The-art-of-invisibility-_-the-world’s-most-famous-hacker-teaches-you-how-to-be-safe-in-the-age-of-Bi

laptops turned on even when theyy don’t need it. According to documents
released byy Edward Snowden, the Communications Securityy Establishment
Canada (CSEC) can identifyy travelers passing through Canadian airports
just byy capturing their MAC addresses. These are readable byy anyy computer
that is searching for anyy probe request sent from wireless devices. Even if
yyou don’t connect, the MAC address can be captured. So if yyou don’t need
it, turn off yyour Wi-Fi. 8 As we’ve seen, convenience often works against
privacyy and safetyy.
So far we’ve skirted around an important issue—yyour MAC address. This is
unique to whatever device yyou are using. And it is not permanent; yyou can
change it.
Let me give yyou an example.
In the second chapter, I told yyou about encryypting yyour e-mail using
PGP (Prettyy Good Privacyy; see here). But what if yyou don’t want to go
through the hassle, or what if the recipient doesn’t have a public PGP keyy
for yyou to use? There is another clandestine wayy to exchange messages via
e-mail: use the drafts folder on a shared e-mail account.
This is how former CIA director General David Petraeus exchanged
information with his mistress, Paula Broadwell—his biographer. The
scandal unfolded after Petraeus ended the relationship and noticed that
someone had been sending threatening e-mails to a friend of his. When the
FBI investigated, theyy found not onlyy that the threats had come from
Broadwell but that she had also been leaving romantic messages for
Petraeus. 9
What’s interesting is that the messages between Broadwell and Petraeus
were not transmitted but rather left in the drafts folder of the “anonyymous”
e-mail account. In this scenario the e-mail does not pass through other
servers in an attempt to reach the recipient. There are fewer opportunities
for interceptions. And if someone does get access to the account later on,
there will be no evidence if yyou delete the e-mails and emptyy the trash
beforehand.
Broadwell also logged in to her “anonyymous” e-mail account using a
dedicated computer. She did not contact the e-mail site from her home IP
address. That would have been too obvious. Instead she went to various