Tor Security Concerns

Discussions revolve around suspicions that the Tor network is compromised by state actors like the US government or NSA, given its origins at the Naval Research Lab and reports of deanonymization attacks. Debates include its effectiveness for anonymity, risks for nefarious use, and benefits of widespread adoption for cover traffic.

📉 Falling 0.3x Security
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#6513
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Keywords

US IMHO Circuits.html index.php hackerfactor.com HIPAA E2E USPS RT USG tor anonymity nsa compromised network anonymous intelligence traffic nefarious purposes

Sample Comments

wincy May 7, 2022 View on HN

Isn’t Tor at this point widely suspected to be compromised by state actors? Aren’t people who use Tor for nefarious purposes arrested regularly these days?

xtracto Feb 11, 2022 View on HN

Last I read Tor is used for more nefarious things... and yet.

HDThoreaun Aug 8, 2025 View on HN

This isnt necessarily malicious. As the OP states TOR only works if a lot of people use it for regular browsing. The government wants it to work for the covert stuff so they need buy in from regulars and improving the service is how to do that.

BrandonMarc Feb 9, 2017 View on HN

My understanding is that, against certain actors, Tor is compromised. Am I mistaken?

dylan604 Jan 12, 2024 View on HN

do you not know why Tor was actually created?https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(network)

Iv May 11, 2012 View on HN

He is using Tor, which gets a lot of criticism for not being secure but actually defeats Syrian or Chinese governments. If the US can track a hidden service in Tor, they will probably not waste this trump by catching such a small fish.

StavrosK Oct 18, 2020 View on HN

How confident are we that Tor is compromised?

hellbanner Jan 21, 2015 View on HN

"Tor does not defend against a global passive adversary" -- TOR developers.

Sprint Jun 8, 2013 View on HN

You are victim of fear, uncertainty and doubt.Tor's security is in its design (which is free and open). And thanks to that it does not matter what the original purpose was. Everyone can run a router and thus contribute to the network.You can find research on remaining issues in https://blog.torproject.org/category/tags/research

kulahan Apr 3, 2023 View on HN

Tor is borderline useless for privacy. It was literally built for the government [1]1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(network)#History