Onion routing. Onion routing (OR) is a technique for anonymous communication over a computer network. Messages are repeatedly encrypted and then sent through several network nodes called onion routers. Like someone peeling an onion, each onion router removes a layer of encryption to uncover routing instructions, and sends the message to the next router where this is repeated. This prevents these intermediary nodes from knowing the origin, destination, and contents of the message. [citation needed] Capabilities[edit] The idea of onion routing is to protect the privacy of the sender and recipient of a message, while also providing protection for message content as it traverses a network.
Onion routing accomplishes this according to the principle of Chaum's mix cascades: messages travel from source to destination via a sequence of proxies ("onion routers"), which re-route messages in an unpredictable path. Onions[edit] Routing onions[edit] Example "onion" Circuit establishment and sending data[edit] Tor[edit] Tor (anonymity network) Tor (previously an acronym for The Onion Router)[4] is free software for enabling online anonymity and censorship resistance. Tor directs Internet traffic through a free, worldwide, volunteer network consisting of more than five thousand relays[5] to conceal a user's location or usage from anyone conducting network surveillance or traffic analysis.
Using Tor makes it more difficult to trace Internet activity, including "visits to Web sites, online posts, instant messages, and other communication forms", back to the user[6] and is intended to protect the personal privacy of users, as well as their freedom and ability to conduct confidential business by keeping their internet activities from being monitored. An extract of a Top Secret appraisal by the NSA characterized Tor as "the King of high secure, low latency Internet anonymity" with "no contenders for the throne in waiting".[7] Alice's Tor client picks a random path to destination server Steven J. Business & Money. DNews: New Island Spewing Flammable Gas. Collective-Evolution.