The Eternity Service (original) (raw)

Next: The Gutenberg Inheritance

Cambridge University Computer Laboratory
Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QG
Email: ross.anderson@cl.cam.ac.uk

Ross J. Anderson

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Abstract:

The Internet was designed to provide a communications channel that is as resistant to denial of service attacks as human ingenuity can make it. In this note, we propose the construction of a storage medium with similar properties. The basic idea is to use redundancy and scattering techniques to replicate data across a large set of machines (such as the Internet), and add anonymity mechanisms to drive up the cost of selective service denial attacks. The detailed design of this service is an interesting scientific problem, and is not merely academic: the service may be vital in safeguarding individual rights against new threats posed by the spread of electronic publishing.

• The Gutenberg Inheritance
• Preventing Service Denial
• Previous Work
• The Eternity Service
  • What it does
  • The threat model
  • A simple design
  • The perjury trap
  • Using tamper-proof hardware
  • Mathematics or metal?
  • Indexing
  • Payment
  • Time
• Conclusion
• References
• About this document ...

Ross Anderson Tue Jun 17 15:08:09 BST 1997