Can they see that I am using a Mac?
Hi,
New user to all of this
Using this at work. Can IT tell if this IP is a mac? There are only a couple mac users here?
Thanks In advance
New user to all of this
Using this at work. Can IT tell if this IP is a mac? There are only a couple mac users here?
Thanks In advance
Comments
You can see just how unique a signature your computer leaves here.
JMHO
If the network admin were concerned about it enough (and in my experience it's unlikely) they could identify you with your MAC address (something that in a company network setting would be all but impossible to obfuscate) and go from there.
Many companies have had to impose rules against employees accessing their social media accounts from work because they've found it cuts into worker productivity. How does it get enforced? Typically the IT dept. monitors network access to Facebook, Twitter, etc. and then gives a warning to any employees found violating the rule. A vpn serves as a useful means of bypassing the monitoring. No one can see which sites you're accessing other than the vpn. However if the company prohibits vpn use and you get caught then you've got a problem.
Before continuing on with my suggestions for ways around this (in the following post), its important to take a moment to consider what your companies security and usage policies are. This is not only for your own safety (and job security), but also for the corporate network's safety. Questions you should answer before continuing on include:
If you answered yes to any of these questions, consult the network operator with your concerns or move on. Continuing further may compromise the security of your network, or end your employment, career, or freedom if criminally prosecuted for your actions if something bad happens.
Spoofing your MAC
The first line of defense for anonymizing your network connection is the MAC address. Assuming you are not breaking any ToS for the network and are not participating in illegal activities, you may want to spoof your MAC just for additional peace of mind in situations where you are somewhat concerned with your privacy.
Not too long ago, the city of London had trash bins collecting the MAC addresses of passerbys (http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-23665490), and regardless of their claimed intentions on how that data is or isn't collected or how it is or isn't used, once they've obtained it without your willing consent, that's a privacy invasion I would want to end.
It's important to note also that simply changing your MAC does not stop fingerprinting in other channels such as monitoring connection times, connected resources, DNS requests, logins, etc. It is most often used to either keep privacy or extend allocated free time on public WiFi.
Multiple MACs
Your device will likely have multiple interfaces for connecting to the internet, commonly an ethernet and a wifi adapter. As each internet interfacing device will have its own MAC, you'll need to make sure to change all of them.Instructions for Mac
First, let's generate the MAC. In an open terminal window, typeTo get a list of active interfaces, open a terminal and type
From the list, choose your active Ethernet and/or Wifi adapters you'd like to spoof, then in the terminal use the following command to shut down the network, change them, then turn the network interface back on:
...replacing en0 with the interface name and xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx with a valid-formed MAC address we generated above.
Now confirm the updated MAC status by running
Note: These settings are not persistent so you will lose them after rebooting and need to perform this action. You can make this easier by putting these commands into a script and running the script instead. That script would look like this:
MAC spoofing script
While you could add more lines of code to the script to first grab the current MAC address, modify it, then confirm it actually changed, that may be error prone and give false positives. For something this important, doing it manually and confirming yourself is probably best.
For those who prefer a tool to use, you may want to install macchanger for OS X (https://github.com/acrogenesis/macchanger/).
Instructions for Debian (Linux / Ubuntu)
Debian has a package for this specifically called macchanger. While the above code for Mac OS X will work for Linux in general, macchanger has more functionality and can be called with more confidence and automation.You can install it by opening a terminal window and typing
macchanger has its own settings and options available.
For systemd systems you can use,
Otherwise,
If you wish to do this without installing macchanger or you're on a system that does not have macchanger, you can still use
sudo ifconfig eth0 down sudo ifconfig eth0 hw ether xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx sudo ifconfig eth0 upInstructions for Windows 8 and 10
Use an OS Built to Stop Leaks
Besides just changing your MAC address, when connecting to and using a network, what OS you're using is possible to deduce based on network responses, open ports, and unencrypted data sent from your computer across the network. This can be mitigated by switching to a different OS entirely, such as:
Both of these OSs are designed to increase your security and privacy overall, although they each have their own drawbacks and considerations. If you're interested in reading more about them, follow the links above. If not, ignore this post!
WARNING: Using Tails will make it impossible to use the PIA VPN or any other VPN, although you may continue to use the supplied proxy in certain situations. Tails is designed to entrust your privacy entirely to Tor and the TailsOS. There is no room for VPNs yet in Tails' security recipe.