The anonymous operating system Tails, reportedly used by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden (the central figure of the PRISM scandal) and others, has recently released its official 1.0 version. In the release announcement, the developers stated that version 1.0 marks a significant milestone in the system’s maturity. The first public release of what later became Tails was on June 23, 2009, nearly five years ago. Tails 1.0 is the 36th stable release since then. What kind of charm does an operating system that even NSA employees love possess? With cybersecurity topics increasingly in the spotlight, do we need such a system just in case? Today, let’s take a brief look at this mysterious operating system through over 40 images below!
The Amnesic Incognito Live System (Tails) is a Debian-based live bootable CD or USB distribution aimed at providing users with complete Internet anonymity. The distribution comes equipped with several Internet applications, including a web browser, IRC client, email client, and instant messenger, all pre-configured with security in mind and designed to anonymize network traffic. To achieve this goal, Incognito uses the Tor network, making network traffic very difficult to trace.
As a Linux distribution, the system supports booting from DVD, SD card, or USB. It comes preloaded with common software such as a web browser, instant messaging, email, office suite, and image and sound editors.
From the introduction above, we know the Tails system primarily uses the Tor network to make network traffic hard to trace. So, what exactly is the Tor network?
Tor is a software project that helps you defend against traffic analysis, a form of network surveillance. Tor protects your security by routing your communications through a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents those monitoring your Internet connection from knowing what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visit from knowing your physical location. Tor works with many existing applications, including web browsers, instant messaging clients, remote login, and other applications based on the TCP protocol.