Author: | T. Gamer, C. Mayer, M. Schöller | links: | DownloadBibtex |
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Source: | In: PIK Praxis der Informationsverarbeitung und Kommunikation (PIK), 31, 2, 76-81, June 2008 | ||
Computer network researchers, system engineers
and network operators have an increasing need for network
traces. These are necessary to build and evaluate communication
systems. This ranges from developing intrusion detection systems
over evaluating network protocols or system design decisions, up
to education in network security. Unfortunately, availability of
real-world traces is very scarce, mainly due to privacy and security
concerns. Making recorded data anonymous helps to mitigate
this problem. Available anonymization systems, however, do not
provide sufficient flexibility, extensibility or ease of use. Therefore,
we developed a generic framework for traffic anonymization that
can easily be configured by anonymization profiles. Such profiles
ensure an easy adaptation of the information actually being
made anonymous to different environments or local legislation.
Furthermore, our framework supports flexible application of
arbitrary anonymization primitives to every protocol field. Due
to its extensibility our framework provides an easy incorporation
of new anonymity-enhancing techniques, too. Additionally, it
prevents accidental disclosure of private data by applying a
technique called defensive transformation. Finally, it can be used
for online as well as offline anonymization of network traffic.