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Belarus finally bans Tor

ooni.torproject.org

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Re: Belarus finally bans Tor

#91

Post by yuliyp »

avodonosov wrote: post #83
clort wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am neither from Belarus nor Russia and don't know what to think here. If either of you can provide some references to back up your positions that would be great, thanks.

My position is equal to yours: unless there are facts, it's a fantasy (modestly saying). Moreover, in this particular case there are facts which don't fit into the idea that Russia first experiments in Belarus. For example Russia has a regulation that personal info of user should be stored inside the country (LinkeIn was banned recently for not obeying this regulation). There is no such regulation in Belarus. If Russ…

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120103/07193917260/no-be... looks likda similar

Re: Belarus finally bans Tor

#92

Post by kbart »

socmag wrote: post #68

Got me thinking about hidden communication techniques using DNS queries or ICMP as the "transport" layer. That would confuse the hell out of everyone :P

Both techniques are known and have effective counter-measurements. While it might work for a while, as soon as such "exotic" solutions get more widespread, it can be banned and filtered too (just few more rules to firewalls/IDs). China is a great example of this mouse&cat game.

Re: Belarus finally bans Tor

#93

Post by JupiterMoon »

kbart wrote: post #90
makomk wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's trivial to use iptables to block all traffic except to the SOCKS proxy port on Tor, or even forcibly redirect it all through Tor directly using the transparent proxying support.

You can do all that on a host PC as well. I still don't see what additional layer of security Raspberry Pi adds here. Or am I missing something?

The idea is that even if the host PC is pwned the Pi will still route the traffic from it via Tor.

Re: Belarus finally bans Tor

#94

Post by wruza »

whybroke wrote: post #71
rblatz wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt it, the US government invented and has been a major sponsor to the tor project. https://pando.com/2014/07/16/tor-spooks/

Historically yes. But I suggest bookmarking this comment and coming back to it in a few years to see how prophetic or absurd it turns out.

https://xkcd.com/628/

Re: Belarus finally bans Tor

#95

Post by chippy »

dang wrote: post #73
beedogs wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a terrible decision that was. Glad it was reversed. It never would've worked.

It did work. The "decision" was to try changing the rules for a short time to see what we could learn by doing so, and we learned a lot. We ended it early because (a) the learning stabilized and (b) there were costs to continuing. It's strange to me that so many people heard "just for a week" as "forever" and are continuing to comment as if those mean the same thing. The internet is weird.

Will you be making a "Tell HN" saying the experiment has ended with your thoughts? Are you okay replying to comments by users who do not know the experiment has ended?

I would be comparing a) data after the first announcement b) data after your comment in an unrelated thread saying the experiement is over c) data after the week is over and d) data after you write the promised lessons learnt post.

Re: Belarus finally bans Tor

#96

Post by chippy »

grzm wrote: post #67
madaxe_again wrote: post #66

We are talking about a political ban, on politics detox week. Why is this thread still here? I see nothing about security or routing technology, just reportage on the actions of a government - politics.

The week-long experiment was terminated early. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13133855

And yet it's almost as if there's been no announcement of this and people still think it's going on. I wonder what the flagging behaviour is?

Re: Belarus finally bans Tor

#97

Post by SomeStupidPoint »

dleslie wrote: post #49
SomeStupidPoint wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is too busy using TOR as a honeypot and offensive weapon to shut down access. TOR actually amplifies the asymmetry betweem the NSA and smaller actors: the NSA by owning the whole network can easily break it, but it prevents smaller players from getting the same access. Of course, the FBI seem to routinely compromise TOR sites they don't like.

Usually via traditional investigative means.

Weren't most of the services they took down because of the CMU deanonymizaton attack?

They also claim Silk Road was classical hacking, but given what we know of parallel construction and their vagueness in describing their locating of the servers, we can't really know what happened there.

Re: Belarus finally bans Tor

#98

Post by clort »

avodonosov wrote: post #83
clort wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am neither from Belarus nor Russia and don't know what to think here. If either of you can provide some references to back up your positions that would be great, thanks.

My position is equal to yours: unless there are facts, it's a fantasy (modestly saying). Moreover, in this particular case there are facts which don't fit into the idea that Russia first experiments in Belarus. For example Russia has a regulation that personal info of user should be stored inside the country (LinkeIn was banned recently for not obeying this regulation). There is no such regulation in Belarus. If Russ…

thanks for the expansion. I would suggest though, that just because they did not try something first this time, would not constitute a proof that they never do, nor even that they often do?

> So, it's nothing more than a conspiracy superstition.

Well, we do know that state sponsored internet trolls exist and have done for some time. They are not always subtle, but that doesn't mean that they are not very successfully subtle also.

I read an interesting article recently (though I can't find it now, sorry), which made an attempt to guess the number of such trolls on a country by country basis. Any comment either enhancing or detracting from a national reputation is suspect now, I fear.

Re: Belarus finally bans Tor

#99

Post by pif »

lucb1e wrote: post #63
tomjakubowski wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny, I was just reading about how non-German residents of Germany use "Kartoffel" (potato) as a perjorative for Germans in Germany. I didn't realize "potato" was such an effective insult it would exist in another country too!

In Dutch we say aardappel (earth apple; means potato) to stupid people, not Germans in particular as far as I knew. It might originate from that, I don't know. Wat een aardappel! "What a dummy!"

> In Dutch we say aardappel (earth apple; means potato) to stupid people

Same in France with "patate". Funny to notice that the more common French expression for "potato" is "pomme de terre" ("apple of earth"), just like in Dutch!

Re: Belarus finally bans Tor

#100

Post by varjag »

willvarfar wrote: post #11
netule wrote: post #10

Is it possible for anyone to share the full text of the post for those of use behind a great firewall? Edit: thanks!

urandom.pcap: Belarus (finally) bans Tor Leonid Evdokimov 2016-12-08 00:00:00 +0000 UTC Country: Belarus Probed ISPs: Beltelecom (AS 6697) Censorship method: TCP injections We have recently heard of network anomalies in Belarus. Tor has been finally blocked in December 2016, although it had been explicitly declared that Tor should be blocked since February 2015. Directly connected users from Belarus An anonymous cyph…

("fried potato" is a reference to cliché Belarusian obsession with potato)
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