DeepSec Video: HORNET – High-speed Onion Routing at the Network Layer

René Pfeiffer/ February 22, 2016/ Conference, Internet, Security

Given that reconnaissance is the first step of a successful attack, anonymity has become more important than ever. The Invisible Internet Project (I2P) and the TOR project are prominent tools to protect against prying eyes (five or more). TOR is widely used. Users of anonymity services will notice that the price for extra protection is less speed in terms of latency and probably bandwidth. Researchers have published a method to attain high-speed network performance, called HORNET. HORNET is designed as a low-latency onion routing system that operates at the network layer thus enabling a wide range of applications. Our system uses only symmetric cryptography for data forwarding yet requires no per-flow state on intermediate nodes. This design enables HORNET nodes to process anonymous traffic at over 93 Gb/s. At DeepSec 2015 Chen Chen explained how it works.

We are looking forward to hear more from HORNET implementations in the future.