The unbalancing act : proxy preservation for censorship resistance systems
department or school: Science, Faculty of
department or school: Computer Science, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Spacek, Jodi
issued: 2019-04-23T16:43:14Z
issued: 2019
related degree: Master of Science - MSc
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Internet censorship is a form of digital authoritarianism in certain countries that restrict access to the internet. Internet freedom, to a degree, is possible even in these countries by means of proxies maintained outside of the censor's boundaries. These proxies can be compromised by censors who pose as legitimate users to discover proxies. Censors are powerful adversaries and may block access to any proxy once they know about it. We propose a novel technique to address the proxy distribution problem in this thesis. We introduce the needle algorithm that preserves proxies by limiting their distribution. We show that it is a useful mechanism for both preserving proxies and maintaining client service under a censorship threat model. We examine characteristics of the needle algorithm in a simulation. Three measures are important under the censorship threat model; the enumeration or discovery of all proxies, load balancing guarantees, and the collateral damage of innocent bystanders. We compare the results of these experiments with two well-known algorithms, uniform random and power of 2 choices, as well as Tor's bridgedb proxy assignment mechanism.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/69845
note: The unbalancing act: proxy preservation for censorshipresistance systemsbyJodi SpacekBachelor of Computer Science, UBC, 2014Bachelor of Music, Mount Allison University, 2000A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENTOF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OFMaster of ScienceinTHE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORALSTUDIES(Computer Science)The University of British Columbia(Vancouver)April 2019c© Jodi Spacek, 2019The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Fac-ulty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the thesis entitled:The unbalancing act: proxy preservation for censorship resistance sys-temssubmitted by Jodi Spacek in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degreeof Master of Science in Computer Science.Examining Committee:Ivan Beschastnikh, Computer ScienceSupervisorNorman Hutchinson, Computer ScienceSupervisory Committee MemberiiAbstractInternet censorship is a form of digital authoritarianism in certain countries thatrestrict access to the internet. Internet freedom, to a degree, is possible even inthese countries by means of proxies maintained outside of the censor’s boundaries.These proxies can be compromised by censors who pose as legitimate users todiscover proxies. Censors are powerful adversaries and may block access to anyproxy once they know about it.We propose a novel technique to address the proxy distribution problem in thisthesis. We introduce the needle algorithm that preserves proxies by limiting theirdistribution. We show that it is a useful mechanism for both preserving proxies andmaintaining client service under a censorship threat model.We examine characteristics of the needle algorithm in a simulation. Three mea-sures are important under the censorship threat model; the enumeration or discov-ery of all proxies, load balancing guarantees, and the collateral damage of innocentbystanders. We compare the results of these experiments with two well-known al-gorithms, uniform random and power of 2 ch…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2019-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0378365
language: eng
degree discipline: Computer Science
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/69845