[talk] NYC*BUG Wednesday: *BSD Tor Bridge Installfest

[George Rosamond]

October 4, Wednesday
*BSD Tor Bridge Installfest, The Tor BSD Diversity Project
18:45, LMHQ, 150 Broadway, 20th Floor, Manhattan

Tor is a public and open-source anonymity network, playing a critical
role for users facing censorship and surveillance around the globe.

There is one glaring weakness about the Tor network: an overwhelming
dominance of Linux-based nodes. Since March 2015, The Tor BSD Diversity
Project has worked to rectify this operating system monoculture.

TDP managed a number of feats, including porting Tor Browser to OpenBSD.

For this hands-on installfest, the goal is to start addressing the
massive monoculture in Tor bridges, which serve as private gateways for
users blocked from the Tor network.

That monoculture is stark as the TDP statistics illustrate. Bridge
operating system diversity is even worse than for public relays.

Bridges are ideal services to run from a residential network. Many BSD
users in New York City maintain fast, underutilized internet connections
that can easily help increase diversity. As Tor bridge IPs are not
publicly listed, there is little worry about geting any flack from
internet service providers.

Popular small embedded systems, from armv7 BeagleBones to amd64 APU
boards, are ideal hardware platforms for a residential bridge. Each of
the BSD projects provide strong support for an array of small systems.

This meeting will feature a brief introduction to TDP, a quick overview
of some diversity statistics, followed by hands-on configuration of
hardware on-hand.

To make this installfest worthwhile, come prepared with:

* appropriate hardware to install the BSD of your choice on, with
appropriate cables and install media

* an IP address reserved on your private residential network for the Tor
bridge

Adequate power and bandwidth will be available, along with other NYC*BUG
attendees ready and willing to assist.

The Tor BSD Diversity Project launched in March 2015 to inject more *BSD
into the Tor public anonymity network. Since then, TDP accomplished a
number of important milestones, including porting Tor Browser to OpenBSD
with a current effort to port TB to FreeBSD.