Faculty Recruiting Support CICS

Measuring Network Interference and Mitigating it with DNS Encryption

21 Mar
Monday, 03/21/2022 2:00pm to 4:00pm
Zoom
PhD Thesis Defense
Speaker: Arian Niaki

Abstract: In this dissertation, I will describe my contributions towards understanding network interference, including Internet censorship as well as throttling of specific network applications (traffic differentiation). I develop a network measurement platform that enables monitoring of network interference globally on an ongoing basis. I then focus on understanding the DNS censorship behavior of the Great Firewall of China (GFW) by leveraging remote network measurement techniques.

Additionally, I investigate the prevalence of traffic differentiationpractices and how they impact popular video streaming applications. I demonstrate that network interference is prevalent even with encryption enabled. This has led to the development of DNS and TLS improvements that aim to enhance user privacy and security. I review two recent
proposals, namely DNS over HTTPS/TLS (DoH/DoT) and Encrypted Server Name Indication (ESNI), and investigate their potential to mitigate network interference and improve user privacy.

Advisor: Phillipa Gill

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