Subj : Getting Safe Houses Invisible
To   : All
From : warmfuzzy
Date : Thu Sep 08 2022 21:55:43

I was just thinking upon how Osama Bin Laden had his residence in Pakistan a few decades ago.  I thought to myself, what did OBL do right and what did he do wrong in terms of securing his sanctuary.  First of all it was a compound in the middle of a military region, it had no cellular phones on site, and it was large and prominent among the other buildings in that area.  So +1 for having the safe house in a large populated area, -1 for not looking like the rest of the surroundings, and +1 for not having a cell phone there.  The biggest mistake was to think that he was safe in his safe house.  The safe house was in an area that was surveilled by the Americans, and assuming that you are safe lowers your operational security on site.  Also, there was a treasure trove of computer and video equipment.  It is probable that at least some of that stuff was stored in un-encrypted format.  For Linux it is recommended to use LUKS AES-256, and on Windows it is recommended to use PGP WholeDisk or VeraCrypt to secure your data.  In reality though I wouldn't trust Microsoft to store my sensitive data, whether that is encrypted or not. Windows has been rumored to have hashes of certain "offensive" files that are checked whether to exist on a Windows box and if they do there is some sort of communications with Microsoft that will reveal the person who has those files with those specific signatures.  The German government had a policy back in the Windows 8 day to have absolutely none of their critical systems use Windows 8 due to the fear of a yet undisclosed back door into Windows 8. Rumor has it that they're fine with Windows 10, though the status of their take on Windows 11 is unknown.  Whatever the case Windows is evil and Linux is much more secure.

Back to the commentary about safe houses, having a large concrete fort in the middle of the city with just about no one entering or leaving is suspicious.

One thing to point out is this: if you choose to not be a terrorist, nor a criminal, nor such like that then you often don't need to worry about this sort of thing.  But being innocent doesn't stop one from needing a safe house.  Christian missionaries in dangerous countries need a safe house now and then.  The government could be Iranian or North Korean, so in those situations even though you're a great benefit to society the government will interrogate, torture, and kill you for simply being an evangelical Christian.

Whatever the case, weigh the positives with the negatives, stay out of trouble as far as is right in your conscience and stay safe.  It is better to be proactive in terms of security setting up a safe house and maintaining it, than it is to need one and have none available.

Cheers!
-warmfuzzy

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