“Big drama today in the Tor community.
Conrad Rockenhaus, a Tor operator based out of Michigan, United States, was arrested in 2020 after refusing to cooperate with the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation
Rockenhaus, a disabled United States military veteran, ran the fastest Tor node in the United States. He was approached sometime in late 2019 when the FBI requested he allow them arbitrary access to his exit node and allow them to decrypt traffic. He denied their request.
Subsequently, in February, 2020 his home was raided. He was arrested for violating the CFAA (Computer Fraud and Abuse Act). It was alleged that he was a disgruntled ex-employee causing problems at his former place of employment.
Interestingly, to "help resolve the matter", law enforcement requested he decrypt his Tor exit node to prove his innocence (???). After he refused, he was held in a pre-trial detention cell for over 3 years. He was denied bail after law enforcement stated Mr. Rockenhaus used Linux to "access the dark web" and he was "not complying" and not allowing them access to this Tor exit node.
After Mr. Rockenhaus' wife filed an official complaint, and Mr. Rockenhaus was miraculously released, he was raided by the United States Marshal Fugitive Task Force TWO TIMES(???).
They took him out his home, threw him to the ground, beat him, smashed his windows, and threatened to murder his animals.
They are still requesting Mr. Rockenhaus allow them to access his Tor exit node. Mr. Rockenhaus still has not granted them that privilege.
All of this has been captured on home security camera footage. Additionally, his wife has released all court documents.
See subsequent post for more information.” -vxunderground, on X
https://www.reddit.com/r/TOR/comments/1ni5drm/the_fbi_couldnt_get_my_husband_to_decrypt_his_tor/
Replies (63)
Wtffff
Fuck this shit. This is the kind of thing I'm afraid of, being in the privacy business.
nice country and system your have yourself there. neat.
Shocked. Baffled. Not really.
Damn, I thought the US was the good guys.
lol
lol. ICE has been doing this to brown citizens for the last few months and its all on tape and no one gives a fuck
The empire has gone rogue as fuck.
He was in jail 3 years and I am just hearing about it now?
Illegals are lucky they’re not being skinned alive.
What an American Patriot.
nostr:nevent1qqsycpzvv5urhsc6qz0rdwkymssglzu6n262w776gvyd3lxgs7sex4spzemhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuurjd9kkzmpwdejhgq3qr7psmkr4zv93xnal8un6d8hvmpsn5jvhfzn3kk38rfcel6awznksxpqqqqqqzt7pp7j
The land of the free huh
in the "land of freedom"
The government, at least in this case, is deeply evil.
By far the majority portion of Tor servers are controlled by governments. It seems that those who aren't yet controlled are paying quite the price.
Please consider using I2P.
Chad vibes,🫡
He clearly exercised his 4A rights here.
No good deed ever goes unpunished...
lol if you use a vpn and dont have a reddit account you get blocked from viewing the post
Brave man
Rubbish.
Read the comments that the OP ignored. The devil seems to be in the details as usual.
Making a decision to stay true has consequences. Mr and Mrs Rochenhaus make us aware of what would we do if confronted by government demand to expose, so they can exploit.
They are brave.
Look inward . What decision would I make?
Go silent?
Hand over what they demand?
Lie?
Can I stand up to their violence, their threats , their use of weaponised government backup to destroy my life?
Am I a coward? A parasite? Selfish ?
Am I glad that this is happening to Mr and Mrs Rochenhaus and not to me?
Words are cheap. Empty praises mean jackshit.
Strengthening the mindset is a start.
Being aware that government thuggery, failed media exposure, a fucked up justice system, witholding medical care are systems of a deliberate manufactured collapse to life as I know it.
Do I have the same courage?
I don't know much about this. But if this is true, my heart goes to him and his wife. 🫂🙏
Last time I tried that it was extremely slow. Has that improved?
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Works in the Tor Browser no problem
How do I donate to help this guy? Those cowardly government officials need to be taught an important legal lesson.
Anyone using I2P could end up distributing child pornography without even realizing it. With the Tor network, only those who choose to operate their own node face that risk. Do you have a recommendation for someone who doesn't have the resources to fight if the government comes after them for relaying I2P traffic?
Yes, it seems that he plead guilty to committing crimes against his old workplace and it seems that running a Tor node violated one of the conditions of his parole.
All data in transit is encrypted.
AFAIK there is no storage of third-party data for node operators, nor way to know what is transmitted within I2P.
In the western world you are legally permitted to transmit encrypted data without legal obligation to monitor what is inside. There are attempts to change that situation as seen in the EU this week.
This doesn't mean you can't be personally targeted, governments do that often to just about anyone.
Yes, and what if someone tries to convict me for transmitting encrypted data?
Also, what if someone lives outside of the USA? Should they just use Tor instead?
Sorry, I had poor reading comprehension. Ignore mu first question and focus on my second one. I just want to say that if I am transmitting other people's encrypted data, I am more at risk of being targeted than if I am only sending and recieving my own encrypted data.
Yes, that is correct.
Being a node operator in I2P is undoubtedly safer than the same on Tor, still you are a target.
There are ways to harden even more the privacy but the bandwidth costs are quite heavy.
They will answer to God for their crimes.
Thanks for sharing. Never heard of this before. Why? Strange.
And this in the USA the land of the free, the same country that invades other countries as they want and when they want under the motive of democracy!
No, it has not. I tried to synchronize my Monero wallet over I2P, and it was like 100 KBPS If that. I did the same thing over a Tor hidden service, and it was like 500 KBPS.
Holy balls
DEMAND: #OBEY OR GET #FUCKED UP!
RESPONSE: NO!
#NOSTR #GFY #WTF #WTFSTR #TOR #TORSTR #OPPRESSION #GOVERNMENT #ESTABLISHMENT #FBI #USA
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👀
Don't downplay such filth as "drama".
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https://smp11.simplex.im/a#DgGSsmMQmKcZ3HkAQWmmt8rchcgjuaPRjyWSMj8Ku04How is relaying encrypted CP any safer on I2P? Yoy are doing the exact same thing, the only difference is that on I2P, EVERYONE is relaying rather than just the people who live in a safe jurisdiction and who are prepared to fight a frivolous legal battle.
The functioning is completely different. Please take the time to read it from their website.
What's the matter? I thought you were interested in this topic! Now that it's time to go into the actual details of the system you get cold feet?
I think you'll find that the parts that actually matter are exactly the same. Nodes relay arbitrary encrypted traffic from an unknown source to an unknown destination. The biggest difference between the two is that EVERYONE relays traffic, not just people who specifically volunteer. Sorry, but that model just doesn't work.
Just not in the mood of convincing anyone when their website is doing a good work explaining the difference.
I'm not even the biggest fan of either options, just that one option is far safer than the other for the moment.
Interesting enough, NOSTR does have the potential to be stronger than either of those options. This year I'm busy with radio comms but maybe next year we can dedicate time to create a solid prototype.
sick. thank you!
I'm good. I like Tor's model better than anything else I've seen, including I2P. Everything I've heard against Tor so far just comes off as FUD. Not to mention how much more mature Tor is than its alternatives.
That is just being willingfuly wrong. I'm sorry but I'm not seeing this conversation as serious any longer and will therefore step out.
A government-owned VPN is NEVER a good option.
To remember, another person got arrested this week for ignoring that simple fact:
https://forum.torproject.org/t/tor-relays-jailed-u-s-tor-operator-persecuted-by-fbi-after-refusing-decrypt-requests/20576
This is the same person. He signed up to run a Tor node. He also a convicted criminal. Even if you do buy the story here, people like him are probably not the best people to run Nodes. What a crazy notion: different people have different threat models.
Also, the Tor network is neither a VPN nor is it "government-owned." VPNs rely on centralized trust; you have to trust the person running the VPN not to track you. Services like Tor and I2P use a decentralized trust model. Everyone running nodes and relaying your communications is a volunteer. Once you switch to a decentralized trust model, attempting to choose only the most trustworthy people to send one's data to can actually make a person LESS secure.
You see this all the time. People get paranoid that those around them are out to get them, so they cut more and more people out of their lives until there is nobody left to defend or support them when something actually DOES happen to them. So what if some of the nodes are evil? Better to have a single evil node that's too scared to show it's hand than try to do everything on my own, or use a network with an objectively bad model.
Waiting for the connection on simplex
