We've Launched a Search for Our Next Executive Director

by steph | February 22, 2018

 

The Tor Project, Inc., the developer of the world’s strongest privacy and anonymity tool, is looking for its next Executive Director. Shari Steele, our current Executive Director, is set to retire at the end of 2018. 

After 15 years as the Executive Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Shari was brought on in December 2015 to make the Tor Project more operationally sound. “I had intended to retire after my time with EFF, but I believed strongly in the Tor Project’s mission, and I felt I could help,” Shari said.  “I look at the Tor Project organization today and feel quite confident that we’ve got the talent and the structure to continue to support the organization’s great work.”

Around 35 engineers and operational support people plus many volunteers all over the world contribute to the Tor Project. Successful candidates for the Executive Director position will have a global perspective on privacy and censorship issues and be able to lead the diverse and distributed organization into its next phase of growth and sustainability.

Potential candidates can learn more about the position at the job page.


About the Tor Project

The Tor Project is a US 501(c)(3) non-profit organization advancing human rights and freedoms by creating and deploying free and open source anonymity and privacy technologies, supporting their unrestricted availability and use, and furthering their scientific and popular understanding. For more information, contact Steph Whited at steph at torproject.org. 

Comments

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February 23, 2018

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I d love to be part of your organisation...You re doing such an amazing work...In no more than 10 years everyone will use Tor more than clearnet which is obvious....Thanks from all of us to give us the opportunity to work with your great organisation Upfront from such many years....Welldone!!!!!:)))

So is the claim by the OP that "Mike Perry disappeared" pure FUD, or did his role change? Is he no longer employed by Tor Project but still a volunteer?

Mike Perry is one of the best known Tor persons, so if his role has changed, TP should post an official explanation, unless he requests otherwise or there is a damn good reason.

February 23, 2018

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2018 : tor 7..0.9 should solve the new vulnerabilities (UN-anonymizing users_ip ).

2018 : Advancing human rights and freedoms by creating and deploying free and open source anonymity and privacy technologies, supporting their unrestricted availability and use, and furthering their scientific and popular understanding.

A new network for a hardened browser is not planned & will not , this organization follows its own way horizontally not vertically : it cannot struggle against the budget of the nsa & the decisions of the congress/giant of the web.

The project became more ambitious & nearer of the genuine goal :
- The right to make a call, to be informed, to defend oneself ; an uncertain idea of the word resistance ? maybe.
- A prisoner's complex ; a screen for showing their talent, the intelligence & education of what their capitalist society could offer ? maybe.

Tor built as a naive privacy badger add-on : https://tor.en.uptodown.com/windows
2018 : https://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/68684/digital-id/nsa-memo-anonymiz…
https://www.eff.org/privacybadger

Keep in mind that Tor was _never_ claimed to be robust against a global adversary. In practice, defending anonymity against rather more casual, opportunistic threats is just as important - quite possibly even more so! (Nsa not the only global adversary of note BTW, or even the most relevant. Realistically and prudently, Chinese intelligence must be assumed to have similar capabilities, or to be working on acquiring them.)

February 23, 2018

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Thanks to Shari for her service and willingness to step into a challenging job at a difficult time for Tor Project!

I've strongly supported the goals she set when she came to TP (particularly expanding Tor's user base worldwide and building a user-supported funding model). But I also expressed concern when TP remained officially silent on such critical issues as

o whether TP stands by Roger D's vow never to introduce "backdoors" into Tor
o whether TP has a plan for how to react if the US Congress passes a law mandating such a backdoor for all US-based civilian cryptographic products (or one specifically targeting Tor)
o why TP has had such slow public response to crises such as Meltdown/Spectre

When Shari came to TP she did say her style would be to keep quiet, and she certainly did that. I hope the next ED will be willing and able to react faster to revelations such as Shellshock, Meltdown/Spectre which clearly demand an immediate crisis response from TP, including a public statement (with followups as the situation is clarified or the status of the emergency changes).

I am glad that TP has a year to find the next ED because this is a critical role at TP. I hope that TP will be able to find someone with

o impeccable human rights creds
o no connections to USIC or other USG agencies which could sow doubt among non-US Tor users
o no connections with the shadier agencies of any other government
o tele-executive experience (e.g. leading geographically dispersed workforce)
o proven track record in building good relations with media
o solid connections with other human rights and pro-cybersecurity/privacy organizations
o some prior knowledge of good cybersecurity practices and whistleblower protection
o ability to cope with a wide variety of potential future crises (employee/tech/political/legal)
o (ideally) ability to screen out job applicants presenting falsified resumes (e.g. an applicant for a job developing human rights sensitive software who says he worked for US State Department when in fact he was working for CIA), and willingness to state that a falsified resume is grounds for immediate firing

Being ED of TP is not just any executive job. It's not like being CEO of Staples. Any serious mistakes not only might but probably will cost lives from some of the most endangered human populations on Planet Earth.

February 25, 2018

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I'd like to discuss priorities for Tor Project in the coming year, while the search for the new ED is under weigh.

Probably we can all agree that top priorities include:
o dealing with crises (technical attacks, political, legal, internal)
o prompt security patches for all Tor software products
o continuing to improve Tor Browser and other key software products

I feel further top priorities for the ED should be:
o working toward a viable user-donation funding model for TP (as per EFF)
o working to reduce confusion about where the money comes from and where it goes
o developing emergency plans for crypto being declared illegal in country X (esp USA)
o developing good relations with at least some tech media reporters
o developing good relations with major civil liberties groups and allied projects
o attempting to establish some ability to present TP's views to US Congress and other major legislative bodies which seem to hear only from FBI and similar agencies screaming "Going Dark!"
o keeping the NYC meetups going and starting similar regular meetups in a few other key areas (maybe Brazil? India? Berlin? And would Hong Kong be impossible?)
o improving communications with user base (ideally in multiple languages), e.g. promptly posting updates if Tor network appears to be under some kind of attack,
o having a plan to reach out quickly to media if Tor network appears to be under some kind of attack.

I also feel these should not be neglected:
o further development of Tor Messenger
o further Library Project outreach
o further outreach to news sites (onion mirrors, opsec training for reporters)
o outreach to local/provincial/national government (onions part of solution not problem)
o whenever TP announces a new service (e.g. Debian mirrors), the service should either be maintained, or it should be announced that it is no longer maintained

So many priorities, I know, but looking at the People page it seems as though TP has more people to whom the above ongoing tasks can be assigned as appropriate (although it is not clear, perhaps by design, who among the listed Tor people are paid volunteers and who are paid employees. Some of them are obvious tasks to reserve for the ED, but many can and should be handed off to other TP employees.

>/> o developing emergency plans for crypto being declared illegal in country X (esp USA)

Encryption & crypto are illegal except in few countries (some africa & south american zones allow it officially_legally) but not in a restricted area (chip e.g.) and you do know why.

Some initiatives/creativity & work have solved this paradox : let's encrypt, hkps, idea, https, hsts, Tor e.g. are accepted as a part of the net.

what do you think about quantum crypto ? it is not illegal.
debian provides one in the depo and china launched the first quantum computer in the space !
https://e-x-a.org/codecrypt/

As user :
1° when a gui will be provided for pgp , when the mailing-list/forum/blog will be lisible using a pgp-key & on onions, when the people will e-mail using an encrypted mode ... a step for security will be half done.
2° when the person who 'hack, listen & record' your home-phone, iphone, cellphone, tablet, pc will pay the bill (yours, that you received every month/year) ... a step for privacy will be half done.
3° money/donations are the key for improving all the others paragraphs.

>/> o Make a donation !

@ yeep:

> Encryption & crypto are illegal except in few countries (some africa & south american zones allow it officially_legally)

I think you have this backwards. If you insist this is the case, please provide a citation to an authoritative source.

> but not in a restricted area (chip e.g.) and you do know why.

Actually, I have no idea what this means.

Perhaps I should not have omitted the word "un-backdoored" before the word "encryption". If it is not clear what I have in mind when I refer to a "backdoor", speak up and with the moderator's indulgence I will try to explain. It's not a very precise concept yet because we don't yet know exactly how USG will define its concept of "legal" (backdoored) encryption.

February 25, 2018

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I've recently experienced difficulty using Tor

- very slow to obtain sufficient information from Directory Authorities to build circuits,
- unable to maintain connection to Tor network,
- unable to access www.torproject.org

Is anyone at TP assigned to regularly check the health of the network? Whether the TP home page is under DDOS or something?

Yes, there are folks watching the health of the network and the health of our infrastructure. Both the network and the infrastructure were/are attacked with DoS in the past couple of days and weeks. Sorry for the inconvenience but we are trying to resolve those issues as quickly as we can.

February 26, 2018

In reply to gk

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@ gk:

Thanks much, this is unpleasant news but it helps a lot to know I probably was not imagining things. FYI, in trying to troubleshoot on my own I exposed myself to additional risk; much better for at risk users if Tor Project were to have a regular channel for announcing problems promptly, particularly updates on suspected attacks on the Tor network.

A followup on the Debian onion mirrors post would be much appreciated, BTW. Has this service proven to be popular or is it hardly used? If the former, at times it appears either to be underattack or to be overloaded. If the latter, IMO this needs to be looked at more closely.

February 28, 2018

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

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at times it appears either to be underattack or to be overloaded

Onion mirror for Debian security updates (sgvtcaew4bxjd7ln.onion) very often has its speed around 1 KB/s. Regular minor apt-get updates take up to few minutes just to synchronize apt-get databases. It also depends in the day/night time when you do your updates.

Any official advice from Debian or Tor Projects on the best time to try to upgrade Debian systems via the onion mirrors?

Also, any word on whether server capacity can be increased to match the load?

February 25, 2018

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I'm actually kind of heartbroken; Shari Steele did quite a bit of good for the Tor project and we're thankful for your work Ms. Steele.

I agree; working to change the funding model for Tor Project was long overdue and truly critical to ensuring the long-term survival of Tor.

Under the old funding model, Tor would probably pick up some spare change from iniatives like this:

thehill.com
State Dept. launches $40M offensive against foreign propaganda
Morgan Chalfant
26 Feb 2018

> The State Department is launching a $40 million initiative to crack down on foreign propaganda and disinformation amid widespread concerns about future Russian efforts to interfere in elections.

But however benign US State Department staffers may consider such "counter-messaging", it was always a really bad idea (IMO) for Tor to be tied to any particular government, particularly one which increasing is seen even by US allies as a rogue and a bully. (Which is certainly not to say that the Putin government is not also deserving of much opprobrium, and indeed, opposition. But TP should try to avoid favoring any set of trolls/spooks over another, and focus on defending The People from the governments.)

It seems that putting TP on a solid financial footing without relying too much on either government funds or corporate donations may prove to be a long struggle, but I think TP needs to commit to working toward this goal however long it takes. Kind of like geographical diversity of Tor nodes--- some things just take time, but if you look closely you can see what looks like slow but steady improvement, and that's good for us and bad for our many enemies.

You can rest easy that the collusion issues that are slowly coming to the surface will be used a reason for pressure on places like Tor, Datchat and the like. I'm new here, but am liking what I reading so far.

February 26, 2018

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TOR needs to provide more directory Authorities outside NATO infrastructure..........A non-nato ED would be ideal

February 26, 2018

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Sweden, Finland, South Africa, Austria are places to search for a new TOR ED.......Austria has the best legal protection written in their constitution. Moldova has as well but they just opened a NATO internet office in Moldova which contridicts their constitution.

Among the EU nations, DE and FR have many Tor node operators and users, but their politics are currently vexed, and I worry about some laws being passed in FR.

Besides IS, FI, another technically advanced nation is NO. One reason I like NO is that they didn't react to a major mass-shooting/domestic-terrorism incident in the brutally militaristic and righteous way the US reacted to 9/11. But some people will be uncomfortable with any nation which is still a monarchy.

Moldava might be problematic because it has reputation in the US (and other places with many Tor users) as having a cybercrime problem.

South Africa is an interesting suggestion, but of course the politics there are quite vexed and one worries that South Africa may veer into some kind of totalitarianism even faster than the US.

In Latin America, MX and BR are technically advanced but their politics are very roiled and many dangerous laws are being passed or considered.

In Asia, corruption scandals (Korea, Japan) and even genocide (Myanmar) are indicative of a dangerous volatility. Thailand has dangerous lese mageste laws and the government has been caught cyberattacking anti-monarchists around the world.

Summing up: I think there is no escape from the conclusion that the entire Tor community will have to consider candidates in terms of their personal background in pro-human-rights, pro-social-justice, pro-environmental, anti-corruption struggles, not their citizenship.

Thanks for insightful reply, I actually agree with that sentiment, but in general I was referring more to expanding the Directory Authorities away from only NATO countries.

I am not writing to Santa to expect my wish to come true. And 4-Leaf Clovers possibly only grow in Ireland.

Norway is under NATO occupation as is Iceland. I would not trust anything out of Moldova either but at least they have tons of TOR nodes.

> I was referring more to expanding the Directory Authorities away from only NATO countries.

Totally agree, TP needs to continue to do everything possible to ensure that no one nation or block of nations (looking at you, FVEY!) be able to easily destroy the Tor network in a single mass attack.

Well, it's good we are discussing our various visions of what the future of Tor should look like. I hope Shari will take note, and that the next ED will work to ensure even better communication between TP and the Tor user community.

what are you talking about ?
very few persons could be recruited and if one is living in the north pole , she could be the next ed.

** writing an article follow few rules which one is to be understood and one other to have arguments but you list opinions, point of view : boring.
**a lot of subjects/topics are not accessible for kids and disturbed *persons

> Besides IS, FI, another technically advanced nation is NO. One reason I like NO is that they didn't react to a major mass-shooting/domestic-terrorism incident in the brutally militaristic and righteous way the US reacted to 9/11.

theintercept.com
Norway Used NSA Technology for Potentially Illegal Spying
Henrik Moltke
1 Mar 2018

Sigh...

February 27, 2018

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Shari Steele, our current Executive Director, is set to retire at the end of 2018.

Could the reason be announced? Was her position temporary?

As I understand it (and as I understood the post to say), Shari had a long career at EFF and was ready to retire when she was asked to step in and put Tor Project to rights. She always intended to retire once that was done.

Could the reason be announced? Was her position temporary?

She decided to retire when she quit the EFF, but decided instead to postpone it to help the Tor Project before finally retiring. We owe her a lot, thank you Shari :)

March 01, 2018

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A NYC resident should be a good choice (tor is not exportable) ; in the other zones , the invasive & constant survey of the residents (mic long range, call number shared, phone set in restricted area with multiple redirection, mail stolen e.g.) are becoming a norm.
The world has changed & show us the dust hidden under the carpet of the old one ; a new population : mythomania, trans, perverse spirit ... tor is for these new groups.
An E.D protecting these communities is a necessity.