[October 21, 2015] Foundation of 'dark Web' steps into the light

Politico ^ | 10/21/15 04:52 PM EDT | David Perera

[Cats Pajamas]

The Tor Project, the foundation of the crime-infiltrated "dark Web," is trying to soften its public image — but without backing away from the anonymous Web-surfing technology that has made it so controversial with law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

For about a decade, the Massachusetts-based nonprofit has provided free software that lets activists and political dissidents visit websites and exchange messages outside the scrutiny of oppressive governments. But the same software HAS ALLOWED HIDDEN MARKETS FOR CHILD PORNOGRAPHY, GUNS, ILLEGAL DRUGS AND STOLEN CREDIT CARD INFORMATION TO FLOURISH, while heightening U.S. intelligence agencies' worries about technology providing an unbreakable wall of anonymity for leakers, spies and terrorists.

ABOUT ONE-THIRD OF TOR'S FUNDING COMES THROUGH A GOVERNMENT-INCORPORATED NON-PROFIT CALLED THE OPEN TECHNOLOGY FUND, ESTABLISHED DURING THE “INTERNET FREEDOM” PUSH AT THE STATE DEPARTMENT UNDER THEN-SECRETARY HILLARY CLINTON.

Using Tor to reach websites requires a modified browser that navigates an encrypted circuit of three to six specially configured servers. The Tor Project doesn’t own or control those servers — they’re maintained by volunteers spread out across the globe. As a result, Dingledine and the Tor Project have no idea who’s using Tor.

“A few years ago I presented at a conference run by the FBI,” Dingledine said. "At the end of the conference one of the FBI agents took me aside and asked, ‘Surely you have some sort of way of tracking your users?’ When I pointed at his FBI colleagues in the room who had told me they use Tor every day for their work, and asked if he'd be comfortable if we had a way of tracing them, I think he got it."

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/foundation-of-dark-web-steps-into-the-light-215027#ixzz4A02VGuXL Follow us: @politico on Twitter | Politico on Facebook

[Cats Pajamas]

The Onion Router/Tor, is that why email servers need to be kept in barns in New York and bathroom linen closets in Colorado?

[dp0622]

then how did they arrest hundreds for trading child porn on the darknet?

[E. Pluribus Unum]

1984 was supposed to be a warning, not an instruction manual.

[David G. Hall]

"HAS ALLOWED HIDDEN MARKETS FOR CHILD PORNOGRAPHY, GUNS, ILLEGAL DRUGS AND STOLEN CREDIT CARD INFORMATION TO FLOURISH,"

Well, if it's in ALL CAPS, it must be BAD, BAD, BAD.

Kiddie porn and drugs can be bought on the sidewalk too, so let's ban sidewalks.

[rstrahan]

By contacting the users through Tor and getting them to reveal themselves.

[kingu]

then how did they arrest hundreds for trading child porn on the darknet?

They created their own server, distributing child porn for months, and exploited a hole in the Firefox browser that was packaged into the TOR Browser bundle. I suspect that the hole involved enabling javascript or some similar method to get the browser to identify their real IP address.

And I'm equally sure that the same hole is being exploited by various intelligence services who are rooting out 'subversive' elements in Iran and Syria.

[dp0622]

wow. I understand about 40 percent of that but enough to get the idea.

My cousin finally told me what roles LG, Android and T Mobile hold in the big cell phone picture.

I through they were three different names for the same phone lol

[dp0622]

thanks. Should have though of that, losing my sharpness at only 48!! oh well :)

[tacticalogic]

then how did they arrest hundreds for trading child porn on the darknet?

Social engineering.

They found a vulnerability between the chair and the keyboard.

[KarlInOhio]

HAS ALLOWED HIDDEN MARKETS FOR CHILD PORNOGRAPHY, GUNS, ILLEGAL DRUGS AND STOLEN CREDIT CARD INFORMATION TO FLOURISH,

ABOUT ONE-THIRD OF TOR'S FUNDING COMES THROUGH A GOVERNMENT-INCORPORATED NON-PROFIT CALLED THE OPEN TECHNOLOGY FUND, ESTABLISHED DURING THE “INTERNET FREEDOM” PUSH AT THE STATE DEPARTMENT UNDER THEN-SECRETARY HILLARY CLINTON.

So, using the leaps of "logic" the left uses against conservatives, Hillary must be a child pornographer.

Of course the words "Hillary" and "porn" in the same sentence will make most men's genitals shrink faster than a dip into Arctic sea water.

[dp0622]

that sums up humans pretty well. :)

in this case vulnerable, and SICK.

Imagine. Hundreds of the world’s most disgusting people in one chat room.

[Laser_Ray]

Three big reasons:

1. Bugging the FireFox software that came with the Tor bundle. That’s why I check the hashes after each and every download and report if they don’t match.

2. Users blithely giving out identifiable personal information

3. CP being left unencrypted or with pitiful protection that it might as well have been, like happens every day all across America with other kinds of digital information. I’d bet a fair number of those arrested practically had a neon sign pointing to the pictures/movies in question.

If you want to access Tor and “bring anything home”, your only safe bet is to ensure it never gets stored on a magnetic hard drive as these are near-impossible to totally erase, that it is secured as all hell and most importantly that you DO NOT save passwords on paper or in digital form.