Previously we learned how to install and use the Tor browser, and in the previous lecture I showed
you how to use it with tails.
Now this will be the browser that will use most of the time to protect our anonymity and privacy and
to access the hidden services or the darknet websites.
In this lecture, though, I want to show you another browser that comes with tails, which is the insecure
or unsafe browser.
Now you might think, why would I want to use an insecure or unsafe browser?
See, as we mentioned before, unlike installing the Tor browser on other operating systems such as
Windows, OSX or Linux, where only traffic going through the Tor browser will go through the Tor network,
and all other traffic will literally go directly to the Internet until all traffic is forced to go through
the Tor network.
So regardless of what application generates this traffic, even if it's a system update, even if it's
some malware that got downloaded and got executed on your system, it will always be forced to go through
the Tor network.
Now, like we said, this is great because it prevents leaks.
It improves our security and anonymity because no other programs can access the Internet directly.
Therefore, all of our connections are always going through the Tor network.
So this is really, really good and an amazing feature of Thales.
The only problem is sometimes you actually need to access the Internet directly, or you need a browser
that will not use the Tor network.
For example, if you are trying to connect to a captive portal, what I mean by a captive portal is
a network similar to the networks you see in airports, universities or coffee shops where once you
connect, you have to log in or you have to authenticate.
Now, usually the authentication is done using a web browser.
Any web browser will work, but the Tor browser will not work because as we know, Tor browser will
drive traffic through the Tor network.
And therefore you want.
Be able to authenticate with the local network.
Now, if you were running the Tor browser from a normal operating system like Linux, Windows or Ice
X, the solution to this is easy.
You just go to one of your other browsers and like I said, these will be accessing the Internet directly.
So that will be fine.
The problem is, as we mentioned, Intel's everything is forced to go through the Tor network.
So even if you had another web browser, it will be forced to go through the Tor network and therefore
you still won't be able to authenticate with these networks.
Therefore, for this reason and for any other rare cases where you would actually need to access the
Internet directly tells comes with another web browser.
It's actually called the unsafe browser because this is the only application on the operating system
that can make direct connection to the Internet outside of the Tor network.
So you want to be very, very careful when you're using this and you want to make sure that you know
what you're doing because it is not using the terror network.
It's going to be accessing the Internet directly, revealing your location, your IP and so on.
So right here, I'm back at tails.
And if I go to my wi fi networks and look for a wi fi network.
You can see that there is a Starbucks wi fi around me.
So this is a coffee shop network and this is an example of a network that uses a captive portal.
Like I said, these networks are commonly used in coffee shops, colleges, hotels or airports.
So it's all the same scenario.
Once you connect, so I'm going to click on it and connect.
You'll see that I will be able to connect to the network, but I won't have Internet access.
So if I go up here, you can see that I am connected to the network.
But as you can see, the tour icon right here still has an X beside it.
So I'm not able to connect to the Tor network.
And even if I go and run my Tor browser, as you can see, it's telling me that the Tor network is not
ready yet, so the browser will probably not be able to access the internet.
And even if you wait for this, it's not going to connect.
So I'm going to click on Start anyway.
And as you can see, nothing will load.
We'll be stuck at the welcome page.
And even if you try to go to any website, it's not going to load because the captive portal needs you
to first authenticate with it.
So this network is configured in a way that the users have to authenticate using a web interface first.
See, usually on normal operating systems, when you launch your browser, you'll see the authentication
web interface, the authentication page by default.
But because Thales is configured so that it routes all traffic through the Tor network, the web interface
or the authentication page is inaccessible to us.
Therefore, the only way around this is to go ahead and use the insecure browser which accesses the
internet directly.
To do this.
We're going to go to applications.
Internet.
And we're going to click on the unsafe browser.
It's going to show us a warning telling us that this will access the Internet directly.
You will not be anonymous, so be careful.
I've explained all this to you.
So we're going to click on launch.
And as you can see, we get another Web browser with a big warning again about the implications of using
this browser, but we know what we're doing, so that's fine.
And now you can use this browser similar to the way that you use any web browser on any other operating
system that does not force traffic through the Tor network.
So you probably already connected to such networks in hotels or airports.
Once you connect to it, you open your web browser and you can go to a new website you want.
For example, I'm going to go to DuckDuckGo dot com.
And as you can see, the website that I want will not load, but I will get the page for the captive
portal.
Now some captive portals will ask you for a name and email.
They might ask for your phone number.
You can fill this with any information you want.
You don't have to give valid information, and once you do this, you can click on Connect.
In my case, I can just connect without filling any information.
And as you can see, I'll get redirected to the Starbucks website.
So I get authenticated with the network, with the captive portal now.
So now tables should be able to establish a connection with the Tor network and the Tor browser should
work for us as well.
And perfect.
As you can see, we get a notification telling us now we can access the Internet.
On the top, right.
The X has disappeared.
So if I go to check the Tor project dot org, as you can see, we get a nice message telling us that
we are connected properly to the Tor network.
Our IP is changed and everything is working as expected.
So now we don't need the unsafe browser anymore.
We can close it because we have authenticated with the target network properly and the network is going
to allow us to access the internet.
And then Thales is going to force all traffic through the Tor network, which is exactly what we want,
which will improve our privacy and anonymity.