More on the tor scam

x50 at fastmail.fm x50 at fastmail.fm
Fri Sep 19 13:29:49 PDT 2014


On Thu, Sep 18, 2014, at 05:18 PM, Ted Smith wrote:
> The talk was almost certainly canceled because it contained admissions
> of violating federal wiretapping laws, which is what happens if you
> de-anonymize Tor users in the wild.
> 
> This is a legally gray area in theory, but I think in practice it would
> never be judged in favor of the defendant, and so the CMU legal team
> pulled the talk to avoid exposing themselves to liability.

Thanks Ted.. I fully agree that this is almost certainly the reason for
the cancellation of the talk and for good reason. Many of us are aware
of how these cases typically go for the defendants and it is not unusual
for the prosecution to push for extreme sentences in these types of
cases.

That said, while I do understand the reasoning for cancelling the talk,
I've still be extremely disappointed in the lack of cooperation with the
Tor project on addressing the concerns. Especially given the
relationship between CMU and CERT. It seems there would have to be some
middle ground between a public speech at a convention and being almost
completely silent when it comes to working with the developers on
understanding the issue and implementing a fix. 

As for Patrick's question, unfortunately I am not aware of any side
doors to collect additional information and I am not overly optimistic
given the developer's issues with obtaining the information they
requested on the attack.



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