I have hosted a WordPress blog on this site for almost 20 years. I don't any more.
WordPress was great. Type what you want to say; click a few buttons; and poof, your post is available to the world while your RSS feed is auto generated. It was so easy. It also brought a lot of trouble.
Even though we self-hosted the blog, WordPress continued to add various tracking capabilities. We would remove them as they emerged, but tracking was still possible. We try to prevent us from knowing the IP addresses of our visitors whenever possible. This gives you more privacy and us deniability if we were to receive a court order for traffic. The feds were not knocking down our door, but we like to practice what we preach.
We use Cloudflare as our CDN and full caching prevented our web host from receiving the requests for pages. This eliminated both our host and us from seeing your specific traffic and IP address. However, searches on the blog would generate a direct hit to the host and bypass the protection. We disabled search but that did not stop all logging when an un-cached page was accessed.
My main beef with having WordPress on our site was the attacks. Thousands of bots brute-force and scrape WordPress installations looking for content and vulnerabilities. This can result in hundreds of thousands of page loads every day, sometimes millions. Our CDN stops some of it, but most gets by.
I also just don’t like having a large amount of code and a database on my site just to deliver text content and a few images. WordPress is very excessive for our needs. So we killed it. Doing this left us with an entire site existing of only HTML and JS. This allowed us to stop using our web host (Namecheap) and simply cache the static pages on a Cloudflare worker. The entire site is under 100 MB and our old host is no longer logging your activity. Cloudflare is now the only server which can see the data and traffic, and they do not share IP address or traffic logs with us, outside of temporary security logs when attacked. That is not to say THEY don't store the data, but they could do that as our CDN anyway. We have just eliminated one of two middle-men (Namecheap). We updated our Privacy Policy to reflect these new benefits at https://inteltechniques.com/privacy
Today, we offer a pure HTML with Javacript Blog at https://inteltechniques.com/blog/ There is no database and all of the content is on a single HTML page. Images only load if you expand a post in order to keep bandwidth down for you and us. We created an RSS feed to continue supplying updates to those who rely on RSS readers for content. We even forward the old feed to the new so that your existing configurations should just work.
We have already posted new content and pruned the old and outdated material so be sure to take a look and subscribe to the RSS feed. We have many big things planned.
IntelTechniques Blog
The New Blog
August 15, 2026New Firewall Guide
August 15, 2026
We have released a brand new Firewall Guide at https://inteltechniques.com/firewall/ This guide walks through every step of creating your own pfSense firewall with Proton VPN and Wireguard.
OSINT Tools Update
August 15, 2026
We have update our online OSINT Tools at https://inteltechniques.com/tools/ They now allow automated query of an X (Twitter) username across XCancel for data retrieval without being logged into a X (Twitter) account including filtration by year.
Online Training: Updates & Membership Discounts
July 14, 2026
Periodically, we like to share some of the tactics, tools, and topics that we’ve been tackling recently in our online training program. If it has been a while since you last visited the training, the summary below will bring you up to speed on what has been added recently. We continue to add new lessons every month, along with the tools, templates, and resources that you have come to expect from your IntelTechniques membership.
We also wanted to remind former training members that, although training costs have risen in recent years, you are always welcome to renew your membership at your original discounted price point. Contact Jason at [email protected] directly to reactivate your account or if you have any questions. No chatbots, no AI agents, and no call centers. Laura or I will assist you directly because we think you deserve proper support from real humans.
Triaging Leads Best practices for deciding which leads to pursue early in an investigation, with an optional real-world practical exercise.
Event Threat Assessments A scenario-based lesson on researching events, related issues, and online discussions to support safety planning and tactical decision-making.
Privacy Assessments A workflow for conducting vulnerability assessments on cooperating targets. New Excel and Obsidian templates are provided.
Developer Tools: Removing Page Elements A demonstration on using browser developer tools to remove overlays and reveal hidden page content during online investigations.
Cultural Intelligence Guidance on interpreting interests, beliefs, online behavior, photos, videos, usernames, and cultural context to improve investigative analysis.
Investigating a Scam Email – Exercise & Demo A practical attribution exercise using a real-world scam email, followed by a walkthrough of the investigative workflow.
Domains, IP Addresses, & DNS A foundational overview of how domains, IP addresses, and DNS work in the context of web traffic.
How Packets Work A companion write-up to the Domains, IP Addresses, and DNS lesson, explaining what happens at the packet level when a browser requests a website.
APIs An overview of application programming interfaces appropriate for OSINT work and how to add them to your workflow.
Due Diligence Reports An overview of core components, templates, and best practices for professional due diligence reporting.
Updated Tools Dashboard An updated set of custom OSINT tools available only to training members, including hosted and self-hosted options.
Client Expectations: Bug Sweep Scenario A real-world counter-surveillance scenario used to discuss best practices for managing challenging client expectations.
Sanctions Evasion Report & Resources A sample report and resources focused on business-entity research in the context of a sanctions-evasion investigation.
Address Verification Demo A demonstration combining search engines, people-search results, and government databases to locate and verify a target residential address.
Premium Breach Data Services A comparison spreadsheet covering popular premium breach-data services. This supplements our lesson series on building and self-hosting your own breach-data collections.
Triaging a Personal Data Security Incident Actionable steps to take in the first 24 hours after a cyber incident to stop the bleeding and mitigate damage.
OSINT Case Study: “Call to Arms” This case study was shared by one of our members and walks through their approach to an OSINT investigation.
Investigative Pivots Best practices for identifying new leads and uncovering new investigative paths.
PDF Editors & Utilities Alternative PDF readers, editors, and utilities for preparing OSINT reports. This is a useful lesson for anyone interested in moving away from Adobe products and unfriendly subscription fees.
Transitioning to Linux from Windows Tips and considerations for moving away from Windows and over to Linux as a primary operating system.
Cloudflare Tunnels A practical introduction to using Cloudflare Tunnels for low-cost remote access to infrastructure and self-hosted tools.
Note-taking Templates in Excel Format Two new Excel templates for collecting, organizing, and reusing investigative findings.
Telegram Scraping with Python, Part 1 The first lesson in a series using Python scripts to automate collection of Telegram content.
GitHub A walkthrough of GitHub navigation, search options, and profile research.
Images & Photographs An updated lesson on tactics and tools for processing digital images during OSINT investigations.
10-Day Security An updated digital-security guide with tips for coaching others through a 10-step digital security makeover.
Regular Expressions This lesson explains how to use regex for locating and filtering patterned data in large files, such as breach data.
Executive Summaries An example-driven lesson on writing stronger executive summaries.
Linux Terminal A beginner-friendly guide to the Linux terminal and common command-line tools.
Infiltration Tactics and guidelines for online infiltration work, with discussion of policy, risk, and the importance of professional judgment.
Reactivating Your Membership Former IntelTechniques online training members are always welcome back at their previous rate. If you would like to reactivate your account at your previous discounted rate, please contact Jason directly at [email protected], and we will provide a payment link at your discounted membership rate. There is no deadline, no strings attached, and no hoops to jump through. You are welcome to reach out any time with questions or to regain access to our new content.
We also wanted to remind former training members that, although training costs have risen in recent years, you are always welcome to renew your membership at your original discounted price point. Contact Jason at [email protected] directly to reactivate your account or if you have any questions. No chatbots, no AI agents, and no call centers. Laura or I will assist you directly because we think you deserve proper support from real humans.
New Lessons & Updates
The training currently includes more than 130 hours of video content, 1,000+ pages of digital guides, a custom OSINT virtual machine, specialized scripts, and report templates, with new content added every month. Below is a sample of recent lessons, tools, and resources added to the program and you can view the full curriculum at inteltechniques.net.Triaging Leads Best practices for deciding which leads to pursue early in an investigation, with an optional real-world practical exercise.
Event Threat Assessments A scenario-based lesson on researching events, related issues, and online discussions to support safety planning and tactical decision-making.
Privacy Assessments A workflow for conducting vulnerability assessments on cooperating targets. New Excel and Obsidian templates are provided.
Developer Tools: Removing Page Elements A demonstration on using browser developer tools to remove overlays and reveal hidden page content during online investigations.
Cultural Intelligence Guidance on interpreting interests, beliefs, online behavior, photos, videos, usernames, and cultural context to improve investigative analysis.
Investigating a Scam Email – Exercise & Demo A practical attribution exercise using a real-world scam email, followed by a walkthrough of the investigative workflow.
Domains, IP Addresses, & DNS A foundational overview of how domains, IP addresses, and DNS work in the context of web traffic.
How Packets Work A companion write-up to the Domains, IP Addresses, and DNS lesson, explaining what happens at the packet level when a browser requests a website.
APIs An overview of application programming interfaces appropriate for OSINT work and how to add them to your workflow.
Due Diligence Reports An overview of core components, templates, and best practices for professional due diligence reporting.
Updated Tools Dashboard An updated set of custom OSINT tools available only to training members, including hosted and self-hosted options.
Client Expectations: Bug Sweep Scenario A real-world counter-surveillance scenario used to discuss best practices for managing challenging client expectations.
Sanctions Evasion Report & Resources A sample report and resources focused on business-entity research in the context of a sanctions-evasion investigation.
Address Verification Demo A demonstration combining search engines, people-search results, and government databases to locate and verify a target residential address.
Premium Breach Data Services A comparison spreadsheet covering popular premium breach-data services. This supplements our lesson series on building and self-hosting your own breach-data collections.
Triaging a Personal Data Security Incident Actionable steps to take in the first 24 hours after a cyber incident to stop the bleeding and mitigate damage.
OSINT Case Study: “Call to Arms” This case study was shared by one of our members and walks through their approach to an OSINT investigation.
Investigative Pivots Best practices for identifying new leads and uncovering new investigative paths.
PDF Editors & Utilities Alternative PDF readers, editors, and utilities for preparing OSINT reports. This is a useful lesson for anyone interested in moving away from Adobe products and unfriendly subscription fees.
Transitioning to Linux from Windows Tips and considerations for moving away from Windows and over to Linux as a primary operating system.
Cloudflare Tunnels A practical introduction to using Cloudflare Tunnels for low-cost remote access to infrastructure and self-hosted tools.
Note-taking Templates in Excel Format Two new Excel templates for collecting, organizing, and reusing investigative findings.
Telegram Scraping with Python, Part 1 The first lesson in a series using Python scripts to automate collection of Telegram content.
GitHub A walkthrough of GitHub navigation, search options, and profile research.
Images & Photographs An updated lesson on tactics and tools for processing digital images during OSINT investigations.
10-Day Security An updated digital-security guide with tips for coaching others through a 10-step digital security makeover.
Regular Expressions This lesson explains how to use regex for locating and filtering patterned data in large files, such as breach data.
Executive Summaries An example-driven lesson on writing stronger executive summaries.
Linux Terminal A beginner-friendly guide to the Linux terminal and common command-line tools.
Infiltration Tactics and guidelines for online infiltration work, with discussion of policy, risk, and the importance of professional judgment.
What Makes IntelTechniques Training Different
- IntelTechniques instructors are active-duty professionals from the U.S. intelligence community with decades of real-world experience. When evaluating OSINT training, we believe that instructor qualifications matter. You should know whether the people teaching the material have actual experience using these tactics at a professional level. When we are not teaching you about intelligence work, we are actively working real cases and operations in the intelligence field.
- Our training format is demonstration-based and uses real-world targets. This is not “death by PowerPoint.” The program is built around practical tools, repeatable workflows, investigative tradecraft, and the full intelligence process from triage through report writing.
- We write our own curriculum. Our materials have become the foundation that many other OSINT training programs, instructors, and academic courses use as a reference point.
- The program is designed to provide substantial value at a practical price point. We encourage you to compare programs carefully and look at the details: depth of content, instructor experience, student support, templates, tools, updates, and practical application.
- We focus our time and resources on curriculum and student support rather than marketing. Our growth has relied largely on word of mouth, and we are proud that the program is known for the strength of its content. This is why you do not hear from us often about the program. We want to respect your time and inbox.
- Support is direct and personal. Michael, Laura, or Jason will assist you directly; you will not be routed to a call center, support bot, or random staff member.
Certification Considerations
Many certification programs rely primarily on academic testing and recurring fees. We believe a written test alone does not prove that someone can perform intelligence work, so our certification process is different.- Candidates complete a 10-day real-world OSINT mission resulting in a professional intelligence report that can serve as a meaningful portfolio sample.
- The process is challenging and not for everyone, but successful candidates clear a high bar for OSINT certification.
- IntelTechniques certifies your work directly. We do not charge additional fees for a third-party logo, and we do not believe you should have to pay recurring maintenance fees to keep a certification you earned.
Reactivating Your Membership Former IntelTechniques online training members are always welcome back at their previous rate. If you would like to reactivate your account at your previous discounted rate, please contact Jason directly at [email protected], and we will provide a payment link at your discounted membership rate. There is no deadline, no strings attached, and no hoops to jump through. You are welcome to reach out any time with questions or to regain access to our new content.
UNREDACTED Magazine 012
June 21, 2026
Issue #012 is now available (18 Articles - 66 Pages) by the IntelTechniques team for $10!
https://unredactedmagazine.com https://payhip.com/b/fS2NA Contents:
News & Updates
Hardware TOTP: Revolving 2FA Codes Without an App
Placing Telephone Orders to Avoid VPN Flags: Bypass IP Blocklists
Minimal Android Emulation: Terminal-Based Mobile VMs
The ID.me Challenge: Create Accounts with the Least Invasion Possible
The Photocopied ID Strategy: Copies of Copies of Copies...
Access Full Terminal History: Never Lose Another Command
Fun with AppleScripts: Daily Convenience and Productivity on macOS
Your Health Records are Leaking: Any Office Can Access Your Data
Repurpose Hard Drives with TrueNAS: Merge Smaller Drives for Backups
Self-Hosted Genealogy: Research Without Compromising Control
Deleting Un-Deletable Accounts: Bending the Truth to Force Removal
Security.txt is Broken: Abuse by Spammers, Scammers, & Wannabe Hackers
Drive Specifications Matter II: 80Gbps Enclosures
SDRTrunk: Avoid Expensive Police Scanners with Software
Q&A
No third-party ads.
No outside sponsors.
No A.I. slop
No conflicts of interest.
No fluff.
No filler.
No agenda.
Only detailed information.
We anticipate #013 will be released in Autumn or Winter of 2026.
https://unredactedmagazine.com https://payhip.com/b/fS2NA Contents:
News & Updates
Hardware TOTP: Revolving 2FA Codes Without an App
Placing Telephone Orders to Avoid VPN Flags: Bypass IP Blocklists
Minimal Android Emulation: Terminal-Based Mobile VMs
The ID.me Challenge: Create Accounts with the Least Invasion Possible
The Photocopied ID Strategy: Copies of Copies of Copies...
Access Full Terminal History: Never Lose Another Command
Fun with AppleScripts: Daily Convenience and Productivity on macOS
Your Health Records are Leaking: Any Office Can Access Your Data
Repurpose Hard Drives with TrueNAS: Merge Smaller Drives for Backups
Self-Hosted Genealogy: Research Without Compromising Control
Deleting Un-Deletable Accounts: Bending the Truth to Force Removal
Security.txt is Broken: Abuse by Spammers, Scammers, & Wannabe Hackers
Drive Specifications Matter II: 80Gbps Enclosures
SDRTrunk: Avoid Expensive Police Scanners with Software
Q&A
No third-party ads.
No outside sponsors.
No A.I. slop
No conflicts of interest.
No fluff.
No filler.
No agenda.
Only detailed information.
We anticipate #013 will be released in Autumn or Winter of 2026.
Updated OSINT VM
April 04, 2026
We just pushed several updates to the OSINT VM thanks to @jknsec:
Updated linux.txt and install.sh to reflect changes within several applications.
Modified user.sh to reflect change with Maigret.
We highly recommend building a new VM to take advantage of the modifications, which bring back full function to several dead applications. Log into the OSINT portal from the book to see everything.
Upcoming OSINT Live Courses
March 24, 2026
Almost all of our live and virtual training sessions are conducted privately for a specific group or agency. This allows us to customize the content for your needs. On rare occasion, we participate in a course with open enrollment. For the first time in years, we have two upcoming courses open to the public:
April 25-26, 2026: LEIU/IALEIA Conference, Orlando, Florida August 3-4, 2026: BlackHat, Las Vegas, Nevada The 2-day LEIU/IALEIA course starts at only $650, which is the lowest price we have ever offered for a 2-day course. We will be providing new OSINT instruction at both events and the links above provide enrollment details.
April 25-26, 2026: LEIU/IALEIA Conference, Orlando, Florida August 3-4, 2026: BlackHat, Las Vegas, Nevada The 2-day LEIU/IALEIA course starts at only $650, which is the lowest price we have ever offered for a 2-day course. We will be providing new OSINT instruction at both events and the links above provide enrollment details.
80Gpbs Drive Enclosures
March 12, 2026
In Issue 011 of UNREDACTED Magazine, I devoted an article to the importance of drive specifications in regard to the disk speed which can be achieved. The purpose of the article was two-fold. I wanted to explain how important protocols were, such as Thunderbolt 3/4/5, USB 2/3.2 Gen 2/3.2 Gen 2x2/4, PCIe Gen 2/3/4/5, and SATA I/II/II, when we considered drives for our daily use, but I also wanted to be sure people were not wasting their money on the latest speed marketing if their devices did not support those promises. The focus of the article was on 40Gbps NVMe drive enclosures which were reliable delivering 3,000 MB/s in real-world use, which is quite impressive for an external drive. In that article, I briefly stated that the only way we could do better was with 80Gbps enclosures and ports which supported those speeds. The response was immediate. Readers wanted to know how to get more speed from large external drives.
In that article, I found that the Qwiizlab 40Gbps USB4 enclosure (https://amzn.to/3OgrIub performed better than more expensive competitors, so I went back to that company to test their 80Gbps option (https://amzn.to/3Nj3zD2 I inserted the same 4 TB Samsung 990 Pro NVMe drive (https://amzn.to/4qwf7Ar into the new enclosure and began my tests. The following displays the device next to a Mac Studio computer.
I first tried it on my aging MacBook Pro M1 Pro which only has Thunderbolt 4 ports. As expected, I achieved results similar to the tests with the 40Gbps enclosure within the magazine. This is because port specifications matter. That computer simply does not have ports capable of taking advantage of an enclosure offering 80Gbps. For that computer, a less expensive enclosure and drive would work almost as well. However, this was a much different story when connected to a more modern computer.
I found the fastest computer in the office, a Mac Studio with a M4 Max chip and Thunderbolt 5 ports. First, I tested the internal 2TB drive for reference:
This was standard for the large drive and Max chip. This gives me blazing fast access to large chunks of data on the internal drive. Next, I tested the external 80Gbps enclosure:
I was shocked. I was getting faster speeds from an external, non-apple, drive than the overpriced Apple drive soldered onto the motherboard. I was skeptical at first, but larger data speed test were just as fast. I pivoted to my real-world test. I copied a 250 GB database from the internal drive to the external:
There were no pauses or signs of throttling. In less than a minute, I copied over this huge database which would have taken 30 minutes on a portable USB disk. The device did get warm, but never hot. There is no fan, so it is important to attach the included thermal pad to the drive as explained in the manual.
The catch: price. Like any other technology, the latest advancements will cost more than the previous generation. I once paid $500 for a 1TB, dual 3.5" SATA disk array many years ago. It was slow but offered unbelievable storage at the time. I now pay less than $100 for a 1 TB microSD card which is tiny and faster. Expect to pay just under $200 for an 80Gbps enclosure while the 40Gbps options will be less than $70. I suspect we will see these prices eventually drop, but it may be a while before we see 120Gbps drives emerge. We will need faster NVMe options before than can be a possibility, but I am thrilled with 7,000 MB/s in real-word use.
Who is this for? Only people who have the need for the speed. If you have a computer with ports capable of 80Gbps or higher, then you might be justified in this upgrade. Since I move huge databases around often, I am now hooked on this enclosure. I was able to offload a terabyte of data from my internal drive to the external in approximately two minutes. It seems too good to be true.
I will repeat myself from the magazine article. My first hard drive was a 5400 RPM spinning disk which achieved 100 MB/s. The later 7200 RPM drives achieved 130 MB/s and the rich people who had SCSI drives were getting 150 MB/s. When I had an early SSD offering 480 MB/s , I was confident that was the end. I never imagined that we would get over 30x those speeds on solid-state medium back then. I often remind myself of this when I start looking at the latest gadgets. We are truly spoiled.
Disclosures: I am not affiliated with any companies mentioned within this article. I was not paid or asked to write this article. I receive commissions through Amazon affiliate links, but not directly from any of
these companies.
In that article, I found that the Qwiizlab 40Gbps USB4 enclosure (https://amzn.to/3OgrIub performed better than more expensive competitors, so I went back to that company to test their 80Gbps option (https://amzn.to/3Nj3zD2 I inserted the same 4 TB Samsung 990 Pro NVMe drive (https://amzn.to/4qwf7Ar into the new enclosure and began my tests. The following displays the device next to a Mac Studio computer.
I first tried it on my aging MacBook Pro M1 Pro which only has Thunderbolt 4 ports. As expected, I achieved results similar to the tests with the 40Gbps enclosure within the magazine. This is because port specifications matter. That computer simply does not have ports capable of taking advantage of an enclosure offering 80Gbps. For that computer, a less expensive enclosure and drive would work almost as well. However, this was a much different story when connected to a more modern computer.
I found the fastest computer in the office, a Mac Studio with a M4 Max chip and Thunderbolt 5 ports. First, I tested the internal 2TB drive for reference:
This was standard for the large drive and Max chip. This gives me blazing fast access to large chunks of data on the internal drive. Next, I tested the external 80Gbps enclosure:
I was shocked. I was getting faster speeds from an external, non-apple, drive than the overpriced Apple drive soldered onto the motherboard. I was skeptical at first, but larger data speed test were just as fast. I pivoted to my real-world test. I copied a 250 GB database from the internal drive to the external:
There were no pauses or signs of throttling. In less than a minute, I copied over this huge database which would have taken 30 minutes on a portable USB disk. The device did get warm, but never hot. There is no fan, so it is important to attach the included thermal pad to the drive as explained in the manual.
The catch: price. Like any other technology, the latest advancements will cost more than the previous generation. I once paid $500 for a 1TB, dual 3.5" SATA disk array many years ago. It was slow but offered unbelievable storage at the time. I now pay less than $100 for a 1 TB microSD card which is tiny and faster. Expect to pay just under $200 for an 80Gbps enclosure while the 40Gbps options will be less than $70. I suspect we will see these prices eventually drop, but it may be a while before we see 120Gbps drives emerge. We will need faster NVMe options before than can be a possibility, but I am thrilled with 7,000 MB/s in real-word use.
Who is this for? Only people who have the need for the speed. If you have a computer with ports capable of 80Gbps or higher, then you might be justified in this upgrade. Since I move huge databases around often, I am now hooked on this enclosure. I was able to offload a terabyte of data from my internal drive to the external in approximately two minutes. It seems too good to be true.
I will repeat myself from the magazine article. My first hard drive was a 5400 RPM spinning disk which achieved 100 MB/s. The later 7200 RPM drives achieved 130 MB/s and the rich people who had SCSI drives were getting 150 MB/s. When I had an early SSD offering 480 MB/s , I was confident that was the end. I never imagined that we would get over 30x those speeds on solid-state medium back then. I often remind myself of this when I start looking at the latest gadgets. We are truly spoiled.
Disclosures: I am not affiliated with any companies mentioned within this article. I was not paid or asked to write this article. I receive commissions through Amazon affiliate links, but not directly from any of
these companies.
UNREDACTED Magazine 011
February 24, 2026
Issue #011 is now available (18 Articles - 77 Pages) by the IntelTechniques team for $10!
https://unredactedmagazine.com https://payhip.com/b/6teIq Contents:
Better Browsers with Bookmarklets: Increase Your Daily Online Productivity
Application Firewalls vs. DNS Filtering: Control ALL Hidden Connections
Browser Fingerprint Dilemmas: What Matters and What Doesn't
When Cellular Carriers Fail: Be Prepared for the Next Outage
Updated Residential, CMRA & PO Box Strategies: Responding to New Enforcement
Control Email with Sieve Filters: Don’t Just Block, Reject
Recording All VoIP Calls: Hold Companies Accountable & Save Money
A.I. Disinformation Poisoning Results: The Unintended Benefits of Online Lies
Next-Level Disinformation: Forcing Data into The Consumer Stream
Proton VPN OpenVPN Changes: Update Your Firewall Certs Today
My Complete Private Network: Combining pfSense and OpenWRT Start to Finish
P2P 2FA: Explaining Our Full Protocols
Offline Dictation Revisited: Voice to Text Without Eavesdropping
The Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS Conundrum: Should I Stay or Should I Go?
Pop!_OS 24 ARM VMs: Finally, We Can Run Pop on Apple Silicon
Drive Specifications Matter: Choose Your Connection Wisely
Bypassing X Login with XCancel: No Need for Sock Puppets
Q&A
77 pages of raw info.
No third-party ads.
No outside sponsors.
No conflicts of interest.
No fluff. No filler.
No agenda.
Only detailed information.
We anticipate #012 will be released in Summer of 2026.
https://unredactedmagazine.com https://payhip.com/b/6teIq Contents:
Better Browsers with Bookmarklets: Increase Your Daily Online Productivity
Application Firewalls vs. DNS Filtering: Control ALL Hidden Connections
Browser Fingerprint Dilemmas: What Matters and What Doesn't
When Cellular Carriers Fail: Be Prepared for the Next Outage
Updated Residential, CMRA & PO Box Strategies: Responding to New Enforcement
Control Email with Sieve Filters: Don’t Just Block, Reject
Recording All VoIP Calls: Hold Companies Accountable & Save Money
A.I. Disinformation Poisoning Results: The Unintended Benefits of Online Lies
Next-Level Disinformation: Forcing Data into The Consumer Stream
Proton VPN OpenVPN Changes: Update Your Firewall Certs Today
My Complete Private Network: Combining pfSense and OpenWRT Start to Finish
P2P 2FA: Explaining Our Full Protocols
Offline Dictation Revisited: Voice to Text Without Eavesdropping
The Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS Conundrum: Should I Stay or Should I Go?
Pop!_OS 24 ARM VMs: Finally, We Can Run Pop on Apple Silicon
Drive Specifications Matter: Choose Your Connection Wisely
Bypassing X Login with XCancel: No Need for Sock Puppets
Q&A
77 pages of raw info.
No third-party ads.
No outside sponsors.
No conflicts of interest.
No fluff. No filler.
No agenda.
Only detailed information.
We anticipate #012 will be released in Summer of 2026.
Video Training Final Price Increase
February 17, 2026
When Jason took over the online OSINT video training, we offered a very low price to those willing to take the leap with us. Since then, the training has grown to over 120 hours of high-quality video content and a 1,000 page training guide. We gradually increased the fees over the last five years to match the growing content, and have always promised we would keep the price for both training and a certification under $1000. On March 1, 2026, we will apply our final fee increase to get us to that target price. The training will go up to $699 and the OSIP Certification will stay at $300. We will keep our promise and maintain that price from then on. If you would like to get in at the $649 rate, be sure to sign up before March 1, 2026!
PSA: Proton VPN OpenVPN Changes
January 21, 2026This week, Proton announced that they were deprecating all OpenVPN configurations created before 2024. This is due to enhanced security within their newer protocols. Since the pfSense configuration files on our site were created prior to this change, they will likely stop working on March 1, 2026! We highly recommend that you create new configurations for your firewalls before then. You can either follow the steps within Extreme Privacy: 5th Edition to create a new OpenVPN configuration or the steps within Issue 009 of UNREDACTED Magazine to create a Wireguard configuration. We are currently using Wireguard on all of our devices due to speed.
GrapheneOS 2026 Settings
January 05, 2026
The previous two articles deviated substantially from the content within Extreme Privacy, 5th Edition. This is because Apple added many new invasions to your privacy with their latest offering. While Apple devices are extremely secure, even more so than most Android devices in my opinion, this comes at a privacy risk. The settings presented in the previous articles eliminate much of the concern for Apple users, but we have to always be watching for the next embedded data collection utility.
With GrapheneOS, there is not as much to discuss, as it has always been a bare-bones mobile operating system allowing you to add what you want instead of being force-fed new features. However, much like Apple, many things have changed over the past two years. Let's revisit the entire content for GrapheneOS customization to match their latest release.
I suspect that most of these settings will already be applied to your device. However, new features are now available and it is always good practice to confirm your desired settings annually. While GrapheneOS does not typically revert any modified system settings after an update like iOS does, individual apps may have encouraged you to disable some of the overall protection.
The following represents how I set up my own device. Some of these settings may be too restrictive for your needs. As I stated in the previous articles, do your own research and understand what these modifications change. Only then can you make the most informed choice for your needs.
Again, the following is simply a supplement to the content within the book.
With GrapheneOS, there is not as much to discuss, as it has always been a bare-bones mobile operating system allowing you to add what you want instead of being force-fed new features. However, much like Apple, many things have changed over the past two years. Let's revisit the entire content for GrapheneOS customization to match their latest release.
I suspect that most of these settings will already be applied to your device. However, new features are now available and it is always good practice to confirm your desired settings annually. While GrapheneOS does not typically revert any modified system settings after an update like iOS does, individual apps may have encouraged you to disable some of the overall protection.
The following represents how I set up my own device. Some of these settings may be too restrictive for your needs. As I stated in the previous articles, do your own research and understand what these modifications change. Only then can you make the most informed choice for your needs.
Again, the following is simply a supplement to the content within the book.
- Settings > Network & internet > Private DNS > (Enter your preferred DNS)
- Settings > Network & internet > Internet connectivity checks > GrapheneOS server
- Settings > Network & internet > Attestation key provisioning > GrapheneOS proxy
- Settings > Network & internet > Widevine provisioning > GrapheneOS proxy
- Settings > Apps > Contacts storage > Device only
- Settings > Notifications > App notifications > All apps > Disable undesired
- Settings > Notifications > Notification history > Disabled
- Settings > Notifications > Bubbles > Disabled
- Settings > Notifications > Notifications on lock screen > Don't show any notifications
- Settings > Notifications > Notification cooldown > Disabled
- Settings > Notifications > Flash notifications > Camera Flash > Disabled
- Settings > Notifications > Flash notifications > Screen Flash > Disabled
- Settings > Notifications > Wireless emergency alerts > Disabled
- Settings > Notifications > Enhanced notifications > Disabled
- Settings > Sound & vibration > Media volume > Lowest
- Settings > Sound & vibration > Notification volume > Lowest
- Settings > Sound & vibration > Media > Pin media player > Disabled
- Settings > Sound & vibration > Media > Show media on lock screen > Disabled
- Settings > Sound & vibration > Default notification sound > None
- Settings > Sound & vibration > Dial pad tones > Disabled
- Settings > Sound & vibration > Screen locking sound > Disabled
- Settings > Sound & vibration > Charging sounds and vibration > Disabled
- Settings > Display > Screen timeout > Low
- Settings > Security & privacy > Device unlock > Screen lock > Pin
- Settings > Security & privacy > Device unlock > Screen lock > Settings > Scramble PIN > Enabled
- Settings > Security & privacy > Device unlock > Screen lock > Settings > Enhanced PIN privacy > Enabled
- Settings > Security & privacy > Device unlock > Screen lock > Settings > Lock screen timeout > 5 seconds
- Settings > Security & privacy > Device unlock > Screen lock > Settings > Power button locks > Enabled
- Settings > Security & privacy > Device unlock > Screen lock > Settings > Allow camera access > Disabled
- Settings > Security & privacy > Privacy controls > Show passwords > Disabled
- Settings > Security & privacy > Privacy controls > Location access > Disabled (until needed)
- Settings > Security & privacy > Exploit protection > Auto reboot > 18-24 hours
- Settings > Security & privacy > Exploit protection > USB-C port > Charging-only
- Settings > Security & privacy > Exploit protection > Turn off Wi-Fi automatically > 1 minute
- Settings > Security & privacy > Exploit protection > Turn off Bluetooth automatically > 1 minute
- Settings > Security & privacy > Exploit protection > Secure app spawning > Enabled
iOS 26 Settings
January 05, 2026
Much like the previous article, Extreme Privacy, 5th Edition also offered many privacy and security considerations for previous versions of iOS. That content is also pushing two years old now, so I am again overdue for an update. This article revisits that entire section for the recent changes within iOS 26.
The following assumes you are on iOS 26.1, which was the latest version at the time of writing. Now that we have let Apple offer the first major update to that OS, the menu settings should be fairly locked in. I always prefer to wait for a ".1" update before documenting specific menu settings. This guide also assumes you have already purchased and booted the mobile device, created your Apple ID, and configuring any personal customizations as explained in the book.
The purpose of this article is to revisit all of the System Settings for optimal iOS privacy and security. While everything here will work if you logged in to an iCloud account, which is different than an Apple account, some menus may appear differently. Consider it a supplement to the content within the book.
Once you can access the system on the device, the following configurations should be considered through the Settings menu. Note that some of these settings may disable features which you find desirable, and some options here might not be present within your device. Research any modifications and apply settings which are most appropriate for your usage. Never blindly accept my opinions, understand why you want the change.
The following assumes you are on iOS 26.1, which was the latest version at the time of writing. Now that we have let Apple offer the first major update to that OS, the menu settings should be fairly locked in. I always prefer to wait for a ".1" update before documenting specific menu settings. This guide also assumes you have already purchased and booted the mobile device, created your Apple ID, and configuring any personal customizations as explained in the book.
The purpose of this article is to revisit all of the System Settings for optimal iOS privacy and security. While everything here will work if you logged in to an iCloud account, which is different than an Apple account, some menus may appear differently. Consider it a supplement to the content within the book.
Once you can access the system on the device, the following configurations should be considered through the Settings menu. Note that some of these settings may disable features which you find desirable, and some options here might not be present within your device. Research any modifications and apply settings which are most appropriate for your usage. Never blindly accept my opinions, understand why you want the change.
- Settings > Apple Account > Personal Information > Name and Photo Sharing > Disabled
- Settings > Apple Account > Personal Information > Communication Preferences > Disable all
- Settings > Apple Account > Media & Purchases > View Account > Personalized... > Disabled
- Settings > Bluetooth > Off (If not used)
- Settings > Cellular > Disable as desired
- Settings > General > Software Update > Automatic Updates > Off
- Settings > General > AirDrop > Receiving Off
- Settings > General > AirDrop > Bringing Devices Together > Disabled
- Settings > General > AirDrop > Use Cellular Data > Disabled
- Settings > General > AirPlay & Continuity > Disable all
- Settings > General > Picture in Picture > Disabled
- Settings > General > AutoFill & Passwords > Disable all
- Settings > General > Background App Refresh > Apple Store > Disabled
- Settings > General > Background App Refresh > Shortcuts > Disabled
- Settings > General > Background App Refresh > Voice Memos > Disabled
- Settings > General > Keyboard > Auto-Correction > Disabled
- Settings > General > Keyboard > Enable Dictation > Disabled
- Settings > General > Keyboard > Stickers > Disabled
- Settings > Battery > Battery Percentage > Enabled
- Settings > Passwords > Password Options > Autofill Passwords > Disabled
- Settings > Camera > Scan QR Codes > Disabled
- Settings > Search > Show Recent Searches > Disabled
- Settings > Search > Show Recent Searches > Show Related Content > Disabled
- Settings > Search > Show Recent Searches > Help Improve Search > Disabled
- Settings > Search > Each App > Disable all
- Settings > Siri > Disable all
- Settings > Standby > Standby > Disabled
- Settings > Notifications > Scheduled Summary > Off
- Settings > Notifications > Show previews > Never
- Settings > Notifications > Screen Sharing > Notifications Off
- Settings > Notifications > Siri Suggestions > Disable all
- Settings > Notifications > Disable notifications on sensitive apps
- Settings > Notifications > If desired, disable all Government Alerts
- Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Keyboard Feedback > Sound > Disabled
- Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Keyboard Feedback > Haptic > Enabled
- Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Lock Sound > Disabled
- Settings > Face ID & Passcode > Password AutoFill > Disabled
- Settings > Face ID & Passcode > Allow Access When Locked > Disable undesired
- Settings > Privacy & Security > Location services > Disable all
- Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking > Disable all
- Settings > Privacy & Security > Motion & Fitness > Disable all
- Settings > Privacy & Security > Nearby Interactions > Disable all
- Settings > Privacy & Security > Paired Devices > Disable all
- Settings > Privacy & Security > Research Sensor & Usage Data > Disable all
- Settings > Privacy & Security > Journaling Suggestions > Disable all
- Settings > Privacy & Security > Sensitive Content Warning > Disabled
- Settings > Privacy & Security > Analytics & Improvements > Disable all
- Settings > Privacy & Security > Apple Advertising > Personalized Ads > Disabled
- Settings > Privacy & Security > App Privacy Report > Off
- Settings > Privacy & Security > Wired Accessories > Automatically Allow When Unlocked
- Settings > Game Center > Disabled
- Settings > Apps > App Store > Automatic Downloads > Disable all
- Settings > Apps > App Store > Video Autoplay > Off
- Settings > Apps > App Store > In-App Ratings & Reviews > Disabled
- Settings > Apps > App Store > Offload Unused Apps > Disabled
- Settings > Apps > Apple Store > Video Autoplay > Off
- Settings > Apps > Maps > Share ETA > Disabled
- Settings > Apps > Maps > Air Quality Index > Disabled
- Settings > Apps > Maps > Weather Conditions > Disabled
- Settings > Apps > Maps > Ratings and Photos > Disabled (If Present)
- Settings > Apps > Maps > Show Ratings and Photos Suggestion > Disabled (If present)
- Settings > Apps > Maps > Follow Up by Email > Disabled (If Present)
- Settings > Apps > Photos > Shared Albums > Disabled
- Settings > Apps > Photos > Show Hidden Album > Disabled
- Settings > Apps > Photos > Show Recently Viewed & Shared > Disabled
- Settings > Apps > Photos > Show Featured Content > Disabled
- Settings > Apps > Photos > Enhanced Visual Search > Disabled
- Settings > Apps > Safari > Siri & Search > Disable All
- Settings > Apps > Safari > Search Engine > DuckDuckGo
- Settings > Apps > Safari > Search Engine Suggestions > Disabled
- Settings > Apps > Safari > Safari Suggestions > Disabled
- Settings > Apps > Safari > Show Recent Searches > Disabled
- Settings > Apps > Safari > Quick Website Search > Disabled
- Settings > Apps > Safari > Preload Top Hit > Disabled
- Settings > Apps > Safari > AutoFill > Disable All
- Settings > Apps > Safari > Prevent Cross-Site Tracking > Enabled
- Settings > Apps > Safari > Fraudulent Website Warning > Disabled
- Settings > Apps > Safari > Highlights > Disabled
- Settings > Apps > Safari > Camera > Deny
- Settings > Apps > Safari > Microphone > Deny
- Settings > Apps > Safari > Location > Deny
- Settings > Apps > Safari > Advanced > Privacy Preserving Ad... > Disabled
- Settings > Apps > Safari > Advanced > Check for Apple Pay > Disabled
- Settings > Apps > Shortcuts > iCloud Sync > Disabled
- Settings > Apps > Shortcuts > Private Sharing > Disabled
macOS 26 Settings
January 05, 2026
In Extreme Privacy, 5th Edition, I offered many privacy and security considerations for macOS. That content is pushing two years old now, so I am probably overdue for an update. This article revisits that entire section for the recent changes within macOS 26.
The following assumes you are on macOS 26.1, which was the latest version at the time of writing. Now that we have let Apple offer the first major update to that OS, the menu settings should be fairly locked in. I always prefer to wait for a ".1" update before documenting specific menu settings. This guide also assumes you have already purchased and booted the device, skipping the request for an Apple ID, and configuring things such as Wi-Fi, application firewall, Spotlight, Gatekeeper, FileVault, and any personal customizations as explained in the book. Consider this a supplement to that information.
The purpose of this article is to revisit all of the System Settings for optimal macOS privacy and security. Major updates are known to re-enable undesired settings, so this is a good time to check everything. While everything here will work if you logged in to an Apple account, some menus may appear differently. The following was conducted within System Settings from the Applications menu.
The following assumes you are on macOS 26.1, which was the latest version at the time of writing. Now that we have let Apple offer the first major update to that OS, the menu settings should be fairly locked in. I always prefer to wait for a ".1" update before documenting specific menu settings. This guide also assumes you have already purchased and booted the device, skipping the request for an Apple ID, and configuring things such as Wi-Fi, application firewall, Spotlight, Gatekeeper, FileVault, and any personal customizations as explained in the book. Consider this a supplement to that information.
The purpose of this article is to revisit all of the System Settings for optimal macOS privacy and security. Major updates are known to re-enable undesired settings, so this is a good time to check everything. While everything here will work if you logged in to an Apple account, some menus may appear differently. The following was conducted within System Settings from the Applications menu.
- Settings > Wi-Fi > Ask to join networks > Off
- Settings > Wi-Fi > Ask to join hotspots > Never
- Settings > Bluetooth > Disabled (if not used)
- Settings > Network > Firewall > Enabled
- Settings > Network > Firewall > Options > Automatically allow built-in... > Disabled
- Settings > Network > Firewall > Options > Automatically allow downloaded... > Disabled
- Settings > Network > Firewall > Options > Stealth mode > Enabled
- Settings > Battery > Options > Wake for network access > Never
- Settings > General > Automatic Updates > i > Disable All
- Settings > General > AirDrop & Handoff > Allow Handoff > Disabled
- Settings > General > AirDrop & Handoff > AirDrop > No One
- Settings > General > AirDrop & Handoff > AirPlay Receiver > Disabled
- Settings > General > AirDrop & Handoff > Allow Airplay for > Current User
- Settings > General > AirDrop & Handoff > Require password > Enabled
- Settings > General > AutoFill & Passwords > All Your Password... > (Close "x")
- Settings > General > AutoFill & Passwords > AutoFill Passwords and Passkeys > Disabled
- Settings > General > Date & Time > Source > Set > pool.ntp.org > Set
- Settings > General > Date & Time > Set time zone automatically... > Disabled
- Settings > General > Date & Time > Time zone > Desired location
- Settings > General > Date & Time > Closest City > Desired location
- Settings > General > Login Items & Extensions > Remove or disable those desired
- Settings > General > Sharing > Disable all
- Settings > Accessibility > Siri > Type to Siri > Disabled
- Settings > Accessibility > Siri > Listen for atypical speech > Disabled
- Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri > Apple Intelligence > Disabled
- Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri > Siri > Disabled
- Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri > Siri History > Delete Siri & Dictation History > Delete
- Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri > Siri Suggestions & Privacy > Disable all
- Settings > Desktop & Dock > Show suggested and recent apps in Dock > Disabled
- Settings > Desktop & Dock > Show recent apps in Stage Manager > Disabled
- Settings > Desktop & Dock > Automatically rearrange Spaces... > Disabled
- Settings > Spotlight > Show Related Content > Disabled
- Settings > Spotlight > Spotlight Search History > Delete Search History
- Settings > Spotlight > Help Apple Improve Search > Disabled
- Settings > Spotlight > Results from Apps > Disable all
- Settings > Spotlight > Results from System > Disable all
- Settings > Spotlight > Results from Clipboard > Disabled
- Settings > Notifications > Show previews > Never
- Settings > Notifications > Allow notifications when the device is sleeping > Disabled
- Settings > Notifications > Allow notifications when the screen is locked > Disabled
- Settings > Notifications > Allow notifications when mirroring or sharing the display > Disabled
- Settings > Notifications > Application Notifications > Disable undesired
- Settings > Sound > Alert volume > Minimum
- Settings > Sound > Play sound on startup > Disabled
- Settings > Sound > Play user interface sound effects > Disabled
- Settings > Sound > Play feedback when volume is changed > Disabled
- Settings > Focus > Share across devices > Disabled
- Settings > Focus > Focus status > Off
- Settings > Lock Screen > Turn display off on battery when inactive > For 1 hour
- Settings > Lock Screen > Turn display off on power adapter when inactive > For 1 hour
- Settings > Lock Screen > Require password after... > Immediately
- Settings > Lock Screen > Show password hints > Disabled
- Settings > Lock Screen > Show message when locked > Disabled
- Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > Off
- Settings > Privacy & Security > Confirm app access
- Settings > Privacy & Security > Sensitive Content Warning > Off
- Settings > Privacy & Security > Analytics & Improvements > Disable all
- Settings > Privacy & Security > Apple Advertising > Personalized Ads > Disabled
- Settings > Privacy & Security > Apple Intelligence Report > Off
- Settings > Privacy & Security > FileVault > Enabled
- Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessories > Always ask
- Settings > Privacy & Security > Background Security Improvements > Enabled (if desired)
- Settings > Touch ID & Password > Use Touch ID for Apple Pay > Disabled
- Settings > Touch ID & Password > Use Touch ID for purchases... > Disabled
- Settings > Touch ID & Password > Use Touch ID for autofilling passwords > Disabled
- Settings > Internet Accounts > None
- Settings > Game Center > Disabled
- Settings > iCloud > None
- Settings > Wallet & Apple Pay > Autofill Cards > 0
- Settings > Wallet & Apple Pay > Shipping Address > None
- Settings > Wallet & Apple Pay > Email > None
- Settings > Wallet & Apple Pay > Phone > None
- Settings > Wallet & Apple Pay > Add Orders to Wallet > Disabled
Book Store Updates
December 19, 2025
We have revamped our online book store, which now includes our current books, archived books, magazines, and bundled discounts. You can also choose the "Gift" option to send them to someone else with a custom message.
Internal page: https://inteltechniques.com/books.html Current Books: https://payhip.com/IntelTechniquesBooks Archived Books: https://payhip.com/IntelTechniquesBooks/collection/archived-books Magazines: https://payhip.com/IntelTechniquesBooks/collection/magazines Bundled Discounts: https://payhip.com/IntelTechniquesBooks/collection/bundles
Internal page: https://inteltechniques.com/books.html Current Books: https://payhip.com/IntelTechniquesBooks Archived Books: https://payhip.com/IntelTechniquesBooks/collection/archived-books Magazines: https://payhip.com/IntelTechniquesBooks/collection/magazines Bundled Discounts: https://payhip.com/IntelTechniquesBooks/collection/bundles
UNREDACTED Magazine 010 & More
December 17, 2025
I am happy to report that our experiment with issue 009 was a bigger success than our previous attempt. Let's recap. Issue 008 was our first offering free of ads or sponsors. We asked people to donate if they wanted to see future content. We had over 50,000 downloads, but only a handful of donations. We failed. With 009, we charged a $10 fee with the desire of releasing it for free once this issue was ready. We saw a steady trickle of sales which almost covered our content creation and publishing costs, but ultimately, we failed again (but failed much, much less!).
Future sales of those issues and beyond will be required to keep this thing going, and keep the team paid for their efforts. With this issue, we are transitioning to a purely paid model. Issues 008, 009, 010, and beyond will have a fee, but the first seven issues will still be free on our site. We will not offer any type of subscription; readers can simply purchase the issues they find most interesting. You can buy the latest issue at:
https://payhip.com/b/HCGZr We believe this new recipe will keep the information flowing. This allows us to spend more time generating and testing new and unbiased content. Thank you for your patience while we learn our path. I sincerely thank everyone who supported us by purchasing any issues. We estimate issue 011 will be available in Spring of 2026, with quarterly issues following. More details are available over at https://unredactedmagazine.com/
We also released some archived books. Many people have asked to purchase our previous editions of Extreme Privacy and OSINT Techniques, and our digital guides from 2023 to 2024. We removed them in 2024 because the latest editions of our two main books incorporated most of that content into a more structured flow. We didn't want outdated or redundant information being sold on our site. However, we respect that some people prefer the previous delivery and dedicated topic format. Some are just archivists who want every nugget of our research. Therefore, we now offer the older material at a discounted price on our site at:
https://payhip.com/IntelTechniquesBooks/collection/archived-books You can also browse our current titles, magazine issues, and bundled discounts. We may even dig deeper into the vault for some unreleased content.
We now present issue 010 of UNREDACTED Magazine, and hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed creating it. This issue is the largest we have ever released.
Articles:
From the Editor
Firewall Packet Capturing
Truly Open-Source Wi-Fi Routers
Revisiting the Need for Jami
Offline Retro Gaming
Updated macOS 26 Privacy & Security Settings
Updated iOS 26 Privacy & Security Settings
Updated GrapheneOS 2026 Privacy & Security Settings
Running a Business Privately
VPN Locations Matter
Mobile Apps on Any Desktop
Bypassing Reddit "Privacy" Settings
Making a Smart Home Dumb
The Value of Secret Phrases
Telegram Stealer Log Replacements
Using AI to Monitor Privacy Policies
Killing Forced Cloudflare Analytics
Un-Censored AI Models for OSINT
Is Google Reverse Image Search Back?
Feedback
Final Thoughts
Future sales of those issues and beyond will be required to keep this thing going, and keep the team paid for their efforts. With this issue, we are transitioning to a purely paid model. Issues 008, 009, 010, and beyond will have a fee, but the first seven issues will still be free on our site. We will not offer any type of subscription; readers can simply purchase the issues they find most interesting. You can buy the latest issue at:
https://payhip.com/b/HCGZr We believe this new recipe will keep the information flowing. This allows us to spend more time generating and testing new and unbiased content. Thank you for your patience while we learn our path. I sincerely thank everyone who supported us by purchasing any issues. We estimate issue 011 will be available in Spring of 2026, with quarterly issues following. More details are available over at https://unredactedmagazine.com/
We also released some archived books. Many people have asked to purchase our previous editions of Extreme Privacy and OSINT Techniques, and our digital guides from 2023 to 2024. We removed them in 2024 because the latest editions of our two main books incorporated most of that content into a more structured flow. We didn't want outdated or redundant information being sold on our site. However, we respect that some people prefer the previous delivery and dedicated topic format. Some are just archivists who want every nugget of our research. Therefore, we now offer the older material at a discounted price on our site at:
https://payhip.com/IntelTechniquesBooks/collection/archived-books You can also browse our current titles, magazine issues, and bundled discounts. We may even dig deeper into the vault for some unreleased content.
We now present issue 010 of UNREDACTED Magazine, and hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed creating it. This issue is the largest we have ever released.
Articles:
From the Editor
Firewall Packet Capturing
Truly Open-Source Wi-Fi Routers
Revisiting the Need for Jami
Offline Retro Gaming
Updated macOS 26 Privacy & Security Settings
Updated iOS 26 Privacy & Security Settings
Updated GrapheneOS 2026 Privacy & Security Settings
Running a Business Privately
VPN Locations Matter
Mobile Apps on Any Desktop
Bypassing Reddit "Privacy" Settings
Making a Smart Home Dumb
The Value of Secret Phrases
Telegram Stealer Log Replacements
Using AI to Monitor Privacy Policies
Killing Forced Cloudflare Analytics
Un-Censored AI Models for OSINT
Is Google Reverse Image Search Back?
Feedback
Final Thoughts
OSINT Techniques Updates
December 16, 2025
We recently overhauled the entire OSINT VM build including the following.
Updated all steps within the install.sh script and linux.txt file for Debian 13. Only use Debian 13 for new VMs!
Modified all pip3 commands to match pip.
Transitioned many installations to pipx.
The big one:
Updated install.sh script and linux.txt file to remove all virtual environments and sudo pip usage.
Details:
This is due to changes within Debian 13 and the apps we use, allowing them to talk with each other appropriately and globally. In previous books, we just used pip to install Linux application dependencies. Security changes in Python blocked this behavior in 2024, so we had to pivot. We intended on switching to Python virtual environments (venv) which would properly isolate all of our pip installations, but that caused other problems. The various applications we installed did not work properly with fellow software which wanted them installed globally (not in venv). Since this is a VM, we made the choice to use venv to bypass Python trying to block our installations, but used sudo within venv to allow global installation. Basically, we cheated. If this were a host Linux system and you wanted to install software which might conflict with other applications, then I would not recommend this route. I would avoid using sudo within venv. For a VM which will only be used for online investigations, I had no issue with this. After the book was released, we were able to block almost all pip errors in Debian 13, so we eliminated all of the venv options from the online steps for simplicity, since they were not providing any real protection anyway.
Basically, either option works the same way, however, we always encourage readers to follow the online steps over the book. Much has been updated to reflect installation changes. If I were writing a new OSINT book today (I am not), and rebuilding the OSINT VM, I would find a way to make everything work appropriately within Python virtual environments, including a full re-write of every script. Since so many people rely on the scripts as they are, I elected to cheat with venv a bit to make things function at the time. You are correct to question this logic though.
Summary: If your OSINT VM is not working great, rebuild it from scratch with Debian 13 using the updated steps we have posted online. You can get these from the OSINT portal URL in your copy of OSINT Techniques, 11th edition, or the linux.txt file in the link present within the OSINT Techniques VM guide. Both are the same.
Updated all steps within the install.sh script and linux.txt file for Debian 13. Only use Debian 13 for new VMs!
Modified all pip3 commands to match pip.
Transitioned many installations to pipx.
The big one:
Updated install.sh script and linux.txt file to remove all virtual environments and sudo pip usage.
Details:
This is due to changes within Debian 13 and the apps we use, allowing them to talk with each other appropriately and globally. In previous books, we just used pip to install Linux application dependencies. Security changes in Python blocked this behavior in 2024, so we had to pivot. We intended on switching to Python virtual environments (venv) which would properly isolate all of our pip installations, but that caused other problems. The various applications we installed did not work properly with fellow software which wanted them installed globally (not in venv). Since this is a VM, we made the choice to use venv to bypass Python trying to block our installations, but used sudo within venv to allow global installation. Basically, we cheated. If this were a host Linux system and you wanted to install software which might conflict with other applications, then I would not recommend this route. I would avoid using sudo within venv. For a VM which will only be used for online investigations, I had no issue with this. After the book was released, we were able to block almost all pip errors in Debian 13, so we eliminated all of the venv options from the online steps for simplicity, since they were not providing any real protection anyway.
Basically, either option works the same way, however, we always encourage readers to follow the online steps over the book. Much has been updated to reflect installation changes. If I were writing a new OSINT book today (I am not), and rebuilding the OSINT VM, I would find a way to make everything work appropriately within Python virtual environments, including a full re-write of every script. Since so many people rely on the scripts as they are, I elected to cheat with venv a bit to make things function at the time. You are correct to question this logic though.
Summary: If your OSINT VM is not working great, rebuild it from scratch with Debian 13 using the updated steps we have posted online. You can get these from the OSINT portal URL in your copy of OSINT Techniques, 11th edition, or the linux.txt file in the link present within the OSINT Techniques VM guide. Both are the same.
UNREDACTED Magazine Issue 009
October 10, 2025
I like testing publication strategies. I started self-publishing my own books in 2011 after having bad experiences with traditional publishers. This worked out amazingly well for about a decade. Over the last few years, book piracy eliminated many of the sales, and we have retreated from further new editions. However, I still always crave something more. My hope is that UNREDACTED Magazine can continue to scratch that itch.
The first seven issues of this magazine were completely free and supported by advertisements from sponsors. Many readers were bothered by these sponsorships and ads, so we tried something new with the previous edition (008). We made it completely ad-free. We asked people to donate toward the next issue if they found value in our work.
Unfortunately, only a few people offered financial support, while our downloads were at an all-time high (52,000 readers within 28 days). We suspect some of that was bots, but we have decent bot blocking on the site through Cloudflare which seems to work well. We did not notice any spike in book sales, but we suspect a few people contributed that way as well. We sincerely thank those who contributed! We will find a way to reward you.
I had low expectations, but not that low. This would not pay the bills, not even the layout. We weren't upset. We were not counting on any payments, and we even said that people should not feel compelled to donate. We were just curious of what would happen. Again, we like experiments and knew we might be volunteering our time and resources.
We really like having no ads. It makes things much easier and allows us to focus every page on content. With this issue (009), we are trying something new yet again. This issue has a price of $10 and is only available to those who pay. If you like our research and feel it is worth $10, please purchase a copy of this magazine. This may fail too. Who knows. I confess I have no idea what I am doing. I am just having fun creating things which I hope a few others will enjoy. However, I need to pay those who assist. We scaled back the layout in this issue and will focus more on the content.
I now present issue 009 of UNREDACTED Magazine. All articles were written by myself and the UNREDACTED team, so there is no individual attribution.
No third-party ads. No outside sponsors. No conflicts of interest. No fluff. No filler. No agenda. Only detailed information.
Purchase Current Issue: https://payhip.com/b/vltEK Download Past Issues: https://unredactedmagazine.com Articles:
From The Editor
SMS Is Monitored and Censored
Controlling VoIP Integrity
What’s In Your Wallet Part II
Intercepting, Monitoring & Recording HD Radio
The OPNsense Home Firewall
The pfSense Home Firewall
Bringing Back Desktop Push-To-Talk
Mapping Traffic Cameras with DeFlock
YouTube Client Alternatives
Offline Maps Revisited
I Have Control of Your New Vehicle
New Benefits of the Strapless Mask
Testing the New Voip.ms Mobile App
Credit Card Expiration Tip
Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS Beta Release Available
AI Lie Detection During Employment Interviews
Opting Out of AI Training
Alternative Apple Hardware
Auditing Open-Source Code with AI
Reader Q & A / Feedback
Final Thoughts
The first seven issues of this magazine were completely free and supported by advertisements from sponsors. Many readers were bothered by these sponsorships and ads, so we tried something new with the previous edition (008). We made it completely ad-free. We asked people to donate toward the next issue if they found value in our work.
Unfortunately, only a few people offered financial support, while our downloads were at an all-time high (52,000 readers within 28 days). We suspect some of that was bots, but we have decent bot blocking on the site through Cloudflare which seems to work well. We did not notice any spike in book sales, but we suspect a few people contributed that way as well. We sincerely thank those who contributed! We will find a way to reward you.
I had low expectations, but not that low. This would not pay the bills, not even the layout. We weren't upset. We were not counting on any payments, and we even said that people should not feel compelled to donate. We were just curious of what would happen. Again, we like experiments and knew we might be volunteering our time and resources.
We really like having no ads. It makes things much easier and allows us to focus every page on content. With this issue (009), we are trying something new yet again. This issue has a price of $10 and is only available to those who pay. If you like our research and feel it is worth $10, please purchase a copy of this magazine. This may fail too. Who knows. I confess I have no idea what I am doing. I am just having fun creating things which I hope a few others will enjoy. However, I need to pay those who assist. We scaled back the layout in this issue and will focus more on the content.
I now present issue 009 of UNREDACTED Magazine. All articles were written by myself and the UNREDACTED team, so there is no individual attribution.
No third-party ads. No outside sponsors. No conflicts of interest. No fluff. No filler. No agenda. Only detailed information.
Purchase Current Issue: https://payhip.com/b/vltEK Download Past Issues: https://unredactedmagazine.com Articles:
From The Editor
SMS Is Monitored and Censored
Controlling VoIP Integrity
What’s In Your Wallet Part II
Intercepting, Monitoring & Recording HD Radio
The OPNsense Home Firewall
The pfSense Home Firewall
Bringing Back Desktop Push-To-Talk
Mapping Traffic Cameras with DeFlock
YouTube Client Alternatives
Offline Maps Revisited
I Have Control of Your New Vehicle
New Benefits of the Strapless Mask
Testing the New Voip.ms Mobile App
Credit Card Expiration Tip
Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS Beta Release Available
AI Lie Detection During Employment Interviews
Opting Out of AI Training
Alternative Apple Hardware
Auditing Open-Source Code with AI
Reader Q & A / Feedback
Final Thoughts
UNREDACTED Magazine Issue 008
September 05, 2025
UNREDACTED Magazine Issue 008 is now available!
https://unredactedmagazine.com/ After publication of the previous issue, I had thought that this magazine might be finished. While downloads and overall interest were at an all-time high, article submissions were low. Not just low, practically non-existent. My goal for the magazine was always to combine three of my favorite things from the past: Bulletin Board System (BBS) text files, photo-copied hacker 'zines', and old-school 2600 quarterly issues. Each of those merged various views from the communities which they served into a long-form outlet, encouraging the reader to devour the content unavailable anywhere else. Times have changed.
The internet has spoiled us. We have overwhelming unlimited access to immediate information. Click bait titles draw us in while our attention spans, or lack of, become victim to the next juicy thing. When we do find something online of interest, the information is limited to a bite-sized chunk which we can handle while we check our messages and scroll our feeds. We get sucked into a video when the thumbnail shows the "influencer's" shocked face or they promise to tell us the one thing we need to know to solve all of our problems (but never seem to disclose the secret). OK, OK, I sound like Andy Rooney now... and I just lost half of the remaining readers as they go search to see who that is. I think we all need Andy today more than ever. We also need more long-form written content.
With this issue, I am trying something new. In April, we announced that our digital book provider was terminating our legacy account and eliminating the ability to send free updates to those who had purchased books. This was devastating, because they were the only provider who offered the specific services we needed. In order to keep our promises of free book updates, we decided to post any new content to our Blog, free for the world to see.
This was met with both praise and criticism. The majority preferred these online updates which were released as they were written, instead of waiting for a combined update within a PDF. They also preferred the ability to immediately see the new details instead of skimming through the entire book to find the modified content. However, many readers wanted a PDF which they could download and add to their files for future offline reference. Some felt it was unfair that the updates were free for everyone and not just those who bought the books. We respect both camps, but ultimately found it more important to do SOMETHING instead of NOTHING.
Recently, we decided to do both. We will continue to post updates to our Blog as needed over at https://inteltechniques.com/blog/ With this magazine issue, we are combining all of those recent update posts, plus many new articles with expanded content, within a single PDF which can be preserved and digested as desired.
While this issue is not much of a community effort, it allows us to use the existing avenue to deliver raw content which we feel is important. Most articles are simply attributed to "The IntelTechniques Team" since an internal group of us worked on them collectively. Any reference to "I" in those is a group effort "we". Two articles near the end were contributed by readers.
With this issue, we also eliminated any advertisements or paid endorsements. I am extremely thankful for our previous sponsors, as they made the past issues possible. This time around, we wanted to just focus on the content and not sales or ads.
We now respectfully present issue 008 of UNREDACTED Magazine.
https://unredactedmagazine.com/ After publication of the previous issue, I had thought that this magazine might be finished. While downloads and overall interest were at an all-time high, article submissions were low. Not just low, practically non-existent. My goal for the magazine was always to combine three of my favorite things from the past: Bulletin Board System (BBS) text files, photo-copied hacker 'zines', and old-school 2600 quarterly issues. Each of those merged various views from the communities which they served into a long-form outlet, encouraging the reader to devour the content unavailable anywhere else. Times have changed.
The internet has spoiled us. We have overwhelming unlimited access to immediate information. Click bait titles draw us in while our attention spans, or lack of, become victim to the next juicy thing. When we do find something online of interest, the information is limited to a bite-sized chunk which we can handle while we check our messages and scroll our feeds. We get sucked into a video when the thumbnail shows the "influencer's" shocked face or they promise to tell us the one thing we need to know to solve all of our problems (but never seem to disclose the secret). OK, OK, I sound like Andy Rooney now... and I just lost half of the remaining readers as they go search to see who that is. I think we all need Andy today more than ever. We also need more long-form written content.
With this issue, I am trying something new. In April, we announced that our digital book provider was terminating our legacy account and eliminating the ability to send free updates to those who had purchased books. This was devastating, because they were the only provider who offered the specific services we needed. In order to keep our promises of free book updates, we decided to post any new content to our Blog, free for the world to see.
This was met with both praise and criticism. The majority preferred these online updates which were released as they were written, instead of waiting for a combined update within a PDF. They also preferred the ability to immediately see the new details instead of skimming through the entire book to find the modified content. However, many readers wanted a PDF which they could download and add to their files for future offline reference. Some felt it was unfair that the updates were free for everyone and not just those who bought the books. We respect both camps, but ultimately found it more important to do SOMETHING instead of NOTHING.
Recently, we decided to do both. We will continue to post updates to our Blog as needed over at https://inteltechniques.com/blog/ With this magazine issue, we are combining all of those recent update posts, plus many new articles with expanded content, within a single PDF which can be preserved and digested as desired.
While this issue is not much of a community effort, it allows us to use the existing avenue to deliver raw content which we feel is important. Most articles are simply attributed to "The IntelTechniques Team" since an internal group of us worked on them collectively. Any reference to "I" in those is a group effort "we". Two articles near the end were contributed by readers.
With this issue, we also eliminated any advertisements or paid endorsements. I am extremely thankful for our previous sponsors, as they made the past issues possible. This time around, we wanted to just focus on the content and not sales or ads.
We now respectfully present issue 008 of UNREDACTED Magazine.
No third-party ads. No outside sponsors. No conflicts of interest. No fluff. No filler. No agenda. Only detailed information.
Extreme Privacy Update: E2EE Email Guide
July 12, 2025
Email was never meant to be private or secure. The protocol was created decades ago, and was first used to share files and messages between groups of researchers. We have come a long way since then. Today, we rely on email to pay our bills, confirm our identities, and communicate globally. I believe there are currently only two private and secure email providers, and every reader of this blog should establish accounts with both. First, let's understand the reasons we should care about email privacy and security.
Traditional email providers can read all of your messages. While they typically encrypt the data while it is in transit from one provider to another, they hold the keys and there is no end-to-end encryption (E2EE) protecting your content. A malicious employee or criminal hacker can access the data, and a court order can force the provider to hand over everything you have ever said. For a long time, Gmail was scanning every message in order to present advertisements relevant to your conversation.
This is where providers such as Proton Mail and Tuta come in. These services, each offering free tiers, provide email communications with true zero-knowledge E2EE. This means that your email is encrypted from your device before it is stored on their servers. Even with a court order, an employee of Proton Mail or Tuta would be unable to view any message content. If an email is sent from one Proton Mail user to another Proton Mail user (or one Tuta user to another Tuta user), it is never exposed to interception from a third party. Is this bulletproof? No, nothing is. There will always be some slight chance that an adversary could compromise your communications. However, it is extremely unlikely. On the other side, a court order to Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, or any other traditional provider will hand over all of your account details and email communications stored with them without any resistance.
While I am not very concerned about court orders being executed on my accounts, I am extremely bothered by data breaches and internal abuses. If a breach occurs at Proton Mail or Tuta, the thief gets a bunch of encrypted data that is of no use. In 2016, a large breach at Yahoo handed over access to over 500 million accounts to unknown criminal culprits. In 2021, Yandex caught an employee selling access to entire inboxes of targeted users. These scenarios are no longer theoretical. Verified threats toward your sensitive email content exist. A big part of being private is simply making better choices, even if they are not fool-proof.
I have a few opinions on email which may not be accepted by the security community. First, email is broken and outdated. I assume every email I write could be seen by someone else. I trust services such as Proton Mail and Tuta over any other mainstream provider because of the zero-knowledge environment. Even if they secretly had bad intentions, they could not access my data. Multiple independent third-party audits verify this protection. These audits carry more weight than online promises by the companies.
The bigger problem is on the other side of your messages. If you send a message from your Proton or Tuta account to a non-encrypted provider, then you lose most of the protection. Proton Mail and Tuta can only safeguard your information on their servers They cannot control what happens when you leave their ecosystem. However, You can have comfort knowing that your historical email archive is protected from prying eyes.
In the most recent edition of Extreme Privacy, I recommended both Proton Mail and Tuta, but displayed slight favor for Proton Mail due to wider adoption. I still see more Proton Mail users contacting me than Tuta fans, but the numbers are closing in. Also, both companies have made several improvements to their platforms. Let's dive into the latest comparisons for a full picture of each provider, sorted by the features I find most vital.
Email Security: This is a tie. Both services still provide industry standard E2EE and possess proper password and 2FA protocols.
Custom Domains: This is also a tie. I explain in the book the importance of owning your own domains for email communication. I place custom domains within each provider. If one service were to fail, shut down, kick me out, or become compromised, I can simply forward my DNS records to the other provider with almost no downtime. I am in true control of my addresses.
Adoption: This will vary, but Proton generally wins. Only a year ago, 99% or my contacts using secure email were Proton Mail users. Therefore, it simply made more sense to primarily use Proton Mail for communications. As I write this, 29% of the people who have emailed me from a secure provider in the past year are using Tuta. The other 71% are using Proton. That is quite a jump. When I have a contact using Tuta, whether a Tuta address or a custom domain on Tuta, I always communicate with that person via my own Tuta account. This protects the entire conversation, and is the right thing to do. This is why I believe we should all have accounts at each provider, even if only on the free tier.
Contacts: Tuta has a slight edge on this one. Both Proton Mail and Tuta do NOT fully encrypt the email addresses of incoming and outgoing mail. They must see the addresses to be able to facilitate the communications. However, Tuta encrypts the subject line while Proton does not. Is this a huge deal? Not to me, but it may be to you. Both providers encrypt everything else stored within a contact on their service. Personally, I do not store my sensitive contacts within any online service. I keep them in my offline desktop and mobile applications.
Calendars: This is a tie. Both providers offer a true E2EE calendar experience, and both now offer the ability to share a calendar between multiple users.
Offline Email Clients: The winner on this one will depend on how you want to store your email. I believe everyone should have an offline backup of every email communication. What if your email provider gets hacked or disappears? What if you logged in one day and all of your email was gone? An offline copy prevents this concern. Proton Mail offers a bridge application which allows you to use any traditional email desktop application to synchronize your emails to your computer. If you want to use Thunderbird or any other IMAP option, then Proton is the winner. Tuta allows you to export messages in bulk, which could then be imported into your email program, but that is an ongoing hassle. However, Tuta users can download their desktop application and synchronize all email for offline use. Make sure you select "Email" and change the "local data" to "999999 days" to get everything. Relaunch the program, disable internet, and scroll to your email archive to make sure all messages were synchronized. I am split on this. I like the ability to use my own application, but that means that I have to store all of my email twice on my machine (once encrypted via Proton's bridge application and once decrypted within my email program). Tuta's application is clean and just works.
Mobile Apps: I think Tuta gets a very slight win from me. Both providers offer great mobile apps, but Tuta's seems a bit cleaner, brighter, and faster to me. However, this should never be a reason to select a provider.
Multi-user Login: Tie. Both providers allow multiple paid and a single free account within the same mobile app. Proton is a bit easier to switch between users, but only because I am used to it.
Drive Access: Proton wins here. They provide a Drive service which allows you to store and share files securely. Tuta is working on their own version.
Audits: Slight advantage Proton. Both providers have had external audits of their services, but only Proton's can be seen HERE. Tuta's plans to release theirs, but has not as of this post.
Open Source Apps: Tie. Both providers have open-source apps available through their Github pages HERE and HERE.
Location: This is a tie for me. Proton is a Swiss company while Tuta is in Germany. I only prefer a non-U.S. provider, so I am happy either way. Only you can decide if either is a risk. Proton will obey Swiss court orders while Tuta will require a German court order. However, neither provider can give out any content since they cannot see through the encryption. They could only provide non-encrypted metadata.
Pricing: This is a loaded topic. While we should never choose providers based on costs, we should make sure we are receiving a fair deal. Again, both offer a free tier to try the services. Paid plans vary. Proton also offers a VPN service, so some users may prefer to bundle that in. Some may prefer it separate. Do your homework. Competition between the two should keep prices affordable, which is a good thing.
Payment: Proton has the slight advantage. They accept cash and Bitcoin directly. Tuta can accept Bitcoin, Monero, and cash, but you must go through a third-party service called Proxystore. This works fine, but does introduce an additional hurdle. I would never send cash overseas, but I have used Bitcoin for both services without issue.
Disclosures: While I am an affiliate of both Proton Mail and Tuta, I receive absolutely no information about you or your order. I was a user of (and recommended) both services before I became an affiliate. If you would like to support these guides, please consider registering with my custom links, even for a free trial, at https://go.getproton.me/aff_c?offer_id=7&aff_id=1519 and https://tuta.com/?t-src=inteltechniques I was not asked to write this update and I provided no editorial control.
Which do I choose? Both. I possess paid accounts through each service and use them both daily. I possess custom domains on each service which can be changed to the other at any time. I am thrilled to have options. Which will you choose? For much more information about secure email, and many other topics, please check out my book Extreme Privacy.
Traditional email providers can read all of your messages. While they typically encrypt the data while it is in transit from one provider to another, they hold the keys and there is no end-to-end encryption (E2EE) protecting your content. A malicious employee or criminal hacker can access the data, and a court order can force the provider to hand over everything you have ever said. For a long time, Gmail was scanning every message in order to present advertisements relevant to your conversation.
This is where providers such as Proton Mail and Tuta come in. These services, each offering free tiers, provide email communications with true zero-knowledge E2EE. This means that your email is encrypted from your device before it is stored on their servers. Even with a court order, an employee of Proton Mail or Tuta would be unable to view any message content. If an email is sent from one Proton Mail user to another Proton Mail user (or one Tuta user to another Tuta user), it is never exposed to interception from a third party. Is this bulletproof? No, nothing is. There will always be some slight chance that an adversary could compromise your communications. However, it is extremely unlikely. On the other side, a court order to Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, or any other traditional provider will hand over all of your account details and email communications stored with them without any resistance.
While I am not very concerned about court orders being executed on my accounts, I am extremely bothered by data breaches and internal abuses. If a breach occurs at Proton Mail or Tuta, the thief gets a bunch of encrypted data that is of no use. In 2016, a large breach at Yahoo handed over access to over 500 million accounts to unknown criminal culprits. In 2021, Yandex caught an employee selling access to entire inboxes of targeted users. These scenarios are no longer theoretical. Verified threats toward your sensitive email content exist. A big part of being private is simply making better choices, even if they are not fool-proof.
I have a few opinions on email which may not be accepted by the security community. First, email is broken and outdated. I assume every email I write could be seen by someone else. I trust services such as Proton Mail and Tuta over any other mainstream provider because of the zero-knowledge environment. Even if they secretly had bad intentions, they could not access my data. Multiple independent third-party audits verify this protection. These audits carry more weight than online promises by the companies.
The bigger problem is on the other side of your messages. If you send a message from your Proton or Tuta account to a non-encrypted provider, then you lose most of the protection. Proton Mail and Tuta can only safeguard your information on their servers They cannot control what happens when you leave their ecosystem. However, You can have comfort knowing that your historical email archive is protected from prying eyes.
In the most recent edition of Extreme Privacy, I recommended both Proton Mail and Tuta, but displayed slight favor for Proton Mail due to wider adoption. I still see more Proton Mail users contacting me than Tuta fans, but the numbers are closing in. Also, both companies have made several improvements to their platforms. Let's dive into the latest comparisons for a full picture of each provider, sorted by the features I find most vital.
Email Security: This is a tie. Both services still provide industry standard E2EE and possess proper password and 2FA protocols.
Custom Domains: This is also a tie. I explain in the book the importance of owning your own domains for email communication. I place custom domains within each provider. If one service were to fail, shut down, kick me out, or become compromised, I can simply forward my DNS records to the other provider with almost no downtime. I am in true control of my addresses.
Adoption: This will vary, but Proton generally wins. Only a year ago, 99% or my contacts using secure email were Proton Mail users. Therefore, it simply made more sense to primarily use Proton Mail for communications. As I write this, 29% of the people who have emailed me from a secure provider in the past year are using Tuta. The other 71% are using Proton. That is quite a jump. When I have a contact using Tuta, whether a Tuta address or a custom domain on Tuta, I always communicate with that person via my own Tuta account. This protects the entire conversation, and is the right thing to do. This is why I believe we should all have accounts at each provider, even if only on the free tier.
Contacts: Tuta has a slight edge on this one. Both Proton Mail and Tuta do NOT fully encrypt the email addresses of incoming and outgoing mail. They must see the addresses to be able to facilitate the communications. However, Tuta encrypts the subject line while Proton does not. Is this a huge deal? Not to me, but it may be to you. Both providers encrypt everything else stored within a contact on their service. Personally, I do not store my sensitive contacts within any online service. I keep them in my offline desktop and mobile applications.
Calendars: This is a tie. Both providers offer a true E2EE calendar experience, and both now offer the ability to share a calendar between multiple users.
Offline Email Clients: The winner on this one will depend on how you want to store your email. I believe everyone should have an offline backup of every email communication. What if your email provider gets hacked or disappears? What if you logged in one day and all of your email was gone? An offline copy prevents this concern. Proton Mail offers a bridge application which allows you to use any traditional email desktop application to synchronize your emails to your computer. If you want to use Thunderbird or any other IMAP option, then Proton is the winner. Tuta allows you to export messages in bulk, which could then be imported into your email program, but that is an ongoing hassle. However, Tuta users can download their desktop application and synchronize all email for offline use. Make sure you select "Email" and change the "local data" to "999999 days" to get everything. Relaunch the program, disable internet, and scroll to your email archive to make sure all messages were synchronized. I am split on this. I like the ability to use my own application, but that means that I have to store all of my email twice on my machine (once encrypted via Proton's bridge application and once decrypted within my email program). Tuta's application is clean and just works.
Mobile Apps: I think Tuta gets a very slight win from me. Both providers offer great mobile apps, but Tuta's seems a bit cleaner, brighter, and faster to me. However, this should never be a reason to select a provider.
Multi-user Login: Tie. Both providers allow multiple paid and a single free account within the same mobile app. Proton is a bit easier to switch between users, but only because I am used to it.
Drive Access: Proton wins here. They provide a Drive service which allows you to store and share files securely. Tuta is working on their own version.
Audits: Slight advantage Proton. Both providers have had external audits of their services, but only Proton's can be seen HERE. Tuta's plans to release theirs, but has not as of this post.
Open Source Apps: Tie. Both providers have open-source apps available through their Github pages HERE and HERE.
Location: This is a tie for me. Proton is a Swiss company while Tuta is in Germany. I only prefer a non-U.S. provider, so I am happy either way. Only you can decide if either is a risk. Proton will obey Swiss court orders while Tuta will require a German court order. However, neither provider can give out any content since they cannot see through the encryption. They could only provide non-encrypted metadata.
Pricing: This is a loaded topic. While we should never choose providers based on costs, we should make sure we are receiving a fair deal. Again, both offer a free tier to try the services. Paid plans vary. Proton also offers a VPN service, so some users may prefer to bundle that in. Some may prefer it separate. Do your homework. Competition between the two should keep prices affordable, which is a good thing.
Payment: Proton has the slight advantage. They accept cash and Bitcoin directly. Tuta can accept Bitcoin, Monero, and cash, but you must go through a third-party service called Proxystore. This works fine, but does introduce an additional hurdle. I would never send cash overseas, but I have used Bitcoin for both services without issue.
Disclosures: While I am an affiliate of both Proton Mail and Tuta, I receive absolutely no information about you or your order. I was a user of (and recommended) both services before I became an affiliate. If you would like to support these guides, please consider registering with my custom links, even for a free trial, at https://go.getproton.me/aff_c?offer_id=7&aff_id=1519 and https://tuta.com/?t-src=inteltechniques I was not asked to write this update and I provided no editorial control.
Which do I choose? Both. I possess paid accounts through each service and use them both daily. I possess custom domains on each service which can be changed to the other at any time. I am thrilled to have options. Which will you choose? For much more information about secure email, and many other topics, please check out my book Extreme Privacy.
Virtual Currency Payments Return
July 11, 2025
We are once again accepting Virtual Currencies for digital books and online training. Email us for the BTC or Monero payment addresses. We only use locally-stored wallets, never exchanges.
Extreme Privacy Update: Self-Hosted SearXNG Guide
July 11, 2025
In my books Extreme Privacy and OSINT Techniques, I discuss the SearXNG as an option to access search engine results. SearXNG is not a search engine itself. It is a metasearch engine which aggregates the results of multiple search engines, such as Google, Bing, and others, but does not share information about users to the engines queried. It is also open source and can be self-hosted. The easiest way to get started is to visit https://searx.space/ and test a few public instances.
After you have played with any of the public instances of SearXNG, you may now see the benefits of an aggregated search service. You may also be considering the risks associated with this behavior. Let's start with the benefits of a public instance which is not self-hosted.
From any search result, I prefer to click the "Preferences" option on the far right and make a few modifications. I disable any auto-complete options; disable SafeSearch; switch to a light theme; enable results in new tabs; and enable preferred search engines throughout all topics. You can even modify the way URLs will be presented. This allows you to remove embedded URL tracking codes, force older or mobile versions of websites, or even remove affiliate tracking links. Your options are unlimited when you control the code. If you want to store these changes so they will be preserved after you restart Firefox, you must conduct the following.
Let's repeat the process for those on macOS who want to self-host SearXNG. Make sure you have Homebrew configured as explained in the book.
My machine is now configured to run the SearXNG software. The following commands execute the program.
After you have played with any of the public instances of SearXNG, you may now see the benefits of an aggregated search service. You may also be considering the risks associated with this behavior. Let's start with the benefits of a public instance which is not self-hosted.
- All queries are submitted to search engines from a third-party server.
- The IP addresses collected from engines are those of the server, not yours.
- Your queries cannot easily be associated to one user by the engines.
- The host of the instance could monitor your queries.
- If the host is popular, some engines may block access.
- If the host has an outage, you are without service.
- All queries are submitted from your machine directly to the engines.
- The tracking code on engine websites is removed from the SearXNG pages.
- Minimal usage ensures that all options function reliably.
- Does not rely on the uptime of an online instance for my queries.
sudo -H apt-get install -y python3-pip python3-dev python3-babel \
python3-venv uwsgi uwsgi-plugin-python3 \
git build-essential libxslt-dev zlib1g-dev \
libffi-dev libssl-dev
mkdir ~/Documents/searxng && cd ~/Documents/searxng
git clone "https://github.com/searxng/searxng"
python3 -m venv searxngEnvironment
source searxngEnvironment/bin/activate
pip install -U pip
pip install -U setuptools
pip install -U wheel
pip install -U pyyaml
cd searxng && pip install --use-pep517 --no-build-isolation -e .
sudo -H mkdir -p "/etc/searxng"
sed -i "s|ultrasecretkey|$(openssl rand -hex 32)|g" searx/settings.yml
sudo -H cp searx/settings.yml /etc/searxng/settings.yml
export SEARXNG_SETTINGS_PATH="/etc/searxng/settings.yml"
deactivate
My machine is now configured to run the SearXNG software. The following commands execute the program.
cd ~/Documents/searxng
source searxngEnvironment/bin/activate
cd searxng
python searx/webapp.py
The software is now running in the background. You can minimize this Terminal window. As long as it is not closed completely, the service is running. You can launch Firefox and navigate to http://127.0.0.1:8888 to load your own instance. Similar to public instances, any modifications you make to SearXNG will be erased when you close Firefox, unless you add http://127.0.0.1 to your stored cookies (or modify the settings.yml file directly). You can execute the following commands to fetch any updates.
cd ~/Documents/venv/searxng/searxng
git pull "https://github.com/searxng/searxng"
If desired, you can add these two commands to the Linux update script presented in Extreme Privacy. You could also add the launch commands to the maintenance scripts within the book. The image below displays an example query. Notice that I receive results from Google, Bing, Brave, and DuckDuckGo simultaneously.From any search result, I prefer to click the "Preferences" option on the far right and make a few modifications. I disable any auto-complete options; disable SafeSearch; switch to a light theme; enable results in new tabs; and enable preferred search engines throughout all topics. You can even modify the way URLs will be presented. This allows you to remove embedded URL tracking codes, force older or mobile versions of websites, or even remove affiliate tracking links. Your options are unlimited when you control the code. If you want to store these changes so they will be preserved after you restart Firefox, you must conduct the following.
- Navigate to Firefox's Settings menu and click the "Privacy & Security" option.
- Click "Manage Exceptions" next to "Delete cookies...".
- Enter the URL of your SearXNG instance, such as "https://127.0.0.1"
- Click "Allow" and "Save Changes".
Let's repeat the process for those on macOS who want to self-host SearXNG. Make sure you have Homebrew configured as explained in the book.
brew install python3.13 git
mkdir ~/Documents/venv
cd ~/Documents/venv
python3.13 -m venv searxng
source searxng/bin/activate
cd searxng
git clone "https://github.com/searxng/searxng"
pip3.13 install -U pip
pip3.13 install -U setuptools
pip3.13 install -U wheel
pip3.13 install -U pyyaml
pip3.13 install -U lxml
cd searxng
pip3.13 install --use-pep517 --no-build-isolation -e .
cd searx
sudo mkdir "/etc/searxng"
sudo cp settings.yml /etc/searxng/settings.yml
sed -i '' "s/ultrasecretkey/00ef3039748274b4f2b93d16fb9695de00a4bb35e4c02b7704a167c7aeb274bd/g" /etc/searxng/settings.yml
deactivateMy machine is now configured to run the SearXNG software. The following commands execute the program.
cd ~/Documents/venv
source searxng/bin/activate
cd searxng/searxng
python3.13 searx/webapp.py
The software is now running in the background. You can minimize this Terminal window. As long as it is not closed completely, the service is running. You can launch Firefox and navigate to http://127.0.0.1:8888 to load your own instance. Similar to public instances, any modifications you make to SearXNG will be erased when you close Firefox, unless you add http://127.0.0.1 to your stored cookies (or modify the settings.yml file directly). You can execute the following commands to fetch any updates.
cd ~/Documents/venv/searxng/searxng
git pull "https://github.com/searxng/searxng"
If desired, you can add these two commands to the macOS update script explained in the book. You could also add the launch commands to the maintenance scripts presented there. If there is enough interest in self-hosting in Windows, I will ask Jason to work out the steps on his Windows machine.Extreme Privacy Update: Windows 10 EOL
July 08, 2025
Note: This post was written by Jason Edison, co-author of OSINT Techniques.
We are now approaching the October 2025 sun-setting of support for Windows 10. As a follow up to their previous announcements regarding post 2025 support, Microsoft recently announced additional options for those who wish to stay with Windows 10. I will not bury the lead: all of the options provided by Microsoft are bad for any privacy-minded users unless they want to shell out additional money for paid support. Let’s first look at the pitch and then at the end of this article I will share my own strategy. The following graphic is the summary of options posted on Windows.com:
Source: https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2025/06/24/stay-secure-with-windows-11-copilot-pcs-and-windows-365-before-support-ends-for-windows-10/
You might think, okay, I’ll just buy myself out of this problem by paying the $30 extension fee. This is a yearly fee so essentially they are pushing you back into a subscription to receive proper support for a product that you already own. Using Microsoft points does not change the fact that it is a subscription fee. The only difference is that you are using their proprietary “currency” which for most people is an even worse option.
As is common in these modern times, they are happy to provide a new alternative where you can trade your data for the right to continue using the software you already own. If you are already deep into the Microsoft cloud storage and services, you may not take issue with this, but the fact that you are reading this blog infers that you value your privacy and security. Having to store your workstation settings in Microsoft’s cloud seems like a horrible idea. It means giving up even more control of your sensitive data.
The final option is to do what Microsoft really wants us to do, which is to comply and accept being forced into using Windows 11. First of all, not all hardware supports Windows 11, so this may require a significant hardware upgrade. Secondly, Windows 11 has even worse privacy implications than Windows 10 as well as being a far more “locked down” operating system. Anyone who has put effort into customizing their Windows 11 installation knows the pain of trying to remove the various unwanted “features” which harvest your personal data while also limiting your ability to customize your user experience. Then there is the Copilot (Microsoft’s AI assistant) integration which they seem intent on forcing upon all of us.
You might be wondering at this point if I am just a Microsoft hater. Actually, Windows has been my primary operating system my entire adult life. Although Windows continues to offer some of the best broad application compatibility, each new version has been less privacy-respecting while also offering less control to users over their own systems. I would not tell anyone what choice they should make but I decided earlier this year to migrate to Linux as my primary daily operating system. This journey is not complete, but I will be posting a follow up article sharing some of my experiences as well as some tips and resources for others who may choose to head down the Linux rabbit hole as an alternative to submitting to Microsoft’s non-privacy respecting business practices.
Source: https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2025/06/24/stay-secure-with-windows-11-copilot-pcs-and-windows-365-before-support-ends-for-windows-10/
You might think, okay, I’ll just buy myself out of this problem by paying the $30 extension fee. This is a yearly fee so essentially they are pushing you back into a subscription to receive proper support for a product that you already own. Using Microsoft points does not change the fact that it is a subscription fee. The only difference is that you are using their proprietary “currency” which for most people is an even worse option.
As is common in these modern times, they are happy to provide a new alternative where you can trade your data for the right to continue using the software you already own. If you are already deep into the Microsoft cloud storage and services, you may not take issue with this, but the fact that you are reading this blog infers that you value your privacy and security. Having to store your workstation settings in Microsoft’s cloud seems like a horrible idea. It means giving up even more control of your sensitive data.
The final option is to do what Microsoft really wants us to do, which is to comply and accept being forced into using Windows 11. First of all, not all hardware supports Windows 11, so this may require a significant hardware upgrade. Secondly, Windows 11 has even worse privacy implications than Windows 10 as well as being a far more “locked down” operating system. Anyone who has put effort into customizing their Windows 11 installation knows the pain of trying to remove the various unwanted “features” which harvest your personal data while also limiting your ability to customize your user experience. Then there is the Copilot (Microsoft’s AI assistant) integration which they seem intent on forcing upon all of us.
You might be wondering at this point if I am just a Microsoft hater. Actually, Windows has been my primary operating system my entire adult life. Although Windows continues to offer some of the best broad application compatibility, each new version has been less privacy-respecting while also offering less control to users over their own systems. I would not tell anyone what choice they should make but I decided earlier this year to migrate to Linux as my primary daily operating system. This journey is not complete, but I will be posting a follow up article sharing some of my experiences as well as some tips and resources for others who may choose to head down the Linux rabbit hole as an alternative to submitting to Microsoft’s non-privacy respecting business practices.
Extreme Privacy Update: KnockKnock Script
July 05, 2025
In my book Extreme Privacy, 5th Edition, I offer a script which will conduct a KnockKnock scan and parse the results for any potential malicious files running on your macOS machine. KnockKnock installs and executes fine with the commands in the book, but the script requires RipGrep in order to parse the results. I am so accustomed to RipGrep being on all of my machines that I forgot to have readers install it for their macOS script. The following command for any macOS users who want the ability to execute the KnockKnock script presented in the book will correct the situation, and make RipGrep available for any other queries.
brew install --cask ripgrep
More details are available in the book.
brew install --cask ripgrep
More details are available in the book.
OSINT Techniques Updates: inurl & Amass path
July 05, 2025
In my book OSINT Techniques, 11th Edition, I discuss the ability to use Google search operators to both isolate and eliminate specific data. This is more important than ever with the substantial increase of AI-generated content infiltrating our queries. We are testing some new techniques which practically eliminate sites created by AI, but more research is necessary. For now, I want to focus on a change at Google which requires us to pivot our query structure for specific types of pages.
In the book, I give the following Google search example which would identify any FTP servers which possess PDF files that contain the term OSINT within the file.
inurl:ftp -inurl(http|https) filetype:pdf "osint"
This worked for a while, but Google has now enforced some specific behaviors, which I really should have included anyway. The following query is now required to present only FTP sites without general web sites. The change is the colon after "inurl".
inurl:ftp -inurl:(http|https) filetype:pdf "osint"
This query provided only the four results I wanted. Replacing "ftp" with your desired content should be more productive now.
I also modified the updates.sh script (line 58) within our Linux VM build to properly remove the Amass zip file downloaded during the update. This only impacted a minority of users, but the change is cleaner.
Thank you to all of the readers who report the issues which need corrected. More details are in the book.
In the book, I give the following Google search example which would identify any FTP servers which possess PDF files that contain the term OSINT within the file.
inurl:ftp filetype:pdf "osint"
This still works, but results become lost in the slew of junk. The book then gives the following query to eliminate any HTTP or HTTPS results.inurl:ftp -inurl(http|https) filetype:pdf "osint"
This worked for a while, but Google has now enforced some specific behaviors, which I really should have included anyway. The following query is now required to present only FTP sites without general web sites. The change is the colon after "inurl".
inurl:ftp -inurl:(http|https) filetype:pdf "osint"
This query provided only the four results I wanted. Replacing "ftp" with your desired content should be more productive now.
I also modified the updates.sh script (line 58) within our Linux VM build to properly remove the Amass zip file downloaded during the update. This only impacted a minority of users, but the change is cleaner.
Thank you to all of the readers who report the issues which need corrected. More details are in the book.
New Digital Book Provider
April 02, 2025
We are currently testing the waters with Payhip as a replacement for SendOwl. We expect a few hurdles, but let us know if you have any issues placing an order. They also do not allow us to send out updates, but the transition should allow us to continue to offer PDFs on our site. As a reminder, all future updates will be posted to our Blog, so please monitor things there, or better yet subscribe to the feed there.
New Ebook Updates
April 02, 2025
We were informed this week that our digital book distributor (Sendowl) will be terminating our distribution plan on April 24th, 2025 and will be forcing migration into their new structure at that time. This new plan eliminates the option to send readers free PDF updates and applies a 6-fold overall rate increase, which we will absorb without a price change. Because of this change at Sendowl, the final PDF updates to all digital guides were sent on March 29, 2025. Please be sure to download your PDFs before April 24th, 2025! From now on, any necessary content updates will appear on this Blog. This does not impact print books on Amazon. This Blog will stay active. The digital files for all guides will continue to receive updates.
Executive EDC Bags
January 05, 2025
I am a bag nerd. I have more backpacks, briefcases, totes, and duffels than I will ever need, or could ever use. I am extremely picky about having the appropriate bag for each job. Many of you already know that I rely on the SLNT E3 Backpack when I travel, as I reviewed in Issue 006 of UNREDACTED Magazine. While it is ideal for me as the one encapsulation of all gear and clothing for short travel, it is not a catch-all for every situation. I also need specific bags for everyday carry (EDC).
Recently, I assisted a client with some urgent last-minute needs. I had all of the gear I needed, but was not prepared for the environment I would be in. First, it was very apparent that I needed a nice tailored suit to even attempt to blend in. My client had a "suit guy", so that was solved quickly. Next, I needed some specific gear with me at all times, but showing up with a backpack draped over my new suit was not an option. I needed a discreet briefcase which was efficient, secure, and private. I embrace any excuse to buy a new bag, so I went shopping.
This post is not an endorsement for any specific brand and I was not asked to write this review. This is only intended as documentation of my considerations when choosing a bag for specific needs. I hope it sparks interest in identifying your own needs and presents new considerations for your next bag.
First, let's discuss the aesthetics of an executive briefcase. I lean on the show Rubicon to start our discussion:
I never use that specific type of bag, but I appreciate the following opinions:
Nothing eye-catching
Nothing which announces its newness, its cost, or its distinctiveness
Nothing which makes a noise when opening
Requires a proper handle (not a shoulder strap)
From my experience, stores such as Walmart, Target, and Kohls will not provide anything of value. It is all cheap junk. My first stop was Best Buy. This may surprise you, but Best Buy usually carries a decent selection of bags. The rest of the store is typically useless to me, but I can always find a last-minute bag. I went with the Samsonite 15.6 Laptop Professional Grade 2 bag which was on sale for $50 with retail of $70. It was perfect, but I want to explain why.
I carry a 14" laptop, so most bags will enclose it fine. However, I do not want things to be too loose and sliding around. I also carry a 8.5" x 11" e-reader and I do not want the two items to be too tight. On top of that, I always travel with my laptop within a SLNT Farady sleeve, so I need extra room for that. I find most 15" bags work well for me, but some are too tight. This bag held both perfectly. The following displays both items in place while open and closed.
Next, I demand the perfect amount of storage. I do not like bags which are too tight and require me to remove things to get to the item I need. I also do not want things to ever move during transit. I need pockets. The following displays my item placement. Always consider your own items when choosing an EDC bag,
The outer pocket has compartments for small items, and the bottom has an extended gap for flashlight, knife, and extra pistol magazine. The secondary zipped pocket holds my Faraday wallet (far-right) which contains all cash, cards, and passport. It is thick enough to support an Apple USB-C charging block, which I use for my Linux laptop, GrapheneOS device, e-reader, and all other USB items. Although this compartment only possesses a single zipper, it can be attached to the side clasp with a zip-tie or lock. The other compartments are dual-zipper, which also supports zip ties to prevent access to pockets in crowded areas. The back pouch is thin, but supports cables. All zippers are silent.
Finally, I insist that my phone is protected in a Faraday bag when I travel and while I am in sensitive meetings. I could toss the Faraday bag into a large briefcase pocket, but I prefer a designated area. This bag possesses the perfect slot which houses my Faraday bag, and is extremely snug when the phone is inside of it. I would not trust this setup in congested public transportation, but it was ideal for this situation, and gave me easy access to my device. The final placement appeared as part of the bag, and did not seem to welcome a pick-pocketer.
This may be overkill for most, but I enjoy the luxury of a perfect bag. Nothing moves around as I walk, the bag is presentable in an executive environment, it supports the weight of all gear without sagging or feeling stressed, and I don't feel like a child at the big-boys meeting when I walk in with my Jansport school bag slung over my shoulder.
No bag is perfect for everyone, and this bag was my only real option in a moment of desperation. However, it has turned into one of my favorites for meetings.
Disclosures: I have no association to Samsonite and I receive no kickback for any purchases. I am a long-time affiliate of SLNT.
Recently, I assisted a client with some urgent last-minute needs. I had all of the gear I needed, but was not prepared for the environment I would be in. First, it was very apparent that I needed a nice tailored suit to even attempt to blend in. My client had a "suit guy", so that was solved quickly. Next, I needed some specific gear with me at all times, but showing up with a backpack draped over my new suit was not an option. I needed a discreet briefcase which was efficient, secure, and private. I embrace any excuse to buy a new bag, so I went shopping.
This post is not an endorsement for any specific brand and I was not asked to write this review. This is only intended as documentation of my considerations when choosing a bag for specific needs. I hope it sparks interest in identifying your own needs and presents new considerations for your next bag.
First, let's discuss the aesthetics of an executive briefcase. I lean on the show Rubicon to start our discussion:
[video width="1280" height="720" mp4="https://inteltechniques.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/How-to-Select-a-Briefcase-rBB0fBvB6ME.mp4"][/video]
I never use that specific type of bag, but I appreciate the following opinions:
Nothing eye-catching
Nothing which announces its newness, its cost, or its distinctiveness
Nothing which makes a noise when opening
Requires a proper handle (not a shoulder strap)
From my experience, stores such as Walmart, Target, and Kohls will not provide anything of value. It is all cheap junk. My first stop was Best Buy. This may surprise you, but Best Buy usually carries a decent selection of bags. The rest of the store is typically useless to me, but I can always find a last-minute bag. I went with the Samsonite 15.6 Laptop Professional Grade 2 bag which was on sale for $50 with retail of $70. It was perfect, but I want to explain why.
I carry a 14" laptop, so most bags will enclose it fine. However, I do not want things to be too loose and sliding around. I also carry a 8.5" x 11" e-reader and I do not want the two items to be too tight. On top of that, I always travel with my laptop within a SLNT Farady sleeve, so I need extra room for that. I find most 15" bags work well for me, but some are too tight. This bag held both perfectly. The following displays both items in place while open and closed.
Next, I demand the perfect amount of storage. I do not like bags which are too tight and require me to remove things to get to the item I need. I also do not want things to ever move during transit. I need pockets. The following displays my item placement. Always consider your own items when choosing an EDC bag,
The outer pocket has compartments for small items, and the bottom has an extended gap for flashlight, knife, and extra pistol magazine. The secondary zipped pocket holds my Faraday wallet (far-right) which contains all cash, cards, and passport. It is thick enough to support an Apple USB-C charging block, which I use for my Linux laptop, GrapheneOS device, e-reader, and all other USB items. Although this compartment only possesses a single zipper, it can be attached to the side clasp with a zip-tie or lock. The other compartments are dual-zipper, which also supports zip ties to prevent access to pockets in crowded areas. The back pouch is thin, but supports cables. All zippers are silent.
Finally, I insist that my phone is protected in a Faraday bag when I travel and while I am in sensitive meetings. I could toss the Faraday bag into a large briefcase pocket, but I prefer a designated area. This bag possesses the perfect slot which houses my Faraday bag, and is extremely snug when the phone is inside of it. I would not trust this setup in congested public transportation, but it was ideal for this situation, and gave me easy access to my device. The final placement appeared as part of the bag, and did not seem to welcome a pick-pocketer.
This may be overkill for most, but I enjoy the luxury of a perfect bag. Nothing moves around as I walk, the bag is presentable in an executive environment, it supports the weight of all gear without sagging or feeling stressed, and I don't feel like a child at the big-boys meeting when I walk in with my Jansport school bag slung over my shoulder.
No bag is perfect for everyone, and this bag was my only real option in a moment of desperation. However, it has turned into one of my favorites for meetings.
Disclosures: I have no association to Samsonite and I receive no kickback for any purchases. I am a long-time affiliate of SLNT.
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