August 1993 - cypherpunks-legacy

Crypto and Jurassic Park
by Peter Wayner 29 Aug '93

29 Aug '93

Here is an anecdote about the use of cryptography taken from "The Beauty in the Beasts" an article by Jody Duncan on page 95 of the magazine "Cinefex". Principal (sic) photography on Jurassic Park wrapped just after the Thanksgiving weekend. In the six months that followed, the film was editted, scored, mixed for sound and provided with finalized computer graphics dinosaurs. Already on to his next project-- Schindler's List-- Speilberg was shooting in Europe throughout most of the postproduction phase, but continued to keep his hand in Jurassic Park through an encrypted satellite feed from ILM (Industrial Lights and Magic).

1 0

Re: ftp from soda
by collins＠newton.apple.com 29 Aug '93

29 Aug '93

available again

1 0

The Hunt for Red Miata (humor)
by fergp＠sytex.com 29 Aug '93

29 Aug '93

excerpted from the notorious, left-wing publication: The Washington Post Sunday, 29 August 1993 Page C5; Outlook Commentary and Opinion The Hunt for Red Miata A Glimpse at the New Indutrial-Espionage CIA, by David Corn "Economic intelligence is the hottest current topic in intelligence poilcy." - CIA Director R. James Woolsey The President slammed the files down on the desk and glared across the Oval Office to his national security advisors. "Intelligence reports from the NSA," he huffed, "tell us that Volkswagen is about to introduce a sports coupe with room for passengers in the back, air bags in front and rear, zero to 60 in 6.8, over 50 mpg, retailing for less than $12,000, due to a new employee profit-sharing arrangement. This is intolerable. Detroit could be driven to its knees. And what's worse is those damn ... uh, competitors ... are stealing secrets from our companies. Thank God, one of their design specialists used an unsecured cellular phone. What are we going to do?" Woolsey finished cleaning his glasses with his tie. "Well, Mr. President," he said, "our sources tell us that all they really got was GM's plans to market luxury sedans in Japan -- a lot of good that will do them. But we realize this threat is serious. We are putting our best officer on the case ..." James Ryan was waiting in the hallway outside the Oval Office. He was still nursing a bad case of eye strain and a touch of R.S.I from the last operation -- the Toshiba HDTV case. It had ended badly. Two hackers dead. A Cray was down. And the disks were at the bottom of the Sea of Japan. As he entered the president's office, Ryan silently cursed Woolsey for making him attend this damn dog-and-pony show. The president stared at Ryan, a 25-year veteran of the service. Was this the agency's best man? He wore thick glasses; a plastic pocket-protector protruded from his shirt pocket. The end of his belt dangled. "Mr. President," Woolsey explained," he's undercover." The president clasped his hands together. "Very convincing, Director," he said. "Just wanted to meet the man upon whom our economic future as a nation rests. Now that I have, I feel very comfortable. Make us proud, Mr. Ryan. Get us their secret plans. By the way, if anyone ever asks, I will disavow any knowledge of your actions." Ryan nodded. "I will erase it." First stop was Dusseldorf, an auto trade show. Ryan was following a marketing exec out of a beerhall -- her gray suit flattered her long legs -- when the personal fax in his briefcase rang. He ducked into an alley and read the noncurling document: Go to the HiTek Cafe in Berlin -- damnit, he hated that smoke-free, non-alcohol pub -- and await your contact, who will carry a copy of HyperText Life magazine. Ryan was playing with his slide rule when she walked in the HiTek. Nice, he thought. She sat down next to him and gave the code signal: "Don't you hate to run out of memory?" "With some data," he replied, "you just have to learn to let go." Victoria Goodlog, she introduced herself. An American grad student in design engineering who had received a fellowship to work in the new, restricted Fahrvergnugen Research Facility. "But we're on the same team," she added. "You worked with Daddy on the Greece business, didn't you?" "Dirty business, that was," he said. "But we won the Cold War." "It killed Daddy." "Yes, but he died knowing that the U.S. gold supply was safe and that he had thwarted another communist plot to rule the world." "But now we know Moscow was not even capable of ruling its own country." "Well, sure, hindsight is 20/20 .... So tell me, what's a girl like you doing in a job like this?" Ryan put his hand on her thigh and rubbed the corduroy. "Make that 'woman'," she said. "And you don't have to seduce me. I'm on your side. Let's go back to my hotel. I have condoms." Nothing is the same anymore, Ryan thought. After a lengthy discussion of their sexual pasts and then moderately passionate lovemaking, the two ordered Evian from room service and plotted. "I'll create a power surge to knock out the computer security system. You'll have a few minutes to copy the encrypted data file," Goolog said. Ryan like the plan. "What's your favorite algorithm?" he asked. "Later," she said with a smile. The next morning, everything fell into place. Ryan, posing as a workplace facilitator, gained entry into the lab and cracked the computer locks. He downloaded the file into his laptop and copied the plans onto super-high-density diskettes designed by Langley's techies to look like cough drops. On the way out, he dumped the computer in a garbage can. It would be untraceable. He rendezvoused with Goodlog at a virtual-reality arcade. As they walked down the Kurfurstendamm, Ryan stopped to fix the penny in his loafer. "Look at this," Goodlog said as she walked on. "Somebody must have dropped an experimental Hexium-25050 advance microprocessor chip." She bent doen to pick it up. "Don't!" bellowed Ryan. The chip exploded. It was too late. He held her in his arms, stroked her short hair, removed her black-frame glasses. But when he heard the sirens, he dropped her body to the cold pavement and ran. He didn't look back. His satellite-signal beeper souded. He ignored it. He walked past the Brandenburg Gate. It all used to be much easier. Back then, he was fighting the Evil Empire to save the Free World. That was worth taking a bullet for. But why should he have to face the diabolical security chief of BMW or the goons of Honda to benefit the dinosaurs of Detroit? He hated the Ford he owned. No pick-up, lousy handling. He thought of Goodlog. Who in Grosse Point would mourn her? Rather than use the plans to build a better, cheaper car, GM would probably find a way to sabotage the new VW model. That might even be his next assignment. Ryan tossed the diskettes into a sewer. What would he tell Woolsey? He looked at the spot where Checkpoint Charlie once stood. It began to rain. "I know," Ryan muttered to himself. "I'll say that I ran out of fax paper." -------------------------- David Corn is Washington editor of the Nation magazine. Paul Ferguson | privacy \'pri-va-see\ n, pl, -cies; Mindbank Consulting Group | 1: the quality or state of being apart Fairfax, Virginia USA | from others 2: secrecy fergp(a)sytex.com | ferguson(a)icp.net | Privacy -- Use it or lose it. Type bits/keyID Date User ID pub 1024/1CC04D 1993/03/15 Paul Ferguson <fergp(a)sytex.com> Key fingerprint = EE D2 93 7D 04 6D C6 05 AC 36 AD 9D 8E 4F 41 58

1 0

Talked to Phil Zimmermann....
by tcmay＠netcom.com 29 Aug '93

29 Aug '93

I rarely waste your time with minor spelling or grammar corrections, or even missing words, but this omission needs a correction: > 2. Phil will carefully inspect the code, including the RSA part, and > is confident no funny business is planned by ViaCrypt or anyone else. > > (I have to trust Phil on this matter more than any "panel" or the > like....after all, he wanted to put trapdoors in, he could in the > existing PGP--though of course this is highly unlikely to have been > put in in the first place and to have remained undiscovered all this > time.) "...after all, if he wanted to put trapdoors in...." The "if" is the all-important subjunctive qualifier. -Tim

1 0

Re: no ftpd on soda.berkeley.edu ?
by collins＠newton.apple.com 29 Aug '93

29 Aug '93

>Has anyone else tried to ftp soda in the past 2 days or so? I've been >unable to establish a connection. Ditto.

1 0

Whit Diffie on Sept 27th Sunergy Satellite TV Broadcast
by gnu 29 Aug '93

29 Aug '93

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Florida SunFlash Sept 27th Sunergy Satellite Broadcast SunFLASH Vol 56 #26 August 1993 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 56.26 Sept 27th Sunergy Satellite Broadcast 7th Sunergy Broadcast will be on September 28, 1993 from 9:00 - 10:45 am PDT. Title: "Cyberjockying in the 21st Century". How will supernetworks and the Internet affect you ? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you have satellite receive capabilities and wish to downlink this program please send email to david.howard(a)Sun.COM. We will add your name to our alias and send the appropriate satellite and transponder information when it becomes available. Sunergy #7 September 28, 1993 9:00 - 10:45 am PDT Cyberjockying in the 21st Century How will supernetworks transport you to the far reaches of the data galaxy? What is the current status of the internet and other "information highways"? What can these "highways" do for you today? This next Sunergy live broadcast will focus on the issues and technologies surrounding the worldwide movement of information. It will take a look at the internet, information suppliers, information retrievers and the other related resources. Discussions will also include regulation and security on the internet. Some current technologies will be demonstrated. Guests include: John Gage - Director of the Science Office, SMCC Whitfield Diffie - Distinguished Engineer, Security - SMCC Carl Malamud - President, Internet Multicasting Service Brewster Kahle - President, WAIS Inc If you wish to downlink this broadcast, please send email to david.howard(a)Sun.COM or phone the Sunergy office at +1 415/336-5847 Program is available on satellites over Europe (west, central and east), Canada, Latin America and the US. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Biographies: John Gage Director, Science Office Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation John Gage works for Bill Joy, the Chief Technical Officer of Sun, and is responsible for Sun's relationships with the world scientific and public policy communities, international scientific institutions and groups developing new forms of scientific research involving computing. He is on scientific and advisory panels of the United States National Science Foundation, the US Congress Office of Technology Assessment, the European institute of Technology and the United States National Academy of Sciences. He has recently been appointed to the US National Research Council Mathematical Sciences Education Board. He is a member of ACM, IEEE, SIAM, AMS, AAAS, and SMPTE. He attended the Harvard Business School and the Harvard Graduate School of Public Policy. He did doctoral work in economics and mathematics at the university of Berkeley at the same time as Bill Joy. Gage subsequently left Berkeley with Joy to start Sun in 1982. Gage is on the Board of Directors of Unicode, an industry consortium of IBM, Microsoft, Apple, Novell, Sun, GO Corporation, and others to provide multilingual capability in all world scripts for all documents and applications. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Carl Malamud President Internet Multicasting Service Carl Malamud is the author of seven professional reference books including STACKS (Prentice Hall), Analyzing Sun Networks (Van Nostrand Reinhold), and Exploring the Internet: A Technical Travelogue (Prentice Hall). Currently, Carl is producing the Internet Town Hall and Internet Talk Radio series for the Internet Multicasting Service and conducts research on integration of telephone systems into the Internet. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Whitfield Diffie Distinguished Engineer Sun Microsystems Whitfield Diffie is best known for his 1975 discovery of the concept of public key cryptography, for which he was recently awarded a Doctorate in Technical Sciences (Honoris Causa) by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. For a dozen years prior to assuming his present position in 1991, Diffie was Manager of Secure Systems Research for Northern Telecom, functioning as the center of expertise in advanced security technologies throughout the corporation. Among his achievements in this position was the design of the key management architecture for NT's recently released PDSO security system for X.25 packet networks. Diffie received a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1965. Prior to becoming interested in cryptography, he worked on the development of the Mathlab symbolic manipulation system --- sponsored jointly at Mitre and the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory --- and later on proof of correctness of computer programs at Stanford University. He is the recipient of the IEEE Information Theory Society Best Paper Award for 1979 and the IEEE Donald E. Fink award for 1981. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Brewster Kahle President Wide Area Information Servers, Inc. Inventor and architect of the WAIS electronic publishing system, Brewster Kahle has lead the multi-company effort to build a practical system for end-users to find and retrieve information from servers worldwide. Before this work, he helped design and build parallel supercomputers at Thinking Machines Corporation. Brewster was schooled at MIT in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. ********************************************************************** For information about SunFlash send mail to info-sunflash(a)Sun.COM. Subscription requests should be sent to sunflash-request(a)Sun.COM. Archives are on draco.nova.edu, ftp.uu.net, sunsite.unc.edu, src.doc.ic.ac.uk and ftp.adelaide.edu.au All prices, availability, and other statements relating to Sun or third party products are valid in the U.S. only. Please contact your local Sales Representative for details of pricing and product availability in your region. Descriptions of, or references to products or publications within SunFlash does not imply an endorsement of that product or publication by Sun Microsystems. Send brief articles (e.g. third party announcements) and include contact information (non-800#, fax #, email, etc) to: John McLaughlin, SunFlash editor, flash(a)Sun.COM. +1 305 351 4909

1 0

Mailer hooks for PGP
by snark!esr＠gvls1.VFL.Paramax.COM 29 Aug '93

29 Aug '93

I've now uploaded and made PGP. It looks mondo cool, but also kind of a pain to use because the existing interface requires one to perform encryption and decryption manually. I'm considering writing patches for Elm 2.4 that would allow it to (a) check your public ring and automatically sign/encode outgoing mail to eligible users, and (b) automatically decode incoming mail. Elm is a very popular mailer. If I could get these patches into the distribution, the hassle barrier to widespread use of PGP would drop significantly. And the prospects for that are good; I'm friendly with the Elm development group moderator. Also, there's precedent for Elm to delegate message decoding --- it has MIME hooks that shell out to metamail. (That brings up another point. Has anyone worked on getting armored PGP registered as an official MIME encoding type? Getting pgp support into metamail would be a massive win --- probably better than hooks in Elm itself. If no one else is working this angle, I'd be willing to get in touch with Nathaniel Borenstein and use whatever zorch I have with him to make it happen.) Now, before I begin hacking. Has anything like this been done before? Are there any known design problems or pitfalls in integration with a mailer such as Elm? And, finally, if prz is listening, would you be willing to accept minor hacks for this purpose such as the addition of a new pgp interface mode tailored for use from mailers? -- >>eric>>

7 6

Re: Free Electronic Cash
by Duncan Frissell 29 Aug '93

29 Aug '93

To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com T >> Michael Elansky Defense Fund T >> 25 Maiden Lane T >> West Hartford, CT 06117 T > T >I just sent $10 cash to them. Better them than the corrupt EFF which T >has been accepting kickbacks/bribes from AT&T and Pac Bell. Speaking T >of which, has anyone bothered to contact the EFF/CPSR/ACLU about this T >case? It seems like a perfect 1st Ammendment issue, and I would T >personally love to see the pigs who raided Mr. Elansky lose their jobs T > because of these outrageous civil rights violations. They have been in contact with the EFF and received some moral support but they mostly have to depend on their own resources. I did determine that the BBS was not siezed, BTW. It was missing when the Geheime Staats Polizei arrived. Duncan Frissell (Net Prime - 01000001st Fiberborne) "A Machine Age army can no more defeat an Information Age army than a Muscle Age army can defeat a Machine Age army." Join in the fun as Slick Willie and the other spearcarriers of the New World Order charge the machine guns of the Info Army. Cyberspace Wants You. Join the 01000001st Fiberborne - recruiting depot open at this address. Phase One guerilla operations have already begun... --- ~ WinQwk 2.0b#0 ~ Unregistered Evaluation Copy

1 0

Free Electronic Cash
by Duncan Frissell 29 Aug '93

29 Aug '93

To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com Be the first on your block to spend some electronic "near" cash. If you are the first to read this post, you may be able to use up to $5 of electronic pseudo-cash. I wanted to be the first to post some so it was worth $5 to me. Yesterday I bought a Western Union Phone Card (tm) from my nearest Western Union money transfer agent. It is good for about 8 minutes of phone calls anywhere in the continental US (fewer minutes of international calls). To use the "cash:" Call 1 (800) 374-8686 Wait for the tone Dial the code 428 22 601 When you get a dial tone, dial the (area code) + phone-number of the number you wish to reach. The system will tell you how many minutes you have available for the call. Western Union Phone Cards (tm) are available from any agent in $5, $10, $20, and $50 denominations. They can be (must be) purchased for cash. I have no idea whether Western Union saves the ANI info of incoming calls and cross indexes it with the outgoing number and the "account" number. All that I ask is that the user(s) of this card send me email (anonymously if you like) so I can send back privacy consulting solicitations. Duncan Frissell Michael Elansky Defense Fund 25 Maiden Lane West Hartford, CT 06117 --- ~ WinQwk 2.0b#0 ~ Unregistered Evaluation Copy

3 2

Re: AT&T Home Security Plus
by doug＠netcom.com 29 Aug '93

29 Aug '93

"George A. Gleason" <gg(a)well.sf.ca.us> said: >Cross-list directories: having served as a key witness against a very deadly >local stalker here, I have taken great pains to let PacBell know that my >service address is not to be released in any form for any reason; I've gone >over this with service reps every single year at directory-compiling season. Yes, unfortunately there are institutions that are obnoxious about this. Here's an innocent anecdote that shows how bad things can be. Last year I got to know a woman via her nome de plume on a mud. She was highly privacy-conscious, to the point where she told no one there anything about her real life (this is common on many muds, but not on that particular one). We'd had a bunch of heart-to-heart's, and since I'm a smart ass, at one point I called her up. Since she hadn't told me her real name nor what city she was in, let alone given me her phone number, she naturally wanted to know how I'd managed this. (I underscore that this was innocent; we talked for 6 hours that time and she recently visited me while passing through the area where I live, which is to say that she wasn't bent out of shape by my doing the above.) Anyway the scary part is that her university lists both *residence* phone and address for all students in their phone directory services. She said that she had tried to get unlisted but that university policy *forbade* that, so she was stuck with being listed. (Yes, this is a U.S. university.) That's the sort of policy that ought to be prevented by law. Even non-deadly stalkers can be a serious nuisance. Doug

1 0