Torpark - Secure Browsing from USB Key

Posted on November 16, 2006 One Comment

It wasn’t all that long ago I was pondering what to do with my shiny new USB key. Today I stumbled over a fun little application by the name of Torpark. Do I need this? Heck no! But what fun it is to mess around with — and at least I feel like I’m doing something useful with this key…

So what is Torpark? Essentially it is a customized derivative of Firefox (version 1.5.0.7 as of this writing) that runs on the TOR (The Onion Router) network. Everything you need to connect to the TOR network is included. Download, unzip to USB and run one program and you’re off into “secure browsing” land. In other words, if you’re a privacy wonk, you might want this.

From the site:

Download Torpark and put it on a USB Flash keychain. Plug it into any Internet terminal whether at home, school, or public. Run Torpark.exe and it will launch a Tor circuit connection, which creates an encrypted tunnel from your computer indirectly to a Tor exit computer, allowing you to surf the Internet anonymously. How much does Torpark cost? IT’S FREE.

So now you ask yourself, what’s TOR? Well, from their homepage:

Tor is a toolset for a wide range of organizations and people that want to improve their safety and security on the Internet. Using Tor can help you anonymize web browsing and publishing, instant messaging, IRC, SSH, and other applications that use the TCP protocol. Tor also provides a platform on which software developers can build new applications with built-in anonymity, safety, and privacy features.

With Torpark, we have a one click TOR connection with a securely configured browser.

Now, my “hacking” days are long behind me so I’m not really sure I need this level of anonymity. But it is rather fascinating to play with. Just be aware that this is one secure browser! Will it mark links as followed? Nope. Caching? Nope. Is it a bit slow? Yep. Does the USB drive even get touched once it’s all up and running? Nope. As near as I can tell from an evening of use, there is no footprint left behind. Expecting to see your userid and passwords stored? Not going to happen.

Have a need for discretion or just concerned about who’s looking over your shoulder? Give this a shot.

There’s also an Opera flavor of this called OperaTor. I’ll need to give that one a look soon as well. Just for grins, of course.

Tags: firefox, opera, privacy, security, TOR, Torpark, usb