anonymous says-
In order to preserve anonymity and thwart traffic analysis in chained remailings, it would seem useful to include a very BUSY remailer in the chain, and try to ensure that the message arrives at the busiest time of the day for that remailer, from a traffic standpoint. Hitting a remailer at a slack time when, let's say, only one message arrives over a period of several hours would seem most unwise.
The problem for someone trying to trace a message is, which of some set of outgoing messages matches this incoming message? (Or vice-versa.) The size of the set of possibilities determines how much uncertainty is introduced. If the remailer works by delaying messages a random amount of time up to a maximum, then the number of possibilities varies with the traffic. But if the remailer works in terms of sequence instead of time, it can hold the size of the set of possibilities constant (which makes the maximum delay time vary as a side effect). So, sequence, not clock time, is what matters (or ought to), all other things being equal, and there's no reason a remailer should be any less effective in low traffic periods. -fnerd - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - the liquidy snack that drinks like a beverage! -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a aKxB8nktcBAeQHabQP/d7yhWgpGZBIoIqII8cY9nG55HYHgvt3niQCVAgUBLMs3K ui6XaCZmKH68fOWYYySKAzPkXyfYKnOlzsIjp2tPEot1Q5A3/n54PBKrUDN9tHVz 3Ch466q9EKUuDulTU6OLsilzmRvQJn0EJhzd4pht6hSnC1R3seYNhUYhoJViCcCG sRjLQs4iVVM= =9wqs -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----