Tor may be one of the applications with which you can access content from the Dark Web, but at the same time, it is a privacy tool. For this reason, it is crucial that there are accusations that the largest Internet service provider in Mexico, Telmex, has vetoed IP addresses of servers located in Europe, the United States and Canada.
The information comes directly from the Magma project, from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, who made connection analysis of the ten known servers throughout the world. Seven of them have been unreachable, with a reliable and stable connection, since at least 2016. Those responsible for the case study, Jacobo Nájera and Vasilis Ververis, assure that those who wanted to navigate safely through Tor should have changed their Service provider.
The case has already caught the attention of the Network for the Defense of Digital Rights. Through a statement, the organization says that the alleged blockade would be a great obstacle for the community.
This network is a tool for privacy and also for freedom of expression, since it is used by journalists and civil society organizations that defend human rights. Currently in Mexico there are between 10 and 15 thousand Tor users.
Network for the Defense of Digital Rights.
Amid the accusations, Telmex has already focused its attention on the issue, with a position that does not deny the blocks, and justifies them for security reasons.
Come in, the dreaded WannaCry ransomware
We all remember the chaotic WannaCry, a malicious computer software constituted as a cyberattack for Telefónica that did not take long before it was seen as a global threat, and that ended up infecting more than 300,000 computers in 150 countries.
Knowing the impact of malicious software is necessary to understand the position of Telmex, who, through a brief information card, ensures that he is committed to respecting the navigation of users, and that there is no application blocking policy. Tor continues to date, accessible from the Telmex network.
“At Telmex we are committed to fully respecting the navigation freedoms of all our users. Telmex does not practice any application blocking policy, the Tor application, like the rest of the Internet applications, can be freely accessed from our network. In order to protect the information of Internet users, seven of the reference nodes were reported at the time for being associated with the distribution of the WannaCry ransomware, which is why they were filtered, without this preventing the use of the Tor application “
Telmex
What Telmex does confirm is that seven nodes were reported, because they are associated, he says, with the distribution of the WannaCry ransomware. In this way, the nodes were ‘filtered’, explains Telmex, but guarantees that the use of the Tor application was never prevented.
An error in architecture?
Through the Internet Anonymous blog, Ververis and Nájera, along with Gunnal Wolf and Salvador Alcantar, claim that the nodes were blocked before May 12, 2017, the date the attack with the WannaCry ransomware began. The investigators, however, do not assure in their writing that the blockade was intentional; in fact, they leave open the possibility that it is due to an architecture error in Telmex.
They even offer their help to solve the problem.
We are ready to provide you with network measurements or any information that may be useful to correct the blocking of Tor directory authorities’ IP numbers and ensure that users can host nodes on the Telmex network and help others to use Tor in different countries, to bypass censorship and maintain privacy while using the internet.
Magma Project Researchers
América Móvil was contacted to find out if there is a response to this letter, but the company declined to comment.