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What we really could use is a distro meant specifically to prevent this this, with (among other security features) default configurations that don't save any data about what your applications have been doing. Perhaps Paranoid Linux, if it matures.

Paranoid Linux is an operating system that assumes that its operator is under assault from the government (it was intended for use by Chinese and Syrian dissidents), and it does everything it can to keep your communications and documents a secret. It even throws up a bunch of "chaff" communications that are supposed to disguise the fact that you're doing anything covert. So while you're receiving a political message one character at a time, ParanoidLinux is pretending to surf the Web and fill in questionnaires and flirt in chat-rooms. Meanwhile, one in every five hundred characters you receive is your real message, a needle buried in a huge haystack.

Looks like that's already underway

It seems like more and more of Cory Doctorow's book "Little Brother" is coming to life. In relation to this article, see chaff.

i have to agree with what's been said many times here, why so many distros? if you're going to go that route, why not focus on the truly important, such as OpenSolaris, or, if you must keep cuddling up to ubuntu, why not mention mention paranoidlinux, a distro based off of ubuntu, designed to keep users security and privacy protected at all times?

this was a waste of time...

Granted....I'm just making the suggestion based upon the available information that says a Trojan will be involved, which will almost certainly be only written in the M$ flavor...90% of market share and all...

However, as interest in Linux increases, it's only a matter of time before The Powers That Be take notice, and mucking with a repository would be a great way to snare an unsuspecting Linux user. All the more reason to support the growing Paranoid Linux movement...I don't know exactly how effective this sort of thing would be in the real world, but unfortunately, it looks like we're going to have to find out.

Geez, this makes me wonder how well that ParanoidLinux project is coming along. This sort of story really shows why it's such a good idea—having anonymity and encryption is good, but having them auto-configured and applied seamlessly to your online presence is better, especially since privacy is everyone's right, not just techno-geeks'. With undirected, warrantless government monitoring going on, even non-technical users should start asking for good privacy tech. (Disclaimer: Auto-configuration and seamlessness are not necessarily goals of the ParanoidLinux project, but I anticipate that it could be done if enough developers get involved. I am not involved in the project.)

Hmm, turns out they made their first alpha build earlier this week. That's good news; I've been worried that it would turn into vaporware. (Although in the spirit of the article I suppose I should spell that "vapourware".)

Cory Doctorow's "Little Brother" describes a Linux distro called "Paranoid Linux" which has nice features for this kind of thing. Such as distro is already in the works: http://paranoidlinux.org/

Paranoid Linux may be for you!

That said, TrueCrypt now supports Operating systems on hidden partitions. So anything you need to use the hidden partition for you reboot into that OS. This would solve the problem in the article without requiring a special distro.

http://paranoidlinux.org/

inspired by Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

http://paranoidlinux.org/

Paranoid Linux is an operating system that assumes that its operator is under assault from the government (it was intended for use by Chinese and Syrian dissidents), and it does everything it can to keep your communications and documents a secret. It even throws up a bunch of "chaff" communications that are supposed to disguise the fact that you're doing anything covert. So while you're receiving a political message one character at a time, ParanoidLinux is pretending to surf the Web and fill in questionnaires and flirt in chat-rooms. Meanwhile, one in every five hundred characters you receive is your real message, a needle buried in a huge haystack. ~Cory Doctorow (Little Brother, 2008)

When those words were written, ParanoidLinux was just a fiction. It is our goal to make this a reality. The project officially started on May 14th, and has been growing ever since. We welcome your ideas, contributions, designs, or code. You can find us on freenode's irc server in the #paranoidlinux channel. Hope to see you there!

A group of users have decided to try to implement Paranoid Linux as described in the book. It's a Linux distribution meant for use under oppressive regimes. It assumes you are under surveillance and actively attempts to veil your communications by hiding it among automatically generated random activity. Reminds me of the scheme Randy uses in Cryptonomicon to avoid eavesdropping on his laptop while trapped in his cell.

They appear to be in the very early stages only, but an interesting and potentially very worthy project.
paranoidlinux.org

Hi guys. This seems like a good opportunity to talk a bit about this new distro we've been working on.

ParanoidLinux is a distribution with a focus on privacy. All network comms will be encrypted and run through TOR by default. IM programs, etc, will be configured for secure communications by default. You'll have to go out of your way *not* to have a secure conversation in ParanoidLinux.

This idea comes from Cory Doctorow's latest book "Little Brother" which describes a Linux distro similar to what we are building, with the same name.

It's a new concept, only a couple weeks old, so don't go looking for downloads... but we are looking for help! Come join us. We're looking for programmers, artists, security experts and unix gurus to help us bring this project together.

If the government takes this basic human right from you, be proactive. Take it back. See you there!

http://www.paranoidlinux.org

irc.freenode.net, #paranoidlinux