Tor Usage More Than Doubles In August 186
hypnosec writes that the Tor network has witnessed a massive rise in the number of users connecting to it for the month of August.
"The privacy-enhancing network is known for providing an anonymous browsing experience through the use of a series of encrypted relays, and has had as many as 500k users throughout this year so far. But if we check the latest statistics available through Tor Metrics Portal there has been a whopping 100 percent increase in the number of Tor clients and as many as 1,200,000 users are connecting to the network. The previous peak for the network was in January 2012, when it saw as many as 950,000 users."
So is this because... (Score:5, Interesting)
(a) Awareness of NSA surveillance has caused people to seek out TOR, or
(b) Increased awareness of TOR, thanks to the coverage of NSA surveillance, has caused people to try to evade said surveillance?
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Either way, it's a bunch of people saying "fuck you" to the NSA.
The NSA can eat shit ... and so can the USA and their "spy on the world" bullshit.
You want to understand why the rest of the world is starting to lose patience for America? The NSA and their spying is a pretty good example -- self entitled assholes who think their wishes trump everything else.
The rest of us have no interest in giving up our rights for your benefit. Just because you guys are giving up all of yours doesn't mean we need to, or s
Re:So is this because... (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm a US citizen that's strongly opposed to all of this bullshit. I've lost my own patience for my government.
What should people like me do to show people like you that we're just as fed up as you are, if not more? Protest? Rebel? Sign some pledge? Comment on Slashdot?
What more do you want to see from the people of the United States?
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Just tell your opinion to anyone who asks you, like you have done with this post. Some widespread protest would be nice, but to be fair it doesn't seem to happen in other countries either.
Oh, and by the way, if you go abroad please just ignore those morons who troll Americans in real life and on the Net with Anti-American opinions, trying to drag them into 'political' discussions (or just assuming that every American loves baseball). I know how annoying they can be but they are really just a loud minority a
Re:So is this because... (Score:5, Insightful)
Just tell your opinion to anyone who asks you, like you have done with this post. Some widespread protest would be nice, but to be fair it doesn't seem to happen in other countries either.
This, I do cheerfully. It's pretty easy these days to convince even non techies of the need for privacy. I send them to eff.org as a start then over to torproject.org
(posting anon due to my mod status)
I've been telling my opinion on things such as this for years, and most people have just always looked at me as extremist, paranoid, or unpatriotic when I point out government overstep on constitutional freedoms of its citizens...
Maybe the climate is changing so that people will be more susceptible to opinions, but the truth is that the average person can't be convinced that anything is true unless the talking heads tell them its true too.
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People have been concerned with privacy for decades, but suddenly reddit children got ahold of it this year and now it is suddenly hip to give a fuck... and worse, they think they're the first people to ever discover the concept of privacy and give a shit about it.
Anyway, I say most of us are probably at least halfway toward death. Maybe a lot closer for others of us. Enjoy the ride, read some good books and have a few parties. Let the shitty little snots enjoy the fucked up dystopia they and their parents
Re:So is this because... (Score:4, Interesting)
Protest, yes. Regular protests, everywhere, until something is actually done. I don't understand why a bigger deal wasn't made of the Patriot act. I'm not even that into politics, but that one was very obviously a no-no, fancypants Constitution or not.
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I'm not American, so no..
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It shouldn't be the "protesting class" doing it. It should be everyone. There are always hippies protesting little things here and there, but when it's something as invasive and obviously wrong as the Patriot act, I would have thought the whole country would be up in arms (minus the few people who presumably think that the government should have that kind of power).
Re:So is this because... (Score:5, Insightful)
If the entirety of human history is any indicator, the governed won't see any changes in a situation like this until they're willing to use lethal force against those who govern them.
When enough of the key positions of political and economic power in a society are filled with sociopaths, the only way you can stop them is to kill them. You can't vote a replacement or try to replace them by running for office yourself because they have the power to corrupt the voting process and to filter out those who attempt to run for office who pose any real challenge to their own power. You can't stop them with protests because they have the force the police to crush any serious protests and they have the force of the media to destroy the message of such protests. The only thing that works when corruption gets really, really bad is lethal force by the governed.
So, unless you're willing to take up arms against your fellow man, you'll just have to bend down and take it. We all know this is true, and we all try to dance around this fact because we like to think we're civilized and above the use of violence, but the fact of the matter is that a small portion of the population is extremely selfish and has no compunction against using violence against you. When enough of these sorts of people get into the place where they have most of the money, power, and weapons, they *will* use those things against everyone else in order to retain their position.
Yes, violence sucks. Yes, it's bad. Yes, we should avoid it if at all possible. But there comes a point when that's all you can do, and that's when the sociopaths hold *all* the cards. How far off do we all think that is? There comes a time when violence is necessary because there are evil, selfish people in the world.
To quote one of The Founding Fathers of the USA, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
So, to answer your question of "What more do you want to see from the people of the United States?", here's an answer that will work: gather together a million like-minded, armed citizens and take the White House and Capitol Hill. Depose all the corrupt leaders by killing or imprisoning them and seizing all their assets. It won't be pretty, and you'll probably end up splitting the US into smaller nation-states, and you'll likely have to do it all again in a few generations, but it's the only way to keep the boot of the government from stepping on the face of humanity forever.
But, good luck with all that, because I hear Miley Cyrus is twerking again or something.
Only read the first line, but... (Score:2, Insightful)
If the entirety of human history is any indicator, the governed won't see any changes in a situation like this until they're willing to use lethal force against those who govern them.
Let's take at the history of nonviolent resistance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolent_resistance [wikipedia.org]
:)
In fact, if you look at, it looks as if through the entirety of human history non-violent resistance is really in these days
(In fact, never before in the history of mankind have you as an individual ever been more empowered than now).
Re:Only read the first line, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
If the entirety of human history is any indicator, the governed won't see any changes in a situation like this until they're willing to use lethal force against those who govern them.
Let's take at the history of nonviolent resistance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolent_resistance [wikipedia.org]
In fact, if you look at, it looks as if through the entirety of human history non-violent resistance is really in these days :)
(In fact, never before in the history of mankind have you as an individual ever been more empowered than now).
Tell that to Syrians, Iranians, North Koreans, Yemen etc etc. Hell, tell it to Russian homosexuals
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That wasn't the argument. The argument was "no change has ever happened without lethal force". You're arguing "because non-violent change has sometimes not born fruit, violence always has to be used to bring about change." The actual argument is "non-violent change has been quite successful quite frequently. Here's how. It's cheaper than violence. Try it." Pay attention.
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Many people are fed up with the unconstitutional government programs that violate our rights to online privacy. The question is what we, as good citizens, do to effect change. Those voices which advocate violence bring more harm than good into the discussion IMO. There is simply no need for it, as we have the technical know-how to protect our online privacy using tools like encryption, virtual networks, Tor, and Freenet just to name a few. If there is a need for better tools, we will develop them. That is t
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It is an American, patriotic act of nonviolent civil disobedence.
Awesome... That's the kind of thing we need... and the right way to respond...
Unfortunately this is a tech issue, you need to reach a significant amount of people, do you really think that's realistic?
I mean just getting people to use duckduckgo would take forever, TOR, probably never going to happen.. Encrypted emails, I seriously doubt it...
Re:So is this because... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, violence sucks. Yes, it's bad. Yes, we should avoid it if at all possible. But there comes a point when that's all you can do, and that's when the sociopaths hold *all* the cards. How far off do we all think that is? There comes a time when violence is necessary because there are evil, selfish people in the world.
The only reason that time is not now is that there aren't enough like minded people to join the revolutionary army. If you look at the Declaration of Independence, most of those grievances are trifling next to what we read about in the news every day. The crimes committed by the thugs that call themselves our government more than justify revolution today. All we need are people willing to lay down their lives for freedom. Unfortunately, as you note, more people care about their bread and circuses than they do freedom and justice.
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Good luck with all that, fellas.
How many missiles, jet fighters, tanks, machine guns, infantry, medics, apaches, and nukes do you have for all this "standing up to tyranny" stuff? Don't get me wrong, I understand that the intention of the founding fathers was to provide the means for people to defend themselves - as a people - against the inevitable tyranny of governments . . . but in our modern world with our modern military, it's a little unrealistic even if you had 100% of the citizens involved, don't yo
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I was in the military. I know a lot of other people who were in the military. Just because they follow orders and se
Re: So is this because... (Score:2)
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God damn you're a fucking idiot. There's plenty of change that happened in the last 50 years that didn't involve violence - groundbreaking, fundamental change that tossed out the current power structure in its entirety. The most significant examples are probably South Africa and India. If you can't name the people involved, you have no standing in this discussion.
Furthermore, there are purely logical, sociological and philosophical problems with your approach.
Off the top of my head:
Logical: the entire point
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Rules...how quaint. You sound like my dad's generation. (And well I'm over 40).
I guess you have learned jack squat in all those years. What a waste.
I take your rules and I point a gun at your fucking head. Show me how those rules are gonna stop me from pulling the trigger
They make you consider the consequences. If you're fucking retarded and don't care about consequences, then nothing can stop you. Well, nothing until someone else puts a bullet in you. At a bare minimum, that's all that rules do: show you the consequences of your actions. At an absolute maximum, they regulate behavior. The fact that they're not guaranteed to regulate actions is irrelevant, as that is a completely unrealistic expectation of
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You're more than welcome to join a group of your little buddies and make your own government. Just leave the rest of us the fuck out of it. How hard is that for you to understand?
You don't get to benefit from the structure that a government provides and want to be left out of its regulations. Either participate, or get the fuck out. The entire point of a democracy is that everyone participates in the process. Whining that it isn't what you want is not part of the deal.
Ah yes, the argument from fear again. "Oh noes, big scary anarchy like the 'dark ages', man.'
I'm pretty sure you a) have no clue what actual anarchists (those who actually try to live that life for more than a few weeks) are like and b) haven't read enough history to figure out what anarchists are normally lik
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Egyptians got rid of their dictator and then their elected government without using lethal force against them. Sure, afterwards the military did kill some Islamists, but the protesters themselves never had to kill anyone. The police were unwilling to fight the protesters too much because they basically supported them.
Recent human history suggests that protest, on a large enough scale, is effective and does not require lethal force to work. There has to be a majority behind the protests though.
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Egyptians got rid of their dictator and then their elected government without using lethal force against them. Sure, afterwards the military did kill some Islamists, but the protesters themselves never had to kill anyone. The police were unwilling to fight the protesters too much because they basically supported them.
The price for change remained, it was merely the payment terms that were rescheduled.
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Yes, there is no way we could possibly learn from their mistakes. History always repeats itself.
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A military coup d'état is exactly overthrowing a government using lethal force. Their government was deposed under the imminent threat of overwhelming violence. That's exactly what the GP was referring to.
The protests were nice, and may have motivated the military, but the protests didn't get rid of the dictator. The guys with the guns did that part.
Re:So is this because... (Score:5, Insightful)
So you overthrow the feds. And then what? Now you're beholden to your local authorities which are far worse, far more small minded, far more despotic. Overthrowing the govt is not going to result in the small-power libertarian utopia you think it will. It's going to result in a feudalistic system composed of arbitrary overlords. Read the history of England and see how it goes. The fifedoms which predated the nation state we call England were no where a libertarian wanted to be.
If you want to change things, then repeal the immunity from prosecution prosecutors enjoy. Ditto Congress. As it stands, they have zero fear because voting to defacto take away your rights isn't anything they're every going to be called to account for.
Ditto prosecutors who engage in phenomenal overreach, over charging, subornation of perjury, hiding of of exculpatory evidence as just SOP in nearly all cases, not to mention the incredible expansion of criminal laws into every aspect of life so that nearly everyone is guilty of something even if they don't know it combined with the rolling back of statute of limitations which makes it impossible to mount any kind of effective defense basically ensures that most of the population is properly intimated all the time.
The system is corrupt, but the corruption comes from a total lack of fear of consequence. If Congress had to worry that a future Congress or electorate would find them guilty of gross dereliction of duty, if the people in the TLA organizations actually had some level of fear that their actions would be subject to citizen overview if the prosecutors were forced to keep video documentation of every interaction they had over the course of developing cases and the police likewise then there'd be some sort of hesitation. As it is we ambitious sociopaths like Carmen Orttiz going snarling hog wild against our kids.
Overthrowing the government is a losers gambit because even if it's successful, you haven't done jack shit about the forces that caused the corruption in the first place. They just reconstitute themselves because in reality you're fighting some very ugly aspects of human nature - sociopaths as you termed them, which is about right.
What we have is a system that is broken but when your car is broken, you don't smash it then start with reinventing the wheel. you just fix it because that's better than starting all over again.
Remove the immunity from prosecution that Congress enjoys for the laws they pass. Remove the immunity Carmen Ortiz enjoys and which enables her to use her office to abuse due process. What controls sociopaths is fear combined with the high certainty of getting caught. Video tape everything that happens everywhere in the criminal justice system from the courts to the lawyers offices to the jails to the cops. Make that available to citizens investigatory efforts. Ditto Congress. If we're to live under TIA, then guess what comes next- so are they. We actually have a more compelling case to videotape absolutely everything they do since the potential consequences for abuse look like Aaron Schwartz. Give them no place to hide and we'll see big changes, fast.
Re:So is this because... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm a US citizen that has lost patience with the American people. Anonymous Coward is exactly right. Where were the riots over this? The outrage just wasn't there. But then there are riots all over the U.S. over the Trayvon Martin verdict. Stupidest fucking thing I've ever seen. And the media trying to make this a white vs black thing, even though George Zimmerman is hispanic. Zimmerman should probably go in the witness protection program and change his identity......and there you have it right there. The U.S. government really *is* a reflection of the American people. The American people do not respect rights and due process. So neither does the government. The American people are uninformed on The Constitution, so, like the American people, the government ignores it too.
What do I want to see from the people of the United States? idk, it seems like a lost cause. How many are even aware of the NSA spying? Do they care? They probably care more about Miley Cyrus 'twerking'.
A minority of Americans have woken up (Libertarians/Ron Paul crowd -- which is growing). Will it be enough to change the direction of the country? I hope so. Julian Assange is right about libertarianism being America's last hope.
Re:So is this because... (Score:5, Insightful)
And the media trying to make this a white vs black thing
More one of those murderers vs minors things.
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Our last couple generations have been raised in an educational and society system that coddles us and makes us obedient to authority. We aren't independent, we aren't taught critical thinking skills, and we not only accept that our government is overstepping these bounds, but *expect* that they should be doing *more* . . . so they can "provide" more for us and "protect" us more.
So, why aren't more people pissed off and doing something about it? Because they don't think anything is wrong.
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Libertarianism merely cuts out the middle man in letting the rich own you.
Re: So is this because... (Score:2)
What have you done? (Score:2)
I'm a US citizen that's strongly opposed to all of this bullshit. I've lost my own patience for my government. What should people like me do to show people like you that we're just as fed up as you are, if not more?
Anything really, just do something, please...
But may I ask, if you have:
- Donated to the EFF?
- Signed all applicable petitions? (optin.stopwatching.us, perhaps? and more...)
- Written a personal letter to your representatives?
Those things are the least you can do... as a concerned citizen it is probably you moral duty to do so...
These things don't really cost you anything, nor does it cost you anything to get your friends and family to do the same.
Many will tell you that these things don't change
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Vote. Talk to your neighbors. Get involved. Volunteer. Organize. Protest at your local county courthouse.
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." - Thomas Jefferson
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I'm a US citizen that's strongly opposed to all of this bullshit. I've lost my own patience for my government. What should people like me do to show people like you that we're just as fed up as you are, if not more? Protest? Rebel? Sign some pledge? Comment on Slashdot?
Buy more ammo!
Re:So is this because... (Score:4, Interesting)
Fuck it. It's not true, but if it helps, think of it like this: the president ordered the NSA to order Snowden to "leak" what they've been up to, as a sort of Public Service Announcement to America and the rest of the world, to make us think about privacy issues.
Your own federal government is just one of a hundred potential adversaries. The fact that they intercept network traffic is not merely a statement from your government that they have malicious intent. It's also a proof-of-concept that there are technical problems with the network; that parties with malicious intent are able to do damage. And that means that even if your government didn't have malicious intent, you would still have the problem and adversaries would still be spying on you.
You can't solve that second half of the problem by running for Congress or persuading your government to become benevolent. You solve it by working on key exchange. That is what everyone needs, because we have had some great tech for decades now, but there's some kind of difficulty that is keeping people from using it. Solve it, for everyone from grandma to teenager, and you're the hero of the century.
If you want to work on the civics problem in parallel with the technical+techsocial problems, ok. But don't for a moment ever lie to yourself and think it will make one iota of difference as to how much privacy anyone has. The AC you replied to, doesn't get it. The US government isn't his real problem either; he just thinks it is. He hopes his bitching will shame one of the adversaries on his hundred-long list, to shape up and behave civilized, leaving him with a mere 99 to go. That is a doomed strategy.
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"Your own federal government is just one of a hundred potential adversaries"
Yeah, but they are the one who most likely can change my life for the worse. I really don't care if North Korea knows my browsing habits. But I do care if the NSA has some keyword search running on all internet traffic, detects that I searched for "some bad thing", and informs my local police department.
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Have you tried:
1) Writing to your Congressman?
2) Writing directly to the White House?
3) Signing (or set up) a petition?
4) Voting (or intend to vote at the next opportunity) for a privacy-focused political party, such as the Pirate Party?
5) Supporting a privacy-focused political party either with a monetary donation or volunteer time?
All of these are pretty minimal effort steps that you, as a democratic participant, can and should take if you feel strongly about an issue. If you're not willing to do any of t
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What should people like me do to show people like you that we're just as fed up as you are, if not more? Protest? Rebel? Sign some pledge? Comment on Slashdot?
Which will amount to nothing. All this has been done in the past and it amounts to nothing. It's time for a revolution. No, don't go get your gun, not that kind of revolution. But its time to over throw the current government. Its time for the states to remove the current government.
In short it time for the states to call for a constitutional convention and ether rewrite the constitution or amended the current one to remove the sitting government. Its with in the power for the states to remov
Re:So is this because... (Score:4, Insightful)
That wont work
http://www.ted.com/talks/lawrence_lessig_we_the_people_and_the_republic_we_must_reclaim.html [ted.com]
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> I'll get right on that. Please provide me with a few hundred million dollars to fund my campaign. Oh
> yeah, those are gonna need to be no strings attached dollars so that I'm not bought and paid for like
> 99.8% of the people who are currently in congress.
Will need more than that too. Most are bought and paid for by the parties who broker the money.
If you don't get on your knees for party money, and of course, agree to tow their line, then they will work against you, both of them. They don't like
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Re:So is this because... (Score:5, Insightful)
Two big problems as I see it:
- Money and corporate influence: The money required to run a campaign puts huge barriers in front of anyone from more 'regular' walks of life ever standing for office. It's resulted in an established political class, to which you will need to belong to even get your foot in the door of politics. On top of this (or because of this), companies and industries have a disproportionate influence on policy. Other countries have much stronger laws preventing this (restrictions on lobbying, corporate donations, political advertising, transparency of party finances etc.)
- The way Congress works and the way elections work basically result in an entrenched two-party system where no one else has any realistic influence. Compare to Parliamentary systems/preferential voting/proportional representation used by most other OECD nations that mean third and fourth parties actually matter. There is a wider diversity of opinion and wider choice of candidates. Here in the US, you only have two choices, and they are both as bad as each other when it comes to privacy/surveillance matters.
The US system needs to be reformed for the modern age and to address the above issues. Problem is, people treat the Constitution as some kind of untouchable, unchangeable thing, rather than a living document. Yes, it's the supreme law of the land ... but it's still a law, and law can (and should) change with the times. The ability to make amendments exists for a reason.
It seems that in general, it is impossible to make large-scale reforms happen in the US. The system works against it (just takes a couple of people in Congress to oppose something and it'll get held up forever). Other countries out there, in modern times, have done things like completely rewrite their tax code from the ground up. Or change the way elections are held. Or introduce new currencies. Or convert to the metric system. Grand reforms, not just tinkering around the edges with things. Imagine that kind of stuff happening in the US - seems impossible doesn't it? Look at the difficulty experienced in even getting minor changes to health care through. Even suggesting little things like getting rid of the penny seems to attract massive controversy.
Some say that the fact that Congress can get so easily gridlocked is actually a benefit of the system. It prevents politicians pushing their own agendas through and acts as a limit on government power. I can see that side of the argument and it's valid. But nonetheless, I still think we need to be more agile than we are or we'll be left behind. Change happens more rapidly now than it did when the Constitution was written.
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I mostly agree, but on the barriers to people standing for office - yes, there are huge barriers to prominent, powerful spots like President, Senators, etc. But there are lots of lower-level slots that are reportedly much easier to get. State-level Representatives and Senators in most areas, less prominent city-level positions in bigger cities, even some Federal Representative seats. If you want to stand a chance at running for one of the higher-level positions, you generally have to win elections for and s
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Probably both.
And probably a field day for the NSA as well because well, it's so easy to pick up on TOR traffic if you're an exit node. (Especially since most "dumb" people use it so the traffic being sent out the node would have tons of identifying stuff on it).
Hell, the NSA probably runs quite a few monitored
Reasons for the increase? (Score:2)
I'd say that one significant factor is the easy to install and use Tor Browser bundle with FIrefox.
Not all that long ago, setting up Tor was kind of laborious. Now, you can do it as easily as you install any other new piece of software.
And to be honest, I wasn't even keeping up with it enough to realize they'd put something like that out, until I read the recent news article revealing the govt. was finding out the source IP addresses of some Tor users thanks to a security vulnerability in the older version
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I'm giving credit to the FBI (Score:2)
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"We meddle. People don't like to be meddled with." -- Serenity.
"What are you rebelling against?"
"What'cha got?"
Pick a side and fight.
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c) the fact that Defcon was in august meaning ~15,000 ppl needed to get onto Tor
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...which has suddenly exploded in popularity over the past month?
The increased media coverage of the NSA has also lent itself to increased mention of personal security and anonymity, and the tools one may employ to protect against invasion of your data. When Tor is mentioned, Silk Road follows.
An interview in a popular magazine with the man running Silk Road surely increased traffic, as well,
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/08/14/meet-the-dread-pirate-roberts-the-man-behind-booming-black-market-drug-website-silk-road/ [forbes.com]
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Re:..or (Score:5, Insightful)
(d) some entity (NSA or otherwise) is trying to compromise the network by owning a majority of nodes
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My lack of mod points is disgusting right now. Have a free comment and my well wishes.
Re:..or (Score:5, Funny)
The NSA removed your mod points for security reasons
Re:..or (Score:5, Interesting)
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(e) botnets that use TOR for command and control stuff.
Entirely possible. I could be one of them. Prodded by all the bad NSA publicity, I recently installed a tor daemon meaning to look into how to use it. Gkrellm does show lots of stuff going on, but I've not looked into tor further than reading through /etc/default/tor. I've no idea what to use it for. I intend to eventually learn how.
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... but I've not looked into tor further than reading through /etc/default/tor ...
... and reading through log files that it works, whatever its doing.
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You mispelled lazy. Thanks.
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Just run a TOR exit node ...
Hardly an option in my circumstances, a laptop grabbing IP from almost random sources. [torproject.org]
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Impressive... (Score:3)
Maybe a percentage of that was FBI agents infiltrating The Silk Road?
re: SIlk Road (Score:5, Insightful)
Speaking of SIlk Road -- have you ever actually looked around that site at any length?
After ignoring it for the longest time, I finally created an account there and took a good look at it, just to satisfy my curiosity.
What surprised me the most about it was the LACK of anything really exciting up there for sale! I mean, when you read the news hype and all the supposed angst from politicians and law enforcement over its existence, you expect the place to be a hotbed of sex slavery, child porn, virus/malware dealers, email spammers, and what-not.
In reality, I saw a fair number of people simply offering to exchange your bitcoin for US currency or bars of silver, a few people selling used electronics gear, and a lot of offers to sell information on how to supposedly do such things as hacking an ATM machine (reminds me of the old "G-Files" people passed around the local BBS's in the late 80's except those were free!).
Sure, there were some people offering to sell you pharmaceuticals and even small amounts of drugs like cocaine, but that's one category out of dozens - and there wasn't even a dramatic number of ads posted for them.
Mountain out of a molehill, all in all.
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Have you ever looked around it at length?
There is not a 'small amount of drugs' but a whole shit load of them in varying quantity. 1g gram of pot to 1lb. Same goes with ectasy, shrooms, etc...For the most part you can find anything you want there and the amount.
If its a molehill, that hill is the staging area for the last battle on the war on drugs.
as far as child porn and sex slavery, silk road doesn't allow shit like that on there.
New Motto Needed (Score:1, Funny)
In need of more relays (Score:2, Interesting)
This in fact means that the Tor network is in need of more relays and exit nodes. If you have access to a server that meets the requirements, you could consider it.
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I'm sure the NSA will be happy to provide some.
People need to remember that if you access the regular internet through Tor, and don't very carefully make sure to encrypt everything, you are actually opening yourself up to more spying.
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Its not just NSA that you're hiding from, its your ISP and others. Who knows, maybe 5-10 years from now when you go to apply for a job, besides the drug screening, credit check, social media background check, they'll want to examine your internet usage to make sure you're not doing something your employer doesn't approve of.
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And by using Tor carelessly, you open yourself up to more spying of that kind, too.
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You mean just using Tor, while not illegal, will become one of those things that can cause you problems? They'll think you have something hide? When does it all end?
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No, I mean that all Tor exit nodes can spy on you. And anybody can run an exit node, not just the NSA. Private companies can do so too and collect data on you.
More Tor usage is good (Score:5, Informative)
More Tor exit nodes is better. The NSA surely has many honeypot nodes, we need to drown them out with more legitimate exit nodes.
Re:More Tor usage is good (Score:5, Informative)
While more Tor exit nodes is better, all use of Tor should be done assuming that the exit node is controlled by a hostile party. A lot of the exit nodes are controlled by people much more unpleasant than the NSA.
Note that exit nodes are the weak link in Tor. Your traffic through them is not encrypted by Tor, so you must use SSL. They are, by design, a man in the middle, so you must be prepared for MitM attacks.
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Sorry, but it's now too easy to de-anonymize traffic within and around Tor. The more Tor nodes there are, the -easier- it becomes.
Read and learn, then direct everyone to start using i2p and Project Meshnet (https://projectmeshnet.org/)
http://blog.erratasec.com/2013/08/anonymity-smackdown-nsa-vs-tor.html [erratasec.com]
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Trying to out-spend the NSA on setting up nodes is not likely to work.
I think the only safe assumption is that the NSA or other government organizations has access to any data transmitted through a commonly-used system. A real expert in security and encryption might be able to determine that a particular system is safe, but as a random user you can't necessarily trust any statements made by "experts" because those experts could be NSA plants.
I don't think you can use technology to stop government sp
"Tor, summarized for mortals" (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.kimmoa.se/Tor_summarized_for_mortals/ [kimmoa.se]
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Isn't this what a TOR attack looks like? (Score:2, Insightful)
Isn't Tor unsecure if some adversary controls a large fraction of the network?
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Anyhows (Score:4, Interesting)
> "there has been a whopping 100 percent increase in the number of Tor clients
Half of them in those new, billion-dollar data centers, no doubt. Maybe they can't crack the traffic yet, but they could get relatively accurate dynamic topologies, and use their other, non-Tor nodes, also judiciously placed around in Internet backbones, to learn connections to individual computers.
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They don't need to crack the traffic, if they de-anonymize the clients in and out of Tor, it's cleartext on both ends. With SSL and VPNs now being as wide open as cleartext and easily broken, it's a moot point.
http://blog.erratasec.com/2013/08/anonymity-smackdown-nsa-vs-tor.html [erratasec.com]
And direct yourself and others to Project Meshnet:
https://projectmeshnet.org/ [projectmeshnet.org]
Tor, now 98.2% run by secret services (Score:1)
Following the NSA's example, other nations secret services are now rapidly deploying their own Tor honeypots.
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Pirate bay (Score:2, Insightful)
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/08/10/1519211/the-pirate-bay-launches-browser-to-evade-isp-blockades
That's why.
Liability of exit nodes (Score:5, Interesting)
The increased usage increases the problem of bad throughput ... haven't used it in a while, but when I played around with it a bit, latency (which would be expected) but more importantly throughput was bad to unbearable ... more users require more performance at the exit nodes, which means more exit nodes are needed ... ... which, in turn, makes the whole network subject to other manipulation, and goes against the reason for the network ...
Having run an exit node for a short while myself, I know of the results: within less than 4 weeks, we received an inquiry into the owner/operator of the machine with the node's IP address, due to reported child porn access. Luckily, the police seemed to be halfway knowledgeable, and with the provided infos on the operation of the node (stats about the node throughput, etc.) they stopped investigating the issue. Needless to say node operation was terminated the day we received the initial inquiry. Without decent "provider status protection" for exit nodes, the risk for operators may be a bit too high unless extensive (and expensive) measures are taken to block illegal material
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Who in their right mind would run an exit node in the first place? Who is this person who thinks it's a good idea to send data and requests on behalf of anonymous users who don't want to get caught doing it themselves?
All I can think of are:
Encryption + VPN + Tor is not anonymous (Score:5, Interesting)
Tor is great to stop your neighbor from spying on your people-dressed-as-cows porn fetish, since it's trivial for someone who lives close to you to sniff your packets (a fact confirmed to me by my ISP btw). SO it's great for privacy from nosy ./ curious / thrill seeking neighbors or defending yourself against common cyber criminals. If you're hoping to position yourself AS a criminal using Tor, for-gheeda-bow-tit.
Just saying this so no one makes the youthful mistake of thinking they can, for instance, order molly from the silkroad and never have that fact traced back to them. Criminals are going to do what they do and Tor isn't going to protect them and that's between those people and law enforcement. What we don't want is young people whose brains and judgement aren't fully developed yet , but whose taste for adventure is, being caught in the meat-grinder of an incarceration-for-profit system complete with mandatory minimum sentences because they were severely misled on technical matters.
Do you know what the cost of owning (statistically , virtually) ALL of the exit nodes and most of the intermediate nodes of Tor is? It's effectively zero to the collective financial and technical resources of the "five eyes", that's what it is.
Oh but WoofyGoofy I use a VPN and encrypt everything !!!! And therefore what do you think follows? When you also own both ends of the connections and every major ISP etc etc How hard is it to attach unique identifying packets to your packets as they pass back into the network and then track them through it? Or a little Bayesian analysis based on just the time and size of your packets? Tor is based on the idea that most nodes are not pwned. That assumption is almost certainly false. Remember this also- law enforcement only needs a subpoena for your online activities and email if it's recent- 18 months. When the information you generated is older than that- and Google et.al. keep it FOR-EVAH-AH - that's forever to the phonically challenged- law enforcement can look at it without even so much as a warrant- just ask and ye shall receive, and yes, that includes the CONTENT of your emails etc. Look it up.
There are a lot of dangers to the total information awareness that's been set up. The one people focus in on is J Edgar Hoover style political repression.
Another one is that we're creating a generation of people who get caught for *absolutely* *every* transgression. Call them "generation busted".
People didn't evolve to be either perfectly compliant nor perfectly spied on all the time, everywhere and and norms of society didn't evolve with that as a fact either. Young people whose judgment is not in effect are a potential gold mine for people who make money off things like parole and incarceration and they will push to increase their revenue flow just like any other corporation would.
After all, who do you THINK lobbied for mandatory minimum sentencing? Who do you think pushes for three strike laws for what are basically non-violent offenders- stealing pizza, shit like that? This is a real danger.
I know one friend's son who is constantly in trouble with the law over shit like smoking ladies soap bubbles and petty shoplifting and such shit. Basically, it's like watching a lamb being fed to the wolves piece by piece. Soon enough he'll have enough of a record that they'll lock him up, making him permanently unemployable and then wait for him to commit a robbery or suchlike. It's sickening. The kid has severe mental health issues, probably was born that way and should be on some form of permanent public assistance. There exist people like that. It's cheaper than locking him up. Let him smoke dope, watch TV play games and just exist in whatever way makes sense to him. People are born who are just like this for reasons we don't understand, it's not anyone's fault, least of all his.
Just as bad is kids who are transgressive as a kind of experimentation, like, oh I don't know our coke snorting (he admits to it) President. Go to a
How Ironic (Score:2)
Plug and Play Router (Score:2)
Tor Browser (Score:4, Insightful)
It's not a perfect solution, but the Tor Project's attempt to answer the problems faced by Tor with their Tor Browser bundle. Basically, it's a copy of Firefox tailored for Tor usage. It's set to use Tor by default. It also comes with HTTPS everywhere, an extension the EFF makes that redirects web traffic to use SSL when possible. Some websites don't support SSL and some don't implement it well, but it helps solve part of the problem with exit nodes being able to sniff traffic. Exit nodes can still see where that traffic is going but actually looking at contents is difficult. NoScript is installed and plugins are disabled to keep javascript and plugins from leaking your IP. StartPage is used as the default search engine rather than Google because StartPage doesn't log what users do and they are based outside of the USA.
Ideally, the increased attention the Tor Network is getting will result in more people volunteering their equipment and bandwidth to serve as exit nodes.
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The NSA are the ones that have pushed people to use TOR.
... and, don't forget, provides most of the exit nodes.
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Exactly!
Seems the NSA decided to double down on the Tor network since the cat is out of the bag.
Not that [eff.org] smart, I might even be grateful to them for the extra bandwitdh (still keeping in mind other elements may still make part of the communication trackable: DNS queries, cookies and what not).
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Remember that not only do they have a large number of exit nodes, they also have carte blanche to capture ALL traffic coming out of them, as they have no foreknowledge of whether or not it came from a US citizen. Tor helps them get around the entire PRISM issue be legitimizing their storage of the data.
I wonder if the same goes for I2P... I haven't heard much about that lately (probably people trying to keep it out of the spotlight).
I think the whole question of simple exit node monitoring is moot: What they access is either encrypted or in the clear, and the latter case means that the user doesn't consider the info to be sensitive and in the former case the eavesdropper doesn't have much of anything. (OTOH, unencrypted traffic does give evil exit nodes the ability to attempt breaking into Tor users' systems with malware.)
I2P is different because access is mostly in-network, so it implements security (and psuedonymous identity) for eac
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The problem with putting this at the heart of the IP protocol is that IP needs to know the source and destination so you can communicate. If you want to obfuscate the source, it's more involved than what IP is tasked with.
IP is meant to try to get data from source to destination, with the absolute minimum info built in to support the notion of routing and subnets. Because it's called an internetworking protocol after all, meaning your traffic will traverse networks.
Anything else is not IP's job. Because I