Most people try to remain anonymous because they fear other users will find information about them that they do not want to share. In the 1980s, when most people who owned computers only had local networks, hiding your identity with simple pseudonyms was possible.
However, one decade later, people had access to the World Wide Web, where it was no longer possible to maintain anonymity simply by entering names that were not real. At this time, the first anonymizers appeared – programs for hiding information about the computer and anonymous browser, its IP address, and the user’s location.
Technologies for online anonymity
In those days, full-fledged social networks and messengers did not exist. Many people communicated by e-mail, and some even tried to hide their identity with this method of communication. For this purpose, remailers were used – intermediary services that received a letter from the sender and delivered it to the recipient. All information about the sender was deleted, so the addressee could not find out who sent him the letter.
Over time, technologies to ensure the anonymity of users improved, and proxy servers, VPNs, and other technologies appeared. In most cases, they are needed to spoof an IP address – a special numerical identifier that can be used to determine the address of an Internet user. For example, if a person from Russia uses a VPN, he will be seen online as if he were in another country. With the help of such technologies, users can not only hide their identity but also bypass blocked resources.
In 1998, onion routing technology was patented, allowing information to be repeatedly encrypted and sent to multiple network nodes so that no one can know the source, destination, and data type.
In addition, advanced users try not to publish unnecessary information about themselves to protect themselves from so-called social engineering. In the context of information security, this is a set of psychological manipulation techniques fraudsters use to extract confidential information about a person. For example, if a social media user’s profile has a real first name, last name, and photos, attackers can use them to find the person’s profile on other sites.
Once they have more data, they can find his contact numbers and make up a way of relatives and other information. All this can become a tool to find more serious data from a person, such as bank card details. This is why it is advisable to be careful with data published on the Internet.
The dangers of anonymity on the Internet
So, technologies exist to provide anonymity on the network. The danger is that attackers can use them – one of their scenarios has already been mentioned. Because of this, many people oppose online anonymity and advocate the emergence of “Internet passports” with real user data. One such person is information security expert Eugene Kaspersky. In his opinion, cybercriminals, not ordinary people, often use technologies for anonymity.
There are many personalities in the history of mankind whose real names are unknown to anyone. Take, for example, the street artist Banksy. Since the 1990s, his works have been found on the streets of many countries, but no one knows who this artist is.
But within this topic, the most interesting is Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous inventor of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency protocol. This person (or group of people) was well acquainted with information security and the principles of social engineering, thanks to which he left no trace on the Internet, which can be exposed.
To be fair, there have been people who have been suspected of creating Bitcoin: it could be crypto expert Nick Szabo, American Dorian Nakamoto, entrepreneur Craig Wright, and so on. But no one can still say who hides under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.
