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6 Reasons Why Tor Isn’t the Magic Browser You Think It Is

1/20/2016

5 Comments

 
​by Cassie Phillips, Guest Contributor

If you are interested in online security or are otherwise concerned about online surveillance, you might have heard of Tor before. It stands for “The Onion Router” and was originally developed by the United States to keep spies safe when they were conducting operations involving digital communication.

To put it simply, it works by tossing your signal through a house of mirrors before getting your information. There is a network of “nodes” that are created by volunteers to mask an IP address.

The end node will have a completely different IP address than whoever sent an information request, and the request has travelled through enough nodes so that the original sender is nearly untraceable. It sounds perfect, doesn’t it?
​Yet there is more than meets the eye when it comes to Tor. Here are six of the top reasons why anyone interested in using Tor should reconsider:

1) Alternatives Exist
A simple alternative that some would recommend is using a proxy server, which masks an IP address by making it look like another server is sending requests instead of the actual sender. It is cheap, simple and raises fewer red flags than using Tor would. The problems with them are involved with security (many of them are scams or malware) and unreliability. As great as they are for certain situations, they simply aren’t good enough to constantly use.
The most prominent and effective alternative we can recommend is a Virtual Private Network (VPN), which is a service that will connect your computer to an offsite secure server via an encrypted connection. This will mask your IP address and allow you to safely surf the internet on any network regardless of how safe it is. The encryption is that powerful. They are particularly great at getting around government censorship, which is just what many Tor users are looking for in the first place. The very best options for VPNs don’t cost all that much and are reliable enough for you to use in any situation.

2) Legal Problems and Criminal Associations
There is absolutely nothing inherently wrong with Tor. That being said, it has not received good associations over the years. Terrorists use Tor. Criminals use Tor. Child pornographers use Tor. This has led people to believe that it is the tool that is evil and not the people misusing the tool from its intended purpose of safety and privacy. Tor users have been stereotyped as a criminal element online, and while most internet users won’t pay it too much attention (or know that you are using it), it might bring unwanted suspicion down on you.

There is also nothing illegal about Tor, at least in the United States. That doesn’t stop it from being the subject of prejudice, and that prejudice can turn to you should you find yourself in a misunderstanding with the law. It won’t look good, and using an alternative method to mask your IP address won’t raise nearly as many eyebrows.

3) Connection Slowdown Can Occur
If you are running a connection through an unnecessarily (unnecessary in terms of pure efficiency and speed) long circuit in order to reach its destination, you are going to have some internet slowdown no matter what you do. In certain cases, this is acceptable. You might already have such a fast connection that it doesn’t matter that you are losing 20 percent of your download speed. You might only be downloading text pages that use the minimum amount of bandwidth that you can imagine.

Yet the slowdown can sometimes become so severe that using the internet at all becomes impossible. There might be a lack of nodes in your area, meaning a longer travel distance for your signal to become sufficiently obscured. The network might be strained at peak hours where there are a lot of users looking to pass through an area. There are plenty of reasons that might give you a slowed connection, but the effect is always debilitating, especially if you are serious about your internet use. And if you are even considering Tor, you should consider yourself serious about your internet use.

4) Compatibility Issues
Tor was never really intended for average consumer or citizen use. While the developers of the browser have done an excellent job adapting it to be compatible with most of the internet, the internet was never designed for Tor. This means that you might run into some problems while using Tor to browse more complex websites.

Some scripts might even give your location away after requesting personal data and your IP address as part of a cookie or as part of a script. This can tip you off as both a Tor user in the context of other data, and it ruins the privacy and security you downloaded Tor for in the first place. If you are concerned, you can limit yourself to forums and text-based webpages, but the internet is quickly moving to other methods of conveying information with the increased capabilities of the average user.

5) You Can Be Tracked
If you think that using Tor covers your tracks completely, you would be correct...two years ago. Now investigators and individuals have found a way to get around Tor’s defenses. The main concern stems from the fact that anyone can send up an end-node where the traffic can be monitored. What if a government decided to set up a few dozen and take note of all the requests that came through? What if a corporation decided to do the same?

If someone or a body of people had the proper resources, they could find patterns in the data requests and, through sheer processing power, track you down. They will eventually find similarities in your requests and perhaps information attached to requests that would lead a clever mind to put the pieces together. In addition to this being a massive breach of privacy, it serves as a security risk with the data sent and received being suspect to interception. Your entire online life could be at risk.

6) Governments Take Notice
If you are using Tor, it is most likely true (barring techniques and technologies we don’t know of publicly yet) that discovering your identity will be a tricky business. This does not mean that you are safe when downloading and installing Tor in the first place, the knowledge of which isn’t so hard to determine. Should a government notice this, they will be more likely to put their eyes on you, wondering what you might have to hide. For example, the United States government has a program called XKeyscore, which reportedly makes a note of everyone downloading Tor. This will make any non-Tor internet use a risky business.  Sometimes it is just better to hide in plain sight or use an alternative tool without so many negative associations.

Depending on the government that you are living under, this can have life-changing consequences for you. Due to its long history of use against oppressive regimes, oppressive regimes aren’t too fond of Tor. Some have gone so far as to criminalize its use and prosecute anyone who is caught downloading it. By prosecuting, we mean throw in prison and destroy the key, if not making a very violent example of you in a rather public location. This isn’t too common today, but depending on where you live, you won’t want to risk it.

Do you have any other thoughts on Tor? Are you going to stop using it now? Do you think the risks are worth it? Leave a comment below and join the conversation. We would love to hear about what you do to keep yourself private online and whether you have had success or problems with the network.

IMAGE CREDIT: PHOTO ATELIER
Picture

C
assie is a cybersecurity expert and technology enthusiast who enjoys sharing her knowledge with others.

For some great tips on how you can protect yourself online, follow Cassie on Twitter: @securethoughtsc

5 Comments
Kevin Gallagher
1/20/2016 03:25:22 pm

Hello Cassie!

Thank you for writing this article. I would like to throw my 2 cents in.

Before I do I would like to give some background about myself. I am a PhD student at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering focusing on Privacy and Anonymity. I am not working for or affiliated with any other institution that works in the privacy or anonymity fields.

This article seems to be making statements that are a bit unfair. First of all, your "Alternatives Exist" section implies that proxy servers or VPNs provide the same type of service that Tor does. This is simply not true. Tor nodes are operated by many different volunteers, and you use multiple nodes (usually 3) in each Tor curcuit you use. This guarantees that each node only knows the node before it and the node after it, and that no node knows both the sender and the recipient of any given message. This decentralization is very different from VPNs and proxies, which rely on centralized servers and do know the source and destination of every message sent through them. Therefore, VPNs and Proxies have a different threat model and method of operation than Tor.

In addition, this section seems a bit biased. The only link under the "Alternatives are available" section is a link to a review of a VPN at a site you write for that appears to be sponsored content. Please list any conflicts of interest you may have in the article so that users can be best informed.

The next section, "Legal Problems and Criminal Associations," is completely unfair. You conjecture that using Tor may get users into legal trouble down the road with no evidence that this has happened or that it is even likely. Furthermore, you unfairly appropriate more time talking about the criminals that use Tor without mentioning that Tor is a tool also used by law enforcement agencies (https://www.torproject.org/about/torusers.html.en), by librarians (http://www.theverge.com/2015/9/16/9341409/library-tor-encryption-privacy), by activists and human rights campaigners like people at the EFF, by security experts like Bruce Schneier, by journalists like Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras and by a whole bunch of good people. You mention it being a subject of prejudice, then you go on to strengthen that prejudice. This doesn't solve the prejudice problem, it simply makes it worse.

Your section "Connection Slowdown Can Occur" has some valid points. Yes, Tor is slower than normal browsing. However, you say "unneccesary slowdown," which is simply misleading. This slowdown is an artifact of the decentralized nature that makes Tor secure.

Your next section is just wrong. Tor is meant to be compatable with as many sites as possible. It blocks elements that may jeapordize users' anonymity, but this is necessary to receive the full benefit of anonymity. Blocking these ensures that malicious code cannot execute and reveal the users IP address. If the user trusts the code (for whatever reason) they are able to allow the script to run.

This next section, "You Can Be Tracked," is again misleading. You suggest that it is easy for government and entities like that to track down Tor users simply by setting up exit nodes. This is not the case. As mentioned before, Tor's design makes sure that no nodes know both the sender and the receiver of a given communication. With that being said, there are limitations to its threat model (it does not protect against a global passive adversary), however the other alteratives you mentioned have the same problem (as will all low-latency anonymity methods). The Tor Project is always watching for misbehaving nodes, and takes nodes offline as soon as it believes that a node is involved in an attack on users' anonymity. In addition, Tor has a large community of volunteers in academia that are working on discovering and preventing possible attacks on the Tor network.

Your last section, "Governments Take Notice" has some truth to it, but again is greatly exaggerated. Yes, the government will know you're using Tor. There is no way to hide this fact. However you propose "hiding in plain sight" as an alternative. That is, you're suggesting they don't protect themselves at all! This is nonsense, and does not help users protect their privacy. You also recommend alternative products again, but you seem to forget that they are also subject to scrutiny. In some countries VPNs are illegal and can get you imprisoned. That is no reason to say not to use VPNs in countries where it is legal.

Thanks again for the article. It is important to discuss the limitations of Tor, but it is only fair that its advantages are included as well.

If anything I said here is confusing or seems incorrect, please respond and I will clear it up.

Thanks.

- Kevin Gallagher

Reply
kleft
1/21/2016 05:16:11 am

In both of the first cases mentioned, an attacker only needs control over the socks/proxy or VPN-Gateway mentioned to read the traffic. Tor also encrypts the data transferred over the Network in a few layers while VPN or Socks connections may send data in cleartext from the exit hop to your destination. The hints mentioned in this article are partially very more insecure than Tor.

Reply
Cassie link
1/21/2016 01:27:09 pm

Ahh, yes. Many people feel that Tor is safer, but you have to also consider that Tor is watched by the government because of the illegal activity that it has been used for in the past. If you insist on using Tor, I suggest using a VPN because it will increase your privacy.

Reply
Kevin link
1/21/2016 11:18:30 am

Hello Cassie!

Thank you for writing this article. I would like to throw my 2 cents in.

Before I do I would like to give some background about myself. I am a PhD student at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering focusing on Privacy and Anonymity. I am not working for or affiliated with any other institution that works in the privacy or anonymity fields.

This article seems to be making statements that are a bit unfair. First of all, your "Alternatives Exist" section implies that proxy servers or VPNs provide the same type of service that Tor does. This is simply not true. Tor nodes are operated by many different volunteers, and you use multiple nodes (usually 3) in each Tor curcuit you use. This guarantees that each node only knows the node before it and the node after it, and that no node knows both the sender and the recipient of any given message. This decentralization is very different from VPNs and proxies, which rely on centralized servers and do know the source and destination of every message sent through them. Therefore, VPNs and Proxies have a different threat model and method of operation than Tor.

In addition, this section seems a bit biased. The only link under the "Alternatives are available" section is a link to a review of a VPN at a site you write for that appears to be sponsored content. Please list any conflicts of interest you may have in the article so that users can be best informed.

The next section, "Legal Problems and Criminal Associations," is completely unfair. You conjecture that using Tor may get users into legal trouble down the road with no evidence that this has happened or that it is even likely. Furthermore, you unfairly appropriate more time talking about the criminals that use Tor without mentioning that Tor is a tool also used by law enforcement agencies (https://www.torproject.org/about/torusers.html.en), by librarians (http://www.theverge.com/2015/9/16/9341409/library-tor-encryption-privacy), by activists and human rights campaigners like people at the EFF, by security experts like Bruce Schneier, by journalists like Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras and by a whole bunch of good people. You mention it being a subject of prejudice, then you go on to strengthen that prejudice. This doesn't solve the prejudice problem, it simply makes it worse.

Your section "Connection Slowdown Can Occur" has some valid points. Yes, Tor is slower than normal browsing. However, you say "unneccesary slowdown," which is simply misleading. This slowdown is an artifact of the decentralized nature that makes Tor secure.

Your next section is just wrong. Tor is meant to be compatable with as many sites as possible. It blocks elements that may jeapordize users' anonymity, but this is necessary to receive the full benefit of anonymity. Blocking these ensures that malicious code cannot execute and reveal the users IP address. If the user trusts the code (for whatever reason) they are able to allow the script to run.

This next section, "You Can Be Tracked," is again misleading. You suggest that it is easy for government and entities like that to track down Tor users simply by setting up exit nodes. This is not the case. As mentioned before, Tor's design makes sure that no nodes know both the sender and the receiver of a given communication. With that being said, there are limitations to its threat model (it does not protect against a global passive adversary), however the other alteratives you mentioned have the same problem (as will all low-latency anonymity methods). The Tor Project is always watching for misbehaving nodes, and takes nodes offline as soon as it believes that a node is involved in an attack on users' anonymity. In addition, Tor has a large community of volunteers in academia that are working on discovering and preventing possible attacks on the Tor network.

Your last section, "Governments Take Notice" has some truth to it, but again is greatly exaggerated. Yes, the government will know you're using Tor. There is no way to hide this fact. However you propose "hiding in plain sight" as an alternative. That is, you're suggesting they don't protect themselves at all! This is nonsense, and does not help users protect their privacy. You also recommend alternative products again, but you seem to forget that they are also subject to scrutiny. In some countries VPNs are illegal and can get you imprisoned. That is no reason to say not to use VPNs in countries where it is legal.

Thanks again for the article. It is important to discuss the limitations of Tor, but it is only fair that its advantages are included as well.

Reply
Cassie
3/2/2016 02:58:11 am

Thank you for taking such time and care to write such a detailed reply. You have made some good points.

This piece was written to highlight some of the disadvantages or misconceptions about Tor by the public. For that reason, not all the points you mention are covered and the advantages weren't highlighted.

This could have turned into a huge and potentially unfocused article and I chose carefully with regard to what was included. I would encourage people to simply take the time to think before using Tor and do further research, your comment is a great place to start for those wishing to dig a bit deeper.

Reply

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