Threat model: Parents

Gadit Bielman thetransintransgenic at gmail.com
Sun May 31 12:35:27 PDT 2015


Heh. Yeah, parents don't even need to try to find a 5$ wrench.

There are smartphone-spying stuff, also, though. (*cough-mSpy-cough*
http://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/05/mobile-spy-software-maker-mspy-hacked-customer-data-leaked/
)
Are there any strategies to detecting that?

Also, money/resources is a major issue in this threat model -- I don't see
it likely that a child/teenager will feel like 35$/year for a little more
security is worth it. I'm not even sure if I wanna assume they'll be able
to put down 50$ for a Raspberry Pi and USB mouse and Keyboard.

Using some sort of VM sounds like the best solution, because it allows for
just minimizing when parents come to look. Unless, again, there is
screenshotting going on -- in which case, how would you detect that, maybe
running Tails as a VM and doing something that would definitely draw the
parents but not compromise much in terms of online friendgroup,
gender/sexual orientation they might be hiding, etc. Maybe looking at porn?
That would have to take into account the consequences of that vs. the value
of knowing that parents aren't looking.

But "VMs require specific drivers", I didn't know that. Shoot.

I wonder how well you could avoid problems by just using something like a
Tails LiveUSB at night...

On Sun, May 31, 2015 at 1:19 PM, Barton Gellman <otr at riseup.net> wrote:

> Honestly, people, some of these suggestions are like a parody of geek
> advice to civilians ;-)
>
> The kid will soon hit upon the same practical solution that his or her
> peers all use: the smartphone (preferably with a VPN like Freedome), plus
> browsing at a friend's house. Wiping, Linuxing and LUKSing a family PC will
> escalate the real-life threat, and the kid's defenses will fall quickly to
> the parental equivalent of that XKCD password cartoon.
>
> If the kid has a need for full size keyboard and screen, and has a few
> more technical chops than most, there are some alternatives:
>
>  * Boot up Tails in Windows camouflage mode. Choose More Options at boot.
> Shoulder surfing will probably bust him/her anyway, sooner or later.
>  * Make one of those WinPE Windows USB drives, if real Windows is
> required. Last time I looked this wasn't that easy.
>  * Get a small, fast external drive and install the OS of choice. If the
> host is a Mac, use Carbon Copy Cloner (or dd) to copy an existing machine
> to the external drive, or do a fresh installation there. For Linux, choose
> your flavor.
>   * Get a Raspberry Pi and hook it to the keyboard and screen, at times
> when you don't expect interruption.
>   * A virtual machine may be possible on the monitored host, if the
> required drivers are already present. Probably not. See
> http://www.vbox.me/. If anyone knows a VM that works without admin
> rights, speak up.
>
> Bart
>
> Barton Gellman
> @bartongellman
> bartongellman.con
>
> On May 31, 2015, at 12:00 PM, cypherpunks-request at cpunks.org wrote:
>
> 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.
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: text/html
Size: 4715 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://lists.cpunks.org/pipermail/cypherpunks/attachments/20150531/65d7170f/attachment-0002.txt>


More information about the cypherpunks mailing list