Representatives of the Tor Project said that in the past seven months, the availability of the Tor network has been regularly violated by powerful DDoS attacks. At times, because of them, users could not load pages at all and access onion services.
The developers assure that they are making every possible effort to mitigate the consequences of such attacks and protect the network.
“The methods and targets of these attacks have changed over time, and we have adapted as they continue. It is impossible to determine with certainty who is behind these attacks, and what their intentions are, ”the Tor Project writes.
The team promises to keep improving and tweaking the security of the Tor network to address this issue. In addition, it is reported that two new specialists have appeared in the network team in the Tor Project, who will deal exclusively with the development of onion services.
Interestingly, the Tor community is well aware of this issue. So, according to Risky Business, Tor relay operators say that these attacks do not occur simultaneously on the entire network. Instead, the attackers target a small number of specific relays and then switch to others a few days later.
At the same time, during such attacks, none of the operators received ransom demands. Some community members have developed and are already applying a number of basic measures to protect against DDoS attacks, however, as Tor Project experts note in their message, attackers are also changing tactics in response to this.