Related papers: Censors' Delay in Blocking Circumvention Proxies

Tor is vulnerable to network-level adversaries who can observe both ends of the communication to deanonymize users. Recent work has shown that Tor is susceptible to the previously unknown active BGP routing attacks, called RAPTOR attacks,…

There are currently no requirements (technical or otherwise) that BGP paths must be contained within national boundaries. Indeed, some paths experience international detours, i.e., originate in one country, cross international boundaries…

Many prominent smart-contract applications such as payment channels, auctions, and voting systems often involve a mechanism in which some party must respond to a challenge or appeal some action within a fixed time limit. This pattern of…

This paper examines different reasons the websites may vary in their availability by location. Prior works on availability mostly focus on censorship by nation states. We look at three forms of server-side blocking: blocking visitors from…

Online anonymity and privacy has been based on confusing the adversary by creating indistinguishable network elements. Tor is the largest and most widely deployed anonymity system, designed against realistic modern adversaries. Recently,…

Phishing webpages are continuously polluting the Web. Plenty of countermeasures have been proposed and the most advanced techniques leverage machine-learning methods that infer whether a webpage is benign or not by inspecting its visual…

Firewalls have long been in use to protect local networks from threats of the larger Internet. Although firewalls are effective in preventing attacks initiated from outside, they are vulnerable to insider threats, e.g., malicious insiders…

Tor and I2P are well-known anonymity networks used by many individuals to protect their online privacy and anonymity. Tor's centralized directory services facilitate the understanding of the Tor network, as well as the measurement and…

Open communication over the Internet poses a serious threat to countries with repressive regimes, leading them to develop and deploy network-based censorship mechanisms within their networks. Existing censorship circumvention systems face…

We examine the extent of needless traffic exposure by the routing infrastructure to nations geographically irrelevant to packet transmission. We quantify what countries are geographically logical to observe on a network path traveling…

Anecdotal evidence suggests an increasing number of people are turning to VPN services for the properties of privacy, anonymity and free communication over the internet. Despite this, there is little research into what these services are…

The Tor network offers network anonymity to its users by routing their traffic through a sequence of relays. A group of nine directory authorities maintains information about all available relay nodes using a distributed directory protocol.…

When does Internet traffic cross international borders? This question has major geopolitical, legal and social implications and is surprisingly difficult to answer. A critical stumbling block is a dearth of tools that accurately map routers…

Since 2006, Turkmenistan has been listed as one of the few Internet enemies by Reporters without Borders due to its extensively censored Internet and strictly regulated information control policies. Existing reports of filtering in…

We model and analyze passive adversaries that monitors Tor traffic crossing the border of a jurisdiction an adversary is controlling. We show that a single adversary is able to connect incoming and outgoing traffic of their border, tracking…

Virtually every connection to an Internet service is preceded by a DNS lookup which is performed without any traffic-level protection, thus enabling manipulation, redirection, surveillance, and censorship. To address these issues, large…

For journalists reporting from a totalitarian regime, whistleblowers and resistance fighters, the anonymous use of cloud services on the Internet can be vital for survival. The Tor network provides a free and widely used anonymization…

Domain probe lists--used to determine which URLs to probe for Web censorship--play a critical role in Internet censorship measurement studies. Indeed, the size and accuracy of the domain probe list limits the set of censored pages that can…

Protocol detection is the process of determining the application layer protocol in the context of network security monitoring, which requires a timely and precise decision to enable protocol-specific deep packet inspection. This task has…

Attacks on Internet routing are typically viewed through the lens of availability and confidentiality, assuming an adversary that either discards traffic or performs eavesdropping. Yet, a strategic adversary can use routing attacks to…