Category: Privacy & Encryption

Dear Jim, Tor (“The Onion Router”) has been up and running for some time. It’s a free and highly secure system for anonymous browsing. It requires installation of free, open source software on the host machine. Also of potential interest is the current release of Freenet, which supports a “scalable darknet:” A freeware, open source distribution of PGP (named, appropriately, GPG). A GPG for Windows front end. TrueCrypt (a freeware/open source hard drive encryption/steganography program) The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) tools page Hushmail: secure, free web mail Secure, free hard drive/file erasure Disclaimer and warning: Strong cryptography isn’t legal …

Of all of the aspects of preparing a survival retreat, perhaps the most overlooked in survivalist literature are privacy and operational security (OPSEC). Your preparations must be kept secret from all but your most trusted friends. All of your expensive logistics could disappear in a few hours soon after TEOTWAWKI. Your “hidey hole” could be stripped clean by looters or overzealous government agents wielding “emergency powers.” You must absolutely resist the urge to mention your preparations to anyone who does not have a need to know about them. I am not suggesting that you lie to anyone. That would be …

I’m an engineer working on E911 systems and I’d like to correct this whole post. I’ve included some references so all your readers can peer review. > #1 The chip does not function unless you either… Incorrect. The requirements typically state for Public Safety and in support of local laws, the mobile station (cell phone) has to handle all network requests for location. > #2 Its not real GPS. There are two separate systems that can be hybridized together. First is the network based system described above that works great in urban areas with lots of compatible cell towers. It …

Dear Jim, Someone wrote about E911 phones and GPS tracking. I worked in that industry, with that specific issue and I can provide some facts. #1 The chip does not function unless you either Dial 911 or turn it to Location On, which shows a circle with a plus sign through it and two end parentheses to its right. It is common to see the circle-plus sign without the parentheses. Check your manual to verify this. It will list this under “icons” or E911. Phones come with them preset to “911 only”, not “on”. Phones from Nextel/Sprint or using location …

Jim, I think this would come under the heading of privacy….or our losing more and more of it on a daily bases. I got a call from my cell phone company today (US Cellular) they told me that I was going to be required to bring in my old phone…the same one I have had for five years… and trade it for one that was capable of being tracked by 911 (these are the [E-911] ones with GPS chips in them.) I told them that I did not want to. They told me I had no choice. They said that …

Part of being a prepared individual is keeping a low profile. I don’t heavily emphasize privacy issues on SurvivalBlog, but I do recommend that you learn how to fly under the radar, just on general principle. My philosophy: Don’t leave big paper trails or bit trails. An interesting article recently appeared at Wired News, titled “How to Foil Search Engine Snoops”  See: http://wired.com/news/technology/0,70051-0.html?tw=wn_tophead_2 For greater privacy, the author recommends using either the Firefox PC browser or the Safari Macintosh browser. He states: “In Firefox, you can go into the privacy preference dialog and open Cookies. From there you can remove …

In the absence of computing power if we are reduced to using tiny QRP [low power] transmitters for communication, then there may come a time where some messages require heavy duty encryption. This is the easiest method I know of the Solitaire card deck encryption method. A group could even generate one time pads which would be starting order for a deck and store them in a secure location. See: http://www.schneier.com/solitaire.html Here is a snip from this site: “In Neal Stephenson’s novel Cryptonomicon, the character Enoch Root describes a cryptosystem code-named “Pontifex” to another character named Randy Waterhouse, and later …

I’ve been asked by several readers for their advice on cellular phones. First, I should mention that the cellular revolution still hasn’t made its way to the Rawles Ranch. Perhaps it never will. I’d appreciate your e-mails with comments on this topic. (As a non-cellular kinda guy, I will surely leave out some important points.) The general rules of thumb on cellular phones are as follows: All cellular phones are vulnerable to interception–some are just a bit more secure than others. There is no privacy with a cell phone–or in essence with any other radio transmitter. None. Don’t kid yourself. …