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Tor Is Building the Next Generation Dark Net With Funding From DARPA
Patrick O'Neill writes: After years of relative neglect, Tor has been able to dedicate increasing time and resources to its hidden services thanks to funding in part by DARPA, as well as an upcoming crowdfunding campaign. DARPA's funding lasts 1-3 years and covers several projects including security and usability upgrades that close the gap between hidden services and the everyday Internet. "Next-generation hidden services may be run from multiple hosts to better deal with denial of service attacks and high traffic in general, a potentially big power boost that further closes the gap between the Dark Net and normal websites. ... Hidden services, which make up about 4 percent of the entire Tor network, have until recently been relatively neglected when it comes to funding and developing."
Services running from multiple hosts... load balancing? Wow, what an achievement.
So, the gubmint agency that built the Internet... "owned" by the same gubmint that built NSA wants to build the new TOR to increase privacy?
Sounds trustworthy to me.
There is already a darknet which does load balancing and more and it has been out there for a while. It's called Freenet, look it up.
If you just want to complain why don't you fork the code and make a more trust worthy version or pony up the cash to pay someone else to do so?
I'll take NSA financed bug fixes over unpublished 0-days.
Not of the code but of the keys?
If they have the private keys of the master keys then can play man in the middle and control the list of servers you see, and what keys you see for them too.
Of course you'd only use that on an occasional target, not on a whole population.
To target the whole population they would simply supply a majority of the server power to Tor. Then if you were unlucky enough to pick all compromised hops they've got you.
I hear the random number generation is one of the new key features
int darpaRandomNumber() // chosen by fair dice roll. guaranteed to be random.
{
return 4;
}
The Darkside joined they have.
Exactly right. The drug war and the 'think of the children' meme are two of the worst things about the US. We could stop a lot of harm if we abolished them both.
Isn't it weird that DARPA would fund Tor and NSA/FBI would resist Tor?
Don't worry, the jackbooted goose-stepping fascist future you yearn for is closer than ever. Keep the faith. And keep whinging about paedos and terrorists, it's working.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
while the government agencies DHS and MPAA/RIAA work to close the torrents, DARPA is working to build the torrents. your tax dollars at work.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
If the history of NSA vulnerability disclosures (nearly none), the use of Stingrays, and the push for backdoor encryption are any reflection of the government's interest in network security, then the only possible conclusion is that they want to use Tor for its offensive capabilities rather than defensive. Like a basement-dwelling hacker, they want the ability to remain anonymous, and the ability to unmask anyone else. And they have the resources of the most wealthy nation on earth with which to do it.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Wouldnt you want that to return a boolean or a pointer?
I am glad that they got this funding and can't wait to see what they are able to do with it. I hope that they look closely at secure ways to improve their naming. In other words, I hope that they are looking at any ways that they can "square" Zooko's Triangle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zooko%27s_triangle). The reason that I am not as confident using DarkNet services as I am the "regular" .com is because of the naming system.
To anyone from Tor reading this: keep up the great work!
Will
remove nospam. to email!
pron
The most secure operating system out of the box is SELinux which is maintained by the mighty NSA themselves.
Open source is a strange revolution.