Tor is also used by law enforcement organizations who want to visit websites without leaving government IP addresses in the site's log. It's so secure that the US Navy uses it for intelligence gathering. To access the Tor network, you need to use the Tor browser. In simple terms, instead of going directly from A to B, the network sends your traffic on a maze-like route through many locations.Ī sniffer looking at a single point on that route has no way to tell where the traffic originated or where it's going. It sends your internet traffic through so many individual relays and tunnels that the header is nonsensical to traffic analysis tools.

Encryption can only hide the payload, not the header.Īnd that's when Tor comes in. It includes information such as source, size, and timestamps. The payload is the actual data (for example, the contents of an email) the header helps the data get to its destination. Data sent over the internet has two key aspects: the payload and the header. Basic encryption techniques don't protect you against traffic analysis.

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