[liberationtech] An Arabic Linux distro that corrects "multiple Tor bugs"

[Katrin Verclas]

Susanne is copied here to clarify.  She heads the Beirut office of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting.  

Katrin 


On Apr 19, 2012, at 4:40 AM, Frank Corrigan wrote:

> Does it offer much the same as TAILS?
> https://tails.boum.org/contribute/how/translate/#index4h1
> 
> It seems to imply a relationship to the Institute for War and Peace
> Reporting
> http://iwpr.net/
> http://www.cyber-arabs.com/?page_id=2
> 
> With the domain cyber-arabs.com appearing to be registered by Susanne
> Fischer:
> http://www.networksolutions.com/whois-search/cyber-arabs.com
> http://iwpr.net/people/susanne-fischer
> 
> Frank
> 
> ----- Original message -----
> From: KheOps <kheops at ceops.eu>
> To: Liberation Technologies <liberationtech at lists.stanford.edu>
> Subject: [liberationtech] An Arabic Linux distro that corrects "multiple
> Tor    bugs"
> Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2012 09:36:36 +0200
> 
> Hello everyone,
> 
> A Syrian activist came a few hours ago on Telecomix's OpSyria and
> pointed us to what seems to be a new Linux live distro based on Ubuntu,
> apparently designed to provide tools to increase anonymity and privacy:
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtuslinux/
> 
> Among others, its creators state that their distro, Virtus, "uses a
> modified version of TOR software. The modified version fixes multiple
> bugs found in the original software by Virtus developers when it was
> used in Syria."
> 
> I don't think anybody has reviewed it yet, but it seems the distro is
> already spreading a bit, which is why I felt useful to post a warning
> here, espescially towards Jacob who might be interested in having a look
> at what can be these "bug fixes".
> 
> Virtus has been designed by what looks like to be a new group called
> "Cyber Arabs" (http://www.cyber-arabs.com/). They have a Twitter account
> (@Cyber_Arabs), with which they already promoted the use of OTR, SSH
> proxies in YouTube videos and linked to several EFF articles regarding
> RAT malware used in Syria. I tend to think that their intentions are
> rather good, although their knowledge may appear - for now - a bit
> clumsy.
> 
> I'd be glad to get any advice/feedback on this :)
> 
> Cheers,
> KheOps
> 
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Katrin Verclas
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