[ConcernedCitizen]

I've never used Tor purely on Its own. It's a poor decision to do so.

Tor over VPN and VPN over Tor (at the least) for added layers of anonymity. Primary and secondary DNS server encryption, Is also part of the equation.

How do you keep websites from timing out through all that? Tor even without a VPN seems to be slow enough to timeout frequently on many sites.

Honestly, this Sybil attack isn't uncommon and the Tor Project struggles to keep up with it sometimes. The KAX17 isn't the first or last major attempt to de-anonymize darknet users.

Here's a very detailed post by Nusenu about the threat landscape and how to protect yourself. Mostly, just use a VPN. You will have encrypted traffic from the exit node. Turn on the VPN, then connect to the Tor network. You can find guides on going the other way but it's not recommended. Yes, it's slower, but it isn't really noticeable when your internet speeds are not dialup.

Also, don't simply block entire countries' nodes. That should be a given. Problematic nodes are automatically banned from the network if they fail to meet specific criterion.