Privacy

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Is TOR compromised? (arstechnica.com)

submitted 2 months ago by Artemis_Mystique@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

63 comments fedilink hide all child comments

All the recent dark net arrests seem to be pretty vague on how the big bad was caught (except the IM admin's silly opsec errors) In the article they say he clicked on a honeypot link, but how was his ip or any other identifier identified, why didnt tor protect him.

Obviously this guy in question was a pedophile and an active danger, but recently in my country a state passed a law that can get you arrested if you post anything the government doesnt like, so these tools are important and need to be bulletproof.

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[–] turkalino@lemmy.yachts 45 points 2 months ago (3 children)

This question gets asked every year and every time it turns out to be an OPSEC mistake instead

[–] digdilem@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 months ago (2 children)

And hopefully will continue to be asked, because one day it may not be poor OPSEC.

[–] todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Hopefully it will be asked by the very smart people who actually develop TOR, and not just paranoid Internet randos like OP.

[–] digdilem@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 months ago

True - although just because you are paranoid, that doesn't mean they aren't out to get you...

[–] Artemis_Mystique@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Honestly i believe there is no point in speculating whether there are backdoors installed in popular privacy and encryption apps; for all we know, the powers that are may already have a digital fortress'esque quantum computer decrypting everything from your signal messages to onion sites in a matter of seconds.

I think(my personal headcanon) that there probably was a Manhattan project like top secret research project that has yielded some very fruitful results, now i guess we have to just wait for some whistleblower or a disgruntled employee to feed it a file that blows it up.

[–] todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

lmao, just now reading this incredible response to me calling you paranoid.

[–] Artemis_Mystique@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I didn't deny it; its akin to a first year med student reading about all the subtle little ways that the body hints something is majorly wrong and noticing symptoms exhibit in them, I guess i am just not jaded enough to accept that online anons can just send a swat team to my house if i comment on the local weather online.

[–] IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Well OPSEC is the stated cause. Who knows how the person was initially identified and tracked. For all we know he was quickly identified through some sort of Tor backdoor that the feds have figured out, but they used that to watch for an unrelated OPSEC mistake they could take advantage of. That way the Tor backdoor remains protected.

[–] z00s@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

As far as we know. Could be mitm servers

[–] rottingleaf@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

It's like being surprised that body armor doesn't help against being gassed.