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It is widely suspected that the US NSA runs a large number of Tor exit nodes themselves. Tor was originally developed by a US military research lab and received

It is widely suspected that the US NSA runs a large number of Tor exit nodes themselves. Tor was originally developed by a US military research lab and received additional funding under the justification that it would help dissidents in China and North Korea evade their country's censorship and surveillance. It also doubles as a way for the US government to surveil anyone seeking to evade surveillance as well. See the sources cited at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(network)#Exit_node_eavesdropping https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(network)#Exit_node_eavesd...

data_maan 4y ago
> It also doubles as a way for the US government to surveil anyone seeking to evade surveillance as well. Supposing they own now enough Tor node, which the Wikipedia link is unclear about
- ashwagary 4y ago
  It seems like a reasonable claim judging by how much easier and cheaper it is to spin up 10s of thousands of nodes than it was a decade ago. Even a wealthy person with a miniscule fraction of the US defense budget could do the same. Idk if there is a technical solution to this attack problem.
  - tga_d 4y ago
    There are solutions, but they come at a steep cost with regards to usability, so would shrink the anonymity set to what would be an unacceptable level for the uses Tor cares about. The reality is that these attacks, while theoretically possible, require more work and money than the rewards justify (you can't just bulk buy nodes from a provider, Tor doesn't allow connections that route to the same host or close IPs, and does somewhat regularly block relays that were all created suspiciously close chronologically without identifying as the same operator), so are considered an acceptable risk. Snowden was willing to rely on Tor, the rest of us who just want some extra privacy will be just fine.
nly 4y ago
> It also doubles as a way for the US government to surveil anyone seeking to evade surveillance as well. On a technical level, exit node operators aren't supposed to be able to trace the origin of data flowing through them... so this indicates a failure of protocol.
- Gud 4y ago
  Unless you control enough nodes. Tor was never designed to be 100% surveillance proof

data_maan 4y ago

> It also doubles as a way for the US government to surveil anyone seeking to evade surveillance as well. Supposing they own now enough Tor node, which the Wikipedia link is unclear about

ashwagary 4y ago
It seems like a reasonable claim judging by how much easier and cheaper it is to spin up 10s of thousands of nodes than it was a decade ago. Even a wealthy person with a miniscule fraction of the US defense budget could do the same. Idk if there is a technical solution to this attack problem.
- tga_d 4y ago
  There are solutions, but they come at a steep cost with regards to usability, so would shrink the anonymity set to what would be an unacceptable level for the uses Tor cares about. The reality is that these attacks, while theoretically possible, require more work and money than the rewards justify (you can't just bulk buy nodes from a provider, Tor doesn't allow connections that route to the same host or close IPs, and does somewhat regularly block relays that were all created suspiciously close chronologically without identifying as the same operator), so are considered an acceptable risk. Snowden was willing to rely on Tor, the rest of us who just want some extra privacy will be just fine.

nly 4y ago

> It also doubles as a way for the US government to surveil anyone seeking to evade surveillance as well. On a technical level, exit node operators aren't supposed to be able to trace the origin of data flowing through them... so this indicates a failure of protocol.

Gud 4y ago
Unless you control enough nodes. Tor was never designed to be 100% surveillance proof