[LINK] darknet

[Crispin Harris]

Karl,
  By way of explanation (and my understanding of IPV6 is substantially lower
than I would like).
One of the primary design goal of IPv6 was to provide bi-directional
authentication and privacy (individually) between all nodes in the new
network.

One of the first things that occurs in an IPv6 communication is that the
nodes identify/authenticate each other, and then share encryption
information. All communication between the nodes is then privatised (in the
meaning of "to make private"). (NOTE: the encryption CAN be 0-bit (i.e.
clear-text).)

A simple way to form a "dark-net" is to have all the nodes in the net
communicate with IPv6, using pre-shared encryption information. (Disclaimer
- this may be (probably is) an oversimplification.)

The particular aspect of "dark-nets" that Tom is, I believe, picking on is
that ANY multi-point encryption system will implement/achieve a 'vast,
private, un-seeable' network - and so most security professionals look at
"dark-nets" with a sense of ho-hum, and spin-hating technical loathing.

Other examples of so-called "dark-nets" include TOR (The Onion Ring),
HideMyAss.com, and many more.
There are Open-Source options available too for those that want to (have the
skill to) build one themselves.

* - Personally, I beleive that the term "dark-net" is about as useful to
real discussion as "Data Loss Protection": A term used for marketting and
the press, and less than useful for actual protection of
information/systems. It _DOES_ have the benefit of raising the profile of
the problem, but does nothing useful for fixing it.


Cheers,
  Crispin


On Wed, Aug 5, 2009 at 1:26 PM, Karl Auer <kauer at biplane.com.au> wrote:

> On Mon, 2009-08-03 at 13:51 +1000, Tom Koltai wrote:
> > Yes. An IPV6 VPN
> >
> > Doubtless the next big no no on the internet.
> >
> > Such a shame that IPV6 is unable to work without it.
>
> Could you explain these statements? I may be missing the context, but
> they make no sense to me.
>
> Regards, K.
>
> --
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
> http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/                  +61-428-957160 (mob)
>
> GPG fingerprint: 07F3 1DF9 9D45 8BCD 7DD5 00CE 4A44 6A03 F43A 7DEF
>
>
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-- 
Crispin Harris
crispin.harris at gmail.com
"The communist authorities in Beijing should understand that nearly every
educated person has read George Orwell's 1984, and are impervious to their
zany totalitarian logic. People are not sheep that will simply shout 'four
legs good, two legs bad', as do the sheep in that novel."
- Mr Michael Danby MP (Australian Federal Parlimentarian demonstrating both
his education and literature awareness at the same time!)