Alice and the Lilliputian government overthrow

¶ … torproject.org//overview.html.en . You refer Tor Wikipedia page. Other questions require a web searching reading. Questions: 1. Alice a Lilliputian overthrow government Lilliput

Privacy has become a critical aspect nowadays. There are more and more dangers in terms of national security, international terrorism, and organized crime. In the name of protecting a nation, or providing a secure living environment, the governments often address possible cybercrimes or terrorist actions by infringing the right of the human being to privacy. Whether it is their private mail, their electronic mail, or even their private telephone conversations, people are becoming more and more reluctant to the issue of ensuring national security by having breaches of their own privacy.

As the world is in a constant development mode, the internet represents perhaps the most important communication means at the moment. This is the reason why most governments and security analysts consider that privacy on the internet is not untouchable. More precisely, what started as a purely government statement of increasing the security of the nation by monitoring the communications online or by telephone, has become, in the opinion of some, an abuse to the right of the people to their own privacy online. As a result, special software programs and loopholes have been developed in order to ensure that people still benefit from their right to privacy especially online. The TOR is in this sense essential and if used properly, an almost infallible means of protecting one's privacy.

Q. 1 How do you suppose they figured out what she was doing?

Although Alice was very careful in what she was communicating, it is possible that she made some common mistakes. Usually, people that come to trust a system to such an extent as to feel safe and secure while using it, tend to minimize the risks of not respecting the traditional rules. In this sense, for instance, it is possible that Alice used, throughout the encrypted connections through Tor, one of her personal information, such as her maiden name, her birthday, or her pet's name. Although an expert in using the Tor, it may be that given how used she was with the system, to pay less attention to processes such as inserting a common password or choosing a user name.

Another possibility for Alice being discovered would be a constant monitoring of her activity on the computer. Although the content of the information is secure, the activity is not and therefore, by thoroughly monitoring, certain in and out traffic can be assumed and an experienced watcher can notice the constant connections between several users. These types of connections, doubled by physical surveillance of the subjects can lead to a potentially negative outcome for Alice.

Q. 2. China managed to pretty fully shut Tor down. How did they do it?

China is one of the most difficult countries to consider in terms of freedom of speech, information, or privacy. After long debates on the matter, the Chinese eventually decided to allow Google, the search engine. However, even on this matter, there are words that provide no search results in China, often related to the governmental censorship. Under these conditions, it can be said that the Chinese government has sufficient tools to interfere in the proper functionality of the Internet at large. The shutting down of the Tor may be in this case the result of a virus that is planted in the structure of the Tor, the virtual tunnels. In fact the shutting down of the Tor means the lack of privacy protection and the impossibility to use the secure links created by the system. Although these types of systems are usually protected against electronic viruses, there are situations in which a virus can be planted even in the most sophisticated networks and software.

Q. 3. The U.S. government eventually embraced the idea of the Tor having been developed largely because, when used by the U.S. government it also offers protection for their own communications. The system of the Tor is based on the number of its users. Therefore, if the number of the users is bid, the security of the information sent across these virtual information tunnels increases. For the United States government, this implies an increased security for the classified information transferred from computer to computer. Therefore, when the U.S. government acknowledge the benefits of the Tor and can use those benefits, it also discovered its utility for securing its own classified communications.