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back to article Tor veteran Lucky Green exits, torpedos critical 'Tonga' node and relays

Tor's annus horribilis continues, with one of its earliest contributors, Lucky Green, quitting and closing down the node and bridge authority he operates. Green's announcement is here, and in full below. He specifically declines to describe why it is “no longer appropriate” to take part in Tor, nor why he believes he has “no …

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  1. Alister

    I'm not normally one for tin-foil hattery, but it does rather sound like he's aware of government interference, or has been leaned on quite heavily.

    24 3 Reply
    1. NotBob
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      The delay seems to be the only part that doesn't agree with you there.

      2 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
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        Anonymous Coward

        Does to be a bit of warrant-canary flavour to his exit speech. It is an announced delay though, so 1) It may take theoretical feds a bit of time to get their act together and 2) users won't be especially trusting of that node and 3) courtesy.

        0 0 Reply
    2. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Unless

      He's caught up in the abuse allegations.

      0 0 Reply
  2. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    "no reasonable choice left within the bounds of ethics"

    Seems to me that he is aware of the amount of criminal activity on the network and has decided that he no longer wants to close his eyes on it.

    10 23 Reply
    1. asdf
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      Re: "no reasonable choice left within the bounds of ethics"

      >Seems to me that he is aware of the amount of criminal activity on the network

      The Internet?

      8 0 Reply
      1. Ole Juul
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        Re: "no reasonable choice left within the bounds of ethics"

        Ethics are normally talked about when important. My take is that this is ragequit.

        1 1 Reply
  3. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    both of the above

    17 0 Reply
  4. wolfetone Silver badge
    Black Helicopters

    When the men in black come a knockin', you don't say no.

    3 1 Reply
    1. Code For Broke
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      @wolfetone: Perhaps. But do you tell the spooks, "I'll get to your polite request tinged with deeply disturbing undertones in about a month and a half?"

      Seems to me that greatest motivation is to sever ties with those for whom he has no respect.

      3 0 Reply
  5. NonSSL-Login

    Specifically saying that the servers he was removing were fast rather than just saying they were servers, indicates that he is angry and taking his ball home.

    5 1 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Generous financial contributions and fast servers, yeah, rub it in. His emphasis on ethics and "recent events', and not legal matters, suggests that he can't endorse or support it because it's hopelessly compromised. The reasons - government interference, infighting, and/or technical limitations - don't change the outcome: Tor is dead.

      That Tor is slow, and now blocked by so many websites, is reason enough to abandon it.

      I do believe everyone deserves online anonymity by default. The "criminals use it" argument holds no water. Surely they're already using blackhat anonymity networks built on the backs of hacked servers. Without anonymity, everyone else is an easy victim.

      7 1 Reply
    2. Robert Carnegie Silver badge
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      I thought that "fast" probably was a technical term in the field and doesn't necessarily mean "rapid". The word also means "secure" and also "not eating".

      5 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
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        Anonymous Coward

        It is a technical term - "fast" is one of the flags that can be set on a Tor relay by the directory authorities and used in relay selection - but it basically just means high-bandwidth.

        4 0 Reply
  6. hmv

    The "chron" job? Is this some funky new scheduler that I've never heard of?

    3 2 Reply
    1. Midnight
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      He's going to change the ron on all of the servers., so naturally he would use the chron command.

      Perhaps he could even schedule the chron job as a cron job.

      3 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
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        Anonymous Coward

        I thought a chron job is where you set it up from the past.

        0 0 Reply
  7. Mahhn

    It's something you can look up. It is not new.

    3 2 Reply
  8. asdf

    hmm

    Looks like Riffle can't come fast enough.

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/13/riffle_next_gen_anonymity/

    1 0 Reply
    1. Nunyabiznes
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      Re: hmm

      Sorry can't find a link just now but supposedly one of the TOR principles said they broke Riffle shortly after it was announced.

      Edit: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/13/riffle_next_gen_anonymity/

      See note at bottom of article - links to a tweet.

      0 0 Reply
      1. asdf
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        Re: hmm

        Considering the state of security and the general clusterfsck that Tor currently is I take tweets from their devs with a grain of salt. That said obviously maturity is important. The others worth looking at out there currently are I2P and Freenet for example.

        2 1 Reply
        1. Bronek Kozicki
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          Re: hmm

          another option is HORNET

          0 0 Reply
          1. Anonymous Coward
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            Anonymous Coward

            Re: hmm

            for all your internet prostitution needs

            4 3 Reply

            1. This post has been deleted by its author

            2. asdf
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              Re: hmm

              >for all your internet prostitution needs

              Or you know to keep your ISP from monetizing your privacy. Some countries privacy laws can be summed up with sorry chap you are on your own in which case privacy is often only found with a technical solution. Then again I guess anybody that wants privacy must but be a lawbreaker (or like me well over 40 and actually understands the concept).

              5 1 Reply
            3. asdf
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              Re: hmm

              In fact I am old and tech enough to understand if you are actually going to break the law you want as little regarding the affair turned into electrons as possible. The US government's sigint is a hell of a lot better than its human sources.

              1 1 Reply
              1. Anonymous Coward
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                Anonymous Coward

                Re: hmm

                Or you could be old and tech enough to have seen seemingly harmless and insignificant slurping turn up and bite people in very harmful and significant ways.

                2 0 Reply
  9. Thatguyfromthatforum

    So, MIT (with their close ties to the government) announce a "newer and safer" Tor-like network while the Tor network slowly gets destroyed from within. I'm thinking jail time all round for developers or maybe by secret order they're having to comply in some way. Interesting to say the least but as a heavy Tor user I wait with baited breath how this plays out.

    0 0 Reply
    1. DanceMan
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      Re: baited breath

      You are Jean Chretien and I claim my $5.

      It's "bated breath."

      3 0 Reply
      1. Mike 16
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        Re: baited breath

        Perhaps a cat who eats some Stilton before setting up outside the mouse hole?

        (Wensleydale would probably be a bit too subtle)

        5 0 Reply
        1. sabroni Silver badge
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          Re: Perhaps a cat who eats some Stilton before setting up outside the mouse hole?

          <pedant>Mice don't like eating cheese.</pedant>

          (To be fair, it's cow calf puke, only a human would look at that and go "smack it on a cracker!")

          0 0 Reply
      2. raving angry loony
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        Re: baited breath

        Not if you're fishing for clues.

        0 0 Reply
        1. Pliny the Whiner
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          Re: baited breath

          Or your breath smells like fishing bait.

          0 0 Reply
    2. Jo_seph_B
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      @Thatguyfromthatforum - MIT might have close ties with the government regarding their "newer and safer" solution. TOR was designed by the US government, wasn't it?

      0 0 Reply
  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Imperial Troops Have Entered the Base!

    TOR fully compromized on 2016-09-01.

    By gawd, we need more Edward Snowdens!

    0 0 Reply
    1. Alister
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      Re: Imperial Troops Have Entered the Base!

      TOR fully compromised on 2016-09-01.

      Maybe we could set up a legacy TOR node in memory of a once great network. We could call it "Eternal September" or something...

      2 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
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        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Imperial Troops Have Entered the Base!

        Win, Alister, WIN!

        0 0 Reply

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