–NSA Attempts to Crack Tor Are (Mostly) Unsuccessful (October 7, 2013) According to leaked documents, the NSA attempted to monitor targets using Tor by exploiting vulnerabilities in Firefox. NSA and its UK counterpart, GCHQ, have been trying for some time to crack Tor. Short for The Onion Router, Tor is an online anonymization service that helps users hide their identities and their online activity by routing encrypted traffic through other computers, which are volunteered by those machines’ owners. One of the attempts to break Tor involved infecting the computers of Tor users. The report indicated that the NSA has been unsuccessful in decrypting Tor communications but had managed to “de-anonymize a very small fraction of Tor users.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24429332

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/04/nsa-gchq-attack-tor-network-encryption

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/10/how_the_nsa_att.html

http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/10/nsa-repeatedly-tries-to-unpeel-tor-anonymity-and-spy-on-users-memos-show/

[Editor’s Note (Ullrich): Apparently some endpoint vulnerabilities allowed tracking: particularly Firefox 17.]

 –FBI Seized Bitcoins From Silk Road Site, But Owner’s Personal Stash

    Remains Encrypted

(October 4 & 7, 2013)

The FBI seized US $26 million in Bitcoins after taking down the Silk Road black market website last week. Those funds belonged to Silk Road customers, but the FBI has not yet been able to obtain the estimated US $80 million in Bitcoins believed to be held by Silk Road mastermind Ross William Ulbricht, who was arrested last week. Ulbricht’s Bitcoin holdings make up roughly five percent of all bitcoins in circulation.

The FBI plans to hold on to the seized Bitcoins “until the judicial process is over” and then “probably just liquidate them.”

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/oct/07/fbi-bitcoin-silk-road-ross-ulbricht

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/10/04/fbi-silk-road-bitcoin-seizure/