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Join us at Cybersalon as we explore the controversial role of Tor encryption and it’s impact on contemporary culture, and what recent events mean for human rights workers, activists and whistleblowers around the world.
Tor is a free, open-source project originally funded by the US military for the use of human rights workers, activists, journalists and whistleblowers operating under oppressive regimes. Tor was used by Laura Poitras to contact Edward Snowden prior to his NSA leak. It is sophisticated anonymity software that protects users by routing traffic through complex, heavily encrypted connections. Like any encryption or privacy system, Tor is also popular with criminals.
Tor was hacked for the first time by the FBI as a part of so-called “Operation Torpedo” in 2012. The US Dept. of Justice is now holding a court hearing on the exploit, scheduled for February.
With so many legitimate users depending upon the system, any successful attack on Tor raises alarm and prompts questions.
Cybersalon will discuss the pros and cons of such heavily encrypted networks, issues of human rights and consider Tor’s future use in, as Bryan Ford argues, our seeking anonymity in an internet panopticon.
The Future of the Dark Net is the second event in our new ‘Hyperhabitat’ series of events exploring the changing nature of digital space.
Speakers include Jamie Bartlett, Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at Demos and author of the newly published exposé The Dark Net, Wendy Grossman, computer and privacy journalist and prolific author, Dr Elena Martellozzo, who is a Criminologist at Middlesex University and specialises in sex offenders’ use of the internet and online child safety, and Dr Gareth Owen, a cybersecurity and digital forensics researcher at University of Portsmouth who will be reporting on his recent headline grabbing Dark Net study.