- cypherpunks@lists.ogf.org

DOE quantum encryption & Google quantum computation research
by Gregory Foster 11 Sep '14

11 Sep '14

GCN (Sep 10) - "DOE, Google [independently] back quantum computing research": http://gcn.com/blogs/pulse/2014/09/doe-google-quantum.aspx > The Department of Energy is investing in a project to speed the development of unhackable quantum encryption technology that will protect the country's power grid from cyberattack. > > Under the DOE's Cybersecurity for Energy Delivery Systems program, the nation's top program for grid security, San Diego startup Qubitekk was awarded $3 million to work in partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the University of Texas at Austin, Sandia National Laboratory and Pacific Gas & Electric to develop practical quantum security for the nation’s power grid. > > Qubitekk, founded in 2012 to commercialize technology required to speed the adoption of quantum computing, recently announced the availability of the world's first plug-and-play entangled photon generator, the QES1. Like the transistors at the hearts of classical computers, the QES1 enables the flow of information through quantum computers and quantum encryption products – both of which the company is currently developing. > > Meanwhile, Google is planning to build its own quantum computer. The Quantum Artificial Intelligence team at Google is launching a hardware initiative to design and build new quantum information processors based on superconducting electronics, according to a Google+ post by the lab team. Google also announced that John Martinis and his team at UC Santa Barbara will join Google in the initiative. > > Google has been working with D-Wave Systems, maker of the quantum computer being tested by the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab at NASA’s Ames Research Center. Martinis will try to make his own versions of the kind of chip inside a D-Wave machine. > > The Google Quantum AI team will test “new designs for quantum optimization and inference processors based on recent theoretical insights as well as our learnings from the D-Wave quantum annealing architecture,” Google said. The company will continue to work with D-Wave scientists and to experiment with the 512-qubit “Vesuvius” machine at NASA Ames that will be upgraded to a 1000 qubit “Washington” processor. gf -- Gregory Foster || gfoster(a)entersection.org @gregoryfoster <> http://entersection.com/

1 0

Obituary: Hal Finney | The Economist
by Robert Hettinga 10 Sep '14

10 Sep '14

http://www.economist.com/news/obituary/21615469-harold-finney-futurist-and-… Hal Finney AS IT turned out, Hal Finney was not Satoshi Nakamoto. But for a short while, at least, some people thought he might be. “Satoshi Nakamoto” is the most famous non-person on the internet. The name is a pseudonym, meant to hide the shadowy programmer (or programmers) behind Bitcoin, a computerised currency designed to liberate money from the control of any central bank. Speculating about his true identity is a popular pastime in some of the more esoteric corners of the web. Still, Mr Finney was a good guess. As a cryptographer and a programmer he had the skills, for Bitcoin relies on cryptography to function. Having been an early adopter (he was, with the fabled Mr Nakamoto, a partner in the world’s first ever Bitcoin transaction) he certainly had the pedigree. And he had the beliefs, too. He was one of the original “cypherpunks”, a small, influential band of cryptographers, philosophers and programmers who, in the early 1990s, helped stamp the early internet with its culture of rebelliousness, distrust of government and optimistic belief in the liberating power of technology. Two decades before Edward Snowden put the subject on front pages the world over, the cypherpunks were discussing how the coming age of the internet would allow governments and companies to pry ever more deeply and easily into the lives of their citizens and customers. But that same computer revolution would also hand ordinary people the power to fight back against the organisations that presumed to run their lives. Until that point, good quality encryption had been something available only to spy agencies and big companies. Computers would give people the power to carve out a mathematically guaranteed refuge from the powers that be, and to have a conversation that was provably, reliably private. For Mr Finney, who had spent his high-school years imbibing the supercharged libertarianism of Ayn Rand, and who was now earning a living writing video games, that was a heady challenge. He accepted it with gusto. “Here we are faced with the problems of loss of privacy, creeping computerisation, massive databases, more centralisation,” he wrote. “[But] the computer can be used as a tool to liberate and protect people, rather than to control them.” His aim was clear: “The work we are doing here, broadly speaking, is dedicated to this goal of making Big Brother obsolete.” He began helping, unpaid, with a program called Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), putting in enough hours that it became a second job. It was well-named: even today, messages scrambled with it are thought to be unbreakable (Mr Snowden used PGP for his e-mail exchanges with the journalists to whom he leaked his documents). In 1991 Phil Zimmermann, PGP’s chief developer, uploaded it to the internet. America’s spies were aghast. Exporting encryption—which was classed as a weapon—was illegal. And here a group of self-proclaimed techno-liberators were proposing to just hand it over to anyone in the world—diplomat, criminal, teenager—who wanted it. When the legal kerfuffle died down, Mr Zimmermann hired Mr Finney as his new company’s second-ever employee. Suspended animation For a long time he ran a free “remailer”, a server designed to forward e-mail anonymously, no questions asked, to anyone in the world. Whose business was it, after all, what people wanted to send to each other, except the sender and the recipient? His interests extended beyond privacy. He was fascinated by the sorts of futures that technology might unlock, speculating about everything from how morals evolve in rich societies to when clean energy might finally displace fossil fuels. Away from the screen, he was chatty and gregarious, a keen skier and runner. He had to stop in 2009, when he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND). The illness gradually paralyses its victims, but, with characteristic logic, Mr Finney pointed out that it was not a death sentence—even when those muscles necessary for breathing gave out, life could carry on with the aid of a mechanical ventilator. He was surprised, he said, to discover that most people with the disease “chose” death instead. After all, MND robs sufferers only of their bodies, not their minds, and for him it was the mind that mattered. His interests went beyond computers and coding, to sociology, psychology and how technology might improve society. As long as there was a way to communicate with the outside world—even if it was only by having a computer interpret the twitchings of a facial muscle—he wanted to endure. When even that became difficult, he put a final plan into action. In accordance with his wishes, he was disconnected from his ventilator. As soon as he had been declared legally dead, technicians from a firm called Alcor froze his body in liquid nitrogen. He became one of a few hundred people who have elected to have their bodies stored until medicine advances to the point where it can safely revive them and cure their original ailments. It sounds (and is) science-fictional, and Mr Finney was under no illusions about the prospects of waking up again. But placing his faith in a technology that has yet to be invented was a rational gamble for a committed techno-optimist. And besides, a slim hope is better than none at all.

1 0

Hal Finney cryopreserved
by Eugen Leitl 10 Sep '14

10 Sep '14

http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/2014-August/082585.html Max More max at maxmore.com Thu Aug 28 18:41:54 UTC 2014 Previous message: [ExI] It's alive? Next message: [ExI] Hal Finney being cryopreserved now Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] I am both sad and happy to tell you that long-time Extropy Institute/Extropy magazine/Extropy chat list member -- and honored cypherpunk and Bitcoin pioneer – was declared clinically dead this morning and is now being cryopreserved. Hal was diagnosed with ALS five years ago. He made it clear that once he lost the ability to communicate, he did not want his vital functions supported any further but should be allowed to cease functioning and promptly be cryopreserved. Hal and Fran Finney arrived in Scottsdale, Arizona on Tuesday where he was checked into ICU of a hospital near Alcor. After administration of drugs to ensure no consciousness, his ventilator was removed. Although the doctors expected all breathing to cease within an hour, Hal’s body kept going until shortly before 9:00 am this morning, August 28, 2014. Immediately after pronouncement of legal death, Alcor’s standby team went into action, restoring circulation, ventilation, administering an array of medications, and initiating external cooling. Surgery is currently underway to enable us to replace Hal’s blood and interstitial fluids with cryoprotectant. Once perfusion is finished we will be able to plunge Hal’s temperature down past the freezing point without any significant ice formation. Once he is down to around -110 degC we will slow cooling and take a couple more days to reach the final storage temperature of -196 degC. After that, Hal will be placed in long-term storage and cared for until the day when repair and revival may be possible. Hal’s wife, Fran (also an Alcor member) has stayed by Hal’s side throughout and is observing our procedures firsthand. Since Hal is open about his Alcor membership and said that he would be happy for us to tell people about his choice if it might be good for cryonics, we will be issuing a press release, as well as writing something more extensive for *Cryonics* magazine and elsewhere. If you have thoughts on Hal and his life and work, please send them to me. Hal, I know I speak for many when I say that I look forward to speaking to you again sometime in the future and to throwing a party in honor of your revival. --Max -- Max More, PhD Strategic Philosopher Co-editor, *The Transhumanist Reader* http://www.amazon.com/Transhumanist-Reader-Contemporary-Technology-Philosop… President & CEO, Alcor Life Extension Foundation

2 1

"Fake" Comsec Found Everywhere
by John Young 08 Sep '14

08 Sep '14

Anxiety and fears about loss of privacy through surreptitious and ubiquitous technology, with concomintant rise of advocates of defenses, parallels the age-old scam of the devil inside humans attacking faith in god(s) requiring constant remediation by religion, in particular by buying into costly, elaborate edifices, ceremonies, couture, sermons, damnations, excommunications, informants, behavior police, burning of witches, celebrations of saints. Remind of the crypto wars still raging? Comsec might be seen as a cult of fetishistic technology, crypto its sacred text of salvation and protection from demons forever being publicized by the preachers of how to hide your sins from the sin spies, the main sin being apostasy about national security armed to the max with weapons of mass punishment of disbelievers of of one's own faith against that of competitors, especially competitiors setting up subversive storefronts of alternative faiths. Worse of all, the crypto-rebels writing their own code of sin and salvation, defying authorities, seducing youngsters, leaking secrets of the official corruption, mocking official old gods in favor or new ones home-brewed on the electronic frontier. Snake oil is as old as snakes whispering to naked apes once happy copulating without devils or gods hurling sand into the amply lubricated in and out to make new copulants free of imaginary fears and anxieties that pleasure is bad, don't seek it without permission, don't do it unless paid in advance, don't dream of it or the devil wins, don't self-satisfy or narcissism destroys. Right here are some helpful aids to control your urges by allowing experts to tell you what's right and wrong. You will need this protection inside and outside, everywhere, all the time. Let us pray. Your wallet please.

3 2

‘Fake’ cellphone towers found in U.S.
by Alfie John 07 Sep '14

07 Sep '14

If you've never considered the threat of baseband attacks to be real, but considered them more of a speculative possibility, speculate no more: http://www.welivesecurity.com/2014/08/28/android-security-2/ "The fake ‘towers’ – computers which wirelessly attack cellphones via the “baseband” chips built to allow them to communicate with their networks, can eavesdrop and even install spyware, ESD claims. They are a known technology - but the surprise is that they are in active use. "Interceptor use in the U.S. is much higher than people had anticipated,” Goldsmith says. “One of our customers took a road trip from Florida to North Carolina and he found eight different interceptors on that trip. We even found one at South Point Casino in Las Vegas." "What we find suspicious is that a lot of these interceptors are right on top of U.S. military bases." Alfie -- Alfie John alfiej(a)fastmail.fm

6 7

Patents by Harris Corporation
by Gregory Foster 05 Sep '14

05 Sep '14

I have a feeling there are some interesting things amongst these 2,996 patents filed by Harris Corporation, the maker of the Stingray and other IMSI catchers: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fneta… For example, @USPTO (Jul 1) - "#8,768,311 - Intelligent asymmetric service denial system for mobile cellular devices and associated methods": http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fneta… > The system and method prevents reception of calls to a mobile cellular device within a relatively small area or zone, with minimal inconvenience to the public by also permitting outgoing transmissions. The mobile cellular device has a wirelessly settable parameter associated therewith enabling establishment of an inbound call. A selective call blocker includes a receiver, a transmitter, and a selective call blocking controller cooperating with the receiver to determine the wirelessly settable parameter. The selective call blocking controller also cooperates with the transmitter to wirelessly change the wirelessly settable parameter to selectively block an inbound call to the mobile cellular device and without defeating the capability of the mobile cellular device to establish an outbound call. Harris Corporation is a sprawling defense contractor also dabbling in hydrocarbons, so many of these patents will not be germane for the list. Please share what you find that seems relevant to the on-going conversation re: IMSI catchers... gf -- Gregory Foster || gfoster(a)entersection.org @gregoryfoster <> http://entersection.com/

1 0

Paralelni Polis Congress (cryptoanarchist conference) 9-12.10.2014 in Prague / Central Europe
by Pavol Luptak 04 Sep '14

04 Sep '14

Hello, it would be my pleasure to invite all of you to a unique cryptoanarchist conference - Parallel Polis Congress that will take place during 9-12.10.2014 in Prague / Central Europe. * Parallel Polis in theory Parallel Polis is a theoretical concept developed by Czech dissident Vaclav Benda (1942–1999) during the height of communist domination in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s. It was translated into English in 1978. Benda argues that in a repressed state, it is impossible to overturn corrupt social, economic and political institutions. Such efforts are futile. Instead, he suggests the creation of new "parallel institutions" that are more responsible to human needs. * Parallel Polis in practice We were impressed by the concept of Vaclav Benda’s Parallel Polis and Timothy C May’s Crypto Anarchistic Manifesto and Cyphernomicon. Embracing the current crypto-technologies we have realized a practical feasibility of these utopian theories and started a unique freedom think tank focused on the promotion of digital freedom, cryptocurrencies, anonymization networks and free markets. For this purpose we decided to rent a big 3-floor house (with almost 1000m2) in the center of Prague (Holešovice) - one floor dedicated to Bitcoin coffee-house, hub and hackerspace called Institute of Cryptoanarchy. :) * Founders of Parallel Polis Parallel polis is 100% state-free project, based on voluntary contributions only of our members and donors. Founding members are people from Czech contemporary-art group Ztohoven (http://ztohoven.com/) see their recent projects Moral Reform (hack of Czech Parliament) http://juraj.bednar.sk/blog/2013/01/06/moral-reform-by-ztohoven-an-ultimate… and Citizen K http://artoftheprank.com/2010/06/19/ztohoven-art-collective-launch-citizen-… and group of cryptoanarchists from Czech and Slovak hackerspaces. * When & Where Parallel Polis Congress takes place in Parallel Polis building (Dělnická 43, Prague) during 9-12.10.2014. If you prefer to take public transport, take the tram number 1, 12, 14, 25, 53 or 54 to the tram station Dělnická. * Parallel Polis Congress and why we need you! Parallel Polis Congress is an opening party of a new era of our freedom. If you want to participate on this event as a speaker, please let me know - if your presentation is interesting, we can cover you all travelling and accommodation expenses (including plane tickets from US). In the case of interest, also please send me: + the name of your presentation + a short description of your presentation (you can have a 30-minutes long presentation with 10 minutes for Q/A or 5-10 minutes lightning talk) + your PGP or S/MIME key if you prefer encrypted communication * Stay in touch http://www.paralelnipolis.cz https://www.facebook.com/pages/Paraleln%C3%AD-Polis/690647371027036 https://twitter.com/Paralelni_polis Thanks a lot and see you in Prague! Pavol -- ______________________________________________________________________________ [Parallel Polis - Bitcoin Coffee House, Hub and Cryptoanarchy hackerspace]

1 0

[Cryptography] stories from the real life MITM book
by Eugen Leitl 04 Sep '14

04 Sep '14

----- Forwarded message from ianG <iang(a)iang.org> ----- Date: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 09:57:16 +0100 From: ianG <iang(a)iang.org> To: Cryptography Mailing List <cryptography(a)metzdowd.com> Subject: [Cryptography] stories from the real life MITM book Message-ID: <5406D7EC.2030603(a)iang.org> User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.9; rv:24.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/24.6.0 Evidence of MITMs is so rare it has to be trumpeted. Snippets only. http://www.popsci.com/article/technology/mysterious-phony-cell-towers-could… http://venturebeat.com/2014/09/02/who-is-putting-up-interceptor-cell-towers… To show what the CryptoPhone can do that less expensive competitors cannot, he points me to a map that he and his customers have created, indicating 17 different phony cell towers known as “interceptors,” detected by the CryptoPhone 500 around the United States during the month of July alone. (The map below is from August.) Interceptors look to a typical phone like an ordinary tower. Once the phone connects with the interceptor, a variety of “over-the-air” attacks become possible, from eavesdropping on calls and texts to pushing spyware to the device. http://venturebeat.com/2014/09/02/who-is-putting-up-interceptor-cell-towers… Who is putting up ‘interceptor’ cell towers? The mystery deepens The discovery “appears to confirm real-world use of techniques that have been highlighted by researchers for years,” said Stephen Ellis, manager of cyber threat intelligence at security firm iSIGHT Partners. While noting that his company “cannot confirm the accuracy of this reporting without further information,” Ellis told us that iSIGHT is “highly confident that we have observed real-world use of this technique in support of another of its uses – cyber crime [for] financial gain.” “We have observed and reported on cases in other parts of the world where actors are known to have set up fake base stations to send spoofed SMS messages,” Ellis said, “possibly to send spam or to direct unsuspecting victims to malicious websites.” The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced last month that it is launching an investigation into the use of cell network interceptors by criminal gangs and foreign intelligence. We asked Goldsmith if he could be mistaken about the towers. Perhaps they are just commercial ones that seem unusual? “We can definitely tell” that they’re non-network towers, he said, by analysis of the infrastructure. These phony towers, without names as normal towers have, insist to your phone that they must handle the call and then trick the phone into turning off its normal encryption. Such a tower tells you that “none of your towers are currently available,” Goldsmith told us. It says, “‘I’m your tower.’ “If you wanted to listen to a phone call,” he said, “this would be the easy way.” _______________________________________________ The cryptography mailing list cryptography(a)metzdowd.com http://www.metzdowd.com/mailman/listinfo/cryptography ----- End forwarded message -----

1 0

"Godfather of Anonymity" David Chaum on BBC
by John Young 03 Sep '14

03 Sep '14

"Horizon: The defenders of anonymity on the internet" http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29032399

2 1

[tor-talk] Tor Weekly News — September 3rd, 2014
by Eugen Leitl 03 Sep '14

03 Sep '14

----- Forwarded message from harmony <harmony01(a)riseup.net> ----- Date: Wed, 3 Sep 2014 14:06:36 +0000 From: harmony <harmony01(a)riseup.net> To: tor-news(a)lists.torproject.org, tor-talk(a)lists.torproject.org Subject: [tor-talk] Tor Weekly News — September 3rd, 2014 Message-ID: <20140903140636.03c38791(a)riseup.net> X-Mailer: Claws Mail 3.8.1 (GTK+ 2.24.10; i486-pc-linux-gnu) Reply-To: tor-talk(a)lists.torproject.org ======================================================================== Tor Weekly News September 3rd, 2014 ======================================================================== Welcome to the thirty-fifth issue of Tor Weekly News in 2014, the weekly newsletter that covers what is happening in the Tor community. Tor Browser 3.6.5 and 4.0-alpha-2 are out ----------------------------------------- The Tor Browser team put out two new releases of the privacy-preserving web browser. Among the major changes, version 3.6.5 upgrades Firefox to 24.8.0esr, and includes an improved prompt to help users defend against HTML5 canvas image fingerprinting [1], following a patch by Isis Lovecruft [2]. Version 4.0-alpha-2 additionally includes the code for the forthcoming Tor Browser auto-updater (switched off by default) and “better hardening for Windows and Linux builds” [3]. As ever, you can download the new releases along with their signature files from the Tor Project’s distribution directory [4]. Please upgrade as soon as you can. [1]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-talk/2014-July/033969.html [2]: https://bugs.torproject.org/12684 [3]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-qa/2014-September/000458.html [4]: https://www.torproject.org/dist/torbrowser/ Tails 1.1.1 is out ------------------ The Tails team released [5] version 1.1.1 of the Debian- and Tor-based live operating system. As well as upgrading key components like Tor, Iceweasel, and Linux, this release disables I2P by default when Tails is booted, in response to the vulnerability recently disclosed by Exodus Intelligence [6]. Like Truecrypt, “i2p” must now be specified as a parameter on booting by users who wish to use it. A number of other security fixes and routine improvements make this an important update for all Tails users. See the full changelog in the team’s announcement, then update from a running copy of Tails 1.1 if you have one, or head to the download page [7] if you don’t. [5]: https://tails.boum.org/news/version_1.1.1/ [6]: https://tails.boum.org/security/Security_hole_in_I2P_0.9.13/ [7]: https://tails.boum.org/download/ Helping Internet services accept anonymous users ------------------------------------------------ Without a large and diverse network, run by thousands of dedicated volunteers, Tor would be nowhere near as useful or popular as it currently is. Although the current situation might at times seem fragile, there are still many places where it is feasible to host Tor exit nodes. However, Tor would become much less attractive to users if they found themselves unable to reach or interact with their favorite websites while using it, a situation that is unfortunately growing more common as site administrators and engineers react negatively to instances of abusive Tor traffic by banning anonymous connections outright. Tor users and developers, as well as members of other online communities (such as Wikimedia [8]), have tried to address the issue before, but real progress has yet to be made. Roger Dingledine wrote a “call to arms” [9] explaining the problem in detail and exploring possible paths to a solution: “Step one is to enumerate the set of websites and other Internet services that handle Tor connections differently from normal connections […]. Step two is to sort the problem websites based on how amenable they would be to our help”. Since the problem involves humans as much as it does machines, anyone working on it will have to be both “technical” but also ”good at activism”. If you fit that description, OTF has expressed interest in funding work on this issue through their Information Controls Fellowship Program [10]. Please read Roger’s blog post in full for more details. [8]: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Partnership_between_Wikimedi… [9]: https://blog.torproject.org/blog/call-arms-helping-internet-services-accept… [10]: https://www.opentechfund.org/labs/fellowships Monthly status reports for August 2014 -------------------------------------- The wave of regular monthly reports from Tor project members for the month of August has begun. Damian Johnson released his report first [11], followed by reports from Georg Koppen [12], Sherief Alaa [13], Noel Torres [14], Kevin P Dyer [15], Nick Mathewson [16], Lunar [17], Arthur D. Edelstein [18], Karsten Loesing [19], Andrew Lewman [20], Arlo Breault [21], Pearl Crescent [22], and Michael Schloh von Bennewitz [23]. Lunar also reported on behalf of the help desk [24], and Mike Perry did the same for the Tor Browser team [25]. [11]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2014-August/000626.html [12]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2014-August/000627.html [13]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2014-September/000628.ht… [14]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2014-September/000629.ht… [15]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2014-September/000630.ht… [16]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2014-September/000633.ht… [17]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2014-September/000635.ht… [18]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2014-September/000636.ht… [19]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2014-September/000637.ht… [20]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2014-September/000638.ht… [21]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2014-September/000639.ht… [22]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2014-September/000640.ht… [23]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2014-September/000641.ht… [24]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2014-September/000634.ht… [25]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2014-September/000642.ht… Miscellaneous news ------------------ Yawning Angel released [26] a new set of experimental Tor Browser builds containing the proposed obfs4 pluggable transport, along with a changelog; “questions, comments, feedback” are welcome on the email thread or the bug ticket tracking the deployment of obfs4 [27]. [26]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2014-August/007420.html [27]: https://bugs.torproject.org/12130 Arturo Filastò announced [28] the release of version 1.1.0 of oonibackend, the tool “used by ooniprobe to discover the addresses of test helpers (via the bouncer) to submit reports to (via the collector) and to perform some measurements that require a backend system to talk to (via test helpers)” [29]. [28]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2014-September/007450.html [29]: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/oonibackend meejah posted [30] a list of tasks to be completed in order to bring Tor Weather to a deployable state, following the recent rewrite effort and the Google Summer of Code project by Sreenatha Bhatlapenumarthi. [30]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2014-August/007426.html Israel Leiva submitted a summary [31] of work completed as part of the “Revamp GetTor” Google Summer of Code project: “The plan for now is to keep doing tests and deploy it asap (hopefully during September).” [31]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2014-August/007427.html Mike Perry posted [32] an updated version [33] of the proposal for website fingerprinting countermeasures which he co-authored with Marc Juarez as part of the latter’s Google Summer of Code project. [32]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2014-August/007417.html [33]: https://gitweb.torproject.org/user/mikeperry/torspec.git/blob/refs/heads/mu… Lunar gave a talk [34] at this year’s DebConf on the effort to build Debian packages deterministically, which is inspired in large part by Tor Browser’s use of the same technology [35]. Major progress was achieved during the conference [36]. [34]: http://meetings-archive.debian.net/pub/debian-meetings/2014/debconf14/webm/… [35]: https://blog.torproject.org/blog/deterministic-builds-part-one-cyberwar-and… [36]: http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/reproducible-builds/Week-of-Mon-20… David Fifield submitted a breakdown [37] of the costs incurred by the infrastructure that supports the meek pluggable transport [38] since its introduction. The total to date from both the Google App Engine and Amazon AWS front domains? $6.56. [37]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2014-August/007429.html [38]: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/meek Thanks to P D [39] and Daniel Pajonzeck [40] for running mirrors of the Tor Project website and software! [39]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-mirrors/2014-August/000653.html [40]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-mirrors/2014-August/000673.html Also on the subject of mirrors, Roger Dingledine alerted [41] the tor-mirrors mailing list to the fact that the Tor Project website (specifically the distribution directory) will shortly be increasing in size to eight or nine gigabytes, as a result of the soon-to-be-implemented Tor Browser updater [42]. Mirror operators will need to ensure that they can provide enough disk space to accommodate the change. [41]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-mirrors/2014-September/000675.ht… [42]: https://bugs.torproject.org/4234 whonixqubes announced [43] the release of an integrated version of the Whonix and Qubes operating systems: “I look forward to helping make Qubes + Whonix integration even tighter and more seamless throughout the future.” [43]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-talk/2014-August/034562.html Tor help desk roundup --------------------- The help desk has been asked if Tor can make a website visit appear to come from China. Tor connections appear to originate from the country where the exit relay in use is located; since Tor is blocked in China, there are zero exit relays in China. A visualization of the different country-locations of exit relays can be found on Tor’s metrics page [44]. [44]: https://metrics.torproject.org/bubbles.html#country-exits-only News from Tor StackExchange --------------------------- Anony Mouse wanted to know why Facebook shows the location of the user’s last login over Tor as Baghdad or Dhaka [45], instead of the real location of the exit relay. qbi posted a screenshot showing this issue [46]. According to Facebook, this information is based on an approximation, but this approximation locates all Tor exit relays either in Baghdad or in Dhaka. [45]: https://tor.stackexchange.com/q/3364/88 [46]: https://twitter.com/qbi/status/506550322308055040 user3500 wants to contribute to Tor and asks how this can be done as an inexperienced developer [47]. Jens Kubieziel replied with several possibilities, including reading the volunteer page and Tor Weekly News: in particular, the section containing easy development tasks might be a good start. Roya pointed out that any contribution is better than no contribution, and encouraged user3500 to just get started. Umut Seven recommended writing unit tests. [47]: https://tor.stackexchange.com/q/3961/88 Kras wants to use FoxyProxy in connection with Tor Browser Bundle and asks if it is safe to do so [48]. At the moment, there is only an answer saying “yes”, without any explanation. What is your experience? Is it safe for a user to install and use FoxyProxy? [48]: https://tor.stackexchange.com/q/3239/88 Upcoming events --------------- Sep 03 13:30 UTC | little-t tor development meeting | #tor-dev, irc.oftc.net | Sep 03 19:00 UTC | Tails contributors meeting | #tails-dev, irc.indymedia.org / h7gf2ha3hefoj5ls.onion | https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-project/2014-August/000016.html | Sep 05 15:00 UTC | OONI development meeting | #ooni, irc.oftc.net | https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/ooni-dev/2014-August/000151.html | Sep 08 18:00 UTC | Tor Browser online meeting | #tor-dev, irc.oftc.net | Sep 12 19:00 UTC | Tails low hanging fruit session | #tails-dev, irc.indymedia.org / h7gf2ha3hefoj5ls.onion | https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-project/2014-August/000024.html This issue of Tor Weekly News has been assembled by harmony, Matt Pagan, Lunar, qbi, and Arlo Breault. Want to continue reading TWN? Please help us create this newsletter. We still need more volunteers to watch the Tor community and report important news. Please see the project page [49], write down your name and subscribe to the team mailing list [50] if you want to get involved! [49]: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/TorWeeklyNews [50]: https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/news-team -- tor-talk mailing list - tor-talk(a)lists.torproject.org To unsubscribe or change other settings go to https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-talk ----- End forwarded message -----

1 0