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[tor-talk] Tor Weekly News â June 3rd, 2015
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Tor Weekly News June 3rd, 2015
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Welcome to the hundredth issue of Tor Weekly News, the weekly newsletter
that covers whatâs happening in the Tor community.
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Contents
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1. United Nations Special Rapporteur endorses Tor
2. Monthly status reports for May 2015
3. Miscellaneous news
4. Upcoming events
United Nations Special Rapporteur endorses Tor
----------------------------------------------
David Kaye, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion
and expression, last week issued his first report [1] to the UN Human
Rights Council addressing the relationship between secure online
communication, the freedom of expression, and regulation of these by
States and governments. The report draws on submissions by UN member
states as well as advocacy groups and non-governmental organizations,
including the Tor Project.
Recognizing that âthe ability to search the web, develop ideas and
communicate securely may be the only way in which many can explore basic
aspects of identity, such as oneâs gender, religion, ethnicity, national
origin or sexualityâ, and that the right to free expression must be
protected âespecially in situations where it is not only the State
creating limitations but also society that does not tolerate
unconventional opinions or expressionâ, the report concludes by
encouraging âStates, civil society organizations, and corporationsâ to
âengage in a campaign to bring encryption by design and default to users
around the worldâ.
There can be few clearer endorsements of the Tor Projectâs work than
this; that it comes in a report to the UNHRC only adds to its
significance. David Kaye also identified Tor by name as an example of
essential anonymity software in an interview with the Washington Post
following the release of his report [2].
You can read Tor Project board member Wendy Seltzerâs analysis of the
report on the Tor blog [3]. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the
report in its research phase, and to David Kaye for so eloquently making
the case for anonymity online.
[1]: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/FreedomOpinion/Pages/CallForSubmission.aspx
[2]: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2015/05/28/un-report-encryption-is-important-to-human-rights-and-backdoors-undermine-it
[3]: https://blog.torproject.org/blog/un-special-rapporteur-anonymity-gateway-free-expression
Monthly status reports for May 2015
-----------------------------------
The wave of regular monthly reports from Tor project members for the
month of May has begun. Philipp Winter [4] released his report first
(for work on Sybil attack detection), followed by reports from Damian
Johnson [5] (hacking on Stem and Nyx), Karsten Loesing [6] (for work on
Sponsors O & R, Onionoo, Metrics, and CollecTor), Georg Koppen [7]
(developing Tor Browser), Jacob Appelbaum [8] (working on outreach), Tom
Ritter [9] (for work on Tor Browser and Tor network tools), Griffin
Boyce [10] (reporting on several coding projects and research), Nick
Mathewson [11] (leading core Tor development, as well as organizational
work), David Goulet [12] (on onion service research, code review, and
Torsocks development), George Kadianakis [13] (conducting onion service
and security research), Juha Nurmi [14] (leading the ahmia.fi project
and outreach in Finland), Leiah Jansen [15] (creating the Tor Projectâs
design and branding), Pearl Crescent [16] (developing Tor Browser and
Tor Launcher), and Isabela Bagueros [17] (project-managing all of the
above).
Colin C. sent out the May report for the Tor help desk [18], while
Isabela sent out a comprehensive core Tor report [19], and Mike Perry
reported on the Tor Browser teamâs monthly progress [20].
[4]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2015-May/000830.html
[5]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2015-May/000831.html
[6]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2015-June/000833.html
[7]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2015-June/000834.html
[8]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2015-June/000835.html
[9]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2015-June/000836.html
[10]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2015-June/000837.html
[11]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2015-June/000838.html
[12]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2015-June/000840.html
[13]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2015-June/000841.html
[14]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2015-June/000842.html
[15]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2015-June/000843.html
[16]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2015-June/000844.html
[17]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2015-June/000845.html
[18]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2015-June/000832.html
[19]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2015-June/000839.html
[20]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-reports/2015-June/000846.html
Miscellaneous news
------------------
Anthony G. Basile announced [21] version 20150531 of Tor-ramdisk, the
micro Linux distribution whose only purpose is to host a Tor server in
an environment that maximizes security and privacy. This release updates
Tor and the Linux kernel, along with other key software.
[21]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-talk/2015-June/038051.html
David Goulet announced [22] the release of Torsocks 2.1.0, featuring
support for TCP fast open, outbound localhost connections, saner warning
defaults, and more; see the changelog for full details.
[22]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2015-May/008871.html
Philipp Winter added functionality [23] to sybilhunter [24], the tool
for detecting attempts to take control of a large part of the Tor
network, that produces a visualization of similarities between relay
descriptors. âPlease let me know if you have any suggestions on how to
improve the tool or its visualisationâ, writes Philipp.
[23]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2015-May/008898.html
[24]: https://gitweb.torproject.org/user/phw/sybilhunter.git/
Matthew Finkel updated [25] proposal 237, which concerns making all
relays into directory servers by default, to include plans for a NotDir
consensus flag, because if the proposal is implemented, relays that do
not respond to directory requests will be more unusual (and hence more
deserving of a flag) than those that do.
[25]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2015-May/008883.html
Nick Mathewson sent out a draft [26] of proposal 245, which suggests
ways to deprecate the mostly-defunct TAP circuit extension protocol
without breaking anything.
[26]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2015-June/008917.html
Thomas White asked for feedback [27] (via an online survey) on his
upcoming shared onion service hosting platform: âThe priority and
thought behind the service is to enable people who arenât usually
confident, skilled or bothered to go through the process of creating
their own hidden service, thus outsourcing the development, deployment
and maintainanceâto a third party company like mine.â
[27]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-talk/2015-May/037985.html
Upcoming events
---------------
Jun 03 19:00 UTC | Tails contributors meeting
| #tails-dev, irc.oftc.net
| https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-project/2015-May/000206.html
|
Jun 05 10:30 CEST| Jacob @ Summer school on real-world crypto and privacy
| Åibenik, Croatia
| http://summerschool-croatia15.cs.ru.nl/program.shtml
|
Jun 08 18:00 UTC | Tor Browser meeting
| #tor-dev, irc.oftc.net
|
Jun 08 18:00 UTC | OONI development meeting
| #ooni, irc.oftc.net
|
Jun 09 18:00 UTC | little-t tor patch workshop
| #tor-dev, irc.oftc.net
|
Jun 10 13:30 UTC | little-t tor development meeting
| #tor-dev, irc.oftc.net
|
Jun 10 02:00 UTC | Pluggable transports/bridges meeting
| #tor-dev, irc.oftc.net
|
Jun 12 19:00 UTC | Tails low-hanging fruit session
| https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-project/2015-June/000218.html
|
Jun 30 - Jul 02 | Many Tor people @ 15th Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium
| Philadelphia, USA
| https://petsymposium.org/2015/
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