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Internet Anonymity (Technical info)
TOR | self | self

Posted on 04/14/2009 9:43:06 PM PDT by NowApproachingMidnight

Brothers, it is time to help you disappear! No, I have not invented a magic cloak, but DARPA (under bush) invented an anonymizing engine called TOR (www.tor.org) that accomplishes that with your Internet traffic.

You can download the following file: http://www.torproject.org/torbrowser/dist/tor-im-browser-1.1.12_en-US. exe (Note the extra space between the . and the "exe". Remove that and paste into your browser window for direct down load (DDL). Or, alternately go here for more information (http://www.torproject.org/easy-download.html.en).

Now, the .exe link is better because it is a standalone copy of firefox with all the proxies and whatnot configured. All you do is run the file after you extract/install.

Enjoy, and be vigilant.


TOPICS: Reference
KEYWORDS: anonymity; applebaum; internet; jacobapplebaum; technology; tor; torproject
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To: NowApproachingMidnight

If you click on a link that launches another application such as IRC or IM will the TOR app ask you for permission to launch? If not, your real IP is going to get sent when the connection is made.


21 posted on 04/14/2009 10:09:52 PM PDT by james500
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To: james500

This is a moot point. The tor services are hidden. The run on a lower level than what you speak of.


22 posted on 04/14/2009 10:13:11 PM PDT by NowApproachingMidnight (By the square)
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To: Quix

I am not personally vouching for any of the tor servers. From the homepage:

Tor is a connection-based low-latency anonymous communication system which addresses many flaws in the original onion routing design.

“The simple version: Tor provides a distributed network of servers (”onion routers”). Users bounce their TCP streams (web traffic, FTP, SSH, etc.) around the routers. This makes it hard for recipients, observers, and even the onion routers themselves to track the source of the stream.”

“The complex version: Onion Routing is a connection-oriented anonymizing communication service. Users choose a source-routed path through a set of nodes, and negotiate a “virtual circuit”; through the network, in which each node knows its predecessor and successor, but no others. Traffic flowing down the circuit is unwrapped by a symmetric key at each node, which reveals the downstream node.”

Currently, Tor development is supported by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Tor was initially designed and developed as part of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory’s Onion Routing program with support from ONR and DARPA. The Onion Routing implementation tries to solve various existing flaws in the original Onion Routing implementation.

This service is active, working, currently in use, and has grown to hundreds of thousands of users. Tor currently has over 1,000 active routers from all over the world.

Tor is distributed as Free Software under the 3-clause BSD license and currently runs on Windows/x86, Mac OS X, and Linux.


23 posted on 04/14/2009 10:15:49 PM PDT by NowApproachingMidnight (By the square)
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To: NowApproachingMidnight

Sorry. I don’t speak that language. Dumb it down, please.

If I click on a link in whatever browser the plugin is running, and that link is associated with another application what happens?


24 posted on 04/14/2009 10:16:06 PM PDT by james500
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To: NowApproachingMidnight

Thanks.

Would this be viable from an . . . overseas location?


25 posted on 04/14/2009 10:20:07 PM PDT by Quix (POL Ldrs quotes fm1900 2 presnt: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2130557/posts?page=81#81)
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To: james500

does not matter. tor scrambles all traffic.


26 posted on 04/14/2009 10:20:34 PM PDT by NowApproachingMidnight (By the square)
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To: Quix

Yes. The network operates independent of borders. This is how the people in china that post do it, etc.


27 posted on 04/14/2009 10:24:54 PM PDT by NowApproachingMidnight (By the square)
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To: NowApproachingMidnight

Thanks thanks.


28 posted on 04/14/2009 10:40:16 PM PDT by Quix (POL Ldrs quotes fm1900 2 presnt: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2130557/posts?page=81#81)
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To: NowApproachingMidnight
I'm sorry, but Tor is ripe for “Man-in-the-middle” attacks.

“To prove his point, he ran SSLstrip on a server hosting a Tor anonymous browsing network. During a 24-hour period, he harvested 254 passwords from users visiting sites including Yahoo, Gmail, Ticketmaster, PayPal, and LinkedIn. The users were fooled even though SSLstrip wasn't using the proxy feature that tricks them into believing they were at a secure site. Sadly, the Tor users entered passwords even though the addresses in their address bars didn't display the crucial “https.” (Marlinspike said he later disposed of all personally identifiable information).”

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/19/ssl_busting_demo/page2.html

Tor will also turn your home computer into a semi-secure router for all sorts of crime-related uses, without your knowledge. All you will know is that the FBI turns up on your doorstep with proof your modem attempted exploits which were done half a world away.

Stay away from TOR.

29 posted on 04/14/2009 11:01:50 PM PDT by ConservativeMind (When you're RuPaul posing as the wife of the president, you need all the make-up help you can get.)
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To: Frantzie; KoRn; Quix

Please read post #29.


30 posted on 04/14/2009 11:06:18 PM PDT by ConservativeMind (When you're RuPaul posing as the wife of the president, you need all the make-up help you can get.)
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To: NowApproachingMidnight

Hmmm


31 posted on 04/14/2009 11:11:24 PM PDT by Justice Department
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To: ConservativeMind

THANKS MUCH.


32 posted on 04/14/2009 11:36:35 PM PDT by Quix (POL Ldrs quotes fm1900 2 presnt: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2130557/posts?page=81#81)
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To: NowApproachingMidnight

I like the concept. I did some volunteer work for a charter school in Colorado re. their computer network. A couple of the kids were using TOR, and were righteously busted for it. I hadn’t played with TOR, so I tried it out when I got home.

In my experience, it is blindingly slow. I would have difficulty dealing with it, it was so slow. Did I tell you it is slow?

Again, the concept is nice, but it fails in the implementation .


33 posted on 04/15/2009 12:13:33 AM PDT by Habibi ("We gladly feast on those who would subdue us". Not just pretty words........)
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To: NowApproachingMidnight

Can you say “False Security”... LOL...


34 posted on 04/15/2009 2:47:40 AM PDT by Star Traveler
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To: Quix

You said — I’m skeptical anything can provide any privacy in our era.

LOL... that’s for sure. There’s liable to be some people out there who think this provides some kind of anonymity.

But, it’s really “false security”...

People should be aware of that and don’t go operating on the assumption that they have some kind of security.


35 posted on 04/15/2009 2:50:40 AM PDT by Star Traveler
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To: Star Traveler

Given that every phone call etc. is screened by acres of computers . . . and has been since 1970, at least . . .

Privacy has been long gone.

I doubt much of anything technological could help greatly . . . particularly if focused on by . . .


36 posted on 04/15/2009 7:35:06 AM PDT by Quix (POL Ldrs quotes fm1900 2 presnt: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2130557/posts?page=81#81)
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To: Quix
Skype at least hasn't been cracked and governments around the world are seeking to hire people to help attack it, according to what I've read in either The Register or The Inquirer (both UK sites). All voice, chat, video and files transferred in that are heavily encrypted, but it doesn't allow internet browsing, etc.

However, they do now know how to identify what is a Skype communication, even if they don't know what is said in it.

Finally, if you use Skype to call any landline or cell phone, you are screwed, because it becomes totally unencrypted once it hits the POTS line.

37 posted on 04/15/2009 8:18:41 AM PDT by ConservativeMind (When you're RuPaul posing as the wife of the president, you need all the make-up help you can get.)
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To: ConservativeMind

Sounds good.

Though I’d suspect that IF they wanted to crack a data stream . . . they probably have the computing power to do it . . . whether they can do it in real time is a whole ‘nother issue.

It’s slightly helpful that most stuff is low priority and gets lost in the mass of data.

However, it’s there with priority flags should they ever need to retrieve it and look at patterns, priorities etc.


38 posted on 04/15/2009 8:28:33 AM PDT by Quix (POL Ldrs quotes fm1900 2 presnt: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2130557/posts?page=81#81)
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To: NowApproachingMidnight

How long before this is declared illegal?


39 posted on 04/15/2009 8:53:31 AM PDT by JimRed ("Hey, hey, Teddy K., how many girls did you drown today?" TERM LIMITS, NOW AND FOREVER!)
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To: HelloooClareece
Google, Human Rights Watch and “an anonymous European” sponsor

Wonder if the "anonymous" European sponsor is Wikileaks?

JULY 31?, 2010 THU : (NJ : MAN , JACOB APPLEBAUM, IS [ALLEGEDLY] SEARCHED AT NEWARK AIRPORT -AFTER ARRIVING FROM THE NETHERLANDS- IN CONNECTION WITH WIKILEAKS INVESTIGATION ; HE IS A SEATTLE-BASED PROGRAMMER FOR AN ONLINE PRIVACY PROTECTION PROJECT CALLED TOR; AGENTS KEEP HIS THREE MOBILE PHONES BUT LET HIM GO----see SEATTLE, TOR, INTERNET) -----“Researcher detained at U.S. border, questioned about Wikileaks”by Elinor Mills, LAS VEGAS —, July 31, 2010 4:16 PM PDT http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20012253-245.html

40 posted on 12/18/2010 11:48:43 PM PST by piasa
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