Today's full Tor coverage by the Guardian is:
(Greenwald's article) http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/04/nsa-gchq-attack...
(Schneier's article) http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/04/tor-attacks-nsa...
(Leaked doc #1) http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/oct/04/tor...
(Leaked doc #2)http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/oct/04/ego...
(Leaked doc #3) http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/oct/04/tor...
'Tor Stinks' presentation – read the full document
21–30 of 115 posts
Re: 'Tor Stinks' presentation – read the full document
#22Most fascinating part - using DoubleClick ad cookies to trace Tor users.
Re: 'Tor Stinks' presentation – read the full document
#23Depressingly, the document talks about plans to make Tor less reliable to dissuade people from using it: > Could we set up a lot of really slow Tor nodes ... to degrade the quality of the network? > Given CNE access to a web server make it painful for Tor users? At least the document seems to confirm that GCHQ has a really, really hard time de-anonymising Tor users.
I'm pretty sure Tor does smart peer profiling/selection to optimize for throughput. Lots of people run Tor relays on their silly little home DSLs and Tor still works.
Re: 'Tor Stinks' presentation – read the full document
#24This should provide clear warning to anyone who might consider themselves a cypherpunk: Even if you don't think that you are at war with the US government, the US government (and likely most other governments) believes it is at war with you.
It sounds dramatic because it is.
Re: 'Tor Stinks' presentation – read the full document
#25They actually saw it as their job to make the experience of anyone using Tor difficult. Isn't that kind of like the police deciding to make the roads full of potholes because that would make it more difficult for bank robbers to get away in a car. Then again, considering the quality of the roads these days, maybe they are way ahead of me on that.
Police have to use the same roads. The presentation leads me to believe that they do not want to scare people away from Tor, so they can track at least some users, but probably/obviously have their own network/servers for anonymous connection that will not be impacted.
Otherwise yes, it seems stupid to make Tor unusable as a whole.
Re: 'Tor Stinks' presentation – read the full document
#26Of course, if they actually have a really easy time de-anonymizing users, they might "leak" a document like this to encourage people to keep using it. Conspiracy theories are fun!
This is probably part of the Snowden files, so it was unlikely to be an intentional leak.
Re: 'Tor Stinks' presentation – read the full document
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a powerpoint, doubtless put together by a middle-manager who thought some clipart would spice things up. Internal presentations at pretty much every company I've worked for have been just as tacky.
[deleted]
What stuff? Realistically illustrating terrorists in Powerpoint? Nobody is paying for MS Office prowess, and frankly at this point laughing at the NSA strikes me as hubristic at best.
Re: 'Tor Stinks' presentation – read the full document
#28Page 5: "Terrorist with Tor client installed" And its a picture of a guy with a bandit mask and an AK-47. I don't know about you guys, but all my Tor activities are performed in my Halloween costume! I honestly can't believe something this tacky would end up in a presentation. Is this supposed to be propaganda?
"Terrorist" -- as everyone knew it would become -- is now shorthand for anyone undesirable or anyone targeted for any reason.
Or for the Navy, since they invented Tor. This whole thing is wacko.
Re: 'Tor Stinks' presentation – read the full document
#29Page 5: "Terrorist with Tor client installed" And its a picture of a guy with a bandit mask and an AK-47. I don't know about you guys, but all my Tor activities are performed in my Halloween costume! I honestly can't believe something this tacky would end up in a presentation. Is this supposed to be propaganda?
"Terrorist" -- as everyone knew it would become -- is now shorthand for anyone undesirable or anyone targeted for any reason.
It's the new red scare, the new Soviet.
We American's require a boogeyman.
In all fairness, most countries do. Watching South American leaders lately shows the exact same behavior. Find a foreign devil for everyone to rally against to hide domestic issues.
Re: 'Tor Stinks' presentation – read the full document
#30Depressingly, the document talks about plans to make Tor less reliable to dissuade people from using it: > Could we set up a lot of really slow Tor nodes ... to degrade the quality of the network? > Given CNE access to a web server make it painful for Tor users? At least the document seems to confirm that GCHQ has a really, really hard time de-anonymising Tor users.
But then the last slide has this:
> Critical mass of targets use Tor. Scaring them away from Tor might be counterproductive.