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I think you'll agree with me when I say: It's quite hard to maintain anonymity on the Internet using the slow Tor network. Or is it? Well, it turns out, you may soon boost your online anonymity dramatically with the help of a new high-speed anonymity network. A group of six academics have developed a Tor network alternative for users that allows high-speed anonymous web surfing, reinforcing the privacy of Internet users worldwide. The network is dubbed: HORNET: High-speed Onion Routing at the Network Layer Many anonymising networks, including The Onion Router (or TOR) network, are often slow because the data passing through the networks is encrypted a many numbers of times. However, the high-speed onion routing network HORNET is capable of handling anonymous traffic at speeds of more than 93 Gbps  while maintaining privacy. The new anonymous network is built by researcher Chen Chen of Carnegie Mellon University , along with Daniele Enri

The huge cache of internal files recently leaked from the controversial Italian surveillance software company Hacking Team has now revealed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) purchased surveillance software from the company. The leaked documents contains more than 1 Million internal emails, including emails from FBI agent who wanted to unmask the identity of a user of Tor , the encrypted anonymizing network widely used by activists to keep their identities safe, but also used to host criminal activities. Unmasking Tor User In September last year, an FBI agent asked Hacking Team if the latest version of its Remote Control System (RCS), also known as Galileo - for which the company is famous for, would be capable to reveal the True IP address of a Tor user. The FBI agent only had the proxy IP address of the target, as according to FBI, the target may be using Tor Browser Bundle (TBB) or some other variant. So, the agent wanted to infect the target

It comes as no surprise that today's cyber threats are orders of magnitude more complex than those of the past. And the ever-evolving tactics that attackers use demand the adoption of better, more holistic and consolidated ways to meet this non-stop challenge. Security teams constantly look for ways to reduce risk while improving security posture, but many approaches offer piecemeal solutions – zeroing in on one particular element of the evolving threat landscape challenge – missing the forest for the trees.  In the last few years, Exposure Management has become known as a comprehensive way of reigning in the chaos, giving organizations a true fighting chance to reduce risk and improve posture. In this article I'll cover what Exposure Management is, how it stacks up against some alternative approaches and why building an Exposure Management program should be on  your 2024 to-do list. What is Exposure Management?  Exposure Management is the systematic identification, evaluation,

Anonymity is something that seems next to impossible in this era of government surveillance. Even Tor and VPNs are no longer seem to be enough to protect user privacy. Once your IP address is discovered, your Game Over! However, a method have been devised that not only allow users to anonymously connect to public Wi-Fi network, but also let them connect from about 2.5 Miles away . Security researcher Benjamin Caudill has developed a device that adds an extra layer of anonymity to whistleblowers, journalists, dissidents and, of course, criminals. Dubbed ProxyHam , it's a " hardware proxy " that allows users to connect to a long-distance public Wi-Fi network over an unidentifiable low-frequency radio channels, making it more difficult for government agencies and spies to unearth the real identity and source of the Internet traffic. How Proxyham is made?  Proxyham is comprised of a WiFi-enabled Raspberry Pi computer , along with a three antennas setu

Security researcher has discovered some new features in the most dangerous Vawtrak , aka Neverquest , malware that allow it to send and receive data through encrypted favicons distributed over the secured Tor network . The researcher, Jakub Kroustek from AVG anti-virus firm, has provided an in-depth analysis ( PDF ) on the new and complex set of features of the malware which is considered to be one of the most dangerous threats in existence. Vawtrak is a sophisticated piece of malware in terms of supported features. It is capable of stealing financial information and executing transactions from the compromised computer remotely without leaving traces. The features include videos and screenshots capturing and launching man-in-the-middle attacks. HOW VAWTRAK SPREADS ? AVG anti-virus firm is warning users that it has discovered an ongoing campaign delivering Vawtrak to gain access to bank accounts visited by the victim and using the infamous Pony module in order to ste

Tor — a privacy oriented encrypted anonymizing service, has announced the launch of its next version of Tor Browser Bundle, i.e. Tor version 4.0.4 , mostly supposed to improve the built-in utilities, privacy and security of online users on the Internet. Tor Browser helps users to browse the Internet in a complete anonymous way. The powerful Tor Browser Bundle, an anonymous web browser developed by the Tor Project, received some updates in its software. Tor Browser Bundle is basically an Internet browser based on Mozilla Firefox configured to protect the users' anonymity via Tor and Vidalia. The anonymity suite also includes 3 Firefox extensions: Torbutton, NoScript and HTTPS-Everywhere. NEW FEATURES The latest version, Tor Browser Bundle 4.0.4, has been recently released, with a few number of new features: Updated to Firefox to 31.5.0esr with important security updates. Update OpenSSL to 1.0.1l Update NoScript to 2.6.9.15 Update HTTPS-Everywhere to 4.0.3 B

There is an entire section of the Internet that you probably don't see on daily basis, it's called the " Darknet " or " Deep Web ", where all browsing is done anonymously. About a week ago, we reported about the 'Memex' Deep Web Search Engine , a Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA) project to create a powerful new search engine that could find things on the deep web that isn't indexed by Google and other commercial search engines, but it isn't available to you and me. Now, there is another search engine that will let anyone easily search the Deep Web for large swaths of information for free, and without an application; you only need is an Internet connection. Onion.City , a new search engine for online underground markets that makes it more easier to find and buy drugs, guns, stolen credit cards directly from your Chrome, Internet Explorer or Firefox browser without installing and browsing via Tor Browser . Just two

Back in November, Mozilla teamed-up with Tor Project under a new initiative called Polaris , in order to help reduce finite number of Tor connections occurring at the same time by adding high-capacity Tor middle relays to the Tor network , and now the company is ready with its first Tor Middle relays. The Firefox maker has given the Tor network a high-capacity middle relays with the launch of 12 relays , all located in the United States, that will help distribute user traffic; the Tor browser is a great way to keep prying eyes from tracking you. Mozilla is one of the most trusted companies on the internet, particularly when it comes to user privacy. The partnership of Mozilla and Tor aimed at providing more privacy features to Firefox browser, and increased Tor network support. The Polaris Privacy Initiative was an effort of Mozilla, the Tor Project and the Center of Democracy and Technology — an advocacy group for digital rights, in order to help build more privacy

Tor has always been a tough target for law enforcement for years and FBI has spent millions of dollars to de-anonymize the identity of Tor users, but a latest research suggests that more than 81% of Tor clients can be "de-anonymised" by exploiting the traffic analysis software 'Netflow' technology that Cisco has built into its router protocols. NetFlow is a network protocol designed to collect and monitor network traffic. It exchanged data in network flows, which can correspond to TCP connections or other IP packets sharing common characteristics, such UDP packets sharing source and destination IP addresses, port numbers, and other information. The research was conducted for six years by professor Sambuddho Chakravarty , a former researcher at Columbia University's Network Security Lab and now researching Network Anonymity and Privacy at the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology in Delhi. Chakravarty used a technique, in order to determine the Tor

If you are fan of the largest social networking site Facebook, but also want to remain anonymous while using your Facebook account, then there is really a Good news for you. Facebook on Friday began offering a way for security and Privacy conscious users to connect to its social networking service using the anonymizing service running on the Tor networ k, by launching a .onion address. This is really a historic move of the social network. Tor Browser is an open source project, launched in 2002, designed to increase the anonymity of your activities on the Internet by not sharing your identifying information such as your IP address and physical location with websites and your service providers. Browsing and data exchange over a network is made through encrypted connections between computers. The social network just created a special URL – https://facebookcorewwwi.onion – that will allow users running Tor-enabled browsers to connect Facebook's Core WWW Infrastructure. Hidden service

Tor - Privacy oriented encrypted anonymizing service, has announced the launch of its next version of Tor Browser Bundle, Tor version 4.0 , which disables SSL3 to prevent POODLE attack and uses new transports that are intended to defeat the Great Firewall of China and other extremely restrictive firewalls. Tor is generally thought to be a place where users come online to hide their activities and remain anonymous. Tor is an encrypted anonymizing network considered to be one of the most privacy oriented service and is mostly used by activists, journalists to circumvent online censorship and surveillance efforts by various countries. The popularity of the tool can be estimated by the recent announcement of an Internet router called Anonabox which was the highest crowd funded project on Kickstarter this week, generating more than $500,000 in funding since its launch on Monday. Tor privacy router Anonabox is designed to make all your online activity anonymous and conceal yo

Researcher has discovered a new Timing attack that could unmask Google users under some special conditions. Andrew Cantino, the vice president of engineering at Mavenlink, detailed his attack in a blogpost st week. According to him, the attack could be used by an attacker to target a particular person or organization. A cyber criminal could share a Google document with an email address, un-checking the option by which Google sends the recipient a notification. TIMING ATTACK USED TO DE-MASK TOR USER'S IDENTITY Now, using timing attack exploit technique, a cyber criminal could figure out when someone logged into any one of the shared addresses visits the their site, Cantino said. An attacker could even use this attack in spear phishing campaigns or even could unmask the identity of Tor users if they're logged in to Google while using the Tor browser . Timing attack can allow to unmask targeted Google users as they browse the web. Cantino said the attack is straightforwa

The critical zero-day security flaws has been discovered in the privacy and security dedicated Linux-based operating system " Tails " that could be used by an attacker to unmask your identity. Tails, which is been used and recommended by the global surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden to remain Anonymous, has a suite of privacy applications and designed to keep users' communications private by running all connectivity through Tor , the network that routes traffic through various layers of servers and encrypts data. But unfortunately, the highly secured OS has several critical zero-day vulnerabilities that could help attackers or law enforcements to de-anonymize anyone and allows to perform remote code execution , according to a researcher at Exodus Intelligence who uncovered the flaws but didn't publish the details about it. The Texas-based security firm, Exodus Intelligence , tweeted on Monday that it had found several remote code execution vulnerabilities i

Yesterday a new classified NSA document was leaked by Edward Snowden - titled ' Tor Stinks ' in which ideas were being kicked around for identifying Tor users or degrading the user experience to dissuade people from using the Tor browser. The NSA had a very hard time while tracking down all Tor  users and monitoring their traffic, especially since Tor servers are all over the world, but they make tracking easier by adopting  the following techniques: By running their own hostile Tor nodes Using zero-day vulnerability of Firefox browser By tracking user' browser Cookies Tor access node tracking is not new and the Document says that both the NSA and GCHQ run Tor nodes themselves. In order to trace traffic back to a particular Tor user the NSA needs to know the ' entry, relay and exit ' nodes in the anonymizer cloud between the user and the destination website. So for tracking purpose they used self-hosted nodes, that is able to trace a very small number of To

The world of mobile search is about to get a bit more anonymous. Thanks to the fears over government surveillance and corporate tracking, Anonymous Search Engine DuckDuckGo continues to break its own search records. DuckDuckGo Search & Stories - Android app deliver the same functionality as traditional services such as Google but with the added promise that your IP address and identity will not be recorded.  In June, Anonymous search engine  DuckDuckGo  had launched its app for  iOS  and Android and during recent update, DuckDuckGo's application for Android also integrated the Tor support. " Privacy is perhaps more important on mobile than on the web, and we haven't had many private alternatives ," DuckDuckGo founder Gabriel Weinberg said. To enable Tor with DuckDuckGo android app, user need to Check " Enable Tor " from setting. It will prompt the user to install about application to anonymize the Mobile data communication. As a search

Recent disclosures by whistleblower Edward Snowden claiming that internet traffic is being intercepted and used by the Americans in their war on terror, force to re-think about the user's privacy and online anonymity. It has been relatively common knowledge for years that wherever we go on the web, we leave clear tracks, so it shouldn't really have come as much of a surprise to discover this has been going on. The best thing you can do to stay anonymous online is to hide your IP address . If someone knows your IP address, it is the easiest way to trace your online activity back to you and they can easily determine the geographic location of the server that hosts that address and get a rough idea of where you're located. TOR is a network of virtual tunnels that allows people and groups to improve their privacy and security on the Internet. Browsing with TOR is a lot like simultaneously using hundreds of different proxies that are randomized periodically.