This is pretty cool: an alternative to TOR from MIT that automatically generates fake data!

[thewayne]

From Slashdot yesterday:

MIT Creates Tor Alternative That Floods Networks With Fake Data (softpedia.com)
Posted by timothy on Sunday December 13, 2015 @08:22AM from the can't-we-just-use-trolls? dept.

An anonymous reader writes with word that MIT researchers "created an alternative to Tor, a network messaging system called Vuvuzela that pollutes the network with dummy data so the NSA won't know who's talking to who." Initial tests show the systems overhead adding a 44-second delay, but the network can work fine and preserve anonymity even it has more than 50% of servers compromised.

I've never used TOR, it'll be interesting to see how difficult this is to set up once it gets out in to the wild. I find the preservation of anonymity when half of the network is compromised to be quite interesting. I have no idea if 44 second latency is good or bad.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/mit-creates-untraceable-anonymous-messaging-system-called-vuvuzela-497537.shtml

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/15/12/13/1522224/mit-creates-tor-alternative-that-floods-networks-with-fake-data

Comments

[silveradept]

Seems like a lot of latency to add, but if someone stays protected, having a minute delay may be an acceptable risk.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Kind of reminds me of dialup. Latency like that would be a bitch for real-time chatting, but I think it'd be OK for emailing and surfing, i.e. general web work. I expect it's a one-shot delay after you send an email or go to a web site: once the web site starts sending info, you get the one delay up front but the rest streams through normally.

Sort of like satellite internet. Lousy for things like real-time games or chatting because of the flywheel latency, but otherwise OK for surfing. Not good, but OK.