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bluesky AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Global-Scale Distributed Storage Systems

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  • From: Adam Back <adam AT cypherspace.org>
  • To: Global-Scale Distributed Storage Systems <bluesky AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: idealised properties?
  • Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2001 14:51:31 -0400


So I was presuming the 3rd model too, because it's by far the
most interesting a system to have for positive social implications.

So if we consider that threat model I was thinking we could
described idealised requirements without focussing on how
one could implement those requirements.

So for example:

- homegenous system with graceful degradation -- ie you should
be able to continue using the system and all information should
remain as individual nodes are removed. Homogenous so no node
are fatter targets than any other nodes. This maximises cost
of attacking the system.

- servers should not be able to see what data they are serving
or at least not know without some digging to figure it out

- possibly users should not be able to find out which server
they got information from, though this seems more like an
design issue. You could for example imagine designs where
no attempts to prevent this are made, and yet the other
two criteria were met. (eg. my hot potato suggestion,
though it's not clear how to build that in a way that
performs efficiently).

Adam

On Wed, Feb 21, 2001 at 11:49:09PM -0500, graydon AT venge.net wrote:
> the discussions I've seen focus on 3 categories of threat model:
>
> * incompetence, misconfiguration, congestion, accidental deletion,
> disconnection
>
> * un-coordinated attack by disagreeable people: script kiddies,
> lawyers with small-ish clients, ex-roommates
>
> * systemic attack by global organizations with arbitrary resources.
>
> the third is appealing to many crypto people (me too) because it's so
> cloak-and-dagger, but it's hard to deal with because they can resort to
> law-making, treaties, rubber hoses, etc. the first and second are imho
> hard enough to deal with and can probably offer enough utility to be
> worthwhile.




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