DuckDuckGo Starts Privacy Contest With $ 500,000 Prize Money

Privacy search engine DuckDuckGo has started a contest with which organizations that use privacy can win all sorts of cash prizes. The competition will be held on the crowdfunding platform CrowdRise. The organization that gets the most money between 13 March and 10 April will receive the top prize of 50,000 dollars. A total of 253,000 dollars was reserved for the sixteen best participants.

In addition, there is 247,000 dollars that is distributed through the weekly bonus challenges . A total of 20 organizations participate in the competition, including the Freedom of the Press Foundation, the Tor Project , Let's Encrypt, Tails and Bits of Freedom. Since the start of the game yesterday, a total of $ 4219 in donations has been raised and the Center for Democracy and Technology has topped $ 1130.

Mozilla Doubles Donations To The Tor Project

The Tor Project has today launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds and Mozilla will double donations to a total of $ 500,000. Every day, 2 million people use the Tor network to protect their privacy and visit censored websites.

According to the Tor Project, the number of online attacks on censorship and privacy was unprecedented this year. "Countries around the world tried to restrict access to the web, to dissolve dissidents and to compromise personal privacy," said Tommy Collison of the Tor Project. Also for next year, the Tor Project expects many governments and companies censorship to make the norm and want privacy to be included in the past.

A large part of the revenue from the Tor Project comes from the US government and the organization wants to reduce it by depending more on individual donations. As there are no restrictions on crowdfunding, the money that is collected can be spent on projects which, according to the Tor Project, are the most important and can be responded quickly to changing circumstances.

Furthermore, the Tor Project praises cooperation with Mozilla. Not only will Mozilla double donations to a total of $ 500,000, both parties will work closely together in software development. For example, there is regular consultation between the engineers of Mozilla and the Tor Project. For example, Tor Browser's privacy enhancements are added to Firefox, and Mozilla engineers have taught Tor developers to program in the Rust programming language. In addition, Mozilla helps the Tor network by running several Tor servers.

Tor Project Asks For First Time Donations

The Tor Project, the organization that maintains the Tor network and Tor Browser, asks Internet users for the first time running for donations. The website had been a button present to donate, but now it is actively sought donors wishing to contribute to the development of the Tor network.

A large part of the revenue of the Tor Project comes from the US government. To avoid too much of this funding only depend now decided a crowdfunding campaign launch. Since no restrictions on crowdfunding can sit the money thus brought to projects which are spent according to the Tor Project are most important and can react quickly to changing circumstances.

Through the Tor network, Internet users can hide their IP address and visit censored websites. It is used daily by 2.5 million people, including in totalitarian regimes. The Tor Project is self-described as an American non-profit organization that focuses on research, development and education of online anonymity and privacy. Although many people daily surf the Internet via Tor Browser and the Tor network, the donation button on the website has been used in previous years no 8,000 times.

Extra Secure Tor Browser For Linux Launched

The creators of Tor Browser, the software for browsing through the Tor network, have released a security-enhanced version of Linux. It is the first time that the Tor Project offers a "hardened" version of Tor Browser. This browser includes a customized version of Firefox and Tor software.

The extra secure Tor Browser is based on the Tor Browser Alpha series. These are test versions of the browser that appear in the final versions. In addition, extra protection is added which should offer protection against memory exploits. For this are both the Tor software, and Firefox version Address Sanitizer compiled. This should give users a safer Tor Browser, especially if JavaScript is partially or completely disabled. It also helps to find problems earlier and to remedy them in the alpha and stable versions.

The additional security does have several disadvantages. Thus, this version is slower, consumes more memory and is slightly larger than the normal version. In addition, the added security of Address Sanitizer not perfect. An attacker who successfully back halls which it is practiced can still via JavaScript certain types of attack vulnerabilities. To date, the high-security Tor Browser only for Linux available, but is being given to versions for Mac OS X and Windows.

Tor Browser lets Internet users hide their IP address and visit censored websites. Every day, over two million people from all over the world using the Tor network, such as activists, people in totalitarian regimes and Internet users who value their privacy. The software is also used by criminals. Two years ago, users of legacy Tor Browser still the target of an attack allegedly by the FBI conducted. The attack users of the real IP address could be traced. To avoid Tor Browser Users with outdated versions meanwhile continue surfing is an automatic updater added to the browser.

Large Illegal Marketplace Offline For Tor-Vulnerability

A large illegal market on the Tor network has decided to temporarily offline due to vulnerabilities in the Tor network, so have the managers through Pastebin announced. It is Agora, the largest illegal market on the Tor network.

Through the website is handled in narcotics. The Agora administrators point to recent studies showing that web servers can be identified on the Tor network. These so-called "Tor hidden services" are only accessible via the Tor network and should not be localized. Recently, researchers showed that they were able to identify 88% of the hidden services in a test set-up.

According to the Tor Project, the developers of the Tor software and the Tor network, the impact of the attack revealed that bad. Yet the reason for the administrators of the Agora marketplace to temporarily pull the plug on the website. In a statement they say that it is unsafe to allow visitors to the website, since they are at risk. It is now working on a solution, but it is unknown when they will appear.

Tor Project Not Worried About Another Attack On Hidden Services

Scientists have found two ways to hidden services on the Tor network and its users, identify, but according to the Tor Project is the impact of the attacks it. Hidden services include websites that can be hosted on the Tor network. The address of the website is generally known only to the administrator and the website itself can only be accessed through the Tor network.

The well-known marketplace Silk Road was an example of a hidden service. According to scientists from MIT and the Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) there is a vulnerability ( pdf ) present in the design of Tor, which can be established that makes a Tor user of a hidden service use. Hidden services themselves could be identified with an accuracy of 88% and a comparable rate could be determined which sites a user has visited.
Tor network

The Tor-network consists of several nodes, also known as relays, on which the traffic runs. It is in this case for servers of the user's request, for example to ask a website via the Tor network to forward. For example, the first node is the "entry guard" that the request of the Tor-user to the "relay node" forward. Then it goes from this node to the "exit node", which sends the request to the Internet. An attacker or intelligence can add one or more servers in the Tor network. However, the attacker can not determine which node the user will use.

According to Tor developer Roger Dingledine consists attack the scientists of three phases, so he lets in a blog posting know. During the first phase, the attacker must have the luck that his server as entry guard is used by the user that he has in mind. During the second phase, the user loads a web site via the Tor network and investigators use a classifier to guess whether it is a web site on the Tor network or on the "ordinary" internet.

Next, a second classifier is used to determine which site-Tor was. According Dingledine is the extent to which the classifier used by the researchers to identify websites is accurate. The research was based on a thousand websites, but according to previous research would be millions of websites are hosted on the Tor network. In this case, the researchers would in most cases not been able to establish the identity of a web site.

In addition, there are also steps which may take the Tor network which make it more difficult for an attacker to determine or create a target site with a gate-connection or not. Altogether Dingledine is pleased with the study because it raises some interesting questions, however, the impact of the attacks described in the really easy.

Hacking Team Had Conceived Attack On Tor Users

The Italian developer of government spyware Hacking Team had thought an attack on users of the Tor network, according to a presentation that was captured at the company and analyzed by the Tor Project. The Italian company said recently that it had an exploit for Tor Browser, the browser used to connect to the Tor network can be made.

Based on a preliminary analysis of the data by Hacking Team were stolen this turns out not to be the case. This week published an attacker about 400GB of files were from Hacking Teams network. Including a presentation on attacking encrypted connections and Tor users were found. The attack Hacking Team had thought comes down to that first briefly a target had to be chosen.

Next to be determined is how users connect to the internet. After this, the hardware would Hacking Team on the local network, such as the ISP, be put down. Next, wait until the user was using it with a different browser. By adding an exploit on the pages visited by the user, for example via the Adobe Flash Player flaw which Hacking Team disposal, the computer might be infected with malware.

If the control was obtained over the computer users of the Tor Browser could be set to use a socks proxy on a remote server that is owned by Hacking Team. This way, the user would not use the Tor client that is part of the Tor Browser, but the Tor client Hacking Team. Thus Hacking Team can view traffic before it goes to the Tor network.

Scalable

According to Tor Project, the organization that maintains the Tor network, the attack of the Italian company is not very scalable. In addition, attackers who control over a user's computer also have many other ways have to fall further users. At issue in this case mass surveillance but targeted surveillance. As a solution, the Tor Project recommends Tails, an operating system focused on privacy that does not use local "resources".

"Ultimately, security down here on having secure browsers. That's why we work hard to Tor Browser to create more resistant to attacks, but the lesson in this case is that they attack the weakest link in your system, and in the case of Hacking Team Tor Browser is not the weakest link, " says Tor developer Roger Dingledine.

Tor-Flyer For Police And Citizens On The Internet Anonymously

Every day, hundreds of thousands of people using the Tor network to protect their online identity and privacy. Yet there is still much confusion about how the Tor network and the importance of online anonymity. Therefore, the Tor Project has several informative flyers ( pdf ) made ​​for police and citizens explaining the operation of the Tor network and the importance of anonymous internet.

Through the Tor network users can hide their IP address such as "hidden" visit websites that are only accessible through the Tor network. In recent months, several of these sites by the authorities off the air. The most Tor users are ordinary citizens who want to keep control over their privacy, so the Tor Project has announced in the flyer for police and investigative services.

The network is also used by journalists, activists and people in countries with totalitarian regimes or internet censorship. It is also handy for police and undercover operations. So use investigative services also the Tor network for their research."Because of the identity and location of hiding researchers Tor can be a valuable tool for successful online undercover operations," so let the flyer.

There is created a flyer for citizens showing the importance of anonymous Internet and online freedom is explained. According to the Tor Project is anonymity under fire as never before, allowing the ability to share free information on the Internet is undermined. "Countries monitors on each other and their citizens, block websites, watching the contents of traffic and reduce important world news." Organizations that deal with internet freedom can also order the flyers.

Organization Wants Gate And DuckDuckGo On Library Computers

Libraries are ideal places to promote privacy and anonymity and would therefore privacy tools like Tor Browser, DuckDuckGo, Tails and HTTPS Everywhere must be installed on library computers. This is suggested by the Library Freedom Project , a US organization that focuses on American libraries, but also helps libraries in other countries with this issue.

The Library Freedom Project also helps libraries with giving privacy-oriented computer classes. During the technical part, the aforementioned tools discussed. The library staff will explain how they Tor relays can be set and the standard library website over HTTPS can run. "Librarians are a professional group that have always been important privacy, but the development of mass surveillance has overtaken their technical capabilities," says Alison Macrina, founder of the Library Freedom Project.

According Macrina she learned librarians thanks to the tools of the Tor community to spread the use of anti-surveillance tools to the public. After being trained librarians begin their own lessons. "These lessons make a real difference in the lives of ordinary people who seek practical ways to get their digital privacy," said Macrina. She notes that the feedback from the ordinary Internet users the Tor Project may in turn help to increase the usability of Tor Browser and other tools.

Tails Will Remove Adblock Plus From Privacy OS

The privacy-oriented operating system Tails will remove the ad blocker Adblock Plus from the supplied Tor Browser. According to a message on the mailing list for Tails developers. Tails uses the Tor Browser to access the Internet through the Tor network. By default, while also installed Adblock Plus, which allows users to block ads.

However, the default Tor Browser containing the Tor Project is offered through the website no Adblock Plus, because this could be used as an argument to block Tor users on websites. Another reason for Adblock Plus to remove that Tails users who surf with Tor Browser will respond to other Tor Browser users seem, what the "finger print" of the Tails-users from going.

Users of Tor Browser can be fingerprinted using their operating systems and other tricks. At present Tails is used every day by 10,000 people, while Tor has about 2 million daily users. "Removing Adblock Tails to make more Tor Browser on Windows will improve things seem something in a particular area and other parts not again", states one of the developers. Meanwhile, remove Adblock Plus as a feature set for a future release.

Tails (The Amnesic Incognito Live System) is a complete operating system that can be used from a DVD or USB stick. It is based on Debian and contains various tools to access the Internet anonymously. For example, standard programs like Pidgin chat program, a virtual keyboard, the password manager and KeePassX GnuPG installed, completed with the necessary plug-ins and various encryption tools.

The Tor Network Is Under Attack

Tor users in the coming days may have problems with the use of its services. As representatives warn Tor, detected an attempt to take control of specialized servers, referred to as directory Authorities that support this network. They did not disclose what the hacker group or organization is behind this attack. "We have taken steps to ensure the safety of users of our services. Tor already uses redundancy mechanisms that will keep their anonymity, even if the planned attack will be executed. Tor is safe "provides" arma "on the blog associated with the project . "Arma" is a nickname associated with the project leader Roger Dingledine.

The Tor network packets are exchanged directly between the source and the receiver, and pass through several randomly selected relay servers, which mask the path of the flow of information and thus allow the anonymity of the users of the network. "Even if the attacker take control of the majority of servers, they will not be able to force the Tor client software to resign from the other relays communication and as a result will still be safe and anonymous "provides" arma ".

If you use Tor - you may want to note down and temporarily avoid these affected mirrors in a below pic

Affected Mirrors

Currently, Tor uses 9 servers to manage traffic in the network. They are located in the USA and Europe. At the moment (Monday 22/12/2014) there was no information about the planned attack on Tor. Representatives of the project promise that all information on the current situation will be immediately posted on the blog design . -providing anonymity on the Internet.

Tor network is used by users who want to avoid censorship and track their content published by the secret services, especially in non-democratic countries. Representatives say the Tor project, the network is also used by millions of people who want to ensure the security of the communication itself when connecting to the Internet in public areas. Unfortunately, it is also used by criminals, such as drug trafficking network Silk Road. It was closed down in October 2013 years by the US police, but there is another version - Silk Road 2.0. Despite these controversies, Tor network is one of the symbols of freedom and privacy of Internet communication and any attempt to attack this system probably will lead to big stir among users global network.