In a recent article of hers Guardian, ο ειδικός σε θέματα better safetyς Bruce Schneier ανέφερε ότι η αμερικανική Εθνική Υπηρεσία Ασφαλείας επιτίθεται στους χρήστες του ανώνυμου δικτύου, Tor. Το άρθρο του Schneier, που βασίζεται στα έγγραφα που διέρρευσαν από τον Edward Snowden, ήρθε λίγες μόνο ημέρες μετά το κλείσιμο του Silk Road, an underground website that used only the Tor network for its connections.
Below is an analysis of how the NSA had access to the anonymous network, as presented by the DailyDot:
Scan the traffic on the Internet. The NSA uses programs such as Stormbrew, Fairview, Oakstar and Blarney. These programs are categorized by documents leaked by Snowden as "upstream" data collection programs. Through them, the secret service extracted information from the major telecommunications companies and their optical fibers that form the backbone of the Internet.
Record all Tor requests. Since the NSA monitors Internet traffic around the world, Schneier says it keeps the “fingerprints footprints” of Tor users' requests with various servers. Stores search requests in databases such as xkeyscore, μέσω της οποίας η NSA παρακολουθεί email, περιηγήσεις στον ιστό, και συνομιλίες στο Facebook , σε πραγματικό χρόνο.
Sighting excessive motion. The NSA uses automated software to separate data from Tor users across all Internet traffic. As Schneier put it: "The same feature that makes Tor a powerful anonymity service, and the fact that all Tor users are alike on the Internet, makes it very easy to differentiate Tor users from other Internet users. ”
Redirecting users to NSA servers. The NSA via the major telecom companies redirects Tor users to a secret server system called FoxAcid. So the secret service has the ability to place those who call Quantum servers at key points along the optical fiber. These servers pretend to be the legitimate Tor servers a user is looking for to connect to the network.
Attack on users' computers. Through NSA's controlled FoxAcid system, the service attacks Tor users. These attacks, according to Schneier, exploit the weaknesses of Firefox and thus acquire on the computer of the unsuspecting user.
Identify Tor users. After infiltrating a Tor user's computer, the NSA begins spying on its various activities and is likely to collect both metadata and content from Internet use. From this information, it tries to locate other users.
