Lightweight Anti-Censorship Online Network for Anonymity and Privacy in Middle Eastern Countries

Tameem Eissa and Gihwan Cho

Division of Electronic and Information Engineering, Chonbuk National University, Republic of Korea

Abstract:  The Onion Router (TOR) online anonymity system is a network of volunteer’s nodes that allows Internet users to be anonymous through consecutive encryption tunnels. Nodes are selected according to estimated bandwidth (bnd) values announced by the nodes themselves. Some nodes may announce false values due to a lack of accuracy or hacking intention. Furthermore, a network bottleneck may occur when running TOR in countries with low Internet speed. In this paper, we highlight the censorship challenges that Internet users face when using anti-censorship tools in such countries. We show that the current anti-censorship solutions having limitations when implemented in countries with extensive internet filtering and low Internet speed. In order to overcome such limitations, we propose a new anonymity online solution based on TOR. The network nodes are selected using a trust based system. Most encryption and path selection computation overhead are shifted to our network nodes. We also provide a new encryption framework where the nodes with higher bnd and resources are chosen and verified carefully according to specific metrics. We use an atomic encryption between entry and exit nodes (Ex) without revealing the secret components of each party. We demonstrate that our solution can provide anonymous browsing in countries with slow internet as well as fewer bottlenecks.

Keywords: Anonymity, Censorship, TOR, Anti-Censorship, Atomic Encryption.