managing and protecting nyms...

[John Case]

On Fri, 6 Nov 2009, StealthMonger wrote:

>> I don't use a nym-server.  Usually.  There are other ways to get
>> comparable anonymity.
>
> Please explain other ways to be practically untraceable.


Shell providing and VPS providing is a cut throat business.  It might take 
a few contacts (with a throwaway yahoo email you create through Tor) but 
you _will_ find someone to take your money (in cash).  Lifetime or 
multi-annual payments in advance usually do the trick.

The previously mentioned Simon gift cards could fit into this, but why 
bother.

Never touch the account, save through Tor.  So it's the same model you use 
with a nym-server, but whereas all of your obfuscation is after your email 
account, all of this obfuscation is prior to the email account (through 
Tor).


@ John Young:


> Cypherpunks should be the last place to disclose a protection
> methodology except, perhaps, only perhaps, as a ploy to deceive.
>
> Recall repeated warnings here to never disclose in a public
> forum an ultimate protection scheme. Spread copious FUD,
> hope it sticks. Could be that is what this thread is about.


I don't know that this even rises to the level of a "protection 
methodology" - it's more along the lines of "survey the current landscape 
and choose an available, and obvious route".  As for robustness, either 
Tor is broken/vulnerable or it's not.


@ Eugen Leitl:


>> My threat model is an unknown future adversary with unpredictable
>> motivations.
>
> Weird. I can think of many current adversaries with very simple
> motivations I can do very little to nothing about. This assymmetry
> will only grow further in future, since the concentration of smarter,
> more vulnerable hardware will only get larger, and the delta
> between my and their capabilities will only grow wider.


Sorry - I was obtuse there.  What I meant was, in addition to the 
technical unknowns that grow over time, and the predictable and visible 
social pressures, there are also the acute unknowns - like french 
revolutions and bolsheviks and "year zero" folks.  Those are the unknowns 
who could just as easily be after anyone that advocated net neutrality, or 
supported Tor or spoke on behalf of anonymity as they are after obvious 
bozos who blatantly threaten public figures.

That's why _I_ keep a firewall between my real self and my nyms - year 
zero types don't need a good reason, they just need fuel, period.


> My only protection is that I'm not doing anything which could
> draw their (not meaning flatfeet or gumshoes here) attention.


Of course.  Goes without saying.  But I think there is actually a lot less 
distance (in terms of danger) between assassination politics and "just 
talking about Tor".

Or maybe the future revolutionary just fat-fingers the database query.

Either way, your name comes up.