Threat Model: Parents

[nerv]

On Sun, 31 May 2015 01:48:10 -0600
Mirimir <mirimir at riseup.net> wrote:

> On 05/31/2015 12:15 AM, Cathal (Phone) wrote:
> > Wipe the machine, install fresh and clean Linux, and then password
> > lock the BIOS.
> 
> That's excellent advice ... to someone who owns the machine. I'd say
> also to use LUKS. But maybe here that would dramatically escalate the
> confrontation. And there's also the lack of physical security.
> 
> Zenaan's advice is more appropriate in a child-parent context. If
> that's impossible, the best option is probably doing private stuff
> elsewhere.

I think trying to go against the parents themselves would be a bad idea
unless you know they can be reasoned with, but having a look seems only
fair, their children should know to what degree they should trust their
computer. 

I would personally use software such as process explorer and tcpview to
get an idea of what is running (assuming they use windows here), but if
you think the parents may be using something stronger than your usual
parental control tool maybe booting the system from a live cd and
having a look at what may be hidden from regular process managers
(might be a bit extreme, I'm not sure any parent would go that far, but
it will be pretty effective, and maybe less of a chore. If they really
are monitoring all activity on the computer they might deduce that they
are "busted", it might even "incriminate" you once they realize that
their kids shouldn't know that much about computers.)

In any case, the most likely is that they use some basic software and
just "manually" check what was the machine used for, so a small
introduction (if needed) about using computers (and the right
tools) safely and cleanly might just be enough to stop Orwellian
parents.

I never contributed to a mailing list before, hope I didn't fucked it
up 
Cheers


> > On 31 May 2015 03:24:45 GMT+01:00, Gadit Bielman
> > <thetransintransgenic at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Hi.
> >>
> >> I'm trying to help (probably badly, but..) a friend deal with
> >> parents that
> >> they expect are spying on them.
> >> I know that in general, it's impossible to secure a computer that
> >> you can't
> >> trust and don't necessarily have administrator privileges to.
> >>
> >> But their parents are not exactly the NSA -- any spying that's
> >> happening is
> >> almost definitely some sort of product, plus basic things like
> >> maybe looking through their history. (I don't know much about
> >> they're situation
> >> -- maybe they know more, so
> >> well-if-you-know-they-do-this-then-you-could-do-this type advice
> >> would still be helpful.)
> >>
> >> Would antivirus be able to detect spy-on-your-kids products? Would
> >> they be
> >> able to scan their computer with like Immunet or something, even if
> >> they
> >> didn't have administrator privileges?
> >>
> >> Tor would probably help -- unless the monitoring was looking at
> >> the RAM or
> >> something for website names, which would be way overkill on a
> >> commercial
> >> product, no? Or (more likely) if it was taking screenshots at
> >> regular intervals, which would also break running a VM or
> >> something. (Is there any
> >> way to detect taking screenshots?)
> >>
> >> I know probably the best thing would be running TAILS as a LiveCD
> >> -- the
> >> problem with that is that it's REALLY obvious over-the-shoulder.
> >>
> >>
> >> Um, thoughts about any of those?
> >> Any other things about parents as a threat model in general?
> >>
> >> I know this is pretty far from what is usually discussed on here,
> >> but I'm
> >> really interested in what you think/it would potentially help a
> >> lot of people.
> > 



-- 

Goto Daichi (nerv) <nerv at fastmail.fm>

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