Thread

β€œBig drama today in the Tor community. Conrad Rockenhaus, a Tor operator based out of Michigan, United States, was arrested in 2020 after refusing to cooperate with the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation Rockenhaus, a disabled United States military veteran, ran the fastest Tor node in the United States. He was approached sometime in late 2019 when the FBI requested he allow them arbitrary access to his exit node and allow them to decrypt traffic. He denied their request. Subsequently, in February, 2020 his home was raided. He was arrested for violating the CFAA (Computer Fraud and Abuse Act). It was alleged that he was a disgruntled ex-employee causing problems at his former place of employment. Interestingly, to "help resolve the matter", law enforcement requested he decrypt his Tor exit node to prove his innocence (???). After he refused, he was held in a pre-trial detention cell for over 3 years. He was denied bail after law enforcement stated Mr. Rockenhaus used Linux to "access the dark web" and he was "not complying" and not allowing them access to this Tor exit node. After Mr. Rockenhaus' wife filed an official complaint, and Mr. Rockenhaus was miraculously released, he was raided by the United States Marshal Fugitive Task Force TWO TIMES(???). They took him out his home, threw him to the ground, beat him, smashed his windows, and threatened to murder his animals. They are still requesting Mr. Rockenhaus allow them to access his Tor exit node. Mr. Rockenhaus still has not granted them that privilege. All of this has been captured on home security camera footage. Additionally, his wife has released all court documents. See subsequent post for more information.” -vxunderground, on X https://www.reddit.com/r/TOR/comments/1ni5drm/the_fbi_couldnt_get_my_husband_to_decrypt_his_tor/

Replies (44)

↩ replying to npub14pa5...xw3v
All data in transit is encrypted. AFAIK there is no storage of third-party data for node operators, nor way to know what is transmitted within I2P. In the western world you are legally permitted to transmit encrypted data without legal obligation to monitor what is inside. There are attempts to change that situation as seen in the EU this week. This doesn't mean you can't be personally targeted, governments do that often to just about anyone.
↩ replying to brito
What's the matter? I thought you were interested in this topic! Now that it's time to go into the actual details of the system you get cold feet? I think you'll find that the parts that actually matter are exactly the same. Nodes relay arbitrary encrypted traffic from an unknown source to an unknown destination. The biggest difference between the two is that EVERYONE relays traffic, not just people who specifically volunteer. Sorry, but that model just doesn't work.
↩ replying to npub14pa5...xw3v
Just not in the mood of convincing anyone when their website is doing a good work explaining the difference. I'm not even the biggest fan of either options, just that one option is far safer than the other for the moment. Interesting enough, NOSTR does have the potential to be stronger than either of those options. This year I'm busy with radio comms but maybe next year we can dedicate time to create a solid prototype.
↩ replying to npub14pa5...xw3v
That is just being willingfuly wrong. I'm sorry but I'm not seeing this conversation as serious any longer and will therefore step out. A government-owned VPN is NEVER a good option. To remember, another person got arrested this week for ignoring that simple fact:
Tor Project Forum
[tor-relays] (JAILED) U.S. Tor Operator Persecuted by FBI After Refusing Decrypt Requests
Hello Tor-Relays Community, I’m writing to you because my husband, Conrad Rockenhaus, was a member of your community. He was a long-time Tor rel...
↩ replying to brito
This is the same person. He signed up to run a Tor node. He also a convicted criminal. Even if you do buy the story here, people like him are probably not the best people to run Nodes. What a crazy notion: different people have different threat models. Also, the Tor network is neither a VPN nor is it "government-owned." VPNs rely on centralized trust; you have to trust the person running the VPN not to track you. Services like Tor and I2P use a decentralized trust model. Everyone running nodes and relaying your communications is a volunteer. Once you switch to a decentralized trust model, attempting to choose only the most trustworthy people to send one's data to can actually make a person LESS secure. You see this all the time. People get paranoid that those around them are out to get them, so they cut more and more people out of their lives until there is nobody left to defend or support them when something actually DOES happen to them. So what if some of the nodes are evil? Better to have a single evil node that's too scared to show it's hand than try to do everything on my own, or use a network with an objectively bad model.