Recently, a man named Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA, a branch of the United States government tasked with foreign surveillance, was conducting a massive dragnet surveillance operation on US citizens.
Since this revelation, it has also been publicized that many other countries are engaged in similar operations. This includes Canada, the UK, France, Australia, and more.
While these governments claim that the operations are legal, supported by court warrant, and completely aboveboard, this doesn't seem to hold water, as most new disclosures contradict something the officials have previously told us, which results in backpedaling and new spin to try to make it seem as if everything is OK.
The public response to this has been polarized, to say the least. Many people decry these operations by our governments, seeing them as part of a continual encroachment and erosion of civil rights, in the name of fighting whatever the boogeyman of the year happens to be; terrorists right now, and going back, communists, Nazis, and others.
Others have publicly proclaimed Snowden to be nothing more than a criminal, severely damaging the security and surveillance operations of the United States, who should be tried for treason, or merely killed without trial by a drone.
In response to this situation, CB Services is setting up two privacy operations:
Tor, an anonymous websurfing software package.
Freenet, a completely hidden, anonymous network of websites which runs on top of the Internet we all know.
Both of these require certain infrastructure. Tor requires what are called "exit nodes" which allow traffic from the Tor network to exit onto the regular Internet, so various sites can be visited anonymously. Freenet requires nodes which allow storage and transfer of sites and stored files to requesting clients.
CB Services is dedicating two virtualized servers for these programs; one for each. This improves both of these networks, allowing for faster speeds, more reliable browsing, and improved privacy and anonymity for all who want it.
A third software program similar in function to Tor, I2P, is currently being investigated, and may be added to our infrastructure soon.
For information about setting these up to be used for your own privacy, give us a call.