5 ms·

Beyond software, I'd take a guess that the biggest strength of somebody who is really good who wants to stay undetectable is discipline and extreme paranoia. *

Beyond software, I'd take a guess that the biggest strength of somebody who is really good who wants to stay undetectable is discipline and extreme paranoia. * They probably buy a used machine they bought with cash and has no way to tie to them. * They never connect to their home network or login to anything personal on that computer. * They do their funny business discretely at coffee shops, libraries, etc, and don't return there, even if the coffee is really nice. * Once a project is done, they trash the computer and records. * If they need to communicate with co-conspirators, they probably have a system arranged to do just that and avoid having written communications that can be traceable.

Mezzie 5y ago
I unironically feel like the best way to communicate with co-conspirators would be through snail mail, if you could put up with the delay. Oh, and don't forget to do all of this while not altering your normal habits at all, because sudden habit changes would also be a red flag I'd imagine.
- ozfive 5y ago
  Starting to send love letters to co-conspirators might be considered altering your normal habits.
  - Mezzie 5y ago
    Yeah, you'd have to prepare for it by doing things like starting to read articles about the benefits of written communication, then moving on to starting to do other things by mail, and then start using it for personal correspondence. Or better yet, just have a long history of starting and stopping doing random things. Then you suddenly doing something new and weird doesn't stick out.
    - ozfive 5y ago
      Have your read the book "Bursts: The Hidden Patterns Behind Everything We Do, from Your E-mail to Bloody Crusades"?
- ipaddr 5y ago
  The best way would be through a random developer's basic chat mvp
  - Mezzie 5y ago
    Depends on who you're trying to hack/hide from. If I'm hiding from governments, political parties, or NGOs, then I might do something like you suggested, but since the greatest danger to hackers in terms of getting caught is other technologically-literate people, I would favor planning using tools my enemies are less likely to bother checking. Plus it means you don't have to rely on either your own coding expertise or the trust you have in your collaborators. If you're doing something illegal, there's always the trade-off of including more people in order to cover holes (since you might be working against whole teams of people and their brains), but then you're subject to your collaborators either making a mistake or selling you out. Letters are: A.) Illegal to tamper with, so unlikely to be caught randomly or subject to things like hacks of their own. B.) Possible to send or deliver without another human being touching it, seeing it, or saving it. C.) Possible to destroy quickly and in a way that won't leave traces. D.) Will still function even if your network/code is taken down. Then again, I'm too risk-averse to hack so I'm the person who would accept things taking twice as long as long as our risk decreased 1%.
ozfive 5y ago
Doing your funny business elsewhere doesn't require you to physically be there. Picking up a dish or antenna to find long range open networks is easy enough. EDIT: That way you can still enjoy your favorite coffee at your local coffee shop.
- Xophmeister 5y ago
  That doesn’t sound conspicuous at all.
  - ozfive 5y ago
    In assuming you are being sarcastic. How does it sound conspicuous?
jetti 5y ago
Also, never use the same username or email address for more than one site. If you reuse names/email addresses then when a site is hacked and there is a db dump of user data it is only a matter of time before the dots can be connected
ozmangreen 5y ago
Please don't ignore these: - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_stylometry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_stylometry - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylometry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylometry - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kaczynski https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kaczynski "... recognized similarities in the writings using linguistic analysis ..."
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

Mezzie 5y ago

I unironically feel like the best way to communicate with co-conspirators would be through snail mail, if you could put up with the delay. Oh, and don't forget to do all of this while not altering your normal habits at all, because sudden habit changes would also be a red flag I'd imagine.

ozfive 5y ago
Starting to send love letters to co-conspirators might be considered altering your normal habits.
- Mezzie 5y ago
  Yeah, you'd have to prepare for it by doing things like starting to read articles about the benefits of written communication, then moving on to starting to do other things by mail, and then start using it for personal correspondence. Or better yet, just have a long history of starting and stopping doing random things. Then you suddenly doing something new and weird doesn't stick out.
  - ozfive 5y ago
    Have your read the book "Bursts: The Hidden Patterns Behind Everything We Do, from Your E-mail to Bloody Crusades"?
ipaddr 5y ago
The best way would be through a random developer's basic chat mvp
- Mezzie 5y ago
  Depends on who you're trying to hack/hide from. If I'm hiding from governments, political parties, or NGOs, then I might do something like you suggested, but since the greatest danger to hackers in terms of getting caught is other technologically-literate people, I would favor planning using tools my enemies are less likely to bother checking. Plus it means you don't have to rely on either your own coding expertise or the trust you have in your collaborators. If you're doing something illegal, there's always the trade-off of including more people in order to cover holes (since you might be working against whole teams of people and their brains), but then you're subject to your collaborators either making a mistake or selling you out. Letters are: A.) Illegal to tamper with, so unlikely to be caught randomly or subject to things like hacks of their own. B.) Possible to send or deliver without another human being touching it, seeing it, or saving it. C.) Possible to destroy quickly and in a way that won't leave traces. D.) Will still function even if your network/code is taken down. Then again, I'm too risk-averse to hack so I'm the person who would accept things taking twice as long as long as our risk decreased 1%.

ozfive 5y ago

Doing your funny business elsewhere doesn't require you to physically be there. Picking up a dish or antenna to find long range open networks is easy enough. EDIT: That way you can still enjoy your favorite coffee at your local coffee shop.

Xophmeister 5y ago
That doesn’t sound conspicuous at all.
- ozfive 5y ago
  In assuming you are being sarcastic. How does it sound conspicuous?

jetti 5y ago

Also, never use the same username or email address for more than one site. If you reuse names/email addresses then when a site is hacked and there is a db dump of user data it is only a matter of time before the dots can be connected

ozmangreen 5y ago

Please don't ignore these: - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_stylometry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_stylometry - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylometry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylometry - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kaczynski https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kaczynski "... recognized similarities in the writings using linguistic analysis ..."

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]