Tag: Online

Retrieval Constraints

A couple months ago I wrote up some of the edges that I’ve encountered in thinking about how to structure decentralized data transfer systems. These are an extension of the limitations that were initially encountered in bittorrent style tit-for-tat exchanges, and have now matured into a much more extensive field looking at incentives and other… Continue reading Retrieval Constraints

Private Retrieval

It’s very exciting to have a public face to the thoughts around how to enable effective private access to data. Research Announcement The basic hypothesis here is that there’s a high-leverage opportunity to attract thought around scaling the range of anonymous database or data transfer techniques to reach something with better properties that the systems… Continue reading Private Retrieval

Building Decentralization

I talked earlier this week on some of the current problems in decentralization at the rc3 event. It’s easy to be pessimistic about the current silo’d technological landscape, but decentralized platforms are continuing to make progress and there’s reason to be hopeful. At the same time, there’s a green field of many more decentralized protocols… Continue reading Building Decentralization

Corporate Censorship

One of the most interesting lines of inquiry within the Censored Planet project at the University of Michigan is trying to pull apart the different actors involved in Internet  censorship. One of the interesting quirks is that a significant factor in why content might not be available to users is that the web publisher themselves… Continue reading Corporate Censorship

Messaging Threat models

I talked yesterday at Bornhack about the current state of secure messaging and the different primitives and threats that groups are working to address. The talk is on youtube. The slides are on this site, as are the directions for dogfooding the talek system.

Initial Measurements of the Cuban Street Network

Internet access in Cuba is severely constrained, due to limited availability, slow speeds, and high cost. Within this isolated environment, technology enthusiasts have constructed a disconnected but vibrant IP network that has grown organically to reach tens of thousands of households across Havana. We present the first detailed characterization of this deployment, which is known… Continue reading Initial Measurements of the Cuban Street Network

IETF 98

Last week I talked briefly about the state of open internet measurement for network anomalies at IETF 98. This was my first time attending an IETF in-person meeting, and it was very useful in getting a better understanding of how to navigate the standards process, how it’s used by others, and what value can be… Continue reading IETF 98

Another Strike against Domain Fronting

In 2014, Domain Fronting became the newest obfuscation technique for covert, difficult to censor communication. Even today, the Meek Pluggable transport serves ~400GB of Tor traffic each day, at a cost of ~$3000/month. The basic technique is to make an HTTPS connection to the CDN directly, and then once the encryption has begun, make the… Continue reading Another Strike against Domain Fronting