AstonJ

Anyone used Tails OS?

Anyone tried Tails? Any thoughts?

How Tails works

Leave no trace on the computer

Your secure computer anywhere

To use Tails, shut down the computer and start on your Tails USB stick instead of starting on Windows, macOS, or Linux.

You can temporarily turn your own computer into a secure machine. You can also stay safe while using the computer of somebody else.

Tails is a 1.9 GB download and takes ½ hour to install. Tails can be installed on any USB stick of 8 GB minimum. Tails works on most computers less than 10 years old. You can start again on the other operating system after you shut down Tails.

You don’t have to worry about the computer having viruses because Tails runs independently from the other operating system and never uses the hard disk. But, Tails cannot always protect you if you install it from a computer with viruses or if you use it on a computer with malicious hardware, like keyloggers.

Amnesia

Tails always starts from the same clean state and everything you do disappearsautomatically when you shut down Tails.

Without Tails, almost everything you do can leave traces on the computer:

Websites that you visited, even in private mode

Files that you opened, even if you deleted them

Passwords, even if you use a password manager

All the devices and Wi-Fi networks that you used

On the contrary, Tails never writes anything to the hard disk and only runs from the memory of the computer. The memory is entirely deleted when you shutdown Tails, erasing all possible traces.

Persistent Storage

You can save some of your files and configuration in an encrypted Persistent Storage on the USB stick: your documents, your browser bookmarks, your emails, and even some additional software.

The Persistent Storage is optional and you always decide what is persistent. Everything else is amnesic.

Digital security toolbox

Tails includes a selection of applications to work on sensitive documents and communicate securely.

All the applications are ready-to-use and are configured with safe defaults to prevent mistakes.

Tails includes:

Tor Browser with uBlock, a secure browser and an ad-blocker

Thunderbird, for encrypted emails

GNOME Secrets, to create and store strong passwords

LibreOffice, an office suite

OnionShare, to share files, websites, and chat rooms over Tor

Metadata Cleaner, to remove metadata from files

and many more!

To prevent mistakes:

Applications are blocked automatically if they try to connect to the Internet without Tor.

Everything in the Persistent Storage is encrypted automatically.

Tails does not write anything to the hard disk. All the memory is deleted when shutting down.

Tor for everything

Everything you do on the Internet from Tails goes through the Tor network. Tor encrypts and anonymizes your connection by passing it through 3 relays. Relays are servers operated by different people and organizations around the world.

A single relay never knows both where the encrypted connection is coming from and where it is going to:

The 1st relay only knows where you are coming from but not where you are going to.

This 3rd relay only knows where you are going to but not where you are coming from.

The connection to the final destination is encrypted whenever possible to prevent the 3rd relay from reading its content.

This way, Tor is secure by design even if a few relays are malicious.

The Tor network has more than 6 000 relays. Organizations running Tor relays include universities like the MIT, activist groups like Riseup, nonprofits like Derechos Digitales, Internet hosting companies like Private Internet Access, and so on. The huge diversity of people and organizations running Tor relays makes it more secure and more sustainable.