Researchers who identified drug suspects on Tor deny FBI payment allegations
19 Nov 2015
A technology research institute, which had drawn criticism for its role in unmasking users of an internet anonymity service, said yesterday it had complied with FBI subpoenas but had not accepted payment for identifying several suspects in a drug investigation.
In a statement, the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) responding to what it termed ''inaccurate media reports'' about an alleged $1 million payment by the FBI, said the institute "abides by the rule of law" in complying with subpoenas but "receives no funding for its compliance."
The institute, whose research is largely funded by the US Department of Defense, did not deny that it had provided data for the FBI sting operation on users of Tor, an internet privacy service.
Civil liberties advocates pointed out that a collaboration of the type, could lead to law enforcement evading warrant requirements. They added that they suspected evidence obtained from Tor was being withheld in judicial proceedings.
The Tor anonymity network hides computer IP addresses to conceal the identity of an internet user.
Carnegie Mellon University finally issued a statement yesterday, after repeated requests. Its statement posted to the CMU website said: ''There have been a number of inaccurate media reports in recent days regarding Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute work in cyber security.
''Carnegie Mellon University includes the Software Engineering Institute (SEI), which is a federally funded research and development centre (FFRDC) established specifically to focus on software-related security and engineering issues. One of the missions of the SEI's CERT division is to research and identify vulnerabilities in software and computing networks so that they may be corrected.
''In the course of its work, the university from time to time is served with subpoenas requesting information about research it has performed. The university abides by the rule of law, complies with lawfully issued subpoenas, and receives no funding for its compliance.''
