{"65059":{"#nid":"65059","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Georgia Tech to Pursue \u0027Transparent Internet\u0027 With $1M Google Focused Research Award","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EATLANTA \u2013 March 22, 2010 \u2013 What if Internet users could click a button and determine whether their service was being artificially slowed down? Or if the government were censoring their content? In the name of Internet transparency, a team of Georgia Tech researchers will use a $1 million Google Focused Research Award to provide Internet users around the world with just those kinds of tools.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe two-year unrestricted award (with a third-year option for an additional $500,000) will fund a range of activities that together are intended to make Internet access more transparent for the billions of network subscribers around the globe. At the end of the project, the team hopes to provide a suite of web-based, Internet-scale measurement tools that any user around the world could access for free. With the help of these tools, users could determine whether their ISPs are providing the kind of service customers are paying for, and whether the data they send and receive over their network connections is being tampered with by governments and\/or ISPs.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cCommunity collaboration is a big part of this project,\u201d said Wenke Lee, Professor in the School of Computer Science and a principal investigator on the grant. \u201cUltimately we hope this project will help create a \u2018transparency ecosystem,\u2019 where more and more users will take advantage of the measurement tools, which in turn will improve the accuracy and comprehensiveness of our analysis.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cFor example,\u201d Lee continued, \u201csay something happens again like what happened in Egypt recently, when the Internet was essentially shut down. If we have a community of Internet user-participants in that country, we will know instantly when a government or ISP starts to block traffic, tamper with search results, even alter web-based information in order to spread propaganda.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELee\u2019s fellow PI on the award is Nick Feamster, Assistant Professor in the School of Computer Science. The two are joined by co-PIs Mustaque Ahamad, Professor in the School of Computer Science and Director of the Georgia Tech Information Security Center; Patrick Traynor, Assistant Professor in the School of Computer Science; and Henry Owen, Professor in the School of Electrical \u0026amp; Computer Engineering.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe project, funded under Google\u2019s 2-year-old Focused Research program, will analyze Internet access along three main properties: reachability from a variety of access networks; performance of user networks, particularly in comparison to the performance promises made by Internet service providers (ISPs); and integrity of information moving through these networks.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAccording to Feamster, some 60 nations (including the United States) censor some access to information on the Internet. Moreover, the total number of worldwide users (currently estimated at 1.9 billion) is expected to double within the next decade. Finally, at least 4.5 billion people subscribe to cellular networks, accessing through their mobile devices everything from online banking services to streaming music and video. Both \u201ctraditional\u201d Internet connections and cellular-based networks will be covered by the tools the researchers hope to create.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cRegardless of what policies an ISP or government takes on issues like censorship and net neutrality, we believe those policies should be transparent,\u201d Feamster said. \u201cIn addition to new network measurement and security monitoring algorithms, we want to create and deploy a \u2018transparency watchdog\u2019 system that uses monitoring agents to keep constant tabs of network performance and availability in strategic Internet locations around the world.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E###\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAbout the Georgia Tech College of Computing\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe Georgia Tech College of Computing is a national leader in the creation of real-world computing breakthroughs that drive social and scientific progress. With its graduate program ranked 10th nationally by U.S. News and World Report, the College\u2019s unconventional approach to education is defining the new face of computing by expanding the horizons of traditional computer science students through interdisciplinary collaboration and a focus on human centered solutions. For more information about the Georgia Tech College of Computing, its academic divisions and research centers, please visit \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ehttp:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EContact\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBrendan Streich\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDirector of Communications\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECollege of Computing at Georgia Tech\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:bstreich@cc.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ebstreich@cc.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E404-313-5944\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Two-year project will provide tools for users worldwide to monitor their Internet Service Providers\u2019 performance"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA team of Georgia Tech researchers will use a $1 million Google award to provide Internet users around the world with tools to measure their Internet Service Providers\u0027 performance, as well as detect whether their data is being tampered with. \u003Cem\u003ESource: Office of Communications\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Researchers will develop tools to measure network performance, detect data censorship."}],"uid":"27174","created_gmt":"2011-03-22 08:50:10","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:08:26","author":"Mike Terrazas","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2011-03-22T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2011-03-22T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"65456":{"id":"65456","type":"image","title":"Nick Feamster","body":null,"created":"1449176831","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:07:11","changed":"1475894579","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:42:59","alt":"Nick Feamster","file":{"fid":"193222","name":"091201R007_0.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/091201R007_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/091201R007_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":4993716,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/091201R007_0.jpg?itok=Ic7pXWaY"}}},"media_ids":["65456"],"groups":[{"id":"1217","name":"Digital Lounge - Digital Life"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"11883","name":"internet censorship"},{"id":"12429","name":"network performance"},{"id":"10637","name":"nick feamster"},{"id":"166941","name":"School of Computer Science"},{"id":"10893","name":"wenke lee"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBrendan Streich\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDirector of Communications\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech College of Computing\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E(404) 313-5944\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["bstreich@cc.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}