Tails is a Linux distribution that protects your online privacy with the high goal of breaking down censorship barriers. Running as a live DVD or on a flash drive, Tails can be used on any type of computer and encrypts your data and saves it to a persistent volume for easy transport. Tails also comes with a whole suite of security focused applications.
Protecting your online identity is not something that everyone has to consider, but for some – journalists or activists, for example – the need to anonymise their identity can be a matter of life and death. In the Arab Spring, the series of democratic uprisings that occurred in 2011 in the Middle East and North Africa, networks such as Tor were used to access social media platforms for real-time reporting. Tails (The Amnesiac Incognito Live System) is a Debian-based Linux distro that provides a secure connection to the internet and aims to preserve your privacy. Tails is available as an ISO image and can be written to USB or an SD card, or to DVD as a tamper-proof platform. Tails can use a persistent volume to store data, and this volume is also encrypted to ensure data security.
When booting Tails you can access an Advanced menu with options to create an administrator password, useful for further configuration, and also spoof your device’s MAC address to avoid it being used to uniquely identify you. You can disguise Tails with a Windows 8 desktop environment so that you can blend in while working in a coffee shop. By default, though, Tails 1.6 uses the Gnome desktop environment and comes with the default Gnome applications, such as the Nautilus file manager and NetworkManager.
Secure connection
The main feature of Tails 1.6 is that it automatically handles your connection to the Tor network via Ethernet or Wi-Fi. This is a great feature – when we tested Tails 1.2.3 it required manual configuration. Tails uses the Tor Browser, a secure version of Mozilla’s Firefox, which comes with Tor Button, HTTPS Everywhere, NoScript and AdBlock Plus extensions. The browser won’t run any JavaScript, Java, Flash or other background applications which may leak data. In fact, the browser is so secure that it prevented us from uploading our screenshots to Flickr by disabling access to the underlying file system.
But Tails is not just Tor for dummies, it’s a full distro with a suite of tools. On top of the typical applications found in many distros it includes MAT (Metadata Anonymisation Toolkit), which is used to scan files for information that can be used to identify or trace a file to an individual. There’s also the Electrum Bitcoin Wallet, used to keep your crypto currency safe with a layer of encryption – to use it you need to install Tails or create a persistent volume to contain your wallet. Traverso is a multi-track audio recording application. Gobby is a collaborative editor, mainly used by remote teams who wish to work on a project together. GtkHash generates a unique hash for a file, enabling the hash along with the file to be transmitted to a recipient and used to identify if any tampering has occurred in transit.
For those times where you really need an ‘unsafe’ browser, Tails comes with such an application, but it will remind you that your actions are no longer anonymous and your security is now compromised. Applications all feature AppArmor, which reduces the risk of applications being exploited or hacked. Hidden in the terminal is the popular aircrack-ng application used to audit the security of a network by trying to break the keys that protect it.
On our test machine, with an Intel quad-core 2.4GHz CPU and 4GB RAM, the desktop was responsive and there was very little lag, which was to be expected when running from a USB flash drive. Lag can be reduced further by installing Tails on to a fast SD card. Tails can be run on a machine with 1GB of RAM, which makes this an ideal distro to use with an old netbook when travelling and using public internet connections which may try to inspect your data.
A handy feature of Tails is that it can wipe information from RAM, which in normal use can retain information that can be recovered by an expert.
Tails automatically connects to the Tor network and will set your IP address based upon where you exit the network. In our tests we exited via Tor exit nodes in Germany and France, but if you feel the need you can change your ‘identity’ by using the Vidalia control panel accessible via the Tor icon at the top right of the screen. From that control panel you can also view the status of the Tor network and check your bandwidth usage.
Talking about Tor
You might be thinking that Tails is an ideal distro for file sharing, but although you can route your torrents via the Tor network this kind of activity is frowned upon as you are consuming vast amounts of bandwidth that has been donated to serve the needs of others.
Tor isn’t an all-encompassing solution for digital anonymity, either. In fact, no one service can fully protect you, and there have been reports of authorities compromising exit nodes and locating users via their browsing habits. For true protection, you need to use a mixture of multiple services and change your habits. Renowned hacker Freakyclown told us: “Never ever rely on a single point to remain anonymous. Tor’s logo is an onion for a reason. Use Tor, but use it like the skin of an onion, layers upon layers upon layers. Encryption is another thing people do badly but, depending what you want to do, take the appropriate measures. You don’t need to fly to Thailand and use a stolen laptop with stolen Wi-Fi from a nearby café to browse the secret wiki on the undernet, but if you are probing NASA servers for proof of aliens, don’t do that from your parents’ house!”
Tails 1.6 sees a few changes, mainly upgrades to the Tor Browser, which is now based on Firefox version 38. The anonymous overlay network used by applications to send information securely, I2P (Invisible Internet Project), has been updated. There are updates and bug fixes to the SSL certificates and bind9, used for DNS services.
In our Privacy Distros Roundup, Tails finished in second place just behind JonDo Live-DVD. With the release of Tails 1.6, that decision still stands. Yes, Tor is faster than JonDo when it comes to network connectivity and Tor is better when randomising node selections, but in essence Tails is still Tails in this latest version.
Tails offers a very simple entry to keeping anonymous online, and comes with a fairly comprehensive suite of applications for many day-to-day tasks. A good choice for its intended purpose, to help information be free.
While it should not be used as your only means of anonymity, it’s a great start to protecting your online presence.