CS8500.001

Internet Censorship

Internet Censorship

Course Description

Students are taught terminology, taxonomy, and conceptual fundamentals of Internet censorship (client-/network-/server-based censorship, filter heuristics, capabilities and limitations as well as side effects of censorship). They learn how Internet censorship can be measured using active and passive approaches (especially on the basis of communication protocols) and become aware of the side-effects of measurement approaches. The module further teaches students how measurement datasets are generated and which datasets are publicly available. A large fraction of the module focuses on explaining Internet censorship circumvention methodology, such as onion routing, selected VPN-based approaches, traffic obfuscation and network information hiding. Students learn limitations of these approaches, i.e., how circumvention can be detected, limited and blocked. Finally, the module covers current research trends and comprises exercises in which also practical aspects of Internet censorship (circumvention) are taught.

Quick Info
  • Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Steffen Wendzel
  • SWS: 4
  • Language: English