In the previous sections we learned how to use a number of programs and a number of services that help
us improve our anonymity and privacy.
We also learned how to access hidden services or online services or what's known as the darknet.
And we learned how to use some of these services and some of these websites and all of these sections.
We used an operating system called tails.
And as mentioned this is alive and Amnesiac operating system that is based on a fully polished and hardened
Linux distro.
Throughout all traffic through the Tor network so it's relatively secure and it's relatively private.
We installed it on a USB stick so we use the USB stick to put into it from any computer and then as
soon as we shut down that computer or pull the USB stick out everything will be wiped from that computer
and it'll remove all traces.
So all in all it's a pretty nice package.
It's very portable very convenient and that's why I chose to use it in all of the previous sections
because it provides relative security and good privacy and anonymity.
As long as you don't make any OPSEC mistakes such as logging into an account that is tied to your identity
or interacting with other accounts that can be linked to your real identity.
Now this is all great.
But note that I said relative security I said that because we can do better.
See the problem with tales and most operating systems is the fact that everything is running under one
domain.
So if a hacker manages to hack into this computer whether it's running tailors or or any other operating
system they'll get access to this whole domain.
And first of all they'll be able to bypass whatever anonymity measures you're using and they'll be able
to easily anonymize you and they'll also have access to all of your files and be able to control the
computer and do anything that you can do as a user.
So even if you're using the greatest anonymity methods and you're using different proxies in Tor and
VPN and all of that.
If somebody hacks into your computer it's game over.
All of that can be bypassed easily.
That's why security is very very important and that's why it's linked to privacy.
You can't be private or anonymous if you're not secure.
A good solution to this problem that can improve our security is to use different computers for different
tasks.
For example use one computer for work related tasks.
Use one computer for your personal related stuff use another one for the untrusted stuff.
Whenever you're just browsing through websites and open attachments and so on use one computer that
is not connected to the Internet to store your passwords and keys this way If somebody manages to hack
into one of these computers they'll only get access to one computer and it will be very difficult for
them to move from this computer and compromised the other computers.
Not only that but the fact that you have an untrusted computer that you don't do any personal or work
stuff on means that this will be the computer that will probably be hacked not the other ones.
So all of your important stuff in work and personal will not be hacked and the hackers will not be able
to gain access to them.
Also if you're using a separate identity on this untrusted computer then your real identity or the identities
that you use on work and personal again will not be compromised.
So this is a really really good solution.
The only problem is it's not cheap.
You need a number of computers and it's also not easy to achieve.
So imagine having to use a different computer every time you want to do a different task.
You can make this slightly easier and use one computer but use multiple tells us Be sticks and again
use each one of them for a separate domain one for work one for personal work one for untrusted.
But again this is not very usable because let's say for example you are using the work USB stick and
you open your work email your region and email and there is an attachment and you really want to open
that attachment but you can't really trust that attachment because it could be anyone it could be a
hacker pretending to be a friend or it could be someone who gained access to your friend's account so
if you want to follow this model and if you want to be secure you need to boot into the untrusted distro
or at the untrusted USB stick and open the attachment there then wants to open it and read it if it's
fine you need to turn this off booth back into your work USB stick your work domain and then reply to
the email so you can see that if you're doing this everyday it's not very practical and it's going to
become very very annoying.
This is where the idea of cubes came from cubes as an operating system that is designed to improve security
by compartmentalization so as soon as you boot into this operating system it boots into Zen which is
a hypervisor and then wants the operating system starts.
Everything inside this operating system is separated into different domains.
You'll have a domain for work a domain for personal and untrusted domain.
And so on.
And each one of these domains is a completely separate virtual machine.
So you can think of these virtual machines like completely separate computers and hence the name virtual
machine.
So each one of these virtual machines has its own ram its own CPSU its own file system and so on and
is completely unaware of the other virtual machines.
So just like running different computers if you're untrusted virtual machine or the untrusted domain
gets compromised or hacked it is very difficult for a hacker to move from there to your work or to your
personal virtual machine.
Not only that but cube is also a separate other system components and two virtual machines.
So you have your networking your file system your USB controller and your firewall all the running inside
their own virtual machines.
So if a hacker manages to exploit a vulnerability in any of these components then only get access to
this isolated virtual machine that is not even aware of the existence of your work and your personal
domains.
And so one and with this you won't need to have multiple computers and you won't need to keep restarting
and booting into different ESB sticks.
You'll always be using the same operating system and the different virtual machines will be running
inside this one single operating system.
Now these nice features come at a price.
Cubes is very resource hungry and has specific requirements.
I'm going to include these requirements in the resources of this lecture.
So please go through them before attempting to install it.
Now before moving into the next lectures Well I'm going to show you how to install cubes and use it.
I know right now you're thinking Do I really need to install cubes.
And the answer really depends on you and your threat model with cubes.
We're not going to be using any other magical methods to become more anonymous.
So you'll still be using Tor you can still use a VPN and multiple proxies.
Nothing that you can't do entails.
The only difference is the added security that cubes allows by compartmentalization.
Therefore if you if someone targets you specifically trying to anonymize you they're less likely to
be able to hack into your computer or to gain access to it and therefore the anonymize you.
So cubes is only more anonymous and more private because it is more secure.
It makes it more difficult to hack into your computer and therefore more difficult to deal anonymize
you.
So whether you should use cubes or tails really depends on your threat model.
If you think there are people that will actively try to hack into your computer in order to deal anonymize
you then obviously cubes is a better solution because it's a more secure operating system.
Other than that.
Tell us is good enough.
As long as you don't make any OPSEC mistakes such as communicating with accounts linked to your identity.
And as long as you use it within one domain so you don't need to use tools for work personal and for
browsing you're only using it to access the darknet for research or for other reasons.
Then in that case tales can be good enough.
So just like anything else in this course go through the cube section understand how it works and why
it's useful and at the end based on your threat model and based on what you want to do make a decision
on what's best in your case.