CHAPTER 4: TECHNOLOGY
to help users living in regimes such as China, which explicitly block the Tor network.
It was reported in 2014 that Russia had offered a reward of 3.9 million roubles to
anyone able to develop a way to identify Tor users. The Tor Project received funding
in 2014 from bodies including the US Departments of State and of Defense.
4.69.
More controversial, and potentially sinister, are the Tor Hidden Services [THS]
websites (some 40,000 in 2013, identified by .onion addresses), accessible only via
the Tor network. Research is difficult, but it is clear that some at least of these websites
host criminal markets (most famously Silk Road) and indecent images of children. Law
enforcement has enjoyed limited success in de-anonymising Tor users and shutting
down THS sites. The Snowden Documents allege that, as of 2012 at least, Tor was
considered a “major” problem for security and intelligence agencies.93 But the
Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology references doubts over whether it
would be technologically feasible to legislate against the availability of THS in the UK.
4.70.
Following the release of the Snowden Documents there is evidence of a growing antisurveillance market.94 The latest tool to be released by a coalition of human rights and
technology organisations is called DETEKT. This scans computers for traces of
surveillance technology called Finfisher and Hacking Team RCS, which has been
reported to have been used to target human rights activists and journalists in countries
all over the world. A project is also said to be underway to develop an International
Mobile Subscriber Identity [IMSI] catcher detector.95
Decentralised networks
4.71.
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Concern regarding government surveillance has led to a growth in the number of
initiatives aimed at decentralising the internet. The purpose of a project called
Ethereum is to “decentralise the web”96: it seeks to do this by using the technology
behind the Bitcoin currency and applying it to a variety of services. Maidsafe provides
a decentralised internet platform by using the spare space on users’ hard drives to
store data rather than the servers of large tech companies.97 In addition to these
initiatives to decentralise the internet, a number of applications have emerged which
use mesh networking technology to communicate rather than the internet. Vodafone
referred to the fact that during recent protests in Hong Kong, protesters used a mesh
networking application called Firechat to communicate. By doing so users could
bypass Chinese government censorship and potential disablement of cellular
networks.
“Prying Eyes: Inside the NSA’s War on Internet Security”, Spiegel Online, 28 December 2014.
Following the release of the Snowden Documents it was widely reported that the Indian High
Commission in London had reverted to old technology, namely, the typewriter.
See 4.72-4.74 below.
https://www.ethereum.org/.
http://maidsafe.net/.
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