What is the TOR Network?
Following on from yesterday's article about VPNs, The Onion Router, or TOR for short is a volunteer network of over 7000 relays that are linked together to reroute encrypted internet traffic by bouncing it from relay to relay, making very difficult to trace it back to it's origins. TOR is a free open source project that is available to everybody, however it is especially common in the hacking community. TOR also allows for it's users to easily navigate the infamous Deep Web (more on that in a future article). For this reason I cannot recommend installing TOR on a computer where kids will have access because the deep web, and more specifically the dark web can easily land you in legal trouble or allows you to see things you can't unsee. I recommend staying off the deep web unless you have a reasonable understanding of how to protect yourself from hackers.
What is the difference between a VPN and TOR?
Both a VPN and TOR are used for anonymity however they go about it in different ways. A VPN relies on an encrypted VPN tunnel that hides your IP and data from even your ISP.
The main concern is you have to trust that your VPN is as secure as they claim. While some VPN services are trustworthy others are far less secure. For my recommendations check my VPN guide. TOR on the other hand focuses more on anonymity than security. Internet traffic using TOR will look something like this.
Should I use a VPN or TOR?
This depends on what you are doing, TOR is great, but the indirect path your internet traffic takes to get to it's destination slows down your internet considerably. For everyday browsing a VPN is great, especially a paid one as it usually doesn't slow down your internet much. It is also worth mentioning you can use both. it not uncommon for hackers or dark web visitors to use a VPN to enter the TOR network. This would make it VERY tough to track you down and I have also heard of people using a VPN-TOR-VPN configuration, however I can only imagine doing that would make your browsing irritatingly slow.
Conclusion
I use both a VPN and TOR on my computers and I like them both. I usually keep my VPN active constantly and if I come across a situation where I believe an extra layer of security is needed, i will use that too. It is also worth mentioning TOR not just for your Mac, Windows and Linux, but is available for Android (called Orbot) and IOS (Onion Browser).
In upcoming articles I will cover Proxy Servers, web browsers, email clients, internet plug ins and other online security and anonymity based things to avoid hacking and unwanted prying eyes. Please let me know in the comments if there is a topic that interests you! Thanks for reading and stay safe!
Viking