Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Tor Usage More Than Doubles In August

Posted by timothy on from the gee-fellas-I-wonder-why dept.

hypnosec writes that the Tor network has witnessed a massive rise in the number of users connecting to it for the month of August. "The privacy-enhancing network is known for providing an anonymous browsing experience through the use of a series of encrypted relays, and has had as many as 500k users throughout this year so far. But if we check the latest statistics available through Tor Metrics Portal there has been a whopping 100 percent increase in the number of Tor clients and as many as 1,200,000 users are connecting to the network. The previous peak for the network was in January 2012, when it saw as many as 950,000 users."

10 of 186 comments (clear)

  1. So is this because... by barlevg · · Score: 4, Interesting

    (a) Awareness of NSA surveillance has caused people to seek out TOR, or

    (b) Increased awareness of TOR, thanks to the coverage of NSA surveillance, has caused people to try to evade said surveillance?

    1. Re:So is this because... by Noxal · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I'm a US citizen that's strongly opposed to all of this bullshit. I've lost my own patience for my government.
      What should people like me do to show people like you that we're just as fed up as you are, if not more? Protest? Rebel? Sign some pledge? Comment on Slashdot?
      What more do you want to see from the people of the United States?

    2. Re:So is this because... by somersault · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Protest, yes. Regular protests, everywhere, until something is actually done. I don't understand why a bigger deal wasn't made of the Patriot act. I'm not even that into politics, but that one was very obviously a no-no, fancypants Constitution or not.

      --
      which is totally what she said
    3. Re:So is this because... by Sloppy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I'm a US citizen that's strongly opposed to all of this bullshit. I've lost my own patience for my government.
      What should people like me do to show people like you that we're just as fed up as you are, if not more?

      Fuck it. It's not true, but if it helps, think of it like this: the president ordered the NSA to order Snowden to "leak" what they've been up to, as a sort of Public Service Announcement to America and the rest of the world, to make us think about privacy issues.

      Your own federal government is just one of a hundred potential adversaries. The fact that they intercept network traffic is not merely a statement from your government that they have malicious intent. It's also a proof-of-concept that there are technical problems with the network; that parties with malicious intent are able to do damage. And that means that even if your government didn't have malicious intent, you would still have the problem and adversaries would still be spying on you.

      You can't solve that second half of the problem by running for Congress or persuading your government to become benevolent. You solve it by working on key exchange. That is what everyone needs, because we have had some great tech for decades now, but there's some kind of difficulty that is keeping people from using it. Solve it, for everyone from grandma to teenager, and you're the hero of the century.

      If you want to work on the civics problem in parallel with the technical+techsocial problems, ok. But don't for a moment ever lie to yourself and think it will make one iota of difference as to how much privacy anyone has. The AC you replied to, doesn't get it. The US government isn't his real problem either; he just thinks it is. He hopes his bitching will shame one of the adversaries on his hundred-long list, to shape up and behave civilized, leaving him with a mere 99 to go. That is a doomed strategy.

      --
      As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
    4. Re:So is this because... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Egyptians got rid of their dictator and then their elected government without using lethal force against them. Sure, afterwards the military did kill some Islamists, but the protesters themselves never had to kill anyone. The police were unwilling to fight the protesters too much because they basically supported them.

      Recent human history suggests that protest, on a large enough scale, is effective and does not require lethal force to work. There has to be a majority behind the protests though.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  2. In need of more relays by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This in fact means that the Tor network is in need of more relays and exit nodes. If you have access to a server that meets the requirements, you could consider it.

  3. Anyhows by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 4, Interesting

    > "there has been a whopping 100 percent increase in the number of Tor clients

    Half of them in those new, billion-dollar data centers, no doubt. Maybe they can't crack the traffic yet, but they could get relatively accurate dynamic topologies, and use their other, non-Tor nodes, also judiciously placed around in Internet backbones, to learn connections to individual computers.

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  4. Re:..or by Smask · · Score: 5, Interesting

    (e) botnets that use TOR for command and control stuff.

  5. Liability of exit nodes by garry_g · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The increased usage increases the problem of bad throughput ... haven't used it in a while, but when I played around with it a bit, latency (which would be expected) but more importantly throughput was bad to unbearable ... more users require more performance at the exit nodes, which means more exit nodes are needed ...
    Having run an exit node for a short while myself, I know of the results: within less than 4 weeks, we received an inquiry into the owner/operator of the machine with the node's IP address, due to reported child porn access. Luckily, the police seemed to be halfway knowledgeable, and with the provided infos on the operation of the node (stats about the node throughput, etc.) they stopped investigating the issue. Needless to say node operation was terminated the day we received the initial inquiry. Without decent "provider status protection" for exit nodes, the risk for operators may be a bit too high unless extensive (and expensive) measures are taken to block illegal material ... which, in turn, makes the whole network subject to other manipulation, and goes against the reason for the network ...

  6. Encryption + VPN + Tor is not anonymous by WOOFYGOOFY · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Tor is great to stop your neighbor from spying on your people-dressed-as-cows porn fetish, since it's trivial for someone who lives close to you to sniff your packets (a fact confirmed to me by my ISP btw). SO it's great for privacy from nosy ./ curious / thrill seeking neighbors or defending yourself against common cyber criminals. If you're hoping to position yourself AS a criminal using Tor, for-gheeda-bow-tit.

    Just saying this so no one makes the youthful mistake of thinking they can, for instance, order molly from the silkroad and never have that fact traced back to them. Criminals are going to do what they do and Tor isn't going to protect them and that's between those people and law enforcement. What we don't want is young people whose brains and judgement aren't fully developed yet , but whose taste for adventure is, being caught in the meat-grinder of an incarceration-for-profit system complete with mandatory minimum sentences because they were severely misled on technical matters.

    Do you know what the cost of owning (statistically , virtually) ALL of the exit nodes and most of the intermediate nodes of Tor is? It's effectively zero to the collective financial and technical resources of the "five eyes", that's what it is.

    Oh but WoofyGoofy I use a VPN and encrypt everything !!!! And therefore what do you think follows? When you also own both ends of the connections and every major ISP etc etc How hard is it to attach unique identifying packets to your packets as they pass back into the network and then track them through it? Or a little Bayesian analysis based on just the time and size of your packets? Tor is based on the idea that most nodes are not pwned. That assumption is almost certainly false. Remember this also- law enforcement only needs a subpoena for your online activities and email if it's recent- 18 months. When the information you generated is older than that- and Google et.al. keep it FOR-EVAH-AH - that's forever to the phonically challenged- law enforcement can look at it without even so much as a warrant- just ask and ye shall receive, and yes, that includes the CONTENT of your emails etc. Look it up.

    There are a lot of dangers to the total information awareness that's been set up. The one people focus in on is J Edgar Hoover style political repression.

    Another one is that we're creating a generation of people who get caught for *absolutely* *every* transgression. Call them "generation busted".

    People didn't evolve to be either perfectly compliant nor perfectly spied on all the time, everywhere and and norms of society didn't evolve with that as a fact either. Young people whose judgment is not in effect are a potential gold mine for people who make money off things like parole and incarceration and they will push to increase their revenue flow just like any other corporation would.

    After all, who do you THINK lobbied for mandatory minimum sentencing? Who do you think pushes for three strike laws for what are basically non-violent offenders- stealing pizza, shit like that? This is a real danger.

    I know one friend's son who is constantly in trouble with the law over shit like smoking ladies soap bubbles and petty shoplifting and such shit. Basically, it's like watching a lamb being fed to the wolves piece by piece. Soon enough he'll have enough of a record that they'll lock him up, making him permanently unemployable and then wait for him to commit a robbery or suchlike. It's sickening. The kid has severe mental health issues, probably was born that way and should be on some form of permanent public assistance. There exist people like that. It's cheaper than locking him up. Let him smoke dope, watch TV play games and just exist in whatever way makes sense to him. People are born who are just like this for reasons we don't understand, it's not anyone's fault, least of all his.

    Just as bad is kids who are transgressive as a kind of experimentation, like, oh I don't know our coke snorting (he admits to it) President. Go to a