originally released on February 7, 2023 by isabella, taken from the tor blog (slightly redacted)
For at least 7 months, several different types of ongoing denial of service (DoS) attacks have affected the Tor network. At some points, the attacks impacted the network severely enough that users could not load pages or access onion services.
Throughout the work to improve the network’s defenses, many people have stepped up to support the tor community, fight this attack, and make sure the Tor network is stable for users. Allies have highlighted the importance of financially supporting Tor, held fundraisers to add more relays to the network, funded current relay operator associations, and come together to form the Onion Services Resource Coalition, which has allowed to hire two new network team developers who will focus specifically on onion services. This, plus the countless supporters who have spread the word about helping Tor on social media and in their communities.
You can help too! Here is how
The Tor Project is 70% towards its goal of fully funding two years worth of onion service development to mitigate the impacts of these attacks. It has $155,000 left to raise.
If you believe in the importance of the Tor network and defending it against attacks, please make a donation directly towards this work:
- Make a USD donation via Stripe or PayPal: add “onion services” to the comments field.
- Make a BTC donation via BTCPayServer: they will know your donation is to be used to advance onion services.
- Make a cryptocurrency donation directly to Tor Project’s wallet: let the Tor Project know you’ve made a donation at “giving at torproject.org”
You can contribute to the Onion Support Coalition fund by making a donation. To lead by example, TorBox donated $250 today.
If you have any information that could help to better understand the nature of these attacks you can contact the Tor Project via signal: https://signal.me/#p/+17787431312.
If you are a relay operator and would like to know more about what to do to defend your relay from these types of attacks you can connect with the Tor Project through the email “list tor-relays at lists.torproject.org”. It is recommended for all relay operators to join this list to be up to date with best practices to keep the Tor network healthy.