If I wanted to become a hacker here is what I would do to cover my steps: 1.) Buying a used Laptop with cash, and picking it up in person.
2.) Using random coffee shops to work by dice roll. Obviously at least a d20 and at least 20 coffee shops.
3.) Installing Linux, probably Manjaro. (Not Kali because I've heard that is watched)
What are your thoughts?

Just take an acting course and call customer service pretending you're the target

Use a non logged/tracked vpn, remote desktop to a second laptop in another random coffee shop, avoid paying with credit (only cash). Oh yeah, always wear your guy fawks mask + balaclava when visiting those coffee shop - so that the Facial recog cameras can't identify you.

GL!

Fuck.
forgot the dark sunglasses!

1) the origin of the computer you use makes no difference at all.

2) coffee shops are not anonymous. They make no promise that your internet activity will not be logged and reported, especially when requested by law enforcement agencies

3) "watched?" What are you talking about? If you're attempting to illicitly gain access to protected resources over a computer network, then if the resources in question are protected in such a way as to be worth a damn, THEN you're being watched. But no distribution of Linux reports its suspicious activities to those who would be in a position to combat illicit network access. If the news came out that that was the case, the userbase of that distribution would drop to near zero in a very short time.

I can't tell if this post is trolling.

@bahua assume Yes. Also, assume you are being watched right now.

@magicMirror My family is watching me from across the dinner table

AAAAAAAAAHH

@magicMirror over the Guy Fawks mask.

This is what I am referring to: https://defenseone.com/technology/... but they mention tails and not kali. And yes this is not serious post, more like thought games.

You forgot a black hoodie!

Just finished watching mr robot, haven't we? :)

@netikras Yes ;-) But I am playing this game already for a few years^^

@Wolle You know what's ridiculous with this article? uBlock shows 33 blocked items on that page, among them Google, Facebook, and Twitter - who are all known to be spies for the New Soviet America.

@Wolle not smart.

Lappy - why does it matter where it's from? You can buy a new lappy in a shop and pay with cash too afaik. Never ever have they asked for my name.
Caffees - 4 days and I'd bust your ass. The more caffees - the easier it will be. Because you are lazy and careless - I can bet on that! :)

Kali -- any more convenient distro will rat you out. Either immediatelly or at least will help to profile you.

@netikras I've never heard of a distro rating anybody out.
Do you have some stories to share?

@sodaTab I have network logs I cannot share :)

@netikras
Kali is based on Debian,
Debian uses systemd,
Systemd is a gaping security hole, that may even forward traffic to google AFAIK (systemd-dns at least).
Conclusion, don't fucking use Kali.

Don't forget the black hoodie.

@alexbrooklyn @sodaTab
guy fawks mask in the familiy dinner!

🤣🤣🤣🤣

@netikras I thought about buying a Lappy in a shop as well. But with them having videocameras and logs of the products sold. They could use that to get recordings of who bought which product/Lappy.

@bahua It certainly is more trolling than serious. Look at it more like food-for-thought.

@Wolle and buying one in the streets is risky too. It could already be flagged somewhere. Or intelME and alikes from other vendors could have already been triggered to announce themselves once connected to the network because the haxx0r you've just bought it from was doing smth fishy.

@NickyBones That's what sunglasses, hoodie and Ubuntu with Kali wallpaper are supposed to achieve.

@Fast-Nop more like windows with Kali wallpaper

@NickyBones Yeah nearly convincing camo I guess.

@netikras those are the comments I hoped for with this rant ;-) Thanks

@Wolle cheers!

@NickyBones No, I intentionally left this out. Because getting this knowledge is a different part of the process. You can just watch tutorials/read blogs on network/server/cloud security. I don't think that would be suspicious.

Let's be real: If you want to hack someone/thing, do it from a country that is too lazy to arrest you for it and extradite you.

On a side note to the topic: On of our pentesters told me a story where he got kicked out of a bar while working on some code because the other patrons felt uncomfortable with him using dark mode in his editor. So, to raise less suspicion when sitting in the coffee shop I would use light mode while doing things.