Online security is one of the biggest concerns of private individuals, corporations, and even governments. Hacking, for whatever purpose, has become so rampant that it takes a bit more effort just to ensure that privacy is always secure. However, it seems that keeping your identity private just became a lot simpler with the new beta version of the Tor Messenger.
Tor Messenger allows secure communications by sending messages over the Tor (The Onion Router) network. Tor Messenger also uses formats that people are already familiar with and build up on this. It does not, however, use the usual client-server model. This means that the server can log a user's metadata. The benefit of the Tor network is the route to the server will remain anonymous.
Anonymity is safeguarded as the Tor network uses a series of internet relays or routers known as bridges, BBC reported. This technology allows access to platforms like Facebook Messenger even in countries where it is banned.
"They're computers run by volunteers and in a censored area your computer will connect to these," Steven Murdoch said. He is a security researcher at University College London and has worked on Tor projects before.
"Those services are not publicly listed anywhere - they should not be blocked even if access to the Tor network is blocked."
Messages may also be encrypted to provide another layer of security. This encryption is enabled by default, although both parties in a one-to-one chat need to enable off-the-record encryption (OTR) first.
To do this, both parties must exchange a secret key which is needed to decode the messages they send to each other. The key is only known to the two parties.
Jabber and Google Talk are two platforms compatible with Tor Messenger. They both require a sign-up so it is highly recommended that a disposable email and very strong password be used. A password is ideally a mix of upper and lower case letters with some numbers and other characters added into the mix, Forbes reported.
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