Anonymous communication is rapidly growing in popularity both in the research community and in the real world due to the growing concerns about the digital trail we leave when we use the Internet. Despite three decades of research in the field, rigorously evaluating anonymity systems remains challenging. Part of the challenge is the choice of metrics: various approaches have been proposed with differing arguments for each. Another part of the challenge is the choice of threat model: a design resistant to one type of threat may fail miserably under another. And a third part is the difficulty of accurately modeling and analyzing the operation of an anonymity design, especially as systems grow in scale and become more complex.
The main focus of the workshop will be low-latency anonymity systems such as Tor, as they are both more widely deployed and at the same time less well understood than mix networks. The goal of the workshop is to bring together researchers from diverse fields of expertise in order jumpstart the development of new rigorous mathematical and computational tools for analyzing anonymity systems. The workshop will open by surveying existing work in measuring anonymity and establishing the problem space. This will be followed by position papers and moderated discussions.
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