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Russian government offer $111,000 to de-anonymise TOR

technologyEdward Kiledjian

The Russian government has released a tender worth $US111,000 (4 million rubbles) to device and implement a technology to decrypt TOR traffic and to de-anonymize users. The Russian government says this will help their law enforcement efforts by catching criminals using TOR to hide their tracks.

You can read the official procurement notice from the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs here (link). Contest is only open to Russian organizations (application fee is about $US5,500) and contest closes August 20.

It is unquestionable that many criminals use TOR to hide their online activities but it is also important to remember that many law abiding users also hide using TOR sych as activists, journalists and researchers.

It will truly be sad day when anonymity is lost in the name of protection.