Anonym.OS alternatives? - xB Machine
A couple of weeks ago I was wondering on what happened to Anonym.OS. After a little searching around I came across xB Machine.
Xerobank appear to be one of those “secure browsing for a fee” organisations offering browser plugins and networks in order to protect your privacy while on the web in exchange for a fee. xB Machine can operate over this commercial network or over the free to connect Tor Network.
There is however one very important difference, whilst Anonym.OS ran as a live CD, xB Machine is only currently available as a set of images that reside on your hard disk that must be run through VMWare or Qemu (I didn’t have the familiarity to get it going in the latter and precise instructions aren’t currently available on the site). In order to alleviate concerns about this, the user session takes place within an encrypted container and there is a “self destruct” routine which can supposedly wipe this. Full details however on how these two aspects operate do not currently appear to be available on the download page or support wiki entry.
Those wishing to try the software should beware of the fact that it is a development pre-release, that does not appear to be open sourced or have undergone peer review. That said, it is good to see a tool like this released freely, even if it is ultimately supported by the option to use commercial networks.
Rowan :: Jan.23.2008 :: Internet Anonymity, Security :: No Comments »