Anonymous networking and virtual intranets: Tools for anonymous corporations

Abstract

Providing a secure and scaleable architecture for anonymous and pseudonymous communications over the Internet is a difficult and challenging task which has previously been approached in a piecemeal fashion. The tools and protocols available to Internet users have not achieved the generality and transparency necessary to make this task of securing communications privacy worth the effort for most people. If the promises of geodesic networking and distributed communications are to be realized then the problems with existing tools must either be overcome or bypassed. As user concerns over privacy and the amount of information regarding their habits and interests on-line grow the legal status of transactions and providing information on the Internet continues to become more and more unclear. Over the past few years the popularity of the Internet has grown exponentially and the eyes of government regulators around the world are beginning to turn to this new form of communication with questions of how to control and monitor the flow of information and services. It becoming increasingly important that computer users have the ability to conduct their affairs behind the protective cloak of anonymity and complete privacy. So far the tools and protocols available for such private communications have focused upon securing and authenticating simple transactions, but this is not enough. The systems proposed in this paper attempt to go a step beyond such simple services and provide users the means by which they can establish persistent communications structures that provide for as much security and anonymity as desired while remaining transparent to the users in general operation. Through such mechanisms is possible for Internet users to create “virtual intereets”, communications hierarchies and organizations which have no physical existence.