Plausible Deniability
Crypto-anarchism relies heavily on plausible deniability to avoid censorship. Crypto-anarchists create this deniability by sending encrypted messages to interlinked proxies in computer networks. With the message a payload of routing information is bundled. The message is encrypted with each one of the proxies and the receiver public keys. Each node can only decrypt its own part of the message, and only obtain the information intended for itself. That is, from which node it got the message, and to which node it should deliver the message. With only access to this information, it is thought to be impossible for nodes in the network to know what information they are carrying or who is communicating with who. Peers can protect their identities from each others by using reply onions, digital signatures or similar technologies. Who originally sent the information and who is the intended receiver is considered infeasible to detect, unless the peers themselves wish to reveal this information. See onion routing for more information.
Thus, with multiple layers of encryption, it is effectively impossible to know who is connected to any particular service or pseudonym. Because summary punishment for crimes is mostly illegal, it is impossible to stop any potential criminal activity in the network without enforcing a ban on strong cryptography.
Deniable encryption and anonymizing networks can be used to avoid being detected while sharing illegal or sensitive information, that users are too afraid to share without any protection of their identity. It could be anything from anti-state propaganda, reports of abuse, whistleblowing, reports from political dissidents or anonymous monetary transactions.
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Famous quotes containing the word plausible:
“The idea that information can be stored in a changing world without an overwhelming depreciation of its value is false. It is scarcely less false than the more plausible claim that after a war we may take our existing weapons, fill their barrels with cylinder oil, and coat their outsides with sprayed rubber film, and let them statically await the next emergency.”
—Norbert Wiener (1894–1964)