Anonymity Features Research Articles

LBA-PAKE: Lattice-Based Anonymous Password Authenticated Key Exchange for Mobile Devices

The recent advancement in quantum computers generates the threat alarm of breaking the security of key exchange protocols, which is based on discrete logarithmic or prime factorization problem in polynomial time. Hence, motivated to develop the key exchange protocol that is secure in the postquantum era, Feng <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">et al.</i> proposed an anonymous authenticated key exchange protocol for mobile devices in a postquantum world. Although the protocol is simple, elegant, and efficient for mobile devices, but it is vulnerable to signal leakage attack, spoofing attack, manipulation-based attacks, and user anonymity violation attack. Therefore, to overcome the above weaknesses, lattice-based anonymous password authenticated key exchange protocol has been proposed for mobile devices. Further, our protocol supports the key reuse, perfect forward secrecy, and anonymity features. Our formal security proof and implementation results show that the proposed protocol is suitable to be used for real-time security of mobile networks.

"She's a fan, but this was supposed to be scientific": Fan misunderstandings and acafan mistakes

I here reflect on my first forays into fan studies, two separate projects on fans' reactions to Tom Hiddleston's short-lived relationship with Taylor Swift. After discovering live tweets of my 2018 Fan Studies Network presentation that included yet-to-be-published survey research I collected on post-Hiddleswift fannish behaviors, some fans turned to the Anonymous Ask feature of a Hiddleston-focused Tumblr blog to interrogate the results, an article I had recently published, and me. I highlight this experience as a way to reexamine my methodological choices going forward when working with fan populations while writing for academic audiences. Ultimately, I realize future misinterpretations might be prevented by transparency as an acafan on Tumblr and more consistent interaction with fans across social media platforms.

“The dearest of our possessions”: Applying Floridi's information privacy concept in models of information behavior and information literacy

AbstractThis conceptual article argues for the value of an approach to privacy in the digital information environment informed by Luciano Floridi's philosophy of information and information ethics. This approach involves achieving informational privacy, through the features of anonymity and obscurity, through an optimal balance of ontological frictions. This approach may be used to modify models for information behavior and for information literacy, giving them a fuller and more effective coverage of privacy issues in the infosphere. For information behavior, the Information Seeking and Communication Model and the Information Grounds conception are most appropriate for this purpose. For information literacy, the metaliteracy model, using a modification a privacy literacy framework, is most suitable.

A novel credential protocol for protecting personal attributes in blockchain

This paper proposes a novel user-centric and privacy-preserving credential scheme over the blockchain. The proposed protocol allows users to access services without revealing sensitive attributes. This new paradigm is based on an efficient short signature, which uses pairing and self-blindable credentials that are verifiable on the blockchain. Our scheme achieves the advanced features of anonymity, unlinkability, and untraceability of users. Moreover, confidentiality of users’ attributes and unforgeability of their credentials are met. We provide security proofs and a real-world use-case where the protocol can be applied. To empirically assess the performance of our solution, the cryptographic components and communications between the various involved actors are implemented using GO and Java. In addition, an implementation for an online trading use case based on Hyperledger Fabric is provided. Finally, we prove the efficiency of our work by presenting some experimental results and exhibiting comparisons with known traditional credentials schemes.

Abstract TP304: Mimicking Acute Stroke Findings With a Digital Avatar

Introduction: It is now well-accepted that simulation-based learning (SBL) is an important component of medical education. At our institution, we have a state-of-the-art simulation center, and SBL is already incorporated into many medical subspecialties. However, commercially available patient simulators have static faces and lack the realistic depiction of non-verbal facial cues important for rapid diagnosis of neurological emergencies such as stroke. This multidisciplinary project addresses the urgent need for expressive patient simulators by developing acute stroke avatars for use in simulated healthcare training. Methods: Using a previously published and validated method, we developed techniques to display stroke pathologies on a virtual patient simulator (VPS). After obtaining patient or surrogate consent, we obtained source videos from patients admitted to an academic medical center who had experienced acute ischemic stroke resulting in neurological findings such as facial droop, eyelid apraxia, dysarthria, and coma. We then extracted facial features using shape-based modeling techniques, leaving anonymous feature points. Next, we applied a novel algorithm to use these feature points to build accurate computational models (masks) representing the facial characteristics of stroke. We then overlaid these prebuilt masks onto a live facial video stream to generate asymmetric expressions on a virtual avatar. This project was IRB approved. Results: More than 21 videos of stroke patients were made. Once the feature points were extracted from these videos, we were able to develop VPSs capable of expressing realistic asymmetric facial expressions. These avatars were then validated amongst neurologists with clinical experience in diagnosing acute ischemic stroke. Conclusions: This multidisciplinary effort using patient-inspired facial expressions resulted in a tool that aids the stroke education community by making virtual and robotic simulators of acute stroke more varied, interactive, and realistic.

Cryptocurrency and Privacy - An Introduction to the Interface

The largest and best-known Cryptocurrency in the global economy is Bitcoin but it is only one of approximately 2,000 cyptocurrencies in circulation today. A Bitcoin was worth 8,790.51 U.S. dollars as of March 4, 2020 and all the Bitcoins in the world were worth roughly $160.4 billion. In Bitcoin you don’t need to explicitly register or reveal your real world identity, but the pattern of your behavior might itself be identifying. This is the fundamental privacy question in a Cryptocurrency like Bitcoin leading to emergence of Privacy coins such a Monero and Zcash that utilize complex cryptography to achieve the greater Privacy levels with more anonymity features. However, in the zest for increased Privacy with focus on anonymity in Cryptocurrency transaction, the law and order issues are compromised wherein it would be near to impossible for the law enforcement agencies to track criminals dealing in money laundering, terrorist financing, tax evasion and other frauds by using Crypto currencies. In this background, it is necessary to understand “Cryptocurrency and Privacy” as an interface to better comprehends the subject of Cyptocurrency which is very dynamic in technology with multiple global implications on the economic and legal front. The present work aims to study Cryptocurrency in the context of Privacy. The foundational concepts and definitions of the two competing subjects: ‘Cryptocurrency and Privacy’ is taken up for better understanding the background of the interface. Tor, an anonymous communication network is referred in brief to state that the dilemma in the Privacy context is not unique to use of Crypto currencies technology in so far its negative effects are concerned . The conclusion suggest for finding an appropriate balance between an individual’s privacy and State’s security in Cryptocurrency technology.

Anonymous Key-Agreement Protocol for V2G Environment Within Social Internet of Vehicles

The blend of Internet of Things (IoT) and social networking has introduced the emerging notion of social Internet of Things, which is bringing advancements in the operation of concerned industries. There are various prevailing applications of social internet of things; smart grid is one of them. The smart grid is considered as economical robust and intuitive replacement of the conventional grid. However, smart grid experiences two significant challenges, i.e. privacy and security. This article is dedicated to resolve the privacy and security concerns for the vehicle to grid networks to facilitate their large-scale integration with smart grids. As anticipation, a vigorous key agreement protocol is introduced to achieve mutual authentication with an aided feature of user anonymity. Moreover, efficiency in terms of computation, communication and storage needs to be taken care for resource-constrained infrastructure like vehicle to grid network. We have introduced a lightweight key agreement protocol using lightweight cryptographic operations such as exclusive-OR and hash etc. This protocol is validated through a formal security model. An informal security analysis is also elaborated to present the security strength of our protocol against well-known attacks. Furthermore, we have implemented all the cryptographic operations used at trusted agent's side on a desktop system, while the operations used at battery vehicle unit's side are implemented on an Arduino to get the experimental results. In the end, we have presented a performance analysis to compare the performance of our protocol with related ones. This comparison highlights that our protocol is not only lightweight but also efficient in terms of communication and storage cost of related protocols.

Anonymity and Asynchronicity as Key Design Dimensions for the Reciprocity of Online Democratic Deliberation

The aim of this paper is to identify, given certain democratic normative standards regarding deliberation, some pros as well as cons of possible online deliberation designs due to variations in two key design dimensions: namely, asynchronicity and anonymity. In particular, we consider one crucial aspect of deliberative argumentation: namely, its reciprocity, which puts interaction centre stage to capture the back-and-forth of reasons. More precisely, we focus on two essential features of the deliberative interaction: namely, its listening widely and listening carefully. We conclude that one sort of online deliberation that combines the two design features of anonymity and asynchronicity is likely to better promote the reciprocity required for democratic deliberation than both natural and designed offline deliberations (such as the designed deliberation in Deliberative Polling) and online simulations of them.

Money Laundering Through Bitcoin: The Emerging Implications of Technological Advancement.

Bitcoin, conceived by the pseudonymous software developer Satoshi Nakomoto, is the world’s first cryptocurrency. This invention of peer-to-peer electronic cash has trigerred a series of apprehension in the financial world. The fact that it has enabled alternative means of transacting to conventional banking has steered a new source of stress within the financial arena. Bitcoin, in terms of technology and currency, has been defined in many ways. Albeit Paul Vigna and Michael Casey describe it as borderless, pseudo-anonymous, decentralised, and outside of regulatory monetary systems, other researches also suggest that these attributes potentially give rise for criminals to evade law enforcement. The focal point of this paper is to provide an insight on the emergence of illicit financial crimes particularly through money laundering, caused by the increasing use of bitcoins. The research paper explicates on two very common ways for “bitcoin laundering” namely: either through bitcoin mixes or bitcoin exchanges or by using both methods. The risk of money laundering is facilitated by the anonymous feature of bitcoin especially when coupled with sophisticated money laundering services, also known as bitcoin mixing, provided on the Darknet. The second strategy of cashing-out dirty bitcoin through bitcoin exchanges unfolds the issue of regulated and unregulated bitcoin exchanges businesses. The other issue with bitcoin exchanges is that they have now turned to a new shadow banking system of doing off-chain transactions on behalf of their customers to outsiders without any regulations in place. The process of laundering money through bitcoin has become easier and accessible to a greater audience, especially when existing laws are not being applied appropriately. In this context, this paper is of the view that the European Union is the best platform to study cybercrimes, especially crimes related to bitcoin. This paper shall discuss the existing legal and regulatory frameworks provided by the European Union to curb cybercrimes but also, by illustrating the attempts (and the lack of attempts) made by the English and German governments to regulate risks of cybercrimes posed by cryptocurrency.

Highly Anonymous Mobility-Tolerant Location-Based Onion Routing for VANETs

Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) have received considerable attention in recent years. Like any other network, privacy and anonymity are a requirement in VANETs. Classic anonymous routing protocols such as onion routing algorithm are fragile in mobile networks due to frequent link breaks. In this article, we propose a novel onion-based anonymous routing protocol for highly mobile vehicular networks. It introduces the concept of location-based dynamic relay groups. In this concept, vehicles dynamically form groups around specific locations to act as cryptographic onion relays. The proposed protocol satisfies source anonymity, destination anonymity, and route anonymity features and is very scalable. Employment of pseudo-IDs further helps in keeping the real identity of vehicles anonymous. The proposed protocol can modify the chain structure on the fly and make it longer to maintain source/destination location anonymity or cut it short to maintain performance. The extensive simulations conducted based on the SUMO traffic simulator showed that the proposed protocol significantly outperforms the naive onion routing protocol in terms of delivery ratio, delay and number of retransmissions.

Anonymity as a Strategy in Friedrich Schleiermacher’s Early Work, and its Theological and Social Implications

ABSTRACTThis article appraises a series of Friedrich Schleiermacher’s early writings (1799–1800). While appreciating the material conditions under which Schleiermacher was compelled to write anonymously, it also argues that anonymity features in these works as a literary strategy that sheds light on wider issues in his thought. I contend that the way Schleiermacher plays with this motif of anonymity helpfully illuminates distinctive theological assumptions undergirding his understanding of human nature, human language and gesture, and the rules he argues should govern social conduct.

Design of a lightweight and anonymous authenticated key agreement protocol for wireless body area networks

SummaryWireless body area networks (WBANs) are a network designed to gather critical information about the physical conditions of patients and to exchange this information. WBANs are prone to attacks, more than other networks, because of their mobility and the public channel they use. Therefore, mutual authentication and privacy protection are critical for WBANs to prevent attackers from accessing confidential information of patients and executing undetectable physical attacks. In addition, in the authentication and key agreement process, messages should be transferred anonymously such that they are not linkable. In this paper, we first indicate that one of the most recently introduced authentication protocol is vulnerable to the wrong session key agreement attack and desynchronization attack. Second, we propose a lightweight authentication and key agreement protocol, which can withstand the well‐known attacks and provide the anonymity feature. Eventually, we analyze the security of our proposed protocol using both Automated Validation of Internet Security Protocols and Applications (AVISPA) and random oracle model and compare its performance with the related works. The results demonstrate the superiority of our proposed protocol in comparison with the other protocols.

Pairing Free Certificate Based Signcryption Schemes Using ECQV Implicit Certificates

Signcryption schemes offer the possibility to simultaneously sign and encrypt a message. In order to guarantee the authentication of both signer and receiver in the most efficient way during the signcryption, certificate based solutions have been proposed in literature. We first compare into detail three recently proposed certificate based signcryption systems relying on the elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem and without the usage of compute intensive pairing operations. Next, we demonstrate how the performance of these certificate based systems can be improved by using the Elliptic Curve Qu Vanstone (ECQV) implicit certificates. What is more, generalized signcryption schemes are easily derived from these schemes and the anonymity feature of sender and receiver is already inherently included or can be very efficiently obtained without a significant additional cost.

Anonymous Lightweight Proxy Based Key Agreement for IoT (ALPKA)

The Internet of Things (IoT) technologies interconnect a broad range of network devices, differing in terms of size, weight, functionality, and resource capabilities. The main challenge is to establish the required security features in the most constrained devices, even if they are unknown to each other and do not share common pre-distributed key material. As a consequence, there is a high need for scalable and lightweight key establishment protocols. In this paper, we propose a key agreement protocol between two IoT devices without prior trust relation, using solely symmetric key based operations, by relying on a server or proxy based approach. This proxy is responsible for the verification of the authentication and the key agreement between the IoT devices, without being capable of deriving the established session key. We propose two versions. The first version does not require interactive input from the key distribution center to the proxy, but is not resistant if a compromised user and proxy are collaborating. The second version on the other hand is collision resistant, but needs an interactive key distribution center. In addition, we add the interesting features of anonymity and unlinkability of the sender and receiver in both protocol versions. The security properties of the proposed protocol are verified by using formal verification techniques.

Social network migration and anonymity expectations: What anonymous social network apps offer

Social networking is not a new phenomenon, but what outlet people use continues to evolve. Recently, anonymous social networking applications (SNAs) have gained in popularity, particularly among young people who are reducing use of traditional social networking sites (SNSs). Anonymous SNAs prevent other users from identifying individuals, which is the most marketed appeal. Despite the popularity, little research investigates why people are moving from traditional SNSs to anonymous SNAs. Using migration theory, we consider the transition through push, pull, and mooring factors. Findings indicate social norms, not anonymity features, drive migration. These findings have important implications for developers and researchers.

Anonymous Bitcoin v enforcement law

ABSTRACTBitcoin is the most prominent cryptocurrency that is frequently debated nowadays, basically defined as decentralised ‘currency’, ‘payment system’ and ‘investment tool’ which is an opportunity offered by today's digital age. In this article, we aim to fulfil the analysis of the legal basis of the matter from both technical and legal point of view. Despite there are many legal issues related to Bitcoin, we will particularly draw attention to some of the fundamental legal problems caused by the anonymity feature of the Bitcoin. Among these problems that may arise, only the disputes that may fall within the scope of the cases relating to debt and asset which have an impact on enforcement law will be examined. We will discuss the anonymity feature, considering the possibility of accessing an anonymous Bitcoin wallet. The article examines the situation where a debtor or one of the parties in a lawsuit may conceal their assets unfairly via Bitcoin (with the anonymity feature) in civil disputes relating to debt and assets. Has Bitcoin turned into a tool that malevolent debtors can hide their wealth while at the same time, a secret place where they can invest their money? In this study, we will offer solutions on overcoming the anonymity feature in practice and how to reveal and reach the wealth that are stored via Bitcoin wallet. Likewise, it will be underlined what malevolent debtors or parties in a lawsuit who want to obscure their wealth via Bitcoin wallet can do to strengthen their anonymity. Finally, we provide a specific and practical guideline for judges and especially creditor's lawyers in order to reduce the potential adverse situation that Bitcoin's anonymity feature can cause.

ASKfm: Motives of Self-Disclosure to Anonymous Questions

Self-disclosure may happen greatly in social media because nonverbal cues were reduced and their anonymity feature, while they also control their content distribution to certain boundaries based on their own privacy management. The purposes of this research are to know motivation of ASKfm users to disclose their personal information to anonymous questions and how privacy rule criteria such as gender, culture, and context make them want to disclose their personal information to anonymous questions. By using in-depth interview, data were collected from three males and three females aged 18 to 24 years old. They had ASKfm accounts, had answered anonymous questions at least five times, had minimum 100 likes in total, and had revealed personal information to the anonymous questions. ASKfm involved personal evaluation towards rewards and costs received by the users. Participants were motivated to disclose their personal information to anonymous questions to get enjoyment by receiving and answering many anonymous questions as well as relationship building. The motivations indirectly caused self-presentation in which some participants promoted their ASKfm accounts in other social media to get more questions. Collectivistic participants received benefit on enjoyment, while individualistic participants who received benefit on relationship building and maintenance. Participants were more careful in managing disclosures because they were aware of possible risks and possibility of widely personal information distribution to unknown publics by filtering the questions rather than changing the Privacy Settings. KEYWORDS : anonymity, anonymous questions, ASKfm, motivations, privacy management, self-disclosure

Off-line digital cash schemes providing untraceability, anonymity and change

Several ecash systems have been proposed in the last twenty years or so, each offering features similar to real cash. One feature which to date has not been provided is that of a payee giving change to a payer for an e-coin in an off-line setting. In this paper, we indicate how an off-line ecash system can solve the change-giving problem. In addition, our protocol offers the usual expected features of anonymity and unlinkability of the payer, but can reveal the identity of an individual who illegally tries to spend ecash twice.

A Remote Attestation Security Model Based on Privacy-Preserving Blockchain for V2X

The vehicle to everything (V2X) requires the real-time integration of all kinds of information on roads, pedestrians, the environment, and vehicles themselves. This information also needs to be shared with other vehicles. The effective integration of information and the strong privacy protection are the key restrictions on the development of the V2X. The previous privacy protection model has mainly focused on the centralized network, and there were problems with the centralized gateway and single-point decision, which were not suitable for the decentralized scenario. Therefore, this paper proposes a remote attestation security model based on a privacy-preserving blockchain. The overall model involves two core steps. First, the vehicle provides the network with an evidence of a credible identity and integrity. Secured, the vehicles in the network calculate the nodes to make their respective decisions, and the accounting nodes summarize the sub-conclusions, form the final results, and write them into data blocks. The analysis shows that it possesses the security features of decentralization, traceability, anonymity, irreplaceability, and high efficiency. The model framework, core block chain structure, and protocol process are described in detail. The experimental results based on a realistic infrastructure are presented. These experimental results demonstrate that our scheme can effectively enhance the security of the communications of intelligent vehicles in the V2X.

Breaking Three Remote user Authentication Systems for Mobile Devices

Smart-card-based user authentication is a significant security mechanism that allows remote users to be granted access to services and resources in distributed computing environments. In this paper, we review three password-based authentication schemes with smart cards proposed by Mishra et al., in JISA 2015, Wu et al. in SCN 2015 and Moon et al. in IJNS 2017, respectively. We demonstrate that: (1) Despite being armed with a formal security proof in all schemes, Mishra et al.’s scheme actually cannot achieve the claimed feature of user anonymity and is vulnerable to a new insider attack scenario; and (2) Wu et al.’s scheme remains being susceptible to de-synchronization attack as they stated to overcome the weaknesses of Kumar et al.’s scheme. (3) Moon et al.’s scheme cannot achieve user anonymity and is susceptible to a novel impersonation attack. Furthermore, with the cryptanalysis of these three schemes and our previous protocol design and analysis experience, we figure out two principles to design more robust smart-card-based user authentication schemes. The proposed principles would be helpful to protocol designers for proposing schemes with desirable user friendliness and security.