[tor-talk] BBC: NSA and GCHQ agents 'leak Tor bugs', alleges developer

[Juan]

On Mon, 25 Aug 2014 17:02:07 -0500
Cypher <cypher at cpunk.us> wrote:

> On 08/24/2014 09:43 PM, Michael Wolf wrote:
> > I haven't seen this mentioned here, but thought it would be of
> > interest to the list.  Perhaps something for TWN?
> > 
> > "NSA and GCHQ agents 'leak Tor bugs', alleges developer"
> > http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-28886462
> > 
> >> Spies from both countries have been working on finding flaws in
> >> Tor, a popular way of anonymously accessing "hidden" sites.
> >>
> >> But the team behind Tor says other spies are tipping them off,
> >> allowing them to quickly fix any vulnerabilities.
> >>
> >> The agencies declined to comment.
> >>
> >> The allegations were made in an interview given to the BBC by
> >> Andrew Lewman, who is responsible for all the Tor Project's
> >> operations.
> >>
> >> He said leaks had come from both the UK Government Communications
> >> Headquarters (GCHQ) and the US National Security Agency (NSA).
> 
> Interesting. We should remember that the spies are really living in a
> two sided world. On one side, they need a reliable, hardened, Tor that
> doesn't stand out from anyone else using Tor so that they can
> communicate amongst themselves.
	
	False. What makes you think the 'spies'  use tor? 


> On the other hand, they need to be
> able to break Tor so they can do their jobs. It has to be a tough
> place for them to be.

	They just break tor. They have more than enough resources to do
	it. 




> 
> The article was very interesting - except the part about 'here's how
> you might want to fix this'. I certainly hope that the Tor
> project /is not/ accepting patches submitted by NSA or GCHQ! Sure, I
> realize those agencies could very easily embed someone within the
> project (in fact, don't a few of the Tor project folks work in
> intel?) but developing a trusting relationship by accepting patches
> just seems like a bad idea to me.
> 
> /me puts on tinfoil hat
> 
> Cypher