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Will ParanoidLinux Protect the Truly Paranoid?

Posted by kdawson on from the tinfoil-laptop-carrying-case dept.

ruphus13 writes "There are still places on the world where having anonymity might mean the difference between life and death. Covering one's tracks is considered to be of such paramount importance that we are now witnessing the rise of a Linux distro catering to the most paranoid. The 'alpha-alpha' version of ParanoidLinux is now out. But is this the best way to protect oneself? Couldn't it be easily circumvented? The article asks, 'Why is it necessary to put the applications and services designed to protect anonymity, to encrypt files, to make the user nameless and faceless, all together, in one distribution? Let's think in a truly paranoid manner. Wouldn't it be far easier for a nefarious government organization to target that distribution's repositories, mirror that singular distribution's disk images with files of its own design, and leave every last one of that distribution's users in the great wide open?' What should truly paranoid user do?"

14 of 236 comments (clear)

  1. Suggestion by msuarezalvarez · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The truly paranoid user should get some help...

    1. Re:Suggestion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Are you talking about me?

    2. Re:Suggestion by presidenteloco · · Score: 4, Informative

      Just because you're paranoid
      doesn't mean they're not out to get you.

      Remember, this is the same "they" that
      are responsible for every negative thing
      that affects you. They are very powerful,
      and pretty much omniscient, and although
      you are boring, they are not bored
      observing and foiling your every move.

      --

      Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
    3. Re:Suggestion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      The truly paranoid user should get some help...

      So says one of the brainwashed masses. Have you considered that perhaps the only reason you don't believe that the government is reading and writing your thoughts is because you have been programmed to think that way? And have you considered that perhaps the paranoid aren't crazy but they only appear that way because you have been programmed to think that way?

      Of course not! This level of introspection would require you to break free of your programming. And even if you were able to independently do so, without wearing a psychotronic radiation deflector beanie you would just be reprogrammed in an instant.

      For the rest of us 'paranoids' I recommend that we hunker down and reinforce each others 'crazy' ideas. After all, we are the only ones who recognize our thoughts for what they are: sanity. And no, we don't consider our criticizing of the lack of introspection of the brainwashed masses to be hypocrisy because we *know* that we are right, unlike the brainwashed masses who are programmed to think that way.

    4. Re:Suggestion by ezzzD55J · · Score: 4, Funny

      reminds me of this:

      In The Know: Is The Government Spying On Paranoid Schizophrenics Enough?
      http://www.theonion.com/content/video/in_the_know_is_the_government

  2. Hermit by el_chupanegre · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A truly paranoid person would be suspicious of absolutely everyone and everything. That would mean writing your own OS on your own hardware etc etc.

    Since this is impossible, go and live in hiding with no human contact or chance thereof.

    Why would you download this 'super-safe' OS from some people you never met, through a public unencrypted network, if your life depended on it?

  3. Based on an idea from Cory's book by Phyrexicaid · · Score: 4, Informative

    Little Brother by Cory Doctorow uses this idea (and name), and the distro was started based on that.

    --
    The meme is dead, long live the meme!
  4. True open source question by cdrguru · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you do not examine the source, how can you trust any piece of software? You are in effect agreeing to trust the unknown people that have looked at the source. Except in the case of a smallish distribution nobody may have actually looked into that particular distribution in any detail at all.

    Of course, there is a greater issue of trust. If you accept chips made by unknown fabricators, do you know what microcode has been implemented? If you cannot examine the "source code" of the chips being used how can you actually trust that these chips are not doing things behind your back to reveal your identity and files?

    So without a truly "open" computer, you are trusting a whole raft of unknown individuals and companies with your identity, your data, your reputation.

    Moreover, if you are not knowledgeable about programming languages, using any computer is an act of utter faith with plenty of reason to not be so trusting. It is like climbing a mountain with a guide that only lost "a few" parties last year.

    1. Re:True open source question by cdfh · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Ken Thompson talks about using untrusted compilers in his lecture, "Reflections on Trusting Trust".

      (See also: this)

  5. easy answer by schnikies79 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "What should truly paranoid user do?"

    Stay off the internet.

    --
    Gone!
  6. Borrow wifi - get someone to type for you by presidenteloco · · Score: 4, Interesting

    1. Always borrow random open wifi access points,
    in a geographic pattern not centered around your habitual location
    2. Get a new unknowing assistant to type in roughly what you want to say each time. There are pattern detectors for your ways of expressing things.
    3. Establish online identities such as gmail that have no tie whatsoever to any of your identity info or financial info

    --

    Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
  7. Quite Franky by eclectro · · Score: 5, Funny

    This slashdot story was posted to get us to use Paranoid Linux, which can only mean that some one planted a backdoor in it.

    --
    Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
  8. Re:well by NFN_NLN · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What should truly paranoid user do?

    get help?

    get BSD?

    Seriously, there is already an OS aimed at security... OpenBSD:

    "Our efforts emphasize portability, standardization, correctness, proactive security and integrated cryptography."

    "Audit Process:

    Our security auditing team typically has between six and twelve members who continue to search for and fix new security holes. We have been auditing since the summer of 1996. The process we follow to increase security is simply a comprehensive file-by-file analysis of every critical software component. We are not so much looking for security holes, as we are looking for basic software bugs, and if years later someone discovers the problem used to be a security issue, and we fixed it because it was just a bug, well, all the better. Flaws have been found in just about every area of the system. Entire new classes of security problems have been found during our audit, and often source code which had been audited earlier needs re-auditing with these new flaws in mind. Code often gets audited multiple times, and by multiple people with different auditing skills."

  9. Re:well by coren2000 · · Score: 5, Funny

    OBVIOUSLY the paranoid individual will not allow anyone else to see the self help book, let alone publish it.

    Also, the self help book will be written freehand in blood. Every time the paranoid reads the book they will DNA test the blood to ensure that it is their own blood. DNA tests are ofcourse done in house and using tools that the paranoid has already assembled based on research that they have done themselves.

    Still, there is a risk of clone operatives... but isn't there always?