Untraceable Network Adapter

[ion529]

I'm looking to purchase for myself a lovely Alfa wireless adapter, however I would like it so that it cannot be traced back to me. Unfortunately there is no-one within reach who sells Alfa networking gear so that I could just buy it for cash. This means the only place I could potentially buy it is online, on amazon or something of the likes. However (and I'm still very new to this privacy game), I would have thought that would come with inherent privacy risks, that someone could somehow figure who purchased the card, (maybe even without having physical access to the card).

 

Questions:

 

1. Maybe I am just delusional. Could the adapter be traced and if so, how?

 

2. Is there any steps I could take to mitigate this risk?

 

Thanking you in advance.

 

 

 

 

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

What are you trying to hid from? you can spoof a mac super easy on most network adapters. 

 

This won't change your IP or packets

[PiGHamM3R]

What are you even?

 

Just use PIA. I hear a great YouTuber gives a discount code.

[PiGHamM3R]

4 minutes ago, PacketMan said:

Full address please

https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/linus-tech-tips/linus2

[ion529]

1 hour ago, PacketMan said:

You can be tracked down by this post, don't be so paranoic

Buy it used from eBay or from a Chinese retailer, to "someone else" and once it gets to your home say he/she isn't home and you'll give it to him/her?

You can always be tracked, I don't know why you would be targeted just for buying a network adapter, it's like saying that if you buy a Ryzen you'll be tracked down by Intel

Forgive me, but I didn't really clarify what I meant by "traced". I don't mean physically tracked down, we have tor and tails for that. I mean if some nasty hacker or government managed to obtain some sort of information derived from either physical or remote access to the device, would they be able to deduce that it was ordered from amazon etc. under my credit card (or someone who I know). Essentially, what sort of information could be exploited from the device?

 

1 hour ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

What are you trying to hid from? you can spoof a mac super easy on most network adapters. 

 

This won't change your IP or packets

The plan so far is to spoof the MAC, is there any other information that the device might give up that means it could be traced back to me?

[Electronics Wizardy]

31 minutes ago, ion529 said:

The plan so far is to spoof the MAC, is there any other information that the device might give up that means it could be traced back to me?

what are you trying to hide? there is a lot more than the mac id be worried about.

 

Id just get a burner laptop and use it at coffee shops, thats pretty hard to track.

[ion529]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

what are you trying to hide? there is a lot more than the mac id be worried about.

 

Id just get a burner laptop and use it at coffee shops, thats pretty hard to track.

I'm trying to hide my real identity. I already have the burner laptop with everything stripped etc. and tails on it. I just need an alfa usb network card that cannot be linked to me.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, ion529 said:

I'm trying to hide my real identity. I already have the burner laptop with everything stripped etc. and tails on it. I just need an alfa usb network card that cannot be linked to me.

why do you need that network card, just spoof the mac on the internal one.

[ion529]

3 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

why do you need that network card, just spoof the mac on the internal one.

I tried using the internal one, but the laptop is old and it wasn't performing very well. You said in an earlier post that 'there is a lot more than the mac id be worried about', i'm very curious now, could you elaborate?

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, ion529 said:

I tried using the internal one, but the laptop is old and it wasn't performing very well. You said in an earlier post that 'there is a lot more than the mac id be worried about', i'm very curious now, could you elaborate?

stuff like user user activity can link you pretty well to a profile. Lots of little things can be collected.

 

Also there is the os putting out info, but tails is pretty good at stopping that.

 

 

[ion529]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

stuff like user user activity can link you pretty well to a profile. Lots of little things can be collected.

 

Also there is the os putting out info, but tails is pretty good at stopping that.

 

 

I see. What about unique identifiers (Other than MAC)? For example would it be possible to get hold of a serial number or something and reverse search it? Thanks for your help btw

[Electronics Wizardy]

7 minutes ago, ion529 said:

I see. What about unique identifiers (Other than MAC)? For example would it be possible to get hold of a serial number or something and reverse search it? Thanks for your help btw

depends.

 

This really depends on what your doing on your system. Web browsing?

 

who are you trying to hide from?

[Razor Blade]

For many use cases, a VPN should be sufficient to protect your browsing privacy...are you...not welcome on the network you're trying to join or something?

[Donut417]

1 hour ago, ion529 said:

Forgive me, but I didn't really clarify what I meant by "traced". I don't mean physically tracked down, we have tor and tails for that. I mean if some nasty hacker or government managed to obtain some sort of information derived from either physical or remote access to the device, would they be able to deduce that it was ordered from amazon etc. under my credit card (or someone who I know). Essentially, what sort of information could be exploited from the device?

Many governments have access to the telcom's network. I remember many years ago the NSA was said to have directly connected to AT&T's network. The government is going to track you, nothing you can do about that. Not to mention your ISP is most likely do some kinda of deep packet inspection. They know any data that flows from your modem in to their network. While you can use a VPN to prevent this, keep in mind that VPN providers are subject to the laws of the countries they are based in. 

[kirashi]

13 hours ago, ion529 said:

I'm looking to purchase for myself a lovely Alfa wireless adapter, however I would like it so that it cannot be traced back to me.

FBI, open up. No but really... if you want it to be untraceable, you shouldn't post about it on a public forum... or anywhere on the net, really.

 

[Daimaou]

On 5/5/2019 at 5:27 PM, Donut417 said:

Many governments have access to the telcom's network. I remember many years ago the NSA was said to have directly connected to AT&T's network. The government is going to track you, nothing you can do about that. Not to mention your ISP is most likely do some kinda of deep packet inspection. They know any data that flows from your modem in to their network. While you can use a VPN to prevent this, keep in mind that VPN providers are subject to the laws of the countries they are based in. 

 

A couple years ago I attended a network security panel at Dragoncon and it was discussed that the NSA was pretty much tracking all data using a cisco zero day exploit. Like could literally recreate your internet data. I can't remember what state they said the data center was in but people were talking locally about them buying Sun blades by the tractor trailer full. 

[Donut417]

9 hours ago, Daimaou said:

 

A couple years ago I attended a network security panel at Dragoncon and it was discussed that the NSA was pretty much tracking all data using a cisco zero day exploit. Like could literally recreate your internet data. I can't remember what state they said the data center was in but people were talking locally about them buying Sun blades by the tractor trailer full. 

I think the Data center is in Utah.