Tor browser is similar to a normal web browser in many ways. It’s no more difficult to use than Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge. The difference is that the Tor browser connects you to the internet through the Tor network.
Tor is a free, open-source software that helps you stay anonymous online. When you browse the internet using Tor browser, your traffic is randomly directed through a network of servers before you reach your final destination, in order to protect your location and identity.
The name “Tor” is short for The Onion Router. This refers to the way that Tor protects your data by wrapping it in multiple layers of encryption like an onion.
Onion Routing
Onion routing is a technique for anonymous communication over a computer network. In an onion network, messages are encapsulated in layers of encryption, analogous to layers of an onion.
There is a large set of precautionary measures and best practices to make web browsing safer and more secure for users. Let’s say that you send an HTTPs request to a server and someone intercepts that request but that person can’t know what that message says because it’s encrypted. But you are still not satisfied with this level of security and want to take this to the next level i.e. you don’t even want anyone sniffing on your network to know which server you are contacting and if you are making any requests or not. This is where onion routing comes in.
How does onion routing work?
Despite the browser’s complex system behind the scenes, it is actually very easy to use. Tor uses a unique system that was developed by the US Navy to protect government intelligence communications.
- Your data is bundled into layers of encrypted packets before it enters the Tor network. It is then routed through a series of volunteer-operated servers called nodes or relays.
- Each time your data passes through one of these relays, a layer of encryption is removed to reveal the location of the next relay. When you reach the final relay on your path, known as the exit node, the last layer of encryption is removed and your data is sent to its final destination.
- Each relay only decrypts enough data to know the location of the previous and next relays. Since each path is randomly generated and none of the relays keeps records, it’s nearly impossible for your activity to be traced back to you through Tor’s complex network.
Vulnerability in Onion Routing
The only security flaw in onion routing is that if someone is listening in on a server at the same time as a client, and if they match the request at the destination to a request made by a client on the other side of a network by analyzing the length and the frequency of the characters found in the intercepted request or response at the destination server and using that to match with the same request made by a client a fraction of a second (time-stamps on requests and responses can also be helpful in deducing that) and then tracking them down and knowing their online activity shatters the idea of anonymity. This is pretty hard to do but not impossible. But removing this flaw from Tor is virtually impossible.
Download Tor Browser
The safest and simplest way to download Tor Browser is from the official Tor Project website.
Installation :
For Windows:
- Navigate to the Tor Browser download page.
- Download the Windows .exe file
- Verify the file’s signature (Recommended)
- When the download is complete, double click the .exe file. Complete the installation wizard process.
For macOS:
- Navigate to the Tor Browser download page.
- Download the macOS .dmg file
- Verify the file’s signature (Recommended)
- When the download is complete, double click the .dmg file. Complete the installation wizard process.
For GNU/Linux:
- Navigate to the Tor Browser download page.
- Download the GNU/Linux .tar.xz file
- Verify the file’s signature (Recommended)
- When the download is complete, extract the archive with the command tar -xf [TB archive] or by using an archive manager.
- You’ll need to tell your GNU/Linux that you want the ability to execute shell scripts from the graphical interface. Navigate to the newly extracted Tor Browser directory. Right-click on start-tor-browser-desktop, Open Properties or Preferences and change the permission to allow executing the file as a program. Double-click the icon to start up Tor Browser for the first time.
- Alternatively, from inside the Tor Browser directory, you can also start from the command line by running :
./start-tor-browser.desktop
