The bundle includes other security features such as private browsing mode, disabled plugins, HTTPS, the Adblock Plus plugin and other patches in the browser’s settings. However, it is modified to only access the Internet through the Vidalia port. Lastly, a browser, typically Firefox, is used. Then there’s Vidalia (at least on Windows), which is a proxy that links the network to a port on your computer. Tor, which accesses the network, is the first. The project uses three programs packaged into one bundle. One side touted its humanistic use for the anonymity of dissidents in repressed countries, and the other side worked on figuring out how to break that anonymity. Thus, the State Department began a push and pull with itself over Tor. In other words, they needed to have other traffic on Tor to mask the government activity, according to SecurityWeek. But the sponsors realized that if only these agents were using the system, their traffic would be functionally identified rather simply.

Tor started as an effort by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to cloak the online identity of government agents and informants while in the field by obscuring their IP addresses. Not only did it get the project off the ground, but the government continues to fund it to this day. But how many know that the initial development was really done by the U.S. It is also - at least in the eyes of the public - used by cybercriminals and illicit sites such as the infamous Silk Road. Tor, an acronym for The Onion Router, is free software for anonymous online communication that masks a user’s identity by hiding the originating and destination IP addresses of messages sent through it.

Vidalia onion tor