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How to Run a Rogue Gov Twitter Account with Anon Email Address and Burner Phone
- corndoge 10y agoThe Intercept makes less and less sense over time as they run out of sensational stories to publish. Thanks for the weird opsec tutorials, I guess.
- xgbi 10y agoIs this actually legal? I mean, these are public institutions funded by the people of the US. They should be allowed to communicate, no?
- josho 10y agoCanada went through this a few years ago with a conservative government. It wasn't that scientists were not allowed to communicate with the public, it was that they had to work through the PR department. The PR arm of the institutions would delay, filter, and even edit publications that touched on sensitive areas (eg. Anything remotely connected to climate change--like even fisheries related data). Fortunately, Canada came through this period. But we did see the closure of research stations and destruction of scientific data. So, to answer your question, many legal steps can be taken to stop, slow, of even eliminate scientific communication.
- nradov 10y agoYes it is legal for the head of the executive branch to set rules on how his underlings are allowed to communicate (except as otherwise prescribed by federal law).
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- matt4077 10y agoNone of these acts will amount to treason. That's because treason is rather strictly defined: not just in terms of the actions required (start a war against the US or aid&give comfort to the enemy). It also requires the specific motivation of "adhering to the enemy". Even the actions of Edward Snowden fall far short of this requirement. You could publish the IP address and password[0] for that Windows 95 box running the nuclear launch infrastructure without committing treason, as long as you can make a reasonable case that you did it for any other reason than to help a current "enemy" of the US. "Enemy" was probably meant as the opposing party in an actual war originally, but Russia/China/IS should probably do. [0]: fe80::1%lo0 / пароль
- honksillet 10y agoThis is good information to have, but it was just as necessary during the previous administration.
- matt4077 10y agoNope, it wasn't. Example: the was a State Department "dissent memo" against Obama's unwillingness to bomb/send ground troupes to Syria. Result: they got an answer (basically "this decision is hard, we share your concerns, but ultimately decided against a new war...") and that was it. Same situation now: Spicer: "If you don't agree with us, you should quit. Diplomats should either get with the program or they can go.”
- zepolud 10y agoIt would be very irresponsible to recommend buying a burner phone to people trying to stay anonymous. At the very least, it would give away your location even if you somehow manage to remain unrecorded by street CCTVs in the vicinity of the shop at the time of purchase. Assuming it is even possible to buy one without providing full personal details, as is required by law in most of the EU. Twitter now not only gives platform to powerful demagogues, it is also actively stifling dissent by effectively disallowing anonymity.
- gruez 10y agoThat was addressed in article >Security cameras will probably record your face at the store. Most stores delete old footage on a regular basis, overwriting it with new footage. If possible, wait a week or two before you start tweeting so that the footage is already deleted by the time anyone tries to figure out your real identity.
- zepolud 10y agoThis addresses shop cameras, not street-level government surveillance that would be accessible for 10+ years and is trivially addressable by the time and location of the transaction.
- jat850 10y agoWould a disguise at time of purchase not help reduce this risk?
- MichaelBurge 10y agoThey would probably ask you to remove the disguise. You could pay a hobo to buy you the phone, though.
- jat850 10y agoPerhaps not something insanely obvious like Grouch Marx moustache and glasses, but more subtle? I'm not really very well aware of how advanced face recognition, etc. is at this point in time though. But I'd guess anyone who cares enough about opsec to go through this process might also be decent at passable disguise techniques.
- jbg_ 10y agoCan avoid having to buy a phone using https://dtmf.io/ https://dtmf.io/ (disclaimer: I made it)
- thatcat 10y agoWhy did you decide not to support us #s?
- jbg_ 10y agoIt's on the roadmap, but we need to integrate with another provider to support them. Most major communications services that verify your number don't mind which country it's from, but we realise there are good use cases for having a number from a specific country.
- Anonnononon 10y agoIs there anyway to test one of your numbers to see if where I plan to use them they are accepted, before buying?
- jbg_ 10y agoNo, we don't offer free trials, as they would be abused. However, you can just rent a number and cancel it immediately if it doesn't work for you -- we charge the rental by the minute so you would only spend a very small amount of money in the case that it didn't work for you.
- Anonnononon 10y agoGot it thanks.
- tyingq 10y agoA pricing page would be nice. You mention a starting price, but that's not often the whole story.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- CurtMonash 10y agoCareful with that analogy. Hitler is distinguished from other authoritarian leaders in 3 ways that echo Trump: -- He led a particularly rich and powerful country. -- He and his followers were particularly good at mass-media PR. -- He is particularly famous. But he's also distinguished in other ways that do NOT echo Trump, most notably in his mass murders.
- sctb 10y agoPlease comment civilly and substantively on HN or not at all. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13688417 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13688417 and marked it off-topic.
- schlowmo 10y ago> "And finally, keep in mind that after all this, Twitter can always kick you off for their own reasons." The problem with anonymous e-mail address + burner phone + always use TOR to access the account is that this doesn't play out well in the medium term. This triggers various automatic "anti-abuse" measures on Twitters side. Those measures include: random prompt for re-verification of the phone number, which fails with the burner phone number used to create the account. It's hard (if not impossible) to maintain such an account in the long run while protecting ones identity.
- mirimir 10y agoIt is indeed hard to maintain Twitter accounts via Tor. Establishing accounts via Tor, using burner phones for verification, isn't hard. And there's no problem reading feeds via Tor. But tweeting via Tor, in my experience, is indeed a crap shoot. So is tweeting via commercial VPN services. What seems to work is tweeting via private VPNs, running on anonymously-leased VPS. To route that VPN through Tor, you just run the VPN server (in TCP mode) on the VPS as an onion service. But there's still the risk of cellphone re-verification. So for long-term accounts, you need a persistent number. One solution is to have trusted friends in other jurisdictions, who can activate the number for you when needed.
- cesarb 10y ago> One solution is to have trusted friends in other jurisdictions, who can activate the number for you when needed. If you have a trusted friend in an independent jurisdiction, the whole complicated dance with burner phones and so on becomes unnecessary. Just have the trusted friend create the account for you and hand you the password.
- mirimir 10y agoSure, that's doable too. But then you have a major IP address change, which could raise flags.
- stagbeetle 10y agoThere are "Burner" apps out there that give you a different phone number. I'm unsure if it'd be easier to maintain. But off the top of my head I'd think it'd be easier to spoof.
- jff 10y agoBetter take all these steps so you can tweet "climate change is real" and "trump is a poop", directed at a president who's so scary that millions of people make fun of him on twitter with their real name every day. Remember all the people who got disappeared right after the election because they tweeted at Trump with their real name Twitter account?
- zepolud 10y agoRemember the thousands of people arrested for "insulting officials" on social media in Turkey? [1] http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-turkey-arrests-1656-social-media-users-since-summer-2016-12?IR=T http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-turkey-arrests-1656-social...
- jff 10y agoIf you want to compare the US to Turkey, that's your own decision; I'd think a good place to start would be finding the US equivalent of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_301_(Turkish_Penal_Code) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_301_(Turkish_Penal_Cod...
- zepolud 10y agoI'm not comparing anything, merely reacting against any attempts to trivialize the very real need for a platform for anonymous dissent. From the lives of the people involved to the stability of the democratic institutions themselves, those are very real and very high stakes. It would be extremely disingenuous and insulting to pretend that the intent of the article was to anonymously tweet "trump is a poop".
- eternalban 10y agoThe "stability of democratic institutions" are under attack when anonymous entities fan hysteria by disseminating information in the guise of "Rogue Gov" agencies, institutions, etc. That is not dissent. Actual, factual, courageous, whistle blowing and dirty laundry airing: https://twitter.com/sibeledmonds/status/832644475197353985 https://twitter.com/sibeledmonds/status/832644475197353985
- elastic_church 10y agoToo bad sigaint is down right now, and the darknet is pissed!
- jug5 10y agoThey really should update the article
- tyingq 10y agoI'm not understanding how this is a "rogue government Twitter account" versus just a "Twitter account". Is it supposed to somehow look like an official government account?
- lotyrin 10y agoIt's meant to instruct hypothetical government employees working for agencies that were silenced, and wish to continue their public outreach, educating the public on issues that the current administration might disagree with. It has an audience bigger than that (who will not likely need to go to such lengths to publicly voice dissent), but it's fairly clear about its intent.
- tyingq 10y agoAh, okay. Too bad there's not some simple way to also prove it is associated with a muzzled govt employee. These accounts could be somewhat muzzled themselves by creating lots of fake dissenters tweeting inaccurate info.
- matt4077 10y agoIt's actually quite hard to write meaningful tweets that could fool someone with a bit of knowledge of the organisation, such as a journalist who has had it in his portfolio for a while. Plus, a journalist would have the contacts to verify the information. Traditionally, the government doesn't lie to American journalists – they may decline to comment, or give you a convoluted answer that doesn't actually answer your question. But they wouldn't lie. Considering these organisations are supposedly full of people sharing the leaker's point of view, it shouldn't be difficult to get confirmation at least off-the-record. Of course all that requires a certain amount of trust in the media.
- mgbmtl 10y agoThe twitter accounts are presumably run by people who are employed by agencies funded by the US government. They could lose their jobs or have funding problems because of this. I think a more fair comparison would be to when scientists were gagged in Canada, under the Prime Minister Harper era. One of many sad examples: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/harperman-tony-turner-scientist-investigation-1.3207390 http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/harperman-tony-turner-scient... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei50lM6ab1c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei50lM6ab1c Of course, it's not muzzling, it's "ethics violations".
- motyar 10y agoWhy don't just outsource all things?
- thimk 10y agoI may regret commenting in my real name, but I still have a vestige of belief in open opposition. For now, though, I cannot enter the US without giving my Facebook password. I have no doubts that as the new government settles in, it will up the ante on everything which could be construed as active opposition. This IS a fascist regime. It just hasn’t gotten hold of its true tools yet.
- rdiddly 10y agoWell it's another security/anonymity guide for beginners. ("An IP address is a set of numbers that identifies a computer...") I'm always torn on these... like is a little info better than none, or worse than none? Example: "Tor is better than a VPN." Sure, except when the exit node is compromised, and the VPN service is a "no log" service. (Granted you would have to verify or trust any such claim.)
- mozumder 10y ago> As soon as you power on your burner phone, it will connect to cell phone towers, and the phone company will know your location. So, don’t activate your phone, or keep it powered on at all, at your home or office — instead, go to a public place, like a coffee shop, before activating your new phone. Keep it powered off while you’re not using it. Actually, don't go to a coffee-shop, either. They might have security cameras that can record you, that police can use to find out who you are. Go into the park or forest, or any place without security cameras when using your burner phone.
- CurtMonash 10y agoAnd don't carry another phone while you're doing this. Or, if you do, turn the power off. (If turning the power off isn't enough to protect you, then you're probably in that group of people for whom none of these measures will wholly suffice.)
- pfarnsworth 10y agoYou need to turn off the phone and take out the battery every time you use the burner phone. They will be tracking the cell towers that you use, so going back and forth to the same cell towers means they can figure out pretty closely where you work and live.
- mirimir 10y agoThis is cool, and stuff, but what does it accomplish to have just a Twitter account? The hard part, I think, is protecting key datasets. Which now means leaking them. That takes some real OpSec.
- newman314 10y agoWasn't it just said recently not to use Tor Browser? Why is it being recommended here?