Tor: three letters that sound like the name of a god of Norse mythology (with an “h” at least), but mean everything something else to insiders Net. The Onion Router (Tor) is an ultra-secure network, based on Internet allows dissidents around the world to communicate anonymously. It takes its name from its layered structure, which is essential for safety. But like all great inventions, paper plane, it is also used by criminals, including pedophiles who find a way to share videos and images without direct exposure to the authorities. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has found a way to track users Tor, with unorthodox methods. The “federal hackers” have exploited a vulnerability in the Firefox browser, provided by Tor in an adapted version of the network, to infiltrate and identify senders and receivers of data exchange. Earlier, they had stopped in Ireland Eoin Eric Brand, creator of one of the many file hosting services on Tor: Freedom Hosting. They have added their malicious code on its servers to identify users. The Irish 28, who also has U.S. citizenship and whose extradition has been requested by Washington but not yet accepted by Dublin, is responsible for the exchange of pedophiles FBI files, hosted by its users platform. It is described as “the greatest facilitator of pedophiles trading world” by the FBI, although his involvement remains unclear: now impossible to know if he was particularly kind to his pedophile users, or if satisfied allow users to use their platform in their own way, in a spirit of total freedom, common in Tor users. However An index suggests that the man is not unaware of the use made of his service he had been warned in late 2011 of the massive presence of pedophiles by hacker collective Anonymous files. He had an ultimatum before attacking Freedom Hosting repeatedly, in vain. The platform is inaccessible since August 4, including sites that were legal. Of dissidents around the world also used Freedom Hosting, and were deprived of their freedom of expression vector without notice. We recognize here the method used by the FBI to close the site Megaupload:. Brutal and illegal, deemed disproportionate by many users, which, however, welcome the off line pedophiles files For the FBI, the operation was a huge success, and could have been carried out in collaboration with other government agencies. On specialized forums, many observers argue that addresses federal computers involved in the attack refer to the NSA, the all-powerful U.S. security agency, causing widespread surveillance program ranks, Prism. The latter has an interest in appropriating Tor, a network monitor and it just draws profiles of online holders of strategic information: dissidents, journalists, diplomats, etc.. It is likely that the “cyber command” of the U.S. military is also part. Contacted by The Point.fr, editor of Firefox, Mozilla , did not want to make more comments than the technical report on his blog. He explains that the (old) vulnerability exploited by the FBI to infect Freedom Hosting has been filled with the latest versions of its browser, and that “actively investigating this issue.” Mozilla has no direct involvement in the case, and the foundation declined to comment on the methods used by the FBI, which nevertheless raise ethical questions. No more side response Tor, which merely refers to an undeniable fact: Freedom Hosting is “in no way linked to Tor”. It feels like a malaise: it would be as difficult to criticize anti-pedophile operation that greet such methods of investigation … Meanwhile, the Tor network up with a Firefox update, or another browser.
Collateral Damage
Tor Mozilla silent and
