Tails is a privacy and strongly security-focused Linux distribution designed to be run on a live USB drive, allowing users to boot the operating system on any computer while leaving no trace of their activity on the host computer.
The distro’s highlight is that it routes all internet traffic through the Tor network, providing high anonymity. Furthermore, the distro includes a wide range of privacy and security tools such as a PGP email client, Electrum Bitcoin wallet, VeraCrypt disk encryption, etc.
Today, the Tails Project announced the general availability of Tails 5.14 with yet another dose of security features. So, let’s have a look at them.
Tails 5.14 Highlights
The Tor network lies at the heart of the Tails, and the Tor browser is its significant component. So, in Tails 5.14, the browser has received an update to v12.0.7, based on Mozilla Firefox 102.12.0esr.
But the most essential aspect of this release is the Persistent Storage. In this light, to leverage stronger encryption parameters, Tails 5.14 can automatically switch your Persistent Storage to use LUKS2 encryption with Argon2id – one of the most secure passwords hashing solutions.
On top of that, users can now back up their Persistent Storage using Tails Installer by cloning the Persistent Storage to their backup Tails. We can also mention that the button to create Persistent Storage from the Welcome Screen has been changed to a toggle switch type.
Finally, many users use Tails to secure their Bitcoin wallet. Considering this, in Tails 5.14, the developers have added the possibility for donations to the Tails Project straight through Electrum – an encrypted wallet that allows users to password-protect their Bitcoin.
You can refer to the announcement for detailed information about all changes in Tails 5.14. In addition, you can download the latest Tails release from the official website.
