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Anonymous Tor Cloud Project Closes Down

Posted by timothy on from the use-sneakernet-cloud dept.

Mark Wilson writes: The Tor browser is used by many to stay anonymous online — and it's something that has been embraced by the likes of WikiLeaks as a way to safely gather information whilst hopefully avoiding the surveillance of the NSA. One lesser known project from the same stables is the Tor Cloud service, and Tor has announced that it is closing down. From the linked article: Based on the Amazon EC2 cloud computing platform, Tor Cloud provided a way to share computing resources and allow faster uncensored access to the internet. However, the project is plagued with 'at least one major bug ... that makes it completely dysfunctional' and after failing to find anyone to undertake the work, the decision was taken to shutter Tor Cloud. This does not mean that Tor itself is dead — far from it — and developers are being encouraged to create their own forked versions of Tor Cloud.

23 comments

  1. Code that *never* functioned dies, slashdot frontp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Seriously, TorCloud never actually worked. It isn't even an amazingly challenging thing as many other projects do the exact same thing. Why is it news that they gave up? It's just rather pathetic.

  2. As long as Tor can be detected by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    It will always be deader than Generalissimo Francisco Franco

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    1. Re:As long as Tor can be detected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Generalísimo"

    2. Re:As long as Tor can be detected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Generalisimo.

    3. Re: As long as Tor can be detected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      *sigh*

    4. Re:As long as Tor can be detected by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      Is there even a conceptual way that something like Tor could be run that would prevent it from being detected.

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
  3. That long black cloud is coming down by turkeydance · · Score: 1

    I feel I'm knockin' on heaven's door.

  4. The Tor Is Dead! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Long live the Tor!

  5. Move along folks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    nothing to see here.

    - Sincerely, the Repulicrats.

  6. child porn overwhelms tor cloud provider by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and they have to shut down due to an overload of pedos!

  7. Oh come on.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Windows has MULTIPLE major bugs that cause total dysfunction, you don't see anyone calling an end to the madness there...

    1. Re:Oh come on.. by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

      you don't see anyone calling an end to the madness there...

      Are you new here?

  8. Tor is a scam anyway. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Look at all the ppl. getting busted left and right. Anonymous my @ss.

    1. Re:Tor is a scam anyway. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's cool, the Navy invented it so it must be legit for hackers to continue to use 20 years later basically, Sabu says it's cool..

  9. This might be a good thing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm not sure how this was setup, but hosting a disproportionate number nodes on a particular cloud service (Amazon) in theory increases the risk to users ending up on three nodes of which are essentially controlled by the same entity. In an ideal world it would work on Amazeon, Google, Microsoft, Gandi, Linode, and lots of different "cloud" providers.

    1. Re:This might be a good thing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are some inbuilt defenses against this. I believe tor will not allow two consecutive hops to be on the same /24 (or something like that). Also, the entrance node needs to have been there for something close to a year, so that gives a bit of time to see if the nodes look like they might be trouble.

    2. Re: This might be a good thing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Entrance nodes are known as Guard nodes, and they need about a week of good uptime before they get accepted into the guard pool.

    3. Re:This might be a good thing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      setup is a noun. set up is a verb.

  10. No comments by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No comments because all the readers here were using tor to do so

  11. It never worked for me by Pope+Hagbard · · Score: 1

    I ran a Tor Cloud instance on EC2 a while back. 100% stock, followed the documentation to set it up, but it never got any traffic. My home Tor bridge got plenty of traffic, however, so I don't think it's something I did wrong.

    1. Re:It never worked for me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      why is this modded down and the conjecture above modded up? perhaps it is lacking further explanation?

  12. Hooray! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Another victory for OBAMA! He truly is our Glorious Leader, under whom the internet, den of inequity and socially inacceptable turpitude, will be brought to heel! HAIL OBAMA! HAIL OBAMA! HAIL OBAMA! WE PLEDGE OUR LIVES TO YOUR EVERLASTING GLORY!!!