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

Re:The root of the problem

[Anonymous Coward]

What do you propose we Western geeks do about the government of Iran?

Iran's government is afraid, and thereby stupid

[cryfreedomlove]

This arms race of censorship and counter measures will have one definitive outcome: the best and the brightest of Iranian youth will find a way to emigrate because they don't want to live in an isolated theocracy. The resulting brain drain will set them back a century. This is what happens to governments driven by fear. Those in power in Iran fear their own people the most.

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

[TubeSteak]

Don't forget that the US State Department is the de-facto sponsor of TOR.
TOR gets most of its funding from groups that get most of their funding from the State Dept.

If the censor can't see it, it will get blocked.

[davidwr]

"If we can't parse it, it gets blocked."

In the old days, Cuban international phone calls were monitored. At least one person started talking a language other than English or Spanish and the operator broke in and told them to speak English or Spanish or get cut off.

Source: Something I read in a reputable newspaper or magazine back in the 1970s or 1980s.