EAGER: Collaborative Research: Exploring Internet Balkanization through the Lens of Regional Discrimination

EAGER：合作研究：通过区域歧视的视角探索互联网巴尔干化

• 批准号: 1651857
• 负责人: Sadia Afroz
• 金额: $ 15万
• 依托单位: International Computer Science Institute
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-10-01 至 2018-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1651857&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; Collaborative; Research; Exploring; Internet

One of the Internet's greatest strengths is the degree to which it facilitates access to any of its resources from users anywhere in the world. Various forces, however, have arisen that restrict particular users from accessing particular destinations, resulting in a "balkanization" of the network. The principal investigators (PIs) explore methodologies for understanding such balkanization, an effort they will undertake in the context of examining "regional discrimination," i.e., the degree to which certain web services deny or degrade access to users from particular geographic regions. The project seeks to develop techniques that can (1) illuminate the blocking practices of websites at scale, (2) characterize the implications of such balkanization for both users and websites, and (3) identify alternative approaches that can reduce the adverse effects of blocking. Accurately distinguishing between the presence of network discrimination/control versus benign reasons for observing differences in website responses poses a challenging technical problem. First, measurement results can differ based on the properties of the vantage points used. Second, websites may block automated measurement even though regular users can access the websites. These errors include blocking due to unusual web access behavior, e.g., uncommon user agents or excessive web requests per minute. Third, repeated automated measurement from an affected region can potentially induce new blocking. Finally, discrimination may manifest at high semantic levels (e.g., the inability to finalize a purchase) not readily discernible from network-level analysis. In addition, accurate measurement alone does not suffice for understanding the significance of differences in website responses. Websites can differ in regions based on language and copyright regulations, for example. Discriminatory blocking can also occur because websites lack sufficiently fine-grained controls to govern blocking. For example, using the security protection provided by content delivery networks (CDNs) and hosting services can result in inadvertent discrimination. The PIs will undertake the development of scientifically rigorous measurement and analysis methodologies for detecting and understanding differential treatment of Internet users, using the domain of regional discrimination to focus the work. Combining measurements across network layers they will characterize the methods used for such blocking and investigate potential reasons and implications for both users and websites. The PIs will also explore alternative solutions to reduce the damaging effects of regional blocking while still protecting the services from abuse. The Internet has a huge and pervasive impact on the lives of people all over the world. The prevalence of moving away from a global and singular Internet to a multiplicity of regional or national internets, shaped by commerce, the state, and region-specific network security concerns, has seen little methodical exploration. With this work the PIs aim to develop approaches for systematically illuminating the presence of network differences and blocking arising from such balkanization, allowing characterization of its prevalence, and by providing transparency strengthen the overall understanding of how the Internet works in practice.

互联网最大的优势之一是它为世界上任何地方的用户访问其任何资源提供便利的程度。然而，出现了各种力量，限制特定用户访问特定目的地，导致网络的“巴尔干化”。主要研究人员（pi）探索理解这种巴尔干化的方法，他们将在检查“区域歧视”的背景下进行工作，即某些web服务拒绝或降低来自特定地理区域的用户访问的程度。该项目旨在开发能够(1)大规模阐明网站封锁实践的技术，(2)描述这种巴尔干化对用户和网站的影响，以及(3)确定可以减少封锁不利影响的替代方法。准确区分网络歧视/控制的存在与观察网站响应差异的良性原因是一个具有挑战性的技术问题。首先，根据所使用的有利位置的特性，测量结果可能会有所不同。其次，网站可能会阻止自动测量，即使普通用户可以访问这些网站。这些错误包括由于不寻常的网络访问行为而导致的阻塞，例如，不寻常的用户代理或每分钟过多的网络请求。第三，来自受影响区域的重复自动测量可能会导致新的阻塞。最后，歧视可能表现在高语义层面（例如，无法完成购买），这在网络层面的分析中是不容易辨别的。此外，仅靠精确的测量还不足以理解网站反应差异的重要性。例如，不同地区的网站可能因语言和版权规定而有所不同。歧视性屏蔽也可能发生，因为网站缺乏足够细粒度的控制来管理屏蔽。例如，使用内容交付网络（cdn）和托管服务提供的安全保护可能会导致无意的歧视。pi将开发科学严谨的测量和分析方法，以检测和理解对互联网用户的差别待遇，使用区域歧视领域作为工作重点。结合跨网络层的测量，他们将描述用于这种屏蔽的方法，并调查对用户和网站的潜在原因和影响。ppi还将探索替代解决方案，以减少区域封锁的破坏性影响，同时仍然保护服务免受滥用。互联网对世界各地人们的生活有着巨大而无处不在的影响。从一个全球性的、单一的互联网转向由商业、国家和特定地区的网络安全问题所塑造的多种区域或国家互联网的流行，几乎没有看到有条理的探索。通过这项工作，pi的目标是开发方法，系统地阐明由这种巴尔干化引起的网络差异和阻塞的存在，允许表征其普遍性，并通过提供透明度加强对互联网在实践中如何工作的总体理解。