CAREER: Sustainable Censorship Resistance Systems for the Next Decade

互联网使世界各地的人们能够交流，促进了言论自由、新闻自由和民主。然而，对于数十亿人来说，通过互联网进行交流的自由受到政府或企业的监管、监督和限制。为了打击这种审查制度，研究人员设计并部署了各种审查规避系统。不幸的是，这样的系统是基于特别的启发式方法(而不是坚实的理论基础)设计的，可能会被典型的国家级审查机构击败。这项研究项目正在开发理论、方法和工具，以正式设计、评估和比较审查抵抗系统。研究人员正在开发一个基于理论基础的互联网审查问题的正式模型。特别是，他们正在推导一套标准的衡量标准，用于对每个互联网审查情景中涉及的各方进行建模，并利用博弈论、网络科学和信息理论来分析特定的审查阻力系统。该项目的一个重要部分是设计和部署有效的审查抵抗系统，为互联网用户提供可靠、可持续的审查抵抗。研究人员瞄准的一种方法是在审查规避工具的设计中利用新兴的通信范式，如内容缓存、移动性和云计算。研究人员瞄准的第二种方法是使规避系统的设计适应互联网的体系结构演变。具体地说，研究人员正在调查软件定义网络(SDN)和网络功能虚拟化(NFV)对互联网审查的影响，并调整规避系统的设计，以确保未来可持续的规避性能。

The Internet enables people around the world to communicate, fostering free speech, a free press, and democracy. For billions of people, however, the freedom to communicate via the Internet is regulated, monitored and restricted by governments or corporations. To combat such censorship, researchers have designed and deployed a variety of censorship circumvention systems. Unfortunately, such systems have been designed based on ad hoc heuristics (rather than on solid, theoretical foundations) and can be defeated by typical state-level censors. This research project is developing theory, methodologies, and tools to formally design, evaluate, and compare censorship resistance systems. The researchers are developing a formal model for the Internet censorship problem based on theoretical foundations. In particular, they are deriving a standard set of metrics for modeling the parties involved in each Internet censorship scenario, and leverage game theory, network science, and information theory for the analysis of specific censorship resistance systems. An important part of this project is the design and deployment of effective censorship resistance systems that will provide reliable, sustainable censorship resistance to Internet users. One approach being targeted by the researchers is leveraging emerging communication paradigms such as content caching, mobility, and cloud computing in the design of censorship circumvention tools. The second approach targeted by the researchers is adapting the design of circumvention systems to the architectural evolutions of the Internet. Specifically, the researchers are investigating the impacts of software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) on Internet censorship and adapting the design of circumvention systems to ensure sustainable circumvention performance for the future.