Enhancing Privacy Against Surveillance and Censorship in Future Internet Architectures

The dramatic growth of the Internet has enhanced access to information, fostering seamless communication and promoting effective collaboration. Unfortunately, advanced network traffic control and monitoring systems have empowered state-level actors to deploy large-scale surveillance and censorship mechanisms that track people’s Internet activities or limit their ability to freely access and publish information. Recently, multiple initiatives have pushed towards an overhaul of the Internet by applying the lessons learned throughout 30 years of practical network engineering experience. These initiatives, known as Future Internet Architectures (FIAs), seek to remove legacy design constraints and improve performance, scalability, and mobility while adding much-needed security features.
However, the deployment of effective privacy-enhancing tools within FIAs and the broader Internet remains a significant challenge. For instance, the traffic of popular anonymity networks such as Tor can be easily detected (and blocked) if not properly hidden. This project aims to enhance our understanding of FIAs and worldwide censorship efforts by investigating the efficacy of popular mechanisms that can be used by state-level actors and design a novel countermeasure.

Faculty Supervisor:

Diogo Barradas

Student:

Partner:

Lviv Polytechnic National University

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Cyber Security; Information and Communications Technology

University:

University of Waterloo

Program: