Re: attack by traffic analysis

> Congraturations on the new WG! I am very much interested in location-based
> services in general and privacy in particular. I think the anonymous use
of
> the location information is also very relevant and important topic.

Yes indeed, some of the next generation wireless services will be highly
dependant on the user's accurate position and orientation. There is a need
for a framework that allows such services without compromising the user's
privacy.

> I wonder how this working group sees the issues about the "traffic
analysis"
> attack. In all IP(v6) mobile terminal world, everyone may have a cell
phone
> with a global IP address. And suppose that John is acessing to the
Internet
> at a hot spot (e.g. a Starbucks cafe in Shinjuku). If a bad guy can
> "traceroute" her/his session and knows the IP address of the cafe and its
> location, the guy can know that John is now in the cafe in Shinjuku). I
> think this problem is very general but becomes serious in mobile use.

This is a very interesting problem which becomes more significant in the
mobile enviroment. May be something can be done to shield the mobile users
from such traceroutes.

I do however, think that next generation mobile terminals will work through
some sort of personal proxies and have dynamic instead of global IP
addresses.

Regards,

Shahid
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------
Shahid Shoaib +1-408-451-4740 Direct
DoCoMo USA Labs Inc. +1-408-573-1090 Fax
shahid@dcl.docomo-usa.com http://www.docomo-usa.com
Received on Tue Jun 26 12:56:10 2001