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Does anyone know about this ICLOAK USB device? Opinions or how well they work? I

ID: 653403 • Letter: D

Question

Does anyone know about this ICLOAK USB device? Opinions or how well they work? I'm looking for a security solution when I'm using PCs where I work. Occasionally we have to log into to web sites, from work, to check sensitive information regarding our pay stubs, pay rates, retirement plans etc from work. They are pretty relaxed about our personal usage of the internet and everything I just want to make sure 'mainly' that my log in credentials can't be intercepted between the the time they travel from my browser to the web sites I'm logging into. Like that there is nothing in the middle that can intercept or meddle with unencrypted info

One of the bullet points on their web-site https://icloak.org/ says (Use it at work and keep your employer from tracing or tracking your online footprints) Could this ICLOAK really achieve this feat?

Explanation / Answer

Snake oil, this is just a glorified Linux live-USB with lots of bold claims to fool naive customers (they advertise it as a silver bullet solution for anonymity and privacy, which is impossible to do by just inserting an USB stick in a machine - does it magically detect hardware keyloggers or compromised firmware?).

You can make your own by installing Tails on an USB stick. I was about to rant over their proprietary OS but it looks like they're based on Ubuntu but even then, there is no clear download link for the source code so I wouldn't trust it.

If we assume their solution isn't malicious, this still isn't a silver bullet for anonymity and security; let's break down some of their claims :

Use it at work and keep your employer from tracing or tracking your online footprints

This doesn't protect against hardware or low-level (in the firmware for example) eavesdropping, while I doubt most employers would use this, it's definitely possible and this solution won't protect you against that. If you must do something privately, do it on your own computer, not your employer's one.

If you use it on your employer's network they will definitely know it - while it's true that they won't know what you're doing (assuming you're accessing HTTPS sites or using Tor), they will definitely notice some encrypted flow on the network and that will raise suspicions (and use of anonymity software may be prohibited which means you're fired).

Plug ICLOAK Stik into the USB drive of any Mac or PC device, reboot and you have 100% anonymity and privacy in under a minute.

Again, this doesn't take into account low-level nastyness like a compromised firmware or hardware keyloggers - if you need privacy or anonymity you should not be using a machine over which you don't have full control. Internet kiosks/caf

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