/cyb/ - cyberpunk and cybersecurity

lol. you don't know the basics of using a computer. i'm not even entirely sure what it is you are asking for info on; but it looks like you want to stop being spyed on.

First, learn how to change os, learn how to vpn. Fortunately lurking the tech-related boards on this site you will learn how to do both. Then, continue lurking because there are multiple threads up right now that are focused on trying to quiet down your internet footsteps.

>>1827
You only need to change your OS if there's something wrong with your current one. A good example of a bad OS (In terms of vulnerability and privacy issues, respectively) worthy of being switched out is Windows Vista or Windows 10.

Hell, even Windows 10 is okay if you're just starting out. Just be aware that people here will sperg out about this because muh botnet.

Windows 7 is still """""fine""""", with a few simple modifications. I'd reccomend that you start your /cyb/ journey by learning Windows first, because knowledge is power. Start by installing some antivirus/antimalware to clean up whatever's on your system right now. After that, download the MBSA tool from the microsoft website.
It is useful for finding security issues that one might have overlooked.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=7558
(Only works for XP-8.1)
For any WinServer people reading, it works up to 2012 R2.

After you run that tool, google around for "Windows Hardening guides" or "Windows security guides" or if you want to go all out, get the CIS benchmarks for your OS and bolt it down.

That should be a good intro in to OS security. If you don't like that or meddling in the bowels of your computer freaks you out, I'm sure another lainon will give you some great advice on how to browse the web safely, because for most of us that's the only really serious threat, outside of covfefe shop hackers.

No post here or anywhere else will make up for hands-on experience with something, cybersecurity especially. You just have to do it yourself.

Take your time, learn how to use what you have, and then experiment with other OSes like linux or bsd if you want. There's a lot to learn out there.

Want a security starter pack? https://ssd.eff.org/

Welcome arisunon. The /g/ wiki is unironically pretty good for some basic tips on security. Check these pages.

https://wiki.installgentoo.com/index.php/Cyberpunk
https://wiki.installgentoo.com/index.php/Security
https://wiki.installgentoo.com/index.php/Babbies_First_Linux
https://wiki.installgentoo.com/index.php/Windows


A good way to build up some skills and knowledge in my opinion is to pursue some projects in your downtime. Build something with a programming language and learn as you go along, make a personal site, try out a new OS, learn how to rice etc.

Stop using Google as your main search engine if you do and start using Duckduckgo.

>>1827
There is multiple way for you to learn, but i think it's more important that you understand what you do. What i mean is do you understand why you aren't using google.

So first step try to clean and maintain you're actual operating system. Since you have a "cheap" laptop you could maybe try to learn how to optimize resource on your system. Once you know how to maintain, optimize your system i supposed it's windows you could actually go for something more oriented for privacy like Linux.

Vpn is not complicated but it cost money you still could use Tor for browsing but downloading you need a vpn.

>no one ever mentioned to stop using Discord
It's the step #1 allahdammit, with all your advices OP will end up as one of those arch glitterboys with Discord, Telegram tray icons in desktop threads

>>1834

>Stop using software i don't like

You can't make someone stop using a software simply because you don't like it you've got to explain why <Insert software> here you don't like isn't good.

>>1836
It's not because I don't like it, but because I read ToSes and EULAs from time to time.
Here is a brief explanation: Discord collects all your data, metadata, voice communications, text communication and sells it to advertisers, third parties and LEAs. The service is free as in beer with millions people using it, where do you think their money comes from? You can not do anything against it because Discord servers are not free software, you can not host one in your basement or datacenter for your friends only. Discord only has TLS encryption, which means client-server, not client-to-client or as some call it e2e. Discord is yet another commercial abstraction exploiting convenience in exchange for your private data. A literal proprietary clone of Mumble + irc with cool emoticons and hip bubble design client written in electron, yep, a browser engine based on chromium that eats 300 megs of ram from start just to display some text and images. If you want to free yourself from marketers and governments spying, consider starting using XMPP, Matrix, Mumble clients and servers for your communications. They not only respect abstract "software freedoms" which most people don't care about because they are not technically-skilled, but also your privacy and provide good encryption for communications to keep them private.

>>1838
>If you want to free yourself from marketers and governments spying, consider starting using XMPP, Matrix, Mumble clients and servers for your communications. They not only respect abstract "software freedoms" which most people don't care about because they are not technically-skilled, but also your privacy and provide good encryption for communications to keep them private.

Not this guy but you should have written this from the beginning. I don't use Discord, like many people I'm still wired to Skype since 15 years by habit, so seeing alternatives is kinda refreshing.

>>1838
I'm seconding using XMPP with OTR encryption
there are plenty of good, widely supported linux clients for XMPP and it is a very robust protocol

>>1839
>>1838
>>1840

Remember he's new. I still agree with what everyone said before XMPP and OTR are easy to use and have solid protocol.

Here for you op. https://wiki.xmpp.org/web/OTR

You can use it with everything, pidgin, irssi etc.

>>1827
delete your discord botnet

just about everything can be learned from searches on whatever engine you prefer. There are many guides on how to install every linux distro from easy (ubuntu graphical install) to hard (gentoo or something like that.) same goes for using a vpn. (use openvpn)

>>1827
Don't listen to these people crying calling everything botnet. Yes, everything collects your data. No, they don't watch you masturbate, they just push your data to some AI or algorithm that let's advertisers see if showing their ads to you will be useful or not. That's all. Ads that you don't even see because you have an adblock.

If you're doing illegal spooky hackerman stuff or you're into some illegal pornography or something that's another story.

>>1827
>a cheap acer laptop
sounds like the perfect laptop to run linux.

>>1864
and you're just going to accept that?
That's pretty weak

>>1867
remember that this is larpchan

>>1864

It's morally unacceptable that compagnies collect that much informaiton. Not only that but the information they collect is beyond what they need.

Remember that the way you're writing on the internet, the way you're searching, your interest is all collected.

And you're telling OP to be okay and live with it when there is clearly better alternative out there? What the hell are you even doing here?

>>1829
This is retarded for some many reasons.

>even Windows 10 is okay
>Windows 7 is still """""fine"""""

Windows 7 is less obviously botnet than 10. 10 includes all kinds of new telemetry features. You can just trust any Proprietary software, and trusting proprietary software with root is instant fail.

> learning Windows first, because knowledge is power

Why? if you are going to learn start incrementally switching to free software. Why learn how to install windows etc. The utlimate endpoint is a wealth of accumulated knowledge about a system you can never trust, and tries anyway to obscure its internals from you.

> Start by installing some antivirus/antimalware to clean up whatever's on your system right now.

Are you 10? Use Common sense not av (unless FOSS HIDS ) Why would giving root to additional corperations be a better approach to privacy if your not an absolute idiot ("I love mywebsearch").



Or. Start by switching your daily tools over to OSS equivlants. Ie. Libreoffice instead of MS Office, Firefox instead of Iexplore, VLC/Rhythem Box instead of itunes, Thunderbird instead of outlook. After you have switched, switching to linux should be relatively painless. Switch to Ubuntu first (for ease of drivers. Use propetary blobs, etc.) Let autism increase slowly.

>>1875
"better" is subjective. Going full /cyb/ means giving up a lot of the comforts of modern life. Some people would prefer to make compromises. Some people simply don't want to be woken up at all.

>>1878

Sometimes not only comforts, sometimes they're outright necessities. For example, I don't have a car, I rely on my city's transit system. My city's online transit scheduling system is actually based on Google Maps. Routes, detours, times, delays, literally everything is via Google Maps.

I can either keep printouts of the schedule PDFs of all routes on me at all times, manually work out routes, and forego detour and delay info. Or I can use Google Maps in some form (either in-browser or via their app).

FOSS purity is a nice goal. I do it as much as possible. But 100% FOSS? It's simply not an option for me.

>>1878

Better isn't subjective in the context in which it is put. Proprietary software is bad in every sense of it. Does it mean you can't use it? No, of course not but recommending someone that came here asking to understand and escape the "botnet" and telling him that Windows 10 is okay is pretty counter-productive in my book.

>people simply don't want to be woken up at all

I completely agree with you, but in our current situation OP is looking for advanced advice and knowledge about the mass surveillance problem we're facing. Which is inevitable that OP will have to trade is comfortable technology life if he desire to escape the "botnet"

In the end going full /cyb/ out of nowhere is almost impossible but OP ask OP receive.

>>1875
>It's morally unacceptable that compagnies collect that much informaiton
And this is the hypocrisy of /cyb/. When you are hacking a company your actions are justified because "information must be free", while they take your information you cry "muh privacy". If you want to protect some information, you should be able to, and you ARE able to. But that doesn't mean you HAVE TO protect all of your information at all times. You should care about these things only if you have information that might get you in trouble, which clearly doesn't apply to everyone.

>Remember that the way you're writing on the internet, the way you're searching, your interest is all collected

Imagine there's a skyscraper in your town that is so high that someone who stands on top can see every street.
Imagine there's a guy sitting there with binoculars. Would you stop going out of your apartment just because he sees you, and MIGHT be watching you more specifically than he watches others? Would you wear a mask every time you go out?

There already might be such a person, who watches you every time you go out of your apartment. Do you wear a mask all the time? Someone might be watching you while you are in your apartment as well. Do you keep your curtains closed at all times? Do you really care? Should you care? Is this a "better alternative" than just simply not caring?

>>1879

I can understand that 100% FOSS isn't realistic like i said here >>1880 That doesn't mean you can't use proprietary software. I mean you obviously need to know how windows work if you are to start going /cyb/. But OP clearly ask to learn how /cyb/ recommending to stick with is soykaf is useless information the fact that now he knows what FOSS is why he should use it is important piece of information that would help him make better choice in a near future.

give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime

>>1881

Your first paragraph is the definition of "I have nothing to hide and so i have nothing to fear" arguments which is wrong on many level. It has been debunked some many time and yet on /cyb/ there is still people that doesn't understand it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_to_hide_argument

In your second paragraph you bring a interesting point. The difference here is quite obvious there is things i can control and things that i cannot. Which make this skyscraper allegory is completely false. The digital world (Which i can control) give me the choice to decide whether or not i give away information. In the real world i do not have such choice does it make it more right to simply not care? Hell no, that why you do what you can to protect yourself.

>>1883
>Your first paragraph is the definition of "I have nothing to hide and so i have nothing to fear" arguments which is wrong on many level.
That argument is made when your privacy is taken away from you without your consent, and you have no way to stop it.

I am against government watching everyone through cameras. But if they gave me a choice, like (and I'm making this up at the spot I know it's not the best example):
"if you want we can delete you from every record we have. Whenever a camera sees you, your body will be replaced by a black rectangle. But if you do this you won't have any proof in case you are assaulted, because you cannot prove that the person in the video is yourself." then I would be fine with the system, because they give people the choice. And I wouldn't want them to delete me.

You have the choice to protect your information on the internet, like you said in the second paragraph. But you don't HAVE TO protect your information. You might simply not care and let them datamine you if the information you have isn't that important and if you want to keep using certain software and features.

All I'm saying that it isn't a necessity, like many people here tend to imply. It's a choice, and in some ways a sacrifice. There is no need for you to do it unless you have something to hide.

"I have nothing to hide so I'm fine with not having the choice to hide my data"
isn't the same as
"I have nothing to hide so, even though I have the choice to hide my information, I won't because I don't care and I want to use these certain features and software that collect my data."

>>1881

I almost forgot the last part my bad.
>Do you really care? Should you care? Is this a "better alternative" than just simply not caring

Like i previously said here >>1883 You mix thing up. Keep in mind there is thing you can control other that you cannot. As for do i care and should i, I immensely do care and you should to for your own good. Why you might ask? The day your government decide to flip the switch and become a totalitarian regime in a digital age where data is collected and make profile of you and kept for ages. What would you to protect yourself from something that wasn't illegal 10 years ago and now is punishable by death? The answer is simple nothing, your are powerless because you didn't care when the time was right. This is a example, a extreme one yes but completely viable that represent the danger of not caring of the privacy and data collection that happening right now.

>>1884

Well i see what your are trying to say.

>That argument is made when your privacy is taken away from you without your consent, and you have no way to stop it
It is not made when the privacy is taken from you. Because that required to have privacy in the first place. In 2017 you don't have privacy on the internet or rather to obtain one is really difficult. Why? Because everything as been made to make it impossible everything that is popular now day is made to be a tracker, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Snap Chat etc etc etc It not you don't have a choice you gave your Privacy voluntarily without thinking the consequences that such program would have. Look couple day ago Facebook ask people to send nudes to protect them, how intrusive can we go before people say stop. Same goes with your example of the camera, that would be truly a good step ahead but it simply would never happen you don't even know what they use for, they simply collect information non-stop 24/7 all year. Everything is connected to everything and go knows what would happen if someone decided to use it. That would be the biggest totalitarian regime ever made if it's not already the case.

As for the second part of your argument being you simply don't care. I can understand that for the time being you don't but the reality is probably that you do without realizing it. You lock your door when you go to the bathroom, you lock the door when you go out of your home, your phone has a password, email, account on porn site, youtube, games everything. You protect what you own and it should be the same with your metadata it a part of you see it as the shadow that follow you everywhere is says so much about you that we might as well say that i read in your mind with it. If you don't care give them to me. would you? You said you don't care so give me the metadata you let corps collect freely. Browser history, location, name, where you are what you are eating, what you paid for, where you are living etc. This information that you don't care right them here and let everybody see that you don't care.

>>1885
>>1886
>The day your government decide to flip the switch and become a totalitarian regime in a digital age where data is collected and make profile of you and kept for ages. What would you to protect yourself from something that wasn't illegal 10 years ago and now is punishable by death?

You got me there. I was wrong, every data is important, and you probably should secure all your data. But these days the only way to protect your data from social media, from anything really, is to not use it. Is security worth isolation? Maybe it is, but I'll prefer taking the risk, at least for now.

I mean, the sole purpose of the Web is to connet people to information and to each other, and these days every step towards privacy is a step away from that. Correct me if I'm wrong.

>>1887

Yes and no, you make a point when you say it's a step back, but i see it probably on a different lens.

The problem is the metadata the consequences is the isolation protecting your metadata. I would say again you can use proprietary software but having in mind they collect information on you make you more aware of what to share and what to not which is already good enough for me me. Most people simply don't want to deal with it anymore so they loses pretty much every technological comfort they have to escape this mass surveillance system.

So the question does it disconnect you from people could be answers by no. because their is alternative out there not as comfortable but that respect the user privacy. Your point is still valuable and up to date, most people don't want to deal with such complicated pieces of software. This is why apps like Signal is more user friendly. People are trying to make things easier for Joe and Jane out here. I can connect with you right now using Tor browser and my privacy is respected on the software level, i can user IRC, XMPP-OTR.

(It's the morning right now and I'm not fully awake hope i was clear nonetheless)

>>1876
Alrighty kiddo.

>You can just trust any Proprietary
>software, and trusting proprietary
>software with root is instant fail.
Nice grossly inaccurate blanket statement you got there.
While the existence of proprietary software that is malicious certainly exists, it does not mean that all proprietary software is malicious. Seeing as how you push projects like Firefox, you seem to also forget that just because software is open source, does not mean it is privacy respecting– lest we forget the telemetry sent back from SJWfox to cuckzilla.

>Why learn Windows, the most used desktop operating system on Earth?

Hmm, the question almost answers itself but just in case you're still facefull of OSS cock and missed the point, here it is again:

Windows, whether you like it or not, continues to dominate the market. Knowledge of how it works will serve anyone well, not just OP. Do you want to get in to the cybersec business? You will start at tech support level. Guess what systems you'll be servicing. Hint: it's not a riced out arch bspwm+ncmpcpcppcncp ganoo plus leenux toaster. It'll be your org's workstations, which will most likely run Windows.

Also, one cannot appreciate something good unless they experience something bad in comparison. If you want OP to appreciate Linux, the best course of action is to have them get so familiar with Win32 that they never want to use it again.

>antivirus is bad!!!!
holy fuck, this is a cybersecurity board. you can't be here.

>calling it iexplore to sound edgy
>not using the name that it has
Stop posting.

>>1919
>You will start at tech support level. Guess what systems you'll be servicing.
Being proprietary tech support in current year is irrelevant since Windows and systems alike switch to software as service model. All tech support will be handled by pajeets and systems don't break that much overall. Everything else is done by VNC systems with thin clients on user's desks, which is again some flavor of Linux. The real "cybersec business" usually involves datacenters and bsd servers, and people with UNIX knowledge jump right to that.
>>antivirus is bad!!!!
>holy fuck, this is a cybersecurity board. you can't be here.
Antivirus software is as much relevant to cybercecurity as snake oils and weedroot soup to medicine.
Okay, I'm done with larpchan. Kids here are contrarian for the sake of being contrarian. Keep playing super cyberpunk hackers using Windows Totally Not Spyware Edition 10® and discussing your epik hax on Discord™.

>>1919

First if you want to make in sort that you point get across whether your right or wrong you should probably try to be nicer.

It's true Windows does indeed dominate the market, does it mean it's safe? No. We're aren't talking about Joe and Janes here, If you want to protect yourself using a backdoor OS like Windows 10 is pointless even in cybsec business their client don't even use Windows 10. How do i know that? Simple because if a cybsec business actually dealt with client using Windows 10 the first thing they would do is to make them install Gnu/Linux. Of course it's not gonna be Arch linux full rice but it's still going to be a gnu/linux distro. You need to understand that using a already well known operating system with extreme security hole is a instant fail in cyber security world.

>>Antivirus is bad
> holy fuck, this is a cybersecurity board. you can't be here.

Antivirus are in most case a placebo effect to gave the user a sense of security. It's a business model to make money.