What's Tor?

[Arseynimz]

I've been following this whole #TheDayWeFightBack stuff (refer here for those not following for a good AMA on reddit) and one of the things that seems to be common in amongst the discussions is Tor, and how we should be using it.

Anyone use it? And anyone able to give a bit of an explanation (both layman and technical would be good)?

[Apostrophe Spacemonkey]

As I understand it allows you to send encrypted traffic through a worldwide, volunteer network, so that no one can see what you are doing.

It's great if you're in one of those countries which control the flow of information on the internet, like China or Egypt.



I heard it's also great for things like leaking of sensitive information, copyright infringement, distributing illegal sexual content, selling illegal drugs, money laundering, credit card fraud, and identity theft.

[Kayne]

Yeah people use it to get onto "the deep web". Basically encrypted sites that contain nasty things. You can get someone killed for 10k cash upfront, and 10k after the deed is done, as long as they're no one important. There were children sites... etc etc. Not that i've been on those, there was something called "The hidden wiki" which had links to known "deep web" websites. I possibly shouldn't have mentioned that, and if someone wants me to remove it, just pm and ask.

You may have heard of Silk road being shut down recently. The guy who ran it was an australian, and it was pretty much drugs for bit coins. I heard when the cops tried to arrest him, he tried / possibly did kill someone. I think after this incident though, the american gov. tried to take down as many of these hidden sites as possible.

And from what I know, It sends your data through other computers running tor, so it becomes a big chain of computers with thousands of different ip's. It's not untrackable, but they won't bother unless you're doing something very bad.

I know one guy who uses it when ever he goes on the old 4ch...org because he's that much of a privacy nut. IIRC it's very slow, so I don't know why you'd even bother.

It's pretty much a million proxies.

[Apostrophe Spacemonkey]

I use it to look at naked pictures of Kayne's mum.

[Kayne]

I use it to look at naked pictures of Kayne's mum.

I'd look at pictures of yours but she keeps saying "No pictures Kayne"

[Craigor]

I use it to look at naked pictures of Kayne's mum.

I'd look at pictures of yours but she keeps saying "No pictures Kayne"

KGO!

[Pyromanik]

What is Tor?

Internet for kiddie fiddlers.

[Arnifix]

It's great if you're in one of those countries which control the flow of information on the internet, like China or Egypt.

Or New Zealand, Australia, UK, US, Canada...

All the things you mentioned as the terrible things that TOR is for are freaking ridiculous. They happen on the web all the time. The upsides, freedom of speech and assisting those living under oppressive regimes for example, are exceedingly valuable to a free society.

And copyright infringement over TOR? lol.

Fun fact: TOR was originally developed with funds provided by the US government and is still funded by the US government, though to a lesser degree.

[Pyromanik]

Designed for secure military communications iirc.
Used by kiddiefiddling senators instead.

[Arnifix]

Designed for secure military communications iirc.

Nope, it was created to enable activists and dissidents in "undemocratic" countries to communicate. It doesn't make a huge amount of sense for the military (though could arguably have been developed for spooks).

[Pyromanik]

Hmm, dunno where I read that, but I did.

Just another one of those awesome 'facts' one finds on the interwebs I guess. It was probably origined at some fantastically realistic news site like FOX, trying to explain govt. investment.

[swindle]

It is a waste of time, and only hides so much of what you do, while you do it at 1/3 of the speed of your already slow internet provider.