1. Karen Reilly
Andrew Lewman

2. The Tor Project, Inc.
501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to the research and development of technologies for online anonymity and privacy

3. Anonymous Communication
People need to hide in a crowd of other people.
”Anonymity loves company.”

4. Tor serves different interests for different user groups:

5. Tor serves different interests for different user groups:
Private Citizens
“It's Privacy!”
Tor

6. Tor serves different interests for different user groups:
Governments
Private Citizens
“It's traffic-analysis resistance!”
“It's Privacy!”
Tor

7. Tor serves different interests for different user groups:
Governments
Private Citizens
“It's traffic-analysis resistance!”
“It's Privacy!”
Tor
Businesses
“It's network security!”

8. Human Rights Activists
Tor serves different interests for different user groups:
Governments
Private Citizens
“It's traffic-analysis resistance!”
“It's Privacy!”
Tor
Businesses
Human Rights Activists
“It's network security!”
“It's reachability!”

9. What is Tor?
Online anonymity software and network
Open source, freely available
3-clause BSD licensed
CC-BY-3.0 Documentation and media

11. Active research environment:
What is Tor?
Active research environment:
National Science Foundation, University of Waterloo, UMN, Georgia Tech, Princeton, UIUC, Drexel, Boston Univ, Naval Research Lab, UC-London, Indiana Univ., Univ. of Cambridge

12. Increasingly diverse toolset:
What is Tor?
Increasingly diverse toolset:
Tor, Tor Browser Bundle, Tails LiveCD, Tor Weather, Tor auto-responder, Secure Updater, Orbot, Torora, Tor Check, Arm, Nymble, Tor Control, and so on.

13. Current Projects Knight Foundation Internews Network SRI International
Broadcasting Board of Governors
National Science Foundation
Radio Free Asia
Swedish International Development and Cooperation Agency

14. Who Uses Tor? Law Enforcement Human Rights Activists
Business Executives
Abuse Victims
Militaries
Normal People
14 /

15. Estimated 500k to 1 million daily users worldwide
15 /

19. How is Tor different?
VPNs, HTTP/HTTPS proxies, I2P, Freenet, Swarm, Retroshare, Vanish
vs.
JonDos and Tor

20. A Typical Internet Connection
Network
Alice
Bob
20 /

21. Alice might be watched.
Network
Alice
Bob
21 /

22. Parts of the network could be monitored.
Alice
Bob
22 /

23. Bob could be compromised.
Network
Alice
Bob
23 /

24. How is Tor Different?
Relay
Bob
Alice
24 /

25. A Basic Relay System
Relay
Bob
Alice
25 /

26. An Evil Relay
Evil Relay
Bob
Alice
26 /

27. An Evil Network
Relay
Bob
Alice
27 /

28. How Tor Works
Alice
Entry Node
Exit Node
Middle Node
Bob
28 /

29. Alice connects to an Entry Node.
Exit Node
Middle Node
Bob
29 /

30. The data is routed through a Middle Node.
Alice
Entry Node
Exit Node
Middle Node
Bob
30 /

31. The data is routed through an Exit Node.
Alice
Entry Node
Exit Node
Middle Node
Bob
31 /

32. Alice's circuit to Bob is established.
Entry Node
Exit Node
Middle Node
Bob
32 /

33. Network Map

34. Metrics Measuring the Tor Network anonymously NSF grant for research
Archive of hourly consensus, ExoneraTor, VisiTor
Metrics portal:

35. Future Directions
Realtime Voice and Video over Tor
Greatly improving usability, security, and anonymity of Tor Browser and Tails
Making Tor undetectable on the wire
IPv6 compatibility
Crypto upgrade
Distributed Directory Authorities

36. Mobile Operating Systems
Entirely new set of challenges for something designed to know where you are at all times.
Orbot: Tor on Android.
Tor on iphone, maemo/meego, symbian, etc
Tor on Windows CE. For example:
Guardian Project,

37. Even more info:
Visit us at for more information, links, and ideas.

38. Credits and Thanks
Danger!, hmvh, CC-BY-SA.
500k, Luka Skracic, used with permission.
Illustration and Design: J.M.Todaro –