CAREER: Internet-wide censorship detection, diagnosis, and circumvention beyond nation-state censorship

自第二次世界大战以来，世界上民主国家的数量最近首次减少。新独裁政权对互联网进行了严格的审查，私人机构、主要平台和互联网服务提供商也纷纷效仿。这些新的威胁行为者的数量远远超过了审查制度研究中传统上研究的大型极权主义国家，它们的运作方式不同，具有不同的能力和局限性。这需要一种新的审查检测、诊断和规避科学。该项目的新奇之处是对抗新的、更灵活的威胁行为者审查制度的有效技术和工具。该项目更广泛的意义和重要性是通过维护互联网自由和人权来保护用户，并为更安全和民主的技术未来做出贡献。该项目通过设计和验证适用于检测政府和非政府行为者的封锁活动的新测量方法，加强了全球审查观察站。此外，该项目引入了可扩展的技术，用于检测深度包检测（DPI）中间箱并跟踪其用于审查的使用，并通过与中型互联网服务提供商（ISP）合作模拟对抗网络，为现代DPI功能提供准确的威胁模型。最后，该项目调查了采用翻墙工具（CT）背后的定量和定性因素，如技术、操作和可用性问题，并帮助确保CT满足用户需求。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The number of democracies in the world has decreased recently for the first time since World War II. The newly authoritarian regimes engage heavily in Internet censorship, and private institutions, major platforms, and Internet service providers are following suit. These new threat actors far outnumber the large totalitarian states traditionally studied in censorship research and they operate differently, with different capabilities and limitations. This requires a new science of censorship detection, diagnosis, and circumvention. The project’s novelties are effective techniques and tools for combating censorship by the new, more nimble threat actors. The project’s broader significance and importance are to safeguard users and contribute to a more secure and democratic technology future by upholding Internet freedom and human rights.This project enhances global censorship observatories through the design and validation of new measurement methodologies that are suitable for detecting the blocking activities of governments and non-governmental actors alike. Moreover, the project introduces scalable techniques for detecting Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) middleboxes and tracking their use for censorship and provides accurate threat models for modern DPI capabilities by simulating an adversarial network in partnership with a mid-sized Internet Service Provider (ISP). Finally, the project investigates quantitative and qualitative factors behind circumvention tool (CT) adoption, such as technical, operational, and usability issues, and helps ensure that CTs meet users’ needs.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.