Anonymity on the Internet -By Jacob Palme and Mikael Berglund

1
Anonymity on the Internet-By Jacob Palme and
Mikael Berglund

• Presented by Harsha Alagud

2
Abstract

• How is anonymity used on the Internet?
• What are the pros and cons of anonymity on the
  Internet
• How anonymous is an Internet user?
• How much anonymity can one aquire?
• How can the identity of an anonymous user be
  revealed?

3
Table of Contents

• Definitions
• Pros of Anonymity
• Cons of Anonymity
• Ways of achieving Anonymity
• Ways of unveiling the Anonymous user.

4
Definitions

• Message Any communication unit used on the
  Internet.E.g. email, news article, web page, a
  blog, a comment posted in a discussion thread
  etc.
• Anonymity The real author of a message is not
  shown.
• Psuedonymity Another name other than the real
  author is shown.

5
Defintions

• Deception A person intentionally tries to give
  the impression that he is someone else.

6
Positive aspects of Anonymity

• People in a country with a repressive political
  regime, may use anonymity to avoid persecutions
  for their opinions.
• People may openly discuss personal health
  problems.
• People may get objective evaluation of their
  messages, by not showing their real name. Factors
  like status, gender, race which could influence
  the evaluation of what they say will not be known.

7
Darker side of Anonymity

• Anonymity can be used for disruptive activities
  like terrorism.
• Anonymity can be used for illegal activities like
  distribution of computer viruses, fraud etc.

8
Achieving Anonymity

• Anonymity can be implemented on the Internet, to
  make it almost impossible or very difficult to
  find out who the real author is.
• But Anonymity is never 100. There is always a
  possibility to find the perpetrator, especially
  if the same person uses the same way to gain
  anonymity multiple times.

9
Achieving Anonymity Case 1

• A person sends email or posts an article/comment
  using a falsified name.
• In this case, the security of the anonymous user
  is not very high.
• The IP number of the computer is usually logged,
  often along with the host name (logical name)
  also.

10
Achieving Anonymity Case 1

• New comment on your post 28 "My first
  flight"Author Harsha (IP 128.111.43.205 ,
  dinah.cs.ucsb.edu)E-mail itisharsha_at_yahoo.comU
  RI    Whois   http//ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.
  pl?queryinput128.111.43.205

11
Search result from ARIN (American Registry for
Internet Numbers)

• Search results for 128.111.43.205 OrgName
  University of California, Santa Barbara OrgID
  UCSB Address Office of Information Technology
  Address North Hall 2124 City Santa Barbara
  StateProv CA PostalCode 93106-3201 Country
  US

12
Achieving anonymity Case 1

• In case of email, the email header contains a
  trace of the route of a message.
• The header can be seen from commands like show
  full header in your mailer. E.gShow orginal in
  gmail reveals the header.

13
Achieving higher degree of anonymity Using
several computers (case 2)

• The impostor first connects to computer A, then
  from this computer to computer B, then from this
  to computer C, etc.
• To find the real person, all the steps must be
  followed backward. It is a tedious process and
  includes the co-operation of all computer owners
  involved.

14
Achieving anonymity Using Anonymity servers
(case 3)

• An anonymity server receives messages and resends
  them under another identity.
• There are 2 types
• Full anonymity servers where no identifying
  information is forwarded.
• Pseudonymous servers where message is forwarded
  under a pseudonym.

15
Achieving anonymity Using Anonymity servers
(case 3)

• There are companies which provide anonymity
  servers for users who require them. E.g.
  Anon.penet.fi
• People who want to achieve high security against
  being revealed, often use several anonymity
  servers in sequence.
• To trace them, each server must assist or be
  penetrated.
• Tracing becomes difficult if each anonymity
  servers are placed in different countries.
  Anon.penet.fi server was located in Finland.

16
Conclusion

• There are different ways to achieve anonymity,
  making it almost impossible to know the real
  author
• However, the law enforcement agencies can always
  find a way to reveal the identity.
• All anonymity server providers and Internet
  Service Providers are required by law to
  co-operate if demanded by the Court.

17
Conclusion

• Questions?

18
Conclusion

• Thank You