Developer Of Anonymous Tor Software Dodges FBI, Leaves US (cnn.com) 323
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: FBI agents are currently trying to subpoena one of Tor's core software developers to testify in a criminal hacking investigation, CNNMoney has learned. But the developer, who goes by the name Isis Agora Lovecruft, fears that federal agents will coerce her to undermine the Tor system -- and expose Tor users around the world to potential spying. That's why, when FBI agents approached her and her family over Thanksgiving break last year, she immediately packed her suitcase and left the United States for Germany. "I was worried they'd ask me to do something that hurts innocent people -- and prevent me from telling people it's happening," she said in an exclusive interview with CNNMoney. Earlier in the month, Tech Dirt reported the Department of Homeland Security wants to subpoena the site over the identity of a hyperbolic commenter.
Power corrupts... (Score:5, Insightful)
"Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it"
-- William Pitt the Elder, 1770
Hyperbolic (Score:2, Funny)
Tech Dirt reported the Department of Homeland Security wants to subpoena the site over the identity of a hyperbolic commenter.
What a bunch of NAZIs!
I mean, here's some poor bastard who wants to talk about geometry, calculus and math, and those fucking NAZIs at the DHS want him?!
Talk about an anti-science society!
Re:Hyperbolic (Score:5, Funny)
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undermining the Tor system (Score:5, Insightful)
If she is "one of Tor's core software developers" and she thinks she alone could "undermine the Tor system -- and expose Tor users around the world to potential spying", what does that tell us about Tor.
Is she saying nobody checks code-submissions she makes?
What exactly is she saying here.
Re:undermining the Tor system (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:undermining the Tor system (Score:5, Insightful)
No, but they know more about it than most people, and thus are in a better position to break it. That, or the FBI may want to utilise her standing in the community to push through unfavourable code without too much scrutiny.
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Re:undermining the Tor system (Score:4, Insightful)
no system is secure. why do you keep parroting that same thing over and over?
(fingered, mate. fwiw)
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Re: undermining the Tor system (Score:5, Insightful)
I was speaking in general to the notion that counting commits means anything; I don't know anything about her. And I certainly wouldn't get all pedantic about the term 'developer' as used in an article on the web; where everyone from a system architect, to the person who edits the content on the company intranet via CMS is routinely called a 'developer'.
But fine, you've made me look... happy?
https://www.torproject.org/abo... [torproject.org]
"Isis: Lead maintainer and developer on BridgeDB. Used to work on OONI."
So where does that take us:
https://bridges.torproject.org... [torproject.org]
"When using Tor with Tails in its default configuration, anyone who can observe the traffic of your Internet connection (for example your Internet Service Provider and perhaps your government and law enforcement agencies) can know that you are using Tor."
"This may be an issue if you are in a country where the following applies:
1. Using Tor is blocked by censorship [...]
2. Using Tor is dangerous or considered suspicious: in this case starting Tails in its default configuration might get you into serious trouble. [...]
"Tor bridges, also called Tor bridge relays, are alternative entry points to the Tor network that are not all listed publicly. Using a bridge makes it harder, but not impossible, for your Internet Service Provider to know that you are using Tor."
isislovecruft #1: 1,619 commits, 130,599++ / 82,789--
https://github.com/isislovecru... [github.com]
and
https://ooni.torproject.org/ [torproject.org]
"A free software, global observation network for detecting censorship, surveillance and traffic manipulation on the internet"
isislovecruft #2 with 271 commits, 31,590++, 23,581 --
https://github.com/TheTorProje... [github.com]
She removed ONE line of code (a double free). That is it. That isn't a core developer.
That burning feeling in your cheeks... that's the shame. Assuming you are a decent human.
Tor already cracked? (Score:3)
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Of course they have special access - they write it. Yes, the source code is there to read and there are a whole team of developers, and if she tried to introduce a security-breaking bug it could be discovered, either straight away assuming there are commit reviews, or later on. But, especially if well crafted and obfuscated (see the Underhanded C Contest for examples), it could survive long enough for the feds to get what they want, and it could even be plausibly deniable that it was malicious anyway.
So yes
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Okay, sure, we get it, a brick is secure. Anything more complex is not. Can we move on now?
Of course Tor can be compromised more easily by a developer. Do you regularly download new copies, compile from source, verify that the binaries match the source, and verify that the changelogs posted match the changes that you downloaded? No? Geez, it's like you don't want to check whether things are secure or not!
Re:undermining the Tor system (Score:5, Interesting)
And then cross-compile again on several heterogeneous architectures (including at least one very old one) and verify that all the output matches, in order to avoid the Ken Thompson hack? And did you do all this for every single piece of code running on the machine, including things like the hard drive firmware and CPU microcode?
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But the thing is that outfits like the NSA (because, let's face it, all the FBI has to do to search or hack into your machine or wifi network, is get a rubber-stamped warrant)--who don't need a warrant and go after very hard to infiltrate targets, rely on very obscure and hard to reproduce vulnerabilities in hardware or software, that only they know about, and then very cleverly exploit those vulnerabilities to pown the system.
And then if that doesn't work, they get their friends at the CIA to exploit the 3
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And don't forget to verify what compiler settings are used when you check the compiled software ,so you don't incorrectly mistake compiler optimizations for malicious code and vice versa.
And, in the end, it all hinges on your intimate knowledge of the code and the architecture in question, compared to the knowledge of the attacker.
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It is impossible to create a system that does not allow the developer(s) of the system to slip in flaws. No source code auditing can prevent that, since either the auditors can control the distribution of the executables, in case of which they could slip in a flaw, or they cannot control the distribution of the executables, in case of which one of the developers could slip in a flaw.
The best that could be done is to do all development in teams, preferably randomly assigned, and ensure that all code changes
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Definitely secure enough for my needs, and I don't know of any more secure system. (I2P? Freenet?)
I should mention that I'm not a globally persecuted terrorist, though.
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It's funny you should say this, because (and more interestingly) a former tor developer, who also has a PhD in CompSci, is now the lead researcher for a security firm closely aligned to to the FBI, in fact employing some of the agents responsible for catching DPR and shutting down SilkRoad.
"Matt Edman is a cybersecurity expert who worked as a part-time employee at Tor Project, the nonprofit that builds Tor software and maintains the network, almost a decade ago."
"By 2012, Edman was working at Mitre Corporat
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Re:undermining the Tor system (Score:5, Funny)
Oh. Then the system isn't very secure, is it? I don't know "Isis Agora Lovecruft". Should I trust her code?
Wait WHAT? Her *name* is Isis!?!?!? How the fuck wasn't she on the no-fly list!
Sheesh, there go your TSA and Homeland security dollars right there! Those guys really dropped the ball on this one!
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You don't know the people who run Slashdot. Should you keep posting?
All I'm saying, is there's reasonable caution, and there's outright bloody paranoia.
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Developers are prime targets because if the FBI can coerce them secretly they can introduce flaws that look like innocent mistakes. When discovered people just put them down to human error and move on.
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By that argument you can't trust any software, because it's always possible for subtle errors to slip by reviews and testing.
In a sense you are right, it's always best to be careful, but in practice if you never dare type your password in because the keyboard firmware might be backdoored... You won't get much done.
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That's what I said.
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If single developers can introduce flaws then the system can't be trusted anyway.
Look at the history of Linux related security holes, especially the ones that have come to light since Snowden. Based on the amount single-developer flaws that have opened gaping security holes and based on your assertion, I doubt theres any software, open source or otherwise, that can be trusted.
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100% correct. Congratulations.
Back in the old country I actually had a friend who developed his own operating system, from the ground up, because he didn't trust anything from anyone else.
It was a lot of work to build and he couldn't really do much with it... Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your perspective) civilization requires that people work together and trust one another.
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Something fishy is going on here. If she's running and
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You're on to something here. I think she may turn out to be accused of not using a condom in Sweden.
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Something fishy is going on here. If she's running and offering this bad of an excuse ("I don't want people to get hurt") it sounds like she's got something more I important to hide. Don't be surprised when more of this unravels and she turns out to be complicit in some illegal activities on that network.
This is the USA, most things are illegal.
Re:undermining the Tor system (Score:4, Informative)
You are clearly not looking hard enough. She is the lead developer of BridgeDB and has been working on OONI:
https://www.torproject.org/about/corepeople.html.en
Looking at the checkins on BridgeDB shows that she at least has been very active:
https://gitweb.torproject.org/bridgedb.git
Re:undermining the Tor system (Score:4, Insightful)
This might be relevant [github.com]. Not a contributor to the core code base, but somewhat in the loop.
Given the competence and professionalism shown by the FBI on this, I imagine their method for choosing a target was less about how important they are to the project and more about how accessible and vulnerable they are to law enforcement threats.
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Sure she hasn't done much on the git repo, but her cv [torproject.org] which is hosted on a Tor site, seems to suggest she's been pretty involved with the project for a while.
Exactly. Only one person can actually commit, so if several people collaborate on some code, only one gets the credit. I collaborated with a lot of developers for one open source project, but never made a single commit... But all the developers knew me, and if I e-mailed one a code snippit, it was likely to be used.
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No, what she is saying is the FBI may believe she can which puts her in a very bad position. If she is successful she "undermine(s) the Tor system -- and expose(s) Tor users around the world to potential spying" and if she is not she is imprisoned for contempt of court. I can see why she left. I can also see why so many security professionals keep their passport current. Way to keep the USA in the forefront of security; scare them to Germany.
I would say that in the current climate ANYONE who lives in the USA and who works in computer or network security, and doesn't work for the US government, should get out of the USA while they can.
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Obviously they'd ask her to only backdoor a specific pedo's copy of tor and not everyone else's copies.
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There are many differences to you and me that melt away in the eyes of law enforcement. When you add secret courts, secret laws, Patriot Acts, NSLs, and other Gestapo-level shit into the mix, it starts getting dangerous. I wouldn't trust the FBI any farther than I could throw them.
Re:undermining the Tor system (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, keep following those etymologies like you found the true meaning of this or that magickal term, as if citing the true etymology of the word gives you some magickal power over those who would destroy liberty. Sir James George Frazer called. He wanted to ask you more about your system of magick for an updated edition of The Golden Bough.
My memory isn't what it used to be, but wasn't it a subpoena that Apple fought for weeks and weeks not so long ago? A subpoena that attempted to coerce Apple into spending time and resources writing custom firmware?
Maybe Lovecruft here didn't think she would be able to mount the same quality defense against such a subpoena as an international megacorp known for having a veritable money bin of wealth sitting around.
I don't give a shit if it's called a subpoena or whatever the fuck that means in your system of magick. It's clear what the government is doing.
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Even if we assume America won't abuse it, which is anathema to the American political philosophy of chaining up government, the rest of the world will.
Does anyone think Russia, or China, or any of the dictatprships or corrupt nominal democracies across any continent on the Equator or mid east won't?
Quit building the 1984-like tools to aid those places keeping their boots on their humans' faces...forever.
I am ashamed my government is demanding cracks in these things for transient crime or even terrorist acti
Re:undermining the Tor system (Score:5, Informative)
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Unit tests, read by 1-3 others (not iine-by-line) (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't work on Tor specifically. In the important / well organized open source software I've been involved with, submissions are typically read by 1-3 other people, and there are unit tests and/or regression tests.
When I say the code is "read", I mean the same way you might read this post. You aren't looking at individual letters and words, you're reading sentences and paragraphs. You could easily overlook typos (but you might catch some typos too).
Often the unit tests aren't 100% thorough. Especially, they tend to cover the expected/correct case. If the code is supposed to send an MMS message, it is tested that entering a phone number and a message causes the message to be sent. often untested is what happens if instead of a phone number some injection code is entered. What happens if the message is millions of characters long? If the disk is full or the network is unavailable what happens?
> Is inserting code the only way someone on the inside can undermine TOR?
There are several other ways. In systems intended to be secure, flaws in the design create problems just like flaws in the implementation can. Someone could undermine Tor by suggesting a feature that seems useful and good.
Policy decisions matter for security - when you download the tor client, how do you know you're not getting a trojaned copy? That's based on how the Tor project operates, separate from any code submitted.
Somebody has the tor.org TLS key. If a sophisticated attacker had the tor.org key, they could impersonate tor.org and cause a target to download a trojaned copy of the tor client. Even if the target checked the hash of the download, they would probably get the hash from tor.org, which is really the attacker. If I thought about for more than 60 seconds, I could probably think of some more ideas.
Why did she go to Germany? (Score:4, Informative)
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You know... (Score:5, Insightful)
..there was a time when people would think it was ridiculous to fear that the US would "I was worried they'd ask me to do something that hurts innocent people -- and prevent me from telling people it's happening,"...Shows how far America has fallen...
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Re:You know... (Score:5, Informative)
AFAICT: You're quoting Reagan out of context. He was speaking about farming and government subsidies. This is what Reagan actually said:
"When I first started traveling abroad as President, especially to our annual economic summits, I suggested that the best foreign aid or development program the United States could give the world was a crash study in free enterprise. And this idea was, to say the least, greeted with skepticism. But when America's economic miracle took over and as we created during the past 67 months 17 million new jobs, I noticed that the idea of fostering growth through encouraging the entrepreneur began to take hold -- even to the point where the emphasis on agricultural subsidies, once so sacrosanct in other nations, is giving way at these summits to ideas on how to develop more free enterprise. There seems to be an increasing awareness of something we Americans have known for some time: that the 10 most dangerous words in the English language are, ``Hi, I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help.'' [Laughter]
Well, of course, sometimes government can help and should help -- natural disasters like the drought, for example -- but we need to look to a future where there's less, not more, government in our daily lives. It's that philosophy that brought us the prosperity and growth that we see today. That's why we've proposed nothing less than a total phaseout by the year 2000 of all policies that distort trade in agriculture, and I'm speaking of worldwide. This proposal reflects one of my abiding beliefs -- I think it's a belief that you share: The solution to the world agricultural problem is to get government out of the way and let farmers compete."
https://reaganlibrary.archives... [archives.gov]
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Re:You know... (Score:4)
"Looking at U.S. economic growth rates since 1947 [stlouisfed.org] shows that the net rate of economic growth has declined since the start of the Reagan era."
Not sure what your point is, besides being a distraction. The graph you link to, shows growth deltas, not absolute growth rates. IOW, it doesn't show that the growth has declined, just that the GDP is less volatile.
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I would add the words "ronald reagan" to that list, as well. that guy fucked us over so badly and for so long, and yet quite a lot of people see him as some kind of saint or model. the disconnect is strong, with this one, master yoda says.
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He was president just as long as Bush Jr, Bill Clinton, and Obama....
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When was this? This isn't new. As Ronald Reagan said: "The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
Actually, the words are mainly terrifying when the person from the government is Ronald Reagan...
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ROBO-REAGAN SMASH!!!!!
Secure system (Score:2)
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Then again, being able to subvert a system and fearing that you might be forced to subvert it (whether or not you're successful) are two very different things, aren't they?
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The Underhanded C Contest [underhanded-c.org] provides plenty of ideas how a smart developer can subvert a system even in face of thorough code review.
And in Isis' case, if she was forced to make such a subversive commit, she could either:
* refuse to be a traitor -- certain contempt of court
* do it and get caught (immediately or after the fact) -- likely charge of contempt of court (they'd suspect she tipped the reviewers)
* do it successfully -- and be a traitor of what we believe in
What do they expect? (Score:5, Insightful)
If they act like untrustworthy douchebags, then surprise surprise people don't trust them even when they're working on a legitimate investigation. Naturally because they insist on acting like untrustworthy douchebags, no one even has any idea if it is legitimate.
Well done, FBI, you're your own worst enemy.
Isis (Score:3, Funny)
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Somethings not right here (Score:2)
I wouldn't be surprised if we
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The FBI can't "sneak into" your house either. If you think the intelligence agencies in the US and Germany play by the rules then you are hopelessly naive.
Indeed, in the USA theres no need for them to 'sneak' in. No, they walk in openly and serve NSL's to anyone who witnesses them.
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WWII (Score:3, Insightful)
Warning signs? (Score:2)
One a scale of 1(fictitiously idealized America) to 10(Trumps America) this makes me about a 3.5 or 4 in uneasiness. Not nearly enough to head for Canada but enough to maybe read up on them.
How is she legally living in Germany? (Score:2)
Last I checked they don't just hand out residency permits, and tourist visas for Americans expire after 90 days, at which point she has to leave Germany.
How did she do it?
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Pure speculation: If you're a notable security professional who hinders the feds for a living, you probably have your exit strategy planned well ahead, and it is no stretch of the imagination for that plan to include your friend's company abroad already waiting with the job offer you need to immigrate, and only too happy to welcome any existing clients you can bring along.
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Re:Only one thing to do with traitors (Score:5, Funny)
Hang them by the nuts until they are dead.
Nowhere to run baby and nowhere to hide.
But hanging all of congress and most of the justice department will take a while.
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Just hang them in serial from the Burj Khalifa.
In serial??
Parallelization is where its at.
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There are lots of places to run and escape the evil empire the US has become. Just like before 1989 Russian dissidents fled to the west, now western dissident flee to other countries.
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Yes, all those jews that fled from Germany in the 1930's were cowards too who had done nothing wrong.
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Yes, all those jews that fled from Germany in the 1930's were cowards too who had done nothing wrong.
And then those Jews who stayed in Italy and supported Mussolini. Things didn't work out too well for them actually.
Re:Game over, the Land of the Free (Score:5, Insightful)
People around here think the words "the land of the free and the home of the brave" signify some deeply held core American values, but they are really just lyrics to a song. The phrase first appeared in a poem written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key which was later set to a British tune called "To Anacreon in Heaven" and renamed "The Star-Spangled Banner" which as you know was eventually adopted as the national Anthem.
My point is that they are just song lyrics, and while pleasing and patriotic they are really no more meaningful or insightful as Frank Zappa's "Watch out where the huskies go, and don't you eat that yellow snow."
Re: Game over, the Land of the Free (Score:4, Insightful)
I forgot that songs and poems don't mean anything... We aren't talking about "Shake it off" here, the song may just be a song but it is written based on events and principles that are values that Americans used to believe in. To say that lyrics are meaningless devalues the whole art of music.
Re:Game over, the Land of the Free (Score:4, Insightful)
People around here think the words "the land of the free and the home of the brave" signify some deeply held core American values, but they are really just lyrics to a song.
People around here think the Constitution signifies some deeply held core American values, but its just words on a piece of parchment for the CIA to wipe its ass with.
That's not really the question. The question is whether this state is the best we should aim for. Laws, declarations and anthems, while just being words or sequences of glyphs and phonemes, are tools for projecting and promoting a vision for improvement and coexistence.
So you say that the American People have given up on ideals as anything meaningful. That's certainly a plausible view of the evidence.
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People around here think the words "the land of the free and the home of the brave" signify some deeply held core American values
No, we think they're aspirational ideals, and as ideals they are meaningful to the degree that we actually try to achieve them.
Re:There is no Subpoena (Score:5, Insightful)
same thing as a judicial subpoena.
It's worse. You have no legal recourse. Once the FBI 'talks' to you, they can include a gag order and you can't discuss the particulars of the conversation with anyone. Just like an NSL [wikipedia.org].
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Actually, you can discuss with your lawyer. Perhaps carefully, but an NSL can be fought legally.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavabit [wikipedia.org]
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So good luck with that.
What CNN didn't say (Score:5, Informative)
The FBI agents refused to deal with her lawyer, and intimated that they would pick her up off the street to interrogate her without a lawyer present.
https://www.techdirt.com/artic... [techdirt.com]
I don't think their actions are the actions of people who are operating within the rules of law. Their actions are the actions of people who are afraid of being caught violating the supreme law of the land.
Another fact that the CNN article didn't make clear : the developer was already in the process of moving to Germany.
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I don't think her actions are the actions of someone who conscientiously wants to avoid aiding the government in violating people's privacy. Her actions are the actions of someone who is afraid of being caught for doing something she knows she could get in trouble for. Her actions are the actions of a criminal.
Yes, something criminal like helping people hide their data from the US government.
Re:signs of a guilty conscience (Score:4, Insightful)
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I think the concern here is more about a National Security Letter than say a court subpoena.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_security_letter
And this person has posted an NSL canary
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Sure, I can explain. TOR originally evolved out of research by the US Navy but is now developed as an open source projects by volunteers. It has occasionally been used for secure communication by US government organizations (see main TOR project page), though there is no evidence that they used it or use it on a large scale. It is not supported or endorsed by the NSA or CIA---at least not officially.
Here is a list of current and past sponsors:
List [torproject.org]
is backed by gobernment money
Of course, definitely. The National Science Foundation has c