[tor-talk] Illegal Activity As A Metric of Tor Security and Anonymity

[Mark McCarron]

Basically, I keep a track of site numbers year-on-year, site availability from 3rd party monitoring and read comments on forums and chat.  From what I can gather, most of these sites were suspected of being honeypots due to their tendency to remove anything rape/violence related.  That is, they appeared sanitised in some way.  Then all of sudden, they started disappearing.  Some were connected with major busts of hosting providers, others without any indication what happened.

Whilst it may be good in some sense, it states that Tor is failing in its primary task of promoting freedom through anonymity.  In fact, it would seem that Tor is having the opposite effect, silencing everyone through fear.  Certainly, some of this comes down to poor security practices, but that cannot explain the scale of what has happened.  

So, the question remains, what is wrong with the Anonymity and Security of Tor?  The software is compromised in some fashion and we need to understand this.

Regards,

Mark McCarron

> Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 16:17:41 -0500
> From: joebtfsplk at gmx.com
> To: tor-talk at lists.torproject.org
> Subject: Re: [tor-talk] Illegal Activity As A Metric of Tor Security and	Anonymity
> 
> 
> On 6/25/2014 3:28 PM, Mark McCarron wrote:
> > I have been examining the number of what would normally be deemed as illegal sites sites on Tor.  Eliminating the narcotics trade, as these tend to be intelligence agency backed enterprises, a serious decline has been noted across the board.
> >
> > This would tend to suggest that exposure is common place and users no longer feel safe.  In the more serious categories, such as child porn and violent sexual material, no functioning open sites remain and many of the sites that require registration are crippled.  The entire planet has been scrubbed.
> >
> > This, it would seem, indicates that Tor has been compromised on a global scale with very little fanfare or moves to correct the situation.
> >
> > Does anyone have any insights into the problem?
> >
> > 	   		
> How did you arrive at your conclusion?  What were the criteria for the 
> study / canvasing?
> 
> Well, maybe it's been scrubbed from Tor (which is good, if true). That's 
> really all this list is about & all that matters regarding a better 
> reputation for Tor.  I doubt such illegal activities will disappear or 
> stay "gone" from society for long. Been around for a while (all of 
> recorded history).
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