Tor compromised?

http://news.uk.msn.com/uk/660-paedophile-suspects-arrested

Cast your minds back to before the big Silk Road bust where we lost DPR. There was a huge online paedo bust remember? We shouldn't bury our heads in the sand about the possibility of a backdoor in Tor, or even more likely Tormail. The arrest numbers here seem too high for stated LA tactics and Ross trial smells like a parallel construction to me.


Comments


[6 Points] gwern:

Chief Constable Simon Bailey, who is the national lead for child abuse investigations, said that police can track paedophiles online, even when using the dark web.

And:

We shouldn't bury our heads in the sand about the possibility of a backdoor in Tor, or even more likely Tormail.

Huh? Tormail, as in the service that went down ages ago in the FreedomHosting bust, whose database was seized, and which the FBI has been reported on as regularly consulting for its investigations just as people warned might happen and so was why you should be using PGP? That Tormail?


[3 Points] None:

hasnt /u/gwern been saying tormail is compromised for a long ass time? correct me i'm wrong please.


[2 Points] Homer_Goes_Crazy:

Possibly related to the abrupt shutdown that deepdot reported 3 weeks ago? http://www.deepdotweb.com/2014/06/24/large-number-of-child-abuse-sites-shut-down-abruptly/


[1 Points] scrumdiddlieumptious:

Could be anything...

JavaScript zero-day (we saw this when the other CP site was taken down hosted by FH).

Malware-embedded downloads...

Or fuck, maybe Tor's just compromised. I doubt that, though.


[1 Points] gerundive:

Apparently the investigation went on for a few months before the arrests. Maybe it's the fallout from the takedown of Freedom Hosting?


[1 Points] 13tom13:

supposedly your put on a list and exposed to Xkeyscore after downloading tor, encryption software or tails - https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140703/02494927769/nsas-xkeyscore-source-code-leaked-shows-tor-users-classified-as-extremists.shtml

Some people also seem to think that it is a distraction tactic as the UK government has its own problems with pedophilia scandals at the moment - http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/its-time-for-uks-mp-pedophile-scandal-to-come-in-from-the-cold/article19542295/