Proxies. If you use
7, it's impossible to track you.
1) Use a Mac, try not to give away too much personal info on forums/myspace, etc. Use webmail and a router. When buying stuff online and similar, only buy from known-good vendors and check that the website uses SSL when giving your credit card details.
2) Same as above, except more so. Buy a good router from a major company like Cisco. VPN support might be nice also.
3) You want paranoid?
- Proxies/Tor. The proxy/Tor node may be hostile.
- Remember that SSL can (theoretically) be broken. We don't know how many acres of computers the NSA and Homeland Insecurity has.
- Use disposable email when signing up for websites and use a new name/pass/email combination on every site so people can't track you across websites. Don't forget that the evil government may have access to the email providers' logs. Do not check more than one email account per IP you connect from.
- Don't give out even the tiniest personal details (doh). Alternately, give out misleading/wrong personal information, although this might be useable as well.
- Make liberal use of internet cafés, change often of course. Have a custom linux distro on a CD or USB flash drive to ensure the computer is free of keyloggers and other spyware. Be aware that the keyboard may be bugged and that there could be surveillance cameras tracking your typing.
- Do not use a credit card ever (cash only).
- Buy a used cell phone (from a private person, not in a store) and a prepaid SIM. Change both often.
- For online banking use a security device* (or preferably don't use banks at all).
- Don't be a member of any clubs (member details may not be 100% private for them to receive public funding and they may have a website with member lists and event results).
- Don't get drunk/high. Loose lips sink ships.
- Don't compute with the curtains open. It is possible to decode the blur from your screen on the wall behind you and reconstruct the image.
- Do not use CRTs. Same as above, only through walls via the electromagnetic radiation.
* I have this little
calculator-looking thing. To log into my banks website, I need my username (random numbers/letters), password (same), code for the calculator-thingy, and the calculator thingy itself. I get a code from the bank which i type into the device and I get a different code back which I type into the online banking system. This ensures secure communications from everywhere.