This article is more than 1 year old

Russian Tor network-wrecking effort takes bizarre turn

Chosen contractor backs out – and it's clearly not about the money

The Russian government's plan to unmask citizens who use the anonymizing network Tor has hit a snag: the company hired to do the job is trying to wriggle out of its contract.

In July 2014, the Russian Interior Ministry advertised for a firm to "study the possibility of obtaining technical information about users (user equipment) TOR anonymous network." The price offered was 3,900,000 roubles (US$59,000 or £38,700).

That's not much. The US government and others have spent much more than that building and sponsoring the Tor network, and plenty of intelligence agencies would pay a lot more for access to the data running over the anonymized network.

Nevertheless, the Central Research Institute of Economics, Informatics and Control Systems, a subsidiary of state-run high-tech goods manufacturer Rostec, took up the challenge. But it now appears to be trying to get out of the deal.

Bloomberg notes that, bafflingly, Rostec has paid $150,000 to secure the services of Russian law firm Pleshakov, Ushkalov and Partners, with a brief to work on extricating Central Research from its contract with President Putin's government.

That's not going to go down well with the Kremlin. The Russian government isn't a big fan of internet freedom, and use of Tor within its borders is on the rise as internet users seek a little privacy in the face of draconian censorship laws implemented by Putin's cronies.

So far, it seems, Tor remains secure. While there have been some successes in gleaning data from the Tor network, there has not been a total failure of the anonymization – at least that we know about. ®

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like