It is mostly costly to the corps that are paying for the research or the technology to detect the miscreants... er, customers. Those who are working on detection avoidance are largely developing free software technology in their spare time.

It's David and Goliath all over again, although David in this case is not backed up by an Israeli army. That would mean those developing detection technology would be Phillistines. Isn't that appropriate?:)


Couldn't all the money being spent on a better way to invade net users privacy be better spent to make the internet faster so we don't have to burden it with invasive technologies like this? Yes I realize you can't tell this to the Keystone Kontent Kops at the MPAA/RIAA but if I were an ISP I would be more interested in tech that wins me customers, not tech that scares them off.

This wouldn't help because if this type of analysis was put into use then those who used an ssh tunnel for a VPN or used encryption to disguise their P2P software usage need merely add some "noise" to the data they are sending and receiving.

The authors of the ssh VPN tunnel software could have it send some additional data (in both directions) that would disguise the data patterns and packet sizes that given them away. Ditto for P2P software authors. Just add some data that looks like a VPN, some that looks like P2P, some that looks like https and some that looks like streaming video. Suddenly that 99% certainty will drop way down and the technique will become useless.

If ISPs tried to use this analysis to determine who was doing something they didn't want, they'd only succeed in adding to their overall traffic load due to all the garbage data getting sent across their network to hide that usage they are trying to stop.

Doug

"A lot of effort and money could be sunk into such a cat-and-mouse game between Internet users and the network infrastructure vendors, all to no one's eventual benefit in the event neither side ever really completely wins."

Yeah, but.. think of the fun tech generated.. :-)

"authoritarian governments (cough, China)"

Researchers at US DOE National Labs can and do use proxies in China to access remote Internet sites which are being blocked by the US government. Imagine that even images.google.com is being censored, not only blocking pictures of - yikes - naked people. Now that is funny, isn't it? Not really if you think about the kind of people doing that, next door. You have no idea how bad the situation really is.

The same statistical methods used to identify traffic can also be used to hide traffic by adding appropriate noise.

Two things; is that "cough, China" a joke? Or are we onboard pretending we in the west aren't more into spying on and controlling normal people than china ever was?
Secondly: can someone kneecap those 'scientist' and explain them why? Soonest.

put all that money, and hard work into talking with the likes of bit torrent and such and optomising their clients to work over the network better. Tis has already been done to a large degree.

The music industry is only jsut coming round to the idea that it cannot substantially, or to any real degree of sustained success be beaten.

Game makers, especially with reference to a game called "sins of a solar empire" are coming round to the idea. indeed look for the above game, and everyone is asking people to buy it if they do use it, as people really do respect that if they are trusted they might just behave!!!!


Remember when PAYME(c)Ultie_Tom A.R.R., asks about secure & non secure in little window?, Do You SEE https:// in address? Even if Fully Encrypted? 
Often NOT, Secure Often dosn't Even Mean Secure Socket Line, it might mean Encrypted, Which has to have UnEncryption Subroutine in place in Your End to work. Meaning Both You & Every Other Computer in Transmission Line Has That DeEncrypter, So What Good Is it?
Like Diamond Ring, Visual Identifier, Sheeish Stated:"I thought Its' Secure Cocket Line?". Most Likely NO.

haha drashek mmuuuee.