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Take the hypothetical scenario in which an individual (say, a political dissident in a police-state) would need to achieve optimal or near-perfect security for the safe storage and transmission of data.

We make the following assumptions:

  1. Every intermediary between you and the parties you communicate with have the intent of intercepting your transmissions, and will use the best methods of cryptanalysis publicly known to obtain your data.

  2. The physical security of your computer cannot be assured.

  3. Coercion and legal obligation can be used against you to surrender information (keys, etc.).

Using open-source software (given the uncertainty of commercial solutions -- we do not know if a given application is subject to security flaws or has in itself a method of subversion), which software would you use to go about this? By which other methods might you achieve a greater degree of information security?

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This is a very broad topic that is perhaps not well-suited for a StackExchange question. Many organizations maintain documents that are hundreds of pages thick to cover their methods of maintaining acceptable levels of security. NIST SP 800-53, "Recommended Security Controls for Federal Information Systems and Organizations" is just a template document, and is 253 pages long before the controls are even answered for and not including other documents required by the controls. I suggest narrowing the scope of your question to a specific aspect of security you wish to find a solution for. – Iszi Apr 9 '11 at 7:44
Land a job with the NSA, they will teach you everything you need to know. – Moab Apr 9 '11 at 18:35

closed as not constructive by Nifle, Tom Wijsman, Sathya♦ Apr 9 '11 at 15:00

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2 Answers

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Storage: TrueCrypt using full-disk encryption and a hidden operating system is a good starting point. The solution is not foolproof, it's important to follow precautions (regularly use the host OS, have plausible explanation for visible encrypted partitions etc.)

Transmission: Public-key encryption is a necessity, so authorities cannot decrypt the message they intercepted, even if they force you to reveal the public key (GPG is often used, and open-source). In addition, using steganography is a good idea, otherwise sending encrypted data itself can be sufficiently incriminating.

As you mentioned, it's not good to trust closed-source solutions (e.g. Microsoft BitLocker), or certificate-based encryption such as SSL.

If authorities have strong suspicions about your activities, they can imprison or torture you without seeing the content of your messages.

Note on purpose: Unfortunately, advanced security for data storage, communication, and evading detection is better suited to espionage or whistle-blowing than to political activism.

Being a political dissident involves speaking out and disseminating documents, either publicly or within a somewhat trusted, but fairly wide circle. The point is making a number of other people aware of: (1) government abuses and (2) presence of dissenting voices. The second goal is inherently incompatible with security.

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SSL as a protocol is perfectly good. It's certificate issuing authorities you can't trust. – grawity Apr 9 '11 at 13:28
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Unplug the system.

More seriously

  1. do not have anything on a hard drive or any other media - have a plausibly anonymous livecd for anything you don't want captured. Do not save anything to any media whatsoever. The moment the system is unplugged, all content is lost, preventing wrench based decryptions. This has two advantages - you can delete your incriminating data immediately, by simply unplugging the system. In short - if there is no data to find, none will be found. Having a freshly installed copy of said livdcd's OS installed would further the illusion that there is nothing to see there, and to move along - since there's a reason for a cd there.

  2. This does not, however,stop wrench based decryption attempts - having a plausibly deniable primary system on disk, with innocent, or better yet, pro establishment propaganda, might deter this - if you're a loyal supporter of the state, what do they have to fear?

  3. From said livecd, encrypt everything - use a SSH tunnel to a known friendly area.

  4. More smoke and mirrors - have a unencrypted AP - better yet, sneak one into the neighbours and use that. That way, you can blame someone else if someone wonders what's behind the SSH connection you have

  5. Hide in plain sight - use services like mailinator or pastebin to host coded messages. Since, they can't watch them all.

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