Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tor Project Board Member is CEO of Company Selling Capability for Attribution

blog.torproject.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 41 posts

Re: Tor Project Board Member is CEO of Company Selling Capability for Attribution

#11

Post by sirsinsalot »

ravenstine wrote: post #9

If you are using Tor, seriously ask yourself if it's a good idea to install software that was developed by DARPA and has never solved the exit node problem.

This is such an odd comment. ARPANET and by extension DARPA are embedded in the origin story of the Internet and I'm sure DARPA will continue to fund fringe technologies that emerge to change the way we communicate into the future.

It isn't, in and of itself a reason for suspicion on the level implied, nor would I argue above and beyond baseline healthy suspicion in anything.

Re: Tor Project Board Member is CEO of Company Selling Capability for Attribution

#12

Post by ziddoap »

Dinky_Karrot wrote: post #10
Karrot_Kream wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hard disagree. The measured tone in TFA is how adults debate issues. Invoking phrases like "child-abusing relative" and "kid alone in a darkened room in a state of undress" is the kind of hyperbole that sites like Twitter and HN love to employ that reduce the quality of conversations and how threads turn into shouting matches. Ask yourself how the hyperbole you engage in leads to "curious conversation", how you're "a…

Why are you attacking the commenter's character and chose not to respond to a single concern they brought up? They've asked some good questions and AFAICT they're legitimately concerned and only acting in good faith. Your claim that they've violated HN guidelines is misplaced, at best. Who's side are you on? Are you defending the guy with conflicting interests who is on the board and simultaneously selling a tor remo…

>Who's side are you on? Are you defending the guy with conflicting interests who is on the board and simultaneously selling a tor removal kit?

From my reading, they didn't claim to take either side nor comment on the article in question, but made a meta-comment. Which is okay to do.

Re: Tor Project Board Member is CEO of Company Selling Capability for Attribution

#13

Post by zensavona »

thrown_22 wrote: post #5
metadat wrote: post #2

While I can appreciate the measured tone in TFA, at some point you've got to take a step back and ask what the hell is going on. This instance reeks of an egregious conflict of interest and this response is negligent on behalf of the board . The current TOR Board scenario is akin to having a known child-abusing relative babysit your own kid, catching them inexplicably sitting with the kid alone in a darkened room in…

Tor was taken over by the CIA a while ago when they purged the old hacker board for "inappropriate behavior towards women": https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/oct/11/jacob-app... You know, the same thing they did to Assange. I wonder how that's going. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/06/28/assa-j28.html >Key witness against Assange admits to lying in exchange for US immunity Oh yeah. But hey, we might h…

No post body was provided.

Re: Tor Project Board Member is CEO of Company Selling Capability for Attribution

#14

Post by aliqot »

ziddoap wrote: post #12
Dinky_Karrot wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you attacking the commenter's character and chose not to respond to a single concern they brought up? They've asked some good questions and AFAICT they're legitimately concerned and only acting in good faith. Your claim that they've violated HN guidelines is misplaced, at best. Who's side are you on? Are you defending the guy with conflicting interests who is on the board and simultaneously selling a tor remo…

> Who's side are you on? Are you defending the guy with conflicting interests who is on the board and simultaneously selling a tor removal kit? From my reading, they didn't claim to take either side nor comment on the article in question, but made a meta-comment. Which is okay to do.

Yeah but it sucks for the rest of us who were hoping for informed adult convo but instead must witness this.

Re: Tor Project Board Member is CEO of Company Selling Capability for Attribution

#15

Post by wolfendin »

ravenstine wrote: post #9

If you are using Tor, seriously ask yourself if it's a good idea to install software that was developed by DARPA and has never solved the exit node problem.

These two things are also properties of the Internet itself are they not?

Re: Tor Project Board Member is CEO of Company Selling Capability for Attribution

#16

Post by ziddoap »

aliqot wrote: post #14
ziddoap wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Who's side are you on? Are you defending the guy with conflicting interests who is on the board and simultaneously selling a tor removal kit? From my reading, they didn't claim to take either side nor comment on the article in question, but made a meta-comment. Which is okay to do.

Yeah but it sucks for the rest of us who were hoping for informed adult convo but instead must witness this.

I have yet to read a single HN thread which does not involve some sort of meta-commenting or tangential conversation, exactly like what is happening in this thread.

Re: Tor Project Board Member is CEO of Company Selling Capability for Attribution

#18

Post by csande17 »

Team Cymru (the company the article is about) has a response to the coverage: https://www.team-cymru.com/post/team-cymru-myth-vs-fact

In short, they claim that:

- The "PCAP" data, email addresses, etc that they sell comes from them running malware samples on their own infrastructure. It's not based on captured Internet data.

- The web page addresses etc that they sell are the results of automated vulnerability scans and honeypots, not captured Internet data.

- The netflow data they sell is captured from real ISP traffic, but it is a small sample (only 1 in 10,000 netflows is captured), and it can't identify individual websites if they use a CDN or shared hosting infrastructure (which most websites do).

I have no clue how true these claims are, but those are the claims.

Re: Tor Project Board Member is CEO of Company Selling Capability for Attribution

#19

Post by prego_xo »

ravenstine wrote: post #9

If you are using Tor, seriously ask yourself if it's a good idea to install software that was developed by DARPA and has never solved the exit node problem.

I have really bad news: the internet was formulated by the government.

But seriously, the exit node issue is a real sore thumb.

Re: Tor Project Board Member is CEO of Company Selling Capability for Attribution

#20

Post by jacooper »

> But of course, not actively endangering our users is a low bar. It is reasonable to raise questions about the inherent disconnection between the business model of Team Cymru and the mission of Tor which consists of private and anonymous internet access for all. Rob Thomas's reasons for choosing to resign from the board are his own, but it has become more clear over the months since our initial conversation how Team Cymru's work is at odds with the Tor Project's mission

Looks like he was going to get fired anyway.

Post reply on HN