Research Article
Concealed Communication in Online Social Networks
@INPROCEEDINGS{10.1007/978-3-030-80851-8_9, author={Fabian Schillinger and Christian Schindelhauer}, title={Concealed Communication in Online Social Networks}, proceedings={Applied Cryptography in Computer and Communications. First EAI International Conference, AC3 2021, Virtual Event, May 15-16, 2021, Proceedings}, proceedings_a={AC3}, year={2021}, month={7}, keywords={Online social networks End-to-end encryption Privacy Security Metadata Attack Mix network}, doi={10.1007/978-3-030-80851-8_9} }- Fabian Schillinger
Christian Schindelhauer
Year: 2021
Concealed Communication in Online Social Networks
AC3
Springer
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-80851-8_9
Abstract
Online social networks are used frequently: staying in contact with friends and sharing experiences with them is very important. However, users are increasingly concerned that their data will end up in the hands of strangers or that personal data may even be misused. Secure OSNs can help. These often use encryption to keep the communication between the participants incomprehensible to outsiders. However, participants in such social networks cannot be sure that their data is secure. Various approaches show that even harmless-looking metadata, such as the number of contacts of a user, can be evaluated to draw conclusions about a user and the communication. These attack methods are analyzed and existing secure OSNs are examined, whether these attack methods can be utilized to violate the user’s privacy. To prevent these privacy attacks, protocols for a secure centralized OSN are developed. Metadata is obscured in the presented OSN and end-to-end encryption is used for secure communication. Additionally, communication channels are concealed like in mix networks such that adversaries cannot determine which user is accessing which data or which user is communicating with whom even with full access to the server.
