Microsoft has publicly warned that they do not believe the Tor browsing service, famed for allowing totally secure access to the most hidden areas of the internet and frequented by cyber-criminals, can withstand attempted break-ins from law-enforcement bodies such as the NSA and Britain’s GCHQ for much longer.
Amidst claims that usage of Tor has increased by almost 50% since Edward Snowden’s revelations last year as to the extent of NSA internet snooping, Andy Malone of Microsoft Enterprise Security said:
“There is no such thing as really being anonymous on the internet. If hackers and government agencies want you, they will get you.”
He added that although the Tor network itself had not yet been cracked, hackers employed by the state were able to access data sent and received by the program through hijacking insecure add-ons for the browser installed by users. These included Adobe Flash and Java – two of the most well-known and most in-secure browser plugins around.