Research Overview

My research focuses on the political dimensions of technical systems, specifically exploring issues related to privacy and control, such as censorship circumvention, surveillance, and secure communication methods—an area of study broadly referred to as Internet Freedom. I am particularly interested in how authoritarian governments deploy information controls to limit access to information and how technology can be leveraged to counter these mechanisms. By developing a rigorous understanding of the technical limitations of censorship technologies, I aim to craft practical solutions that empower individuals living under repressive regimes.

Current Projects

Details on my current projects include innovative approaches to secure communication and the analysis of existing vulnerabilities in popular systems. For instance, my recent work involves developing methods for the secure dissemination of radio signals and investigating the vulnerabilities of VPN protocols, highlighting the intricate relationship between technical design and political implications.

Publications

Signal Integrity via Information-Theoretic Constructs
Bajracharya, J., Holden, M., & Tolley, W. J.
Under submission. Presented at Washington and Lee University’s SRS poster session.
Blind In/On-Path Attacks and Applications to VPNs
Tolley, W. J., Kujath, B., Khan, M. T., Vallina-Rodriguez, N., & Crandall, J. R.
In 30th USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 21).
CVE-2019-14899: Inferring and hijacking VPN-tunneled TCP connections
Tolley, W. J., Kujath, B., & Crandall, J. R.
Open Source Security Mailing List.
CVE-2019-9461: Inferring and hijacking VPN-tunneled TCP connections on Android
Tolley, W. J., Kujath, B., & Crandall, J. R.
Open Source Security Mailing List and Android Bug Bounty Program.
Understanding VPNs: An End to End Overview
Tolley, W. J., & Khan, M. T.
Internet Freedom Festival 2019.
An End to End Analysis of VPN Services
Tolley, W. J., & Khan, M. T.
Citizen Lab Summer Institute 2018.
Alice and Bob, who the FOCI are they?: Analysis of end-to-end encryption in the LINE messaging application
Espinoza, A. M., Tolley, W. J., Crandall, J. R., Crete-Nishihata, M., & Hilts, A.
In Proceedings of the 7th USENIX Workshop on Free and Open Communications on the Internet.