isa whole unseenworld of .onionanonymous websites that
live within the Tor network. You’re able to access sites with
https://<16-character hash>.onion – asan example, Facebook
has an onion service at https://facebookcorewwwi.onion
that enables people living in oppressive regimes tostill use
Facebook [Image D].Or DuckDuckGo offers an onion site at
https://3g2upl4pq6kufc4m.onion.
Asyoucanimagine,a goodchunkofthedarkwebistaken
upbyillegalactivities,butthatcertainlydoesn’tmeanthere’sno
roomforgoodelements.Youcanfinda reasonablelistoflegal
sitesathttps://github.com/alecmuffett/real-world-onion-sites.Staysafeoutthere
Torisn’ta magicbullettocompleteonlineprivacyoranonymity- if youdosomethingsilly,youwillexposeyourselftoanyone
monitoring.Asimpleexampleisthatifyoulogintoa service
viaTorusingyourrealidentity,thatserviceandanybodiesthat
areabletomonitorthatservicecanidentifyyou.It’sthe
sameifyoumakepaymentswithaccountslinkedto
yourrealidentity.
Sharped-eyed readers might have spotted we
mentionedthatentrynodes(akaguardnodes)know
yourrealIP,althoughtheyhavenoideawhereyourdata
isgoing.Thishasledtospeculationthatgovernment-
runentrynodescouldcollatelogsthattallywithexit
nodetraffictomonitorTorusers.Thisleadssomepeople
to run a Tor-over-VPN combination, which certainly
wouldremovethisoneweakelementintheTorsystem.
ThisparticularlyappliestoGoogleservices,searches,
and accounts. It’s strongly recommended to only
use DuckDuckGoforsearch whenonTor,asit hasa
reputablerecordofnottrackingitssearchusers,while
Googleabsolutelydoestrackyou.Thisextendstonot
usingtheGoogle4.4.4.4and8.8.8.8DNSservices.QD© TAILS, FACEBOOK
What happens if you’re out and about
and want to access the Tor network, but
on someone else’s PC? This could be at
an Internet cafe or perhaps using a work
system where you can’t install software. Say
hello to Tails, an open-source OS project
that integrates Tor. Based around a Linux
distro called Debian, Tails provides an ISO
disk image that you can install to a DVD or
USB sick. This can then be booted directly
by most PCs, and the OS runs straight off
the drive.
This gives you direct access to all
the usual tools you’d like, alongside Tor
browsing, but once you’re done, just powerdown and remove the stick, and alltraces
that you were ever there will be gone.
To get star ted, head to https://tails.boum.
org, and click “Download.” It offersstep-by-
step install instructions for Windows,Mac,
and Linux, but you basically needtograbthe
ISO, and use Etcher to write the imagetoa
USB drive.
To run Tails on a PC, you must selectthe
boot drive when the PC is first poweredupat
the BIOS/UEFI. Many systems offeranearly
Boot menu, accessed by tappingF9(HP),F12
(Dell/Lenovo), F8 (Amibios), or F11(Award
BIOS) while powering up. Look foryourUSB
device, and off you go!CHASING YOUR TAILS
April 2020 | |^47
Advanced Windows 10
Browse anonymously with Tor