Developer Of Anonymous Tor Software Dodges FBI, Leaves US (cnn.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: FBI agents are currently trying to subpoena one of Tor's core software developers to testify in a criminal hacking investigation, CNNMoney has learned. But the developer, who goes by the name Isis Agora Lovecruft, fears that federal agents will coerce her to undermine the Tor system -- and expose Tor users around the world to potential spying. That's why, when FBI agents approached her and her family over Thanksgiving break last year, she immediately packed her suitcase and left the United States for Germany. "I was worried they'd ask me to do something that hurts innocent people -- and prevent me from telling people it's happening," she said in an exclusive interview with CNNMoney. Earlier in the month, Tech Dirt reported the Department of Homeland Security wants to subpoena the site over the identity of a hyperbolic commenter.

Comments

Re:undermining the Tor system

[mrchaotica]

Do you regularly download new copies, compile from source, verify that the binaries match the source, and verify that the changelogs posted match the changes that you downloaded? No? Geez, it's like you don't want to check whether things are secure or not!

And then cross-compile again on several heterogeneous architectures (including at least one very old one) and verify that all the output matches, in order to avoid the Ken Thompson hack? And did you do all this for every single piece of code running on the machine, including things like the hard drive firmware and CPU microcode?

Re:undermining the Tor system

[tom229]

I decided to verify some of this speculation with information easy to obtain.. It turns out she's a very minor contributor. 3 commits, ever. To suggest her code contributions wouldn't be reviewed by the plethora of more active maintainers is pretty wild. Tor is open source, the FBI can make "clever" contributions on their own. They don't need the secret help of a very minor contributor. Furthermore, exit nodes are a much better avenue for compromise.

Something fishy is going on here. If she's running and offering this bad of an excuse ("I don't want people to get hurt") it sounds like she's got something more I important to hide. Don't be surprised when more of this unravels and she turns out to be complicit in some illegal activities on that network.