[tor-talk] tor-talk Digest, Vol 37, Issue 40

[Lucia Liljegren]

I thought you guys might want to comment on this post by Bob Lacatena or skeptical science.

http://www.skepticalscience.com/hack-2012-1.html

The bits that will be relevant to you guys:
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February 21, 2012 — 6:52 AM AEDT — The German

It was February 20, 8:52 PM CET, the local time in Germany, when The German, or so I’ll call him, first hacked his way into the Skeptical Science web site.  If it had happened in America in the nineties, beside his keyboard would have been a can of Coca Cola and a few Twinkies.  I guess today the drink would be a Red Bull.  I’m not sure what a German might choose.

To mask his identity, he fired up a Tor browser.  Tor, despite the titlecase spelling, is actually an acronym for The Onion Router.


[...]
Safe in his room, buried under layers of onions, focused on his screen, probably with a caffeinated drink and a snack beside his keyboard on his desk, the hacker comfortably and earnestly began his work.

David Lightman: Hey, I don't believe that any system is totally secure.
— Wargames (1983) —

March 24, 2012 — 1:06 AM AEDT — SkS was hacked

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I can't say I know whether the hack was accomplished by someone using a Tor IP; Bob doesn't explain why he thinks it was a Tor IP and seems to think "Yes to blocking Tor IP addresses, and many web sites do, but building the map is a huge task." In fact: blocking Tor IPs is easy peasy.

Anyway: you guys might want to be aware of this story.

Lucia