The Onion Router (Tor) was designed to protect privacy and anonymity on the internet. However, it is increasingly being used by criminals to protect themselves and their endeavors. Last year Kaspersky Lab noted, “the cybercriminal element is growing… We found Zeus with Tor capabilities, then we detected ChewBacca and finally we analyzed the first Tor Trojan for Android.”
The reason is simple: “Hosting C&C servers in Tor makes them harder to identify, blacklist or eliminate.” Earlier this year IBM concluded that “it is absolutely necessary to block access to Tor or other similar networks from your corporate networks.”
