Tor : for your anonymity and privacy
What is Tor ?
Tor (The Onion Router ) is a free open source software and open network that helps you defend against traffic analysis. Tor is a world well known Anonymous Network which provides users browse internet ‘Completely’ anonymously. Highlighting the word ‘Completely’ I don’t say that nobody will ever know who you are and what you say in the internet through Tor. I will later describe some situations in which this ‘Completely’ term ‘Completely’ breaks
However, TOR has been protecting people’s identity from uncovering and letting them express their ideas over the internet anonymously. As the official Tor website (https://www.torproject.org/) says, the main users of this Tor network are Activists, Military and Law enforcements, Media and various other people for their tasks.Besides them people misuse this network to visit banned websites, download sexual content bypassing filters and most importantly, Tor network is now used by Hackers to attack organizations without revealing their identity. A most reason example for the later was the recent Skynet Botnet in which Command and Control Servers (C&C) hidden behind the Tor Network.
How Tor Works ?
Tor consists of a network of relay servers which are run by volunteers all over the world. When a user connects to the Tor network using Tor client/Tor enabled browser, a path is created from the user to the destination server to which the user needs to connect. This path consists of three relay servers called Entry Node, Middle Node and Exit Node.
All the requests the sender sends to the destination through the Tor network are relayed through this pre-built path and the responses from the destination returns back to the sender through the same path. All the data going through the Tor network is completely encrypted such that nobody who intercepts the communication have no clue who the sender is. But, if one sniffs outgoing link from the exit node can capture the data transmitted both sides, but anonymity is still secured.
Bypassing Firewalls and Filtering mechanisms :
When you are connected to a server via Tor network, your firewall or any filtering device only sees you are connected to a node of the Anonymous network, not to the actual server you are communicating with. And with the data encrypted, these filtering mechanisms cannot inspect inside the packets and cannot interpret the actual content. So these data is slipped through firewalls and filtering mechanisms.
How Tor Protects Anonymity :
Tor is an implementation of Onion Routing which provides a Multi-Layer encryption for users’ data and relay through a network of Onion Routers. So what is onion routing?
Say a users is connected to a destination server through a network of Onion Routers (or Relays). The data user sends to the destination server is encrypted in multiple layers so that each layer can only be decrypted by one onion router in the network. So if the user is connected to a destination through 4 Onion routers, the data sent is encrypted in 4 layers. In Tor Network, a user is connected to 3 nodes in the Tor network. Following 3 diagrams is taken from https://www.torproject.org which clearly show how data is encrypted.
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