Okay.
So now that we understand that there is basically a network of devices connected to each other that
we can use to improve our privacy and anonymity.
The question is, how can we connect to this network and use it?
Well, the answer is actually very simple.
You can configure your computer regardless of what operating system it uses to route all traffic through
the Tor network.
And that way, hopefully everything will flow through the network, protecting your privacy and anonymity.
Sadly, though, this is not always the case, as you probably have a lot of programs that I don't even
know of that could leak information about you potentially revealing your location, your IP and more
information.
Not only that, but you could be running an unpatched version of Windows or Linux or even OS X.
Also, your browser could leak information about you even if you think you properly configured it.
Use Tor.
Also, a lot of us use browser plugins and browser extensions, which also could potentially leak information.
And finally, we have the exit node problem.
In the previous lecture, I already mentioned that when you connect to Tor, all the data and green
in here is sent encrypted and at any time none of the nodes know what websites you want to go to.
They only know the address of the next node so they can forward the data to the next node.
But as I mentioned, the red arrow in here means the data leaving in here will leave unencrypted unless
https is used.
So you'll have to go and manually install HTTPS everywhere to force data to be sent over https.
Also we have this node right here.
This is known as the exit node.
And the problem here is anybody can actually configure a computer to work as a node in the Tor network.
And if your computer is an exit node, you will be able to see this data leaving unencrypted.
So you have to trust this person if you're really using the Tor network as they can potentially see
everything you do.
Now, like I said in the previous lecture, if the Target website uses https or if you're using a plugin
that will force HTTPS connections, then this will be okay because the data will be encrypted by SSL
because HTTPS encrypts the HTTP data, so you'll be fine.
But this is again another step that you have to take and another plugin that you have to install on
your browser in order to make sure that your data is fully encrypted along the whole way.
And even if someone is able to see this data, such as the person running the exit node here, or if
there is someone in here intercepting the connection, even if they capture the data, they will not
be able to read it because it will be encrypted.
So like I said, there's a lot of steps to do if you want to configure your computer to use the Tor
network.
And even if you do all of that, you could miss a tiny or a small detail that could potentially leak
information and reveal your identity.
Therefore a better solution is to either use the Tor browser and we'll talk about that in the next section.
This is a web browser designed by the same people that run the Tor network.
It routes all the data through the Tor network by default.
It also has a lot of other features to prevent leaking your information and ensuring the data that you
send is always encrypted.
This is the simplest and a good solution.
A better solution would be to use Thales, which is a Linux distro designed for anonymity and privacy,
and the best solution would be using cubes OS with Unix gateway, which is an amazing operating system
that is very, very secure and also can be configured to use TOR by default.
Improving your security and anonymity and privacy.
Now we will go over all of this in the next lectures, starting with the simplest and easiest, and
will end with the more complex but the best approach.