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This might feel funny or you might think I have gone crazy but I want to share this anyway.

Yesterday I have just turned on my Orbot and saw the logs to know what are all the relays I have been connecting with. Here comes a creepy thing, my logs shows the below while forming Tor circuit which I bet could trigger questions to any common man:

Circuit (4) BUILT: NationalCrimeAgency
here comes some checksum like bits then
CLOSED :NationalCrimeAgency

What Orbot have to deal with NationalCrimeAgency???? It makes me crazy (it should for everybody). I just closed that session and then reopen it then I got different logs like:

Circuit (7) BUILT: beirchangaming
Circuit (8) BUILT: beirchangaming >PirataEsse>blanqui
NOTICE:Tor has successsfully opened circuit........

You may say it was just a name of Tor rely it is not a real NationalCrimeAgency or whatever. Here the question is I have read in most article say Tor is even difficult for NSA to crack but again the question is what happen if spy agency or hackers with mischievous claw run a Tor relay and spoof all data of innocent peoples which it came across? Are we in the illusion of Tor privacy but not in actual privacy?

Mast
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RaGa__M
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3 Answers3

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The National Crime Agency is a law enforcement agency based in the UK. Their job is to fight serious organised crime.

It's not against the law to use Tor (anywhere, and certainly not in the UK). If you are doing nothing illegal - for example, if you just want to browse the internet anonymously - then you have nothing to worry about, even if the authorities were able to see what you are doing.

If the NCA, NSA, FBI, or whoever owned the entry node (i.e. the first node in your circuit) - which could quite possibly be the case - that doesn't mean your data is at risk. It might mean that they have your IP address, and it might mean that they know you are using Tor, but they can't see what you're using Tor for; your data is safe.

what happen if spy agency or hackers with mischievous claw run as a tor relay and spoof all data of innocent peoples which it came across?

I think you're describing a Man in the Middle attack. In such an attack it's the exit node you would need to be more worried about, rather than the entry node. There's lots of information on this type of attack, and other attacks, in answers to other questions. If you use Tor regularly it might be a good idea to read about different types of attacks, be clear about what security Tor does provide, and understand your threat model.

Finally, as you say, the name of the relay doesn't necessarily indicate its true owner. You might ask whether the NCA would actually name a node they owned in such an obvious way. There's probably no way of finding out.

Community
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Richard Horrocks
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You may say it was just a name of tor rely

It is this one: https://atlas.torproject.org/#details/AC9803701F9EE18194D40B38E47CE4C68CF2F567

Jobiwan
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Oftentimes people name their for nodes to be something scary. Naming their node after the NSA in the USA is popular.

IMHO the NSA runs many entry guard and exit nodes, but they aren't labeled as such

Justin Goldberg
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