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Access Now's partners have confirmed that the Tor network — a widely used tool allowing users to browse the internet anonymously — was blocked in Venezuela last week over the government-owned internet service provider CANTV, by far the largest ISP in the country.
Direct access traffic on the Tor network steadily increased in Venezuela over the past two months, and even more sharply this month via Tor bridges — alongside a new wave of online censorship from the Maduro government. These most recent blocks have affected several major Venezuelan news outlets, including El Nacional and La Patilla, among others.
While previous online censorship in Venezuela could often be avoided by switching DNS settings from a local Venezuelan server to an international service (like Google's public DNS), this has not been possible for the most recent blocks. Instead, people have needed to rely on using virtual private networks (VPNs) and Tor to circumvent government censorship. This increased use of Tor to access blocked content is likely what triggered these new restrictions to the tool.
"It seems that the government of Venezuela has found out how to do a very sophisticated block for the Tor network. It's not only on the direct access channels, but also the bridges Tor provides to bypass that blocking," said Melanio Escobar, Venezuelan technologist and journalist, and founder of Redes Ayuda. "The government is moving forward to be as closed as China or Iran."
"This is the latest escalation in Venezuela's internet censorship efforts, as it blocks higher-profile sites with more sophisticated methods. This is one of their boldest internet censorship actions yet," said Andrés Azpúrua, Director of Venezuela Inteligente, an organization documenting technical evidence of the Tor block and other censorship events in Venezuela through its project VE sin Filtro. Reports further analyzing the technical details of the Tor network block are forthcoming.
Source: https://www.accessnow.org/venezuela-blocks-tor/
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Friday June 29 2018, @03:20PM (4 children)
How is this possible? Does Tor traffic not look like regular https traffic? Why not?
As another question, how does a youtube stream look (or fave streaming service)? Does that look different to regular https traffic? I don't know enough network architecture, so apologies if the question is naive.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 29 2018, @04:06PM
Internet traffic is in the form of "packets" which have source and destination addresses--IP addresses. To block YouTube, you have your routers reject packets addressed to or from the addresses of the YouTube servers. To block Tor, you have your routers reject packets addressed to or from the addresses of the Tor relays. The Tor project tries to make this difficult by not providing a complete list of the relays, but instead giving out the addresses of "bridges" a few at a time.
And yes, Tor can use the same ports as HTTP or HTTPS traffic (80 and 443).
(Score: 3, Interesting) by loonycyborg on Friday June 29 2018, @05:47PM
It does not, but tor has optional support for ferrying information via bridges and steganographic transport proxies. This requires extra setup though. So for example, tor can be made work in China but with significant extra effort.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 29 2018, @08:49PM (1 child)
I bet you can find it via deep packet inspection, and or traffic patterns. ( would be pretty heavy use.. and that may be really unique there.. )
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Saturday June 30 2018, @08:43AM
That's why I compared to e.g. youtube.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Friday June 29 2018, @03:33PM (23 children)
NSA says, "If you like your TOR, you can keep your TOR. We'll just keep an eye on things for you, to make sure your TOR continues to work as intended." That is so much more civilized than the crazy things those commies do in Venezuela.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 29 2018, @03:37PM (21 children)
Well Runaway, not all men are women but im willing to adopt you as my 2nd sister. Alternatively i can find you a hot tranny if youre really ready to explore the range of human sexuality. You prefer pre or post op?
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Friday June 29 2018, @03:50PM (16 children)
Pre or post op? Doesn't matter - which are you? I have a sister-sized hole in the yard that needs to be filled, and you'll do nicely.
And, I thought I was running out of places to hide the bodies!!
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday June 29 2018, @05:08PM (15 children)
Wow, you went right to threats of violence at the mere thought of a transwoman hitting on you...is there something you'd like to share with the class, Runaway? Something from your days ploughing the salty seas, mayhaps? :D
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Friday June 29 2018, @05:12PM (14 children)
Wow, you jump into a mockery of a discussion, fully armed and ready to have a guy committed to the looney-tunes bin. Please, DON'T share anything with the class. It wouldn't increase your stature anyway.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 29 2018, @06:14PM
Heh, make a troll sig and get trolled. Nice bag of insecurities you've got there! Please don't get your close(s?)t gun and go shoot people, that is bad manners. Well, depending on that little s anyway.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 29 2018, @06:18PM (2 children)
I am not my brother's keeper. My brother may marry anyone he wants ... except for you. I have to have some standards.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday June 29 2018, @06:59PM (1 child)
Grab a beer, and we'll drink a toast to standards. So very many people have none. Touche!
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 29 2018, @07:31PM
Bad touche! Stranger danger!
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday June 29 2018, @09:47PM (9 children)
Thing is, though, with your type it's never really "just mockery." I know how you work. Things said in jest, as in wine (or likely cheap pisswater beer in your case...) very often have more than a kernel of truth to them. And you've shown some violent reactions to similar ideas in the past. Basically, you wouldn't bother making that kind of sig if it weren't bugging you somehow.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Saturday June 30 2018, @01:24AM (8 children)
My type? What about your type? Oh - forgot, your type is "protected".
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday June 30 2018, @06:22PM (7 children)
Whaddaboutism in the very next post, wow. On top of a contextless, whiny, wholly ungrounded whinge about "protections." What "protections?" You think I go stealth and present straight for fun, Runaway? Don't be an idiot.
Boy, sounds like I really hit a sore point. What happened, did you get shore leave to Thailand one time in the Navy and make a terrible mistake?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Sunday July 01 2018, @01:36AM (6 children)
Ooooh, ooooh, ooohhh! She's doing it again!! Starting a fight according to bitch rules! Are you holding a grudge about my comment in your journal? And, yet, when I post AC, you're all sweet and thankful for my input. In it's own way, it's kinda funny.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday July 01 2018, @04:34AM (5 children)
I forgot you commented in my journal actually. Was going to ask which one, but you know, I decided I don't really care. Sorry if I'm bringing up bad memories from In The Navy, old man :)
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday July 01 2018, @04:49AM (4 children)
Yada, yada, yada. She has no point to make, so she tries to play head games. To help dispel some misconceptions, overall, my memories from the Navy are good memories. Oh yeah, there were some bad times, can't avoid those, but, no, I don't have many of those. I didn't spend years in a Vietnamese POW camp, after all. Passed through a couple battlefields, but didn't have to live in one for half a year or more like a lot of soldiers and Marines. Head games. As I've pointed out before, if this woman ever got a handle on a man, if she knew how to hurt him, she would twist the screws just as tight as she knew how.
Hey, 'Zumi, maybe you can get a job with the CIA?
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday July 01 2018, @04:57AM (3 children)
Boy, one little poke and you go all conspiracy theorist on me. CIA? That's flattering, in a way. No, if I ever got into the CIA it would be to kick Gina Haspel backwards into her own acid bath, but that's it...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Sunday July 01 2018, @05:22AM (2 children)
A career with the CIA has it's benefits. Great Aunt Madeline had her very own government baby sitter when she retired, and started going senile. The woman would have her good days, and bad days. She starts talking about what a charming person Chairman Mao was, and the babysitter asked everyone to leave the room. That stuff was pretty funny sometimes . . .
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday July 01 2018, @06:07AM (1 child)
And speaking of senile, you're starting to ramble again, old man. I'm not even convinced you ever had a great-aunt Madeline, and if you did, she'd be a bit too old (and a bit too not-Chinese...) to be going on about what a great guy Mao was. Go take your pills and have a nap.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday July 01 2018, @06:57AM
When do you suppose that Mao was born? And, when do you suppose my greats were born? In actuality, Madeline was junior to Mao by about 20 years. I thought you were 92nd percentile, and here you are doing math like a 40th percentile.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 29 2018, @04:39PM (2 children)
Don't taunt Runaway with a tranny unless that tranny voted for Trump.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 29 2018, @06:17PM (1 child)
So Milo? Its a pretty tightly kept secret but he used to be a woman, like most conservitards (not conservatives, some are sane) he is probably projecting all his Trans hate because he can't stand his own reality.
You'll note I was kind enough to use "him" instead of "she" since I respect that other people can live different lives from my own. You bible thumping jackrabbits should listen to more Aretha Franklin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0POmdK18WU [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 29 2018, @06:20PM
Forget the previous link, some fool sped it up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAI_Nv3qWto [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 29 2018, @08:16PM
-1 Funny, I WIN THE INTERNET
Great kickoff to the weekend K.....o .;^
(Score: 4, Informative) by frojack on Friday June 29 2018, @05:31PM
Except in this case it is likely China and Iran that are helping the largely incompetent Venezuelan military block internet access. Maybe Cuba too, but their expertise is limited because they have so little training in this area in their own country.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11888/venezuela-iran-russia-china [gatestoneinstitute.org]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Saturday June 30 2018, @01:18AM (1 child)
All these Free Speech happy warriors building TOR and such forget a very basic reality. It only works in free countries where you don't really need it. Once a country becomes an unfree hellhole it bans things like TOR. Slide a little farther down the road to full out Communist Shithole, like China, and anyone caught trying to use such tools to avoid the state mandated censorship simply disappears. Communist dictators aren't playing crypto weenie games with nerds, they liquidate their enemies. Your crypto has to be perfect and undetectable every single time, the government only has to catch you once. Bushitler and Drumpf are easy to count coup against because they aren't actually dictators, they in fact exist only within the fevered imaginations of morons. Pro tip: If you can denounce your political leader with profanity on a bumper sticker, it is because you are in a free country and do not actually live under a dictator. You are only LARPing as a plucky freedom fighter.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 30 2018, @02:52AM
daily reminder that Tor was started as a US Navy project and continues to be primarily funded by the DOD, and the whole point of releasing it to the public is to provide government users with the protection it's designed to provide -- if no one else uses Tor, it's easy to match traffic to users, defeating the whole point
there's also the fact that all attacks on unmasking Tor users are side-channel ones (probably deliberate, since there's zero fucking reason for the Tor Browser Bundle to default to having JS on -- there's no secure way to run Javascript at all, and no way to protect your privacy with JS enabled) -- the core functionality needs to be actually secure, but the default config makes it easy to bust people
Tor isn't a bunch of hippy idealists, it's a government project.