[tor-teachers] Running relays in universities? Exit nodes, perhaps? Please share your experience!

[Kat]

Adding Ian, who is not on this list, but has relevant experience.
[Admin, can you whitelist him so he can participate without subscribing?]

  -Kat

On Tue, 17 Apr 2018, Gunnar Wolf wrote:

> TL;DR - Have you got official permission to operate Tor exit nodes
>      	within an university campus/network? Relay nodes, even? Please
>      	share me how this permission was achieved! (or even if it was
>      	denied, please tell me!)
>
> Hi,
>
> I know this list is mostly about *teaching about* how to run Tor
> (clients, relays, etc.), so sorry for presenting a very different kind
> of topic here; I have sent a very similar message to the tor-relays
> list, but I believe the population of this list to be interesting...
>
> I am trying to get my university's (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de
> México) OK to run an exit node from our campus' network. I currently
> operate one relay, am willing to set up some extra relays, and have at
> least one colleague in a different research institute with a relay of
> his own, but I believe we should aim for exit nodes.
>
> Now, I don't want to set it up in a rogue fashion, as I'm sure that
> the university's NOC or CERT would not take long to get complaints and
> require me to shut it down. I have already made an official request
> for the permission to run an exit node and (as expected) it was turned
> down. Quoting (translation mine) the reasons for rejection,
>
>   1. This assignation is not factible because the Tor network is not
>      compatible with the Acceptable Usage Policies of RedUNAM, being
>      this infrastructure oriented to the service of institutional
>      goals.
>
>   2. While the Tor network can have reseearch purposes, due to its
>      nature and the hiding of IPv4 addresses and anonymous
>      connectivity, it is susceptible to be used by third parties from
>      outside the University with purposes conflicting with those
>      specified in item 1, without any possibility of control or
>      regulation from the University's part or from your project.
>
>   3. Even more so: The Tor network, due to its definition and
>      structure, can potentially incorporate third people with
>      malicious or even delictive intentions, which would affect not
>      only the computers or networks in your Institute or all of the
>      University, but also networks outside the institution's control
>
> So, I want to gather experiences from operators in different
> universities or research institutions. Which way did you have to
> argue? How hard was to get this OK? Did you ask a permission for a
> specific project, or as part of your networking infrastructure in
> general? Did you ask this before setting up the exit node, or as a
> "fait accompli" gathering not-too-ill results for a given time period?
>
> Any help and pointers are welcome!
>