Privacy · security
Privacy & security
Privacy and anonymity
I’m a big proponent of privacy and anonymity online. It’s really important for people to be able to communicate in a secure fashion, without worrying about governments or anyone else listening in. Without secure communications, oppressive regimes, businesses, and even spouses can significantly impact our freedoms.
For many years I’ve been a supporter of The Tor Project. The Tor Project develops Tor, a piece of software that allows you to securely route your Internet traffic through multiple hops before it reaches your destination. Each hop includes its own layer of encryption, and knows only the next and previous hop in the chain. With a sufficiently long chain (Tor uses 3 links in the chain by default), you can have a reasonable level of certainty that no one node or entity can compromise your communications. You can read lots more on the Tor Project web site, and below is the story of the relays I used to run.
Tor: the relays I used to run
I no longer run any Tor relays, but from late 2016 until around 2021, I ran these:
-
teller, fingerprint
E46979A3053D43ADF187463A6E4856C875BC8C89 -
bohr, fingerprint
3E6D5577D6CF9239FB4F3B815B58875849BBCA96 -
meitner, fingerprint
9AFF136D28CE6C5F8DB4FC35330E6C0541B4FECC
I may have run others from time to time.
Tor bridges and the Great Firewall
In January 2012 I wrote up some research for the Tor Project blog: Knock Knock Knockin’ on Bridges’ Doors. It covers how the Great Firewall of China probed Tor bridges once a connection from China reached them, and how a small change to the list of SSL ciphers in the Tor client’s hello packet was enough to prevent the probes.
Running a relay
If you’re thinking of running one yourself, it’s relatively straightforward if you’re comfortable with the Unix/Linux command line and have run servers before. The Tor Project’s relay guide lays it out step by step. If you set one up as an “exit,” be sure you understand the kinds of abuse you might see, and that your ISP allows it.
TorTip, built on OnionTip
I also ran TorTip.com, a site that let people tip Tor relay operators in Bitcoin. I can’t claim credit for it: the code is OnionTip, written and released by Donncha O’Cearbhaill, who ran the original at OnionTip.com. When that went away, I fired up my own copy. I didn’t take any cut of the donations; I just facilitated the transactions. I love open source!
TorTip.com is gone now, too, and I haven’t found an archived copy. It ran the same code as OnionTip, though, and the Internet Archive has the original: OnionTip as it looked in 2016. OnionTip’s source is on GitHub: DonnchaC/oniontip.
Online security
If you care about privacy and anonymity, you should probably care about online security as well. If you don’t maintain secure online practices and behaviors, no amount of privacy and anonymity software is going to help you.
I worked in the Internet security industry for a number of years, and have extensive experience and knowledge in this area. The résumé has the details.
Talks
I also spoke publicly about some of it, at conferences on botnets and the underground economy:
- Dynamic DNS and Botnets, Third International Botnet Task Force Conference, Redmond, WA, October 2005
- DNS Tracking, Fourth International Botnet Task Force Conference, Lyon, France, April 2006
- Tracing Criminals Through IRC, Fifth International Botnet Task Force Conference, Redmond, WA (co-presented), January 2007
- Jargon Introduction, The Underground Economy 2009, Lyon, France, September 2009