Silence on the Wire

Chapter 16. Parasitic Computing, or How Pennies Add Up

Where the old truth that having an army of minions is better than doing the job yourself is once again confirmed

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I hope you’ve enjoyed the ride so far. I’ve discussed a number of fancy problems that affect the security and privacy of information from its input at the keyboard to its ultimate destination hundreds or thousands of miles away. But it is too early for either of us to throw a party; something is missing from the picture—something far bigger than what we have discussed so far. The dark matter.

The problem with our story so far is simple: communications do not occur in a void. Although the process of exchanging data is usually limited to two systems and a dozen or so intermediate ones, ...