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I'm not a tin foil kind of guy.... I think it's pretty safe to say the freedom hosting takedown and tor targeted exploit is a masterstroke of saber rattling and psyops dick waving.

Target and capture somebody (possible evil douchebag) who is hidden behind seven proxies, Gain access to highly secure 'hidden .onion' servers used by people who want to stay hidden, scare the TOR user base by proving they can identify you in easily while also not giving a fuck about burning one of the many exploits in their bag - in a single move!



This is a statement that either:

1) Tor is technically sound and NSA had to move now to undermine it before it get the size it need to be unstopable.

2) NSA is just rushing to give some arrests to other agencies so they will join their side on the closed door meetings.


You are aware that Tor was originally developed by NRL, right?

It's like one military agency outdoing another.

http://cryptome.org/0003/tor-spy.htm


It's purely coincidental and to their luck that they were able to find the hosting provider, and that the provider happened to host so many valuable targets. The exploit isn't at all special.


Yes, it's coincidental but it's a fun story. Sadly, the facts are not really available to confirm :)

Regardless, I don't know why the freedom hosts lasted so damn long.


I think in that sense, this is more of a social engineering hack. Everyone trusted a common host. You can say the trust was not manipulated into existence by an adversary, but trust was involved, in hindsight.


Off topic: I farking love this phrase: "psyops dick waving"

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