Welcome! Please read the following info and download the tools for your operating system ahead of time. It will help make things easier for everybody.
Very important caveat: These tools MAY NOT be 100% effective. The latest information we have is that they are likely to help protect your communications, but governments including the U.S. have made progress in breaking or circumventing some cryptographic technologies.
If you or your source is truly a high-value target of a government, protecting yourself will require far more effort. To get an idea of what people do when they are really serious about security, please read this post first: http://grugq.github.io/blog/2013/06/13/ignorance-is-strength/
Now that you have seen what you might need to do in the future, let's move on to what you should download in the meantime.
| Goal | Platform | Tool Name | Difficulty | Website |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| More anonymous Web browsing | Both | Tor Browser Bundle | * * | torproject.org (downloads) |
| Secure IM | Mac | Adium | * * | adium.im |
| Secure IM | Windows | Pidgin + OTR | * * * | pidgin.im & cypherpunks.ca/otr |
| Encrypted email + text | Windows | GPG4Win | * * * * * | gpg4win.org |
| Encrypted email + text | Mac | GPG Tools | * * * * * | gpgtools.org |
| Sending encrypted email | Both | Thunderbird + Enigmail | * * * * * | mozilla.org/thunderbird & enigmail.net |
| Protecting files on your computer | Both | TrueCrypt | * * * | truecrypt.org |
| More secure file deletion | Both | CCleaner1 | * * | piriform.com/ccleaner (Windows) piriform.com/mac/ccleaner (Mac) |
| Encrypted group chat | Both | CryptoCat1 | * | crypto.cat |
Note: We may not get to the tools listed in italics.
1In general, open-source software that has been tested for many years is most recommended. For this reason, we suggest more caution with CCleaner, which is closed-source, and CryptoCat, which is new. These issues will be discussed further at the event.
(Download links as of September 13.)
If possible, please download these files before coming to the event. You don’t need to install anything ahead of time, but having the files saved to your downloads folder will save a lot of time.
- Bundle containing Tor Browser Bundle, Adium, GPG Tools, Thunderbird, Enigmail, TrueCrypt, and CCleaner -- so you don't need to download each of the following individually:
hhba-crypto-mac-v2.zip (https://goo.gl/wDRx6f) - Tor Browser Bundle: TorBrowser-2.4.17-beta-1-osx-i386-en-US.zip
- Adium: Adium_1.5.7.dmg
- GPG Tools: GPG Suite - 2013.08.06.dmg
- Thunderbird: Thunderbird 17.0.8.dmg
- Enigmail: enigmail-1.5.2-tb+sm.xpi
- TrueCrypt: http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads (Click “Download” under Mac OS X.)
- CCleaner: CCMacSetup107.dmg
- CryptoCat: https://crypto.cat/ (Scroll to “Downloads” at bottom for options.)
(Download links as of September 13.)
If possible, please download these files before coming to the event. You don’t need to install anything ahead of time, but having the files saved to your downloads folder will save a lot of time.
- Bundle containing Tor Browser Bundle, Pidgin, OTR for Pidgin, GPG4Win, Thunderbird, Enigmail, TrueCrypt, and CCleaner -- so you don't need to download each of the following individually:
hhba-crypto-windows-v2.zip (https://goo.gl/Lj0a5O) - Tor Browser Bundle: tor-browser-2.4.17-beta-1_en-US.exe
- Pidgin: pidgin-2.10.7.exe
- OTR for Pidgin: pidgin-otr-4.0.0-1.exe
- GPG4Win: gpg4win-2.2.0.exe
- Thunderbird: Thunderbird Setup 17.0.8.exe
- Enigmail: enigmail-1.5.2-tb+sm.xpi
- TrueCrypt: http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads (Click “Download” under Windows 7/Vista/XP/2000.)
- CCleaner: ccsetup405.exe
- CryptoCat: https://crypto.cat/ (Scroll to “Downloads” at bottom for options.)
- Tor Browser Bundle: 32-bit 64-bit
- Install GnuPG for your system. (
sudo apt-get install gnupgoryum install gnupgorpacman install gnupgsomething similar) - Thunderbird
- Enigmail: enigmail-1.5.2-tb+sm.xpi