Protection from hackers: How Tor is tightening security – DW (English)

People who value a high level of privacy protectionor who depend on this protection for political reasonscan access websites using Tor without leaving any traces on the net. With a Tor browser, users'internet traffic is automatically routed through several Tor servers, which ensure anonymity through encryption. Only then does it go to the actual destination:the web server users intendto visit.

This process is called routing. Tor actually stands for "The Onion Routing"because the Tor servers layer their encryption on top of the encryption of other servers reminiscent of onionlayers.

Tor is secure by design. For this reason, there have hardly been any major security incidents to the detriment of users. Its browser, which is based on the Firefox browser, is continuously developed and secured by the free, open source Tor project.

Content providers who want to offer their content directly in the Tor network operate an "onion service." This is a web server that is directly connected to the Tor network. These websites can be recognized by the extension .onionand can only be accessed via the Tor browser.

Deutsche Welle has also been operating its own onion service for some time, making it easier for users all over the world to access free media anonymously especially people who fear repression for using such free media. Tor can also be a useful tool for journalists, for example when they cannot conduct regular research because they are being persecuted by state actors and intelligence agencies. This is crucial because fear of surveillance alone canquickly lead to self-censorship.

Tor not only protects users' anonymity, but also offers them paths to free information in censored markets.

For example, authoritarian states often block content from international information providers such as DW, the BBC and The New York Times. With Tor, this state censorship can be circumvented. The previous web address of Deutsche Welle was:https://dwnewsvdyyiamwnp.onion.

But this is now changing.

As you can probably already tell from the long and difficult-to-readonion service addresses, cryptography is involved here. Tor does not have a central domain systemwhich forwardsreadable web addresses like dw.com to the IP addresses of computers.

Address allocation is decentralized and consists of a cryptographic key. This makes it particularly secure. Part of this key is the onion service address.

Attackers can get hold of such a key by brute force. So far, they have mostly used these attacks to hack passwords.

The longer the key or password, the more computing power is required and the more difficult such an attack becomes.

It is precisely this massive computing power that is now available to some authoritarian regimes in the form of Bitcoin mining farms. In recent months, computing capacity has grown very quickly in countries such as China and Iran.

As a result, the Tor project has decided to only support addresses with a length of 56 characters and has adopted the "Onion v3 standard" for this purpose. Addresses in the new standard are considered secure for the next few years, not only because of their greater length, but also because of other modern cryptographic functions.

DW's new onion service address as of now is:

https://dwnewsgngmhlplxy6o2twtfgjnrnjxbegbwqx6wnotdhkzt562tszfid.onion

Because these v3 addresses are very difficult to read and remember, it is also sufficient to enter the publicly known addresses in the Tor browser for exampl:e dw.com. The browser then offers to use the complicated Tor address once and automatically on future page requests.

But be careful: This procedure means that you briefly leavethe secure Tor network, so users who need the highest level of anonymity should only use the long cryptographic v3 Tor address.

Shortly after winning a major prize at the Cannes Film Festival with "A Man of Integrity," the Hamburg-based director returned to Iran in September 2017. Iranian authorities then confiscated Rasoulof's passport and banned him from directing new films. In July 2019, he was sentenced to a year in prison. He nevertheless managed to shoot "There Is No Evil" (photo), which won the Golden Bear in 2020.

Abdolreza Kahani migrated to France in 2015 after three of his films were banned in the Islamic Republic and he was prevented from submitting them to international festivals. "We are born into censorship. Censorship affects not just literature, music and film. Censorship begins inside the home," he told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) in a recent interview.

Getting a screening permit for films that premiered at world festivals can take years: Kianoush Ayari's "The Paternal House," from 2012, was only released in Iran last year after the director agreed to make some edits. But a week later, in November 2019, the film was banned, prompting 200 film personalities to sign an open letter condemning state censorship and calling for freedom of expression.

He is one of the few directors to have won the Oscar for best foreign film twice: "A Separation" (2012) and in 2016, "The Salesman" (photo). Farhadi boycotted the second ceremony, which took place shortly after Trump's "Muslim travel ban." Even though Iranian officials were behind Farhadi's Oscar entries, the filmmaker was among the signatories of the 2019 open call condemning state censorship.

Iranian-Kurdish filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi directed the world's first Kurdish-language feature film, the 2000 "A Time for Drunken Horses" (photo). Following his semi-documentary about the underground indie music scene in Tehran, "No One Knows About Persian Cats" (2009), Ghobadi fled Iran, as intelligence agents repeatedly threatened him and urged him to leave. Those two films won awards at Cannes.

Having permanently left Iran as a young adult, Marjane Satrapi didn't have to deal with Iranian authorities as an author and filmmaker. Her best-known comic book, "Persepolis" (photo) adapted into a film that won the Cannes Jury Prize in 2007, offers a personal depiction of how a teenager can get into trouble with the police by disregarding modesty codes and buying music banned by the regime.

Released shortly before the 9/11 attacks, Mohsen Makhmalbaf's 2001 film, "Kandahar," became a must-see work about the fate of Afghan women. Many of the award-winning director's films are banned in Iran, and he left the country to live in France after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election. His most recent feature film, "The President" (photo) opened the Venice Film Festival in 2014.

The daughter of Mohsen Makhmalbaf is one of the most influential directors of the Iranian New Wave. Her first feature film, "The Apple," which she directed at the age of 17, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1998. Two years later, she won the Cannes Jury Prize with "Blackboards. (photo). She then became the youngest person to sit on the jury of festivals such as Cannes, Venice and Berlin.

Winning a Cannes award with his 1995 feature debut, "The White Balloon," Panahi kept receiving international acclaim despite increasing restrictions in Iran. Since 2010, he has been banned from making films and leaving the country, but still managed to secretly direct more works, including the Golden Bear-winning "Taxi" (2015) and "3 Faces" (photo), which won Cannes' best screenplay prize in 2018.

A decade after winning the International Award at the Venice Biennale, the visual artist's feature debut, "Women Without Men" (photo) was also honored at the Venice film festival in 2009. A critic of political injustice, Neshat lives in self-imposed exile in New York. "While I am critical of the West, women artists in Iran still face censorship, torture and, at times, execution," she said.

Author: Elizabeth Grenier

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Protection from hackers: How Tor is tightening security - DW (English)