Preserving Anonymity in Mixnet using AES Encryption Algorithm

Data is one of the most important resources to organization and any loss or lack of access could lead to many problems, so the data should be transmitted with security. Although encryption was used to hide the contents of transmitted data, it does not hide the identity of the communicating parties and it does not prevent traffic analysis.Anonymity in a communication context, also known as untraceability, prevents tracing back from a receiver to the sender. So for providing anonymity one of the most efficient systems is MIXNET. The most important applications of Mixnets are in secure electronic voting, anonymous e-mail, anonymous telecommunications and anonymous internet communications .In e-voting protocols, a Mixnet anonymously communicates ballots from the voter to the electoral authority, hence providing ballot secrecy. In addition to presenting the existing Mixnet with cascade topology, this approach encrypts N messages using AES encryption which provides high confidentiality and permutes the data at each mixnode for providing anonymity. If N number of messages are encrypted by using AES encryption, then they will get permuted at each mixnode of the Mixnet until it reaches the nearest mixnode of receiver, then the data is decrypted using AES decryption algorithm and it is sent to corresponding N receivers. Keywords— Data, Encryption, Anonymity, mixnode, AES, privacy Mixnet I.INTRODUCTION Data represents a repository for all information regarding business regardless of when it is started. Data is vital for business and it is required to find ways to protect it. Data security methods are essential for any organization, whether big or small. Now-a-days customers prefer to handle all their transactions online, so they want to make sure that their information is in safe hands. Security methods used are Data Encryption, Prevention of Access to Keys, Data Limitation, Online Data Backup and so on Encryption means the conversion of plaintext or data into unintelligible form by means of a reversible translation based on a translation table or algorithms. That is, it does not hide the fact that some message was sent from or received by a particular site. Thus, if some location (or network node) A is sending and/or receiving a lot of messages to/from B, and if an adversary can monitor this fact, then even if the adversary does not understand what these messages mean, just the fact that there are a lot of messages between A and B reveals that and when they cooperate. Anonymity means that it is untraceable who communicates with whom. The objective of anonymous communication is to show how to hide, in an efficient manner, the identity of users who transmit (or receive) a data to (or from, respectively) other sites in the network.A mixnet is a multistage system that uses cryptography and permutations to provide anonymity. Here we are providing anonymity by using the system called Mixnet. i)DATA SECURITY METHODS Planning to protect our data may be something that is easy to talk about yet very hard to implement. There are some strategies we need to use. These include: a)Data Encryption:-To store sensitive information on a system that host locally, it is required to use encryption as a method of data protection. Having firewalls and passwords are good, but at times people can bypass all these and access our data. When encrypted, the data that an intruder can access will be in a form that they cannot understand and without an encryption key, this data is totally useless. b) Data Limitation:-Storing a lot of data on the local system is not recommended. This is because in case of any calamity, everything will be lost. To be on the safe side, it is preferable to store only information that is necessary for business. c) Prevent Access to Keys:-Even if we protect our information using encryption, there is a chance that our own employees may wrongfully use the encryption key to access the data. Therefore the third data protection method should limit access to the keys. That is we need to store the keys in very few places to have a control on access. d) Use Online Data Backup:One way to make our data secure is to keep it in a location that is separate from business. Enlist the services of a reliable cloud storage company that will make sure that our data is safe from external intrusion or unauthorized internal access. ii)ANONYMITY However, encryption does not hide all relevant information.For example, it does not hide the identity of the communicating parties. That is, it does not prevent traffic analysis. By using encryption we can hide the data but we can’t hide the source id to the receivers. To hide the communicating party identities there is a need of anonymity. Anonymity means that it is untraceable who communicates with whom. Anonymity in a communication context, also known as untraceability, prevents tracing back from a receiver to the sender. Sending the data only by using encryption means giving a chance for adversary to analyse the traffic regulations. An adversary's efforts might take the form of attempting to discover secret data, corrupting some of the data in the system. Rahul Samant et al, / (IJCSIT) International Journal of Computer Science and Information Technologies, Vol. 4 (6) , 2013, 822-825