World libraries : towards efficiently sharing large data volumes in open untrusted environments while preserving privacy

Public libraries have served an invaluable function for a long time. Yet in an age of digital media, traditional methods of publishing and distributing information become increasingly marginalized. This thesis poses the question if and how information technology can be employed to find functional alternatives, conforming to the needs of society that have been changed by information technology itself. To this end we introduce the concept of world libraries: Massively distributed systems that allow for the efficient sharing of large data volumes in open, untrusted environments while preserving privacy. To begin with, we discuss our definition as it relates to similar but different notions, then defend its utility with philosophical, economical, and legal arguments. We go on to examine anonymous file sharing systems with regard to their applicability for world libraries. We identify reasons why these systems have failed to achieve popularity so far, as well as promising principles and structures for successful world library implementations. Of these, distributed hash tables (DHTs) turn out to be particularly important. That is why we study their security and privacy properties in detail. Using both analytical models and simulation, weaknesses in earlier approaches are shown, leading us to the discovery of the first practical DHT that scalably defends against active adversaries. The fourth chapter is dedicated to general bounds on anonymity. Anonymity techniques are important tools for the preservation of privacy. We present novel attacks that endanger the anonymity provided by these tools under very general circumstances, giving analytical lower bounds to the success probability of such attacks measured in the number of adversarial observations. These results limit the applicability of anonymity techniques in world library implementations and other privacy enhancing technologies. Finally, we summarize our findings and their impact on world library design.

Grantor dc:publisher

Publikationsserver der RWTH Aachen University

Year dc:date

2009

Author dc:creator

• Richter, Stefan

Contributors dc:contributor

• Rossmanith, Peter

• info:eu-repo/classification/ddc/004
• Informatik
• Anonymität
• Privatsphäre
• Bibliothek
• Peer-to-Peer-Netz
• Verteiltes System
• Urheberrecht
• verteilte Systeme
• peer-to-peer
• distributed systems
• distributed hash table
• copyright

Statement dc:rights

• info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

https://publications.rwth-aachen.de/search?p=id:%22RWTH-CONV-113719%22

OAI record oai:identifier

https://publications.rwth-aachen.de/oai2d?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_dc&identifier=oai%3Apublications.rwth-aachen.de%3A51428