Matt BlazeNov 7, 2024

Three people recently asked me about Faraday cages (to prevent their phones from being tracked), probably because of this blog post from a few years ago: https://www.mattblaze.org/blog/faraday/

Tl;dr:

- You probably don't need a Faraday cage. If you need to use your phone or have it on to receive calls/texts, a Faraday cage won't help you!

- The main use of a Faraday cage is to provide *assurance* that your phone is really off and not broadcasting your location.

- If you *do* need one, get a good one.

Matt Blaze: Testing Phone-Sized Faraday Bags

Show threadMatt BlazeNov 7, 2024
Also, while I'm as much as gadget freak as anyone, "get yourself a Faraday cage" would probably be very low on my checklist of things to do to prepare for an authoritarian dictatorship.
HBXNov 7, 2024
Show threadMatt Blaze
Also, if you've got this romantic idea that you're going to be some kind of superspy underground resistance operative staying one step ahead of The Man with your clever technology countermeasures, consider that ACTUAL TRAINED CIA SPIES have trouble doing this properly in practice, even for just a few weeks. See this talk from Blackhat 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWtbwMp7Zh8
OPSEC Failures of Spies

YouTube
Nov 7, 2024 at 1:48amWeb
Show threadMatt BlazeNov 7, 2024
I apologize if you think I'm being a jerk for throwing cold water on your plan to be played by Gene Hackman in the movie version of whatever you've got planned, but staying truly underground is *hard*, and involves a lot of self-discipline and understanding of sophisticated threats.
Show threadRandom Damage 🌻Nov 7, 2024

@mattblaze I'm already well ahead of most people on this, and all I expect out of it is to stay off the radar of a few predatory companies by not being the low hanging fruit

If a nation-state is after me, I'm probably toast

Show threadjwzNov 7, 2024
@mattblaze Having just consulted his filmography, I think I would prefer to not be played by Gene Hackman at all.
Show threadMike J👹🐀 🤘🏻Nov 7, 2024
@jwz @mattblaze If you've not seen The Conversation, treat yourself. One of the ur-hacker movies.
Show threadVoid TurtleNov 7, 2024
@mattblaze The history of resistance movements shows that living underground successfully is only possible if you are part of a resistance movement that is deeply embedded within and supported by a community. Lone wolf shit doesn't work outside of very specific tactical successes (that are usually suicide missions, see: the 1943 bombing of the Amsterdam civil registry to prevent the Gestapo from using it)
Show threadmvarioNov 7, 2024

@mattblaze

https://www.csmonitor.com/1980/0905/090535.html

Abbie Hoffman as fugitive: he fooled nearly everybody

For the last four years, Abbie Hoffman, the "Yippie" radical of the 1960s and fugitive from the law, lived as a respectable middle- class

The Christian Science Monitor
Show threadhardyjohnsonNov 7, 2024

@mattblaze where do you fall on at least implementing the suggestions in the EFF Surveillance Self Defense Guide?

https://ssd.eff.org/

Surveillance Self-Defense

We’re the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a member-supported non-profit working to protect online privacy for over thirty-five years. This is Surveillance Self-Defense: our expert guide to protecting you and your friends from online spying. Read the BASICS to find out how online surveillance works. Dive into our TOOL GUIDES for instructions...

Show threadMatt BlazeNov 7, 2024
@hardyjohnson Rule One (and Two and Three) is Understand What Your Threat Is and What Problem You're Solving.
Show threadhardyjohnsonNov 7, 2024
@mattblaze well I live in Portland and resistance to fascists lead to little green men snatching ppl of the streets last time…
Show threadMatt BlazeNov 7, 2024
@hardyjohnson If the authorities think there's a criminal conspiracy (justly or not), they have extremely powerful investigative tools (legal, social, and technical) for exposing them. And they probably have a lot more practice catching people than you do avoiding getting caught.
Show threadhardyjohnsonNov 7, 2024
@mattblaze I don’t plan on doing anything illegal. The power of the extra judicial state was definitely proven terrifying.
Show threadknapjackNov 7, 2024

@mattblaze @hardyjohnson 💯

I'm basically an amateur, and I would not want me chasing me.

Show threadJeff CraigNov 7, 2024
@mattblaze @hardyjohnson AKA, "You have to be perfect, they have to be patient."
Show threadWulfy—Speaker to the machinesNov 7, 2024

@mattblaze @hardyjohnson

Also, since we're talking #FaradayCages

There are two scenarios here.
Containing a radio signal from leaving (metal tin ok)

EMP pulse strike. Complicated formula that includes thickness and type of material and mesh vs solid. I looked into it. Lots of good data from the cold war tests. Because we're talking very high energy.

Show threadMatt BlazeNov 7, 2024
@n_dimension @hardyjohnson I'm not sure where you're getting the idea that a metal tin is OK. Every metal tin I measured was terrible. Getting a good uniform low-resistance seal on a metal tin is surprisingly hard.
Show threadhardyjohnsonNov 7, 2024

@mattblaze @n_dimension

Matt, I realize now I jumped into the middle of a thread with a question only tangentially related to your initial postulation and will withdraw from this conversation.

Show threaddanwwilson Nov 7, 2024
@mattblaze Absolutely wild!!!
Show threadErik Kemp 🇪🇺Nov 7, 2024
@mattblaze Fantastic talk, thanks for sharing!
Show threadUrzlNov 7, 2024
@mattblaze Similar to safety regulations, those tradecraft rules are written in blood.