What are Tor guards?

[Michael_google gmail_Gersten]

> you either add anyone who comes up (in which case, someone with a
> lot of resources can flood the network with compromised ORs)

Yep. Known issue.

For roughly $50K startup, and $30K/year, someone could reliably
determine most or all source and endpoint pairs, and also act as exit
node for a large portion of conversations. They would also speed up
the Tor network significantly. (100 nodes, high speed dedicated colo
lines purchased in bulk.)

Tor is nice against industrial espionage, but not against NSA or
"Firewall of china" level attacks.