Not just for spies: The PC on a memory stick that doesn't leave a trace of your browsing history or documents

[Geee]

Daily Caller:

If you are either super important, super paranoid, or a super spy, there are times when you need to be able to use a computer - and not leave a trace.

Now, a clever piece of software lets you carry your own personal PC which you can carry inside your pocket - and once you have finished using it, no-one will ever know.

Technically, what you are carrying is not a whole computer - instead it is a simple USB memory stick.

But within it is a full operating system (like Windows), and when you plug it into a PC, that computer will restart into your own personal set-up, called Tails.

When you have finished, shut down the computer, put the USB stick back in your pocket, and the PC will never know it has been used.

 

The Tails software, which uses an operating system called Linux, can even be skinned to look like Windows XP

As everything the user does is contained within Tails' - the software on a stick - not a single trace is left on the original PC.

That means no cookies of websites browsed, no chance of documents being left in a Recycle Bin.

 

Tails uses Linux, an alternative and open-source operating system with Tux the penguin as a mascot

There are a few steps in order to install the set-up, but the main skills needed include an ability to download files off the web, and the ability to burn a DVD disc, which is the simpler method, or for advanced users, the files can be placed onto a 'bootable' USB stick.

[NCTexan]

Very interesting and kinda scary.

 

I'm doing the book "Ghost in the Wires" about the super hacker Kevin Mitnick. He would have loved this technology in his prime hacking days....

 

Ghost in the Wires

[pollyannaish]

While this definitely has implications for the world, I have always felt so sorry for any schlub that had to follow my browser history for any period of time.

 

 

1. Check TRR

2. Check Facebook

3. Start to check drudge then look up a recipe for jello.

4. look for who invented jello.

5. look for Bill Cosby biographies.

6.'watch half an episode of I spy on Hulu.

7. Research owners of Hulu

8. Check TRR

 

Rinse and repeat through out day.

 

[Geee]

While this definitely has implications for the world, I have always felt so sorry for any schlub that had to follow my browser history for any period of time.

 

 

1. Check TRR

2. Check Facebook

3. Start to check drudge then look up a recipe for jello.

4. look for who invented jello.

5. look for Bill Cosby biographies.

6.'watch half an episode of I spy on Hulu.

7. Research owners of Hulu

8. Check TRR

 

Rinse and repeat through out day.

 

Copy cat!!!!

[Valin]

Very interesting and kinda scary.

 

I'm doing the book "Ghost in the Wires" about the super hacker Kevin Mitnick. He would have loved this technology in his prime hacking days....

 

Ghost in the Wires

 

You also might want to look at The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage

 

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2000

Cliff Stoll was an astronomer turned systems manager at Lawrence Berkeley Lab when a 75-cent accounting error alerted him to the presence of an unauthorized user on his system. The hacker's code name was "Hunter" -- a mystery invader hiding inside a twisting electronic labyrinth, breaking into U.S. computer systems and stealing sensitive military and security information. Stoll began a one-man hunt of his own, spying on the spy -- and plunged into an incredible international probe that finally gained the attention of top U.S. counterintelligence agents. The Cuckoo's Egg is his wild and suspenseful true story -- a year of deception, broken codes, satellites, missile bases, and the ultimate sting operation -- and how one ingenious American trapped a spy ring paid in cash and cocaine, and reporting to the KGB.

 

 

I love this kind of stuff.