Tried Tor over VPN (or vice versa?) in Cambodia?

[Savittre]

Hi Members,

It’s a security issue. It seems the Tor browser gives the best security, but it is sometimes slow. Cambodia’s ‘Net infrastructure is also sometimes too slow for my liking, too,

So, have you tried Tor with a VPN service here? If so, were you satisfied with it? Speed?Other issues? I’d be most interested to hear your story...

Thanks!

[Alexandra]

The only time you should use Tor together with a VPN is if you want to connect anonymously to your VPN provider over Tor (Tor->VPN). There is no extra security added by reversing the chain (VPN->Tor).

Many Cambodian service providers use traffic shaping. You can often gain a significant amount of speed increase by connecting to your VPN provider via common VoIP ports, for example port 9060. Try both TCP and UDP if possible because results may vary.

On the downside it may seem suspicious if you are generating a lot of traffic that looks like VoIP. I don't know how the ministry cowboys react, but there's the risk that you get scrutinized a little more until they exclude that you're running a Chinese scammer operation. Use TCP port 443 if that is a concern.

[maxx]

what exactly is the security issue you have in mind

it sounds like a man in the middle attack or authorities reading your browsing and search terms

[Savittre]

Alexandra, thanks for your reply, especially the Tor->VPN vs. VPN->Tor clarification.

maxx, I meant ‘security’ in a general sense, as applied to the ‘Net. Online security, privacy & anonymity are bigger issues now (and getting bigger) than they used to be. BTW, you mention about ‘the authorities reading my browsing and search terms.’

If a VPN is used to go online using a server in a foreign country, can authorities here track the users’ browsing and search terms? China is quite restrictive regards Internet usage, but people (I think) find ways around the restrictions. Same thing happened during the ‘Arab Spring,’ when governments involved in that tried to clamp down on Internet freedoms. They didn’t succeed. The people found ways and means...

[Alexandra]

VPN, unlike Tor, doesn’t delay packets to hide your identity. VPN protocols were not even designed with anonymity in mind. They were designed to establish a private network between remote computers to share resources. Changing your IP is just a side effect.

An entity that can monitor your outgoing connections and match it with your incoming connections on the receiving node (your VPN provider) can compare the time the packets are sent and received accounting for latency. It can then be added up to calculate that the time you sent packets on your end, and they were received on your VPN providers end, and the final destination after being sent by your VPN provider, matches you as the original source of the data traffic.

This is ultimately what the NSA PRISM program does.

If a state actor is your adversary then a VPN connection will not be of much help. If you are doing small time stuff like breaking copyright laws and trolling online then you’ll be fine.


Regarding the Arab spring, they very much did succeed to shut down the internet. They simply pulled the plug on everything except two military uplinks.

During the Egyptian uprising, European internet activists of the Telecomix collective helped establish communication links with activists on the ground in Egypt using fax machines, ham radio and dial-up modems.

The people found ways and means, sure, but over 95% of the country was offline. The information coming out was very limited. People would send Morse code messages to specific phone numbers which would translate them to text and post on Twitter. It was very limited communication, mostly updates about the situation on the ground which was critical because everybody was afraid of what the Egyptian government was planning to do.

[Savittre]

Thanks for your input, Alexandra.

Just to mention in passing, Wikipedia says that during the Arab Spring, use of social media, particularly Facebook, rose ‘dramatically’ in Arab countries except Libya, which didn’t have much Internet at the time.