TORONTO – A study finds Canadians are among the top buyers and sellers logging onto a website dubbed the new e-Bay for illegal drugs.
Silk Road is not directly accessible on the Internet, but is instead
only entered through a free anonymity software network called Tor, which
protects users from online monitoring by encrypting their identifying
information.
Canada ranks fifth on the list of the website’s most frequent shipping origins and destinations, according to Nicolas Christin, a cyber security professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
Silk Road was launched in February 2011, and currently maintains more than 4,000 different listings of drugs for sale.
Global News takes a closer look at Tor, the system intended to enable online anonymity.
What is Tor?
According to the site, Tor is a free software and an open network that protects users from Internet surveillance, known as “traffic analysis.” The software protects a user’s personal freedom and privacy and helps keep business activities and relationships confidential. Tor also hides its users among others in the network, which makes it difficult to trace Internet activity.
Tor states the website was originally created for the main purpose of protecting government communications.
Who runs Tor?
Volunteers provide the bandwidth and Tor produces the software used to contribute bandwidth. Since Tor is open-source, anyone can contribute code and point out security issues.
Why was Tor created?
Tor states the website was originally created for the main purpose of protecting government communications. The organization consists of a few employees and many volunteers.
How does it work?
In short, Tor masks users’ identities by separating routing and identification. The software encrypts and bounces communications through a network of relays that are repeatedly encrypted and sent through several network nodes. This is known as onion routing.
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Why would some want to use Tor?
“Do you use curtains in your house? Do you close your bathroom door? People want privacy to do ordinary things. Being tracked online is not always dangerous; sometimes it is just creepy,” says Karen Reilly, the development director for Tor, in an e-mail to Global News.
Who uses TOR?
According to Reilly, ordinary people who care about privacy, journalists who need to protect their sources, members of the military, activists, researchers, law enforcement, and others.
“Some people need Tor to protect themselves from stalkers and abusive partners,” says Reilly. “Other people live in countries where the Internet is heavily censored and bloggers are threatened with violence. Some people need an uncensored connection to the Internet to do research. Companies use secure communication networks to protect trade secrets. Law enforcement officers use Tor to protect their identities and families while doing investigations.”
A branch of the U.S. Navy also allegedly uses the website for open source intelligence gathering.
Is it regulated?
“No,” says Reilly. “We are not interested in building a censored anti-censorship network.”
– With files from The Canadian Press
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