| NSF Org: |
CNS Division Of Computer and Network Systems |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | March 27, 2015 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | March 27, 2015 |
| Award Number: | 1540066 |
| Award Instrument: | Continuing Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Marilyn McClure
mmcclure@nsf.gov (703)292-5197 CNS Division Of Computer and Network Systems CSE Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering |
| Start Date: | January 15, 2015 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2018 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $1,661,640.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $1,225,153.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1 NASSAU HALL PRINCETON NJ US 08544-2001 (609)258-3090 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
NJ US 08540-5233 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Secure &Trustworthy Cyberspace |
| Primary Program Source: |
01001516DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.070 |
ABSTRACT
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}. The project develops a large-scale measurement and monitoring service that measures network reachability and performance from a variety of access networks to various Internet services; infers whether ISPs or governments are restricting or otherwise throttling access to various applications and services; and detects attempts to tamper with information presented to users. The project also studyies the policy ramifications of making information about censorship and information tampering available to Internet users. It will provide up-to-date information about both the extent of censorship and information tampering in countries around the world and technologies countries are using to implement censorship and thwart censorship circumvention tools. Discoveries are disseminated through real-time portals and through regular written reports and academic publications.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The primary outcomes of our work were the development of the first-ever large-scale systems for measuring Internet censorship and manipulation, as well as several systems that used the information gathered from these systems to develop effective techniques for communicating over the network in the face of disruptive elements (e.g., filters).
Systems produced by this project include:
- Encore, the first ever system to measure HTTP filtering on a global scale, without requiring global deployment of measurement probes.
- Iris, the first ever system to continuously measure DNS manipulation on a global scale.
- Augur, the first ever system to continuously measure TCP/IP filtering on a global scale.
- Systems for actively probing the Great Firewall of China to detect how it discovers circumvention proxies.
- Deniable Liaisons, a system to covertly transmit messages in wireless networks.
- Routing Around Nation-States, a system that allows clients to actively avoid sending traffic through specific countries of their choosing.
- Powerline Whisperer, a system to covertly transmit messages over powerlines within buildings.
- CONIKS, a system to detect and prevent manipulation of TLS certificates.
- Measurement studies of propaganda on Twitter.
The above projects all had deep, significant intellectual merit; one overarching theme was the ability to deploy measurement techniques for Internet censorship safely, accurately, and at scale. Many of the above systems were the first to demonstrate that it was even possible to collect global measurements of censorship, manipulation, and filtering without having people deployed in the countries of interest personally conducting the measurements. The result has been a suite of tools and techniques that allow the safe, global, large-scale measurement of Internet protocol manipulation and filtering.
To build the broder community, the project also convened multiple conferences with outside collaborators, including Bits of Freedom, the Tor Project, OONI, and others. It supported approximately ten Ph.D. students in various project stages, as well as multiple postodcs, several who have become full-time tenure-track faculty at tier-1 research universities. The PIs also actively cultivated this community through leadership in academic conferences, particularly as the founders and long-time organizers of the USENIX Free and Open Communication on the Internet symposium.
The project also spent a significant amount of time and effort exploring the ethics involved in Internet censorship measurement, effectively launching a new field: the ethics of networked systems research. Some of the work from this project directly informed this field, including an entire chapter in the book Bit by Bit, by sociologist Matt Salganik. Another outgrowth of the effort has been a forthcoming ethics column on networked systems in a professional computer science journal.
The long-term impact of this work has become clear as many of the systems whose genesis was this project have now been built into more operational systems that support the data and analysis needs of researchers and policymakers at both non-profit organizations and government agencies.
Last Modified: 02/08/2019
Modified by: Nicholas G Feamster
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