Beginner cybersecurity UK edition

November 23, 2016 7:34 AM

Given the UK's soon to be new law on obsessive surveillance overreach what can I do to best thwart this?

I'm obviously not looking to commit any crimes. But equally I don't believe that everything I do online should be kept for a year. What if I want to look at "non-conventional" porn*?

Can I do things to my data (I'm thinking https, encrypted what'sapp and emails, TOR routing?) to scramble an information trail.
Are there any good fire and forget methods that work on a national scale?



*Their words, not mine.

posted by Just this guy, y'know to Technology (4 answers total)

Oh, there's an FPP
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 7:38 AM on November 23, 2016

I live in the UK. I'm not going online anymore without having a VPN enabled (that is not based in the US or UK). Here's some recommendations for that and other things.
posted by vacapinta at 7:45 AM on November 23, 2016

I have recently started blogging about this: Cybersecurity for the Trumped (or the Brexited, as the case may be). Hope it helps you, and others!
posted by Too-Ticky at 7:50 AM on November 23, 2016

I don't have any security experience but I share your concerns. My understanding is that using a VPN is enough to thwart the basic track-every-website-you-visited law, but you should also use Tor if you think you might be a target of investigation.

In case you use a Mac, here is the VPN setup that is now working for me. I set up a cryptostorm VPN connection ($52 / year) using Tunnelblick (free), which was straightforward. I also used ControlPlane (free) and some AppleScript to tell Tunnelblick to connect to the VPN whenever the computer connects to wifi. This means that the VPN is always running, without me having to look after it. I'm happy to share the AppleScript if it's helpful.
posted by beniamino at 12:50 AM on November 24, 2016