SECURITY IN ORDERS OF DIFFICULTY

Not necessarily meant to be followed step by step, although it is recommended. Some steps are valid during all levels, others give way to better alternatives further on.

Basic Level Security

Level 1: Avoid using your real name online and avoid giving away any personal information. You can use The Random Identity Generator (rig) to generate an online persona and/or login sites using passwords from BugMeNot.
Level 2: Don't save your passwords on plaintext or in some "cloud" service like Lastpass and don't save logins on your phone or web browser. Create and remember one good main password (must have lowercase, uppercase, numbers and symbols, be longer than 8 characters and be change bimonthly), use KeePassX (and I mean the one with an X) and use the option to generate different passwords for each account you have and keep the password database on a USB. Other password manager is kpcli which works on the command line and is just a perl script (this is the best option).
Level 3: Choose IRC instead of non-publicly auditable chat networks. A good and easy IRC application is Hexchat, another is irssi (best option). You can use BitlBee to access other chat networks through an IRC client if you need.
Level 4: Use Searx instead of Google when in need to search on the web.
Level 5: Use Mastodon (GNU Social) instead of non-publicly auditable social networks known to sell private information.
Level 6 Use RSS for news and podcasts from sites you trust instead of Youtube (although Youtube has an RSS feed for their channels too, for now). Liferea is easy and a great application for RSS feeds, newsboat (newsbeuter) is a command line option.
Level 7: Replace your e-mail provider with a more safe, more appropriate provider. A good option is Tutanota, another alternative is cock.li.
Level 8: Use an e-mail client that can to block web beacons (tracking pixels). Thunderbird is easy and has a plugin for this. Mailx, Mutt or Alpine are better options.
Level 9: Use your web browser with javascript, cookies and any telemetry (like "pocket", geolocation and WebRTC) disabled and reduce the browser fingerprinting. Enable javascript and cookies only on selected sites. GNU IceCat is the best option.

Medium Level Security

Level 10: Install LineageOS on your phone and use F-Droid without gapps (Google app store), with IceCatMobile for web browser, KeePassDroid, AFWall+ and Android IMSI-Catcher Detector. Use Yalp Store or Aptoide (or download from apkmirror/apkpure) in combination with microG if you need a gapps app.
Level 11: Use GNU/Linux on your computers, preferably free from "systemd". PCLinuxOS is an easy first choice, Devuan is a better option. Stay away from something called BSD.
Level 12: Uninstall Avahi, CUPS (replace with Line Printer if needed), Telnet, the R-tools (rlogin, rsh, rcp, rwho, rexec), fingerd, and uninstall unused services like ssh/web/ftp/mail.
Level 13: Use Uncomplicated Firewall to block inbound AND outbound network traffic, permitting only what you need.
Level 14: Use Firejail or Bubblewrap to sandbox your applications.
Level 15: When possible give your applications a separate user account and use sudo, chroot, fakeroot, ulimit and quota with them.
Level 16: Use DNSCrypt to prevent DNS Leaking with an OpenNIC provider known to not save logs.
Level 17: Use YaCy with collaborative database disabled when in need to search on the web.
Level 18: Use the Tor Browser to navigate the internet through Tor.
Level 19: Encrypt your e-mails with GnuPG. Thunderbird has the Enigmail plugin for this, you can script the use of GPG on Mutt.
Level 20: Delete any metadata from files you share on the internet. ExifTool in combination with renamer is a good option.
Level 21: Anonymize your writting style on any text with anti stylometry software like Anonymouth when you share documents.
Level 22: Use qmail for your own e-mail server. Exim and cmail are other options.
Level 23: Use Squid for caching websites.

High Level Security

Level 24: Use a source based distro, preferably without crypto libraries on its package manager (no Python). Source Mage is advised and it is easy to setup.
Level 25: Use the IRC, e-mail and torrent services available inside i2p, and use Tor as an outproxy for i2p when in need to access the regular web (only for browsing).
Level 26: Use a command line web browser like links2 and only browse web pages without javascript or cookies.
Level 27: Set a tight configuration for iptables on each port open and drop packets for everything. Use nftables on newer kernels.
Level 28: Use port forwarding and a port knocker on your router or server and unregister your reverse dns records.
Level 29: Use Bastille Linux to harden your system.
Level 30: Use Lynis to audit your system.
Level 31: Use Arpalert/ArpON (for Man-In-The-Middle -MITM- Detection), zapret (for Deep Packet Inspection -DPI- Block and Circumvention), and Suricata/Snort (for Network Intrusion Detection).
Level 32: Use a complete host intrusion detection framework like Tiger, which can work with Samhain (for integrity check), Unhide/Chkrootkit/rkhunter (for rootkit detection), ClamAV/Linux Malware Detect and a system logger like sysklogd.
Level 33: Use RSBAC (for RBAC) with AppArmor (for filesystem ACL).
Level 34: Compile the kernel yourself and add only necessary features and selected modules. Enable KASLR and Capabilities on kernel configuration.

Physical Access Counter-Measures

Level 35: Set a BIOS password (DON'T FORGET THIS PASSWORD!).
Level 36: Use USBGuard (to prevent Juice Jacking).
Level 37: Use disk encryption with cryptsetup (dm-crypt), saving the key on a separate USB that you keep with yourself at all times.
Level 38: Move your boot partition to a USB and encrypt it with cryptboot. Use the option on Libreboot too.

Costly Counter-Measures

Level 39: Buy a VPS in a non-extradition, privacy friendly country outside the Five Eyes under a different name and with a good way of not getting traced by payments, then set up your own VPN server so you can audit all the traffic.
Level 40: Buy a phone with Replicant and libre firmware. Tehnoetic sells an S3 phone with Replicant and only libre firmware enabled, so far is the best option.
Level 41: Buy a router compatible with LibreCMC and install LibreCMC, keep it up to date and give it a strong password.
Level 42: Buy a computer compatible with the Libreboot firmware and the Linux-libre kernel, then install both or buy it preinstalled. Thinkpads model x200, t400 and t500 are the best options. Remember to check a compatible Wi-Fi card and physically remove cables connecting cameras and microphones.

Deterrent Counter-Measures

Level 43: Learn to hack yourself first.
Level 44: Use only libre software (software "free as in freedom").
Level 45: Reduce the amount of software installed in your computer.
Level 46: Opt for text-based programs with less library dependencies than their GUI counterparts.
Level 47: Support the GPL license as to prevent proprietary license wrapping (as with BSD/MIT/Apache licenses). GPLv3 in specific to prevent tivoization, a hardware level lockout method.
Level 48: Deduplicate efforts and converge strategies to achieve a "tight base system" in common (use the koan "if is not strictly necessary it should be strictly optional, but still optional"), and that means making things modular and avoiding unnecessary dependencies instead of trusting "crypto libraries" like in Python.
Level 49: Abandon "cloud computing" and traditional, non-publicly auditable, data mined networks and erase your online persona. Use exclusively peer-to-peer services with specific protocols instead of all-in-one networks. Use IRC for live chat, and NNTP for newsgroups (per topic forums, what "social media" should be).
Level 50: Abandon the Internet. Participate in local mesh networks and collaborate with global scale meshnet projects like gternet.
Level 51: Don't f*ck it up. Protip: you can't.

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SECURITY IN ORDERS OF DIFFICULTY

TOC

Basic Level Security

Medium Level Security

High Level Security

Physical Access Counter-Measures

Costly Counter-Measures

Deterrent Counter-Measures

9.0 KiB

Raw Blame History