Is the Tor Anonymity Network at Risk?
Sunday’s op-ed in Techcrunch entitled “The Anonymity Network at Risk” reaffirms what many have known for a long time — TOR can no longer provide the anonymity for which it has been famous.
“As bad as being caught in a battle between Anonymous and the Lizard Squad seems like it would be, if Internet security analysts are right, 2015 could get even uglier for TOR. Not only will TOR users have to be wary that they could be targeted by the Lizard Squad or other hacker groups, it’s likely they could also be targeted by government agencies.”
The fundamental design philosophy of TOR’s architecture — passing and encrypting user traffic through multiple volunteer nodes — is also its undoing. As groups like Lizard Squad have demonstrated, it’s possible to unravel the system through the takeover of large numbers of nodes.
This is not the first piece to call into question the anonymity and security of TOR, but it certainly illustrates the growing challenges faced by consumers, enterprises and governments as they endeavor to safely browse the web.
