Russia hopes to block Tor

Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (the FSB), headed by director Aleksandr Bortnikov, hopes to ban the use of Tor in Russia. the FSB was lobbied by the Head Hunters, a Russian civil movement, because the technology can be used to circulate and exchange images of child abuse anonymously.

Tor is widely used by privacy-conscious individuals, human rights activists and others to remain anonymous online. Many countries, including China, have tried to stamp out use of the technology but this is technically difficult, though perhaps not completely impossible.

Blocking Tor is "not trivial, but if they're not too bothered about accidentally blocking the odd connection that just looks like Tor, it's possible," remarked Martijn Grooten, Virus Bulletin's anti-spam test director. "Tor is working hard to make their traffic look 'normal' so it's a cat-and-mouse game."

Blocking Tor and anonymising proxies would intensify Russia's already tight ‪surveillance‬ and ‪censorship‬ regime as well as setting up a precedent for other countries to follow. SORM, the Russian internet and phone surveillance system, is every bit as far reaching as any of the tools the NSA has at its disposal, albeit far less publicized than PRISM and related US programs.