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Category Archives: Tor Browser

Firefox could be adding built-in Tor support for improved private browsing

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In future releases of Firefox, you may have access to a private browsing mode thats a whole lot more private. Theres a chance that Mozilla could be working to integrate support for Tors anonymous surfing tech into their browser. Tor integration might not be a perfect privacy solution but its definitely an upgrade over the private browsing modes our browsers currently offer.

Patrick Howell ONeill of The Daily Dot recently spoke with Andrew Lewman, executive director of the Tor Project. During their exchange, Lewman mentioned that several major tech firms have ongoing discussions about adding Tor functionality to their products. One of those companies, Lewman said, has a 10% to 20% share of 2.8 billion internet users.

He didnt specifically name Mozilla, but those numbers line up pretty nicely with estimates of Firefox market share from trackers like NetMarketShare and StatCounter. And theres every reason to think that Mozilla would at least consider adding Tor support to Firefox.

Mozilla is one of the most trusted companies on the internet, particularly when it comes to user privacy. They spearheaded the push for Do Not Track (which has unfortunately failed) and they launched the Lightbeam add-on to show Firefox users how the sites they visit were sharing their browsing data with third parties. Firefox has always offered loads of configuration tweaks that allow users to lock things like cookies down, too.

Mozilla and the Tor Project also have a pretty decent working relationship already. They share many of the same values and goals and Mozilla says theyre always discussing new ways to increase trust and privacy on the web.

Youll already find Firefox in the Tor browser bundle, but Firefox integration would bring easy Tor access to hundreds of millions of additional users. Tors network will need to be scaled up to handle the additional traffic not that 100% of Firefox users will click in, but even 10% of its base would be hard on todays Tor network.

Now read:PORTAL router puts hassle-free TOR privacy in your pocket

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Firefox could be adding built-in Tor support for improved private browsing

Dreaming of a Tor Button for Firefox

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It's no secret that everybody's thinking about privacy and cyber security more since the world was pummeled with the unsettling, spy-novel truths of the Snowden revelations. Now, companies are starting to seize onto the zeitgeist by building more secure tools for the internet. And it sounds like Tor will be at the front of that line.

The Tor anonymity network is in talks with "several major tech companies" about integrating its technology into their software, according to the Daily Dot. One of those companies, the Daily Dot's Patrick Howell O'Neill, is Firefox, and that integration might come in the form of a Tor button that would enable anonymous browsing for hundreds of millions of people. Again, it's unclear if this major tech company is indeed Firefox, but Tor executive director Andrew Lewman offered some hints.

"They very much like Tor Browser and would like to ship it to their customer base," said Lewman. "Their product is 10-20 percent of the global market, this is of roughly 2.8 billion global Internet users." Lewman added, "[The tech companies are] willing to entertain offering their resources to help us solve the scalability challenges of handling hundreds of millions of users and relays on Tor."

This sounds like a great idea! Indeed, Firefox does have between 10 and 20 percent of the global browser market, and Mozilla, the nonprofit that builds the open source browser, is certainly interested in issues like privacy and security. Last year, Mozilla launched Lightbeam as an add-on that helps users visualize who's collecting data from them. A similar add-on that offers increased privacy or even total anonymity makes perfect sense. The Daily Dot calls it an "easy Tor button." We call it genius.

But even if it's not Firefox, it would be a smart move for any browser to take advantage of Tor's anonymity network. Easy integration into a popular browser would not only offer better privacy for millions; it would also encourage more people to think about cyber security. We already saw this earlier this year, when Apple announced that it would integrate DuckDuckGo, the anonymous search engine, into Safari for iOS 8. This is in addition to new, improved encryption in iOS 8.

If anything, turning Tor into a mainstream resource means that everybody enjoys better security. The Tor network works like a daisy chain that puts distance between the user and their destination, so that hackers or spies can't trace who's doing what on the internet. The longer that daisy chain gets, the harder it is to identify the person on the other end. Although as we learned a few months ago, it's not impossible to identify Tor users. Still, it's much harder.

So regardless of who's doing it, you should be excited by the idea of more Tor integration. It's a boon for your privacy and good for cyber security. And hopefully, it's just around the corner. [Daily Dot]

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Dreaming of a Tor Button for Firefox

Tor Executive Director Hints At Firefox Integration

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blottsie writes: Several major tech firms are in talks with Tor to include the software in products that can potentially reach over 500 million Internet users around the world. One particular firm wants to include Tor as a "private browsing mode" in a mainstream Web browser, allowing users to easily toggle connectivity to the Tor anonymity network on and off. "They very much like Tor Browser and would like to ship it to their customer base," Tor executive director Andrew Lewman wrote, explaining the discussions but declining to name the specific company. "Their product is 10-20 percent of the global market, this is of roughly 2.8 billion global Internet users." The product that best fits Lewman's description, by our estimation, is Mozilla Firefox, the third-most popular Web browser online today and home to, you guessed it, 10 to 20 percent of global Internet users.

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Tor Executive Director Hints At Firefox Integration

TOR Browser: Safe to use 2014? – Yahoo Answers

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I wouldn't use the browser bundle. be wary of the browser bundle from Tor ESPECIALLY if you use Windows. This bundle is the subject of special interest by FBI and they are constantly trying to exploit whatever version of Firefox that it uses and was recently successful. If you want to get on Tor you can always do it the easy way by using a router that has Tor embedded in it. I recommend PAPARouter (http://paparouter.com) because it's inexpensive (less than $100.00), allows you to anonymize several devices at once and best of all it has non U.S. exit nodes hard coded into it . Given all the uproar that other countries are having with U.S. spying, making your last Tor relay outside of the U.S. to your target site is great security and using https would be massive protection.

TOR AND HTTPS PAGE https://www.eff.org/pages/tor-and-https

FBI exploit using Firefox Bundle http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/08/...

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TOR Browser: Safe to use 2014? - Yahoo Answers

Guns, drugs and freedom: the great dark net debate

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As modest as they appeared, these three men have become known as the people who in that darkened conference room in 2004 unleashed the Tor anonymity network, one of the most controversial phenomena in the history of the internet.

An acronym for The Onion Router, Tor bounces data and messages through as many as 5,000 other computers, known as nodes or relays, adding layers of encryption to the data like skins on an onion, until it is virtually impossible to discern the original users location and identity.

And although it has positive applications, especially in repressive regimes such as Iran and China, where pro-democracy activists use it to publicise human rights abuses and foment dissent, it is also used by many thousands of people to trade guns, drugs, stolen goods and child pornography. It has been implicated in hundreds of cases of fraud, identity theft and paedophilia. Remarkably, though, the US Navy continues to provide most of its funding.

When we started working on Tor, we didnt sit back and think too much about the implications of privacy, security and anonymity, says Sylverson, on the phone from the US Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC. The reason for our research was to allow US government employees to go to public websites to gather information, without anybody knowing that there was somebody from the Navy looking for this stuff.

To guarantee anonymity, Tor had to have mass appeal and so the software was designed to be open-source, meaning that the source code could be distributed and developed by anybody. It had to be picked up by the public and used. This was fundamental, says Sylverson. If we created an anonymous network that was only being used by the Navy, then it would be obvious that anything popping out or going in was going to and from the Navy.

Weapons for sale on the Tor-accessed site Armory (Flickr)

Every additional ordinary user, he says, enhances the security and protection that the network is designed to offer to Navy employees, and is, in a way, their payment.

Fast-forward to 2014, and that attitude seems at best naive, at worst willfully negligent. Sites that are blocked by most internet service providers, including those peddling hardcore child pornography, are accessible using Tor and available to browse following some simple steps well within the grasp of most computer-users.

Each page can take up to 30 seconds to load, but that aside, when I log on to the network on a Monday afternoon after downloading the Tor browser, I find it easy to access a wealth of illegal goods and services, ranging from the appalling to the ridiculous.

Gun Grave, for instance, offers a selection of weapons including a mint condition M4 semi-automatic rifle that can be shipped worldwide. Chances are if you are looking for it we can find it, the vendor writes. Evidently, there is a history here. Further down the listing, he elaborates: "We have had 2 orders for 3 items seized recently and rather then work with us according to our partial refund policy the buyers decided to leave negative feedback and try to extort us with threats of negative forum comments.... WE WILL NOT BE EXTORTED!!!!!! Thank you."

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Guns, drugs and freedom: the great dark net debate

Drier: Is Comcast really blocking anonymous Internet browser Tor?

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A small flurry erupted this week when news sites reported that Comcast was blocking customers from using the Tor browser. If this were true, it was a serious and invasive step for an internet provider.

Tor is a network created to make online browsing anonymous. When you surf online, you leave a lot of clues about who you are and what you like.

The Tor network lets people surf without leaving traces. To take advantage of this, visit http://www.torproject.org and download the free Tor browser.

You'll be browsing anonymously in minutes.

Unsure why you'd want this? There are plenty of legitimate reasons why someone might need to surf without divulging their identity.

Journalists often use Tor to protect their sources, and citizens of countries that restrict online access use it to browse prohibited sites. Some parents use it to keep their children's online activities private.

Not surprisingly, Tor is used for illegal activities, as well, The reports that Comcast had blocked Tor said that Comcast considered it an illegal service, and assumed that people using it were up to no good.

Even for Comcast, however, this would be a step too far.

If it were really blocking anonymous browsing, that would be a huge breach of its customers' privacy. That's why Comcast vice president of internet communications and engineering Jason Livingood came forward right away to say the story was false.

"Our customers can use Tor at any time, as I have myself. I'm sure many of them are using it right now," he wrote in a blog post.

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Drier: Is Comcast really blocking anonymous Internet browser Tor?

Why a thinly sourced, unverified report about Comcast has the Web in an uproar

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In the last 24 hours, Comcast has been embroiled in a minor controversy concerning countless subscribers who use Tor, the traffic-anonymizing service designed to hide your Web activity from would-be snoops. According to a report on a Web site known as Deep Dot Web, Comcast has"declared war" oncustomers who use Tor and is threatening to disconnect their service overa perfectly legitimate activity. Not surprisingly, the accusations have thrown Internet users many of whom are already predisposed to dislike Comcast into an uproar.

But don't buy what Deep Dot Web is selling. Comcast is denying the accusations, of course, but the claims are also being rejected by Tor users themselves. Between the unambiguousdenunciations coming from Comcast and the thinly-sourced nature of Deep Dot Web's report, it isn't likely that Comcast is doing anything nefarious here.

Citing anonymous sources on a relatively obscure redditpageand at least one complaint shared withDeep Dot Web directly, the report accuses Comcast of telling customers that Tor is an"illegal service" that violates the company's acceptable use policy. Failure to terminate Tor usage, these service reps say, would result in the termination of Comcast service, according to Deep Dot Web.

If you've never used Tor, the service has one basic function: to hide your browsing habits from prying eyes. When using the Tor browser a specially modified version of Firefox your traffic doesn't go directly to its destination, but instead gets bounced across multiple intermediaries. When it comes out the other side and continues on, it's almost impossible to tell where (and from whom) the traffic originated. Not even the NSA has figured out how to crack the core Tor infrastructure (as far as we know.)

What Deep Dot Web is implying is that Comcast is monitoring people who use this service and singling them out for special treatment. It's significant not only because these are serious charges, but because it recalls a similar case resolved in 2008 concerning Comcast's throttling of peer-to-peer filesharing services. Back then, the FCC said that Comcast was violating net neutralityby taking action against BitTorrent traffic. Although the incident led an appeals court to rulein Comcast's favor, itkicked off a debate over net neutrality that continues today.

Unlike the BitTorrent case, it doesn't appear that the Comcast actions against Tor are widespread, if they're happening at all. On Monday, the company categoricallydeniedmonitoring what users do on its network.

"The report may havegenerated a lot of clicks, but is totally inaccurate," Comcast exec Jason Livingood wrote in a blog post. "Comcast is not asking customers to stop using Tor, or any otherbrowser for that matter."

Livingood added that he is an occasional Tor user himself.

A Comcast spokesman clarified to The WashingtonPost that "termination is not a policypost-BitTorrent, we've been very consistent and clear there's no application or service or any website or protocol that our customers cannot use with their Comcast Internet service."

There are good reasons to be skeptical of Comcast, particularly when the company has itself acknowledged its poor record on customer service. Bashing Comcast is easy and popular, which may be one reason Deep Dot Web's report rose so quickly to the top of reddit Monday morning. (The report is now nowhere to be found on reddit'sfront page.)

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Why a thinly sourced, unverified report about Comcast has the Web in an uproar

Comcast calls rumor that it disconnects Tor users wildly inaccurate

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Comcast has lately found itself issuing public apologies on a somewhat regular basisas subscribers share tales of horrible customer service.

But the latest accusation leveled against Comcastthat it is threatening to disconnectcustomers who use the anonymity-providing Tor browserhasn't been backed by convincing evidence that it's happening. And Comcast dismisses the rumor as wildly inaccurate.

It began Saturday with a site called DeepDotWeb claiming that Comcast has declared war on Tor Browser.

Reports have surfaced (Via /r/darknetmarkets and another one submitted to us) that Comcast agents have contacted customers using Tor and instructed them to stop using the browser or risk termination of service, the article said. A Comcast agent named Jeremy allegedly called Tor an illegal service. The Comcast agent told its customer that such activity is against usage policies. The Comcast agent then repeatedly asked the customer to tell him what sites he was accessing on the Tor browser. The customer refused to answer. The next day the customer called Comcast and spoke to another agent named Kelly who reiterated that Comcast does not want its customers using Tor.

Kelly allegedly told the customer that Users who try to use anonymity, or cover themselves up on the Internet, are usually doing things that arent so-to-speak legal. We have the right to terminate, fine, or suspend your account at anytime due to you violating the rules.

There was good reason to be skeptical of this report. A search of the subreddit /r/darknetmarketsfor Comcast and Tor turned up nothing. (UPDATE: Here is the reddit post quoted by DeepDotWeb.) Any organized Comcast campaign againstusers of Tor wouldlikely inspire numerouscustomer complaints, not just a few, as noted by Cato Institute Research Fellow Julian Sanchez and security researcher Robert Graham, who wrote on Twitter:

"This story is wildly inaccurate," Comcast spokesperson Charlie Douglas told Ars. "Customers are free to use their Xfinity Internet service to visit any website or use it however they wish otherwise."

While Comcast publishes an acceptable use policy, the company "doesnt monitor users browser software or Web surfing and has no program addressing the Tor browser," Douglas said.

In some previous cases where customers have documented poor customer service, Comcast has admitted fault and said its customer service agents acted in error. In this case, Comcast says it investigated the story and found no evidence that the encounters everhappened.

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Comcast calls rumor that it disconnects Tor users wildly inaccurate

Comcast Denies It Will Cut Off Customers Who Use Tor, The Web Browser For Criminals (CMCSA)

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Comcast completely denies their claims. In a blog post, the company said "We have no policy against Tor, or any other browser or software. Customers are free to use their Xfinity Internet service to visit any website, use any app, and so forth."

According to a report on Deepdotweb, Comcast customer representatives have branded Tor "illegal" and told customers that using it is against the company's policies.

Tor is a type of web browser that, in theory, makes all your internet activity private. The software routes traffic through a series of other connected internet users, making it difficult for governments and private companies to monitor your internet usage. Up to 1.2 million people use the browser, which became especially popular after Edward Snowden leaked information showing that the NSA was eavesdropping on ordinary citizens. Prior to that, Tor had been popular among people transacting business on Silk Road, the online market for drugs and hitmen.

The problem is that downloading or using Tor itself isn't illegal. Plenty of people might have legitimate reasons to want to surf the web in private, without letting others know what they were looking at. But Tor has been pretty popular with criminals.

Some Comcast reps allegedly begun telling users that it is an "illegal service." One Comcast representative, identified only as Kelly, warned a customer over his use of Tor software, DeepDotWeb reports:

Users who try to use anonymity, or cover themselves up on the internet, are usually doing things that arent so-to-speak legal. We have the right to terminate, fine, or suspend your account at anytime due to you violating the rules. Do you have any other questions? Thank you for contacting Comcast, have a great day.

Comcast customers, speaking to Deepdotweb, claimed that Comcast repeatedly asked them which sites they were accessing using Tor.

In a statement to Business Insider, Comcast refuted the claims made in Deepdotweb, stating that they had launched an internal review into the discussions reported above:

Customers are free to use their Xfinity Internet service to visit any website or use it however they wish otherwise.Like virtually all ISPs, Comcast has an acceptable use policy or AUP that outlines appropriate and inappropriate uses of the service.Comcast doesnt monitor users browser software or web surfing and has no program addressing the Tor browser.he anecdotal chat room evidence provided is not consistent with our agents messages and is not accurate. Per our own internal review, we have found no evidence that these conversations took place, nor do we employ a Security Assurance team member named Kelly.Tors own FAQs clearly state: 'File sharing (peer-to-peer/P2P) is widely unwanted on Tor' and 'BitTorrent is NOT anonymous' on Tor.

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Comcast Denies It Will Cut Off Customers Who Use Tor, The Web Browser For Criminals (CMCSA)

Tor Browser for iOS – Free download and software reviews …

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by: Ben Markton on January 07, 2014

Tor Browser is designed to provide an added layer of security when browsing the Internet on your mobile device. Using proxy technology to keep your IP address and location secure, the app taps into the Tor browsing interface that many journalists, hackers, and academics use to protect their privacy online. From our tests, the proxies appear to work well, but the actual browser has issues of its own.

While the browsing experience with Tor did protect privacy and ensure an anonymous browsing experience, the actual Web surfing experience was hurt because of it. The setup time is long, requiring about 30 seconds or so to connect and ready itself for use. After this, the browser will often take a bit longer than other browsers to load Web pages, sometimes as much as twice the time needed by Safari. Combined with the often overseas IP addresses opening non-U.S. versions of sites, it can be a bit frustrating to get to your favorite sites and access content.

The core component of Tor Browser works as advertised and offers a secure, private browsing experience, but the browser built around that technology is not quite good enough to replace the other browsers on your device, at least not for quick reads of articles, e-mail checking, and other basic activities. It's an OK free app that could use some work on the usability side.

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Tor Browser for iOS - Free download and software reviews ...

Browse Anonymously, Browse Safely – The App Center

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Tor Browser is based off of the Firefox project, and is very similar in most aspect to the regular Firefox browser. The big difference though, is that all traffic is routed through Tor. This means you can be sure that your time spent browsing online is anonymous and safe.

The Tor Project is an open source project that was created to help people browse the Internet safely. This has been used in a wide variety of aplications, ranging from helping bypass firewalls in countries like China to ensuring safe communications between diplomats. But with the increasing pressure on everyone to keep basic online browsing private from markters, governments, and other snoops, it is starting to be more commonly used in everyday life for many people.

Tor works by channeling your traffic through a multi-step encryption across a globally-distributed servers. This means that not only your identity is completely hidden from the website/onlien service you are trying to connect to, it is close to impossible for anyone to intercept and read the communication en route.

With Tor browser, you can now get all of the powerful security in Tor, but with the ease of a common web browser. If you are interested in learning more about the Tor network and how it works, we highly recommend reading through their explanation.

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Browse Anonymously, Browse Safely - The App Center


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