Attackers Might Have Unmasked Users of Privacy Service Tor
Attendees are seen through a Black Hat logo during the Black Hat and Defcon hacker conferences in Las Vegas. Jae C. Hong/AP File Photo
Developers accuse researchers of possibly exposing identities to feds.
Many people trying to navigate to hidden websites using a network that cloaks user identities might have been detected by government-funded researchers, Reuters reports.
On the nonprofit service’s blog, Tor Project leader Roger Dingledine said it was "likely" the attacking computers, which were removed July 4, were operated by two researchers at the Software Engineering Institute, which is housed at Carnegie-Mellon University but funded mainly by the Pentagon.
It should be noted that Tor also receives federal funding -- $1.8 million in 2013.
The researchers were scheduled to speak at the annual Black Hat hacker conference next month about this very technique. The presentation, however, was yanked from the agenda after Tor officials complained.
“Users who operated or accessed hidden services from early February through July 4 should assume they were affected,” Dingledine wrote.
Read the rest at ThreatWatch, Nextgov’s regularly updated index of cyber breaches.
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