Related papers: Zephyr: Hiding Metadata in a Messaging System
WhatsApp messenger is arguably the most popular mobile app available on all smart-phones. Over one billion people worldwide for free messaging, calling, and media sharing use it. In April 2016, WhatsApp switched to a default end-to-end…
Secure communications are playing increasing roles in society, particularly in finance, journalism, and military projects. Current methods of securing e-mail and similar messaging methods rely on encryption of the message body, but the…
Secure messaging applications often offer privacy to users by protecting their messages from would be observers through end-to-end encryption techniques. However, the metadata of who communicates with whom cannot be concealed by encryption…
Rapidly changing social norms and national, legal, and political conditions socially constrain people from discussing sensitive topics such as sexuality or religion. Such constrained, vulnerable minorities are often worried about…
Fully Encrypted Protocols (FEPs) have arisen in practice as a technique to avoid network censorship. Such protocols are designed to produce messages that appear completely random. This design hides communications metadata, such as version…
A substantial body of research has focused on formalising what constitutes a ``secure'' messaging system, recognising that end-to-end encryption alone is insufficient to capture the full range of security, privacy, and usability properties…
Instant messaging services are quickly becoming the most dominant form of communication among consumers around the world. Apple iMessage, for example, handles over 2 billion message each day, while WhatsApp claims 16 billion messages from…
As increasingly more sensitive data is being collected to gain valuable insights, the need to natively integrate privacy controls in data analytics frameworks is growing in importance. Today, privacy controls are enforced by data curators…
Encrypted messaging services like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Signal provide secure and deniable communication for billions across the world, but these exact properties prevent holding users accountable for sending messages that are…
Social networks, instant messages and file sharing systems are common communication means among friends, families, coworkers, etc. Due to concerns of personal privacy, identify thefts, data misuse, freedom of speech and government…
One of the most important issues in peer-to-peer networks is anonymity. The major anonymity for peer-to-peer users concerned with the users' identities and actions which can be revealed by any other members. There are many approaches…
The privacy of personal information is an important issue affecting the confidence of internet users. The widespread adoption of online social networks and access to these platforms using mobile devices has encouraged developers to make the…
Online social networks are used frequently by many people: Staying in contact with friends and sharing experiences with them is very important. However, users are increasingly concerned that their data will end up in the hands of strangers…
For those seeking end-to-end private communication free from pervasive metadata tracking and censorship, the Tor network has been the de-facto choice in practice, despite its susceptibility to traffic analysis attacks. Recently, numerous…
Security is one of the major concerns of modern communication systems. Users demand a secure communication environment that provides privacy to the people while they are sharing messages to anyone. Privacy is a prime concern nowadays. This…
Privacy Shielding against Mass Surveillance provides a step by step tactical approach to protecting the privacy of all the users of the internet from mass surveillance programs by the governments and other state agencies. Protection of…
Messaging systems built on mesh networks consisting of smartphones communicating over Bluetooth have been used by protesters around the world after governments have disrupted Internet connectivity. Unfortunately, existing systems have been…
This paper introduces a new attack on recent messaging systems that protect communication metadata. The main observation is that if an adversary manages to compromise a user's friend, it can use this compromised friend to learn information…
Like most modern software, secure messaging apps rely on third-party components to implement important app functionality. Although this practice reduces engineering costs, it also introduces the risk of inadvertent privacy breaches due to…
WhatsApp and many other commonly used communication platforms guarantee end-to-end encryption (E2EE), which requires that service providers lack the cryptographic keys to read communications on their own platforms. WhatsApp's…