Crackdown on ISPs Running TOR, TOR is a program that keeps Internet traffic anonymous
 

Crackdown on ISPs Running TOR,
TOR is a program that keeps Internet traffic anonymous.


ISPs Running TOR Part of German Porn Crackdown

SAN FRANCISCO ? Raiding seven ISPs last week, German law enforcement is beefing up its efforts to combat the scourge of child pornography. A total of 10 servers were confiscated from the companies, all running the same program that keeps Internet traffic anonymous.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation distributes a program called TOR, which functions as an Internet traffic anonymizer. TOR aims to defend against traffic analysis, a form of network surveillance that threatens personal anonymity and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships and state security, the project?s website said.

Since TOR strips web traffic of IP addresses, some users could be involved in nefarious activity, like child pornography, the German public prosecutor?s office alleges.

While TOR doesn?t actually contain or hold data as part of the program, it encrypts and redirects users like a proxy connection. This allows for encrypted packets to be send through the server.

The German government has yet to press charges against the ISPs, and its unlikely the police found incriminating evidence on the servers, experts said.

The Internet blogosphere has picked up on the story, suggesting the German government?s motivation in seizing the servers is to scare operators into not using TOR, therefore rendering all Internet traffic transparent.


:Oh crap
The fallout from this case could have far-reaching implications. Many bloggers fear this prosecution could lead to the death of traffic anonymizers, where no one?s Internet usage could be masked by using additional software.


?I run TOR to get a certain level of privacy,? IT engineer and TOR operator Alexander Jansen wrote on his blog. ?Staying anonymous is no crime. I want my privacy. This situation is disturbing, really disturbing ... the last thing I want to experience is the police kicking down my door, seizing my computer.? :mad:

http://xbiz.com/news_piece.php?id=17108

Answer = removable disks with daily backups to multiple drives in multiple locations. Then you can be back up within minutes and not lose business. Now bringing your content back on line might really piss off the law enforcement people. Just has having multiple servers in multiple countries might.

Have nightmares about the police seizing my computers. That puts ya out of business more the most part. Even if you had mainstream biz and isolated that to separate computers, you know they'll take them all.