBucks]

It doesn't even seem to me these days that there are a whole lot of "Internet cafes." Not like there once was...

Yes, but that's because every restaurant, coffee shop, even mall food courts, have free WiFi now. Finding a public internet connection is not a problem anymore. You can even park down the street from the Subway or TB without even having to go into the parking lot, and use their free connection.

Overseas internet cafes are still numerous, or, at least, when I was in India a couple of years ago, only expensive hotels had WiFi. Otherwise, you had to go to internet cafes and use their machines and pay by the minute.

[Dorkface]

It doesn't even seem to me these days that there are a whole lot of "Internet cafes." Not like there once was...

True but there are a staggering number of stores/shops, hotels, motels and so on that offer free wifi