Tor Tests Undetectably Encrypted Connections In Iran

Sparrowvsrevolution writes "Ahead of the anniversary of Iran's revolution, the country's government has locked down its already-censored Internet, blocking access to many services and in some cases cutting off all encrypted traffic on the Web of the kind used by secure email, social networking and banking sites. In response, the information-freedom-focused Tor Project is testing a new tool it's calling 'obfsproxy,' or obfuscated proxy, which aims to make SSL or TLS traffic appear to be unencrypted traffic like HTTP or instant messaging data. While the tool currently only disguises SSL as the SOCKS protocol, in future versions it will aim to disguise encrypted traffic as any protocol the user chooses. Tor executive director Andrew Lewman says the idea is to 'make your Ferrari look like a Toyota by putting an actual Toyota shell over the Ferrari.'" Reader bonch adds: "A thread on Hacker News provides first-hand accounts as well as workarounds."

Comments

The root of the problem

[hobarrera]

While this is a great effort, and I really congratulate the Tor proyect for all that they've done and continue to do, this still is nowhere close to the solution on the real issue here: governments that over and over again limit people's freedom of speech and privacy.

Re:The root of the problem

[capnchicken]

Unfortunately you always have to build things in spite of people, and can never count on altruism because there will always be bad actors, and those bad actors always have the chance of gaining power. It's the human condition, the only thing you can do is route around it. I agree we should address it from many fronts, but technological circumvention, while maybe only alleviating symptoms, seems to be very effective.

Seems about right

[bigredradio]

The more you tighten your grip, $dictator, the more $locations will slip through your fingers. - $rebel_princess.

Re:Disguise encrypted as unencrypted?

[pushing-robot]

It's steganography. They've created a strong AI capable of passing as human and conversing intelligently with other copies of itself. Each AI instance develops relationships with others, sharing email and IMs about its loves and hates, passions and dreams, even photos of virtual family and pets. All of which can contain a hidden payload of your private data.

But enough technical mumbo-jumbo. What matters is you'll now be able to surf porn sites without anyone knowing.

Re:Sounds like a tool for P I R A T E S !!

[phrostie]

Wasn't it the Government that first created it?

from their about page:

"Tor was originally designed, implemented, and deployed as a third-generation onion routing project of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. It was originally developed with the U.S. Navy in mind, for the primary purpose of protecting government communications. Today, it is used every day for a wide variety of purposes by normal people, the military, journalists, law enforcement officers, activists, and many others. "

Re:Sounds like a tool for P I R A T E S !!

[chichilalescu]

dear slashdot,
can we please have a +1 "sad but true" option?

Re:Sounds like a tool for P I R A T E S !!

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

Wasn't it the Government that first created it?

The US government also funded the Taliban (to fight the Russians) and the Israeli goverment funded Hamas (to fight the PLO).