Privacy, applied

The proliferation and increasing sophistication of censorship warrants continuing efforts to develop tools to evade it. Yet, designing effective mechanisms for censorship resistance ultimately depends on accurate models of the capabilities of censors, as well as how those capabilities will likely evolve. In contrast to more established disciplines within security, censorship resistance is relatively nascent, not yet having solid foundations for understanding censor capabilities or evaluating the effectiveness of evasion technologies.

This project develops methods to provide citizens information about technologies that obstruct, restrict, or tamper with their access to information. Internet users need an objective, independent, third-party service that helps them determine whether their Internet service provider or government is restricting access to content, specific protocols, or otherwise degrading service. Towards this goal, we are (1) monitoring attempts to block or manipulate Internet content and communications; and (2) evaluating various censorship circumvention mechanisms in real-world deployments}.

Smart grid integrates sensors and communication infrastructure into the existing power grid to enable operational intelligence. The concept of microgrid is emerging in conjunction with the smart grid wherein small segments of the grid can be isolated into self-sufficient islands to feed their own demand load with their local energy, e.g., wind, solar.

Internet users concerned about their privacy, including whistleblowers and dissident citizens of totalitarian states, depend on reliable means to access Internet services anonymously. However, recent events publicized in popular press demonstrate that these services offer little privacy and anonymity in practice. For example, recent subpoena requiring Twitter to provide connection details of suspected Wikileaks supporters showed that governments can readily discover the network identities of Web users.

This research focuses on understanding the digital security and privacy needs of journalists and their sources to evaluate and design communication technologies that better support the fundamental operations of a globally free and unfettered press. Journalists -- along with their organizations and sources -- are known to be high-risk targets for cyberattack. This community can serve as a privacy and security bellwether, motivated to use new technologies, but requiring flexibility and ease-of-use. Many existing secure tools are too cumbersome for journalists to use on a regular basis.