Ride the Lightning

Tor Seeks to Reduce Dependence on U.S. Government Funds

December 1, 2015

Some headlines just make you shake your head and smile. I doubt most people understand that the U.S. Government provides a lot of funding for the Deep Web through Tor (The Onion Router), up to 80-90% according to some estimates.

For those who do not know, Tor is a sophisticated suite of free, open source software that uses layers of encryption to throw a cloak of invisibility around any users or hidden services that use it. There are a lot of criminals on the Deep Web, but also plenty of journalists, activists and people simply interested in protecting their privacy.

Naked Security reported yesterday that the Tor Project has started a crowdfunding campaign. This will no doubt make Tor more resilient.

The Tor software was originally developed with taxpayers’ money by the U.S. Navy, which still uses Tor, and DARPA (The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). DARPA has since created Memex, a set of search tools designed to help law enforcement shine a light into the dark realms created by Tor. While some government agencies use Tor, other taxpayer dollars are being used to try to tear the cloak of Tor's invisibility away.

Earlier this month, Carnegie Mellon was accused of accepting $1 million from the FBI to break through Tor’s anonymizing barriers. The university has denied that report. But one can understand that Tor presents a dilemma for government agencies that want to "Know it All," as one NSA PowerPoint slide suggested.

You can contribute your bitcoins to help the Tor Project on its donations page. No bitcoins? No problem. You can contribute using PayPal, credit card, or even send in a paper check. How old school.

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