Over the weekend, I introduced a few people to Tails, an operating system designed from the ground up for security and anonymity.
Tails is recommended by Edward Snowden, and sends all your Internet traffic over the Tor network, which is an encrypted protocol for anonymous communications. When you close the Tails operating system, all traces of what you did evaporate.
Tails also includes tools such as a password manager, Bitcoin wallet, LibreOffice suite, and much more. All of these resources are available for free. And Tails is very cool — if you can make him work.
For Windows, Linux or MacOS based on Intel (but not Silicon Apple)
Normally, Tails is installed on a USB stick that you can plug into a computer running Windows, Linux, or Intel-based MacOS (sorry, but you can’t use newer Macs using Apple Silicon M1/M2/M3 processors). You can start Tails from the USB drive and enter a secure workspace.
Just about any USB stick will do. I use the SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive USB flash drives because they have both USB-A and USB-C connectors, making them perfect for all systems.
The SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive USB-C/USB-A sticks are perfect. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
You can also burn Tails to a DVD (few people use that these days), or run it in a virtual machine (more on that in a moment).
The Wi-Fi problem
If you are looking for a safe operating system for browsing the web, one that secures your communications and leaves no traces on your system, then Tails is worth looking into.
As for installation, I refer you to the excellent documentation on the Tails website.
The documentation walks you through everything from identifying which download you need, to making sure the software wasn’t corrupted during the download, to telling you which tool you need to copy Tails on your USB drive, and demonstration of how to boot your computer from the USB drive.
I’ve tried Tails on a number of systems. If it works, great. And if it doesn’t, chances are you’ll have problems connecting it to the system’s Wi-Fi module (I’ve found that a wired network is very reliable).
But fear not, because there is even a solution to the Wi-Fi problem. Just plug this device into the system that is running Tails and it doesn’t see any Wi-Fi hardware. Then, like magic, Tails can suddenly use Wi-Fi.
Panda Ultra WiFi Adapter. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
Oracle VirtualBox as virtual machine
If you want to create a secure system on your own desktop or laptop computer, rather than relying on a USB drive or DVD, you can install Tails on a virtual machine.
I used Oracle VirtualBox as my virtual machine. It’s free and works great, and since the VirtualBox software takes care of the communication with the Wi-Fi hardware, you don’t run into any problems.
If you’re looking for a secure, privacy-focused operating system, I recommend taking a look at Tails. Sure, it has some limitations, but you can work around a lot of them. And in return for that effort, you get a solid platform that doesn’t compromise on security.
Source: “ZDNet.com”