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posted by martyb on Sunday September 20 2015, @10:51AM   Printer-friendly
from the Streisand-Effect-is-Effective-Against-DHS dept.

El Reg reports

A dozen libraries across the US have asked for details on how to host Tor exit nodes following a decision by the small town of Lebanon, New Hampshire, to [forgo] police warnings.

Following a decision by the library's board of trustees earlier this week to put the exit node back online, the founder of the Library Freedom Project, Alison Macrina, said that she had heard from a number of other libraries interested in hosting tor nodes.

"Between libraries and community leaders around the country, we've heard from probably about a dozen who are interested in joining this", she told Motherboard.

One of those people was present at the board meeting, having driven two hours to attend. As a library trustee at nearby Reading, she revealed that it was going to have its own meeting on the issue next month.

[...] Macrina now says that the DHS' efforts have put her project on the map. "This has catalyzed additional libraries and community members", she told Motherboard. "Folks have emailed me saying 'We don't care if it gets shut down, we want to push back against [the DHS]'."

Previous: Library Running Tor Exit Node Gets Visit from Cops; Takes it Down
Despite Homeland Security Opposition, Tor is back at New Hampshire Library


Original Submission

Related Stories

Library Running Tor Exit Node Gets Visit from Cops; Takes it Down 36 comments

The Kilton Library in Lebanon, New Hampshire, had been hosting an exit relay on the Tor network since July as part of a pilot program to safeguard citizens' privacy online.

After meeting with [local cops, tipped off by the US Department of Homeland Security], however, the librarians have taken the box offline over fears it was being used for criminal activity.

[...] Kilton's exit node was the pilot for an effort by the Library Freedom Project to equip local libraries in the US with Tor nodes that could be accessed by users in areas where internet traffic is censored and closely monitored.

ProPublica claims that the police did not threaten any action against the library, but merely informed them of the possibility that their Tor node could be used for criminal activity.

The library's board of trustees will vote later this month on whether to bring the node back online.

[...] The Electronic Frontier Foundation said it was starting a campaign to flood library trustees with letters of support for the node in an effort to get the Tor box back up and running in the Kilton Library.

Additional reporting here.


SoylentNews is available through Tor, as well. Here is our .onion link. -Ed.

Original Submission

Breaking News: Despite Homeland Security Opposition, Tor is back at New Hampshire Library 18 comments

The first library-hosted Tor node in the U.S. is to be reactivated, after a public meeting on Tuesday at the Kilton Public Library in West Lebanon, New Hampshire, in which area residents expressed support for the Board of Trustees and the Tor system. The Library had also conducted surveys which indicated strong support from both residents and non-residents alike.

The node had been set up as part of the Library Freedom Project's pilot program, following a unanimous decision by the Board in June; however, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had apparently contacted City officials and law enforcement, informing them that (FTA) "Tor sometimes is used by criminals to distribute child pornography or illegal drugs, among other abuses." After discussion with the Town, the Board had suspended the relay, pending discussion at Tuesday's public meeting.

City officials insisted that they had not intended to force the Board into a particular decision, but rather intended to educate the public about their concerns.

The Board Chair, Francis Oscadal, was quoted as saying, "I could vote in favor of the good ... or I could vote against the bad. I'd rather vote for the good because there is value to this."

See also: Concord Monitor .


Original Submission

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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 20 2015, @11:00AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 20 2015, @11:00AM (#238780)

    Surfing porn through a proxy at your local library doesn't do jack shit to push back against anyone. If you truly wanted to do something about the DHS, you would not have voted for Obama. You would have voted for any of the other candidates who vowed to eliminate the DHS entirely. Did you vote for Obama anyway? Of course you did, because you are idiots. You are the problem. Fuck. You. Morons.

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 20 2015, @11:14AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 20 2015, @11:14AM (#238783)

      That's it. Vote down the troll. Push back against the DHS by voting senators into the presidency who support the Patriot Act and the DHS. If you support the supporters of the DHS, that will surely show them that you disapprove of the DHS. Be stupid. Be idiotic. Be moronic. Be American.

  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 20 2015, @11:07AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 20 2015, @11:07AM (#238781)

    I LOVE TO USE TOR BECAUSE THE TRENDY BROS ALL USE TOR TO TALK ABOUT TOR ITS THE BEST

  • (Score: 1) by chrysosphinx on Sunday September 20 2015, @11:09AM

    by chrysosphinx (5262) on Sunday September 20 2015, @11:09AM (#238782)

    So, burning outlawed libraries to the ground by police forces is coming soon...

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 20 2015, @11:18AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 20 2015, @11:18AM (#238784)

      ...said the asshole who never read Fahrenheit 451. When was the last time you read a book? Never? You know what people did in Fahrenheit 451? They watched TV on screens that covered entire walls. How big is your computer screen, asshole? How many monitors do you have, asshole? You have dual monitors, don't you? At least two monitors, right?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 20 2015, @09:51PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 20 2015, @09:51PM (#239060)

        I watched Fahrenheit 451 on video. :-)

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by davester666 on Sunday September 20 2015, @07:38PM

      by davester666 (155) on Sunday September 20 2015, @07:38PM (#238994)

      More like "We have to install some software to make sure your Tor exit node will work correctly. No, you can't examine it."

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 20 2015, @11:24AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 20 2015, @11:24AM (#238787)

    US libraries to install software developed and monitored by the US government. This is news?

  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 20 2015, @11:32AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 20 2015, @11:32AM (#238788)

    Nuke the whole fucking town from orbit. FOr tej AMericna fFRErdoms!

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday September 20 2015, @11:52AM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday September 20 2015, @11:52AM (#238796) Journal

    I guess I didn't give librarians enough credit in my previous posts on this subject. They're lining up to install exit nodes? That's great.

    It's probably safe to say that plenty of other librarians are just installing it, without asking this lady for technical advice. Most knowledgable people are going to just look for a "how-to" online.

    I'd like to see hundreds, or thousands, instead of just a dozen though.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Joe Desertrat on Sunday September 20 2015, @04:55PM

      by Joe Desertrat (2454) on Sunday September 20 2015, @04:55PM (#238891)

      I'd like to see hundreds, or thousands, instead of just a dozen though.

      That would be nice, although it has to start somewhere. It will be interesting to see if this can take off and spread faster than the forces opposed to it can shut them down.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Sunday September 20 2015, @07:12PM

        by frojack (1554) on Sunday September 20 2015, @07:12PM (#238980) Journal

        I worry about having these exit nodes compromised.
        They generally are not managed by the most technically astute staff, and they sit there day in and day out with just about zero supervision.

        Who applies updates to the software?
        Who makes sure security holes are patched?
        Who makes sure no TLA gains access to it's immediate upstream connection?
        Who even checks the logs for signs of penetration attempts?

        There is a group that helps set up these nodes: https://libraryfreedomproject.org/torexitpilotphase1/#main [libraryfreedomproject.org]
        But they don't manage them, the nodes are running on dissimilar OS platforms.
        Compromising an exit note's upstream connection is one of the best ways to de-anonymize the traffic.

        --
        No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
        • (Score: 3, Informative) by ledow on Sunday September 20 2015, @08:39PM

          by ledow (5567) on Sunday September 20 2015, @08:39PM (#239030) Homepage

          What makes you think the Library - or indeed any entity at all - has the ability to ensure someone isn't sniffing their upstream connection.

          That's the thing - tor is secure between tor nodes, but exit nodes are specialised. They are just open points on the Internet. Anyone can set one up and sniff that traffic anyway. They are NOT secure. A library also no more power than any other business to instruct their ISP not to sniff their traffic. Even that ISP cannot say that to their transit suppliers. Especially not against any form of law enforcement.

          And - library computers? You should always consider them insecure anyway just by the sheer amount of use they get by random strangers. Physicals access beats all, remember. You can no more guarantee a library computer is safe to use than you can a cybercafe computer on some remote island.

          This is the problem - not that there aren't enough tor exit nodes, but that ALL tor exit nodes suffer exactly the same problems. You literally have to treat the entire tor network as untrusted, whether casual user or serious researcher. Tor exit nodes are untrusted and untrustable. And thus you need to layer everything with encryption anyway. You're always going to be vulnerable to correlation attacks etc. too, because there is no protocol that avoids that. Tor doesn't magically make things secure.

          As such, a library running a tor exit node is no more or less secure than any other node. A library computer connected to tor is no more or less secure than any other random public computer.

          If you don't understand this, you do not understand tor.

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by frojack on Sunday September 20 2015, @07:06PM

      by frojack (1554) on Sunday September 20 2015, @07:06PM (#238974) Journal

      You are right, there are many libraries already quietly running exit nodes.

      This so called first library in New Hampshire was part of a Library Freedom Movement of a couple dozen libraries to install these.
      https://libraryfreedomproject.org/torexitpilotphase1/#main [libraryfreedomproject.org]

      --
      No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 20 2015, @03:29PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 20 2015, @03:29PM (#238865)

    The Streisand effect strikes back!

  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 20 2015, @06:15PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 20 2015, @06:15PM (#238946)

    This story makes me happy. Like when some librarians told DHS to fuck off when they wanted all patron lending records to search for subversive reading. Or, they setup warrant canaries to warn their patrons when they recieved a request for information from the KGB^H^H^H DHS.

    Sadly, it is only a matter of time before those pushing the police state decide librarians are in league with, or are in fact terrorists. But, I love that librarians, even knowing this, are not being cowed.

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2015, @12:04AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2015, @12:04AM (#239125)

      > But, I love that librarians, even knowing this, are not being cowed.

      Part of that is because they are organized - the American Library Association. [wikipedia.org] They've got a near militant attitude towards intellectual freedom and then support each other in the fight. If programmers had the same thing H1B would have never even been created.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2015, @02:48AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2015, @02:48AM (#239177)

        Amen, brother. The answer is Solidarity. [wikipedia.org]

        CAUTION: Everyone brace yourself. gewg_ is about to quote a Conservative.

        extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice and [...] moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. --Barry Goldwater

        -- gewg_

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 20 2015, @08:46PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 20 2015, @08:46PM (#239035)

    Vote Librar-tarian this November!

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by penguinoid on Monday September 21 2015, @12:07AM

    by penguinoid (5331) on Monday September 21 2015, @12:07AM (#239126)

    Mess with a librarian, they might just give you a big fat middle finger. Not a literal finger either, which would be useless, but a nice figurative one like opening multiple TOR exit nodes instead of just the one.

    --
    RIP Slashdot. Killed by greedy bastards.
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by NCommander on Monday September 21 2015, @04:10AM

    by NCommander (2) Subscriber Badge <michael@casadevall.pro> on Monday September 21 2015, @04:10AM (#239198) Homepage Journal

    We currently run a Tor hidden service, and I believe we're operating as a tor relay as well. I'm seriously debating if we can take the liability to run an exit node (which of course requires me to also make sure Linode isn't going to flip on us for doing so)

    --
    Still always moving
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2015, @11:37AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2015, @11:37AM (#239296)

    ...following a decision by the small town of Lebanon, New Hampshire, to [forgo] police warnings.

    Great, now we can all be Lebanonymous on the internet.