Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Infranet: Circumventing Web Censorship

Posted by michael on from the best-efforts dept.

edsonw writes "In this paper presented at the 11th USENIX Security Symposium, Feamster et alii presented a method that provide access to censored sites while continuing to host normal uncensored content, using covert communication and steganographic techniques." The Infranet webpage has some more information. No public code yet, though.

5 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. It's a shame that it's coming to this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    In order to enjoy the once free ("not as in beer but as in freedom) Internet, the average user has to sneak around like a criminal.

    Information doesn't want to be free
    Information just wants to be

  2. Obvious Question by Mirk · · Score: 2, Insightful
    I Am Not ANAL, but --

    Does this sort of use of circumvention measures constitute breaking the DMCA?

    --

    --
    What short sigs we have -
    One hundred and twenty chars!
    Too short for haiku.
  3. cost.. motivation..? by tanveer1979 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "using covert communication and steganographic techniques"
    Good idea, but IMHO it will be expensive to implement, and then the question is who would really want it. Of course dont expect your office people to install it. Maybe certain organizations want it... and then also what garuntee is that it wont be made illegal under some god awful bill.
    Till now it has been true that technology has always been a step ahead of censorship, but with the current state of laws, this wont be true for long.

    I am positive that by the time a proper implemention comes out somebody will table the bill to ban it, then we will all cry hoarse in slashdot. The story will make to /. hof...
    Paranoia? Not exactly.. censorship is here to stay... and it is getting bigger.

    --
    My Aurora : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o91ZsGwJYyg
    FB : https://www.facebook.com/TanveersPhotography
  4. But surely they'll just block Infranet? by DamnYouIAmALion · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If I understand this correctly a public server (probably a public web site) needs to host the Infranet server bit to fetch the actual site the user wants.

    What's stopping the 'censor' blocking access to servers that are known to run Infranet? If the user / client software can find out which servers support it, the censor can.

    Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems pretty flawed to me.

  5. Re:More serious Considerations by gmarceau · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Freenet works until the usage of freenet is blanketly outlawed. Freenet fails with the totalitarian argument : "you wouldn't be using encryption if you didn't have anything to hide".

    This not only encrypt the content, but also maskarades as an innocent-looking, 100% normal, everyday happening communication.

    --
    This post was compiled with `% gec -O`. email me if you need the sources