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Comment by sandworm101 | Hacker News Reader

>> If you are being actively targeted by state actors(fbi,nsa,cia,etc)

The FBI is currently investigating hundreds, thousands, of drug-related crimes. They aren't deploying advanced firmware exploits on a daily basis. If you buy a laptop from a local store, and then run something like Tails from day one, the chances of them installing a firmware exploit remotely is nill. If you want to run Tails on your 5yo desktop that you use for Facebook, minecraft, porn, and for running your drug empire... then ya. Be worried. But running Tails on a new machine is safe.

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https://www.pcworld.com/article/2083300/report-nsa-intercept...

If you know you are not being targeting then you don't have to worry but... If they know who you are and where you live, they can bypass any router(they work directly with oems) and get onto your computer on a hardware level.

Keeping your identity private is the first task in security when dealing with the kind of people you need tails for.

Not unless you use something like pfsense on freed or mostly free hardware (many of us do this).

ahhh but where are you purchasing this "new" computer? It'd be foolish to assume that all new devices are clean.

There are classic cases of machines being intercepted in the post (including the cipher machines posted to the US Embassy in Moscow!).

But if you go pick out a machine from a store and take it home immediately then the chances of it having something preinstalled specifically to target you is nil.

This is one of the reasons I like to purchase laptops/components etc in person.

>if you go pick out a machine from a store and take it home immediately then the chances of it having something preinstalled specifically to target you is nil

Well, the chances of having government installed malware is nil ;)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfish#Lenovo_security_inci...

(Kidding aside, purchasing a laptop at a store then wiping it is probably reasonably secure for even more paranoid users)

Assuming "new" hardware is uncompromisable is a dangerous line of thinking. Don't forget about the vulnerabilities that have been found in Intel's Management Engine and AMD's PSP. Both of those "applications" are running before Tails boots.

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