Amongst privacy enthusiasts, the Tor network is a popular means to browse the internet anonymously. However, time and again, vulnerabilities have been found in the Tor network that allow hackers to exploit it. A new study has revealed that a hacker or a nation-sponsored bad actor can degrade the performance of the Tor network for a few thousand dollars per month.
The research has been conducted by Georgetown University and the US Naval Research Laboratory to analyze the cost for slowing down the Tor network through different methods. As per the researchers, accomplishing an attack against the entire network is a costly affair, and it would take $7.2 million per month and massive DDoS resources (512.73 Gbit/s).
However, there are three types of bandwidth denial of service (DoS) attacks that can clog the Tor network. Thus, forcing users to abandon it owing to poor performance.
Attacking Tor Bridges Costs $17k Per Month
Instead of attacking individual Tor servers, bad actors can target Tor bridges. Tor bridges or Tor bridge relays are alternate entry points to the Tor network. These are not publically listed which makes them difficult to block.
Tor bridges are popular in countries where governments censorship bans the use of the Tor network. However, not all the Tor bridges (38) are functional right now. Out of the total 38 bridges, only 12 are operational and it would cost roughly $17,000 per month to saturate traffic in these bridges.
In case all the bridges are functional, the cost rises to $31,000 per month. It is a meager sum if a nation-state wants ..
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