What you’re going to realise pretty quickly 2
is that if you have a high need for security and/or privacy, 3
that this can be somewhat incompatible 4
with things being quick and easy, 5
if you try to do it all within the same environment or operating system. 6
So what I’m talking about here is Security Domains and Isolation, 7
and having different Security Domains and Isolation. 8
Sadly, it can be very difficult to get the operating system 9
that you use for daily use to be highly secure and to maintain privacy, 10
plus be fast enough for applications you might want to run 11
and for it to be easy to use. 12
So, if you want to use games 13
then if you’ve got full disk encryption, 14
it’s going to slow it down, as an example. 15
Which is why for everyday use, 16
you might have a low Security and/or Privacy Domain, 17
and when you want stronger security and/or privacy, 18
you use a different approach of Security Domain. 19
Security Domains are generally really either physical or virtual 20
in terms of how you can separate them in some way. 21
An example of a Physical Security Domain 22
could be that you have one lock down physical machine or laptop, 23
and the operating system and everything in it 24
is configured in a certain way that that gives you high security. 25
And you have another physical machine or laptop, 26
and that is for general use. 27
So that’s an example of a Physical Security Domain. 28
And you can also have Virtual Security Domains or Isolation. 29
A virtual example could be using Platform Virtualization software 30
or Hypervisors which, as we’ve discussed, 31
and you’ve seen, is software that emulates a whole physical computer, 32
and can often emulate multiple physical platforms. 33
Like having Windows as your Low Security Domain, 34
and perhaps a virtual machine that has Debian in it 35
for your High Security Domain. 36
There are actually quite a few options to give you 37
different Security Domains and Isolations 38
that aren’t too onerous, 39
including virtual machines is a good example. 40
So you can set yourself up these separate Security Domains or environments 41
if you really want to beef up security and privacy. 42
Virtual Isolation provides a barrier to compromise. 43
So if you have a virtual machine guest operating system, 44
so say for example Debian, 45
if this was compromised and your host operating system, say Windows, 46
then that would be difficult to access, 47
it would be difficult to get from Debian to Windows through the Hypervisor. 48
The Hypervisor would need to be exploitable, 49
or it would have to be poorly configured in some way 50
like you’ve allowed file sharing or something like that in order, 51
so the exploit from the Debian to the Windows environment can be done. 52
It’s worth noting that if security and/or privacy are paramount, 53
then you literally will need separate Security Domains for different tasks. 54
Not necessarily physical, but at least virtual. 55
The level of security you need to maintain high privacy 56
isn’t practical for day to day use of the internet. 57
Think about the type of Security Domains 58
that you might want as you go through the course. 59
Domains you might have in extreme cases could be Work Domain, 60
Personal, Banking, 61
a Temporary Domain: a Non-persistent Domain 62
that is used temporarily and then it’s destroyed, a High Privacy Domain. 63
All of these are possible in different ways with different techniques 64
and not necessarily that onerous, depending on how you set them up. 65
Let’s talk more about Physical Isolation. 66
Physical Separation provides the highest level of security and privacy. 67
It also protects you against any adversary 68
that has physical access to your device. 69
This would mean a different laptop or physical device 70
configured for security and/or privacy, and another for general use. 71
Let’s talk about some of the situations where Physical might make sense, 72
or a Physical Security Domain. 73
If you need, for example to enter a country 74
where Customs can access your laptop, 75
which to be clear is most countries, 76
many which have laws to force you to give up your password, 77
or can take your laptop, 78
or other countries where it’s even worse, 79
where they can use forms of threats and intimidation, 80
and abuse, and violence 81
in order for you to disclose your password 82
or get access to your laptop. 83
With Physical Separation, 84
you simply don’t take the laptop with the sensitive information 85
or the things you’re trying to keep private away from them. 86
This is something that I’ve actually had to recommend for Corporate clients 87
who need to travel to particular area’s or parts of the world 88
where they have valuable information 89
that we knew the Governments would potentially want to get hold of. 90
Those clients don’t want to be in a situation 91
where they have to resist forms of intimidation. 92
So do consider the laws of other countries if you travel. 93
Even adult material could be a crime in other legal jurisdictions. 94
If you have a Threat Agent that could visit your location, 95
you can physically hide or lock away a secure laptop, 96
making it impossible for it to be forensically examined 97
if they can’t actually find it. 98
And you keep a more standard laptop available. 99
With Physical Separation, 100
if your standard laptop is compromised by your Threat Agent, 101
that could be via Malware or via some other means, 102
because you have kept Physical Separation, 103
they can’t get access to your secure data from your standard laptop. 104
You don’t even have to use your own equipment 105
when it comes to Physical Isolation or a Physical Security Domain. 106
This can be dangerous, of course, 107
to use other people’s equipment for both privacy and security 108
if you don't take the right precautions, 109
which we'll cover as part of the course. 110
But you could use, for example, 111
an internet café to send an anonymous message. 112
You could also maybe boot that machine 113
with your own operating system and configurations. 114
You could use a internet connection that you don’t own, for privacy, 115
these are all separations of Physical Security Domains. 116
You could have a separate router, 117
or separate network equipment for a particular type of privacy activity. 118
You could have separate network cards, 119
or WiFi cards or Ethernet adaptors. 120
Physical devices can be tied back to the purchaser in some instances. 121
For example, the network cards within physical devices 122
have unique MAC addresses or hardware addresses. 123
If you purchase your secure laptop anonymously, 124
then the MAC, if somebody is able to determine it, 125
cannot be traced back to you. 126
There are ways to change your MAC address 127
which we can cover if you’re using a Virtual form of Security Domain. 128
But having an anonymously purchased laptop 129
provides an extra lair within the Physical Domain of Security. 130
Some Virtual Isolation is slow, 131
for example using virtual machines or hidden operating systems 132
and having a separate machine for speed and usability might be needed. 133
There are quite a few disadvantages though to having Physical Separation. 134
It means that you have to have another machine, which, 135
or multiple machines if you want different Security Domains, 136
which is cumbersome, and it’s expensive 137
and it can just generally be annoying and just inconvenient for your situation. 138
Transferring data between physical machines 139
really breaks Physical Isolation and it breaks those separate Security Domains, 140
so it’s hard to transfer data securely. 141
Physically separate machines are also just as vulnerable to attack, 142
even though they’re in separate domains. 143
So just having a separate machine is no good, it has to be secure as well. 144
The more domains you have or the more machines you have, 145
you end up having to keep them all up to date 146
and you have to keep them all secure. 147
And also, Malware has been known to bridge physical devices 148
called the Air Gap and that has been demonstrated, 149
which we'll discuss more about. 150
So there are some cases for Physical Separation 151
and Physical Security Domains, 152
and this is something that will be unique to your situation 153
as to whether or not you think you need a Physical Security Domain. 154
Let’s talk about some of the virtual ways you can create 155
separate Security Domains and Isolation. 156
First point worth making is that Virtual Separation, 157
a technology used to create the virtualisation can be attacked 158
in attempt to bypass the one Security Domain 159
and get into the other. 160
To create separate domains you could do things like dual booting, 161
you can use Platform virtualisation software and hypervisors, 162
the likes of VMware, Virtualbox, 163
Vagrant, Hyper-V, VPC. 164
There’s also Kernel Virtual Machine, 165
there’s Jails or BSD Jails, 166
Zones, Linux Containers, Docker. 167
You can also have hidden operating systems, 168
VeraCrypt and TrueCrypt provide that functionality. 169
You can have separate hard drive partitions 170
that are encrypted and hidden. 171
You can have things like Sandboxes. 172
You can have portable apps. 173
You can have non-persistent operating systems like Tails, 174
Knoppix, Puppy Linux, 175
JonDo Live, Tiny Core Linux. 176
You can have bootable USBs. 177
You can have operating systems 178
that are dedicated to Isolation/Separation like Qubes, 179
which is a very good operating system. 180
So there are lots of ways to create Security Domains 181
through Isolation and Separation. 182
And the useful ones we'll be covering throughout the course.