July 2001 - cypherpunks-legacy

NetCurrents: Echelon for the Private Sector
by Faustine 22 Jul '01

22 Jul '01

Did you know that NetCurrents, which bills itself as "the Internet's Premiere Intelligence Agency", conducts real-time monitoring of message boards, chatrooms, and IRC channels, logging and producing reports on all occurences of particluar keywords for their clients? Echelon for the private sector, pure and simple. They even developed a kind of AI to assign a score to messages based on whether they are positive, neutral, or negative, even scoring emoticons. For example, if I were to write something on a message board unfriendly to any given product or company, (say, for example, NetCurrents and their bullshit privacy-invading Big Brother monitoring services D:< ), it would likely assign my message a very low score indeed and log it in its entirety, along with my e-mail address, into one of their databases to be reviewed by some marketing hack (or ???) at a later date. It might be interesting to find out who's using this, wouldn't it. Check out their Orwellian webpage: http://www.netcurrents.com The Internet is Talking...Are you listening? The Internet provides individuals with great opportunities to intentionally distort and mislead public perceptions about corporations, which can have a significant effect on a company's shareholder value and public image. Anonymous Internet postings have become a serious threat to companies - often requiring only a matter of minutes for their effects to be felt. With more than 3,800 new Websites and more than 250,000 new messages posted to message boards each day, managing information on the Internet has become an overwhelming and labor intensive process. Real-Time Message Analysis and Alerts Utilizing the advanced real-time Internet search technology (F.I.R.S.T - Fast Internet Real-Time Search Technology) developed by NetCurrents to monitor Internet discussion, CyberPerceptions provides up to the minute online analysis of message board activity to help you develop better business strategies, stronger competitive positioning and deeper understanding of consumer perceptions about your company's products or services. To help qualify and quantify this vast amount of online information, your NetCurrents Internet Strategists will analyze and react to critical situations caused by negative or incorrect information posted on Websites and Internet discussion sites. No more combing through thousands of messages on the message boards, as NetCurrents helps you determine which messages have the greatest impact on your company. CyberPerceptions charts and graphs provide you with "at a glance" information with message review capabilities to easily evaluate online discussion CyberPerceptions charts and graphs provide you with "at a glance" information with message review capabilities to easily evaluate online discussion. NetCurrents is uniquely positioned to deliver the intelligence and expertise you need to: Leverage your competitive strategy Evaluate emerging Internet issues Build and protect your market leadership Proactive Online Image Management Our highly trained Internet Strategists provide valuable resources to help you build a strong, positive brand image, brand loyalty, and brand positioning in local markets and around the world. They also assist you in meeting a variety of other goals, including those you define that could contribute to your corporation's market value. We offer a broad, expanding range of services to cover your interests. NetCurrents range of services include: Reporting on message board activity Monitoring stock volume and volatility Assisting in removal of false information from message boards Disseminating accurate and appropriate information Extensive competitive intelligence reporting Performing critical due diligence for your pending acquisition Our extensive resources help protect and build your company's global image and extend its value, freeing you to focus more on running your core operations and increasing profitability. CyberPerceptions utilizes a modular design concept, which allows us to tailor our services to your business requirements, enabling a multitude of services to be integrated into a unique, customized solution for each individual client. The baseline CyberPerceptions service includes: Access to a dedicated NetCurrents Internet Strategist Secure NetCurrents client portal Monitoring and notification Customer defined alert criteria Graphical detailed statistics with message drill-down Message query capability allows archive search of posted messages Remote portal access via an Internet enabled wireless device Ability to add additional modules to customize our services to your business requirements Develop better business strategies, stronger competitive positioning and deeper understanding of Internet consumer perceptions about your company's products or services with CyberPerceptions. MobilePerceptions Stay informed with internet perceptions at your fingertips. NetCurrents' MobilePerceptions delivers a wireless graphical reporting tool that helps you stay in continuous contact with your company's Internet perception by providing online sentiment information accessible anywhere you are. As a CyberPerceptions customer, you can take advantage of this service at no extra charge. NetCurrents' MobilePerceptions gives you the ability to monitor specific Internet information summaries about your company's online image and reputation via a Palm OS compatible Internet enabled wireless device. You can continuously check for the latest messages and monitors shifts in opinion where ever you are, 24/7. Quickly evaluate and initiate responses to rumors and misinformation about your company with access to online sentiment charts, messages posted on Internet discussion groups, and wireless notifications based on your specific predetermined alert criteria. Knowledge Management on the go You can view consolidated bar charts with message drill-down capabilities for evaluating Internet communications and understanding your company's overall online appearance. Listing the top poster identities will give you the ability to read messages and track the online identity of your company's most vocal supporters and critics even while you are away from the office. MobilePerceptions Features: Real-time summary of online topics. Top poster identities with message volume. Alert notifications based on your company's requirements. Message drill-down for more detailed information. With MobilePerceptions ability to check the most recent alerts posted to your MyNetCurrents Web portal, you will stay informed of rapidly changing events as they happen. If you are already a NetCurrents customer and own a Palm VII handheld, you may take immediate advantage of this great new service at no extra cost. Click here to download the wireless application, free of charge!!

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Re: Ensuring that LSBs in Stego
by bill.stewart＠pobox.com , 22 Jul '01

22 Jul '01

Tim is incorrect here, unless he's implicitly narrowing his argument to the case where the eavesdropper has no better model of noise than the sender, or if he's only concerned about the eavesdropper reading the message, not about the attacker detecting its presence. The problem is that a good stream of cyphertext will have a 50% ones density with no apparent correlation patterns, while the real noise may look much different, and XORing the two gives 50% uncorrelated. For two simple cases, consider "LSB is always 0" and "LSB has 75% of the bits = 1"; Tim's stegotext would be detected in both these cases. Real cases are more likely to resemble "noise limited to X kHz, Y dB", though they're of course much more computational effort to test for, and therefore less likely to be tested for. Peter Wayner's work on Mimic Functions provides some good methods for transforming messages into stegotext that meets arbitrary grammars, so you can pass automated tests for stego. That doesn't mean a human reader won't be able to detect that something's wrong, but if you've got human eavesdroppers trying to read every message you send or receive, you're probably under suspicion already. Audio is tough to use as stego cover, because it's usually compressed, removing much of the available noise and redundancy, either with a human speech model (cellphones, VOIP, etc.) or with MP3s for music, so hiding messages in it is likely to have a major impact on the sound. Doesn't mean you can't do it, or can't start your messages with "Hi, Bob, I'm calling from the subway" or label your music file "Live Phish concert, 1/1/01, audience tape from nosebleed seats", and you're better off using less aggressive compression (e.g. 32kbps ADPCM instead of 6.5kbps cellphone algorithms.) Bill On 07/21/2001 - 17:25, Tim May wrote: > At 4:28 PM -0700 7/21/01, jamesd(a)echeque.com wrote: > > -- > >On 18 Jul 2001, at 8:07, Ray Dillinger wrote: > >> *sigh*. I will not use a stego system unless I write it first and > >> my recipient has the only other copy. Because it's a matter of > >> keeping the *method* secret, that's really the only way. > > > >In principle, it should be possible to write a stego program that is > >undetectable, provided your enemy has no better models of noise > >sources in the medium than you have. As far as I know, no one > >has done this. > > > >It is probably easier to do this with sound than with video, as order > >and randomness in sound somewhat easier to specify. > > Take a set of bits generated by a good PRNG. Use this set for the LSB > of GIFs or other noncompressed image files. Anyone analyzing the LSBs > sees a set with various spectral and statistical properties. > > To send a signal, a message, XOR the message with this set of > PRNG-generated bits. One's recipient already has a copy of the > PRNG-generated bits. (Remember, stego is not the same as public key > crypto, so Alice and Bob can arrange in advance to use a particular > entry point in an PRNG, or an entry point in a one-time pad, etc.) > > The resulting LSBs will have, "in almost cases," a set of spectral > and statistical properties nearly identical with the original LSBs. > Unless the message bits are somehow correlated with the > PRNG-generated bits, the distribution will pass all tests for > "randomness" that the orginal PRNG-generated bits passed. > > This is a kind of variant on von Neumann's scheme for ensuring even > distributions of heads and tails in a message stream even with coins > weighted unevenly towards heads and tails. > > The approach can be extended to have the distribution of LSBs look > like that of a camera source, or whatever normal images or sound > files typically have. (In this case, Alice and Bob exchange sets of > LSBs from camera/microphone sources. Messages are then XORed with > these sets. All statistical tests produce the same results as > original camera/microphone sources produce.) > > (A "gotcha" left as an exercise if if the image or microphone source > produces fixed patterns of bits in certain places. For example, if > every image file begins with 16 fixed bits, or somesuch. In this > case, XORing these fixed bits with the message bits would NOT > preserve the statistical properties.) > > --Tim May > > --Tim May > > > > > -- > Timothy C. May tcmay(a)got.net Corralitos, California > Political: Co-founder Cypherpunks/crypto anarchy/Cyphernomicon > Technical: physics/soft errors/Smalltalk/Squeak/agents/games/Go > Personal: b.1951/UCSB/Intel '74-'86/retired/investor/motorcycles/guns > > X-Authenticated-User: idiom === Thanks; Bill Stewart <bill.stewart@pob

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<o> <o>
by We_The_People_＠webtv.net 22 Jul '01

22 Jul '01

I am looking for a remailer that you can make the e-mail address from the sender what ever you want it to be. If you know of any, pass it on to us. Thanks ! Mike Sons of Liberty Militia Tim Stine 312 S. Wyomissing Ave. Shillington, Pa. 19607 U.N. Occupied U.S.A. 1-610-775-0497 We_The_People_(a)webtv.net What is a Militia ? Defenders of Liberty & Freedom, and the Constitutional Republic. Against Tyrants ! Foreign and Domestic ! Resist the United Nations New World Order Global Government, and it's Global Socialism, actually a Evil Oligarchy of the Superrich. We must Declare our Independence from the U.N. New World Order ! Or forever lose our freedom. We_Must_Resist_For_God_And_Country. The_American_Revolution_Continues !!! http://community.webtv.net/We_The_People_/SonsofLibertyMilitia

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Welcome to Join4Free.Com
by Join4Free.Com 22 Jul '01

22 Jul '01

Thank you for signing up to Join4Free.Com. As a member of Join4Free.Com you will receive: 1) Unlimited Access to Join4Free.Com and all sister sites. 2) A daily adult newsletter with free photos and many other FREE & Special Offers. 3) Special promotional offers from our affiliates (Optinmail.cc). Your email address is secure with us and will only be used through our own network of promotional offers. We will never rent or sell your email to outside marketing agencies. Before your membership is active, please visit the following link so that we may verify this is your correct e-mail address: http://www.join4free.com/quickvalidate.html?c=Mg8xXYZWXuvw&i=3340484 Note: If clicking on the link does not work, please copy and paste it into your web browser. Below is your info: Username: cypherpunks(a)toad.com Password: cypherpunks IMPORTANT: Enter your username exactly as it appears above, it should be your complete email address. Once you validate your membership, you can visit our sister sites as well. Our sister sites include: * http://www.join4free.com/ * http://amateurs.join4free.com/ * http://asians.join4free.com/ * http://lesbians.join4free.com/ * http://gay.join4free.com/ * http://teens.join4free.com/ Sincerely, Join4Free.Com Staff

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RE: Killing the G8 Anarchists
by Morlock Elloi 22 Jul '01

22 Jul '01

--- Duncan Frissell <frissell(a)panix.com> wrote: > defending according to your prior post. I thought they didn't really > believe in property? You are a ... "journalist" ??? Where, pray tell, did you divine that G8 protesters "don't believe in property" ? Or did you feel in your little brain that it's just the right thing to say ? > In any case, culture is something that exists in the minds of people and in > the choices those people make every day. One can only claim to "own" a This is nonsense. *All concepts* exist in minds of people, you don't mine for ethics or culture or modular algebra. > As for the planet, a bit big to be owned at this point though people will > be able to own them later when we're richer and have access to more of > them. Though why one would want to own a gravity well is beyond me. This is sooooo deep. Did you ever had anything but wrong generalisations to say ? __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/

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Re: G8, issues, and familiarity
by Faustine 22 Jul '01

22 Jul '01

On Sat, 21 Jul 2001, Faustine wrote: > Jim wrote: > >CNN's poll is asking "Are you familiar with the issues behind the G8 > >summit". > >58% said "No". > >Perhaps the protesting will help motivate more to educate themselves. > True, that would be great. But how many of the remaining 42 percent > consider themselves educated, but are nevertheless content to mindlessly > repeat mickey mouse platitudes and propaganda spoon-fed to them from on > high, and who couldn't pass a rudimentary econ 101 test if their lives > depended on it? >>That's a pretty simplistic view: >>If they don't know then it's their fault for not being educated. Whose fault is it then? Anyone well-off enough to be reading CNN online hasn't got much of reason not to educate themselves. Nobody gets a free pass--I take responsibility for my own ignorance, and don't feel the need to be ashamed of it because I'm actively working to overcome it every day. Believe it or not, I went from being a high school dropout literally living on the street to a PhD student with a research job entirely on my own, with nothing to get me there but will and intelligence: why should I feel an ounce of sympathy for people with far more material advantages than I ever had who never made use of them? >>If they claim they do know then it must be platitudes and propoganda. No, I'm just disgusted with the majority of the great smug, lazy, and complacent middle class of America. I find their peculiar brand of mushheadded apathy to be beneath contempt. One of my hot buttons, I guess. > More analysis, less rhetoric. >>Analysis is rhetoric, just better organized. John von Neumann is spinning in his grave... >Lies, damn lies, statistics. Bah! How about this one: The fundamental difference between engineering with and without statistics boils down to the difference between the use of a scientific method based upon the concept of laws of nature that do not allow for chance or uncertainty and a scientific method based upon the concept of laws of probability as an attribute of nature. - W.A.Shewhart There!! :) ~Faustine.

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A new record? 18 Choategrams this morning!
by Tim May 22 Jul '01

22 Jul '01

After reading the handful of messages that made it through lne.com's filters, I double-checked my "trash" directory to see what my own filters had thrown away. Some kind of new record: 18 messages from Choate, posted during just a 2-hour period this morning. From the headers, most look to be Choategrams giving us pointers to what Yahoo or CNN make readily available. (One pulled at random: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/ap/20010721/wl/summit_protests_46.html "Summit Protests Rage for Second Day") Gee, Choate, how would we know about yesterday's news, reported widely, discussed here, if you didn't pass on a pointer to Yahoo? Some would call it mail-bombing the list to disrupt it. Perhaps. But I expect it's just plain cluelessness. Some kind of "URL Tourette's Syndrome." Thank Baal for filtering tools. --Tim May -- Timothy C. May tcmay(a)got.net Corralitos, California Political: Co-founder Cypherpunks/crypto anarchy/Cyphernomicon Technical: physics/soft errors/Smalltalk/Squeak/agents/games/Go Personal: b.1951/UCSB/Intel '74-'86/retired/investor/motorcycles/guns

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Filetopia = gnutella + crypto
by Subcommander Bob 22 Jul '01

22 Jul '01

FYI: a gnutellish distrib P2P/search tool *with crypto*. For Wintel. >From its doc: Filetopia is a free communications software that includes: instant messaging, chat, e-mail, a powerful file sharing system with a search engine, online friends list and message boards. What is unique to this software is the level of security and privacy that it provides. It uses a choice of strong ciphers and public key techniques for all communications and sophisticated techniques to protect your IP and thus make you truly anonymous and safe from attacks. ..... I've been running this P2P filesharer for a few days, its quite stable and fast even on a slow, old Win95 system (unlike many other P2P tools). I have no assoc. with Filetopia

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Re: Rallies on Monday
by Reese 22 Jul '01

22 Jul '01

At 02:23 PM 7/20/01, dumbGeEk wrote: >into blowing open the Gary Condit fuck up... ) > >I mean this ass hole fucked some Intern and then killed her... Your proof that he killed her? You've shared it with the D.C. police I take it? Condit is in custody now? Or should we downgrade this fantastically strong assertion to just your wild assed guess, and send the nice young men in clean white coats after you, to check you out? >maybe I'm a >little crazy here (which I have been told oftern that I am) but that seems >a hell of a lot more important then some fucking Commie. Anyone who cannot distinguish between Russian citizens who were victims under communism and Communists deserves to be treated like a Communist. You need more than two clue pills. >Just my 2 cents (after about 12 beers...) A little crazy? No. A lot drunk. Take two aspirin with the handful of clue pills, you'll need them. Oh, this is the last time I'm going to leave your To: and Cc: includes intact. If you don't have the style, grace or courtesy to send separate emails to different lists, you deserve the hangover you should wake up with and 10,000 more all at once too. Fuckhead. Reese

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Geek Profiling Upheld by Appeals Court
by Eric Cordian 22 Jul '01

22 Jul '01

The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals has just upheld the right of schools to suspend or expel any student who speaks or writes about fictional violence, dresses differently, has a "disturbing" background, or "fits the profile" of a "homicidal student." The 9th circuit is supposed to be the liberal one, right? ----- SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A Washington state school district acted appropriately when it suspended a student for submitting a poem about a fictitious campus mass murder, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. The decision from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court's ruling that the high school was wrong to suspend James LaVine, a 16-year-old junior, for 17 school days in 1998. LaVine submitted his poem, ''Last Words,'' to be critiqued by his English instructor at his school about 100 miles north of Seattle. Among the violent imagery was the phrase, ''I drew my gun and . . . Bang, Bang, Bang-Bang. When it was all over, 28 were, dead.'' In ordering the suspension, the school district had said LaVine had a ''disturbing'' background, dressed differently and ''fit the profile'' of a homicidal student. The student's attorney, Breean Beggs, said the court's decision could chill students' First Amendment right to free speech and give educators leverage to punish students for their ideas. ''I was hoping to have it made clear that students cannot be punished for the content of their work,'' Beggs said. The appeals panel said while the poem viewed by itself is protected speech, the school district had a right to suspend LaVine on fears he may have carried out what he had written. ''Parents and the public expect schools to protect their children and that is getting more and more difficult in modern times,'' said Tyna Ek, the lawyer for school district. ''This says that schools can act when there are danger signals.'' The circuit panel noted that, in hindsight, it may not have been necessary to expel the student -- given that it was later determined he had no violent intentions. Still, the court said, schools need to react to the potential for such violence. LaVine, who is now 19 and graduated last year, said he didn't know why he wrote the poem. ''When I write, I just get a feeling. Whatever comes out, comes out,'' LaVine said. ''There's not really any reason behind why I wrote it.'' -- Eric Michael Cordian 0+ O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division "Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"

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