Welcome to part nine of this module.
We come at last to the tales operating system.
I've mentioned it many times and now it's time that we take a look at it.
Tails is alive operating system that you can start on almost any computer using a U.S. B stick or a
tails image burned onto a DVD.
It has one single purpose to preserve your privacy and anonymity.
It helps you to use the Internet anonymously and to circumvent censorship tails automatically forces
all connections to the Internet through the Tor network.
I said in the last video that Tor is not a VPN but all of the applications that come bundled with tales
connect through Tor by default.
The best thing about Thales is that it leaves no trace on your computer.
After you're done using it unless you explicitly set it up to do so it uses state of the art cryptographic
tools to encrypt your files emails and instant messaging when you're done using tails and shut off your
computer.
Nothing whatsoever gets saved on it.
No fingerprints no traces no log files.
No nothing.
No impossible to delete super cookies.
No malware no nothing because Thales runs in RAM.
Every session is like a freshly installed operating system.
Thales also has built in security features.
It aims to alter all of your computers identifying characteristics information which could leak in a
variety of ways and it masks them.
All of these with default values.
This means that a website or service that manages to detect these values will see the same set of values
for every user of the operating system.
Nothing that uniquely identifies your personal computer should leak.
The single exception may be HDMI L5 canvassing information.
And for that reason you are encouraged not to maximize tor browser when you're using it.
Tails will even change your mac address by default as soon as you connect to it.
There are many ways you can use tails you converted onto a DVD or U.S. B stick and live boot your system
or you can use a method described on the Thales website with two U.S. B sticks.
The second method will allow you to have a level of secure persistence in that you can save files and
applications between sessions on the second USP stick.
If you don't care about persistence just go ahead and through the tails iso on a single USP with Rufus
or burn it onto a DVD and have at it.
This will be shown first.
We'll be covering the two USP method however one thing I do want to say really quick before we start
in this video you'll see me using tails inside virtual box.
This is because given the nature of tails it is not possible to install any kind of recording software
and obtain video footage during a live boot prior to setting up persistence.
So in order to have anything visual to show you I need to be using tails in this way for the first step
of the two USP setup method.
However using tails and virtual box is not necessarily the best idea.
It is something that you can do.
However there are special security considerations and we'll talk about those towards the end of the
video.
Last but not least I apologize if the aspect ratio of the tails screen is not perfect but this was the
best that could be done under the circumstances.
So without further ado let's jump right in.
The first thing that we need to do is download Tales From The Web site.
Please note that there is no longer a 32 bit version being offered.
You will need to download the tales iso image you will want to verify the authenticity of your download
and since that was shown in the prior video I I'm not going to cover that again here to save time I've
already gone ahead and downloaded the tales.
Iso image and having already seen Rufus in prior videos I assume that it will need no further explanation.
However if you need a refresher you can download Rufus from HP s Rufus start i.e. it's a very simple
and small file once you double click it you'll be presented with this front end and I should add that
burning tails iso image to a DVD disk is also permissible.
And if you decide to go that route you don't need Rufus at all and just whatever DVD burning software
you would typically use if you haven't already.
Go ahead and plug in the USP device that you want to install tails on.
Remember anything currently stored on this device will be deleted by this process.
If your device does not immediately appear.
Click on the device dragged down.
There we go next under the boot selection menu.
Make sure that disk or iso image is selected then press the select button and go ahead and select your
tails iso image next.
Make certain you choose the correct partition scheme.
This is actually very important.
It will probably show NBER by default with a target system of bias or you EFI.
If your system is using GP t partitioning and you don't have any kind of legacy bootloader enabled a
U.S. B stick formatted as NPR will not show up as a beautiful option when you try to live boot your
computer by the same token if you select GP T and your system is using MPR the same problem will happen.
Also remember that if your computer has one of those rare biopsies that has the Secure Boot feature
it may be necessary to disable this feature in order to boot any non Windows Media.
This is done at your own risk.
However once you've made the correct selection and you need to be sure that the choice is right for
your system all you need to do is click the Start button.
Remember this will erase anything on the selected USP device.
So be 100 percent sure before proceeding.
Once you live but your system using tales you'll see a screen that looks like this.
And once again I apologize for the aspect ratio.
This should look better when we get to the live system for the moment.
This is the greeter screen.
Now we can just start tails.
However we have the option to add additional settings if we click on the plus button.
We can turn off MAC address spoofing if we wanted to adjust our network connection.
But the one that we're interested in is the administrator password.
If we double click on this we can set whatever password we like.
Now it is your option if you wish to set an administrator password.
However if you choose not to set one you will not be able to perform any action that would require super
user privileges.
Every time you reboot the tables operating system you will have to set a password.
If you want one it will not persist between boots and this is true even when you're using a persistent
system as will be shown.
So for the moment I'm going to go ahead and just type in password and then we click add and now will
click Start tails once tails is finally up and running we'll get this rather minimalistic looking screen
that is kind of reminiscent of Windows XP.
The system isn't really pretty to look at but it's not really intended to be.
Once again you're seeing me use this in virtual box for this step with the tutorial because there's
no other way to record this during a live boot prior to setting up persistence.
Now you can use tales in virtual box if you prefer but this is strongly discouraged.
Tails has many security features as has been mentioned such as changing key identifying characteristics
about your computer such as your MAC address.
These simply do not work in virtual box and the host operating system can see and potentially record
everything you do while using a virtual tales.
It ends up being about the equivalent level of security of just using Tor in windows.
As was shown in the last video in any case.
So you've booted into your system using a USP or DVD.
You've been prompted to begin your MAC address and other key identifying markers have been changed or
obscured and you're ready to roll.
It is completely possible to use tails as it is right now without taking any further steps.
You can connect to the Internet and then press the little onion icon up here which currently has an
X through it.
And when you do that you'll be ready to get started with Tor.
You'll get a message telling you that the Tor circuits are ready and then you can just open up your
Tor Browser and get going.
Remember that you have no persistence if you choose this method.
Anything you do using the operating system in this way gets you raced as soon as you shut it down.
You can always plug in a second USP to store things in the normal way.
All of this isn't particularly secure unless you encrypt it either way many people use tales like this.
If you do just remember things like your electronic wallet in your key manager will be erased when you
reboot if on the other hand you do want persistence it's time for the next step for this you will need
a second USP device plugin that USP now and then open up the applications menu go down to tables and
select the tables installer make absolutely certain that you've got the correct USP device selected
under the target U.S. B stick dragged down menu.
If you used a first USP stick to boot tails make sure you don't select the one the operating system
is currently running on.
In other words use a second USP stick for this.
If you have a tails iso image that is stored on separate media you can select it.
But the easiest thing to do is simply to select the clone.
The current tails radial button which is selected by default.
And when you're ready click the install button to get started.
You will need to confirm an all data on the USP stick will be lost when you're ready click install and
this will take some time usually about 5 to 10 minutes depending on your system and your USP read write
speeds.
Once this is done you can use the second USP stick to live boot and we'll pick up from there.
And welcome back.
You may have noticed that the screen resolution has changed.
I do apologize again.
Tails is not a very conducive environment for video recording and even playing with the settings and
next render really didn't help.
However what you're now seeing is an actual live boot of the operating system from USP persistence to
configure persistence options.
We just need to go up to applications system tools and select configure persistent volume these options
can be toggled on and off.
Be aware that if you turn one off and then reboot that information is going to be permanently lost.
These options are fairly self-explanatory.
The first personal data refers to a folder called persistence that you'll find in the file directory.
Anything stored in this folder will not be deleted across sessions.
If you store personal files in any other location such as the desktop for example these will be lost
when you shut down so please keep that in mind browser bookmarks refers to both Tor and clear net browser.
Keeping this on is handy to save all of those confusing deep web links that you may acquire network
connection will save your router information so that you don't have to enter your password to log in
every single time.
Although again this is very personally identifying additional software is a blanket category that covers
anything else that you might wish to install.
However one thing that you may wish to keep in mind is that every time you boot tails that software
will automatically install itself fresh.
And this may take quite a while.
Use this option with care printers safe printer information Thunderbird can be saved as well if you
use it but Jean you P G and Bitcoin client are probably the two most important settings here.
Without these toggled on all of your keys and all of your cryptocurrency will be lost once you shut
down.
I strongly recommend that you back up your wallet and keys by some other means even if you do use persistence.
However that is up to you.
Finally SS H keys and dot files can also be stored once your generally happy with the configuration
click save.
Remember if it is not in the persistence folder or one of the things being covered on this list it will
not be saved between sessions.
Another thing I need to mention is that if we go down to system tools.
Notice that there are two terminals a regular and a route terminal.
These are both your typical Linux terminals not that different from what you're used to by now in Cali.
However if you neglect to set administrator password there is no way to utilize any command that requires
super user privileges.
This can be fixed by rebooting.
Which brings up the greeter screen and then you just click the plus button and add the password as you
saw and administrator password must be set each time you start a new session.
If you want one.
Notice that we also have the ability to unlocked very crypt volumes.
This isn't actually very script one would just add the file container or specify the drive using the
ad command.
It is of course possible to install the Linux version of either very script or true crypt to allow for
full functionality.
Actually recommend this since it provides an extra layer of security within your persistent volume but
it is of course your option like most Linux installations tales comes pre bundled with quite a lot of
software.
Most of these are just your basic expected tools tools for dealing with graphics or office tools such
as Liberal office calculators and the like.
The only programs that you really need to be aware of that are somewhat unique are the bitcoin wallet
key manager and the unsafe browser which I'll talk about shortly.
The rest of these programs are pretty much what you would expect if you're using persistence.
You can add new programs to these lists if you want to but remember that anything you do add has the
potential to compromise the security of your tables installation.
So be very very careful about adding additional software if we travel up to the right hand corner we
can notice that the down arrow allows us to select our router and change the brightness and volume the
arrow next to the E N allows us to specify our language and keyboard layout.
The default is English the onion icon allows us to open up our Tor relay circuits and if we press the
Windows key we can gain access to the side menu containing the Tor browser as well as other applications.
Finally if we click on the little clipboard icon in the upper right hand corner we can see that we have
the option to encrypt the clipboard with a passphrase sign encrypt clipboard with public keys open a
text editor which is self-explanatory or manage keys when we click on manage keys were brought into
our key manager.
This manager is just a slightly more sophisticated version of the GM new manager that we saw on the
prior video.
If we click on the GM UPC keys we can see that Thales comes pre bundled with all real keys relevant
to it and this manager works exactly the same way as the Windows version.
If we go to file we can import keys export them or even create new ones.
As you can see it's really just this easy.
We'll go ahead and name our key something and put in our other information or email address which doesn't
have to be real and we have advanced options.
We can leave a comment if we like.
I'm not being very creative here but this is just a demonstration.
Go ahead and click the button and enter our passphrase for administrator privileges.
Give it a minute.
And there we go.
The key has been created and added to our manager.
Just that easy.
For more information on p. GP in general and key management please see the prior module that covered
it.
And finally the last thing to do of course is to go ahead and load up tor itself and the very first
thing to do when launching Tor is to go up to the security settings and make sure they are correct.
Because remember they aren't always correct by default.
I strongly recommend toggling the setting up to safest even though this may break certain Web sites.
We also want to come over and make sure that the no script is on by default.
It should be but in older versions it wasn't always and this was bad beyond changing the MAC address.
Tales obscures many facts about your system that might otherwise leak and be used to identify your computer
rather like a unique fingerprint.
It does this by changing these values to generic ones shared by old tails users.
It is therefore somewhat easy to determine if a person is using tails but very difficult to determine
anything specific about the computer that it is running on how you use tails is really up to you.
If you do not require persistence then all you need to do is Bernard on burn the ISO to a DVD or use
Rufus to install it to a USB stick.
Browse with it then be secure knowing that every trace of your activity on the computer that you're
using goes away when you shut it down.
If you want to be able to store files keys wallets and bookmarks then use the two USP method shown here
for persistence.
Tails will not protect you if you do not observe good operating security in what you do online.
There are many ways that you can unmask yourself and covering all of them would be impossible generally
speaking.
You should not use tales as a day to day operating system for doing mundane Internet activity that connects
to your personal identity.
You should really reserve it for times when you truly wish to remain anonymous.
But again this is up to you in the next video.
We are going to be covering virtual private networks or VPN ends.
But I do need to make a quick statement about VPN as they relate to tales when you are using Tor your
Internet service provider can see that you are connected to the TOR network.
Your ISP can't see your specific Internet traffic but there will be a record that you are on Tor if
you are on a shared network your network administrator will also be able to see this information.
A VPN has the advantage of hiding the fact that you are using Tor from these watchful eyes.
It is possible with a VPN router or other rather complicated steps to use a VPN with tales and there
are pros and cons of doing this which will be covered in greater detail in the next video.
After we cover in general what a VPN is.
I hope you found this presentation helpful and that tales proves a useful tool for your tool box.
Thank you.