Mainstreaming Tor
Tor is an important privacy-preserving technology for the internet. For example, in theory, it allows people to surf the web without betraying their identity.
However, there are practical limitations to the technology. For example, Tor relies on independent relay nodes, scattered throughout the world, any of which may be compromised. That can result in information leakage. It's also possible for high-traffic web destinations to detect and block traffic originating from the Tor network, thereby forcing users to sacrifice privacy for access to those sites.
The value of a network is proportional to the number of nodes, or users. The same applies to Tor, even more so because of the effect that additional traffic has on hiding any one conversation. I therefore propose to address the above problems, and others, by helping to move Tor into the mainstream, and dramatically increasing its adoption. The first step along that path is to create a version of Tor natively designed and built for Windows. The second step is to integrate Tor into the most commonly used Windows applications and ensure that it's simple to install and configure even by novice users.
The purpose of my lightning talk is to drum up support for this effort, and it's hard to imagine a more ideal audience than ToorCon Seattle.
Dan Griffin
Dan Griffin is a software security consultant based in Seattle. He formerly worked on the Windows Security team at Microsoft.
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