When it comes to hiding our IP number, there are many options. Proxy servers, VPN connections, and networks like Tor usually do a good job, but none of them are perfect. In an era where everyone spies on everyone else, the only alternative for the user is to defend themselves, and thus ProxyHam emerges, a hardware project that seeks to establish a prudential physical distance between the user and the IP number assigned to their connection.
Hiding the IP number is not entirely complicated. Actually, that is only the first link in a long chain that the user must follow if they want to defend their anonymity on the network of networks. A free proxy server might be enough to change the IP number, but not to protect you. The Tor network works quite well as long as the user has conduct about the places and services they connect to. And the same can be said about VPN access, which carries an added cost. Also, the fact that a session is protected does not mean that condition extends to the rest of the system. Windows, web browsers, security applications, and many other resources perform periodic checks to get updates, and someone sufficiently skilled could use that against us. So… how can we protect ourselves?
Ben Caudill is the person behind ProxyHam, a project that will be presented at the next edition of the DefCon conference to be held in Las Vegas. The official definition for ProxyHam is that of a hardware-based proxy that adds an extra protection barrier for the user, establishing a considerable distance between their location and that of the IP number, which can extend up to four kilometers, depending on the equipment. The base establishes an Internet link with a 900 MHz connection, so it can be installed at any access point. If someone decides to track the user, the most likely thing is that they find a strange box located near a Starbucks or other similar place, while the user stays safe a couple of kilometers away.
ProxyHam has been designed from a Raspberry Pi, and according to Caudill, the final cost should not exceed 200 dollars. It is necessary to recognize that the prototype has a significant size, which will undoubtedly make the process of hiding it much more difficult, but there is ample margin for its miniaturization. The ProxyHam theory is interesting, and if combined with other protections (a VPN, for example), the user will be almost impossible to find. Almost.
