Subject: attack by traffic analysis

From: Kenji Takahashi <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2001 18:35:37 +0900

Hi,

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.

Since there is no post at all on this list, I am going to try with this
message.

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.

Best regards,

Kenji Takahashi
NTT Labs
Toyo, Japan.

---

From: Shahid Shoaib <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2001 10:00:36 -0700

> 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.

> 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
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Shahid Shoaib                                  +1-408-451-4740 Direct
DoCoMo USA Labs Inc.                  +1-408-573-1090 Fax
[email-masked]         http://www.docomo-usa.com