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June 23, 2007

2600 TOR server project

Many 2600 readers should be aware of TOR The Onion Router project:

Tor - the onion routing network

Tor - the onion routing network - "Tor aims to defend against traffic analysis, a form of network surveillance that threatens personal anonymity and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security. Communications are bounced around a distributed network of servers called onion routers, protecting you from websites that build profiles of your interests, local eavesdroppers that read your data or learn what sites you visit, and even the onion routers themselves."

You may well be regular users of the client software e.g. through XeroBank (formerly TorPark) or the Vidalia bundle, which can help to preserve your online privacy and security, from most snoopers who do not have the resources of a major government to concentrate on your internet Communications Traffic Data.

However, the TOR project relies on volunteers to donate servers and bandwidth, for the greater communal good, and this seems to us to be a worthwhile project for all 2600 groups to be involved with around the world.

Unfortunately, the number of TOR routers, especially TOR exit nodes, is not actually that large see Number of TOR running routers graph

The geographical spread of such routers is also very skewed according to country.

There are more TOR routers in Berlin than in the whole of the United Kingdom. The USA has a respectable number of such routers, but given the access of the population to fast internet connections, other countries have proportionately far more of them.

We think that the 2600 meeting groups around the world, are likely to have people with the technical knowledge and resources, to volunteer to contribute to this worthwhile project, which can help (but not guarantee in all circumstances) to protect your online privacy and anonymity, especially whilst web browsing.

The more countries and ISPs running TOR servers and especially TOR exit nodes, the stronger the system becomes overall, even against attacks by powerful repressive Governments and commercial vested interests and criminals.

The TOR server software is free to download from the EFF website, and can handle bandwidth restrictions, by peak capacity or by amount of data transferred, or by time of day or night etc. and can be used on ADSL connections with at least 256kbits/s upload speed.

Ideally we would like aim for every 2600 meeting group to set up and run at least one TOR exit node.

If this is not achievable in your locality, for financial or regulatory reasons, then at least set up a TOR server which will still contribute to the TOR cloud, to make Communications Traffic Data analysis more difficult for an attacker.

If you think that this project is worthwhile (or simply in your own self-interest), then please publicise the meme, and copy or amend the campaign button graphic and links below onto your 2600 meeting website

2600_TOR_logo.jpg

Obviously if you use the 2600 TOR server project logo directly from our website, then we will have some Communications Traffic Data about visitors to your website, and so will those who try to snoop on us.

Any comments or ideas are welcome.