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Raided For Running a Tor Exit Node
An anonymous reader writes "A Tor Exit node owner is being prosecuted in Austria. As part of the prosecution, all of his electronics have been held by the authorities, including over 20 computers, his cell phone and hard disks. 'During interview with police later on Wednesday, Weber said there was a "more friendly environment" once investigators understood the Polish server that transmitted the illegal images was used by Tor participants rather than by Weber himself. But he said he still faces the possibility of serious criminal penalties and the possibility of a precedent that Tor operators can be held liable if he's convicted.' This brings up the question: What backup plan, if any, should the average nerd have for something like this?"
Cloud storage, and make the exit node a leech off your neighbors wifi.
Lots of money.
Look at Kim Dotcom.
If you're running Tor, or FreeNet, or anything else with the possibility of pissing off the man - be prepared for the concequences. The authorities repsonse here is pretty standard across the board.
Any Freenet nodes get raided? That's a good test for how secure the system is.
..don't panic
If a TOR exit node can be prosecuted for traffic passing through it, should the ISP and backbone router owners not also be held responsible for traffic passing through their nodes? If the ISP and network operators are not held responsible then neither should the TOR node owner.
Ummm, don't run an exit Tor node if you aren't prepared to be sued for distributing child porn?
Run a dark net.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
"What backup plan, if any, should the average nerd have for something like this?"
Select a new exit node, duh.
I think not running TOR is about all you can do.
Of course if this is something they can prosecute you for, can they also prosecute your ISP as well?
You mean to tell me you guys don't have your cases rigged with thermite?
Not running a Tor exit node. Really, they could say that any participant of the Tor network could have been participating in distribution of illegal materials; running an exit node just lets them prove the exit node operator in particular was doing so.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
If you ship contraband via FedEx, is FedEx a criminal?
If you want real security, you should be using a network where the data never "exits" from the secure zone. And never let other people use your network blindly for their own purposes, until something like common carrier status is established for that sort of thing.
This was Austria. I can't imagine the FBI or any other local jurisdiction being that much friendlier. Even if the law is technically on your side, expect to have to lose everything defending your rights.
It's hard for the average nerd, you either have to be so small and invisible that you can take off at a moment's notice, or maintain shell corporations that own all the stuff that might get taken. If you own a house, or have a family that you care about, fugetaboutit.
All ideas^H^H^H^H^Hprocesses in this post are Patent Pending. (as well as the process of patenting all postings)
What average nerd runs a TOR exit node?
For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
I've wondered, from day one, why anyone would be crazy enough to run a TOR exit node. Why would you willing serve as the front man for someone else's unknown but likely illegal activity? It's just crazy.
Running an exit node is just begging to get arrested for child porn. I'm positively amazed that it doesn't happen a LOT more often.
They likely will not turn it off when they remove it. There are products just for that purpose.
Destruction of the USB stick would get you Obstruction of Justice charges.
If I were an American nerd, I could just argue that running the exit node is my patriotic duty. After all, the NSA wants there to be a lot of tor traffic so it can send its state secrets securely.
yes and all of that same stuff can be traded o the open internet securely via ssl ssh pgp and other encryption schemes.
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
The problem is not the exit node, no information of any value contains there, and nothing that can incriminate you will be on the exit node.
The problem is the complete raid of everything of value you own and depend on that had no part in the exit node, no matter what is stored on the machines. Likely keeping them for months, even years depending on how far they want to go with the case.
c++;
Here is your "backup" plan. Ditch all your computers never use the internet again because the people running the countries are retarded, insane, and looking for a good witch hunt.
It is a bad time in history to be a nerd.
I guess they should arrest all pawn shop owners as they often facilitate the fencing of stolen goods.
What backup plan, if any, should the average nerd have for something like this?
1. Don't run an exit node
2. if 1 fails, fly to Belize and live blog my evasion of the local police
Traditional backup methods are good against media failure, or even natural disaster, but ineffective against seizure. The standard police procedure is 'if in doubt, take everything,' because it isn't practical to train frontline officers to work out what is and isn't potentially evidence. That's why they take cell phones and games consoles. That and, as the more cynical point out, the more miserable they can make the defendent the easier it is to force a plea bargin. So they'll take all your backups too.
You can forget about getting that back, too. Even if all charges are dropped. Law enforcement is well-known all around the world for their reluctance to return siezed evidence, espicially evidence that may one day go into police auction. Even if they are willing to return it, many areas have overwhelmed forensics staff and computers can sit in the locker for months before there is an expert available to poke around and declare them free of anything incriminating.
So if you do have reason to worry about being raided - eg, you run an open wireless hotspot or exit node - then a sensible precaution is to keep backups of critical data somewhere out of reach, like a cloud store hosted overseas, or drives left with trusted friends for safekeeping. Making sure, of course, that no-one else knows - you don't want them to get raided too!
Also beware of another police policy. It varies by country, and even by state and district, but many departments are loathe to let any accused off without charge or found not guilty - it makes them look incompetent, wrongly arresting someone. So they will likely resort to the 'throw the book' approach, going through the evidence looking for any other, unrelated crimes they can find. Sure, you may not have actually launched that attack or trafficked those illegal files they raided you for - but if, in the process of investigating, they discover you've been involved in piracy or find chat logs of you talking about your drunken vandalism or theft of office supplies, or something which would be otherwise borderline illegal, they will happily add more charges - insurance in case you were innocent of the original accusations, and to pile on more pressure for a plea bargin. Prosecutors love guilty pleas - much more reliable than actually having to prove something beyond reasonable doubt.
You can encrypt, of course. But that just makes you look even more suspicious, plus in most countries now it's either an explicit crime to withhold keys from police or considered a form of withholding evidence, either of which gets you jailed anyway. Even if you legally wriggle free from that, good luck getting a jury to see it as anything other than a sign you are trying to hide evidence of whatever terrible act you are accused of.
Simply tell the prosecution / judge - "I run a TOR exit node to help preserve freedoms on the internet, especially those of people oppressed in countries like Syria and other places. If you choose to prosecute me for running a TOR exit node which, by its stated purpose and nature, is encrypted and anonymous AND which I have no control of the data flowing through it then you must also prosecute EVERY internet service provider over which the same data flowed. I do not know now, nor have I ever known, exactly what data flows over the exit node. Just like ISPs do not know what data is flowing over their networks."
DO NOTHING ELSE. Even if it makes complete sense to you (keeping an encrypted backup of all your data and computer images off-site), the prosecution will do what they can to skew that to "Why did you keep encrypted backups off-site? What are you hiding?" Fuck 'em. Don't give them any ammunition in their fear-mongering quest to rule your life. Come away clean and then lawyer up and sue the police departments, all government levels* involved, and even the prosecutor. Your aim with the lawsuits is not to get paid, it is to get all your electronics back in a timely manner if they refuse to give them back once you are cleared. Of course, if they're being dicks about it then the object is to get your equipment back and get VERY large settlements.
*Not sure how the government levels are in Austria, but here in the United States we have city government, county government, then state, then federal. Depending on who is doing the prosecution, I would start my lawsuits with that level of government and work my way down. Same with the police forces involved.
Dream as if you'll live forever.
Live as if you'll die tomorrow.
~Anonymous~
OK, I know cops don't get paid much and that buying Christmas presents is hell but I had no idea it's this bad.
If a TOR exit node can be prosecuted for traffic passing through it, should the ISP and backbone router owners not also be held responsible for traffic passing through their nodes? If the ISP and network operators are not held responsible then neither should the TOR node owner.
Your ISP has a legally established "safe harbor" exclusion. In the U.S. you establish yourself as an ISP when you register your company with the FCC as a telecommunications provider/ISP.
Individuals running TOR exit nodes enjoy no similar protections and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Those that are not prosecuted for the illegal act itself will be prosecuted for facilitating/aiding and abetting the criminal activity.
Lawyers, guns, and money.
If you taker packet from somebody without knowing the packet content, hide it on your person or car, then bring it discretely to somebody else, are you a criminal ? In the juridiction I know of, yes you would be seen as a complice of the crime, imagine for example that you are raided while delivering the packet and it turns out it is cocaine, good luck trying to use a defense of "but I did not knew what was inside".
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
I run a tor exit node, have open wifi, use free software, and host key parties because I believe in freedom. Also (and this is a common sentiment) running a tor exit node or open wifi gives plausible deniability if the **AA throw a lawsuit at you. The secret service have interviewed (not raided) me a couple times and they've advised me to disable my open wifi. But stories like this make me rethink my stance.
bury yourself in your yard with a cardboard box above your head for air when the police come to question you because you know you're innocent!
http://betabeat.com/2012/11/murder-suspect-and-bath-salts-enthusiast-john-mcafee-claims-hes-innocent/
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
If raided by the policy you need to prove that your innocent of intentionally distributing porn. They will have enough evidence to prove that porn came from your network already. Destroying stuff hurts your case that it didn't start with you. Read the story. The policy became friendly after they checked all his stuff and didn't find anything illegal. He may be able to get his stuff back after paying a fine. If he had destroyed some stuff his chance of going to prison would have encreased dramatically.
My backup plan is to encrypt my Tor exit node with TrueCrypt FDE. Yes, it means I have to run Windows, since FDE support is not available for Linux yet. However, the FBI has not been able to defeat TrueCrypt. They can say the traffic came from your internet connection, but they cannot prove that you viewed any of it.
that's not a backup plan. all that will do in a case like this seem that you did stash the illegal material on your own machine and drag the case on forever.
the real backup if any is keeping a log about every packet, so you can pass the blame.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
You say freedom martyr like that's a bad thing.
My co-resident at the zendo at which I reside and I have been discussing setting up a Tor exit node for a while. The arguments against, are obvious - last I checked the general recommendation was to lease a server at a facillity that was set up for the likely eventual legal problems. But we're both fairly squeaky clean, and would be happy to talk at length about why we feel this is important. (And are in situations where spending time in jail, while not fun, wouldn't ruin us. Or would ruin us less quickly than most, anyway.)
And good friends who are lawyers in the right specialties.
I guess the argument really is that someone has to stand up for freedom. And frankly, some people have more wherewithal than others to do so. ...but it might be hard on the zendo. And so we haven't, yet.
What backup plan, if any, should the average nerd have for something like this?
That depends upon what you mean by "something like this?
.
Do you mean to imply that an "average nerd" fosters possible illegal activity?
Or do you mean to imply that having a Tor node is OK?
This situation isn't completely unheard of. It's happened a few times before. Raids by technically-clueless police forces are an occupational hazard for TOR exit node operators. It's happened in the US, too. However, this is interesting, as several very large TOR nodes are run in Austria in major datacenters. EDIS, UPC and Silver Server in particular host some well-known, stable ones. Best of luck to this guy. Has he contacted EFF Europe already?
If you host one, it should be clearly and completely separate from everything else (especially with a separate IP), it should ideally be unencrypted - all the information on there, after all, will only corroborate your defence - and it must not log.
Regardless of any risks or their probability or magnitude, we of the TOR project, and the many people whose lives are quite literally saved by TOR every day, salute you intrepid exit node maintainers. You are doing the right thing. Bravo.
https://www.torproject.org/eff/tor-legal-faq:—
Should I run an exit relay from my home?
No. If law enforcement becomes interested in traffic from your exit relay, it's possible that officers will seize your computer. For that reason, it's best not to run your exit relay in your home or using your home Internet connection.
Instead, consider running your exit relay in a commercial facility that is supportive of Tor. Have a separate IP address for your exit relay, and don't route your own traffic through it.
Of course, you should avoid keeping any sensitive or personal information on the computer hosting your exit relay, and you never should use that machine for any illegal purpose.
c++;
lots and lots of strong magnets to wipe the whole lot! Wipe all the evidence!
If you gave me a choice between a printer and a giraffe with explosive diarrhoea, i'll get my ladder and my raincoat
Of course, FDE only applies when used in a country with a 5th Amendment style of protection. And this assumes that law enforcement actually follows the law, which is not always the case. In some countries, it can be court ordered to hand over passwords. This would not work there.
Solution: run your Tor exit node in a country that has a 5th Amendment style of protection.
sudo make me a sandwich
This is the Austrian police, I know these dunces. Be happy if they manage to get the Server out of the door without too much damage to the rest of your infrastructure because they're even too stupid to unplug it properly.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
"You also know a lot of stupid people are lobbying any gov against anything remotely related to the children or ben laden."
Holy crap... now his half brother Ben is hated across the globe? What is wrong with the Laden family?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
You need to set up a fake alias and buy the server and pay for it with your fake alias. make sure it does not point at you in any real way.
Step 1 get a fake ID for an address that you have never lived at.
Step 2 get a credit card for that alias.
Step 3 Profit!
It's 100% illegal, but if you do it carefully, when the server is raided, there is no direct trace back at you.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Set it up so that if a certain encrypted file isn't updated manually at certain intervals, the entire system self-immolates.
Realistically, though, I've been thinking about building inconspicuous, low-power Tor exit servers that I can dead-drop in places with open wifi. That way, exits can be operated with a minimal threat of legal ramifications for anyone (plausible deniability on the part of the wifi provider).
To that end - anybody know where I can bulk order small form factor, inexpensive low-power computers that are battery pack/solar power friendly?
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
The same thing happend to me last year in UK. I was running TOR node for just two months back in 2009. Had my all computers sized for over half year as suspicion of possesion and distribution of indecent images.
My advice: DONT RUN TOR EXIT NODES. It's not worth it. Even if you are innocent: your reputation can be destroyed. (neighbors, family, girlfriend etc).
TOR its great idea - but exit node owners are taking huge risk: even if you will be cleared you might be charged by something else instead (like possesion of unlicensed software, music etc).
Also my advice: don't be try to be a smartass. You DONT WANT to take case to court - becasue then your name will automaticly land in newspapers next day.
I beg you: dont run TOR servers in home.
I believe the term that applies here is "herp derp". How could you be silly enough to allow anonymous individuals to access the internet through your computer? You might as well go buy a pound of cocaine and put a sign on your street corner advertising a free coke party. Of course this idiot got arrested and got his gear confiscated.
I made this point elsewhere, but FDE is running counter to your purpose, here. An exit node doesn't store data. They can already tell you transmitted the data, that's why they're at your door. Run a dedicated exit node that isn't used for another purpose. Don't use it for anything even remotely illegal. (Hell, don't use it for *anything*.) Don't encrypt it. If possible, set it up to log information about what connections the exit node makes to the Internet. Hell, log information about who on Tor requested it; the design of the system is such that that information isn't worth anything. Now it's trivial for an investigator to confirm that your story of the exit node producing the offending traffic is actually true.
ISPs are able to track which client sent which packets and can provide information to law enforcement when illegal activity has taken place over their network. ISPs are also a registered business entity whose purpose is widely recognized as providing internet access to other entities who are responsible for the content they access.
FedEx is able to track who sent a package, who it was addressed to, who took delivery of the package, etc. FedEx can provide information to law enforcement when illegal substances or materials are transported through their shipping system. FedEx is also a registered business entity whose purpose is widely recognized as providing parcel transportation services to other entities who are responsible for the items they ship.
Tor is designed to be completely anonymous and provides no facilities to track who is sending data and who it's destined for. Tor operators cannot provide this information to law enforcement when illegal activity has taken place through a Tor exit node. Tor operators are, in most cases, also not registered business entities. That is why when illegal activity takes place through Tor, the exit node operator is typically the first and only one investigated.
Q: How does the local police department know that Joe Schmoe at 123 Main Street is operating a Tor exit node?
A: They don't. There is no way to tell, aside from computer forensics, whether he was directly involved in illegal activities or not. That's why raids like this happen and will continue to happen. The Tor project warns you about, and you willingly accept the risk of, legal repercussions stemming from operating a Tor exit node.
tl;dr: This isn't news.
If I'd run a Tor exit node, it wouldn't be to anonymize paedophiles, but to help people in oppressive countries avoid persecution and censorship. So can one define a selective exit policy only allowing, for example, IP addresses of mass media websites known to be blocked in China?
My exception safety is -fno-exceptions.
"What backup plan, if any, should the average nerd have for something like this?"
Encrypted backups to SDXC 1TB card(s) as they are very small, put them in small plastic waterproof/airtight containers and hide them in out of the way public places.
And as an aside do this sort of thing on an offshore COLO and communicate using a netbook running a read only distro like DSL.
I killed da wabbit -Elmer Fudd
If I put on my tinfoil hat, I would say: "Maybe the FBI wants you to think TrueCrypt is uncrackable to encourage its use?"
And if I put on my neckbeard, I would say: "If you think there is something fishy with LUKS, check out the source code. It's also not a Redhat product."
The perfect, unquestionable reason to justify the right-wing death squad execution of reputation, privacy, anonymity, innocence before proven guilt...
And as all us compliant soccer moms know, at least 30% of every populace are child pron producers and consumers!
I'm surprised Orwell didn't write more about such a powerful tool.
http://lawcomic.net/guide/?p=446
20 computers isn't that much. WIth my family of 5, we have 3 home theater PCs, a server, 3 laptops, and 3 tablets that just have easily could have been additional laptops. That's 10 "computers" right there and I don't consider myself particularly nerdy anymore.
From one of the links the guys says that those 20 computers were mainly "barebone PCs, HP storage microservers, and thin clients". And it doesn't state if those were even functional computers. Over the years I've collected and scavenged from many old PCs that were going to be thrown out or were no longer wanted.
Because they want to hide their own activities.
Maybe but you don't know how many of them even have a second core, how many of them are non-ultra sparcs or alphas, and how many of them are an i586
Which gets me thinking.... if I ever do start running an exit node at home (again...I found it to be a bit too limiting once craigslist decided they didn't like posts from my home ip)... maybe I should start up all my old systems that I keep meaning to toss.
I bet the state would just love trying to sort out 4 different architectures, including SCSI drives with the old centronix connectors and a GS/OS filesystem :)
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
Really? Geez...I've downsized with moves post Katrina, but I've easily had 20 or more computers in my house on various projects...resurrecting some older servers I bought on the cheap, laptops in every room (being replaced in some cases with tablets), mac workstations, freeNAS set up, an old desktop for learning and running IPtables to run from ISP into an old cisco switch I bought...etc.
You can easily have a lot of projects going on if you like getting your geek on with hardware that is often picked up readily these days.
I'll admit, now that I'm working more with VM's...the actual number of physical boxes is likely to go down, but computers are cheap, and having a lot of them like this isn't that big a deal for some of us out there.
Hell, i didn't even mention the ones for the MAME boxes, mythtv....etc...
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
and if any forensics investigators under the age of 40 do end up combing my equipment....all the incriminating data is on the old looking machine in the basement labeled "VT100". Keep looking, I am sure you will find where its hidden.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
http://falkvinge.net/2012/09/07/three-reasons-child-porn-must-be-re-legalized-in-the-coming-decade/
My car has probably as many on board computers than that. It'd only be fishy if the car ended up in a lake.
A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
OK, so if the EFF is right, it's safe for Americans to run TOR exit nodes.
What good does this do people in other countries who want to run TOR exit nodes?
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Let's see. Cable modem/router, NAS, TV, two MacBooks, an iMac, two iPods, washer, dryer, microwave, fridge, and a bunch of toys with processors in them. Out of those, 8 have raster displays, and 9 can be considered general purpose since you have at least console-style access to them and can at least run scripts of some kind. Adding two cars to the mix, that's probably close to a 100 CPUs in one household of four people. Yes, I know a microprocessor doesn't really make a general purpose computer, but who said GP computers :)
A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
I mean, like corporations do it.
When a corporations is found guilty of selling military secrets to foreign countries, defrauding the IRS for millions, poisoning countless innocent people and kicking a puppy, the worst the get is a slap on the wrist... and maybe millionaire fines.
But you never hear of the houses of CEOs getting raided and all their personal computers and phones getting abducted because of it. Well except Kim Dotcom but we know due process doesn't apply to him. What about us? Can't we do something like that? Can't I use a corporation, or a non-profit to shield myself from ridiculous rides like this?
I mean, I understand that a government doesn't like when citizens use Tor, but why taking all his stuff? It's not like his phone was the exit node. And even if it was the case, what's the legal justification to allow them to search his phone or consoles or whatever without any evidence for it?
But... the future refused to change.
Is this a joke?
Well, in case it isn't: .. not even an over due book laying around in your house. The feds will turn your house upside down and they WILL find it...
1 - Be sure you are 101% clean
2 - Be sure your extended family is 101% clean, as they will be raided next if your raid turns up nothing.
3 - Expect to lose everything you have for months, if not years. Including your reputation, your job, your family and any finances you had... Get an attorney on retainer, might help you retain freedom during the proceedings..
4 - After the smoke clears, it was still your PC and account that allowed the a crime to be committed, so you are still liable, and most likely will go to jail. Enjoy your stay.
While its a great moral idea, in practical terms it just isn't worth the risk to run any sort of exit node for any 'dark' network.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
curiously absent from list of "serious" contingency plans.
The logical conclusion of allowing Tor is that anyone can communicate with anyone completely freely, including spreading slander, copyrighted material, terrorist planning, etc. No government is prepared to do that, so Tor exit nodes can't be legal (it seems easier to target exit nodes over relays and users). I hope people will change their mind as our society evolves, as I believe that bits can't hurt people (malicious code and commands can, but that's a separate problem)
yup VM's
i have 2 machines several VM's
I would name it something like
--anon-proxy-abuse-complaints-see-www.somewebpage.com--.mydomain.com
www.somewebpage.com would explain what Tor is and how to block it, and provide contact info. The cops might raid me anyway, but at least they wouldn't show up thinking I'm the pedophile/drug dealer/terrorist they're looking for.
Obviously both at the same time is better. =)
See you on the barricades!
All rites reversed 2010
At some point you'll have to pay the credit card bill if you want to keep the server running, at which point they'll be able to trace it to you. A possible solution may be to buy one of those prepaid VISA gift cards with cash (preferably at a location not close to where you live or work) and use that to pay for the server.
Really? Geez...I've downsized with moves post Katrina, but I've easily had 20 or more computers in my house on various projects...resurrecting some older servers I bought on the cheap, laptops in every room (being replaced in some cases with tablets), mac workstations, freeNAS set up, an old desktop for learning and running IPtables to run from ISP into an old cisco switch I bought...etc.
Hell, I'm not a hardware geek and I have six PCs, plus phones/iWidgets and other things that law enforcement will call a "computer" to make me look like a Vewwy Bad Man. Everything's not in working order, but I wouldn't expect the cops to notice or care.
Well, I suppose by recent nomenclature one could say I have a prostate - though classically they would be called Skene's glands. But it seems unlikely, on any number of levels.
(The extent to which prison rape is considered to be both acceptable and a great topic for jokes is pretty sad, really.)
Running a Tor node only helps a tiny bit.
Taking the issue through the courts has the potential to be much more useful. It would be nice for a right to privacy to mean something again, y'know?
Massive newsgroup floods by obviously mentally ill individuals.
So you run a Tor node and you have BT, child porn or nigerian spam traffic coming out of it. Did you really think law enforcement is just going to let you off the hook when you throw your hands up and say it's because you run a Tor node?