Another trackless browser?
The Internet Browser NSA Doesn’t Want You To Use
Posted by TheSurvivalGuy on November 14, 2013
Posted in: Emergency Survival Tips, How To Prepare, News/ Current Events, Whatever Your Opinion. Tagged: current-events, Edward Snowden, Firefox, Government Communications Headquarters, Guardian, National Security Agency, News/ Current Events, NSA, Preparedness, science, Survival and Primitive Technology, The Internet Browser NSA Doesn’t Want You To Use, TOR, United States, Whatever Your Opinion. 1 comment
By Daniel Jennings
There’s a free method of searching the Internet that’s so anonymous and secure the National Security Agency wants to destroy it. It’s called TOR or the Onion Router, and documents obtained by The Guardian indicate that both the NSA and its British partner GCHQ have been unable to crack TOR.
An NSA analyst described TOR as the “king of high-secure, low latency internet anonymity.”
So what is TOR and how can you use it? Basically, TOR is a network that bounces your searches and communications all over the Internet via several different computers making them hard to track. You access TOR using a special browser or an app.
The NSA has had such a hard time trying to crack TOR that it actually created a top secret presentation called TOR Stinks. TOR Stinks was among the documents leaked by Edward Snowden to the Guardian. Its author wrote: “We will never be able to de-anonymyze all TOR users all the time.” That means the NSA will never be able to identify all TOR users.
How TOR works
The most interesting thing about TOR is that it was developed by the US government, specifically the State Department and the Defense Department. The idea was to create a secret and secure means of communication for spies and dissidents.
John Eidsmoe rights the faulty historical record and brings us back to the roots that made America great . . .
TOR works by creating an encrypted packet of Internet traffic that is bounced through a number of nodes or servers. TOR users use a special Firefox web browser that sends all of the traffic through the TOR network. This is hard to track because it isn’t moving through normal channels.
A TOR user in Nebraska might have her Internet traffic routed through a node in Manitoba and another Node in Great Britain which would confuse a person trying to locate her. It isn’t perfect but it’s a pretty good way of covering your tracks online.
A good way to think of TOR is as another secret Internet inside the Internet. It’s currently used by spies, dissidents, journalists and special operations soldiers such as those in Delta Force. These are called Darknets and they’re often used by criminals as well as the government.
The NSA has made a number of efforts to crack TOR. It’s tried to insert malicious code into TOR’s browser bundle. The NSA had been using a hole in Firefox to infiltrate TOR but that’s recently been plugged.
How to use TOR
Using TOR is easy; just visit the TOR website. The site has several downloadable tools that can help protect your anonymity online. These include:
The TOR website is a great resource that provides connections to a wide variety of excellent tools for thwarting surveillance efforts. If you’re serious about anonymity online, it is the place to begin.
It appears there is an effective and low-cost method that enables the average person to avoid most surveillance. That method was created with our tax dollars, and another government agency is using our tax dollars in an attempt to destroy it. It is possible for average people to frustrate the NSA with TOR. – OffTheGridNews
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Re: Another trackless browser?
TOR is slow and I mean REALLY slow. It is also not really 100% secure from snooping for at the exit nodes, there is usually an unsecured spot.
Re: Another trackless browser?
I personally have tried it. Thanks for the input.
Re: Another trackless browser?
I've tried TOR as well. I don't really do anything that I care about anyone knowing, so I am not willing to put up with my browsing taking 10x longer.
Re: Another trackless browser?
I don't think any one of us does "anything we don't want anyone knowing about" - for the most part. Occasionally I balk at putting things up or reposting them because they are... skirting the edge of "political correctness" :)
But I usually post them anyway
Re: Another trackless browser?
For my part I like to test alternate tech and get a feel for what it is. I like to learn.
Re: Another trackless browser?
trackless?
maybe not.
FBI seized entire database of TorMail service; using it to catch Criminals
by Wang Weion Monday, January 27, 2014
556 265 Reddit34 Buffer1 18
Using
Tormail Email service for being Anonymous online while conversations and mail exchange??
There is a very disappointing news for allcurrent and past users, US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has a complete copy of Tormail server and they are using it to catch the Criminals & Hackers.
According to court documents that recently surfaced, the FBI have cloned the entire email database while investigating Freedom Hosting.
In August 2013, when the FBI seized the Tor network's top web host, Freedom Hosting, that gave the feds access to every record of every anonymous site hosted by Freedom Hosting, including TorMail, a service that allowed to send and receive email anonymously.
New evidence uncovered by Wired suggests those archives are now being used in completely unrelated investigations, but possibly now the FBI is mining the information from that database to track cyber criminals.
Remember the shutdown of the Silk Road black market?? A Florida man was busted for allegedly selling counterfeit credit cards under a new illegal online marketplace called Silk Road 2.0 in December 2013.
Administrator of the site was using “platpus@tormail.net” to take orders for the cards and the FBI obtained a warrant to search the TorMail databases and execute it using the cloned database the agency acquired; later two owners of the site were arrested based on information obtained.
Between July 22, 2013 and August 2, 2013, in connection with an unrelated criminal investigation, the FBI obtained a copy of a computer server located in France via a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty request to France, which contained data and information from the Tormail email server, including the content of Tormail email accounts,” reads a portion of the criminal complaint against Roberson unsealed last week. “On or about September 24, 2013, law enforcement obtained a search warrant to search the contents of the Platplus Tormail Account, which resided on the seized Tormail server.
It's not exactly known how many users or how much data is in the TorMail network, but we do know that the FBI has it all.
As mentioned on the TorMail website, they always refused to hand over information to the feds, even when presented with a court order. But now it's really a huge blow for email users who relied on the onion network for anonymity.
There's still no indication that any data was ever accessed without a search warrant, but searching through email accounts becomes extraordinarily simple for the federal agency.
Note: Tormail was not affiliated with the Tor Project, a popular tor anonymity tool and browser, so Tor users should not be affected by the Tormail seizure.
We are developing the story, will update you shortly. Stay Tuned.
