Paul Syverson Home Page

Email Address: firstname.lastname AT nrl.navy.mil Mailing Address: Paul Syverson PO Box 3735 Silver Spring MD 20918 USA Telephone: +1 202-404-7931

Tor NRL Onion Routing Site ixquick, Duck Duck Go, Google Anonymity Bibliography Muir's LNCS quick links My Google Scholar page

Some advertisements for professional activities with which I am involved:

• Program Committee, ACM Workshop on Privacy in the Electronic Society (WPES 2013)
• Program Committee, 3rd Conference on Principles of Security and Trust (POST 2014)
• Associate Editor, Journal of Computer Security (JCS)
• Steering Committee, NDSS (Internet Society Network and Distributed System Security Symposium)
• Advisory Board, PETS (Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium)
• Steering Committee, CSF (IEEE Computer Security Foundations Symposium)
• Steering Committee, ACM WPES (ACM Workshop on Privacy in the Electronic Society)
• Charter Member, IFIP WG 1.7, on Theoretical Foundations of Security Analysis and Design

Advertisements for some past activities that I was ``in charge of'' in some way:

• Steering Committee, ACM CCS (ACM Computer and Communications Security Conference)
• Director, IFCA (International Financial Cryptography Association), 2002 -- 2005
• Director, ICISA (International Communications and Information Security Association)
• Editor, Cipher Newsletter of the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Security and Privacy, 1998 -- 2000

Current Primary Research Interests

• My primary research interest is traffic-secure communications: basic theory, system design, protocols, incentives, trust, threat models, performance, usability, applications, etc. This began with and continues to focus on onion routing, an approach to traffic-secure communications invented by David Goldschlag, Michael Reed, and myself at the Naval Research Laboratory in 1995. It includes Tor, an instance of onion routing designed by Roger Dingledine, Nick Mathewson, and myself in 2002 as part of one of my onion routing projects, and since spun off to its own nonprofit organization, The Tor Project, Inc.. I sometimes dabble in other areas of security and privacy, also in probability and decision theory, logic, knowledge, combat epistemology, etc.

Some publications

Books:

• Logic, Convention, and Common Knowledge: A Conventionalist Account of Logic.
  Published by CSLI Lecture Notes. The full text, except for the forward by Anthony Everett, is available in the following PDF.
  
  • Concerning Film Rights: Against the expressed personal advice of Neal Stephenson, movie rights to this book have been optioned to Nick Mathewson, to whom all inquiries in this regard should be directed.

• Edited volumes:
  • CCS'08: Proceedings of the 15th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security. Jointly edited with Somesh Jha and Xiaolan (Catherine) Zhang .
  • CCS'07: Proceedings of the 14th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security. Jointly edited with Sabrina De Capitani di Vimercati and David Evans.
  • CCS 2005: Proceedings of the 12th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security. Jointly edited with Catherine Meadows.
  • Computer Security - ESORICS 2005 10th European Symposium on Research in Computer Security, LNCS 3679. SpringerLINK (subscription). Jointly edited with Sabrina De Capitani di Vimercati and Dieter Gollmann.
  • WPES'04: ACM Workshop on Privacy in the Electronic Society. Jointly edited with Sabrina De Capitani di Vimercati.
  • WPES'03: ACM Workshop on Privacy in the Electronic Society. Jointly edited with Pierangela Samarati.
  • Privacy Enhancing Technologies Second International Workshop, PET 2002, LNCS 2482. SpringerLINK (subscription). Jointly edited with Roger Dingledine.
  • Financial Cryptography : 5th International Conference, FC 2001, LNCS 2339. SpringerLINK (subscription).
  • 13th IEEE Computer Security Foundations Workshop (CSFW 13), 2000. Jointly edited with Joshua Guttman .
  • 12th IEEE Computer Security Foundations Workshop (CSFW 12), 1999. Jointly edited with Joshua Guttman .

Some papers:

• Users Get Routed: Traffic Correlation on Tor By Realistic Adversaries.
  by Aaron Johnson, Chris Wacek, Rob Jansen, Micah Scherr, and Paul Syverson.
  Forthcoming in 20th ACM Computer and Communications Security Conference (CCS 2013) .     PDF
• LIRA: Lightweight Incentivized Routing for Anonymity.
  by Aaron Johnson, Rob Jansen, and Paul Syverson.
  In 20th Annual Network & Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS 2013).     PDF
• Probabilistic Analysis of Onion Routing in a Black-box Model.
  by Joan Feigenbaum, Aaron Johnson, and Paul Syverson.
  In ACM Transactions on Information and System Security (TISSEC), Volume 15 Issue 3, November 2012.    PDF
  • A preliminary version Probabilistic Analysis of Onion Routing in a Black-box Model [Extended Abstract], (PDF) appeared in WPES'07: Proceedings of the 2007 ACM Workshop on Privacy in Electronic Society: ACM Press, pp. 1-10, 2007.
  • Introduction of representation in the universally composable (UC) framework was made in Anonymity Analysis of Onion Routing in the Universally Composable Framework (PDF), appearing in the 2012 Provable Privacy Workshop.
• Practical Vulnerabilities of the Tor Anonymity Network.
  by Paul Syverson.
  In Advances in Cyber Security: Technology, Operation and Experiences, Fordham University Press, 2013.     PDF
• Throttling Tor Bandwidth Parasites.
  by Rob Jansen, Paul Syverson, and Nick Hopper.
  In 21st USENIX Security Symposium (Security '12).    PDF
• A Peel of Onion.
  by Paul Syverson.
  In 2011 Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC 27).     PDF, Presentation Slides
• Trust-based Anonymous Communication: Adversary Models and Routing Algorithms.
  by Aaron Johnson, Paul Syverson, Roger Dingledine, and Nick Mathewson.
  In CCS'11: Proceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security.     PDF
• Sleeping dogs lie on a bed of onions but wake when mixed.
  by Paul Syverson.
  In 4th Hot Topics in Privacy Enhancing Technologies (HotPETs 2011), July 2011.     PDF
  (Not formally published.)
• Systems for Anonymous Communication.
  by George Danezis, Claudia Diaz, and Paul Syverson.
  In Handbook of Financial Cryptography and Security, 2010, CRC Press.     PDF
• Preventing Active Timing Attacks in Low-Latency Anonymous Communication [Extended Abstract].
  by Joan Feigenbaum, Aaron Johnson, and Paul Syverson.
  In Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PET 2010).    PDF.
  (Full version appears as Univ. of Texas at Austin Technical Report UTCS/TR-10-15.)
• Opening Two Envelopes.
  by Paul Syverson.
  In Acta Analytica, 2010, Volume 25, Number 4.     PDF
• Intention-Disguised Algorithmic Trading.
  by William Yuen, Paul Syverson, Zhenming Liu, and Christopher Thorpe.
  In Financial Cryptography and Data Security, 14th International Conference (FC 2010).     PDF
  (A full version including proofs is Harvard SEAS Technical Report TR01-10.)
• Temporarily Hidden Bit Commitment and Lottery Applications.
  by David M. Goldschlag, Stuart G. Stubblebine, and Paul F. Syverson.
  In International Journal of Information Security, 2010, Volume 9, Number 1.     PDF
• More Anonymous Onion Routing Through Trust.
  by Aaron Johnson and Paul Syverson.
  In 22nd IEEE Computer Security Foundations Symposium (CSF 2009).     PDF
• Why I'm not an Entropist.
  by Paul Syverson.
  In Seventeenth International Security Protocols Workshop, April 2009.     PDF
  (Formally published in 2013 in the Springer-Verlag revised selected papers of SPW 2009, LNCS 7028.
  Also presented in August 2009 at 2nd Hot Topics in Privacy Enhancing Technologies (HotPETs 2009).)
• AS-awareness in Tor Path Selection.
  by Matthew Edman and Paul Syverson.
  In CCS'09: Proceedings of the 16th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security.     PDF
• Bridging and Fingerprinting: Epistemic Attacks on Route Selection.
  by George Danezis and Paul Syverson.
  In Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PET 2008).    PDF
• Range Authentication Protocols and Localization in Sensor Networks.
  by Catherine Meadows and Paul Syverson.
  In Zurich Information Security and Privacy Center Workshop on Wireless Security, Sept. 2007.     PDF   (Not formally published.)
• Deploying Low-Latency Anonymity: Design Challenges and Social Factors.
  by Roger Dingledine, Nick Mathewson, and Paul Syverson.
  In IEEE Security & Privacy, 5(5), 2007.    Abstract, Plaintext
• Probabilistic Analysis of Onion Routing in a Black-box Model [Extended Abstract].
  by Joan Feigenbaum, Aaron Johnson, and Paul Syverson.
  In ACM Workshop on Privacy in Electronic Society (WPES 2007).    Abstract, PDF
• Improving Efficiency and Simplicity of Tor circuit establishment and hidden services.
  by Lasse Øverlier and Paul Syverson.
  In Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PET 2007).    Abstract, PDF
• A Model of Onion Routing with Provable Anonymity.
  by Joan Feigenbaum, Aaron Johnson, and Paul Syverson.
  In Financial Cryptography and Data Security, 11th International Conference (FC 2007).    Abstract, PDF
• Distance Bounding Protocols: Authentication Logic Analysis and Collusion Attacks.
  by Catherine Meadows, Radha Poovendran, Dusko Pavlovic, LiWu Chang, and Paul Syverson
  In "Secure Localization and Time Synchronization for Wireless Sensor and Ad Hoc Networks", Springer-Verlag 2007.    PDF
• Valet Services: Improving Hidden Servers with a Personal Touch.
  by Lasse Øverlier and Paul Syverson.
  In Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PET 2006).    Abstract, PDF
• Blending different latency traffic with alpha-mixing.
  by Andrei Serjantov, Roger Dingledine, and Paul Syverson.
  In Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PET 2006).    PDF
• Locating Hidden Servers.
  by Lasse Øverlier and Paul Syverson.
  In 2006 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy.    Abstract, PDF
• Challenges in deploying low-latency anonymity.
  by Roger Dingledine, Nick Mathewson, and Paul Syverson.
  NRL CHACS Report 5540-265, 2005.    Abstract, PDF
• Preventing Wormhole Attacks on Wireless Ad Hoc Networks: A Graph Theoretic Approach.
  by Loukas Lazos, Radha Poovendran, Catherine Meadows, Paul Syverson, and LiWu Chang.
  In IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC 2005).    PDF
• High-Power Proxies for Enhancing RFID Privacy and Utility.
  by Ari Juels, Paul Syverson, and Dan Bailey.
  In Workshop on Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PET 2005).    PDF
• Tor: The Second-Generation Onion Router.
  by Roger Dingledine, Nick Mathewson, and Paul Syverson.
  In 13th USENIX Security Symposium (Security '04).    HTML, PDF
• What Price Privacy? (and why identity theft is about neither identity nor theft).
  by Adam Shostack and Paul Syverson.
  In Economics of Information Security, Chapter 11, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2004.    PDF
• Synchronous Batching: From Cascades to Free Routes.
  by Roger Dingledine, Vitaly Shmatikov, and Paul Syverson.
  In Workshop on Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PET 2004).    PDF
• Universal Re-encryption for Mixnets.
  by Philippe Golle, Markus Jakobsson, Ari Juels, and Paul Syverson.
  In RSA Conference 2004, Cryptographers' Track (CT-RSA 04).    PDF
• Formal Specification and Analysis of the Group Domain of Interpretation Protocol Using NPATRL and the NRL Protocol Analyzer.
  by Catherine Meadows, Paul Syverson, and Iliano Cervesato.
  In Journal of Computer Security.    PDF
• Quasi-Anonymous Channels.
  by Ira S. Moskowitz, Richard E. Newman, and Paul Syverson.
  In IASTED International Conference on Communication, Network, and Information Security (CNIS 2003).     PDF
• Reputation in P2P Anonymity Systems.
  by Roger Dingledine, Nick Mathewson, and Paul Syverson.
  In Workshop on Economics of Peer-to-Peer Systems June 2003.    PDF
• The Paradoxical Value of Privacy.
  by Paul Syverson
  In 2nd Annual Workshop on Economics and Information Security (WEIS 2003).    PDF
• Metrics for Traffic Analysis Prevention.
  by Richard E. Newman, Ira S. Moskowitz, Paul Syverson, and Andrei Serjantov.
  In Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PET 2003).     PDF
• On the Economics of Anonymity .
  by Alessandro Acquisti, Roger Dingledine, and Paul Syverson.
  In Financial Cryptography (FC 2003).    PDF, PS,    Slides: (PDF)
• From a Trickle to a Flood: Active Attacks on Several Mix Types.
  by Andrei Serjantov, Roger Dingledine, and Paul Syverson.
  In Information Hiding, Oct 2002.     PDF
• Reputation in Privacy Enhancing Technologies.
  by Roger Dingledine, Nick Mathewson, and Paul Syverson.
  In Computers, Freedom, and Privacy, Apr 2002.     html, PDF    Slides: ( PPT, PS )
• Reliable MIX Cascade Networks through Reputation.
  by Roger Dingledine and Paul Syverson.
  In Financial Cryptography 2002.     PDF,    Slides: (PDF)
• The Logic of Authentication Protocols.
  by Paul Syverson and Iliano Cervesato.
  In Foundations of Security Analysis and Design, Springer-Verlag LNCS 2171    PDF
• Weakly Secret Bit Commitment: Applications to Lotteries and Fair Exchange.
  by Paul Syverson.
  In Proceedings of the 1998 IEEE Computer Security Foundations Workshop (CSFW11).    PDF
• A logical approach to multilevel security of probabilistic systems.
  by James W. Gray, III and Paul Syverson.
  In Distributed Computing, 11(2), 1998.    PDF
• A Different Look at Secure Distributed Computation.
  by Paul Syverson.
  In Proceedings of the 1997 IEEE Computer Security Foundations Workshop (CSFW10).    PDF
• Protocols using Anonymous Connections: Mobile Applications.
  by Michael Reed, Paul Syverson, and David Goldschlag.
  In Security Protocols 1997, Proceedings of the 5th International Workshop, Springer-Verlag LNCS 1361.    Abstract, PDF
• Hiding Routing Information.
  by Michael Reed, Paul Syverson, and David Goldschlag.
  In Information Hiding, First International Workshop, Springer-Verlag LNCS 1174.    Abstract, PDF
• More of my publications can be found under the CHACS publications page, but note that drops all my publications before 2000. See also the Onion Routing Publications Page and my Google Scholar page.