Good going, guys... http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/5778.html [Masthead] [] [Navigation bar] [Stocks] __________ ______________ [Search] [WIRED magazine] [] [Back] Creating Anonymous Sites That Can't Be Revoked by Michael Stutz 12:05pm 5.Aug.97.PDT Web sites, having a physical, traceable location, are always subject to censorship. In such attacks, a government or other localized entity orders the removal of - or even physically raids - those sites which host non-approved content within its sovereign borders; these sites are often forced to "unpublish" or destroy such information. Now, a means of creating anonymous, unrevokable Web sites has been developed. Originally proposed in theory by UK cryptologist Ross Anderson, the Eternity Server is being implemented by a band of cypherpunks including Adam Back, a research fellow at Exeter University. The idea is simple. Web content - even entire sites - can be posted to Usenet in such a way that it can be easily retrieved. Usenet's discussion forums are distributed across thousands of news servers around the world. This, it turns out, makes for a perfect, anonymous digital repository: "No one knows who's reading it," said Back. "They can't find all Eternity Servers from some centralized list. It's decentralized, unlike a mailing list, where there is a central node which can be taken out." The mechanics of document submission are as follows: Eternity Service recognizes its own fictitious top-level domain, .eternity. From there, a Web document is given its own virtual URL, and the subject line of the message becomes a unique mathematical representation of that virtual URL, from which the document can be retrieved using search techniques. Furthermore, the message is encrypted so that knowledge of this URL is necessary for decryption. Once posted to Usenet, the document will be viewable in perpetuity and can be reconstructed in a Web browser by any Eternity Server program, which simply decodes the .eternity URL into its equivalent Usenet message, then fetches, decrypts, and displays it. Eternity supports digital signatures to maintain author anonymity, allowing for unconditional free speech. Mike Duvos, a Seattle-area computer-software consultant, is an Eternity Service user. He sees this as part of Usenet's ongoing evolution, just as it previously changed from a text-only medium to include binary files as well. "Establishing a convention for the posting of Web content to Usenet, employing modern encryption and authentication tools, and permitting transparent browsing of that content, is just another step in the same direction," he said. While still fresh out of beta, the technique shows a great deal of promise as a foil to conventional means of censorship. "The attention gathered by censoring an Eternity Server will ensure that lots of other servers start up," said Back. "It will generate a feeding frenzy of new servers springing up," he said, assisting free speech from here - to Eternity. Find related stories from the Web's top news sites with NewBot [Back] [Navigation strip] Feedback: Let us know how we're doing. Tips: Have a story or tip for Wired News? Send it. Copyright ) 1993-97 Wired Ventures Inc. and affiliated companies. All rights reserved. [HotWired and HotBot] [] [] Click here for Vivo [technology] TECHNOLOGY Today's Headlines Creating Anonymous Sites That Can't Be Revoked Microsoft Reportedly Entering Net Search Biz Macromedia Offers Dynamic HTML Helper NCR Licenses Solaris Testimony Gets Animated MP3 Music Pirates Lurk in Chat Zones Eword: Doctor Roboto Outta Beta: Community Building Blocks Click here for Vivo [INLINE] ------ Ariel Glenn / AcIS R&D / Columbia University ariel@columbia.edu standard disclaimer, blah blah blah...