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Egyptians Turn To Tor To Organize Dissent Online

An anonymous reader writes "Even as President Obama prepares to follow Mubarak with his own 'internet kill switch', Egyptians were turning to the Tor anonymiser to organise their protests online. The number of Egyptians connecting to the internet over Tor rose more than five-fold after protests broke out last week before crashing when the Government severed links to the global internet. Information security researcher, Tor coder and writer of the bridge that allowed Egypt's citizens to short-circuit government filters, Jacob Appelbaum, told SC Magazine Egyptians were 'concerned and some understand the risk of network traffic analysis.' Appelbaum has himself been the subject of attention from US security services who routinely snatch his electronics and search his belongings when he re-enters the country and who subpoenaed his private Twitter account last December." Which helps explain why Appelbaum is helping to organize a small fundraiser to get more communications gear into Egypt.

15 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. I'm Confused by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm a little confused. How does Tor work when they shut down the Internet?

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    1. Re:I'm Confused by Narkov · · Score: 4, Funny

      Don't let facts get in the way of a good story.

    2. Re:I'm Confused by lazy_nihilist · · Score: 5, Funny

      Simple. The Internet treats censorship as damage and routes around it.

    3. Re:I'm Confused by 0123456 · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'm a little confused. How does Tor work when they shut down the Internet?

      RFC 1149.

    4. Re:I'm Confused by Isaac+Remuant · · Score: 3, Funny

      Don't let research get in the way of a smart-ass comment.

      --
      "Science can amuse and fascinate us all, but it is engineering that changes the world. " - Asimov.
    5. Re:I'm Confused by thetartanavenger · · Score: 3, Informative

      I'm a little confused. How does Tor work when they shut down the Internet?

      From the summary:

      Egyptians were turning to the Tor anonymiser to organise their protests online.

      I presume they meant prior to their loss of connection. Of course a headline of "Egyptians Were Using Tor to Organise Dissent Online" would be much less dramatic.

      --
      Who need's speling and grammar?
    6. Re:I'm Confused by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
      Here

      Your donation will go to providing satellite internet devices, other related equipment, to help with network access costs,and general support for Egyptians and people working with Egypt during this crisis and beyond.

      Not very hard to find an answer.
      Instead of an invoice for my 3 minutes of searching, may I kindly ask you to go to the posted link, fill in the form and hit the "Donate" button.
      Thank you.

  2. Net kill switch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I see people always going on about that. I can't see how this would help in the US. If people were protesting or there was unrest in the US, hitting the net kill switch would be economic suicide. In Egypt and Tunisia, the net was used more for socializing than business. In the US, the bulk of net use (in pure data) is business related. Our entire economy runs off of the net now. Turning it off would shut down or severely hobble a large number of fortune 500 companies, not to mention thousands of small and medium sized businesses. Also, like in Egypt and Tunisia, it would just give people more reason to go out on the streets. Without the net to bitch about the state of the country/world on, they would turn to going outside and raising hell instead. So sure, the govt can build their kill switch, but only if they plan to jettison our economy with the push oa button.

    1. Re:Net kill switch by ScentCone · · Score: 5, Informative

      I can't see how this would help in the US

      You're misunderstanding what the "kill switch" legislation is. It's not technical. It's a legal mechanism by which the administration can tell services (including operations like Twitter or Google, or just Google's Gmail service, or an entire ISP, or just one blog site), software vendors, or individual engineers that they must take a specific action as required during an emergency. It's no different that the government's already existing ability to commandeer ham radio equipment, or cruise ships, or food distribution companies. If they think that a dozen people are waiting for instructions via Twitter to time their dropping off of backpack bombs on subway trains all around the country, then the "kill switch" is invoked: federal power to tell Twitter to shut down or otherwise do what they say has to be done. The legislation lays out penalties for failure to comply with such orders.

      This doesn't give the president a button to push. It gives him lawyers to push, in real time, on short notice.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    2. Re:Net kill switch by SirAstral · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It wouldn't help a thing. This is politician solution to a problem that's not even a problem. If I were a foreign country I would be cheering the kill switch on, and when it passes, I would try every living thing I could in CyberAssualt to make them throw the kill switch. We will cause far more damage to ourselves than any cyber attack if we turn ourselves off.

      but we just keep voting these ass clowns into power. the problem is not our elected corrupt officials, its the people stuck in some ridiculous idea of a party system that George Washington our 1st president warned would destroy us!

      Did you vote Democrat? Then you are part of the problem!
      Did you vote Republican? Then you are part of the problem!

  3. It's further proof. by pizzach · · Score: 3, Informative

    Proof that anyone using a Tor is a criminal with something to hide. They just happen to be breaking Egyption laws instead of US ones. The scumbags. [/end sarcasm]

    --
    Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.
  4. Partisan bullshit overtaking slashdot??? WTFF??! by catmistake · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Even as President Obama prepares to follow Mubarak with his own 'internet kill switch',

    WTF??? I'm really getting sick and tired of this partisan garbage on slashdot. It's bad enough that it's in posters' comments, do we really have to have it force fed to us in the summaries? Hey lefties... fuck you... but you righties, a special "go fuck yourself" from me, mkay? Arrogant lying assholes... say anything to make the competition look bad, anything at all to win. Stupid, women-hating, fascist money lovers. Bite me.

  5. Revolution Radio by unlocked · · Score: 4, Informative

    Get some 100 watt FM transmitters make a afsk broadcast(Setting up Soundmodem on Linux). Next plug headphone jack from fm radio into laptop use multimon or windows equivalent. Just have to coordinate freq maybe could try encrypting it with open-ssh and sharing certs

  6. Re:Partisan bullshit overtaking slashdot??? WTFF?? by metacell · · Score: 3, Interesting

    For a European like me, the difference between Democratic and Republican presidents seems minimal with regards to electronic surveillance and censorship.

    In my own country, Sweden, the parties conveniently switch to criticising surveillance and censorship when they're out of power, only to conveniently switch back when they're in power again.

  7. WTF this is an obvious troll by Edmund+Blackadder · · Score: 4, Informative

    When has president Obama suggested an Internet kill switch? This is the idea of a Republican senator and has not been endorsed or supported by Obama, afaik. This should have never made it to the front page, it is an obvious troll.