On Mar 21, 2014, at 5:04 AM, rysiek <[1]rysiek@hackerspace.pl> wrote:
   > If the NSA can impersonate any IP on the planet, they can impersonate
   any Tor node.
   Shouldn't they have the node's private key too?
   Just having the IP they would receive encrypted traffic, they wouldn't
   be able to route it, your communication would fail and another TOR
   circuit would be used.

   Cheerz
   [2]http://apx808.blogspot.com
   On Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 6:52 AM, rysiek <[3]rysiek@hackerspace.pl>
   wrote:

     Dnia sobota, 22 marca 2014 01:04:28 Scott Blaydes pisze:

   > On Mar 21, 2014, at 5:04 AM, rysiek <[4]rysiek@hackerspace.pl> wrote:
   > > 1. they know when you're using Tor, and can flag you accordingly,
   and (for
   > >
   > >   example) deliver some nastiness when (not "if"!) they get the
   chance,
   > >   because "when you have something to hide…”
   >
   > The old argument for convincing people to use crypto when they “have
   nothing
   > to hide” was the postal analogy. Do you send your snail mail in an
   > envelope? If you have nothing to hide why not use postcards? The idea
   is
   > that if you are sending everything encrypted, when you do have
   something to
   > hide it doesn’t stand out. Now people use envelopes for privacy and
   out of
   > convention. If everyone did the same thing with crypto,used it for
   privacy
   > and out of convention, intelligence agencies wouldn’t be able flag
   > suspicious communications easily.
   >
   > Sorry, not really a “to Tor or not to Tor” answer, but something I
   remember
   > using in the past.

     I am well aware of this argument, and I use it often. My question
     here is
     different: with all the info we have about Snowden, QUANTUM, etc,
     and with the
     number of Tor users today, AND with some Tor design choices (like:
     not padding
     the packets so that each packet, regardless of between which nodes
     it is sent
     and how many encryption layers have already beed removed -- has the
     same
     length, which would make it that much harder to do traffic
     analysis), is it
     PRACTICALLY REALLY better to use Tor, OR does it get people flagged
     and
     exploited in other ways?
     For Joe Schmoe, is it better to use Tor, or to hide in the noise?
     I guess one part of the question is the fact that NSA probably
     doesn't really
     have to break encryption, they just need info on who is
     communicating with
     whom, exploit one of these endpoints and get all the unencrypted
     logs, data,
     etc they want.
     --
     Pozdr
     rysiek

References

   1. mailto:rysiek@hackerspace.pl
   2. http://apx808.blogspot.com/
   3. mailto:rysiek@hackerspace.pl
   4. mailto:rysiek@hackerspace.pl