IS INTERNET ANONYMITY A MYTH OR REALITY Thesis

IS INTERNET ANONYMITY A MYTH OR REALITY - Thesis Example The aim of this research work is to analyse whether anonymity systems completely conceal the activity of a user or do they leave any residual information for others to identify the user. This research illustrates the different types and techniques of the anonymity tools. The low latency TOR network and the multi proxy aggregate services are discussed in detail along with the metrics for measuring anonymity. Based on these discussions, the major hypotheses of the research have been tested to find â€Å"Is Internet Anonymity a Myth or a Reality?† From the discussion of the design issues, implementation techniques, the types of attacks and the counter measures used to overcome the attacks, it has been found that in most of the scenarios, a common user could get acceptable level of anonymity by the usage of low latency networks like Tor and other multi proxy aggregate services. This is true because a common user may not expect an attack from a strong adversary. But when the user i s a specific company or a government agency that requires more anonymity, then the expected adversary may be strong. To handle such a strong adversary, specific methods of improvement as suggested by researchers need to be adopted. The practical implementation of these techniques may be challenging. Thus internet anonymity is a myth for specific users who require extreme anonymity, but internet anonymity is a reality for a common user. Contents Chapter 1 – Research Introduction 1.1. Introduction 1.2. Background of the Research 1.3. Research Aim and Objectives 1.4. Main Research Question 1.5. Research Hypotheses 1.6. Scope of the Research 1.7. Research Organization 1.8. Chapter summary Chapter 2 - Preliminary Literature Review 2.1. The Internet Architecture 2.2. Anonymity in Internet 2.3. Primitive Anonymous technology 2.4. Anonymity Tools 2.4.1. Freedom 2.x 2.4.2. Remailers 2.4.3. Freehaven 2.4.4. Digicash 2.4.5. Internet Cash Cards 2.5. Legal issues 2.6. Anonymous Users 2.7. Chapter summary Chapter 3 – Network latency and Anonymity 3.1. Introduction 3.2. Anonymity by High Latency 3.3. Anonymity by Low latency 3.4. Network topology and latency 3.5. Latency without noise 3.6. Challenges in implementing latency networks 3.6.1. Design issues 3.6.1.1. Transportation of data 3.6.1.2. Mid-Level Latency 3.6.1.3. Configuring nodes 3.6.1.4. Diversified Location 3.6.2. Social Challenges 3.6.2.1. Usability 3.6.2.2. Social Value 3.6.2.3. Sustainability 3.6.2.4. Bandwidth and Speed 3.7. Client location and latency 3.8. Circuit linking and latency 3.9. Performance of low latency networks 3.10. Chapter summary Chapter 4 - Multi-proxy Aggregate Services 4.1. Introduction 4.2. Types of Proxy servers 4.3. Need for multi proxy systems 4.4. Implementation of proxy services 4.4.1. A proxy system for intrusion tolerance system 4.4.2. A proxy model for multi modal access to internet services 4.4.3. Anonymous Signature Scheme 4.5. Dynamic Proxies 4.6. Chapter summary Ch apter 5 – TOR network 5.1. Introduction 5.2. TOR framework 5.3. The Onion Router Architecture 5.4. Second Generation TOR design 5.5. Cells in TOR 5.6. Circuit and streaming in TOR 5.6.1. Circuit construction 5.6.2. Streaming in Tor 5.7. Congestion Control 5.7.1. Throttling at circuit level 5.7.2. Throttling at stream