Tor Claims Network Was Breached, University Researchers Suspected

For those unfamiliar with Tor, it is basically a service in which Internet users can use to cloak themselves in a shroud of anonymity. While it does sound shady (and rightfully so, given that many of Silk Road’s users were using Tor), it does have more noble purposes, such as protecting the identities of journalists/reporters who need to find out information without giving away their identity.

That being said, it seems that even Tor is not safe from hackers, according to a recent report in which Tor claims that earlier this year, outsiders had breached its network in an attempt to learn the identities of some of its users. Some believe that this attack could have been conducted by researchers at the Carnegie-Mellon University.

The university had originally planned to demonstrate a Tor hack at a conference next week, which has since been cancelled. However according to a spokesman for the university, they claim that they don’t have anything to add, and the researchers could not be reached for comment either.

According to a post by Tor, they claim that some users have been affected during the first half of the year, thanks to the hack. “Unfortunately, it’s still unclear what ‘affected’ includes. While we don’t know when they started doing the attack, users who operated or accessed hidden services from early February through July 4 should assume they were affected.”

Tyler Lee
Categories: Web
Tags: Hacking, Security, Tor