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Attacking Tor: How the NSA targets users' online anonymity

theguardian.com

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Re: Attacking Tor: How the NSA targets users' online anonymity

#4

Post by kevinh »

mcphilip wrote: post #3

edit: removing meta discussion about flagging. the story should get the attention. apologies for the distraction.

There's another article from the Guardian on the NSA regarding Tor in the #6 slot on HN. This is in the #3 position.

I think you're overestimating the impact.

Edit: This article is now in the #1 position. Flagging isn't hurting these articles any.

Re: Attacking Tor: How the NSA targets users' online anonymity

#7

Post by tptacek »

Metacommentary:

I've taken a jaundiced view of "liberation tech" efforts in the past and this is as good an illustration as any of why. Among "amateur" libtech projects, Tor is about as good as you get --- an active community, extremely widespread use, technical people with their heads screwed on right and as much humility as you can reasonably expect of people whose projects are (candidly) intended to thwart world governments.

If Tor can't provide meaningful assurances (here, there's a subtext that Tor actually made NSA's job easier), you'd need an awfully convincing reason for how you're going to do better than they are before "liberating" the Chinese internet, especially given that it your users who assume the real risks.

Re: Attacking Tor: How the NSA targets users' online anonymity

#8

Post by twoodfin »

tptacek wrote: post #7

Metacommentary: I've taken a jaundiced view of "liberation tech" efforts in the past and this is as good an illustration as any of why. Among "amateur" libtech projects, Tor is about as good as you get --- an active community, extremely widespread use, technical people with their heads screwed on right and as much humility as you can reasonably expect of people whose projects are (candidly) intended to thwart world g…

here, there's a subtext that Tor actually made NSA's job easier

Are you reading anything from that subtext beyond, "Tor has a high concentration of the kind of users we're interested in, so let's keep it a juicy target rather than squeezing too hard?"

Re: Attacking Tor: How the NSA targets users' online anonymity

#9

Post by mcphilip »

tptacek wrote: post #5
mcphilip wrote: post #3

edit: removing meta discussion about flagging. the story should get the attention. apologies for the distraction.

I don't think this is being flagged. I flag soap opera NSA stuff for instance, but wouldn't flag this.

It was at mid second page with 10 up votes after 35 minutes when I made this post originally.

Re: Attacking Tor: How the NSA targets users' online anonymity

#10

Post by option_greek »

tptacek wrote: post #7

Metacommentary: I've taken a jaundiced view of "liberation tech" efforts in the past and this is as good an illustration as any of why. Among "amateur" libtech projects, Tor is about as good as you get --- an active community, extremely widespread use, technical people with their heads screwed on right and as much humility as you can reasonably expect of people whose projects are (candidly) intended to thwart world g…

What chance does a ragtag team of people from various backgrounds working part time on a open source project have against a determined enemy with billions in funding and hordes of PHDs working full time with single goal of violating privacy of netizens.
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