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>Because if I was running SIGINT at the NSA and collaborating with the FBI to arrest activists, the very first thing I would do is start up a bunch of VPN provi

>Because if I was running SIGINT at the NSA and collaborating with the FBI to arrest activists, the very first thing I would do is start up a bunch of VPN providers that bill themselves as "private" and then log everything aggressively. Sure. But with a limited budget (of both the financial sort and the effort sort), this just isn't feasible. Who the hell wants to manage not one but twenty seemingly private industry vpn companies? Can they even reach break even status so that it's not a drain on the budget? How long for that? Worse, it entangles their revenue with that of the NSA, making the NSA more vulnerable to the sort of leaks they don't like to have, exposing them to foreign intelligence services and even journalists. >spread vague anecdotes about Tor users being "de-anonymized" when V Ulbricht found out the hard way. When you've got every fiber tapped around the world, it becomes trivial to deanonymize Tor users. Granted that it's nearly impossible to climb to the top of the US government's shit list like he did, but if you do manage the feat, they'll know who you are within days.

some_furry 2y ago
> Ulbricht found out the hard way. When you've got every fiber tapped around the world, it becomes trivial to deanonymize Tor users. They didn't find Ulbricht by hacking the Tor network to deanonymize users.
- NoMoreNicksLeft 2y ago
  They did, and then they used something called parallel construction (legal term) to not give away the warrantless search that entails. Wanted to avoid fruit of the poison tree, or public backlash, or maybe even both. Once he was identified, they trolled through his internet history to find something that if they were luckier than any investigators ever they might have found without cheating. Then claimed they actually did that. It was all horseshit. None of this is controversial. Didn't even have to hack Tor, traffic analysis sufficed.
KingMob 2y ago
> with a limited budget (of both the financial sort and the effort sort) > When you've got every fiber tapped around the world, it becomes trivial These phrases are in conflict. If their budget is limited, we shouldn't expect them to be able to trivially tap the whole world. If tapping the whole world is trivial, they probably have the resources to spin up some VPN front companies. Or more likely, suborn existing VPNs.

some_furry 2y ago

> Ulbricht found out the hard way. When you've got every fiber tapped around the world, it becomes trivial to deanonymize Tor users. They didn't find Ulbricht by hacking the Tor network to deanonymize users.

NoMoreNicksLeft 2y ago
They did, and then they used something called parallel construction (legal term) to not give away the warrantless search that entails. Wanted to avoid fruit of the poison tree, or public backlash, or maybe even both. Once he was identified, they trolled through his internet history to find something that if they were luckier than any investigators ever they might have found without cheating. Then claimed they actually did that. It was all horseshit. None of this is controversial. Didn't even have to hack Tor, traffic analysis sufficed.

KingMob 2y ago

> with a limited budget (of both the financial sort and the effort sort) > When you've got every fiber tapped around the world, it becomes trivial These phrases are in conflict. If their budget is limited, we shouldn't expect them to be able to trivially tap the whole world. If tapping the whole world is trivial, they probably have the resources to spin up some VPN front companies. Or more likely, suborn existing VPNs.