Out in the Open: Inside the Operating System Edward Snowden Used to Evade the NSA

Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED

When NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden first emailed Glenn Greenwald, he insisted on using email encryption software called PGP for all communications. But this month, we learned that Snowden used another technology to keep his communications out of the NSAs prying eyes. Its called Tails. And naturally, nobody knows exactly who created it.

Tails is a kind of computer-in-a-box. You install it on a DVD or USB drive, boot up the computer from the drive and, voila, youre pretty close to anonymous on the internet. At its heart, Tails is a version of the Linux operating system optimized for anonymity. It comes with several privacy and encryption tools, most notably Tor, an application that anonymizes a users internet traffic by routing it through a network of computers run by volunteers around the world.

Snowden, Greenwald and their collaborator, documentary film maker Laura Poitras, used it because, by design, Tails doesnt store any data locally. This makes it virtually immune to malicious software, and prevents someone from performing effective forensics on the computer after the fact. That protects both the journalists, and often more importantly, their sources.

The installation and verification has a learning curve to make sure it is installed correctly, Poitras told WIRED by e-mail. But once the set up is done, I think it is very easy to use.

Originally developed as a research project by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Tor has been used by a wide range of people who care about online anonymity: everyone from Silk Road drug dealers, to activists, whistleblowers, stalking victims and people who simply like their online privacy.

Tails makes it much easier to use Tor and other privacy tools. Once you boot into Tails which requires no special setup Tor runs automatically. When youre done using it, you can boot back into your PCs normal operating system, and no history from your Tails session will remain.

The Tails Development Team

The developers of Tails are, appropriately, anonymous. All of WIREDSs questions were collectively and anonymously answered by the groups members via email.

Theyre protecting their identities, in part, to help protect the code from government interference. The NSA has been pressuring free software projects and developers in various ways, the group says, referring to a a conference last year at which Linux creator Linus Torvalds implied that the NSA had asked him place a backdoor in the operating system.

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Out in the Open: Inside the Operating System Edward Snowden Used to Evade the NSA