Encrypted But

Not Cryptic:
An Intro To
Crypto-Anarchy and
Practical Resistance of
the
Modern Surveillance
State

Picture courtesy of Flikr Creative Commons

In accordance with the Honor Code, I affirm that this work is my
own and all content taken from other sources has been properly
acknowledged.

T@b1e 0f (Dis)C0ntents
Introduction.............................................................Page 3
Definitions...............................................................Page 5
A Brief History of U.S. State Surveillance ..............Page 10
A Brief History of Crypto-Anarchy............ ..............Page 14
How-To Guide.........................................................Page 17

-Be Aware of your Online Presence ............Page 17

-How to Buy and Tumble Bitcoins................Page 20

-How to Install and Operate Tails.................Page 18

-How to Access the Tor Network..................Page 21

Conclusion..............................................................Page 24
Works Cited............................................................Page 25

Pamphlet by k8

A Fri3ndly Intr0duction...
Its no secret that the United States Government and an

array of private corporations monitor what we do in the digital

world. The idea that Big Brother is watching (or the NSA) has
become something of a darkly satirized joke in American Society.
In an entirely digitized era, convenience and security are
routinely prioritized over personal privacy and freedom of speech.
These value hierarchies are instilled by the U.S. Government and
by businesses, however, not by its citizens.
A new study out of Wayne State University suggests this, citing that
only 40% of Americans believe that Mass Governmental Surveillance
is justified for reasons of national security. (Stoycheff, 5) This study
also suggests that online users tend to censor minority political
opinions in response to the knowledge that they are being
watched and the knowledge that what they say online will leave a

permanent footprint. (Stoycheff, 1-3) This means that the practical

effect of us knowing that we are being watched, and not just
watched, but knowing that our information is recorded, effectively
causes us to limit our own free speech. This is only an example of
one of the more superficial consequences of Mass Surveillance.
The chilling reality is that the NSA has access to chat room files,
cellphone data, computer data and metadata. All of this can be accessed
and used to create a profile of whomevers data is being observed. This
means that the NSA can craft whatever narrative it wants of a person
based on their online presence- and this can extend to people three
degrees of separation away. So an investigation of your long-forgotten

facebook friends other facebook friend could lead to a profile being built
around you,even though you are completely unrelated and may
have never interacted with this person.Millions are caught in the
largest dragnet surveillance program in history. (Macaskill and

Dance, Parts 1-2) There are no meaningful restrictions on whose

data can be looked at and the scope of data that can be looked
at is huge. Even for those of us who have nothing to hide the
fact that government employees can see your browser version, IP
address, usernames, web history, call logs, search history, and the
times and dates that you look at certain pages and make phone
or online communications results in a chilled democratic discourse
and vulnerability to identity theft. (Macaskill and Dance, Parts 1-2)
So what can we do to protect our privacy, our freedoms of speech
and communication, and help liberate remote communication from
massive Government overreach?We can embrace self-defense as a
tactic.This self-defense can come in the form of crypto-anarchy,
an ideology and a movement that strive to liberate communication
from the manipulation and control of the State. One of the primary
weapons of choice of the crypto-anarchist is neither the brick nor
the bomb but encryption technology meant to create separation in
communication spaces from The State and the user by means of
shielding their online activity. (Parrott, 1)
As well as presenting a brief history of how the current U.S.
Surveillance Industrial Complex came to be and a brief parallel history
of those who are trying to subvert it, this pamphlet offers an introductory,
and by no means complete, guide of how one can employ these
subversive tactics themselves to encrypt their communications and online
presences, protect their privacy, and resist the tyranny of Mass State
Surveillance. Happy encrypting!

Important Definitions

I can proceed no further without first acknowledging that

Crypto-anarchism is often inaccessible for two primary reasons:
1. The technologies are difficult to access because all of
the information is in different places.
2. The jargon used in describing Encryption technologies
isnt commonly understood,

I hope to address these problems by providing the
following list of definitions that will hopefully provide the
vocabulary for anyone who reads this to get around Problem 2,
so that they can understand the how-tos that this guide hopes will
address Problem 1.
NSA: Acronym that stands for The National Security
Agency, which was established by President Nixon
in 1973. Its mandate is to fight terrorism by monitoring
communications of persons outside of the US. It serves as
the electronic arm of the Defense Intelligence Agency and
the Central Intelligence Agency, which both concentrate on
human espionage. (Nakashima)

PRISM: A program carried out by the Special Sources

Operations branch of the NSA, which focuses on data
gathered from corporate partners. The program works out
data sharing to the NSA from Google, Apple, Facebook,
Twitter and many other social media companies. (Gellman,

Poitras)
PATRIOT ACT: 2001 legislation that created a broad legal
framework for expanded mass surveillance, including the
secret requisition of library records, phone conversations,
emails, texts messages and financial documents. It passed
almost unanimously in the Senate, and was renewed
through June 2015. In June of 2015, it was succeeded by
the USAFREEDOM Act, which renewed most sections but
redacted the phone data collection program (Section 215).
(Epic.org)
Bitcoin: A digital currency not attached to any government
and represented by unique units of data that are being
kept track of by a public ledger known as Block Chain. The
information that represents a users bitcoin data is held in
a digital wallet, which stores the information necessary to
use bitcoin for transactions. Bitcoin can be invested, used
in online marketplaces, or at various business. (Wikipedia)
Open Source: A variety of software where the source code
that was used to design the software is available for public
view. Open source software is considered more secure
because since it is open to the public to see, individuals
can see exactly what functions the software performs, and
can make changes if they find something they dont like.
Closed source software is a type of software wherein the
source code is not freely available, and therefore the user
has no way to know firsthand exactly what functions a
piece of software performs. This presents serious risks to
software users. (opensource.com)

 Metadata: As the Guardian says, Metadata is data about

data (Macaskill and Dance, Part 2) It is a type of mass
data that is collected and analyzed that shows not only
what phone numbers youre calling or what webpages
youre accessing, but the times when you access/call them
and the frequency with which you do. It is what aids the
NSA in building a profile of individuals by allowing them
to establish trends when looking through sets of peoples
personal data. (Macaskill and Dance, Part 2)
VPN: An acronym that stands for Virtual Private Network.
A VPN is a type of program that creates a secure tunnel
between a users device and a remote server. Superficially,
they make the computers IP address appear to be from
a different location than the one it is really in. VPNs are
widely used by businesses, schools, and privacy-savvy
individuals. Like Tails, A VPN hides a users location
from the sites they visit, and prevents a users Internet
service provider from knowing what sites they are visiting.
However, VPN users are subject to man-in-the-middle
attacks, where a VPN may insert malware or keep secret
logs of users activities. VPNs should only be used if a user
can be reasonable sure that the VPN service provider is
trustworthy.(OpenVPN)
Tor: Acronym that stands for The Onion Router. The
most popular and user-friendly distributed, encrypted
anonymizing network. Also referred to as the Onion
network, due to the fact that it has layers of encryption.
Tor was initially developed for the US Navy as a way to
secure communications between military vessels. Now,

however, the project is maintained by the independent,

non-profit Tor Foundation, although it still receives
significant grants from the US Government. Tor bounces
websites between several of thousands of servers
located all over the world. Tor enables one to access
Tor Hidden Services, which are websites hidden from
typical web browsers. Tor is currently a primary target of
deanonymization by the National Security Agency. Sites
on the typical internet sometimes have Tor Hidden Service
mirrors, including social media giants like Facebook. Tor
has been instrumental to activists around the world, most
publicly to coordinate popular actions during the Arab
Spring. (Tor Project FAQ)
Tails: An Acronym that stands for The Amnesia Live
System. Its a live system that helps protect privacy/
anonymity while also being able to circumvent censorship.
Tails operates through the Tor network without a Tor
browser needing to be downloaded onto the machine. it
can work on any computer with any operating system, and
leaves no trace that it was running at all. This is because
it is stored on either a disk or a USB drive, and is therefore
also completely portable. To use Tails, one simply loads the
disk or plugs in the USB drive and restarts the machine.
Hold down the alt/option button and a menu will pop up
giving the option to start the computers normal operating
system, or run Tails. Once the computer is turned off,
and Tails is removed, it leaves no trace that it was there.
This, of course, doesnt guarantee bulletproof privacy or
anonymity, but it provides a large degree of it. You can
read more about tails at their website: www.tails.boum.org.

(tails.boum.org)
Crypto-anarchy: Crypto-anarchy is an ideology
that strives to use encryption to build a world where
State institutions and economies can be subverted
by utilizing encryption techniques, and make room for
the development of commerce and the free spread of
information outside of State control. (Baker)
Cypherpunk: A subculture/the name for a participant
of said subculture that believes in using encryption
technology to protect privacy, perform online activism,
uphold the ideology of crypto-anarchy, and create an
online partition between the actions of individuals and the
authority of the government. (Baker)

Picture courtesy of Flikr Creative Commons

A Brief History of U.S. St@te

Surveil1ance

State Surveillance is by no means a modern occurrence.
But the scale of mass surveillance found in the United States
today has a history that dates back to the early 20th century when
J. Edgar Hoover began his tenure as the Director of the fairly
young Federal Bureau of Investigation, or the FBI. Hoover worked
for the agency, in its various forms, from 1924-1972. During this
time, he employed mass surveillance tactics as a way to wage
war on crime. This started during prohibition when wiretapping
was used to catch bootleggers. After Prohibition ended, and nonconsensual wiretapping was made illegal, the FBI switched its
tactic from wire tapping to phone bugging. (Wikipedia)

The FBI conducted surveillance on American citizens even
after Prohibition ended, by conducting warrantless searches, and
break-ins from the 1940s-1970s in the name of targeting foreign
intelligence and fighting terrorism. The extent of these searches
were not truthfully represented, and turned out to be a lot more
wide spread than they were originally reported to be. (Theoharis,
883-885) The mass expansion of the FBIs surveillance reach was
likely due to the increase in the Governments size and influence
that was linked to the wartime policies during these decades.

The FBI was not the only Federal Agency to conduct
surveillance, however, The Wartime era not only expanded
its reach, but also gave birth to the Agency that was initially
responsible for conducting surveillance in order to collect and
analyze data. This Agency was established in the World War II era

10

and was known as the Office of Strategic Services, or the OSS. Its
purpose was to collect wartime data meant for military strategizing.
At the conclusion of World War II, the OSS was dismantled by
President Truman and replaced with a peacetime data-collecting
surveillance agency known as the Central Intelligence Group,
or CIG. This Agency was not long-lived, and with the passing of
the notorious National Security Act, the CIG was replaced by the
infamous CIA. It was understood by congress at the time that the
CIA would collect data as well as simply coordinating it, though
this was never stated outright. Therefore, the CIA was technically
allowed to collect clandestine data abroad, and broadly interpreted
the scope of their information gathering permissions to mean
that they had substantial authority. The National Security Act also
stated that the CIA was allowed to work with other Intelligence
Gathering Agencies (Surveillance networks) such as the FBI,
the primary function of which was to operate domestically. At
this point, however, the CIA was not allowed to operate against
American nationals, in the continental U.S. or in the U.S.s colonial
holdings. The ambiguous language of this bill left room for this to
be changed, though, and change it did. (Conrad, 968-971)

In 1974, the New York Times exposed the CIA for
undertaking a massive illegal domestic intelligence operation
(Conrad, 968) and, as a result, restrictions were placed on the
Central Intelligence Agency. This all changed in 1981, when
President Ronald Reagan instituted Executive Order 12,333, and
changed the way the CIA, and domestic surveillance in the U.S.,
operated forever. This Executive Order effectively unleashed
the CIA and gave them the power to investigate and gather
information on U.S. Citizens in the United States to an extent that
had never been seen before. (Conrad, 968) A Cornell Law Review

11

states the following about the Executive Order:

The Order allows the CIA, Americas chief foreign intelligence

gathering entity, to direct domestic counterintelligence, foreign
intelligence, covert operations, and law enforcement activity against
United States citizens. The drafters of the Order ignored the statutory
limits on intelligence gathering activity codified in the National Security
Act. 7 The Presidents action thus constitutes a statutorily impermissible
license for renewed government intrusion,and the Order should be
revoked. (Conrad, 968)

This Executive Order set a precedent for the collection
of information, and surveillance of, U.S. citizens that can be felt
today. This is the Executive Order that gives the NSA authority to
collect mass metadata from United States Citizens domestically.
This was the crucial turning point for mass surveillance in the
U.S. as we know it today. This was the point at which this specific
brand of Governmental overreach was written into law, called out
for being pretty much illegal, and kept in place anyway. It survives
to this day, and was amended by Bush in 2004 with another
Executive Order, which only expanded its reach further to allow for
the collection of all data, as long as it was in the name of national
defense. (Macaskill and Dance, Part 5) This means that even
when the PATRIOT Act expired in June of 2015, the collection of
mass data from U.S. citizens was still legally condoned before
its renewal, only it was legal for the CIA to conduct this mass
surveillance in addition to the FBI, if you recall, with whom they
are allowed to work.

In keeping with the trend of mass surveillance increasing
with every new wartime era, the newly-renewed PATRIOT Act was
introduced a month after 9/11 as the U.S. prepared itself to invade
Iraq. (Wikipedia) This Act expanded the FBIs ability to snoop into

12

the telephone, financial, and e-mail records of its citizens. The Act
was later amended such that the United States National Security
Agency (NSA) was no longer allowed to collect mass phone data
from private citizensinstead they have to go get it from the
phone company, a non-change to give the illusion of protecting
privacy. (Wikipedia)

The PATRIOT act was only the tip of the 2001 Surveillance
iceberg. But the true extent to which the Government, and
companies, such as Google, were collecting our data (with neither
our knowledge nor a warrant) would not become known until 2013
when NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed the existence
of PRISM and the true power of the NSA to trample our privacy
rights was revealed. The PRISM program was established in
2007 and is what allowed the NSA to secretly collect Internet
communications from U.S. citizens. Though collection of Internet
data started six years earlier, it eventually reached a point where
it was such a massive Government program that the Government
made it an entirely new project. (Wikipedia)

13

Edward Snowden


A series of linguistic oversights by Congress, an illegal
Executive order that was updated later to be made more Illegal,
secret government surveillance programs... The history of U.S.
surveillance sounds more like an elaborate, Orwellian conspiracy
theory than a series of laws that were ratified and are routinely
justified as necessary under the guise of national security.
Luckily for us citizens, theres a counter-movement bent on
resisting mass surveillance, and it is no further away than the click
of a mouse.

Cypherpunks @nd Crypto-An@rchy: A Brief

0verview

The cypherpunks of the 90s were not the first ones to
resist Government surveillance, the original Anarchist Cookbook
from the 1970s details FBI (and IRS) phone bugging and
gives a guide for how citizens could conduct their own countersurveillance by using bugging devices, and by offering guidance
for how to conduct wiretapping. The hope was that offering these
guides would provide technological know-how that could be used
as a tool for jumpstarting the Impending Revolution. (Powell, 6163) Though we are still waiting on the Revolution, a Revolution of

14

a different kind has begun online.

In the 1990s a countercultural movement born out of the
Internet which believed that strong encryption could sever the ties
between Governmental and Corporate institutions and private
citizens. The belief was based off of the theory that by encrypting
ones data, one could move outside state control by essentially
operating via cyberspace, where ones activities (if well hidden
enough) couldnt be seen nor regulated. The set of ideals upon
which this niche culture was based gave birth to its own ideology,
which is now known as crypto-anarchy. (Baker)

The phrase was coined by a man named Tim May, one
of the founders of the cypherpunk movement and the author of
the Crypto-Anarchist Manifesto. The Crypto-Anarchist Manifesto
outlined the ideology behind which Crypto-Anarchism operates:
that encryption technology could undermine Governmental control
by subverting its ability to tax, or even keep track of economic
activity, or its ability to keep anything a secret. Though the
movement was initially more concerned about economic freedom,
freedom of information, and the potential to change the world,
the ideals that it stood upon and the tactics it employed would
eventually lead the contemporary cypherpunk brand of online
activism to fight for freedom from mass surveillance. (Baker)

One of the people responsible for the shift from the
idealistic goals of a utopian, ungoverned online society to
a movement reckoning with Orwellian-brand Governmental
Surveillance is none other than Julian Assange: Editor-in-Chief of
WikiLeaks and Exiled living legend. Wikileaks.org hosts an online
database of Secret Governmental information, news leaks, and
classified information that have all been been made public. Years

15

before the Launch of the infamous website, back in 1995 Assange

was a member of the Cypherpunk listserv, and sought to embody
the values (such as complete freedom of information) outlined by
May in the Crypto-Anarchist Manifesto. (Baker)

Though he might believe in the ideals of the CryptoAnarchist Manifesto, Assange is aware of the realities of mass
surveillance. He is quoted as saying that we are living in a
postmodern surveillance dystopia, from which escape for all
but the most skilled individuals will be impossible. (Baker)
Assange and other cypherpunks have to contend with the
critics have cautioned them that suggesting crypto-anarchism
guarantees privacy for anyone, including those most skilled
individuals is actually harmfully misleading, because it gives
people a semblance of security that perhaps they can avoid the
Governments Panoptic PRISM-gaze. Assange responded to
this by saying The Universe believes in encryption. It is easier
to encrypt information than it is to decrypt it. (Sirius) Meaning
that just because the Government can technically see anything it
wants if it tries hard enough, we shouldnt make it any easier for
them to see everything they want, in fact, we should make it as
hard, and annoying, as possible. (Sirius)

Though encryption techniques utilized by crypto-anarchists
are limited in their abilities to keep anything fully private, they are
still a means of resistance. One doesnt need to submit to total
acceptance of Governmental Mass surveillance. Though the
PRISM program will continue to be active, and the NSA, CIA, and
FBI will still have jurisdiction to sift through anyones data that they
want, we can make their jobs significantly more difficult.

16

How To Use Encryption Technology: A

B3ginners Guide.

This is by no means a complete guide. It merely scratches
the surface of what one can do to protect oneself from Mass State
surveillance and provide oneself with a higher degree of privacy.

Be Aware of Your Online Presence

This seems like an easy one, right? Its that old saying:
whatever you put on the Internet is there forever. And thats a fact.
Social media companies are likely some of the companies whose
data is being harvested by PRISM. This means that anything you
put on Facebook is not only almost certainly on Facebook servers
forever, but can also be accessed by Government Agencies with
serious ease. The same is true for Google products, Snapchat,
Instagram, Twitter, Skype, etc. However, your online presence
doesnt stop at being aware of what you share on social media.
Among the metadata collected through the PRISM program
our browser histories, search histories, IP address, usernames,
operating system, time of online activity, and much more are all
included. This means be mindful about what you choose to search
for on Google, and type in text messages. Perhaps use a search
engine such as DuckDuckGo.com which doesnt record ones
search history, or if you really need to look up something that you
wouldnt be 100% comfortable with the Government seeing, use
a VPN, Tails, or the Tor browser. If you have a smartphone, Look
into using an open source, encrypted messaging and/or phone
app, such as Signal. That way, the messages only exist for as
long as they are on the phones of the sender and reciever. Dont

17

save your passwords on websites or stay logged in if you can help

it. Clear your browser history and cookies often. If you can stand
it, turn off autocorrect. Predictive text is able to make prediction
because it records what you type. (Macaskill and Dance, Part 2)

How to Install and Operate Tails Using a USB Drive

To install TAILS, you will need two USB drives of at least
4GB each. These instructions are for Windows. For Mac and Linux
computers, visit tails.boum.org/install/os/index.en.html

Either download the file through this Firefox Addon, or
through this bittorrent link.
Https://tails.boum.org/torrents/files/tails-i386-2.3.torrent
https://tails.boum.org/install/win/usb

Download and install the Universal USB Installer:

https://git-tails.immerda.ch/uui-binary/plain/Universal-USBinstaller.exe

Once you have downloaded the installer, Follow the
following steps:
Select Tails from the drop-down list labeled Step 1
Select Browse and choose the Tails file. Its extension is
.ISO
Select which usb stick you want to install Tails to
Select We Will Format as FAT32

18

 Click Create

Once complete, look up the boot menu key for your
particular computer. You can search online for (your computer
model number and brand) boot menu key. Its usually F12, F1 or
F9.

Now, shut down your computer. Then, restart your
computer with the usb drive plugged in. Once your computer
monitor turns on, press the boot menu key. If the windows logo
appears, you have waited too long; restart and try again.

Once in the boot menu, change the boot priority so that the
usb drive boots first. This way, if you insert a bootable USB drive
(like tails), your computer will boot from the USB. If there isnt a
drive, you will boot from the Hard Drive normally.

Make sure whenever you are booted in tails to never
remove the usb drive!

Exit the boot menu. TAILS should start automatically. Once
TAILS desktop is visible, Select Applications/Tails/Tails Installer.
Insert the second usb drive into the computer. Select Install by
cloning. Choose the second USB stick from the Target Device
menu, and click Install Tails

Shut down the computer, remove the first usb stick, and
leave the second one plugged in. Now, Tails will start from the
second drive.

Enter your wifi password. If a popup offers to upgrade your
copy of tails, do so. When that is finished, Select Applications/
Tails/Configure Persistent Volume. Specify a passphrase, click
create, and voila! Your tails stick now will retain your personal

19

data. When in doubt, enable persistence for options you are not
sure of the nature of; they could come in handy. You are now
running Tails!

Once you have installed Tails onto one USB drive, you
can easily install it onto another by cloning it onto another USB
drive. This can be done by starting up a computer and running
tails. Then plug in an empty USB drive of sufficient size. Once the
computer is fully on, go to Applications> Tails>Tails Installer, and
you will be prompted to install Tails by cloning it onto the empty
USB drive you plugged in. Share it with your friends! (tails.boum.
org)

How to Buy and Tumble Bitcoins

To use bitcoins, first you need a wallet. This is a place to
securely store your bitcoins. Online wallets are risky, because
the creator can simply go offline and steal the coins. Ideally, one
should use an offline wallet like Electrum or Mycellium, so only the
owner of a computer with the correct password can access the
coins.

Buying bitcoins can be done in a few different ways. Some
users link their bank account or credit card to an online exchange,
however this undermines the anonymity of the user. Moreover,
depending on the jurisdiction of the user and the exchange,
regulations by state and federal banking laws such as the USs
PATRIOT Act can delay and even prohibit users from using these
online exchanges. The alternative is to find an ATM or a vendor in
person. The easiest way to find bitcoin vendors is to use a site like
localbitcoins.com, which indexes a worldwide list of people selling

20

bitcoins and their individual rates of exchange. Generally, they

tend to be somewhat more expensive. They are also more free of
the restrictions and risks that online exchanges carry, however.

Once you have bitcoins, however, you need to tumble them.
Tumbling is the process of exchanging used bitcoins for ones that
have no tie to your identity. Every bitcoin transaction is listed publicly
online as part of the design of the currency; without this, bitcoins
would be very easy to counterfeit. By using a tumbling service
over the Tor network, one can obscure ones connection to
particular coins.

To tumble bitcoins, you need to make 3 wallets. The
first is the wallet which you used to buy your coins. The second
and third are wallets made while connected to the tor network
(Inside TAILS, for example). Send your coins from the first wallet
to the second. Then, send the coins from the second wallet to
the tumbling service. Last, send your coins from the tumbling
service to the third wallet. Ideally, use a random time delay for
the final transfer to further obfuscate your identity. You can also
make fourth, fifth, and more wallets, bouncing the coins between
different tumbling services. (Bitcoin.org) (Reddit.com)

How to Access The Tor Network

Tor is an essential network that allows the user to
operate on, what is colloquially known as the deep web while
offering some protection from Internet Surveillance. It has its
own encryption (the layers that coined it the nickname onion
network) and can provide anonymity for users while hiding their
location.

21

Pictures courtesy of https://www.torproject.org/about/overview

22


In order to access the Tor Server, one must download
the Tor browser. It works the same as any other internet browser
with the exception of the fact that it doesnt leave itself as open to
Mass Data collection. The download link for the Tor browser can
be found here: https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.
en#downloads .

The browser will allow a users Tor client to set up a circuit
of encrypted connections where information only travels in the
forward direction. This is what helps ensure that a users activity
on the Tor network stays encrypted- because the data is never
linked back to the computer from which it came.

The Homepage of the Tor browser offers some tips and
warnings for Tor users. For example, try not to torrent over the
Torr network, and dont open download files from the Tor browser
while still connected to the Internet. The Tor browser will warn you
before it automatically opens downloads on external applications.
THIS IS A SERIOUS WARNING. If you open a downloaded item
with an external application when connected to the internet,
it essentially defeats the purpose of using Tor at all as it will
reveal your non-Tor IP address and subvert the encryption and
the modicum of privacy that it provides. The full list of warnings
and hints can be found at: https://www.torproject.org/download/
download.html.en#warning .(Torproject.org)

The Tor network can also be accessed on mobile devices
such as smartphones by downloading an app called Orbot that
allows for connection between the mobile device and the Tor
network, the same way that the Tor browser would establish
such a connection on a computer. In order to view onion network

23

webpages, one must also download the app orfox which is a

browser similar to Firefox but one that operates using the Tor
Network. (Torproject.org)

Clos1ng Th0ughts

When employing crypto-anarchist techniques its important
to remember that nothing will provide 100% privacy. The reach
of intelligence agencies and computer experts is too great, and if
they genuinely wanted to find out what a person was doing online,
they could. If there were enough encryption techniques, it would
take a long time and be expensive, but it is possible.

That being said, the Tor network and bitcoin are often
associated with the Deep Web and marketplaces that sell items
and services that the U.S. Federal Government considers illegal.
This guide in no way condones or encourages the use of these
marketplaces, nor the purchase of these items. This guide is
meant to empower users to protect their right to privacy and to
provide some means for resisting the abuse of State power that
The Surveillance Industrial Complex embodies.

I will leave you with this final thought: Just because 100%
privacy isnt guaranteed doesnt mean that theres no point. The
average user conducting routine online activity will benefit greatly
from using these encryption techniques and have a lot less of
their Internet activity causally monitored, collected, and indexed.
Encryption technique is constantly evolving, so I hope this
guide can offer one small step forward in the path towards State
resistance and subversion. Never stop resisting!

24

Works Cited
.Baker, Jennifer. Cypherpunk Rising: WikiLeaks, Encryption,
and the Coming Surveillance Dystopia. Plus Jacob Applebaum
Interview.Revolution News. N.p., 13 Mar. 2013. Web. 10 May
2016.
Bitcoin.Reddit.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2016.
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Pictures courtesy of https://www.torproject.org/about/overview

 Parrott, Matt. Crypto-Anarchism, Cyber-Security, & the New

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thanks
to my Crypto-Anarchist
friends,
Special
What Is Open
Source?Opensource.com.
N.p., n.d.
Web. 11
you
know
who
you
are
;)
May 2016.

Pictures courtesy of https://www.torproject.org/about/overview

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K3EP R3SISTING