Author Topic: Anyone familiar with the Tor anonymizing program?  (Read 3530 times)

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Offline jinxmchue

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Anyone familiar with the Tor anonymizing program?
« on: April 10, 2009, 07:36:12 AM »
I have questions.

Offline thundley4

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Re: Anyone familiar with the Tor anonymizing program?
« Reply #1 on: April 10, 2009, 08:08:32 AM »
I've never used it, but remember, Google is your friend.

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Government Ties
Both the Tor Project and Anonymizer have ties to the U.S. government. The Tor Project was originally funded by the U.S. Navy. According to Dingledine, the government still uses Tor for intelligence gathering. Tor, he says, is an ideal tool for government investigators who wish to visit or monitor Web sites without creating Web log records of IP addresses that could be traced to government computers.

Anonymizer's ties to the U.S. government stretch back to 2003 when the company worked with the Voice of America to provide anonymous surfing tools to the Chinese public. That contract has lapsed, but Anonymizer now works with VOA to give Iranians the ability to use the Internet without fear government snoops will try to block or intercept Web page requests. Cottrell says his company is footing the bill for the upcoming Chinese-language version of his software.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/124891/outsmarting_the_online_privacy_snoops.html
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Tor is a network of virtual tunnels that allows people and groups to improve their privacy and security on the Internet. It also enables software developers to create new communication tools with built-in privacy features. Tor provides the foundation for a range of applications that allow organizations and individuals to share information over public networks without compromising their privacy.

Individuals use Tor to keep websites from tracking them and their family members, or to connect to news sites, instant messaging services, or the like when these are blocked by their local Internet providers. Tor's hidden services let users publish web sites and other services without needing to reveal the location of the site. Individuals also use Tor for socially sensitive communication: chat rooms and web forums for rape and abuse survivors, or people with illnesses.

Journalists use Tor to communicate more safely with whistleblowers and dissidents. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) use Tor to allow their workers to connect to their home website while they're in a foreign country, without notifying everybody nearby that they're working with that organization.

Groups such as Indymedia recommend Tor for safeguarding their members' online privacy and security. Activist groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) recommend Tor as a mechanism for maintaining civil liberties online. Corporations use Tor as a safe way to conduct competitive analysis, and to protect sensitive procurement patterns from eavesdroppers. They also use it to replace traditional VPNs, which reveal the exact amount and timing of communication. Which locations have employees working late? Which locations have employees consulting job-hunting websites? Which research divisions are communicating with the company's patent
http://www.torproject.org/overview.html.en

Offline jinxmchue

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Re: Anyone familiar with the Tor anonymizing program?
« Reply #2 on: April 10, 2009, 09:58:08 AM »
Well, my question is if Tor can be manipulated to spoof a specific IP address.  Someone (and probably more than one) has been spoofing my IP elsewhere in order to get me in trouble.

Offline thundley4

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Re: Anyone familiar with the Tor anonymizing program?
« Reply #3 on: April 10, 2009, 11:15:39 AM »
Well, my question is if Tor can be manipulated to spoof a specific IP address.  Someone (and probably more than one) has been spoofing my IP elsewhere in order to get me in trouble.

I don't think Tor could be used for that since it provides random IP addresses from what I could tell. Are you getting emails or something from sites?

Offline jinxmchue

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Re: Anyone familiar with the Tor anonymizing program?
« Reply #4 on: April 11, 2009, 11:09:00 PM »
I don't think Tor could be used for that since it provides random IP addresses from what I could tell. Are you getting emails or something from sites?

No, someone on a far-left, unhinged wiki posted something under my IP address and got me in trouble elsewhere because of it.  The wiki in question has scads of assholes who use Tor to hide their identities.

Offline thundley4

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Re: Anyone familiar with the Tor anonymizing program?
« Reply #5 on: April 12, 2009, 07:18:46 AM »
No, someone on a far-left, unhinged wiki posted something under my IP address and got me in trouble elsewhere because of it.  The wiki in question has scads of assholes who use Tor to hide their identities.

The person would have needed to know your IP address, right?  I know I can change my IP address that shows up on various websites by changing it in my router, but I think I'm limited to a certain range of addresses.



Offline LC EFA

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Re: Anyone familiar with the Tor anonymizing program?
« Reply #6 on: April 12, 2009, 06:37:41 PM »
If you both are using Tor - then it's possible that their IP will occasionally and randomly resolve to the same as yours because there will be a limited pool of addresses that Tor owns or has rights to use.

Offline jinxmchue

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Re: Anyone familiar with the Tor anonymizing program?
« Reply #7 on: April 13, 2009, 09:58:36 AM »
I don't use Tor.  Looks like they spoofed my IP (happened only once asaik) some other way.