Operational Security Bible

01. The Zero-Trust Mindset

Security on the darknet is not a product you buy; it is a process you practice. When you access Torzon Market, you are entering an adversarial environment. Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs), intelligence organizations, and malicious black-hat hackers are constantly scanning for weak links. The weakest link in any cryptographic system is almost always the human behind the keyboard.

The concept of "Zero Trust" means you must assume that every device, every network, and every person is compromised until proven otherwise. Do not trust the Torzon URL you found on a clear-net forum like Reddit. Do not trust a vendor just because they have 5 stars. Do not trust your ISP.

You must strictly compartmentalize your identity. Your "Darknet Persona" should have no link to your "Real Life Persona." This means different usernames, different passwords, different writing styles, and completely isolated hardware. If you use the handle "DarkBuyer99" on Torzon, do not use that same handle on GitHub or Steam.

02. Tails OS & Hardware Environment

Using Windows 10/11 or macOS to browse the Torzon darknet is effectively suicide. These operating systems are designed to gather data. They constantly phone home, sending telemetry data to Microsoft and Apple. They cache thumbnails of your images, store logs of every USB device ever connected, and maintain swap files (virtual memory) that write RAM data to the hard drive—data that can be forensically analyzed years later.

Why Tails OS is Mandatory

The Amnesic Incognito Live System (Tails) is a specialized Linux distribution based on Debian. It forces all outgoing connections through the Tor network and blocks any non-anonymous connections. Most importantly, it runs entirely in RAM (Random Access Memory).

When you shut down Tails or physically pull the USB stick from the computer, the RAM acts as volatile memory and is instantly wiped. No logs, no history, no evidence remains on the hardware. Even if your laptop is seized 5 minutes later, there is no proof you were on Torzon official.

Configuring Persistent Storage

While Tails is amnesic, you need to save your PGP keys, market passwords, and bookmarks. This is done via "Persistent Storage." This is an encrypted partition on the USB stick protected by a strong passphrase.

When configuring Persistence, enable only what you strictly need:
GnuPG (PGP), Network Connections, Tor Browser Bookmarks, and Bitcoin/Monero Client. Do not enable "Dotfiles" or "Printers" unless you are an advanced user, as this can increase your attack surface.

03. Mobile Risks & The VPN Myth

Why You Must Never Use a Smartphone

We often see users attempting to access Torzon links via mobile browsers on Android or iOS. This is a critical security failure. Smartphones are, by design, tracking devices.

The Mobile Risks:

• Baseband Processors: Every phone has a secondary proprietary chip that communicates with cell towers. This chip has "root" access to your device and can be remotely queried by service providers or authorities, regardless of your privacy settings.
• Keyboard Logging: Standard keyboards (Gboard, SwiftKey, iOS Keyboard) learn your typing patterns and send "predictive text" data to the cloud. Typing your Torzon login password on a touchscreen leaves a permanent digital footprint.
• App Telemetry: Background apps can scan your clipboard. If you copy a Monero address or a PGP key, a malicious app could intercept it.

The "VPN with Tor" Myth

A common newbie mistake is thinking "If I use a VPN and Tor, I am double safe." In reality, this often hurts your anonymity on the Torzon darknet.

When you use a VPN, you are shifting trust from your ISP to the VPN provider. Most commercial VPNs keep logs (despite what they claim in marketing) and will hand them over with a single subpoena. Furthermore, using a VPN creates a permanent money trail (your credit card payment for the VPN subscription) linking you to the specific timeframes of your traffic.

If you use Tor over VPN, the VPN knows your real IP and knows you are connecting to Tor. If the VPN is compromised, timing analysis becomes trivial. The Tor network is designed to be secure on its own. Trust the math, not a VPN company's marketing department.

04. Browser Fingerprinting & JavaScript

Even if you hide your IP address with Tor, you can be tracked via "Browser Fingerprinting." This is a technique where websites collect data about your screen resolution, installed fonts, battery level, and hardware concurrency to create a unique ID for you.

The JavaScript Threat

JavaScript is the primary vector for de-anonymization attacks. In the past, exploits in the Firefox JS engine allowed law enforcement to inject code that bypassed Tor and pinged a server with the user's real IP address.

Torzon Market Rules for Anti-Fingerprinting:

1. Disable JS: Ideally, set your Tor Browser Security Level to "Safest." This completely disables JavaScript. The Torzon official site is built to function 100% without JS.
2. Window Size: Never maximize your Tor Browser window. Tails keeps the window at a standardized size (e.g., 1000x1000) to make all users look the same. If you maximize it to full screen (1920x1080), you become unique among the pool of Tor users (unusual resolution).
3. Canvas Extraction: Be wary of sites asking for "Canvas" permissions. This is a method to read how your graphics card renders 2D images, which acts as a unique hardware signature.

05. PGP Encryption Mastery

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) is the backbone of darknet commerce. Without it, you cannot safely communicate with vendors, you cannot log in via 2FA, and you cannot verify the Torzon official mirror. We use PGP because it is mathematically unbreakable if implemented correctly.

Public vs. Private Keys: The Concept

Many users confuse the two keys, leading to locked accounts or leaked data.

• Public Key: This is what you share with the world. You paste this into your Torzon profile. Vendors use this to encrypt messages to you. Think of it as an open padlock. Anyone can snap it shut, but only you can open it.
• Private Key: This is stored on your Tails USB stick. NEVER share this. It is used to decrypt messages sent to you. If you lose this, you can never read your 2FA login messages again.

Generating a Key (Kleopatra)

Tails comes with Kleopatra pre-installed. Follow this workflow:

# Conceptual Workflow in Kleopatra UI
1. File -> New Key Pair
2. Choose "Create a personal OpenPGP key pair"
3. Name: [Your Darknet Pseudonym]
4. Email: [LEAVE BLANK or use fake@fake.com]
5. Advanced Settings -> Key Material: RSA 4096-bit (Critical!)
6. Create -> Set a strong passphrase (20+ chars).
                    

Understanding 2FA Logic

Why is PGP 2FA mandatory for vendors and recommended for buyers? Because passwords can be Phished or Brute-forced.

When you attempt a Torzon login with 2FA enabled, the server generates a random "Challenge String" (e.g., "7f9a2b"). It encrypts this string using your Public Key. The server does not know the string anymore—only the encrypted blob exists.

You copy that blob, decrypt it with your Private Key, see "7f9a2b", and type it back to the server. This proves mathematically that you possess the Private Key associated with the account, without ever revealing the key itself. It is the only proof of identity that matters in the darknet.

Encrypting Your Address

Never check the "Encrypt on Server" box. Always encrypt manually.

-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
# This is how your address should look when sending to a vendor

hQEMA3gJ9... (Encrypted Data) ...
...
=y/3a
-----END PGP MESSAGE-----
                    

06. Financial Privacy (Monero/XMR)

Bitcoin is transparent. Every transaction is permanently recorded on a public ledger. Analytical firms like Chainalysis use heuristics to track coins from Coinbase directly to darknet markets. Using Bitcoin on Torzon is a critical OpSec failure.

Why Monero?

Monero (XMR) uses Ring Signatures (to hide the sender), Stealth Addresses (to hide the receiver), and RingCT (to hide the amount). It is currently untraceable by law enforcement.

The "Clean" Wallet Workflow

Do not send XMR directly from an exchange (like Kraken or Binance) to the market. While XMR is private, the exchange knows you withdrew XMR. If the market is seized, correlation attacks are theoretically possible if timelines match.

Ideally, create an intermediate hop. Send from Exchange to your personal standard wallet. Wait 2 hours. Then send to your personal sub-address. Then send to the market. This process is called "Churning" and creates plausible deniability.

07. Anti-Phishing Tactics

Phishing is the #1 way accounts are hacked. Phishers create sites that look exactly like the Torzon official site but operate on a slightly different onion address.

Red Flags

• Links from Reddit/Telegram: 99% of links posted on social media are phishing.
• "Captcha is broken": Phishing sites often disable Captchas to lower friction.
• Enable JavaScript: The real Torzon market works perfectly without JavaScript. If a site asks you to enable JS, it is malicious.

Defense: Store your verified Torzon links in your Tails Persistent KeepassXC database. Never type them manually. Never verify them via Google. Use the `/mirrors.txt` file signed by the admin key.

08. Physical Delivery (The Drop)

Digital security is useless if you fail at physical security. Receiving a package (a "drop") is the most dangerous part of the process.

Real Name vs. Fake Name

ALWAYS USE YOUR REAL NAME. This is counter-intuitive, but essential. Postal carriers know who lives at an address. If a package arrives for "John Doe" at a house where "Alice Smith" lives, the mailman may flag it as suspicious or "Return to Sender."

If you use your real name, you have Plausible Deniability. Anyone can send you a package. If the police show up (Controlled Delivery), you can simply say: "I didn't order this. I don't know what it is." If you used a fake name, you cannot argue that it was a mistake; it proves intent.

Cleaning Metadata

If you need to upload a photo for a dispute (e.g., damaged goods), you must scrub the EXIF data. Phones embed GPS coordinates in every JPG. Use the `MAT2` tool in Tails to clean images before uploading.

user@amnesia:~$ mat2 image.jpg
# Output: image.cleaned.jpg