No More Hiding on the Internet- Patent #6,974,978 to the NSA

[buzzsaw_23]

NSA patent can locate Internet users
By UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Published September 22, 2005


WASHINGTON -- Internet users thinking they can hide anonymously may soon get an awakening.
    
    On Sept. 20 the United States awarded patent 6,974,978. The patent was filed on December 29, 2000 by Stephen Mark Huffman and Michael Henry Reifer, with the assignee being United States of America as represented by the director of the National Security Agency.

   
    According to the patent's abstract, the invention is a "Method for geolocating logical network addresses on electronically switched dynamic communications networks, such as the Internet, using the time latency of communications to and from the logical network address to determine its location.

http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20050922-024816-1505r

[Mr Rabble]

1. They have been doing this for years.

Its about time it was patented.

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[BigBearJohn]

2. It had to happen sooner or later

[ret5hd]

3. seems to me to be easy to defeat...

program an IP stack to randomly vary latency.

not a tech guru, just talkin' out my ass.

[Canuckistanian]

4. You can program latency?

I thought it was just a function of delays between servers and terminals.
Anyone know if this can be done?

[ret5hd]

5. what i was specifically referring to...

was the latency between your box and the server serving your box, and you would only be able to affect the replys FROM your box TO that box, which might do no more than "confuse" the issue for a while.

[Davis_X_Machina]

6. Worst case you can run packets...

...through long physical conductors with a significant velocity factor.

Maybe there's a future for coax yet! 10baseT forever!

[Canuckistanian]

8. You'd need very long conductors

Velocity factors don't make that much difference to the average user.

[Davis_X_Machina]

15. You have no idea...

...how much surplus RG-58 I got in the basement. Seems IT bought a bargeload, on the assumption that "this unshielded stuff will never catch on".

:-)

[SpiralHawk]

19. "Homeland Security" will be along momentarily, Davis, to...

confiscate your private stash...

[slampoet]

13. Variable rate digital delays have been in audio applications for decades

Why not this.

[TheWraith]

7. I'm not sure how this would be particularly reliable.

Latency can be a tremendously variable thing. A dialup connection can have 200ms more lag than a cable connection next door. Cellular wireless or satellite connections can range from 500 up to 1000 ms or higher.

Not to mention the fact that data can often go hundreds or even thousands of miles out of its way from the nodes that it's assigned to: I'm in western New York state, and my ISP's data link is in the middle of Colorado. My last ISP was in Georgia. I'm not saying that it's impossible, just that I can't see this being hugely practical.

[DS1]

9. Ok everyone, just start typing very slowly

Signed, Neil

[bemildred]

10. Not new (been around for a bit) and easy to thwart/fake. nt

[GOPAgainstGW]

14. Agree!

[Zynx]

11. IOW, IP traces? *chuckles*

[benburch]

12. I could easily patch tcp stack of a router to introduce random latency...

But that would not defeat this practice!

A random latency introduced at one place can be factored out by looking at enough repetitions.

I looked at this effect years ago when I was doing security and cryptographic work for Zenith.

[SlowDownFast]

16. Tor. Onion routing.

The solution: a distributed, anonymous network

Tor helps to reduce the risks of both simple and sophisticated traffic analysis by distributing your transactions over several places on the Internet, so no single point can link you to your destination. The idea is similar to using a twisty, hard-to-follow route in order to throw off somebody who is tailing you—and then periodically erasing your footprints. Instead of taking a direct route from source to destination, data packets on the Tor network take a random pathway through several servers that cover your tracks so no observer at any single point can tell where the data came from or where it's going.




To create a private network pathway with Tor, the user's software or client incrementally builds a circuit of encrypted connections through servers on the network. The circuit is extended one hop at a time, and each server along the way knows only which server gave it data and which server it is giving data to. No individual server ever knows the complete path that a data packet has taken. The client negotiates a separate set of encryption keys for each hop along the circuit to ensure that each hop can't trace these connections as they pass through.



Once a circuit has been established, many kinds of data can be exchanged and several different sorts of software applications can be deployed over the Tor network. Because each server sees no more than one hop in the circuit, neither an eavesdropper nor a compromised server can use traffic analysis to link the connection's source and destination. Tor only works for TCP streams and can be used by any application with SOCKS support.

For efficiency, the Tor software uses the same circuit for connections that happen within the same minute or so. Later requests are given a new circuit, to keep people from linking your earlier actions to the new ones.



Read more about Tor and it's history and development. Open source code available for examination.

http://tor.eff.org/

Electronic Frontier Foundation - Defending Freedom in the Digital World:
http://www.eff.org/

[benburch]

17. I run a tor router node...

Just because I'm such an evil bastard.

[SlowDownFast]

18. Good for you, benburch!

The more folks who host Tor router nodes, the stronger the anonymity of Tor. It is growing, from my understanding.

You do internet privacy and those who value it a noble service!

Thanks!

:toast: