Q: On your website, you state:

“All other laptops use hardware chips coupled with software that can betray you. News stories have shown how these chips can surreptitiously transmit voice, networking, picture or video signals. Other chips are used to install spyware, malware or viruses.”

I know about software vulnerabilities, but I had not heard of hardware itself having built-in backdoors. Could you provide any news articles to back up this assertion?

Computerworld—a sober, technical publication—has an article outlining 17 Exploits the NSA Uses to Hack PCs, Routers and Servers for Surveillance, providing many links to original sources. It concerns their Tailored Access Operations Program (TAO) and reports from the Snowden Archive are six years old. Thus what we know of today is almost certainly worse that what’s current. And what we know now is very, very troubling.

As the computer trade magazine notes, before giving four screens of examples:

Some of the exploits are deployed remotely and others are physically installed. Those hands-on operations may occur while the product is being shipped; it could be snagged during shipping so an obscure group like an FBI black bag team can do the NSA’s domestic dirty work. There are too many exploits listed in the leak to cover in one post, but I thought you might like to know about some that target servers, routers and PCs. Please note, however, that ANT can exploit nearly every major software, hardware and firmware.

Noted computer security authority and journalist Jacob Appelbaum referenced exploits used to spy on Americans and foreigners alike – with the data-sharing agreements in place, it’s important to recognize this is fast becoming an academic distinction – by observing, “This is Turnkey Tyranny and it is here.”

Videos for the 30th Chaos Communication Congress, where Mr. Appelbaum’s two lectures (and many more covering this topic) are here.

As our blog article, “Shine A Light On It: Why Verifying Is Required, Why Only Libre Allows It” notes,

In the tech field, what a few do today, more will do tomorrow and nearly everyone will be doing next week. Even if you trust intelligence agency bureaucracies – yours or others – to not spy too much on you, your family and your friends, it’s not “just” them. It’s those that will follow that will also be able to spy on you and yours using similar techniques, for much cheaper.

Just since June ’15 alone, the OPM hacks purportedly by Chinese agents and—the irony—the Italian Hacking Team itself getting hacked proves our blog article’s concerns were, if not prescient, accurate. Smaller agencies than the NSA/GCHQ and even private parties—both who can categorically be characterized as not being particularly protective of American or even European citizens’ rights, security or well-being—are using similar exploits.

It’s code. It’s protocols. It doesn’t check first for the proper badge before running. There is no “magic golden key” allowing only The Good Guys™ from executing code.

All of this leaving aside the issue that hardware and software are becoming more conceptual categories than practical ones. Securing one or the other is no longer a guarantee of safety. You need to have both secured. And, given the complexities involved, the only reliable way to do this is to use the F/LOSSH (Free/Libre Open Source Software and Hardware) model. Since without verification, there can be no trust. Since, even though we may trust an institution or person now, we can’t have faith that five years from now, these organizations will be the same, or the people we trusted still in place.

We genuinely wish we lived in a world where our caution we have for our customers was unjustified or even, hysterical. We genuinely wish there wasn’t a need for someone like Purism to develop verifiably secure, transparent ways for people to organize their thoughts then share them. The world would be a better place. We’d probably all enjoy a bit more extra sleep. But that’s not the world we’ve inherited. So instead, we’re energized at the challenges we all face. And we’re excited at the opportunity to do our small part in correcting this very unwelcome change in our digital environment.

The post Hardware Can Be Your New Best Friend appeared first on Purism.

Purism Kill Switches

Innovative slider toggle switches, placed near the Librem’s hinge, ensure that the electrical circuits for Bluetooth, wireless, camera and microphone are physically severed. These hardware kill switches prevent digital adversaries from eavesdropping using the microphone or accessing the camera remotely. Another switch severs the over-the-air connections, reducing the possibility of remote access. On ordinary computers these features – and their purportedly fail-safe LED indicator lights – are activated via software. Malicious entities have already been proven to remotely surreptitiously use these devices while bypassing their LED. With the Librem 13, you have the ability to toggle one, either or both of the hardware kill switches.

“With massive data breaches of users’ private financial information happening seemingly weekly, we cannot afford to trust our most personal data to ordinary computers anymore. This is why we created the Librem, the first truly private personal computer, to protect and respect users’ rights to privacy, security and freedom,” says Purism CEO Todd Weaver.

Verifiably Secure, Assuredly Privacy-Respecting, Fundamentally Freedom-Ensuring Software Pre-Installed

The Librem 13 ships without “mystery code” or proprietary software of any kind, offering users complete transparency into the source code and control over all software.

Purism’s own PureOS is a secure, user-friendly Linux-based OS built using entirely Free/Libre Open Source software (F/LOSS). PureOS ships with hundreds of free software applications, all respecting users’ rights to privacy, security and freedom.

PureOS also included LibreOffice, a F/LOSS office suite, including spreadsheet, word processor, presentation & drawing programs. These programs maintain file compatibility with Microsoft Office, ensuring users will work productively with MS Word, Excel, and Powerpoint files, as well as Adobe PDFs. Maintain workgroup compatibility without a monthly subscription or an always-on network connection.

PureBrowser is provided by default within PureOS, a completely secure and private web browser, is based on the Firefox browser. Also pre-installed on your Librem 13 is the anonymity-preserving Tor browser.

Conventional computers ship with proprietary software pre-installed. These proprietary software updates contain “mystery code” (hidden, proprietary software without source code) or “binary blobs” (compiled binary files without source code). This “mystery code” creates a vulnerability that adversaries, data thieves and criminals can exploit to access your data.

Numerous examples – just from the past year alone – illustrate threats Librem computers will prevent:

• Corporate Exploits – Lenovo, a major Microsoft Windows-based manufacturer, was caught secretly installing the “Superfish” man-in-the-middle malware. All secure communications were intercepted, including user’s bank login credentials.
• Social media – Over 2 million Facebook, Gmail, and Twitter accounts were intercepted from keylogger malware.
• Spying – There have been numerous reports of stalkers remotely activating user’s microphone, webcam, or recording VoIP services.
• Backdoors – Government entities creating software and hardware entry points that other countries – even groups not even feigning to serve a higher purpose – used for their own, nefarious purposes. Even destroying innocent users’ hardware in their attempts to compromise personal computers.
• Data-mining – Third-party and ad trackers gather personal information about users’ browsing habits, selling the information far beyond the limited scope many assumed they’d agreed to.
• Ransomware – Malware such as CryptoLocker and CryptoWall, encrypt users’ drives, forcing them to pay for a decryption key to retrieve their data within days or their hard drive will be “bricked”. Antivirus applications cannot prevent these threats.

These violations are recent. More will follow. Some will be done by nations or politicians you won’t trust as much, if you trust those doing it are doing it now. Inevitably, these techniques be common enough that casual groups will form this threat.

Our lives are digital. It’s how we learn. How we express ourselves, with who, when. Who inspires us. Who we strive to become. Strangers – corporate, governmental or criminal – will no longer entitled to be part of deeply personal process.

Years ago, your computer being compromised by viruses was a routine. No longer.

Some claim “privacy is over, get  over it”. Purism wholeheartedly disagrees.

The days of blindly trusting proprietary mystery code, running on unverified mystery hardware, are done. The days of relying on the protection Purism provides has just begun.

Join us.

Photos, Further Information & Specifications

For complete software and hardware specifications for the Librem 13, please visit the Librem 13 Product Page.

The post Librem13 Protects Privacy appeared first on Purism.

Members of the news media can meet Purism at the Digital Experience in New York City where we will be demonstrating our latest privacy-protecting hardware offerings

This is an invite-only event for press and analysts, June 18, 2015, 6 pm – 9 pm EST in New York, New York.

Digital Experience! @ NYC is Pepcom’s annual summer showcase, a media event dedicated to showcasing the latest innovations in laptops, tablets, smartphones, apps, TVs, videogames, toys, gadgets, GPS, online shopping and a wide variety of technologies.

Please email rsvp@pepcom.com if you are a member of the news media and can attend. West Coast and International press who cannot attend the event, please contact pr@puri.sm and you will receive the press release when we announce our news on June 18.

The post Pepcom Reveals appeared first on Purism.

We’ve begun shipping the Librem 15 Rev1. We are excited to announce that the Librem 15 Rev1 has sold out!

We will begin testing on the second prototype of the Librem 15 Rev2. If our rigorous standards are met during the testing process, we will immediately begin assembly in a rolling shipment plan, beginning with those orders placed earliest with the least complex configurations, and commencing with the later, more complex configurations.

Thanks again to all the backers for helping us specify what should be included in the Librem 15 Rev2! As a reminder, the Librem 15 Rev2 includes:

• An option for 32GB of RAM
• USB 3.1 support
• Longer battery life
• And, of course, the Hardware Kill Switches, one for mic/camera, another for Wi-Fi & Bluetooth signals. The Purism HKS is included as a free upgrade for our backers who’ve already ordered a Rev2.

Once the Librem 15 Rev2 prototype is approved, we will announce it here. Keep checking! We’ll also communicate your specific ship date individually.

Any orders placed after today’s date will ship in September. The Purism Kill Switches will be available as a (wonderful) option.

The post Librem 15 Rev1 Sold Out, Shipped! Rev2 Begins Testing Phase appeared first on Purism.

Purism’s default web browser—PureBrowser—is one of the most secure, private, and freedom-respecting browser available, with a philosophy that will keep it respecting users’ rights in the future as new exploits and vulnerabilities are exposed and discovered.

There is only one sure way to ensure total security and privacy: don’t go online. However, that would make us even less free. Freedom compels risk-taking. Inaction is another path to servitude.

PureOS demands four fundamental freedoms:

1. Useable to everyone; safety in numbers. A secure system few use is as bad as a compromised system everyone uses. Safety is contagious. If only a few people are using online privacy schemes, they stand out to thieves and other hostile entities. This isolation makes them targets. Thus, everyone’s privacy matters. Protecting less technically sophisticated users strengthens even the most sophisticated of us.
2. Individual & personal. Everyone’s threat model – who is after you, for what, why & how – differs. Even for the same person, it changes, depending on context. Freedom means making knowledgeable choices that best suit our circumstances. Our fluid circumstances.
3. Collectively verifiable & reliable. With your digital life at stake, promises are the wind. Only by using Free/Libre Open Software & Hardware (F/LOSSH) can we objectively verify claims.
4. Transparent. Your software and hardware – and those making it – should be forthright in its function, capable in delivering them and limited to doing only what they promise.

Compared to common browsers, PureBrowser respects and protects your rights to privacy, security, and freedom by:

1. Blocking third party trackers & advertisers by default. These are designed to gather private details about your browsing habits. Opting in should be your choice – not opting out.
2. Using HTTPS where ever possible by default. Encrypting these connections prevents your behavior and information from being monitored by malicious groups while it is in transit. This also prevents you or the site you think you’re visiting from being hijacked by a third party.
3. Being Free/Libre Open Software (F/LOSS). Without the ability to audit the software, it’s impossible to be certain how it works. Since Libre software’s source is made available – every line of code, by definition, has to be – it can be verified that it is what it purports to be. Communities together ensure this is the case. F/LOSS principles don’t require that we trust the author, it requires we trust the community.
4. Never “phoning home” any personally identifying information surreptitiously. Information collected is, inevitably, information used. Chekhov’s Database, if you will.

The Four [Browser] Freedoms

Summarizing the table above:

• Microsoft’s Internet Explorer – and most likely their in-development browser, Edge – fail all four of these essential tests.
• Google’s browser fails more than three of the four.
• As of this writing, the general release of Firefox also fails three-quarters of them.
• Apple’s Safari fails half.
• PureBrowser passes all four of these essential tests. From the start, Purism’s PureBrowser blocks your personal information from being sent to groups you most likely do not want them to have.

Purism uses a fork—creates a distinct & separate piece of software—of Firefox, developed by the Trisquel development team. Wikipedia characterizes Trisquel as a fully F/LOSS system without proprietary software or firmware, noting that it is “listed by the Free Software Foundation as a distribution that contains only Free software.” Purism takes this already exemplary version then optimize it for the Librem laptops running PureOS and adds more privacy protections.

We carefully select privacy-enhancing add-ons, by default, such as the EFF’s Privacy Badger, that blocks third-party advertisers tracking literally every site you visit, page you view & video you watch.

PureOS also includes the EFF’s HTTPS Everywhere browser extension, which is also turned on by default.

Finally, we proudly include the superlative Tor Browser from the Tor Project to ensure your anonymity.

The threats we face are many, varied and constantly evolving. Purism will be constantly evolving, too. We’ll continue evaluating the best, most effective add-ons, the tightest, best source code and most cunning new exploits to keep PureBrowser the most rights-respecting browser available to safeguard your privacy.

We were delighted to discover, while writing this article, that the founder of the Free Software Movement, Dr. Richard Stallman, was also inspired by President Roosevelt when he proposed his Four Essential Freedoms. We ecstatically, humbly, follow these two superlative tracks of footsteps.

Rather than close with a The only thing we have to fear…, let us instead close with Mr. Roosevelt’s, Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.

The post The Four [Browser] Freedoms appeared first on Purism.

Supporters of Free/Libre software often emphasize the benefit of being able to verify code. Why is this a big deal? Why is it a big deal now?

A key benefit of Free/Libre Open Source software and hardware is that you don’t have to trust the man behind the curtain swearing The Great Oz is, in fact, great. You don’t have to trust. You can verify.

In a closed source world, I may trust one company, for instance. I may trust another company, generally, but less. I may (or may not) trust a third company. You may trust different companies’ business models, ethics or values along a continuum. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Who knows?

Wouldn’t it be great if, instead of figuring which of the three is less bad, I (and other vast pools of individuals with expertise working together) had a way to know if something they said was actually something they did? Wouldn’t it be great if, companies know that any hidden backdoors compromising most of their users true interests would be exposed, so they’d be less inclined to consider leaving them in the lurch? Software that is open source (or Free, Libre or Free/Libre (loosely, synonyms)) does exactly that. It allows everyone to verify everyone else’s work to make sure it does what it says it does. By relying on each other and themselves, instead of marketing or PR.

We all know now, that there’s more software burned into the ROM of a thermostat than those Apollo guys used to get to Venus. What’s in that?

Few gave it much thought since until recently, there wasn’t much information collected. It wasn’t linked. There weren’t techniques to parse it into anything useful. Now there is. That’s what the popular press refers to with “Big Data”. There’s really cool stuff we can do. There’s a lot of really bad stuff we can do. Most of us don’t. When the Snowden archive hit, we – those paying attention, at least – collectively realized our worst-case “bad” was so much more benign than what has actually been going on.

In the tech field, what a few do today, more will do tomorrow and nearly everyone will be doing next week. Even if you trust intelligence agency bureaucracies – yours or others – to not spy too much on you, your family and your friends, it’s not “just” them. It’s those that will follow that will also be able to spy on you and yours using similar techniques, for much cheaper.

These techniques and layers of software & hardware complication are going to vastly increase, not decrease. That ship’s sailed. We can’t change that. And honestly, most people want the benefits these changes bring.

So, what can we control? Verifying our software (Richard Stallman started raising this issue back in 1983). Verifying our hardware (we only recently figured out a way to make this possible for laptops about a year ago). We have a roadmap to get it all verified (the last, most complicated part concerns the CPU and how it talks to the motherboard, which we’re making progress on).

It’s this ability to verify not only the software but also the hardware, that is a really big deal. Beyond legions of crowds of people reviewing the code, just the potential of this is enough to keep the hardware and software manufacturers relatively honest. We no longer have to take the Great Oz’s word for it, we can verify. Everyone can verify Purism products in unparalleled ways – that they cannot do with Win/Tel, Google or Apple – because finally, both software and hardware are F/LOSS.

So. That’s why being able to independently verify claims made about software and hardware is both really important and is something that we created Purism to be able to do. So all of us working together can trust each other. Without having to close our eyes and leap, using blind faith. It’s a claim that no matter how much you may trust Apple, Google, Microsoft, Sony or Lenovo, none of these other companies can make.

Join us. Working together is the only way we will truly protect ourselves.

The post Shine A Light On It: Why Verifying Is Required, Why Only Libre Allows It appeared first on Purism.

Thank you again for helping us improve the world of privacy, security, and freedom in computing!

Here at Purism, we have been busy working on production of the Librem 15 laptops, and we are excited to share the following updates with you. Most importantly, we need to let you know about about some of the configuration and design decisions we are facing, as well our findings regarding the physical hardware boundaries from Intel. We see this as a wonderful opportunity to work directly with our faithful backers, to not only create the ideal laptop for our users, but to craft hardware and software that aligns with our beliefs.

SHIP DATES

We are shipping the Librem 15 rev1 configuration within the next few weeks.

The Librem 15 rev2 base model will ship beginning in June. Models with different configuration options will be shipped following the base model.

If you have not received an explicit email about Librem 15 rev1, you are in line to receive the Librem rev2 configuration.

Please contact us at info@puri.sm if it is unclear which model you are receiving, and we will clarify when you can expect to receive your Librem 15 laptop.

CHANGES TO THE REVISION CONFIGURATIONS

Some of the changes to the Librem 15 rev1 and Librem 15 rev2 configurations have directly affected the CPU, battery life, RAM, optical drive, and some hardware choices.

CASE

Librem 15 rev1 will support an optical drive and RJ-45, as represented by our images of the existing case. Librem 15 rev2 will be thinner, removing the optical drive and RJ-45.

CPU

• Librem 15 rev1 will include the i7-4712MQ of CPU, a 4th Gen Intel CPU.
• Librem 15 rev2 will include the i7-5557U of CPU, a 5th Gen Intel CPU.

Due to the design of our case, there was not enough physical space to fit four RAM slots. We can only physically fit two RAM slots in our case. As such, after production, we found we cannot support 32GB of RAM with the 4x8GB configuration. The company Intelligent Memory was brought to our attention (www.intelligentmemory.com), as they supply 16GB sticks, but we discovered those sticks only work with 5th Gen Intel CPUs. We then decided to look more closely at 5th Gen CPUs, which have 2 cores and a longer battery life. Our next step was to look into using two RAM slots at 16GB each to equal the 32GB RAM physical maximum. This was not possible, because Intel’s 5th Gen CPUs have a physical memory maximum of 16GB. See 32GB Is Back! post. Intel appears to use a stated limit of 16GB. PC World and others informed us that their 5th Gen CPUs support 32GB. Thus, we’ll tentatively continue offering this configuration, pending our own testing.

In conclusion, we opted for the i7-5557U 5th Gen, with 28W for longer battery life, and had to drop to 16GB physical CPU memory maximum for Librem 15 rev2.

MEMORY

As described above, with the hard limit in our case, the CPU physical memory maximum for the Librem 15 rev2 is 16GB 32GB of RAM. (Note: Refunding the difference for those that ordered > 16GB will be occurring within the next three weeks).

2ND DRIVE BAY

• Librem 15 rev1 will ship with a CD/DVD ROM only for the 2nd drive bay.
• Librem 15 rev2 will ship with a battery or 2nd drive only (no optical drives) for the 2nd drive bay. (Note: If his effects your order, we will be in contact individually to adjust your configuration and associated costs/refunds).

HARDWARE KILL SWITCHES

The hardware kill switch is an exciting feature. We know we can physically cut the circuits, however, the issue is where to put the kill switches to have them externally accessible and not get accidentally tripped, while also providing visual feedback as to the on/off status (either through a toggle/color, or through a hardware LED).

Modifying the case for this feature has presented a challenge. We are not able to place a large enough order to warrant case tooling modifications. So we then decided to look at modifying existing keyboard keys to accomplish our hardware kill switch goals. For example, we researched moving PRTSCR/SysRq and Pause/Break into Fn keystrokes, and using those keys as the hardware kill switches, but we were faced with loss of visible on/off status.

This brought us back to case modifications, adding an LED light when those keys are toggled.

We find ourselves at the original idea of case modification, employing physical circuit cutting hardware kill switches. We will keep working to solve this issue and will update you on our progress.

TOUCHPAD DRIVER

The touchpad driver, upon testing, works as a PS/2 Mouse. While the touchpad driver has proper movement and scrolling, the driver doesn’t currently support true multitouch functionality. We also are continuing to investigate a tap-to-click usability issue, and are working to track down the protocol specifications to improve the kernel driver, allowing us to use the hardware with the multitouch function.

PureOS (Trisquel Based Purism Operating System)

PureOS is humming along nicely. We expect to have a release within the next month. The OS will improve default security and privacy protocols, as well as improve the usability of the UI.

The entire Purism team thanks you for your input and our initial collaboration on this exciting project.

It’s a privilege to be able to work on something like this, and work so closely with people who can have an impact on privacy and security in computing. Our innovations, our efforts, would not be possible without you.

April 28, 2015

The post Production and Shipping Update appeared first on Purism.

April 29, 2015

The post 32GB is Back! appeared first on Purism.