No tool in existence protects your anonymity on the Web better than the software Tor, which encrypts Internet traffic and bounces it through random computers around the world. But for guarding anything other than Web browsing, Tor has required a mixture of finicky technical setup and software tweaks. Now routing all your traffic through Tor may be as simple as putting a portable hardware condom on your ethernet cable.
Today a group of privacy-focused developers plans to launch a Kickstarter campaign for Anonabox. The $45 open-source router automatically directs all data that connects to it by ethernet or Wifi through the Tor network, hiding the users IP address and skirting censorship. Its also small enough to hide two in a pack of cigarettes. Anonaboxs tiny size means users can carry the device with them anywhere, plugging it into an office ethernet cable to do sensitive work or in a cybercafe in China to evade the Great Firewall. The result, if Anonabox fulfills its security promises, is that it could become significantly easier to anonymize all your traffic with Tornot just Web browsing, but email, instant messaging, filesharing and all the other miscellaneous digital exhaust that your computer leaves behind online.
Now all your programs, no matter what you do on your computer, are routed over the Tor network, says August Germar, one of the independent IT consultants who spent the last four years developing the Anonabox. He says it was built with the intention of making Tor easier to use not just for the softwares Western fans, but for those who really need it more Internet-repressive regimes. It was important to us that it be portable and smallsomething you can easily conceal or even throw away if you have to get rid of it.
Anonabox is by no means the first project to attempt to integrate Tor directly into a router. But Germar argues it will strike the best balance yet of cheapness, easy setup, size and security. Tor-in-a-box projects like Torouter and PORTAL, for instance, require the user to replace the software on a stock router. Another project called OnionPi is designed to be built one from a kit, and costs roughly twice as much as Anonabox.
In terms of consumer friendliness, the closest device yet to a plug-and-play Tor router has been Safeplug, a $49 variant on a Pogoplug router modified to route all traffic over Tor. But at more than twice the size, the Safeplug isnt nearly as portable as the Anonabox. And its also been criticized for security flaws; Researchers at Princeton found in September that it didnt have any authentication on its settings page. That means a hacker could use a technique called a Cross-Site Request Forgery to trick a user into clicking on a link that would change the routers functions or turn off its Tor routing altogether. It also uses an outdated version of Tor, one that had been updated even before the device shipped last year.
Anonaboxs security hasnt yet been audited for those sorts of flaws. But its creators point out that it will be entirely open source, so its code can be more easily scrutinized for errors and fixed if necessary.
The non-profit Tor project itself is reserving judgment for now. But its executive director Andrew Lewman tells WIRED hes keeping an eye on the project, and that it looks promising so far. Micah Lee, lead technologist for Glenn Greenwalds The Intercept and a frequent developer on Tor-related projects, says hes mostly encouraged by the idea. One of the potential vulnerabilities for Tor users, after all, is that a website they visit could run an exploit on their computer, installing malware that phones home to a server across a non-Tor connection to reveal their real IP address. If youre using something like this, everything goes over Tor, so that cant happen, Lee says. A Tor router can definitely have a big benefit in that theres physical isolation.
He nonetheless cautions that Anonabox alone wont fully protect a users privacy. If you use the same browser for your anonymous and normal Internet activities, for instance, websites can use browser fingerprinting techniques like cookies to identify you. Lee suggests that even when routing traffic over Tor with Anonabox, users should use the Tor Browser, a hardened browser that avoids those fingerprinting techniques. (To avoid running their traffic through Tor twice and reducing bandwidth speeds to a crawl, he points to a setting in the Tor Browser called transparent torification, which turns off the browsers own Tor routing.)
The Anonabox has been in the works since 2010, long enough that its developers have been able to evolve their own custom board as well as an injection-molded case. That customization, Germar says, means the tiny device still packs in 64 megabytes of storage and a 580 megahertz processor, easily enough to fit the Tor software and run it without any slowdowns.
Germar says he and his friends began thinking about the possibility for the device around the time of the Arab Spring in late 2010 and early 2011. The Anonabox is ultimately intended for users in other countries where Tors anti-censorship and privacy properties can help shield activists and journalists. It can be used in a cybercafe, for instance, where users cant easily install new software on computers. And its capable of so-called pluggable transportsextensions to Tor that often allow its traffic to better impersonate normal encrypted data.
Read more:
With This Tiny Box, You Can Anonymize Everything You Do Online
- Tor - Official Site - April 26th, 2014 [April 26th, 2014]
- Tor Browser (M-S0FT) - Video - April 26th, 2014 [April 26th, 2014]
- Downloading torrents in utorrent using tor browser - Video - April 27th, 2014 [April 27th, 2014]
- Tor Browser installieren [Tutorial deutsch] - Video - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- TOR BROWSER KURULUM+KULLANIM - Video - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- tor browser descargar e instalar - Video - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- Entering the Deep Web-Deep Web Url link (2014) - Video - May 6th, 2014 [May 6th, 2014]
- Red Onion Tor Browser for iPhone - Video - May 10th, 2014 [May 10th, 2014]
- working referral link to agora hidden market place -new url ( onion site ) - Video - May 12th, 2014 [May 12th, 2014]
- Tor Browser Free Download/Install|Free Latest Version|64/32 bit Windows|2014 - Video - May 18th, 2014 [May 18th, 2014]
- how to install TOR Browser On LINUX - Video - May 18th, 2014 [May 18th, 2014]
- Grams Darknet black market search engine demo - Video - May 18th, 2014 [May 18th, 2014]
- How to Install the New Tor Browser in Kali Linux - Video - May 18th, 2014 [May 18th, 2014]
- How to download and use Tor browser [4K] - Video - May 20th, 2014 [May 20th, 2014]
- Free App Lets the Next Snowden Send Big Files Securely and Anonymously - May 22nd, 2014 [May 22nd, 2014]
- How to get free 7 day trials for XBL works as of May 2014 - Video - May 23rd, 2014 [May 23rd, 2014]
- Free Access to Deep Web (HIdden Wikki)(Tor Browser)-free 2014 - Video - May 27th, 2014 [May 27th, 2014]
- Federal Cybersecurity Director Found Guilty on Child Porn Charges - August 31st, 2014 [August 31st, 2014]
- Cybersecurity official uses Tor but still gets caught with child porn - August 31st, 2014 [August 31st, 2014]
- Softonic - Tor Browser - Download - August 31st, 2014 [August 31st, 2014]
- What is the Tor Browser? - Tor Project: Anonymity Online - August 31st, 2014 [August 31st, 2014]
- Tor Browser - Problem Connecting? - August 31st, 2014 [August 31st, 2014]
- Review: Tor Browser Bundle lets you browse in anonymity ... - August 31st, 2014 [August 31st, 2014]
- Guide to using the Tor Browser Bundle for secure communication - Video - August 31st, 2014 [August 31st, 2014]
- Hack-Bypass Hotspot (Mikrotik) With Tor Browser - Video - September 3rd, 2014 [September 3rd, 2014]
- Using tor-browser on ubuntu 14.04 LTS - Video - September 7th, 2014 [September 7th, 2014]
- Download Tor Browser Bundle 3 6 5 For Win, Mac, Linux - Video - September 8th, 2014 [September 8th, 2014]
- Browse Anonymously, Browse Safely - The App Center - September 11th, 2014 [September 11th, 2014]
- Tor browser NOT SAFE without this quick step - Video - September 12th, 2014 [September 12th, 2014]
- Tor Browser for iOS - Free download and software reviews ... - September 14th, 2014 [September 14th, 2014]
- Comcast Denies It Will Cut Off Customers Who Use Tor, The Web Browser For Criminals (CMCSA) - September 15th, 2014 [September 15th, 2014]
- Comcast calls rumor that it disconnects Tor users wildly inaccurate - September 15th, 2014 [September 15th, 2014]
- Why a thinly sourced, unverified report about Comcast has the Web in an uproar - September 16th, 2014 [September 16th, 2014]
- Drier: Is Comcast really blocking anonymous Internet browser Tor? - September 19th, 2014 [September 19th, 2014]
- Guns, drugs and freedom: the great dark net debate - September 19th, 2014 [September 19th, 2014]
- Download and Install Tor Browser Bundle - Video - September 24th, 2014 [September 24th, 2014]
- install tor browser for kali linux 1.0.9 - Video - September 27th, 2014 [September 27th, 2014]
- TOR Browser: Safe to use 2014? - Yahoo Answers - September 28th, 2014 [September 28th, 2014]
- Alex Jones Interviews Creator of TOR Browser- Infowars September 2014 - Video - September 28th, 2014 [September 28th, 2014]
- Tor Executive Director Hints At Firefox Integration - September 30th, 2014 [September 30th, 2014]
- Dreaming of a Tor Button for Firefox - September 30th, 2014 [September 30th, 2014]
- Install tor browser on kali linux - Video - September 30th, 2014 [September 30th, 2014]
- How to install TOR browser bundle on sparkylinux 32bit - Video - September 30th, 2014 [September 30th, 2014]
- Firefox could be adding built-in Tor support for improved private browsing - October 2nd, 2014 [October 2nd, 2014]
- Tor Browser Bundle: Download & Start - Tutorial deutsch - Video - October 3rd, 2014 [October 3rd, 2014]
- Tor Browser Cheat TankPit - Video - October 13th, 2014 [October 13th, 2014]
- Anonabox Promises Total Online Anonymity That's Easy, Open Source, and Cheap - October 14th, 2014 [October 14th, 2014]
- This tiny box anonymises all your online actions - October 14th, 2014 [October 14th, 2014]
- Anonabox promises a portable, streamlined way to use Tor to hide your online tracks - October 14th, 2014 [October 14th, 2014]
- Investors flock to tiny device that promises online anonymity - October 16th, 2014 [October 16th, 2014]
- How to run all your Internet's programs thru Tor Browser - Video - October 16th, 2014 [October 16th, 2014]
- Tails 1.2 : Released with Tor Browser 4.0 - Video - October 20th, 2014 [October 20th, 2014]
- Tor Browser 4.0 is released | The Tor Blog - October 25th, 2014 [October 25th, 2014]
- Access Blocked site using Tor Browser and chrome [2014] - Video - October 27th, 2014 [October 27th, 2014]
- Be Anonymous Online : TOR Browser - Video - October 27th, 2014 [October 27th, 2014]
- Menggunakan TOR Browser - Video - October 29th, 2014 [October 29th, 2014]
- Facebook Just Created a Custom Tor Link and That's Awesome - October 31st, 2014 [October 31st, 2014]
- How to Use Deep Web Using Tor Browser - Video - October 31st, 2014 [October 31st, 2014]
- Setup Tor Browser on Mac OS 10 - Video - October 31st, 2014 [October 31st, 2014]
- Facebook opens up to Tor users with new secure .onion address - November 1st, 2014 [November 1st, 2014]
- How to use the Tor browser and the Open PGP applet - Video - November 1st, 2014 [November 1st, 2014]
- Facebookcorewwwi.onion ( Preview ) - Video - November 2nd, 2014 [November 2nd, 2014]
- How to use Tor for Facebook (Windows, Mac & Linux) - November 4th, 2014 [November 4th, 2014]
- Tor Browser Bundle - Secure your Web surfing - [Free Download] - Video - November 5th, 2014 [November 5th, 2014]
- The Law Scores a Victory Against Dark Net Denizens - November 8th, 2014 [November 8th, 2014]
- Tor Browser New 4 - Video - November 8th, 2014 [November 8th, 2014]
- How to (Install- Enable) Flash Player on Tor Browser - Video - November 9th, 2014 [November 9th, 2014]
- Tor Browser New 2 - Video - November 9th, 2014 [November 9th, 2014]
- Tor Browser New 1 - Video - November 9th, 2014 [November 9th, 2014]
- Developer edition and privacy are Firefoxs 10th birthday present for the world - November 11th, 2014 [November 11th, 2014]
- Easily Install Tor Browser 4.0.1 via PPA in Linux Mint 17 - Video - November 11th, 2014 [November 11th, 2014]
- Better Tor-gether? Mozillla bids to bring anonymous browsing to the masses - November 12th, 2014 [November 12th, 2014]
- How to connect Tor Browser to Country-specific IP Address - Video - November 12th, 2014 [November 12th, 2014]
- A Computer Science Professor Found A Way To Identify Most 'Anonymous' Tor Users - November 19th, 2014 [November 19th, 2014]
- Tor Browser-in Yuklenmesi ve qurulmasi. - Video - November 26th, 2014 [November 26th, 2014]
- | | install tor browser on ubuntu 14 04 - Video - November 29th, 2014 [November 29th, 2014]
- Tor Browser 4.5-alpha-1 is released | The Tor Blog - November 29th, 2014 [November 29th, 2014]
- Como instalar o Tor Browser- Navegador da Deep Web/Annimo - Video - December 5th, 2014 [December 5th, 2014]
- [ExpertProf - THT]Tor Browser Kurulumu Ve Onion'a Girilmesi - Video - December 5th, 2014 [December 5th, 2014]
- Tor Browser Bundle 4 0 2 Latest Version Is Available To Download And Update - Video - December 8th, 2014 [December 8th, 2014]