RPINA- Network Forensics Protocol Embedding Privacy Enhancing Technologies

Although privacy is considered to be the ultimate right for every user to enjoy intercommunications with security and anonymity, the provision for such a service could easily be adapted as a hiding cover by malicious users. Privacy enhancing technologies (PETs) should not only hide the identity of legitimate users but also provide means by which evidence of malicious activity can be gathered and revealed when necessary. This paper proposes a network forensics protocol called RPINA (respect private information, not abuser) which may operate over PETs, without violating the privacy of innocent users, but only the privacy of abusers. This approach introduces a new dimension in the relation between these two opposite-goal technologies, which enhances their viability in the global network environment