Privacy in VoIP networks: A κ-anonymity approach

Peer-to-Peer VoIP (voice over IP) networks, exemplified by Skype [4], are becoming increasingly popular due to their significant cost advantage and richer call forwarding features than traditional public switched telephone networks. One of the most important features of a VoIP network is privacy (for VoIP clients). Unfortunately, most peer-to-peer VoIP networks neither provide personalization nor guarantee a quantifiable privacy level. In this paper we propose novel flow analysis attacks that demonstrate the vulnerabilities of peer-to-peer VoIP networks to privacy attacks. We present detailed experimental evaluation that demonstrates these attacks quantifying performance and scalability degradation. © 2009 IEEE.