14 DAY TRIAL // Security researcher Dan Kaminsky has created a tool that allows users to detect if their Internet service provider breaks net neutrality rules by favoring some sites over others.
Net neutrality is the reason why the Internet allows a small company to raise and take on a big one through better technology. It is one of the core fundamentals that drive forward innovation.
Net neutrality states that ISPs should treat all websites and services equally, but unfortunately, that's not always the case and network operators are in a position to subtly give companies an edge over their competition.
Dan Kaminsky, who is renowned for discovering a major flaw in the Internet's critical DNS system, is out to expose net neutrality violators with a new tool that he dubbs Nooter (neutral router).
"I’m here as an engineer to tell you that we will find you out. And we will find out in a way that’s incontrovertible," Kaminsky told the audience at Black Hat.
Nooter will be released in the upcoming weeks, but the researcher explained how it works. The tool is similar to a VPN. It establishes a tunnel to hide the real source and destination of the traffic.
Then, it gives the user the option to spoof the source of incoming traffic to be whatever website they wish to test. If the ISP intervenes, the changes will be noticeable when comparing the results with a normal connection to the site.
If ISPs try to filter Nooter traffic, Kaminsky has a tool to detect that also. "The endgame here is that it’s impossible to make a filter N00ter can’t detect," he said, according to Forbes.
Kaminsky claims that he didn't do this out of support for net neutrality or to shame ISPs. "I would never embarass my firends the ISPs. I’m just warning them now not to do anything you wouldn’t want to see on the front page of a newspaper," he concluded.