[tor-talk] Tor banned in Pakistan.

[Phillip]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/30/pakistan-bans-encryption-software
>>>>
>>> It is very bad news because I am affraid that another tyrannical regimes
>>> such as Russian can make do it too.
>>> But it seems to me that Tor-users can use bridges and etc. for avoiding
>>> repressive measures from "law enforcement bodies" of their countries (if
>>> the termin "law is applicable to such bodies :) ).
>> Hi Orionjur,
>>
>> Sorry to burst your bubble, but Russia is one of the last places I can
>> imagine banning VPN's and Tor, especially from what I gather from my
>> contacts in Russia... 
> Russia is very strange country, very strange... Last time many not only
> tirannycal but also idiotical norms were included into the Russian
> legislation
> In the list of them are laws banned people younger than 18 to be in the
> streets after 10 PM, ones banned alcohol selling after 11 PM and etc.
I've heard about these laws, and agree that they're quite idiotic, but
they're no different to a lot of other countries (try getting a drink
somewhere in London after 11-12 PM, even on a Friday/Saturday night -
clubs only)!

> In the beginning of this year the press-service of the FSB notified that
> it needed by their opinion to ban the Tor and even the skype and the Gmail.
> The Kremlin refuted that information but we in Russian know that in
> means only they intend but scanning of society reaction.
> I am  in doubt that they can do it.
> It seems that the Russian government aspire to ban all things which able
> or unable to be ban.
If you have any links for this, even in Russian, I'd be very curious! A
lot of governments are not happy with Skype, because it does use very
strong point-to-point encryption (i.e. you can intercept the traffic
between two people, but not decode it unless you have access to the
company's backdoor). Even worse with BlackBerry.

Not sure if they're trying to ban Tor, but I think they'd have a tough
time banning VPNs and encryption (like in Pakistan) - a lot of Russia's
Internet service providers work on Ethernet connections to the home, and
the log-in is done via VPN...

> the FSB already has direct access to all Internet
>> connection hubs (i.e. in an apartment building), completely by-passing
>> ISPs and legal requirements!
>>
> Do you mean the so-called "SORM"-system? But as I know in the USA and in
> the European countries works similar systems ("Echelon" and etc.).
> Do you thinks that the SORM can break my tor connection and sneef my
> Tor-traffic in the unencripted view?
>
Yep, the SORM - https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/SORM 
It's similar to ECHELON, but on a more local level - ECHELON is truly
global, and will no doubt scan this e-mail before it gets to the mail
list ;)
I think SORM can sniff the traffic going through a connection, but I
don't think it can decode Tor traffic - it would need access to your
computer, the private keys etc. I'm no expert on Tor encryption, but I
don't think they could get to it that easily, even if they can send a
virus to your computer (someone, help? :)) They would see an encrypted
stream flowing through, that's all.

It would be even better if you run as a node on the Tor network, even if
you use a small part of your connection - that way it's much much more
difficult to correlate traffic!

>> Have you seen the Russian net? The amount of piracy (as well as Tor
>> traffic!) that goes through there is staggering! 
> It seems to me that the Putin's and Medvedev's junta have no real
> interest in fighting with piracy because they have no incoming from the
> show-bussiness or that income is so small that the have no real interest.