tor

Researchers could face legal risks for network snooping

A group of researchers from the University of Colorado and University of Washington could face both civil and criminal penalties for a research project in which they snooped on users of the Tor anonymous proxy network. Should federal prosecutors take interest in the project, the researchers could also face up to 5 years in jail for violating the Wiretap Act.

The team of two graduate students and three professors neither sought legal review of the project, nor ran it past the Human Subjects Committee at their university, putting them in a particularly dangerous position.

The academic paper, "Shining Light in Dark Places: Understanding the Tor Network&… Read more

Free sci-fi e-books, for a limited time

A friend of mine told me recently about Tor.com, a new site managed by Tor Books, part of the Macmillan publishing group.

There's something cool going on there for just the next few days. And if you've bought an Amazon Kindle or a Sony Reader--or just like to read e-books on your laptop, cell phone, or other system--you'll want to scoot right over to the "Freebies Bonanza" page. [Update-- this content is no longer available.]

Tor anonymity server admin arrested

In a recent blog posting, a German operator of a Tor anonymous proxy server revealed that he was arrested by German police officers at the end of July. Although he was released shortly afterwards, information about the arrest had been kept quiet until his lawyers were able to get the charges dropped.

Tor is a privacy tool designed to allow users to communicate and browse anonymously on the Internet. It's endorsed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and other civil liberties groups as a method for whistle blowers and human rights workers to communicate with journalists. Tor provides anonymous Web-browsing … Read more

A homing device for the absent-minded

Why couldn't we have had one of these last month when we lost our cell phone? Or how about last week, when our car keys mysteriously disappeared? And about the dog...

Anyway, even less-addled individuals would undoubtedly find good use for the "Loc8tor," which offers some hope for the possession-challenged among us. Shiny Shiny says the handheld device comes with 24 tags, each about the size of a fat paper clip, that can be attached to your prized possessions and/or loved ones if necessary. When any of them are out of a designated range of up … Read more