There’s a nice feeling that comes with being anonymous on the web. Ads and websites have troubles tracking you, which gives you a nice sense of privacy on the web. That’s where the Tor network comes into play. Many people constantly use it on a daily basis to stay anonymous on the web, but this trend is benefiting the negative aspects of the Internet as well (i.e. pirates, child pornographers, etc). So, to help put an end to this, a hack will be set into Tor that will allow people to be tracked who use the server.

So, is this considered an invasion of privacy, or a benefit to everyone who uses the service?

The Tor network–a distributed system of computers that anonymizes the source of network traffic–has a slew of beneficial uses: Human-rights workers, the military and journalists all use the system. However, the anonymity of Tor has also attracted seedier elements as well: digital pirates, online criminals and, quite possibly, child pornographers.

Now, one security researcher aims to make the distributed network less of a haven for the shadier side of the Internet.

HD Moore, the lead developer of the Metasploit Project, has created a rough set of tools that allows anyone operating a Tor server to attempt to track the source of network data. Moore originally created the software to block file sharers from eating up his computer’s bandwidth, but soon targeted potential child pornographers who appeared to be using the network, he said. [more]

Tags: Privacy