Computer Law Commons^™

Mlat Jiu-Jitsu And Tor: Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties In Surveillance, Sarah Cortes

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

A corrupt Australian Law Enforcement Agency (LEA) wishes to track the communications of a journalist who has published leaked whistleblowing documents from a confidential source, revealing the Australian LEA's complicity in illegal narcotics activity. The target journalist lives in New York and is a U.S. citizen. She opens her laptop, goes online and fires up Tor Browser. She is communicating with her whistleblowing source in Australia, who faces death if his identity is uncovered. Her communication and network traffic passes through Tor relays in Canada, Finland, and Malaysia before arriving at her source in Australia.