Network Security Implementation by Onion Routing

Abstract

Communication is the god given gift that enables intellectual and cultural exchange and builds up our competence in social behavior. The internet has taken communication to unimaginable attitudes. But many questions arise when we think of security. Is Internet communication private? Most security concerns focuses on preventing eavesdropping that is outsiders listening in on electronic conversions. But encrypted messages can still be tracked revealing who is talking to whom. This tracking is called as traffic analysis and may reveal sensitive information. As an initial step towards ensuring a secured communication we have chosen our paper as Onion Routing in LAN. Onion routing is a flexible communication infrastructure that is resistant to both eavesdropping and traffic analysis. The paper is two fold. First it securely establishes the connection. To ensure the security well known networking and Public key Cryptographc techniques are utilized. Here the identities of the sender and the receiver are hidden by an onion structure, which is cryptographically layered data structure that defines the route through the onion routing network. After the route is established by making the entries into the routing table, the data is transmitted over the channel, which is also repeatedly encrypted. Once the data is transferred the connection is destroyed. Using symmetric and asymmetric cryptosystems at different levels enhances further security. Though we have many alternative solutions such as anonymizer and crowds, Onion routing provides the efficient way of protection, which we have implemented.