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Re: Carnegie Mellon researchers bribed to crack TOR

Cross-posted to 2 groups.

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On 2015-11-13 11:26:25 +0300, RS Wood said:

> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/12/fbi_paid_bounty_to_hack_tor_project/
> 
> This claim is almost hard to believe.
> 


Should've seen this one coming, then:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/17/milliondollar_hole_in_fbi_tor_story/

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It was a single line, but one that is now being used to put a question 
mark over the entire story.
We have been told that the payment to CMU was at least $1 million.
The fact that the FBI was using information gleaned from a 
"university-based research institute" – according to court documents – 
to identify and prosecute individual users was a significant story 
worthy of further investigation.
But a financial connection, a quid pro quo, is something else entirely. 
And that was made plain from the sudden explosion of stories – ours 
included – focused on the payment.
Suddenly Carnegie-Mellon goes from a research institute that may have 
assisted in taking down some unsavory characters (a drug pusher and a 
viewer of child abuse images) to one paid to do the federal 
government's dirty work.
Where did Dingledine get his $1m figure? We've asked him and are 
waiting to hear back. But a few days ago, he told WiReD it was from 
"friends in the security community." Which is exactly the sort of vague 
response that would get a news story spiked.
The figure has been leapt on by Carnegie Mellon and the FBI. "I'm not 
aware of any payment," the university's press person told WiReD. "I'd 
like to see the substantiation for their claim." We subsequently 
followed up with Carnegie Mellon, which told us that it was not 
commenting on the "accusations."
Likewise, the FBI. A spokesman told Ars Technica that the story was 
"inaccurate" while not going into any detail about what exactly was 
inaccurate – the reports, the use of Carnegie Mellon information, the 
payment, or the exact payment amount.
Again, we followed up. Again, the FBI will not speak on the record. But 
it did make plain that it is the payment – any payment – that the FBI 
is questioning.
And here's where things get messy.

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Carnegie Mellon researchers bribed to crack TOR RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2015-11-13 11:26 +0300
  Re: Carnegie Mellon researchers bribed to crack TOR RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2015-11-17 09:18 +0300

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