[LINK] OzIT: 'Call to join Tor network to fight censorship'

[Roger Clarke]

Call to join Tor network to fight censorship
Karen Dearne
The Australian
May 25, 2010 12:00AM
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/call-to-join-tor-network-to-fight-censorship/story-e6frgakx-1225870756466

LOCAL internet users are being urged to embrace the online anonymity 
tool, Tor, to help build the network in defence of free speech and 
provide a "safety in the crowd" communications channel for people 
living under repressive regimes.

The Tor Project's founder, Roger Dingledine, says Australians are 
under-represented among the volunteers who provide the multiple relay 
hops that ensure privacy and security.

But with Australia among the nations trying to censor citizens, there 
was growing local interest in participation. "The Tor network is made 
up of volunteers, like you and me, who start out running Tor as a 
user, and then they say, 'I could be improving freedom of speech here 
and elsewhere by pressing this button that turns me into a relay'," 
Mr Dingledine told AusCERT 2010.

"That helps the relay traffic for other people around the world, and 
makes the Tor network bigger. And because there are more locations, a 
bunch of relays in many different places, it makes it safer also," he 
said. A non-profit organisation credited with keeping internet 
communications open for users in China and Iran during recent 
crackdowns, the Tor Project started out as an R&D initiative for the 
US Navy in 2001.

Tor's free open-source software and open network is used by hundreds 
of thousands of people -- soldiers, police, journalists, bloggers, 
human-rights workers, citizens living under censorship and just 
ordinary people who object to online tracking by large corporations.

"A lot of the security comes from the diversity of users," Mr 
Dingledine said. "Some people don't want businesses to collect 
information about them, or they want to protect themselves against 
identity theft.

"Businesses use Tor to keep commercial secrets safe, the military 
uses it for intelligence gathering and communicating with field 
agents, journalists and bloggers use it to report from danger zones, 
while activists and whistleblowers use it to avoid persecution."

The belief that censorship or repression "won't happen to me" was 
part of the challenge for securing democracy worldwide.


Karen Dearne attended AusCERT 2010 as a guest of AusCERT.


-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/
			            
Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University