anyone ever used this set of tools? a friend of mine attended a 2-week security workshop and mentioned that these tools can significantly aid in securing anonymity...what do y'all think?

Quote :

"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."

Quote :

"Tor helps to reduce the risks of both simple and sophisticated traffic analysis by distributing your transactions over several places on the Internet, so no single point can link you to your destination. The idea is similar to using a twisty, hard-to-follow route in order to throw off somebody who is tailing you—and then periodically erasing your footprints. Instead of taking a direct route from source to destination, data packets on the Tor network take a random pathway through several servers that cover your tracks so no observer at any single point can tell where the data came from or where it's going."

http://tor.eff.org/

1/18/2007 1:51:21 PM

^ What poor idiot do the sucker into being a tor node?

1/18/2007 3:05:21 PM

i don't know how it works...if you're running tor, do you automatically become a node? if the software immediately erases the person's "footprint" after they've passed through, and everyone running tor operates as a node, then you're serving a very minor function, i would think

1/18/2007 4:25:45 PM

bttt...i would have thought people would have more opinions on this

1/19/2007 10:49:18 AM

Tor works basically as a sort of "peer to peer" network. If you are using tor, you are a node. Basically, your data is encrypted and sent through a series of tor nodes, like yourself, then unencrypted at some point and sent to it's desired client. Information then goes back via the same sort of channel.

I don't know specifics about how all this works, I've never researched it much, but basically, it routes and encrypts your data to "hide" who you are, and does a very good job of it.

1/19/2007 10:59:10 AM

i use all three and it lags my surfing

1/19/2007 2:43:43 PM