Mapping Real-World Use of the Onion Router

IF 1.3 2区 社会学 Q3 CRIMINOLOGY & PENOLOGY
A. Ghazi-Tehrani
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引用次数: 1

Abstract

Since its inception, The Onion Router (TOR) has been discussed as an anonymizing tool used for nefarious purposes. Past scholarship has focused on publicly available lists of onion URLs containing illicit or illegal content. The current study is an attempt to move past these surface-level explanations and into a discussion of actual use data; a multi-tiered system to identify real-world TOR traffic was developed for the task. The researcher configured and deployed a fully functioning TOR “exit” node for public use. A Wireshark instance was placed between the node and the “naked” internet to collect usage data (destination URLs, length of visit, etc.), but not to deanonymize or otherwise unmask TOR users. For 6 months, the node ran and collected data 24 hr per day, which produced a data set of over 4.5 terabytes. Using Python, the researcher developed a custom tool to filter the URLs into human-readable form and to produce descriptive data. All URLs were coded and categorized into a variety of classifications, including e-commerce, banking, social networking, pornography, and cryptocurrency. Findings reveal that most TOR usage is rather benign, with users spending much more time on social networking and e-commerce sites than on those with illegal drug or pornographic content. Likewise, visits to legal sites vastly outnumber visits to illegal ones. Although most URLs collected were for English-language websites, there were a sizable amount for Russian and Chinese sites, which may demonstrate the utilization of TOR in countries where internet access is censored or monitored by government actors. Akin to other new technologies which have earned bad reputations, such as file-sharing program BitTorrent and intellectual property theft or cryptocurrency Bitcoin and online drug sales, this study demonstrates that TOR is utilized by offenders and non-offenders alike.
映射洋葱路由器的实际使用
自成立以来,洋葱路由器(TOR)一直被认为是一种用于邪恶目的的匿名工具。过去的学术研究主要集中在公开的洋葱网址列表中,这些网址包含非法或非法内容。目前的研究试图超越这些表面层面的解释,转而讨论实际使用数据;为该任务开发了一个用于识别真实世界TOR流量的多层系统。研究人员配置并部署了一个功能齐全的TOR“出口”节点供公众使用。Wireshark实例被放置在节点和“裸”互联网之间,以收集使用数据(目的地URL、访问长度等),但不是为了匿名或以其他方式揭开TOR用户的面纱。在6个月的时间里,该节点每天24小时运行和收集数据,产生了超过4.5 TB的数据集。研究人员使用Python开发了一种自定义工具,将URL过滤成人类可读的形式,并生成描述性数据。所有URL都经过编码并分类为各种类型,包括电子商务、银行、社交网络、色情和加密货币。研究结果显示,大多数TOR的使用都是良性的,用户在社交网络和电子商务网站上花费的时间比那些拥有非法毒品或色情内容的用户多得多。同样,访问合法网站的次数远远超过访问非法网站的次数。尽管收集到的大多数URL都是针对英语网站的,但俄语和中文网站也有相当多的URL,这可能表明TOR在互联网访问受到政府行为者审查或监控的国家的使用情况。与其他声誉不佳的新技术类似,如文件共享程序BitTorrent和知识产权盗窃或加密货币比特币和在线毒品销售,这项研究表明TOR被罪犯和非罪犯利用。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
3.30
自引率
0.00%
发文量
45
期刊介绍: The Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice presents single-themed special issues that focus on a critical issue in contemporary criminal justice in order to provide a cogent, thorough, and timely exploration of the topic. Subjects include such concerns as organized crime, community policings, gangs, white-collar crime, and excessive police force.
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