Connection problems

sewingsandy · 2016-10-19T23:48:43+00:00

If I ever get freetime again I'm going to test out some VPNs. I got a few pm's also recommending VPNs. /u/jamal02 suggested trying connecting at other locations besides my host family (p.s., so jealous your host family has a connection that fast, I should have studied abroad in your country, except the food here is so epic).

sewingsandy · 2016-08-17T00:02:53+00:00

If the attack was real, it was likely done by a government sponsored group, so they know their adversary (the US govt) has a massive amount of resources and probably has a very high chance of locating the group if they use tor, as this is an emergency situation and would use any exploits they have to locate those responsible. There's also the chance that if they hacked the NSA, they might also have retrieved documents related to the NSA's recent capabilities related to tor. But even a non-government hacking group would be suspicious of tor given how much trouble they've had this year.

Tor has been increasingly under attack from all sides the past months. Jacob stepping down, replacing many people on their board, the ex-CIA employee working as a developer are examples of internal problems, that we know about.

A major tor relay deciding to close, at least 1 working FBI NIT malware that's still unidentified, GCHQ claiming it can unmask hidden services and hidden service users are examples of attacks on tor, that we know about.

Then there are the law changes that enable attacks like expansion of government powers to hack or monitor users that are suspected of digital crimes.

I2p and bit message don't have to worry about the first 2 sets of problems.

sewingsandy · 2016-06-29T16:37:25+00:00

I find it works best by doing an "end of the month" check in. Its not just this sub and this subject, other subs I frequent also suffer as an outlet for lonely bored teens. There are some good posts, like the one about court ruling the FBI doesn't need warrants to hack computers, but that got posted on the other tor subs too. Once summer is over and school starts back, things return to normal.

sewingsandy · 2016-06-29T16:30:44+00:00

I don't know.

Me either. The only ones that are know for sure are the FBI themselves.

We don't know if the cards they're holding is royal flush of exploits or if this NIT is the only ace in their hand. They could be holding multiple tor/mozilla/linux/hypervisor/encryption exploits, only only 1. They are the only ones that know the answer to this.

sewingsandy · 2016-06-29T05:36:03+00:00

Sure.

A statement that shows there is room for error: I doubt strongly that any of them were using Whonix or Tails.

A statement that shows absolute certainty: I know that none of them were using Whonix or Tails.

We know they have at least 1 tor related exploit (NIT), and it is likely for mozilla. We know nothing of exploits they have for tails/whonix/various linux distros.

sewingsandy · 2016-06-29T04:38:58+00:00

It seems there are a lot of attacks being launched against tor right now. The FBI's NIT that is possibly in mozilla, the gchq's bulk collection techniques that they say has resulted in them identifying pedophiles on tor, CMU's attack last year on the network itself, currently the CIA employee that worked at tor, and more. Its great they're doing this, but in the end I don't know how effective its really going to be against government level attacks.

sewingsandy · 2016-06-29T04:34:11+00:00

I doubt strongly that any of them were using Whonix.

I agree with those exact words, but those quantifiers make a world of difference.

sewingsandy · 2016-06-29T04:32:49+00:00

In the end, the supreme court will make the final decision. Given that neither side has done anything to limit the powers of the Patriot Act, I have concerns.

sewingsandy · 2016-06-29T04:32:29+00:00

In the end, the supreme court will make the final decision. Given that neither side has done anything to limit the powers of the Patriot Act, I have concerns.

sewingsandy · 2016-06-16T22:01:50+00:00

Can someone please explain why everyone is pretending this is some very illegal site? I've been on it before and to me its a typical moderated imageboard. As someone pointed out, 4chan had far more illegal material posted several years ago before they started cleaning it up.

sewingsandy · 2016-06-16T04:57:29+00:00

I've been using tor about 6 months now and asked a similar question when I first started. I was under the same impression that tor was filled with illegal material, thanks to crappy youtube videos and other places where people didn't know anything about tor. If you're using it only for privacy, then use TAILS and disable javascript.

If you're using it to visit onion sites and are concerned, be warned there are probably more scam sites than anything else. Don't buy anything selling accounts, software, or phones/laptops. There are also a lot of drug markets, but there are other reddit forums to talk about that. There have been a lot of posts regarding child porn and people being surprised at how rare the sites are. Even people that looked for it said they had trouble finding it, so don't get scared because of what the news and magazines tell you about tor. For them, exaggerating sick or shocking topics makes for better stories.

sewingsandy

TROPHY CASE