The state of being anonymous. Meaning: not identified by name and not having outstanding, individual, or unusual features that enable identification.
69
votes
12answers
15k views
Why is it difficult to catch “Anonymous” or “Lulzsec” (groups)?
I'm not security literate, and if I was, I probably wouldn't be asking this question. As a regular tech news follower, I'm really surprised by the outrage of Anonymous (hacker group), but as a ...
38
votes
4answers
5k views
How much can I trust Tor?
Greetings.
How much can I depend on Tor for anonymity? Is it completely secure? My usage is limited to accessing Twitter and Wordpress.
I am a political activist from India and I do not enjoy the ...
18
votes
3answers
3k views
How does “check.torproject.org.” know if you're using TOR?
I'm looking at the results from the following URL and would like to know how does the TOR website "know" that TOR is being used or not.
...
15
votes
3answers
676 views
can I identify the origin computer for a program?
I am Developing a program in several platforms and languages, But I don't want anybody to discover the origin computer where the program was developed, is there any way that someone (especially the ...
15
votes
5answers
4k views
Does using an http proxy completely hide my real IP address?
If I obscure my IP by going through a free http proxy and visit a page, will that site's admin ever be able to find out my true IP or anything related to my true connection/info?
13
votes
6answers
1k views
How can I keep my identity anonymous as a website owner/administrator?
My question looks touchy, but I'll do my best to explain. You see, I live in country where democratic rules are quite, well, delusive.
In theory, there is freedom of speech, democratic elections and ...
13
votes
5answers
1k views
How to be completely anonymous online?
I recently saw this post on reddit: http://www.slashgeek.net/2012/06/15/how-to-be-completely-anonymous-online/
But the majority argument, both on reddit and on comments on that post seems to be that ...
11
votes
3answers
682 views
Why does one need a high level of privacy/anonymity for legal activities?
This question is sort-of spun off of a previous one.
How to counter the statement: "You don't need (strong) security if you're not doing anything illegal"?
There are a lot of great ...
11
votes
6answers
1k views
Anonymous web browser. Is it real?
Do anonymous browsers work? What principles do they use? Can I use them to test access to my web site? Can I detect if a visitor is using one? What is the different between traditional and anonymous ...
11
votes
5answers
883 views
Different strategies for online anonymity and their +/-s?
I saw this question about anonymous web browser, but I wanted to go a little bit more in depth. I prefer answers that take into account how a connection would be traced back, time it would take to ...
10
votes
8answers
4k views
How anonymous is my setup?
my friend and I are trying to make the most anonymous setup for a computer to do things across the internet without being known the location from which it came.
Our setup is as follows:
A windows ...
10
votes
7answers
796 views
How to browse the Internet safely?
What is the best way to browse the Internet safely? By safely I mean:
anonymously
having encrypted communication
Extra bonus for:
being able to do it with little or no performance impact
cheaply ...
10
votes
1answer
2k views
What are darknets, and how can they be used to provide security and anonymity in network communication?
One of the major problems with the internet is that it's difficult to stay anonymous while retaining the ability to communicate with a large number of people. While encryption can be done effectively ...
9
votes
5answers
3k views
What are the pros and cons of a VPN for privacy
Recently I have been getting more and more interested in the security (privacy and anonymity) issues of my online life. Not that I have anything to hide, or that what I do online is so interesting to ...
8
votes
4answers
345 views
Does OpenID, SAML pose a threat to Tor's anonymity? How can I protect from a compromised .exit node?
This is a thought experiment on the interaction between Tor, OpenID and one (or more) compromised nodes in the secure path. I'm focused on how to use technology in a way that adds value to a secure ...
7
votes
5answers
843 views
What do the various browser “private modes” do?
Recently there has been some disagreement as to what "private mode" means when it comes to various browsers.
Primarily I am referring to...
IE's "InPrivate Browsing"
Google Chrome's "Incognito ...
7
votes
8answers
2k views
Whats the best way to make my internet traffic anonymous?
Recently I have thought more and more about how to make my Internet traffic anonymous. Not for illegal reasons, but just to stop leaving information about me. The methods I know of to anonymize my ...
7
votes
3answers
295 views
Make online payments anonymously?
Is there a service/company which allows you to make anonymous payments online ?
This is how i want the service to work - Just like a credit/debit card. When you make the payment online, instead of ...
6
votes
6answers
546 views
Secure Internet Polling
In the United States, there has been a lot of talk about creating a secure polling system that would operate over the internet. I have also heard that Securing a poll over the Internet is impossible. ...
6
votes
6answers
844 views
How can I send emails anonymously?
How can I send email anonymously? We used to track email's IP and its location based upon the email headers, and there are many possible ways to track the email's id's which were sent by the anonymous ...
6
votes
4answers
189 views
Is it possible for a third party to sniff data off the line to an ISP and determine what the user is doing?
Can somebody hack the line between my router and service provider and monitor what I'm doing online and what sites I'm visiting?
6
votes
3answers
181 views
How to suspend a user from my website and prevent them from creating a second account?
I am an outsourcing person, not a programmer. My website is a shopping website (think eBay). My website will need a user suspension feature, in case a user violates the terms and conditions. The ...
6
votes
3answers
47 views
Patient Hashes for Compression and Security
Are there any front-running approaches to using server-generated hashes to encapsulate patient condition in a concise manner while maximizing security?
For example, a system to represent current med ...
6
votes
2answers
2k views
Private Tor networks: what are the benefits, and how would it be accomplished?
What are the benefits of someone building a private Tor network? ...One that is disconnected from the well-known network being used on the Internet at-large.
My intent is to make Tor more ...
5
votes
5answers
758 views
Is a TOR router really safer than a proxy?
If I use a tor router to browse the regular internet that it has to leave the TOR network through an exit node. Apparently the exit node has all the information from the original user it came from on ...
5
votes
4answers
4k views
Advanced techniques for detecting a proxy/getting original IP
In what manner can a website detect my original IP address, even though I'm using a proxy server? I've noticed this with a few sites. There are four proxy methods I've used:
Firefox with a proxy ...
5
votes
1answer
270 views
What level of anonymity do VPNs provide?
When I use VPN is entire Internet usage protected or only some subset of traffic? For example,
Is my IMAP email provider only going to see VPN's IP address?
Is my DNS provider only going to see ...
5
votes
1answer
183 views
How far should I go in creating anonymity?
I am in the early design stages of a system (QuestGuide) to help researchers gather information (arbitrarily complex), analyze it, annotate it, visualize it, and, ultimately, share it. There are ...
4
votes
10answers
660 views
Surfing anynomously
For work I often go to China, and there I met some dissidents I would like to help.
I need to upload some videos to an ftp server in europe.
I will connect through a public hotspot without ...
4
votes
1answer
47 views
Looking for a taxonomy of anonymization or re-identification properties
We are working with personally identifiable information that needs to be de-identified. Is there an existing hierarchy or taxonomy of different kinds of re-identification properties?
3
votes
4answers
126 views
Anonymized Votes
Background
Looking to create an anonymous voting system. The system must track whether or not a user voted on an item (public information), but only that user is ever allowed to know whether they ...
3
votes
4answers
178 views
Improving the privacy of a casual Web user
I am interested in improving the privacy available to me as a casual internet user with a default browser. I think that Tor is too slow and that the "Privacy Mode" in browsers isn't really practical. ...
3
votes
3answers
353 views
Can too much web searching be a danger to a security professional?
As a junior security professional, I spend a lot of time goggling for things such as 'wpa dictionaries', 'vulnerabilities...' , 'how to crack ...','and so on.
I sometimes feel like I am calling for ...
3
votes
1answer
466 views
SSL, SSH, OPENVPN, etc which one?
To start with I am not a security professional, in fact I am on the other end of the spectrum. In the opinion of people on this site what would you choose for secure internet browsing. I will be ...
3
votes
3answers
3k views
Understanding VPNs : How VPNs can be used for anonymization?
Previously, I asked the question Why is it difficult to catch “Anonymous” or “Lulzsec” (groups)? I understood every answer except the VPN thing. Its because I never knew what VPNs were. Any how that ...
3
votes
5answers
1k views
How to avoid leaving any local trace that I went to a website?
I want to visit a web site, but I want to ensure there is no trace left on my computer that I did so. How do I do that?
This question is not concerned with anonymity or detection on the network ...
3
votes
1answer
211 views
Tor: requesting a tor website
When you have a website that's hosted within the Tor network and one accesses this website with a Tor browser, does this person still use an exit-node ?
Or will this be an encrypted connection ...
3
votes
2answers
365 views
Circumventing Device Fingerprinting
Regarding the concept of device (browser) fingerprinting, would it be possible for the user to spoof fingerprinting data by giving random information such that your fingerprint changes after every ...
2
votes
3answers
210 views
How prevent Javascript from obtaining my location
I usually use a proxy server to browse anonymously. Now I realize that it is possible to find the location of a user using the Geolocation API. How to anonymously browse without disabling Javascript?
2
votes
8answers
1k views
How to remain 100% anonymous on the internet?
I was searching for methods or tools to remain completely anonymous on the internet. TOR came up but it is seems that it is far from perfect. Are there any 100% foolproof ways ? Or approximately 100% ...
2
votes
4answers
278 views
How to prevent private data being disclosed to unwanted audience over internet?
Everyday, in order to subscribe to certain services on the Internet we are almost forced to disclose private data even though those services don't necessarily require it.
For example, I need to ...
2
votes
1answer
60 views
Mutual Anonymity in key exchange
If Alice (sender) sends a private message embedded with public key of the Bob(recipient) through onion network, so in this key exchange, does Bob remains anonymous to Alice as Alice knows about the ...
2
votes
1answer
221 views
anonymization for scanning and hacking
What kind of anonymization can be used for scanning and exploiting? Of course there are VPNs and VPS, but thats a different story. I know some scanning can be done via TOR, but how can an exploit or ...
2
votes
2answers
235 views
What are the best practices for maintaining privacy on a non-jailbroken iOS device?
iOS, like most other mobile OSs, has the potential to leak significant chunks of personal information to 3rd-party apps and to ad and tracking networks used by those apps, which in turn also has the ...
2
votes
1answer
54 views
What devices/types of devices typically have unique associated ID numbers?
Background (not necessary to read; just what makes me ask):
Say someone's computer has either been hacked, or is running software run by $LARGE_EVIL_CORPORATION, and the hacker/$L wants to collect as ...
2
votes
1answer
315 views
Are there any anonymous OpenID providers similar to Gawker's “burner”?
Gwaker has an anonymous commenting system called Burner. It is offered as an alternative to Facebook, Twitter and Google.
What's the difference between Burner and creating a throwaway Google , ...
2
votes
2answers
2k views
Does portforwarding present a risk to anonymity?
AirVPN by default has all ports closed but allows port-forwarding. I think this is required for P2P. Is this a threat to anonymity (e.g. would the person at the other end of the P2P transmission know ...
1
vote
6answers
2k views
Possible ways to track down anonymous mail senders?
In my previous post here How can I send emails anonymously? the community framed and guided how we can send an anonymous emails through various ways which makes me thought about the following things
...
1
vote
3answers
544 views
TOR and sniffing data
If I'm not mistaken, TOR works opening a random anonymous path between two hosts using others computers that have TOR installed no?
Then... everybody can sniff the data of the others no? Just wait ...
1
vote
1answer
147 views
How was Lulzsec caught? [closed]
I saw that the leader connected to IRC without using TOR and they traced their IP address, but the identity of each member was supposed to be unknown to the others. So even if the leader was acting as ...
