Re: zero-knowledge protocols

["Rochester TOR Admin" <onionroutor@xxxxxxxxx>]

I'm having a hard time understanding a lot of what you're saying but I
think I understand the goal which is specifically to root out
terrorists in this case to help investigators find terrorists. You can
refer to Roger's link above as to why Tor will never do that.

>  > 2) Or about a system which allows investigators to answer their questions
>  > without shutting the Tor node down and confiscating the hardware?
>
>  Zero-knowledge software should complement tor so to let the server
>  administrators establish that the investigators are those who pretend to be,
>  are behind a real case and are legally empowered to probe this or that.

So, if you decide that an investigation is illegal, are you knowingly
going to withhold the information to grant them access to the server?
In most jurisdictions [especially those that would be most likely be
in this situation], it is illegal to do this and you would be forced
to provide access to the server either way.

Even so, from a larger view, you would not want a tor administrator to
be put in the situation of choosing when he or she should allow an
investigator to access their server.  For example, I decide to grant
police access when they are searching for a pedophile and not when
searching for an oppressed citizen in china but what about a person
that is in the grey like a white hat hacker or PETA activist that are
doing things illegal but not unethical in the eyes of the admin?

>  In the case the legality of a given probe is verified, then the investigators
>  can open a backdoor while being audited cryptographically along their *travel*
>  into the data.
>
>  That should warranty that there is no need to storm a site and confiscate the
>  hardware, indeed it should make it illegal in general.

As was previously said, the investigators coming in will confiscate
all information and are not interested in having a conversation about
your "Onion router" in the corner.

>  > And it will take months or even years to give this hardware back.. So, I   .
>  > guess there's no extra need in such a system                               .
>  Ditto. I am from Switzerland, and I would be surprised if in the
>  country of the Rolex, the Zenith and the Tag Heuer you would get
>  your hardware back at all.

I just wanted to point out that the guys at Tor are doing a great job
at trying to educate government officials about Tor so that in the
case of a tor server being confiscated they realize that there is not
much they can do. Link below:

http://blog.torproject.org/blog/talking-german-police-stuttgart

I think the idea of zero-knowlege protocol being inserted into Tor is
interesting but your idea adds functionality contrary to where Tor
wants to go but I may be mis-understanding your whole message because
of a language barrier.

There's always the suggestion of forking off into your own version.


ROC Tor Admin