By Bryan Clark
Publication Date: 2026-11-03 00:00:00
“I’ve just assumed that every Tor exit node is compromised from the get-go,” Nick Bradley, Manager of X-Force Threat Intelligence at IBM, said during the discussion. However, that skepticism does not mean anonymity is inherently malicious.
Don Cowan, an IBM X-Force Red Associate Hacker, agreed with much of the panel’s criticism of Tor, but pointed out that using it to avoid censorship is one legitimate reason someone might seek anonymity. Even if circumventing those restrictions violates local laws, Cowan argued, “I wouldn’t say [that] is necessarily immediately nefarious.”
This is not the first time exit relays have been compromised. In 2020, the Tor Project removed malicious exit relays that interfered with traffic to cryptocurrency exchanges. At the time, they warned that unencrypted HTTP requests remained vulnerable to attack.
What is notable about the most recent hijacking is that the project is now also considering structural friction for new exit nodes….
