Caring About the Plumbing: On the Importance of Architectures in Social Studies of (Peer-to-Peer) Technology

International audienceThis article discusses the relevance, for scholars working on social studies of network media, of "caring about the plumbing" (to paraphrase Bricklin, 2001), i.e., addressing elements of application architecture and design as an integral part of their subject of study. In particular, by discussing peer-to-peer (P2P) systems as a technical networking model and a dynamic of social interaction that are inextricably intertwined, the article introduces how the perspective outlined above is particularly useful to adopt when studying a promising area of innovation: that of "alternative" or "legitimate" (Verma, 2004) applications of P2P networks to search engines, social networks, video streaming and other Internet-based services. The article seeks to show how the Internet's current trajectories of innovation increasingly suggest that particular forms of architectural distribution and decentralization (or their lack), impact specific procedures, practices and uses. Architectures should be understood an "alternative way of influencing economic systems" (van Schewick, 2010), indeed, the very fabric of user behavior and interaction. Most notably, the P2P "alternative" to Internet-based services shows how the status of every Internet user as a consumer, a sharer, a producer and possibly a manager of digital content is informed by, and shapes in return, the technical structure and organization of the services (s)he has access to: their mandatory passage points, places of storage and trade, required intersections. In conclusion, this article is a call to study the technical architecture of networking applications as a "relational property" (Star & Ruhleder, 1996), and integral part of human organization. It suggests that such an approach provides an added value to the study of those communities, groups and practices that, by leveraging socio-technical dynamics of distribution, decentralization, collaboration and peer production, are currently questioning more traditional or institutionalized models of content creation, search and sharing

Television: Peer-To-Peer’s Next Challenger

The entertainment industry has obsessed over the threat of peer-to-peer file sharing since the introduction of Napster in 1999. The sharing of television content may present a compelling case for fair use under the long-standing Betamax decision. Some argue that television sharing is fundamentally different than the distribution of music or movies since television is often distributed for free over public airwaves. However, a determination of fair use is unlikely because of the fundamental differences between recording a program and downloading it, recent regulation to suppress unauthorized content distribution and shifts in the television market brought on by new technology

A Security-aware Approach to JXTA-Overlay Primitives

The JXTA-Overlay project is an effort to use JXTA technology to provide a generic set of functionalities that can be used by developers to deploy P2P applications. Since its design mainly focuses on issues such as scalability or overall performance, it does not take security into account. However, as P2P applications have evolved to fulfill more complex scenarios, security has become a very important aspect to take into account when evaluating a P2P framework. This work proposes a security extension specifically suited to JXTA-Overlay¿s idiosyncrasies, providing an acceptable solution to some of its current shortcomings.El proyecto JXTA-Overlay es un esfuerzo por utilizar la tecnología JXTA para proporcionar un conjunto genérico de funciones que pueden ser utilizadas por los desarrolladores para desplegar aplicaciones P2P. Aunque su diseño se centra principalmente en cuestiones como la escalabilidad y el rendimiento general, no tiene en cuenta la seguridad. Sin embargo, como las aplicaciones P2P se han desarrollado para cumplir con escenarios más complejos, la seguridad se ha convertido en un aspecto muy importante a tener en cuenta a la hora de evaluar un marco P2P. Este artículo propone una extensión de seguridad específicamente adaptada a la idiosincrasia de JXTA-Overlay, proporcionando una solución aceptable para algunas de sus deficiencias actuales.El projecte JXTA-Overlay és un esforç per utilitzar la tecnologia JXTA per proporcionar un conjunt genèric de funcions que poden ser utilitzades pels desenvolupadors per desplegar aplicacions P2P. Tot i que el seu disseny se centra principalment en qüestions com ara la escalabilitat i el rendiment general, no té en compte la seguretat. No obstant això, com que les aplicacions P2P s'han desenvolupat per complir amb escenaris més complexos, la seguretat s'ha convertit en un aspecte molt important a tenir en compte a l'hora d'avaluar un marc P2P. Aquest article proposa una extensió de seguretat específicament adaptada a la idiosincràsia de JXTA-Overlay, proporcionant una solució acceptable per a algunes de les seves deficiències actuals

Storytelling Security: User-Intention Based Traffic Sanitization

Malicious software (malware) with decentralized communication infrastructure, such as peer-to-peer botnets, is difficult to detect. In this paper, we describe a traffic-sanitization method for identifying malware-triggered outbound connections from a personal computer. Our solution correlates user activities with the content of outbound traffic. Our key observation is that user-initiated outbound traffic typically has corresponding human inputs, i.e., keystroke or mouse clicks. Our analysis on the causal relations between user inputs and packet payload enables the efficient enforcement of the inter-packet dependency at the application level. We formalize our approach within the framework of protocol-state machine. We define new application-level traffic-sanitization policies that enforce the inter-packet dependencies. The dependency is derived from the transitions among protocol states that involve both user actions and network events. We refer to our methodology as storytelling security. We demonstrate a concrete realization of our methodology in the context of peer-to-peer file-sharing application, describe its use in blocking traffic of P2P bots on a host. We implement and evaluate our prototype in Windows operating system in both online and offline deployment settings. Our experimental evaluation along with case studies of real-world P2P applications demonstrates the feasibility of verifying the inter-packet dependencies. Our deep packet inspection incurs overhead on the outbound network flow. Our solution can also be used as an offline collect-and-analyze tool

Identifying malicious nodes in network-coding-based peer-to-peer streaming networks

published or submitted for publicatio

Defending Against Denial of Service

Civil Society currently faces significant cyber threats. At the top of the list of those threats are Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. The websites of many organizations and individuals have already come under such attacks, and the frequency of those attacks are on the rise. Civil Society frequently does not have the kinds of resources or technical know-how that is available to commercial enterprise and government websites, and often have to exist in adverse political environments where every avenue available, both legal and illegal, is used against them. Therefore, the threat of DoS attacks is unlikely to go away any time soon.A Denial of Service (DoS) attack is any attack that overwhelms a website, causing the content normally provided by that website to no longer be available to regular visitors of the website. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are traffic volumebased attacks originating from a large number of computers, which are usually compromised workstations. These workstations, known as 'zombies', form a widely distributed attack network called a 'botnet'. While many modern Denial of Service attacks are Distributed Denial of Service attacks, this is certainly not true for all denials of service experienced by websites. Therefore, when users first start experiencing difficulty in getting to the website content, it should not be assumed that the site is under a DDoS attack. Many forms of DoS are far easier to implement than DDoS, and so these attacks are still used by parties with malicious intent. Many such DoS attacks are easier to defend against once the mechanism used to cause the denial of service is known. Therefore, it is paramount to do proper analysis of attack traffic when a site becomes unable to perform its normal function. There are two parts to this guide. The first part outlines preparatory steps that can be taken by Civil Society organizations to improve their website's resilience, should it come under attack. However, we do understand that most Civil Society organizations' first introduction to DoS attacks comes when they suddenly find themselves the victim of an attack. The second part of this guide provides a step-by-step process to assist the staff of NGOs to efficiently deal with that stressful situation