Anonymous, Decentralized and Uncensored File-Sharing Is Booming

PatPending writes with this excerpt from TorrentFreak: "The RetroShare network allows people to create a private and encrypted file-sharing network. Users add friends by exchanging PGP certificates with people they trust. All the communication is encrypted using OpenSSL and files that are downloaded from strangers always go through a trusted friend. In other words, it's a true Darknet and virtually impossible to monitor by outsiders. RetroShare founder DrBob told us that while the software has been around since 2006, all of a sudden there's been a surge in downloads. 'The interest in RetroShare has massively shot up over the last two months,' he said."

Freenet

[tudza]

Freenet has been around that long hasn't it?

Not very anonymous

[Anonymous Coward]

Verifiability via PGP vs Anonymity: of course you can't have it both ways -- that's how PGP works. From the project FAQ http://retroshare.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Frequently_Asked_Questions#Is_RetroShare_anonymous.3F

        Is RetroShare anonymous?

        RetroShare is partly anonymous. There are anonymous forums and channels where no one can tell who posted something and you can download files from people your are not connected to anonymously, using anonymous tunnels. However the people you are connected to, know who you are and know your IP address. They can also see which files you are sharing, unless you mark them as not browsable. No one else on the network can see this information.

        The friends of your peers also know of your existence, and can attempt to connect to you through the Auto-Discovery system, but they can't connect to you unless you add them as friends.

Re:What a surprise

[bobbocanfly]

"You have loaded an HTTPS site. Your internet connection will be suspended to the end of the month". It would never work.

Re:"Goes through a trusted friend"?

[Jane Q. Public]

Repeat of what I replied to someone else above: OneSwarm is a darknet-capable file sharing client (it is also compatible with regular P2P networks), that addresses this issue. OneSwarm is designed such that once a file is put on the network, it is impossible to tell exactly where the file (or pieces of the file) are hosted, and it is equally impossible to tell what nodes they go through to get to you.

So actual transfer of files is indeed anonymous.

Re:disadvange.

[SuricouRaven]

The serial-auth on ut2k4 was *almost* able to function with no negative effects for legitimate customers. Almost. There was but one flaw: The demand for legitimate serials for pirate use grew so great that some people wrote trojans for the express purpose of stealing the serials from those who actually purchased the game, resulting in the banning of many legal users after their serials were taken.

Re:What a surprise

[Anonymous Coward]

no it cannot.

if people found a meek way to circumvent monitoring, Govt. and peanut holders will find another way to montor and banish it.

it is a cat and mouse game where cat almost everytime wins as mouse is standing in an open place.

Re:What a surprise

[icebike]

The only way the governments are going to monitor this is if they crack every possible key, and/or get that quantum computer thing going.

They don't have to crack every possible key. Google openssl compromise. There is every likelyhood that they already have a backdoor to most encryption standards. Why else would the NSA publish its own blueprint for smartphones [slashdot.org] and lay out the proposed encryption standards if they didn't already have access to those encrypted streams?

Besides, you assume they would use cracking.
Why would they. There are easier ways.

With a darknet, you have a circle of friends that you trust. Every friend in your trusted network has other trusted friends. By the time the darknet grows enough to be useful there will be some friends of friend of friends that are not so careful and not so trustworthy, and not so cluefull. They will click a link somewhere. Their kids will install some internet game. They will get a piece of malware installed. They will get compromised, then the movies sitting on their computers will be discovered as well as their list of darknet friends, and the jig is up.

In some ways, a darknet is more dangerous to the participants than bittorrents. The level of trust between the participants can serve as a avenue for detection and tracking.

Re:Whackamole!

[Runaway1956]

Actually, we haven't stopped SOPA. SOPA is being recycled under different names, with different advertising soundbytes. Lamar Smith is authoring another SOPA already. http://www.itworld.com/security/251584/sopa-replacement-uses-child-porn-excuse-spy-997-percent-americans [itworld.com]

http://www.gamermc.com/2012/03/02/tired-of-internet-censorship-bills-join-the-black-march/ [gamermc.com]

Our friends in Europe are waging a war against ACTA that we Americans were to stupid and/or to lazy to wage for ourselves. TPP is being negotiated in the same secrecy with which ACTA was.