RB2: AusCERT presentation: Tor's battle against censorship

It can be a sneaky tool for sneaky people, or a weapon against oppression...
26 May 2010 » Risky Business Extra, AusCERT

In this presentation you'll hear Tor project leader Roger Dingledine talking all about Tor. Who uses it? Why? What's it good for?

For those who don't know what it is, Tor is a free-software anonymizing network that helps people around the world use the Internet in safety, the official blurb says.

Tor's 1600 volunteer relays carry traffic for several hundred thousand users including ordinary citizens who want protection from identity theft and prying corporations, corporations who want to look at a competitor's website in private, and soldiers and aid workers in the Middle East who need to contact their home servers without fear of physical harm.

So if you're based in Iran or China and don't want the government being able to identify your source IP, it's a pretty handy tool.

But governments are cottoning on to Tor and making efforts to block their citizens from using the Tor network. Roger discusses the changes the Tor project has made to combat these government restrictions. It's a good talk and I hope you enjoy it!