TOR !!1

[Zoo]

TOR or the Onion Router does anyone used it or know what it is? This is what I have found...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!!1

[Yorkshire pud]

TOR or the Onion Router does anyone used it or know what it is? This is what I have found...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!!1

I'm guessing but probably via dark web. From what I've been told, you need to be careful going there.

[wr250]

TOR or the Onion Router does anyone used it or know what it is? This is what I have found...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!!1

and its not impossible to trace, the fbi/nsa have been tracking people who use the "tor browser"
.

[area51drone]

and its not impossible to trace, the fbi/nsa have been tracking people using the "tor browser"
.

Right.  If you have access to every piece of information leaving a pc, and you can break RSA encryption, then it doesn't matter where the fuck your traffic goes, as soon as it leaves your PC, you're fucked.  And if the NSA is logged into your PC, they don't even need to do that!!

[MV/Liberace!]

you can install this browser, based on firefox, which puts you on the TOR network for all traffic.  really easy to use.  you'll notice it's slower than a regular browser, but that's because each packet of data sent or received has to snake its way through the TOR network. 

also, i'm not aware of any specific revelation that the security behind TOR is broken.  if people are able to be tracked through it, that's definitely news to me.  not saying it's impossible.  just saying i've not heard of anything credible in this regard.

[Kate the Bionic Uterus]

TOR or the Onion Router does anyone used it or know what it is? This is what I have found...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!!1

I use TOR and have used it for many years as my second browser. I also used the TOR email service before the nsa/fbi closed it down this past summer. It is the safest browser to surf the net period.

If the nsa/fbi are monitoring everything that leaves your computer then you in for a lot of trouble and probably doing things you shouldn't be doing. As far as the deep web or dark web is concerned, most people don't even know what that is. It is one of the earliest forms of the web and where criminal and terrorist organizations trade currency and information. It is also the main venue where child molesters trade their filth. It is dangerous to even take a look because if you don't know what you're doing your pc will be hacked in a way that regular commercial firewall and anti-virus will not always detect. It is where the real dangerous hackers make their home and also where the nsa/fbi counter hacking takes place. The advice to stay away is good. So is my advice to try the TOR browser https://www.torproject.org/

@MV; The primary way the NSA eavesdrops on Internet communications is in the network. That's where their capabilities best scale. They have invested in enormous programs to automatically collect and analyze network traffic. Anything that requires them to attack individual endpoint computers is significantly more costly and risky for them, and they will do those things carefully and sparingly.

The NSA gets access to the communications trunks (telecommunications companies that they have agreements with) that move Internet traffic. In cases where it doesn't have that sort of friendly access, it does its best to surreptitiously monitor communications channels: tapping undersea cables, intercepting satellite communications, and so on.

"Unfortunately, endpoint security is so terrifically weak that NSA can frequently find ways around it."~Edward Snowden

Endpoint means the software you're using, the computer you're using it on, and the local network you're using it in. If the nsa/fbi can modify the encryption algorithm or drop a trojan on your computer, all the cryptography and protection in the world doesn't matter at all.

edit; Eldo Kim sent an e-mail bomb threat to Harvard so he could skip a final exam and even though he used an anonymous account and Tor to send it the fbi caught him. TOR is not as anonymous as people think any more.

[wr250]

FBI Admits It Controlled Tor Servers Behind Mass Malware Attack

It wasn’t ever seriously in doubt, but the FBI yesterday acknowledged that it secretly took control of Freedom Hosting last July, days before the servers of the largest provider of ultra-anonymous hosting were found to be serving custom malware designed to identify visitors.

Freedom Hosting’s operator, Eric Eoin Marques, had rented the servers from an unnamed commercial hosting provider in France, and paid for them from a bank account in Las Vegas. It’s not clear how the FBI took over the servers in late July, but the bureau was temporarily thwarted when Marques somehow regained access and changed the passwords, briefly locking out the FBI until it gained back control.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/09/freedom-hosting-fbi/


so they were getting ips from this server, what others are under their control ?

[zeebo]

I use TOR and have used it for many years as my second browser
....
TOR is not as anonymous as people think any more.

Great info Kate thanks for posting that.  I've read up on Tor and it seems like a pretty secure technical design but apparently it's not invulnerable.

My biggest worry is when I do web searches, that I'll type or mistype something that in one context is totally innocuous but in another it might end me up on some gov't watch list somewhere.  Sometimes I use startpage/ixquick for searches which is supposed to be fairly private.  Any thoughts on that?

[area51drone]

Of course it's not invulnerable.   But it's irrelevant when you have the source.   The government is collecting *everything* that you do, believe it or not.    All they have to do is split a fiber and copy the information.   What do you think they need these enormous server farms for?   

I recall this guy who was talking about some conspiracy theory about Nazis and he made a point that I will never forget:   If you are a government and you have what amounts to an unlimited checkbook and you can achieve something technically, mechanically or physically, why WOULDN'T you do it?   

It *is* possible and it is done, and it has been done a lot longer than any of us think.   They have been watching computers back through the days of modem connections.    I recall hearing a story of a guy who said that he had a friend who was some upper level management at a big software company (he wasn't specific).   But they were going on a trip together and his friend unplugged his computer from the wall, and then proceeded to unplug the phone jack from the internal modem.  He wondered why his friend would unplug the modem and it bothered him so much that when they were on the road he asked him why he did that.   His friend told him something to the effect that "I'm only going to tell you this once, but there is a voltage on the phone line and it is possible to retrieve data through it while the computer is off."    I 100% believe this.   If you can run a phone through a line, you can certainly power a secret circuit on a card to extract whatever data might be stored on the card, at a minimum.     So I am no longer surprised by any of this, and assume everything I'm doing online is being saved, if not watched for key terms and phrases.

[Kate the Bionic Uterus]

Sometimes I use startpage/ixquick for searches which is supposed to be fairly private.  Any thoughts on that?

TOR uses starpage as its default search engine so go for it. The new version of Waterfox (a firefox build for 64bit OS) has also set startpage as its default engine.

What area51drone said in theory is correct. The nsa/fbi may be collecting everything but they are not actually reading everything. If I type here that I want to try a new brand of tampons they are not going to send me an email suggesting options. They are looking for complex numerical patterns. If they do know who you are then as I posted above they have a number of ways to siphon your information from your pc, tablet and cell phones. You would never even know that they were doing it.

Although area51drone your post does remind me of that Johm Travolta movie called Swordfish http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0244244/ where the plot revolves around a hacker who went to jail because he disclosed an fbi program where the government collected all the emails across the states. It is one of those hollywood flicks where they had mixed truth into fiction. The movie came out in 2001 so the program of collecting data has been going on for at least that long.

[area51drone]

I don't think I ever saw that movie, will have to add that to my unzbin queue.   Of course, it will put me on the list.   But I am 100% certain I am already on all the lists.   I was accused once of being a russian spy by a police agency.   Seriously.

[steelbot]

TOR uses starpage as its default search engine so go for it. The new version of Waterfox (a firefox build for 64bit OS) has also set startpage as its default engine.

What area51drone said in theory is correct. The nsa/fbi may be collecting everything but they are not actually reading everything. If I type here that I want to try a new brand of tampons they are not going to send me an email suggesting options. They are looking for complex numerical patterns. If they do know who you are then as I posted above they have a number of ways to siphon your information from your pc, tablet and cell phones. You would never even know that they were doing it.

Although area51drone your post does remind me of that Johm Travolta movie called Swordfish http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0244244/ where the plot revolves around a hacker who went to jail because he disclosed an fbi program where the government collected all the emails across the states. It is one of those hollywood flicks where they had mixed truth into fiction. The movie came out in 2001 so the program of collecting data has been going on for at least that long.

I would say......only this......

having worked in particular data centers and locations within my USAF career.  You can be assured, that the data is tagged for content, and vaulted, until a connection between the number of users within a circle of users to gain expanded patterns of behavior.  Just because they know you want a type of tampon no they're not going to target you.  But if someone else even by accident contacted you or your friends and it put you within a relationship to a known individual (or worse just because some of the analysts seemed to be running their own check on the spouse or girlfriend/boyfriend game or were friends of someone who was...just to see if they had shared info with you) - you could very well have your data being tracked. 

It's merely the idea you shouldn't believe ANYTHING is private, unless spoken in as best a private atmosphere as possible and then never documented or spoken of again - lol and that's only if you're superparanoid.

[steelbot]

Of course it's not invulnerable.   But it's irrelevant when you have the source.   The government is collecting *everything* that you do, believe it or not.    All they have to do is split a fiber and copy the information.   What do you think they need these enormous server farms for?   

I recall this guy who was talking about some conspiracy theory about Nazis and he made a point that I will never forget:   If you are a government and you have what amounts to an unlimited checkbook and you can achieve something technically, mechanically or physically, why WOULDN'T you do it?   

It *is* possible and it is done, and it has been done a lot longer than any of us think.   They have been watching computers back through the days of modem connections.    I recall hearing a story of a guy who said that he had a friend who was some upper level management at a big software company (he wasn't specific).   But they were going on a trip together and his friend unplugged his computer from the wall, and then proceeded to unplug the phone jack from the internal modem.  He wondered why his friend would unplug the modem and it bothered him so much that when they were on the road he asked him why he did that.   His friend told him something to the effect that "I'm only going to tell you this once, but there is a voltage on the phone line and it is possible to retrieve data through it while the computer is off."    I 100% believe this.   If you can run a phone through a line, you can certainly power a secret circuit on a card to extract whatever data might be stored on the card, at a minimum.     So I am no longer surprised by any of this, and assume everything I'm doing online is being saved, if not watched for key terms and phrases.

I recommend the movie "The Conversation"  Gene Hackman - 1970's - basically it's a prequel to Enemy of the State - with him and will smith, only (not a real sequel as the character names are different).  you are totally correct.  It is built into the infrastructure.  so it happens man, folks just didn't want to believe it was this entrenched and are now outraged and have no way to fight these folks.  I mean reality check - this should have led to multiple firings, and impeachments at the highest levels if they weren't so protected from the crimes they commit at times.  Yes, I worked, in an industry that assisted in this type of stuff, but it was never data I could see, only take a guess based on design layout is about all I can say.

[steelbot]

It *is* possible and it is done, and it has been done a lot longer than any of us think.   They have been watching computers back through the days of modem connections.    I recall hearing a story of a guy who said that he had a friend who was some upper level management at a big software company (he wasn't specific).   But they were going on a trip together and his friend unplugged his computer from the wall, and then proceeded to unplug the phone jack from the internal modem.  He wondered why his friend would unplug the modem and it bothered him so much that when they were on the road he asked him why he did that.   His friend told him something to the effect that "I'm only going to tell you this once, but there is a voltage on the phone line and it is possible to retrieve data through it while the computer is off."    I 100% believe this.   If you can run a phone through a line, you can certainly power a secret circuit on a card to extract whatever data might be stored on the card, at a minimum.     So I am no longer surprised by any of this, and assume everything I'm doing online is being saved, if not watched for key terms and phrases.

well, nowadays, all you have to do is use a parabolic amplifier and listen to the cpu cycles on offs, you can decipher exactly what is on the machine if you know how to decipher what those signals were...and it's being done already in the news to show ya.

I've stated before folks on here about how easy it is with directed energy at the right freqs and strengths to make a portable electronic device of any nature - react anyway you want it to...or hijack it...

[FightTheFuture]

Who cares.  I suppose if you're downloading kiddie porn and  IED plans, you might care.

The fact is, if you want to thwart corporations from tracking you, thats easy. If you are interested in hiding from the govt., sorry, that is never going to happen.

[area51drone]

well, nowadays, all you have to do is use a parabolic amplifier and listen to the cpu cycles on offs, you can decipher exactly what is on the machine if you know how to decipher what those signals were...and it's being done already in the news to show ya.

I've stated before folks on here about how easy it is with directed energy at the right freqs and strengths to make a portable electronic device of any nature - react anyway you want it to...or hijack it...

Absolutely I believe this is 100% true as well.  Back in the days when I was being accused of such things as being a russian spy, there were rumors some people in the groups I belonged to would purposefully shield their rooms to thwart such an attack.    It's crazy.   Some of the guys I knew would blow you away with what could be done back then, and that was non government.   Imagine what could be done when you actually had the power and "supposed" legal authority.

[area51drone]

Who cares.  I suppose if you're downloading kiddie porn and  IED plans, you might care.

The fact is, if you want to thwart corporations from tracking you, thats easy. If you are interested in hiding from the govt., sorry, that is never going to happen.

I haven't gone looking for them, but I would gladly download IED plans.  I got the defense distributed 3d files before they went underground.   I also have downloaded many manuals on other nefarious things just because I feel it is my right to have them, and I will continue to do so.   I hate that the government says you can't have this or know that.   Fuck that bullshit.  I'm making a digital and non-digital library of anything I deem important to my survival if push came to shove.   I am no anti-government person, but I do believe the government lies to us, I do believe there are those in power that abuse their power and should be removed from whatever office or job they might hold.   The government needs an overhaul and a reboot.  I just wish more people saw it and would vote that way, but we're constantly stuck in this rut of voting for whomever looks the best in a swimsuit.    I'm sorry, this has gotten way off track.   TOR is what is it.  It will provide you protection from the local police, but if you're doing something bad enough, watch the fuck out.

[FightTheFuture]

I haven't gone looking for them, but I would gladly download IED plans.  I got the defense distributed 3d files before they went underground.   I also have downloaded many manuals on other nefarious things just because I feel it is my right to have them, and I will continue to do so.   I hate that the government says you can't have this or know that.   Fuck that bullshit.  I'm making a digital and non-digital library of anything I deem important to my survival if push came to shove.   I am no anti-government person, but I do believe the government lies to us, I do believe there are those in power that abuse their power and should be removed from whatever office or job they might hold.   The government needs an overhaul and a reboot.  I just wish more people saw it and would vote that way, but we're constantly stuck in this rut of voting for whomever looks the best in a swimsuit.    I'm sorry, this has gotten way off track.   TOR is what is it.  It will provide you protection from the local police, but if you're doing something bad enough, watch the fuck out.

I hope you aren't one of those prepper/survivalist types. Believe me, if the day ever arrives (and it won't) that you are contemplating IEDs, you're  already done. It's over.

[area51drone]

Agreed.  But I still have the right to have the information. 

[Agent : Orange]

Really interesting stuff. I'd never heard of TOR before at all.

[Yorkshire pud]

Agreed.  But I still have the right to have the information.

Before you get too carried away on your perceived right to know; Various individuals in the UK have been arrested and imprisoned on various terrorist charges.. To be clear such charges extend to the collation of materials and information for terrorist purposes. So for example the mass purchase of several everyday chemicals and compounds used in (for example) farming is forbidden without permits. And anyone trying without will be quickly paid a visit.

Why does it matter to you? Well, all the western security services work together to greater or lesser degrees. Many of these plots have been uncovered by collaboration with Dutch, British, US, German, French and Italian agencies. They have the virtually unlimited resources to prosecute such cases; and they can do it without revealing in court how they do it. I'm afraid using the defence 'It's my right to know it' won't cut any ice, and I doubt will impress those in the shades who come to your home and have a chat.


A few years ago a twenty something guy in the UK had Special Branch (the national security unit within the UK police) pay him a visit because of a text he'd sent to a friend..The text was in reply to a request about a lyric from a Clash song. And out of context it was seen as being a bomb plot. Until it had been all explained to SB down at the police station this young guy was looking at possible arrest for something he was totally innocent of...I should add though it was about (from memory) six months after 9/11 so everyone was twitched up and chasing ghosts.

[area51drone]

Thankfully I'm in the good 'ole US of A and here we have the right to know stuff, and a right to have materials to read about these things.   Yes, they'd be knocking at my door if I tried to buy 10,000 pounds of nitrogen enriched fertilizer but I'm not talking about doing that. 

Did you ever see the website where the guy either in Australia or NZ was making a home made gps guided cruise missile?  I think he said it was going to cost less than $10,000 USD, and it was just an illustration of wasteful government.   He was shut down pretty quickly even though his missile wasn't going to have explosives on it.   I'm not sure what the US would do, but my guess is they'd do the same after what they did to that guy at Defense Distributed.

By the way, my feelings aren't just about books and information.   I recently bought some of those bucky ball magnets because they're soon going to be outlawed, if they aren't already.   And, I'm on the hunt for lawn darts.  Can you believe that?  People are not legally allowed to sell fucking LAWN DARTS.   So I want some, desperately!!  :  Freedom in the USA my ass.   At least I can still buy the Anarchists' Cookbook if I wanted to.

[Yorkshire pud]

Some of you will know of this, some not. Sobering.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25506020

more here

http://www.secureworks.com/cyber-threat-intelligence/threats/cryptolocker-ransomware/

[Mind Flayer Monk]

Really interesting stuff. I'd never heard of TOR before at all.

One of their main selling points is helping to protect journalists from government persecution. Journalism is a dangerous career.

[wr250]

Some of you will know of this, some not. Sobering.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25506020

more here

http://www.secureworks.com/cyber-threat-intelligence/threats/cryptolocker-ransomware/

the solution to both is backups. and a willingness to wipe it all and start over. then be a bit more proactive in protecting yourself.

[area51drone]

the solution to both is backups. and a willingness to wipe it all and start over. then be a bit more proactive in protecting yourself.

Yep.   Pictures and videos are the only thing I have of any real importance besides my work files, which I store offline and offsite.   Pictures and videos are periodically burned to dvd and put in a firesafe.

[zeebo]

Some of you will know of this, some not. Sobering.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25506020

more here

http://www.secureworks.com/cyber-threat-intelligence/threats/cryptolocker-ransomware/

I came across one of those ransomware pages.  For some reason it did not encrypt my drive, but it scared the hell out of me for a few mins.  I'm no gullible chump where these things are concerned but the thing looked totally real.  Be careful out there folks.

[Kate the Bionic Uterus]

Thought I would stick this here even though this thread has been derailed. The topic itself has been dead since the third post and well, I don't like to see a good thread go to waste XD

This should get people angry if it is true :/

NSA reportedly intercepting laptops purchased online to install spy malware
http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/29/5253226/nsa-cia-fbi-laptop-usb-plant-spy

[Unquenchable Angst]

I used to buy ammonium nitrate to blow tree stumps on the farm in the 70's. After Oklahoma City you can't find anything but 16% anymore. used to use a tomato paste can, packed with ammo.nitrate, enough diesel fuel to make a saturated solution, auger a hole under the stump, fuse the can with a blasting cap, pack the hole with wet cat litter.

[Unquenchable Angst]

Anybody use DUCK DUCK GO?