CS Undergraduate Seminar – The Internet Censorship Arms Race
CS Undergraduate Seminar
Abstract
Internet freedom worldwide is becoming increasingly more restricted as new censorship practices are developed and deployed by nation-states seeking to control the flow of information for political, social, and/or economic gain. As researchers continue to better understand the various mechanisms of censorship, privacy advocates have simultaneously developed censorship-resistant systems (CRSes) that attempt to evade censorship systems and allow their users to have unfettered access to the Internet.
This undergraduate seminar surveys some of the latest techniques for measuring and evading Internet censorship, and attempts to paint a picture of the current Internet censorship landscape. Additionally, this talk describes two ongoing efforts involving Georgetown researchers to better understand mechanisms for circumventing online censorship.
This talk is intended to be accessible to undergraduate computer scientists (majors and minors) and does not assume any background in computer or network security. The talk concludes with the speaker spewing unwanted advice about computer science research and a plea for undergraduate audience members to participate in the research process at some point during their studies.
Bio: Micah Sherr is a faculty member in the Department of Computer Science at Georgetown University. He studies Internet censorship, among a few other things.