Safety of the Tor Network: a Look at Network Diversity, Relay Operators, and Malicious Relays

Presented at DEF CON 21 (2013), Aug. 3, 2013, 3 p.m. (45 minutes).

Rumor has it that the Tor network is a CIA honeypot, that all relays are malicious, and that only bad people use Tor to do bad things online. How much of this is true? How much can we say about the safety of the network?

The safety of the Tor network has been a much discussed topic ever since the onion routing network was deployed in September 2002. This talk aims to answer the following questions: (1) How much diversity does the network really have?, (2) Who runs the relays in the Tor network?, and (3) What is being done about malicious relays?

Presenters:

• Runa A. Sandvik - Developer, the Tor Project
  Runa A. Sandvik (@runasand) is a developer for the Tor Project. Her work for the Tor Project includes forensic analysis of the Tor Browser Bundle and QA testing of new releases, as well as project management, user support, frequent traveling, and training. Runa has worked for the Tor Project since 2009 and has given talks to a number of different audiences, including activists, law enforcement, and university students.

Links:

• https://defcon.org/html/defcon-21/dc-21-speakers.html#Sandvik
• https://infocon.org/cons/DEF CON/DEF CON 21/DEF CON 21 video and slides/DEF CON 21 - Runa A. Sandvik - Safety of the Tor network - Video and Slides.mp4 (Video and Slides)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWr5D2RoXoo

Similar Presentations:

• DEF CON 24 (2016) / Honey Onions: Exposing Snooping Tor HSDir Relays
• 30C3 (2013) / The Tor Network: We're living in interesting times
• DeepSec 2015 „DeepSec No. 9“ / Measuring the Tor Network