Survey Paper on Rising Threats of Subverting Privacy Infrastructure

Abstract: One of the main challenges faced by a user today is protecting their privacy, especially during widespread surveil- lance. This led to the development of privacy infrastructures whose main purpose is to guarantee users privacy. However, they are being misused by attackers who consider them to be an exploitable resource to perform illegitimate activities. This paper proposes to analyze and assess the threats that occur due to subverting privacy infrastructures. It begins with an outline of critical privacy infrastructures that were developed. An overview of rising threats of subverting the most prominent privacy infrastructure, Tor is presented. Additionally, a brief assessment of the severity of these threats is discussed and the paper concludes by recommending the scope for further research to mitigate the risks due to such threats.