Is TOR safe?

[floodhound2]

Is TOR safe to use anymore?

I am not so sure TOR is safe (if it ever was) in light of recent techniques that the American government is employing (silk road as an example). Is there a truly safe way to brows the web anymore? Proxy? VPN?

I am growing more concerned about loosing the ability to browse without trace, whats your take on this?

[lilrofl]

I think that Tor offers some semblance of anonymity, but no privacy really: Anonymity being the expression of, 'we know what you are browsing/downloading/looking at, but we do not know who you are exactly,' and privacy being the opposite; as in an implementation of VPN technology where they know where the information came form and where it's going, but not what it is.

The real Achilles heal to Tor, in my opinion, is that you anonymity is only as secure as the security of the exit router. Multiple techniques exist to embed tracking data into a Tor stream which will allow you to demystify who the traffic belongs too.

I feel it is safe to assume that the government, or several governments, run exit routers for just such a purpose. Also I think it's safe to assume that if they see traffic which interest them, there are things outside of Tor which they can use to extrapolate the identity of the traffic; such as ISP data information corresponding to time and size of a packet-stream, all available for the asking by H.R. 1981

Most of this is just my opinion.

[maboroshi]

Given Lilrofls information, I would like to add these links.

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http://www.howtogeek.com/142380/htg-explains-is-tor-really-anonymous-and-secure/
http://lifehacker.com/how-can-i-stay-anonymous-with-tor-1498876762

Additions

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https://blog.torproject.org/category/tags/hidden-services

Also if there is interest my articles on Proxying Tor HTTP Hidden Services using applets in Java or using Actionscript to decentralize the hidden web are on a website of mine (linked below)

The Java article explains the initial configuration

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http://www.techshinobi.com/index.php/actionscript-pycurl-socks-part-3/
http://www.techshinobi.com/index.php/actionscript-pycurl-socks-part-2/
http://www.techshinobi.com/index.php/actionscript-pycurl-and-socks/
http://www.techshinobi.com/index.php/java-socks-proxy-in-applets-tor/

[bad_brain]

TOR is relatively safe at the moment I would say, but only because exit node traffic analysis consumes a lot of resources (leave alone "hunting" one particular user)...so they simply can not do it on a huge scale (no matter what authority it is, they all have budgets and limited personnel).

on the technical side TOR is not 100% secure, but as long as you are routing your traffic from point A to point B through the internet an application can not be 100% secure.

as long as you are not on a "plans to kill Obama" list or sell meth to little girl scouts through an online shop you should be pretty safe though...simply because it's not state affairs (and not the affairs of the corporations that sponsor the governments of course)....

[DNR]

using an IP that is not linked to you is still the best way. An ISP can put you on a suspect list because you are one of the rare ones with a VPN, tunneling, encryption. You just won't look like a normal user.
Wardriving is using open or otherwise public wifi - some wifi is intended for customers, some for employees. Some are open wifi residential. Any thing you do while on that IP is linked to the owner of the IP. A MAC address, browser/OS fingerprint - is all that identifies you, and those can be changed everytime you go out.

DNR

[Kirk]

When I really need to be safe I have a huge wireless antenna that reaches about a mile away with a semi strong signal. I'll use that to get a wireless far away. I use a specific laptop with no personal info, pictures, accounts, nothing linked on it. I will change my mac. Cover my camera on it. Use tor to connect out. And a few other little things to help. I'm a big believer in redundancy. Don't just VPN into one server but maybe 3. Encrypt everything!!!! I wonder if you can use tor to connect multiple times. If I'm doing something bad now I go way over the top. I like using zombies also.