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Safer Workspaces - Using Tails

Credits Michael Carbone, Lindsay Beck, Chris Walker, Carol Waters, Nick Sera-Leyva   Last Updated 2015-05

Tails (The Amnesic Incognito Live System) is a a live operating system, or an operating system which can be run directly from an external media storage device such as a USB stick or SD card. In addition to being portable, Tails leaves no trace of itself once disconnected from a machine, and routes all internet traffic through the Tor network.

Learning Goals for Participants

  • Understand how Internet censorship works.
  • Introduce Tails (The Amnesic Incognito Live System), a live operating system that can be booted on any computer using external media such as USB drive, DVD, or SD card.
  • Learn to download and install the Tails operating system bundle safely.
  • Learn to use Tails and the included applications for productivity tasks.
  • Understand the anonymity and digital safety concepts behind the design of Tails.

Important Notes

  • The countries where the use of encryption is illegal and that law is enforced has decreased, but it is still a very real concern for some participants. Before a training, review the laws of where your participants live and work, as well as the laws of where you’re conducting the training.
  • At minimum, a basic understanding of Tor, a technology built into Tails that provides an encrypted, anonymizing connection for users, is key to using and understanding Tails.
  • The Safer Browsing - Anonymity and Circumvention module with the Using the Tor Browser Bundle Deepening is a pre-requisite for this module, and should be covered before moving on to any session which incorporates the use of Tails.