I wanted to play with Sean's idea from the Newsreal 9/22 show of throwing an encrypted server in an inaccessible place and leaving a 'blinking light' box out as a decoy in the event that a wog should be raided.  Some random thoughts on the subject:

Would it be enough to setup an encrypted fileserver using something like CryptoNAS or FreeNAS or would it be necessary to augment the crypto further using an ssh or OpenVPN tunnel?

My current network already uses a central gateway machine that is naturally the blinking light/decoy machine.  Logging can be turned off, sent to the NAS or put on an encrypted filesystem of its own just to add another layer of obfuscation. 

How would be the best way to hide the physical location of the NAS?  CAT cable is obvious and needs to be physically hooked to the rest of the network.  Anyone paying attention will notice a red light on the switch.  Wireless is not secure.

What kind of discipline needs to be practiced to make sure that all this effort isn't compromised by a random CD or USB drive?  If more people practice the discipline on mundane information then it becomes harder to insinuate that a particular piece of encrypted information is incriminating.  And the look on the investigator's face when they realize there are only pictures of cute kittens...

Thanks for your thoughts, INT03h.  Had to figure out what that was in the interrupt table... I'll answer in a bass ackwards way, working from the bottom up.

If we are going to all the trouble to keep our data private, what about removable media?  I've looked at how to create encrypted iso images under Linux and it isn't straightforward.  Windows probably has some program that handles the task but unless it is dead easy, how often will it be used?  Seems a little shortsighted to not include removable media in a secure protocol.

I still don't like wireless but I see your point.  It seems a little pat to say that opposing interests (LEOs, private security, hackers) won't be running kismet and notice traffic.  We should expect sophistication from those who intend to breach our privacy.  Still, turning off beacons, cranking down power levels on the radio and using WPA would be a good start.

Hadn't looked at the issue as a remote desktop type setup before but immediately I see possibilities.  Would setting up virtual machines help improve privacy?

Edit:  Just found out that AcetoneISO has an option to encrypt iso images but I'm not sure what method it uses

Just finished the season of 24 where the bad guys were sneaking a data connection out of the hide out via the power lines.  Remember those janky network adapters you could get that act as an ethernet bridge between 2 pcs?  that's a sweet idea. 

I guess it's called Powerline Networking http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=294&name=Powerline-Networking

Using this method, you could network to anything else plugged in. =)