Daily Archives: October 15, 2014

Nobody likes giving up their privacy. But as much as we complain about it, relatively few of us are willing to put time,money, or effort into consistently protecting our privacy online. And its not like its that hard, relatively speaking: the Tor Project offers excellent, free software that lets you browse the Internet in complete anonymity, if you use it properly. With Tor, data you send over the Internet are encrypted and stripped of any identifying information (namely, your IP address) before reaching their destination. Its one of the most reliable methods that you can use to protect your identity online. However, it does take some amount of experience to use, along with a conscious decision to choose security over convenience. If that sounds like too much work (and itsure sounds like a lot of work, doesnt it?), the Anonabox could be exactly what you need.

The Anonabox, now on Kickstarter, is a tiny little networking tool that will sit there and invisibly do all of the Tor-related stuff that youd want it to do, without you ever having to think about it.

The appeal of Anonabox (relative to other, similar products) is threefold. First, its about as easy to use as you could possibly hope for: plug one end into a free port on your modem or router, add power (USB), and thats it. The Anonabox will set up its own wireless access point (in tandem with any existing network) that you can connect to when you want to, and all the data that are sent through it will be anonymized through Tor. No wireless? No problem, its got an ethernet port, too.

Second, its completely open source, which means that people way smarter than you can make sure that there arent any security holes in the software.

And third, its cheap: the people behind this thing have spentyears refining it for their own use, which has driven the price down to something equivalent to a cheap router. Add all of these things together, and your total investment (time, money, space, effort, frustration, embarrassment, emotional anguish, etc.) drops to the point where even those with a vague interest in the option for online privacy would have a hard time justifying not getting an Anonabox.

So, since Anonabox is entirely based on Tor, why not just use the Tor browser, which is free? The simple answer is that Anonabox anonymizes everything that your computer is sending out over the Internet, not just the websites that you visit through your browser. Email, instant messaging, filesharing, all of it.In that respect,using a piece of hardware that runs everything through Tor like this certainly makes things safer, but it cant keep you perfectly safe.

Most of the time, when a Tor user is compromised, its because thatuser (or the users computer)did something that shouldnt have been done: security and privacy areas much about youusing good browsing practices andexercising caution as they are about anonymizing hardware and software. For example, if you browse the Internet through Anonabox with the same Web browser that youve been using, its possible to identify you through the unique characteristics of the cookies that your browser has probably picked up. Instead, you should be using a different browser, or ideally the Tor browser itself, which is specifically designed to prevent things like that from happening. The point is this: no combination of hardware or software is capable enough to protect your privacy if you use it wrong.

Anonabox was looking for $7,500 for an initial production run on Kickstarter, and theyve surpassed that by just a bit, clocking in at well over $150,000 in funding with 28 days to go. Youve missed the early bird version of the Anonabox ($45), so instead youll have to pay $51, with delivery expected early next year.

Here is the original post:
Anonabox Promises Total Online Anonymity That's Easy, Open Source, and Cheap

A new gadget with the potential to strike terror into the hearts of online marketers has just set off a crowdfunding frenzy on Kickstarter.

The Anonabox is a tiny, 2.4 inch by 1.6 inch router that aims to anonymize online activity by redirecting Ethernet and Wi-Fi traffic through the Tor network. It launched its fund-raising campaign on Sunday night with a sub-$50 price target and smashed through its $7,500 goalin less than six hours. It has raised nearly $500,000 at the time of writing.

The Tor network is a chain of computers (or nodes) that act as a relay for Internet traffic. When using Tor, requests from your PC are bounced through this network rather than accessing a website or service directly. This masks IP addresses and other information that could be used to discover your identity.

Anonabox isnt the first bit of Tor-enabled hardware weve seen. Last year, the Tor Project announced the Torouter Dreamplug but youll be lucky to get your hands on one. According to the Tor website, Dreamplug is still highly experimental and while seemingly functional, we have lots of bugs to iron out and features to implement.

Another option is the Safeplug, which retails for $49. It adds in ad-blocking software, but doesnt encrypt network traffic as the Anonabox promises to do. Its also a bit on the hefty side, being the same size as your typical home router.

Of course, you can always download the Tor browser itself, but that will only anonymize your browsing your Skype chats, email client and other software will still be unprotected.

At the moment, the Anonabox appears to have a unique value proposition. Its plug-and-play and fits inside a shirt pocket for easy portability between home and office. It can also be installed between a router and a modem to anonymize all devices that connect to the router.

But the project is also drawing some criticism. In an ask me anything session on Reddit with Anonabox developerAugust Germar, several members pointed to similarities between Anonabox and a $20 mini router being sold on AliExpress. Germar insisted that his design is original, but critics said his answers were vague and unconvincing. For now, the mini-controversy isnt stopping Anonabox from continuing to sign up Kickstarter backers at the rate of $10,000 per hour.

Read more here:
Anonabox plug-and-pay router wants to bring Tor to the masses