Onion routing

Uncommon card · No. 178126

Onion routing is a technique for anonymous communication over a computer network. In an onion network, messages are encapsulated in layers of encryption, analogous to the layers of an onion. The encrypted data is transmitted through a series of network nodes called "onion routers," each of which "peels" away a single layer, revealing the data's next destination. When the final layer is decrypted, the message arrives at its destination. Each intermediary generally knows only the immediately preceding and following nodes, limiting what any single relay can learn about the route. While onion routing provides a high level of security and anonymity, there are methods to break the anonymity of this technique, such as timing analysis.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Original text: Harrison Neal HANtwister (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0