Russia offers $110,000 to crack Tor anonymous network
1–10 of 87 posts
Re: Russia offers $110,000 to crack Tor anonymous network
#2As Schneier says:
"The reward of $114,000 seems pretty cheap for this capability. And we now get to debate whether 1) Russia cannot currently deaonymize Tor users, or 2) Russia can, and this is a ruse to make us think they can't."
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/07/russia_paying...
Re: Russia offers $110,000 to crack Tor anonymous network
#3I wonder if this would backfire and make Tor even stronger, as now even more attention is given to Tor's robustness.
Re: Russia offers $110,000 to crack Tor anonymous network
#4As Schneier says: "The reward of $114,000 seems pretty cheap for this capability. And we now get to debate whether 1) Russia cannot currently deaonymize Tor users, or 2) Russia can, and this is a ruse to make us think they can't." https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/07/russia_paying...
That's because they're asking if someone's done it and wants some cash. If you had, monetizing the knowledge isn't exactly easy. No intelligence agency will bother paying for it.
Re: Russia offers $110,000 to crack Tor anonymous network
#5"Applicants must pay 195,000 roubles to enter the competition"
This seems rather bizarre... ~$5500 cannot simply be a symbolic sum to deter idiots.
Re: Russia offers $110,000 to crack Tor anonymous network
#6How on Earth is $110,000 a reasonable value for this level of vulnerability? (And with a multi-thousand dollar up front cost to boot.) I'm not remotely an expert on security, much less nefarious black-market hacks, but I would think that a whole lot of nations around the world would be willing to pay millions (each!) for this capability. Heck, if not for this, I would have included Russia on that list.
Re: Russia offers $110,000 to crack Tor anonymous network
#7As Schneier says: "The reward of $114,000 seems pretty cheap for this capability. And we now get to debate whether 1) Russia cannot currently deaonymize Tor users, or 2) Russia can, and this is a ruse to make us think they can't." https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/07/russia_paying...
Assuming Russia can deanonymize Tor users, isn't this a way of finding out "who else out there can denonymize Tor users", and later question these people very gently "what else can you do?"
I wouldn't disclose something like this to the big boys , as it would reveal far too much about my own capabilities and/or connections.
Re: Russia offers $110,000 to crack Tor anonymous network
#8"Applicants must pay 195,000 roubles to enter the competition" This seems rather bizarre... ~$5500 cannot simply be a symbolic sum to deter idiots.
IMO Russians intend to make their venture profitable.
Re: Russia offers $110,000 to crack Tor anonymous network
#9I wonder if this would backfire and make Tor even stronger, as now even more attention is given to Tor's robustness.
maybe that is their goal. Perhaps they want to (or already are) use(ing) tor to hide their own activities from the NSA. They want to make sure what they are doing is truly as secure as it claims to be and if not motivate devs to make it so. After all, it seems it would be cheaper to offer this small reward than to have to pay full time employees to help keep their activities secure from prying eyes.
Re: Russia offers $110,000 to crack Tor anonymous network
#10I'd be really surprised if Russia were actually not able to do this already, they're known for having a very strong national community of security experts and overall excellent mathematicians.