Computers
From Steal This Wiki
Serviceable computers are available at flea markets and yard sales for under a hundred bucks. I got one for twenty bucks at a flea market, and now I'm running Ubuntu Linux, and baby I am never going back to Windows as a mainstay! Check out the want ads in your local paper. Good advice in general, that one. Schools and government offices upgrade huge batches at once and hold semi-regular auctions. Ask around or go to the reference desk at your local public library and just ask.
Another tactic is to hang around on a place like Freecycle or the free section of Craigslist, where people are giving away computers all the time. If all you need is a machine capable of email/web/word processing, check curbside the night before trash pickup, preferably in clueless yuppie neighborhoods. It is absolutely appalling how many perfectly serviceable machines end up chucked out simply because they aren't top of the line anymore, or stopped working because the previous owner picked up some kind of malware while looking for porn. Nothing a formatting and a Linux distro won't fix....
Even better is to find a computer shop that going under and go trashing and see what you can find, or even ask them if they have stuff they want to get rid of for cheap.
No matter how badly virus-ridden a machine gets, you can almost always bring one back to life by burning a Linux LiveCD, booting "the deceased" off the CD-ROM drive, and just hitting INSTALL. Download the .iso file and select an option on the CD burning program like "burn iso/burn as a bootable disk". Linux sources are at the end of this article. It feels very liberating to wipe Microsoft off of your disk but it might be useful to have for some programs. You can either keep it on a different partition on your hard drive, or use a program like QEMU or VirtualBox to emulate Windows within Linux.
As we are fighting to break free from corpgov, we should be freeing our computer systems from huge corporate giants like Microsoft and Adobe as well. Linux and BSD are free as in, "Take one; you can have it for no price," but much more importantly it is free as in liberty do with it as you see fit. The fact that the code is open to review makes it more secure as anyone catching a security bug can update or notify the project. This makes for our favorite operating systems and accompanying software to be capable of being very secure against hacking, viruses, and exploitation remotely or locally.
Rebels and progressives of all sorts should learn how to use some version of Linux or other at least for the big three: surfing, email, and word processing. Try and be aware of the Free Software and Open Source movement that is causing such a stir in the intellectual underground scene these days.
N.B.: Federal Instigators and other ex-COINTELPRO types have deeply infiltrated the American radical community, often in semi-leadership positions, so if you try and turn people on to Linux or anything technical and useful they'll often try to kick you to the curb. No kidding, the CIA will call you the CIA, and say "we don't want to learn all that technocratic fascist computer stuff, man. Linux or whatever you call it." The Man wants radicals to "yin out" and all be hippies, and learn massage therapy and messed-up hallucinatory mystical nutritional theories, not how to run a web-server, firearm safety, plumbing (you might make money!), electronics, chemistry, international business, or how to file a lawsuit. Get Yang in your head and Stay Yang, y'all. You know I'll always love ya!
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[edit] Linux Love
Understand that there is no realistic way of fully tamper or snoop proofing a MS Windows system, the whole thing is secret and we have no idea how many of these security holes were ordered by Uncle Sam. MacOS has a reasonable claim to being a secure platform due to its deep OS code being open source. Linux and BSD have real claims at being as close to bomb proof as possible. Known exploits are quickly published and fixes are available often in a few hours.
Jumping on to a Linux system and expecting to be instantly as good at it as you are on Windows is not gonna happen, but you can get on one and start knocking around, it's not that hard. It is a very empowering tool, though, and you generally meet a better class of people in the Linux/Unix communities. You will be a lot happier if you read a book on Linux, even a "For Dummies" book, after you get the stuff installed. Yes: after! It's that easy to get done, and get going.
Many different distributions, or "distros," of Linux exist. You can think of these as different versions or flavors of Linux. Some distros are geared more toward the beginner, while others are specially crafted for unique purposes, such as networking. Linux provides for a nearly infinite amount of customization, which is helpful once familiar with the system. A few different distros of Linux are described below.
Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/) is a popular Linux distro, and for good reason; it is probably the best compromise between being easy to use for a former Windows user, while still retaining most of the robust features and abilities that Linux can offer a user. Ubuntu is an African word that basically means "treating people right."
Backtrack is designed specifically for penetration testers and hackers. With over 300 tools designed for offensive security, this distro is any hacker's dream come true. The only downside is the lack of easily accessible live CD's. Remote-Exploit, the makers of Backtrack, offer both a CD and USB version of their distro, but there are no endorsed distributors. It is most useful in case your forget your admin password to someone else's computer.
Knoppix Linux (http://www.knoppix.org/) is also quite nice; it is the distro that kicked off the whole "boot and install directly from a CD-ROM" family of Linux distros (CDs from which Linux distros can be booted directly are often known as "Linux Live CDs," and several distros now offer this quick and convenient option). Not for a beginner unless your either considerably computer savvy, or you are very dedicated to cutting loose from software that takes your rights away and gives them to Hollywood, music, and software companies while pretending to support the artists that it is also shafting horribly. This distro allows you to boot into memory and have a safe diskless system which wipes after power off.
Phantomix Live CD (http://phantomix.ytternhagen.de/) Phantomix is a Linux Live CD distro that is configured specifically for the goal of anonymous Internet communication. It is described as, "a Knoppix based Operating System running on a CD drive without using the hard drive. It is configured to use the Tor and Privoxy software for anonymous internet communication. Using Tor can help you anonymize web browsing and publishing, instant messaging, IRC, SSH, and other applications for your safety and security."
Puppy Linux (http://www.puppylinux.org/) is an example of a Linux Live CD which is geared more toward the beginner. It provides the convenience of direct from CD booting (while allowing for regular hard drive install), however the distro itself it a simplified and streamlined form of Linux. While it lacks the more advanced features and capabilities offered by many Linux distros, it does possess everything most user will require for basic computing tasks.
Debian(http://www.debian.org/) is the only software I have ever heard of that comes with its own constitution. These days it is called a "Social Contract with the Free Software Community," and essentially it involves treating people right; it is the base for Knoppix, Ubuntu, Damn Small Linux and many other Linux distros. If you want a bomb proof server run the latest available stable build of Debian.
RastaSoft (http://rastasoft.org) makes a Linux version called Dynebolix. It is especially designed to put the tools for media production into the hands of people that have no money and plenty to say. In other words it's made for activists. Includes graphics tools that are free and nearly as good as PhotoShop, as well as video editors, Open Office (a suite of office applications), and No Games at all, how radical is that?
Note, a lot of old machines that won't run Windows or the general Ubuntu or kubuntu window managers fast would better be made to run fluxbox, the best lightweight window manager out there. Damn Small Linux was designed for exactly this purpose and has fluxbox window manager it uses many older kernel modules so it will detect and run on old hardware. Try Damn Small Linux for these older machines. {http://damnsmalllinux.org)
Volunteer at http://www.freegeek.org Freegeek or similar computer recycling places (links should be on the website) and they'll give you a free functional computer, for as little as 24 hours of service.
If you have to use Windows use free and open source software as much as possible. If you WANT to use other OS's, go for it! If you like Windows, then there is no shame in using it, just remember the limitations, especially the security and police intrusion weaknesses. Don't be bullied into Linux just because... you are free to use whatever OS you want to use.
[edit] Live CDs
Damn Small Linux
Damn Small Linux is a quickly growing CD booting Linux distro that is designed to be burned to a business card sized CD. It is a super light build and is excellent to install onto the hard disk of an old 486 or Pentium computer to bring it up to date. Slip your DSL disk into a school, netcafe, or office machine and you get your favorite operating system, possibly network access, and usually the ability to browse most of the contents of the hard disk. Also, you can usually stick it on a flashdrive and boot from that.
Knoppx
Knoppix is currently the primary CD bootable Linux distro, it has almost every option and program from office to hacking all on one bootable CD, a must have in any hackers toolkit. It leaves no evidence on the host system if you reboot.
Ubuntu
Ubuntu is a Linux operating system good for those who are not entirely computer-tech savvy and still need to use their own or other's computers, comes in an installable live cd (minimum of Pentium 2 recommended by me) otherwise very similar to Knoppix, and it leaves no evidence on host system if not installed.
[edit] Software
Do some web research when looking for open source or free software for your machine. Even if you are running windows much of the software your Linux user friends enjoy is compiled for you too. We discuss office productivity in Starting a Printing Workshop. Audio editing software is in Making Music.
[edit] Security
One of the first places the cops go for evidence against us is our computers. If you are using Linux/Unix install and use "wipe" to overwrite the files you use, there will still be evidence that you had that "bad" file if you are using a journaling file system but it will destroy almost all of the data, M$windows has several of these secure overwrite delete programs as well. If you have one of the media or multifunction buttons above your keyboard remap it to run a delete script to "wipe" a secure directory or series of files, of course this is only useful if you are at the computer when the cops move in. Another option is to set the computer to wipe certain directories if the password is not entered properly but remember that smart investigators know tricks leaving no possibility of sneaky delete programs. A good idea is to keep your disks clean of questionable material, keep that stuff in your head.
[edit] Shred
In Linux, there is a command that can be used to completely wipe a file off the hard drive, though this is not always enough. It is "shred", and to use it, you have to be able to use a terminal. The command is "shred -z [filename]" without the quotes.
[edit] Recovering Files Off of Hard Disk
On an unencrypted drive just booting into Linux from a CD will allow you to mount and browse the files on a system. If your CD will not boot try checking the boot options in the BIOS. If you have access to the inside there is usually a pin you can jumper to clear the BIOS or you can take a drive home over the weekend and hack it at home.
[edit] Recovering Windows Passwords
It is often nice to have management passwords to your work or school machine here are the hacks you need. http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm
Also try this, Start the machine and hit Ctrl-Alt-Del twice at login time, you will see a "Log On to Windows" menu where you can type a User Name and Password. for User type “Administrator” (don't type the "quotes"), in Password leave it blank. Hit Enter key. If nobody changed the admin login from it's default, you will have full administrative privileges as Administrator.
[edit] Ophcrack
A Linux Live CD , just burn it and then start it up like a normal live CD , select the passwords you want to crack in the program that opens as soon as it finishes starting and press go (will take about 15 minutes a password so just crack the admin if that is all you need)
[edit] Computer Information recovery tools
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/iecookies.html A simple cookie viewer for IE.
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/pspv.html Displays all passwords and AutoComplete strings stored in your Protected Storage.
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/mspass.html Recover the passwords of instant messenger programs
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/iehv.html IE history viewer
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html Recover Office/Windows CD-Key
http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptcookie.asp#Download automatically scans for cookies by IE, Netscape and FireFox
http://www.lostpassword.com/ Great for password recovery
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/ophcrack/ophcrack-livecd-1.1.4.iso?modtime=1171919289&big_mirror=0 the .iso file for the Ophcrack Live CD
http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/faq.php FAQ for Ophcrack
http://depositfiles.com/files/395964 Custom software for hacking windows passwords
Note: most live cds save nothing (a few let you burn changes to free space), to carry documents with you; get a flash drive, one gig should suit all your needs.
[edit] ddrescue
This Linux program available in your package manager which will help you rescue deleted files or snoop a hard disk.
[edit] Notebook Computers
[edit] Power
Almost every laptop ever made has a 100/220 power supply, which will work anywhere in the world . Many creative power sources can be imagined to use with an auto/air 12v laptop adapter if the power loss is low enough, a cheap 12v to 110v converter may be more practical and thrifty if used only in a car. A solar charger is sold for around $300 and is commonly seen at Mt. Everest base camp, we are looking for a cheaper source of quality solar cells to to build a packable charger which can provide reliable 20-24 volt power and 2-4 amps.
[edit] Old Laptop Converted to Fast Linux
An old freebie laptop can be loaded with a scaled down OS like Damn Small Linux which will give you modern applications like the Fluxbox window manager and runs fast on even 486 and Pentium machines. A word to those who would try to buy these at a thrift/junk store, we have seen ancient 386 laptops priced at $200, it is better to squeeze out the cash for a new or barely used laptop than pay good money for one that is very old.
[edit] Laptop Protection
The LCD screen is most vulnerable, a hard object in your pack can easily break the glass inside it. Pad the corners from impact obviously you must avoid dirt, dust, and moisture. You can make a laptop carry protector from several layers of cardboard and duct tape or if you are feeling fancy cut up a closed cell foam camping pad and sew it together with a tough canvas or nylon covering. Do some value camo to reduce theft, make the outside of any laptop look like complete shit, scratch the outside to hell, duct tape it a little, and cover with fun stickers, be creative and careful not to actually damage any ports or buttons.
[edit] Laptop Security, Locks
Use your head when getting online, laptop openly used in many places says "I am rich and have more cool stuff, follow me and rob me!" Hostels are also a really bad place to let anyone see anything valuable. A cable lock will stop the less brazen person in a posh Seattle coffee shop from walking with your laptop when your back is turned, be sure to secure the cable loop around something heavy or secured to the wall or floor. There are several open source projects which have a phone home feature that will let you track a lost or stolen laptop when used. This could also be accomplished by writing a chron job to wget a special file from your web server and then looking in the server logs to see if the laptop, phone, or PDA is grabbing that file noting the IP address of the request. Since we seem to be under more surveilance than most people a phone home function if always in operation just gives da-man another way to see where we are if he can figure it out, so consider the risks carefully.
[edit] Netbooks
The initial popularity of the low power OLPC, first meant for third world students and powered by solar cell or an ingenious yo-yo mechanical charger lead to several similar designs for first world nations. While the at first pure and progressive international education focused OLPC or $100 laptop project appears to have been messed up by the facists at microslop, we are very excited with the proliferation of inexpensive linux laptops it has spawned. The eeePc, Cloudbook, and several other offerings have similar capabilities and also run Linux but are intended for an Amerikan and Asian market who shop at discount department stores. MS Slaves can still find most models with windoze installed for around $50 extra.
[edit] DIY Laptop
For around $200 (2006 USA dollars and prices) a person can buy a mini-ITX everything integrated system board, LCD screen, power supply, and keyboard and with a little imagination some plastic, sheet metal, or even woodworking skill they can build a budget laptop case. A rechargeable internal or external battery pack makes it really mobile. An easy way to add the peripherals is by stripping USB gadgets of their case and plug and soldering or just plugging them in to a stripped down USB hub inside the case. If you can rig the unit to boot off of a flash drive, that will save on battery drain but be sure your OS is set up to not use disk swap on the flash drive or this will wear out the flash media quickly, DSL Linux for example. Use a LCD designed for auto installation, it should run on 12 volts, resolution should be at least 800x600 but even that is low. Assemble and test the hardware befort doing any custom soldering and wiring or packing into the laptop form factor. It might make more sense for novice builders to put the system board and screen into one enclosure with a protective lid for the LCD and using a seperate small keyboard, the screen hinge is the most difficult and easiest broken part of most laptops.
Check out the Damn Small Linux Team store http://damnsmalllinux.org/store/ for a starting idea of some components you might use.
[edit] PDA and HPC
Modern PDA's or pocket PC's have many of the powers of a computer although they lag behind in raw number crunching required for games, code cracking, and processor intensive tasks PDA's are suited to portability and stealth. HPC's (handheld personal computer) have similar processing ability but have half VGA wide screens and small but usable QWERTY keyboards, these are beautiful for writers who need a keyboard and full width screen but want to have long battery life. UMPC (Ultra Mobile Personal Computers) are also becoming increasingly popular; they are similar to HPC, however are more focused toward Internet connectivity, and often feature more faster processor and newer technologies.
[edit] Palm, WinCE, etc.
These are corpgov controlled OSes but useful if you find the right applications. Palm is currently close to releasing a Linux based Palm OS but its hackability is still in question, we have high hopes. Windows CE or mobile machines can often to varying degrees of difficulty be converted to Linux.
[edit] Linux
Free, Open, Smart, if you can get you handheld to boot Linux and run X windowing systems you have put off obsolescence for many years.
[edit] Zaurus
http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT2134869242.html
Available cheap on the used market this PDA is made to run our free Linux operating system, sadly Sharp appears about to discontinue the line.
[edit] Ångström Linux for ARM Mobile Devices
Angstrom is the follow on and successor to many of the distros for ARM based handheld devices like the Zaurus series, Ipaq's, Nokia 770's, SimPads, Mobilepro 900 HPC's, and OpenMoko phones to name a few, it has both stable and unstable releases and is currently very active. [[1]]
[edit] Wired Ethernet and Wi-Fi
If you are really into hacking then be sure to have both 10baseT and Wi-Fi cards for your PDA, while it might be impossible to get into a secure office with a laptop rarely will anyone question a PDA the same hacking programs on your Linux laptop should be installed on your Linux PDA. With Wi-Fi, after sampling WEP/WMA packets use a GPRS phone or card to send them to a more powerful server and crack them with real processor power. Power draw is a concern currently Socket brand Wi-Fi and Ethernet cards are the most efficient.
[edit] PDA Power
Some PDA's have after market solar, crank, cigarette lighter jack, or AA battery powered boosters which are good for where you have been denied access to power mains. See Cycling#Other_Things for a design to use a bike generator to charge phones and PDA's
[edit] Portable Device Security
A sparkling little gem like a new PDA or Smart phone draws attention, sadly many radical hangers on have no morals and are just angry punks, just like a fancy MP3 player they also attract street thugs. Best to keep a shiny new gadget hidden, stickered up, or gunked up to reduce apparent value.
[edit] USB Key
[edit] OS boot
In addition to fitting on a business card size CD, Damn Small Linux can now be installed to your USB memory key! Have all of your favorite files and a familiar desktop on almost any modern computer. MacOS 7 is also available for boot off of a USB key.
[edit] File Security
If the cops catch you, you can bet they will sniff around your USB key. Don't entrust vital info to a keychain drive; memorize it. Lower value info can be encrypted or stenographed into a picture or song, and most piggies can't figure something like that out, but again, don't ever underestimate them.
[edit] Wiping Flash Memory
Unless you have access to a low level debug program for your USB key, assume that even if you have deleted and overwritten a file, it still resides on the cells of your flash memory device (flash MP3 player, memory card, USB drive, etc). The only 100% way to destroy all data on a Flash device is to grind all of the chips inside into powder with a hammer. Even microwaving the device until it burns isn't good enough for the truly paranoid. For most usages, though, deleting all data and then filling the drive with random data files until there is no room once or twice will usually overwrite all previous data. Be careful, though, as doing an empty-fill-empty cycle shortens the life of the flash chip if done on a regular basis
[edit] Portable Versions of your Most Used Software
Several sites like http://portableapps.com/ will provide you with trusted open source applications that you can safely run from your USB drive: word processors, instant messengers, e-mail, SSH, FTP, and web browsers like Firefox and its more secure upgrade TORpark. For more secure usage, or if you fear a keyboard logger has been installed, you can use virtual keyboard and notepad portable. Ereser portable to help clean up the machine you have been using. These programs will run from the key drive, usually never leaving any trace on most host machines.
[edit] Single board Computer and LCD
In auto install
If you like riding in a rusty coffin why not build a on-board computer, there are plenty of single board computers, LCD screens, and Wi-Fi cards that will take 12v power, it will also increase the theft value of your car so you can start riding your bike more.
[edit] Hacked Linux Routers
A fun hack is to get a cheap Linux router add kismet wifi access point auditing tool and connect a GPS to the internal serial port. With battery power you can scan large areas of town for open access points and record their location.
With the appropriate mass-storage hardware or a drive on a USB port available as a hack on many models, a wireless router that has been re-flashed to be a normal command-line Linux system can be secreted inside a wall, panel, ceiling, or even off-site, and accessed wirelessly. Off-site secure stores can be very difficult to locate, if they are known of at all, and require additional search warrants.
Most Linux based routers can have other linux programs added for at least the time it is powered up by adding compiled programs to the /bin folder, don't forget to add the required libraries. Openwrt goes so far as letting you add packages and treating the flash area as a disk instead of a firmware storage area.
DD-wrt has a easy interface to allow internet users to access your network by auto updating your IP address with a dynamic DNS service. DD-wrt basically takes a $25-$100 router and turns it into a $500-$1000 class router. For example with the DDwrt firmware upgrade you can have your router establish a VPN to a server far away obscuring all internet traffic on this encrypted tunnel, you can keep a dynamic DNS service updated of your current IP address for serving a website from a DSL line, and you can adjust your Wi-Fi transmit power. Using the Input/Output lines for several LED's and buttons a SD card can be added to most broadcom based routers, DDWRT will then allow installation of applications form the OpenWRT repositories.
[edit] Radio
Ham radio operators have invented several amazing ways to get information to another place without easily being detected unlike cellular or direct internet. Of course a guerrilla will have no qualms failing to identify herself with a call sign. Don't expect super straight hams to help you once they know what you are planning, you will have to set up your own network and hope that the bunny hunter (armature radio ops who track illegal operators and turn them in to the FCC) can't follow your changes in location.
[edit] Packet Radio
Higher possible bits per second using higher frequencies VHF/UHF/Microwave but easy to pinpoint if used from a fixed location mostly line of sight only.
[edit] PSK31
Slower data transmission usually used with HF bands, difficult to pinpoint these low frequencies but easily will allow digital intercontinental communication by bouncing off of the ionosphere.
[edit] Other sound card modes of digital communication
There are many other digital modes and a visit to http://arrl.org will get you started.
[edit] OSCARS Satellite communication
Free open amature radio satellite uplink with no hacking required, you need just a few hundred dollars in gear (or the ability to build your own). Some OSCARS satellites can even be commanded to retransmit from memory over a different continent your voice or email message.
