Tor

[rtalbigr]

I was reading my latest edition of Popular Science and it had an article about Tor. I'd never heard of it before. It's anonymizer software available free for downloading.

Briefly, it was initially a Pentagon project for spies and soldiers to communicate via the internet w/o leaving a trace of their location or identity by using "onion routing." The problem was it could still be traced back to the Pentagon network. So they needed a larger network. It was taken over by the Tor Project, a non-profit, and made available free to the public in order to expand the size of the network and truely make it anonymous. Apparently it's very popular in the mid-east and countries where the gov'ts seriously track disidents and apparently has been used by the FBI as well. I've Googled it and is indeed available for a free download.

So, I'm wondering, does anyone here have any experience with Tor?

Is this, because of our "hobby," something we need to consider? Would it be a valuable asset?

I'm not paranoid but our government is becoming more and more intrusive (warrantless wiretaps for example), and everytime anyone is on the internet someone, usually businesses (and only God knows who else), is spying on us.

Big R

[Horse_Shoe]

Dunno Big R. I work for Big Brother and sometimes I wonder how the management gets dressed and drives to work, they're so incompetent. The mostly find stuff by accident because there are so many agencies.

I spoke to a State ATF agent once in casual conversation and he stated that they spent their resources catching big fish. He was talking about those who were running high volume production facilities without licensing. I get the impression that Uncle Sam's only concerned when there's money involved and he's not getting his cut.

I just keep it on the down low.

[rtalbigr]

Ya, I think you're right Horse_Shoe, but it's their ineptitude that worries me, that and protecting their little kingdoms.

Big R

[rad14701]

I had a chat about Tor with an acquaintance of mine who studied security, works for a security solutions company, and does projects in conjunction with the NSA... He confirmed my suspicions that Tor is not nearly as safe or anonymous as people are led to believe... The prime item he confirmed is that many of the so-called "anonymous" peers in the network belong to the US government... Tor essentially gives those thinking they are thwarting efforts of being monitored a false sense of security while playing right into the hands of those they are attempting to elude...

[Usge]

ah-HA! The ole bugs bunny double-double cross!

[cob]

hookline posted "ten minute mail" a while back. http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 8#p6917070 experience with, or comments about this security ? measure would be appreciated. cob

[Husker]

hookline posted "ten minute mail" a while back. http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 8#p6917070" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow experience with, or comments about this security ? measure would be appreciated. cob

The thing about 10 minute mail, is that ALL of the interaction is done wholly on that site. You provide no information to them. So if you anon-web proxy to that site, they have almost no trace of you at all, you can send a time sensitive email (like to sign up at a forum), get the email, do what is needed, and that email account is 'scrapped'.

Now, that does not help 'hide' you, when you start to use a forum, but it fully keeps your email addy out of the forum's set of information it has.

H.

[rad14701]

What Husker said about 10minutemail.com... IF you feel that you can trust the administrator of that site, don't send too much personal information in those emails, and use an anonymous proxy server to get there, you "should" be relatively safe... And, as we all know, "safe" is only a relative term...

[rtalbigr]

I had a chat about Tor with an acquaintance of mine who studied security, works for a security solutions company, and does projects in conjunction with the NSA... He confirmed my suspicions that Tor is not nearly as safe or anonymous as people are led to believe... The prime item he confirmed is that many of the so-called "anonymous" peers in the network belong to the US government... Tor essentially gives those thinking they are thwarting efforts of being monitored a false sense of security while playing right into the hands of those they are attempting to elude...

That's what was in the back of my mind, wondering, since Tor was initually a gov't project, so thx Rad. I really don't have anything to hide, well, except this theoretical hobby of mine, but I was just wondering. Anonomity now days is enticing. When I was a kid we really did have it, mostly a cash society. Now it seems if there is a record of everything we do.

Popular Science has some interesting stuff but every now and again I've read an article and wondered if there wasn't some propaganda going on.

Big R