AI against Censorship: Genetic Algorithms, The Geneva Project, ML in Security, and more!

#security #censorship #ai

Most of us conceive the internet as a free and open space where we are able to send traffic between any two nodes, but for large parts of the world this is not the case. Entire nations have large machinery in place to survey all internet traffic and automated procedures to block any undesirable connections. Evading such censorship has been largely a cat-and-mouse game between security researchers and government actors. A new system, called Geneva, uses a Genetic Algorithm in combination with Evolutionary Search in order to dynamically evade such censorship and adjust itself in real-time to any potential response by its adversaries. In this video, I talk to Security researcher Kevin Bock, who is one of Geneva's main contributors and member of the Breakerspace project. We talk about the evolution of internet censorship, how to evade it, how to mess with the censors' infrastructure, as well as the broader emerging connections between AI and Security.

OUTLINE:

0:00 - Intro

3:30 - What is automated censorship in networks?

7:20 - The evolution of censorship vs evasion

12:40 - Why do we need a dynamic, evolving system?

16:30 - The building blocks of Geneva

23:15 - Introducing evolution

28:30 - What's the censors' response?

31:45 - How was Geneva's media reception?

33:15 - Where do we go from here?

37:30 - Can we deliberately attack the censors?

47:00 - On responsible disclosure

49:40 - Breakerspace: Security research for undergrads

50:40 - How often do you get into trouble?

52:10 - How can I get started in security?

Learn more at:

- Geneva (& more) project page: https://censorship.ai

- Open Observatory of Network Interference: https://ooni.org

- Censored Planet: https://censoredplanet.org

- Breakerspace: https://breakerspace.cs.umd.edu

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