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Is Tor still safe to use?

blog.torproject.org

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Re: Is Tor still safe to use?

#411

Post by taneq »

alasdair_ wrote: post #35

Here is what I don't understand: Let's say I as a private individual fund 1000 tor nodes (guard and exit nodes included) and have them all log everything. This could cost less than $5000 for a month, with some time needed to get guard node status. I want to find a certain kind of person so I look for people that access a specific hidden service or clearnet url. Surely eventually I'm going to get a hit where all three…

If you thought of this in 10 minutes (or 6 months, or...) as one smart individual, I'd assume any government of any country you've heard of has been doing this for a while.

Re: Is Tor still safe to use?

#412

Post by toby- »

tomcam wrote: post #200

Sincere question. This was created with US government funding. Is there any reason to believe it is safe?

So was the Internet at DARPA (or its modern foundation). And the WWW at CERN.

Tor's development team aren't on the payroll of the US gov't, and their funding comes from many sources.

If having received funding from a government agency is enough to earn your distrust, you'd quickly become a paranoid schizophrenic.

Re: Is Tor still safe to use?

#413

Post by INTPenis »

arktos_ wrote: post #309
voldacar wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started a tor relay on a spare vps about a month ago and it got guard status around 2-3 weeks in, so that info seems to be out of date.

Pardon my ignorance, but I thought it fruitful to ask: Are there any issues that can arise by doing this on a VPS? I ask because I know of stories of law enforcement sending inquiries to owners of, say, exit nodes requiring certain information about given traffic. I don't know if this happens for middle-nodes (or whatever they're called). Moreover, are there any issues with associating a node to, you know, your name…

I ran tor exit nodes on Linode and Digitalocean for years. No real issues, but you will get regular abuse complaints.

The support teams always understood once I explained it was a tor exit node. I co-operated with the Cloud provider and added any IP-address that requested it to my list of exempt addresses.

Re: Is Tor still safe to use?

#414

Post by runamuck »

cookiengineer wrote: post #379
alasdair_ wrote: post #35

Here is what I don't understand: Let's say I as a private individual fund 1000 tor nodes (guard and exit nodes included) and have them all log everything. This could cost less than $5000 for a month, with some time needed to get guard node status. I want to find a certain kind of person so I look for people that access a specific hidden service or clearnet url. Surely eventually I'm going to get a hit where all three…

The issue that TOR has is that it's a layered routing concept that won't respect ASN based spreading/scattering of traffic. Circuits are temporary but the traffic is not scattered across the network to make MITM fingerprinting of request/payload sizes/timestamps impossible. A typical MITM like the FBI surveillance van next door can identify you by observing the network packets and by _when_ they were requested and by…

Would an Ethernet cable plugged into your ISP router defend against the above mentioned surveillance (i.e., no WiFi snooping)? Or did the FBI PCAP at the ISP?

Re: Is Tor still safe to use?

#416

Post by toby- »

argentier wrote: post #394
vixen99 wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How am I any further forward reading that?

you have the truth - it was cooked up by US Naval Intelligence - why would you think it was safe?

Wait until you learn about the creation of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Better disconnect.

Re: Is Tor still safe to use?

#417

Post by headsupernova »

keepamovin wrote: post #384
throwaway37821 wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

75% [0] of all Tor nodes are hosted within 14 Eyes [1] countries, so it would actually be quite trivial for the NSA to de-anonymize a Tor user. It baffles me that Tor Browser doesn't provide an easy way to blacklist relays in those countries. [0] Here, you can do the math yourself: https://metrics.torproject.org/rs.html#aggregate/all [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes#Fourteen_Eyes > Edit: For all the cynics…

The original purpose of TOR was to provide agents and handlers with a means of secure communication, allowing them to organize subversive or espionage activities. It was created by the Department of Defense to propagate their interests and spread democracy around the world using these secure capabilities. Given this context, it's not unreasonable to assume that TOR is still being used in a similar manner today. Becau…

Ah yes, 'spread democracy around the world'

Re: Is Tor still safe to use?

#419

Post by Xelbair »

keepamovin wrote: post #384
throwaway37821 wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

75% [0] of all Tor nodes are hosted within 14 Eyes [1] countries, so it would actually be quite trivial for the NSA to de-anonymize a Tor user. It baffles me that Tor Browser doesn't provide an easy way to blacklist relays in those countries. [0] Here, you can do the math yourself: https://metrics.torproject.org/rs.html#aggregate/all [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes#Fourteen_Eyes > Edit: For all the cynics…

The original purpose of TOR was to provide agents and handlers with a means of secure communication, allowing them to organize subversive or espionage activities. It was created by the Department of Defense to propagate their interests and spread democracy around the world using these secure capabilities. Given this context, it's not unreasonable to assume that TOR is still being used in a similar manner today. Becau…

>spread democracy

i have to say that i love that phrase, it is peak propaganda that just works.

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