September 2001 - cypherpunks-legacy

No Regrets About Developing PGP
by Sandy Sandfort 24 Sep '01

24 Sep '01

C'punks, Phil Zimmermann asked me to post this. He would like it freely disseminated, so feel free to post it wherever you wish. S a n d y -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 No Regrets About Developing PGP The Friday September 21st Washington Post carried an article by Ariana Cha that I feel misrepresents my views on the role of PGP encryption software in the September 11th terrorist attacks. She interviewed me on Monday September 17th, and we talked about how I felt about the possibility that the terrorists might have used PGP in planning their attack. The article states that as the inventor of PGP, I was "overwhelmed with feelings of guilt". I never implied that in the interview, and specifically went out of my way to emphasize to her that that was not the case, and made her repeat back to me this point so that she would not get it wrong in the article. This misrepresentation is serious, because it implies that under the duress of terrorism I have changed my principles on the importance of cryptography for protecting privacy and civil liberties in the information age. Because of the political sensitivity of how my views were to be expressed, Ms. Cha read to me most of the article by phone before she submitted it to her editors, and the article had no such statement or implication when she read it to me. The article that appeared in the Post was significantly shorter than the original, and had the abovementioned crucial change in wording. I can only speculate that her editors must have taken some inappropriate liberties in abbreviating my feelings to such an inaccurate soundbite. In the interview six days after the attack, we talked about the fact that I had cried over the heartbreaking tragedy, as everyone else did. But the tears were not because of guilt over the fact that I developed PGP, they were over the human tragedy of it all. I also told her about some hate mail I received that blamed me for developing a technology that could be used by terrorists. I told her that I felt bad about the possibility of terrorists using PGP, but that I also felt that this was outweighed by the fact that PGP was a tool for human rights around the world, which was my original intent in developing it ten years ago. It appears that this nuance of reasoning was lost on someone at the Washington Post. I imagine this may be caused by this newspaper's staff being stretched to their limits last week. In these emotional times, we in the crypto community find ourselves having to defend our technology from well-intentioned but misguided efforts by politicians to impose new regulations on the use of strong cryptography. I do not want to give ammunition to these efforts by appearing to cave in on my principles. I think the article correctly showed that I'm not an ideologue when faced with a tragedy of this magnitude. Did I re-examine my principles in the wake of this tragedy? Of course I did. But the outcome of this re-examination was the same as it was during the years of public debate, that strong cryptography does more good for a democratic society than harm, even if it can be used by terrorists. Read my lips: I have no regrets about developing PGP. The question of whether strong cryptography should be restricted by the government was debated all through the 1990's. This debate had the participation of the White House, the NSA, the FBI, the courts, the Congress, the computer industry, civilian academia, and the press. This debate fully took into account the question of terrorists using strong crypto, and in fact, that was one of the core issues of the debate. Nonetheless, society's collective decision (over the FBI's objections) was that on the whole, we would be better off with strong crypto, unencumbered with government back doors. The export controls were lifted and no domestic controls were imposed. I feel this was a good decision, because we took the time and had such broad expert participation. Under the present emotional pressure, if we make a rash decision to reverse such a careful decision, it will only lead to terrible mistakes that will not only hurt our democracy, but will also increase the vulnerability of our national information infrastructure. PGP users should rest assured that I would still not acquiesce to any back doors in PGP. It is noteworthy that I had only received a single piece of hate mail on this subject. Because of all the press interviews I was dealing with, I did not have time to quietly compose a carefully worded reply to the hate mail, so I did not send a reply at all. After the article appeared, I received hundreds of supportive emails, flooding in at two or three per minute on the day of the article. I have always enjoyed good relations with the press over the past decade, especially with the Washington Post. I'm sure they will get it right next time. The article in question appears at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1234-2001Sep20.html -Philip Zimmermann 24 September 2001 (This letter may be widely circulated) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP 7.0.3 iQA/AwUBO69F2sdGNjmy13leEQIn+QCg2DjDeyibtRe61tUSplSAobdzAqEAoOMF ir3lRc4c1D/0Mmmv/JtP/E73 =HmRO -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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RE: What might have happened on Sept. 11...
by Trei, Peter 24 Sep '01

24 Sep '01

> Zombywuf[SMTP:0094247@sms.ed.ac.uk] wrote: > > Quoting "Trei, Peter" <ptrei(a)rsasecurity.com>: > > > What would actually happen is that there would not be an attempt > > to hijack the plane. The only reason the terrorists pulled it off > > on the first three was that the usual protocol for hijacks involves > > landing, and letting most/all of the passengers off unharmed. > > For disarmed passengers, the best option for survival was to > > anticipate this protocol, and sit tight. > > What would actually happen is that in order to commit an act of suicidal > terrorism all you'd have to do is stand up and rely on the other > passengers to > shoot up the plane for you. It's a great stratagy, requires almost no > effort > and no weapons. I everyone in the Us had that kind of attitude and a > handgun > how many innocents would hav been killed for looking suspicious so far? > Zombywuf appears to be a Brit - one of those people who have been disarmed for so long that he/she has no real knowledge of firearms. That, or he/she does not read very well. I made specific reference to 'frangible, low velocity' ammunition. This is to prevent the very scenario he describes. (this is basicly a plastic dumdum bullet with a low charge of propellent - at short range quite lethal, but unable to penetrate objects much more solid than cloth or meat. If every adult in the US was armed, we'd be a much more polite society, and have much less crime. Peter Trei

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��
by Alexey 24 Sep '01

24 Sep '01

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Expectation of privacy in public?
by Anonymous 24 Sep '01

24 Sep '01

For the lawyers and lawyer larvae out there... In an article in the San Francisco Bay Guardian this week, there is an article about MUNI's policy of making audio recordings of passengers. <quote> Nathan Ballard of the City Attorney's Office told the Bay Guardian that they were well aware of the policy and approved it. "There are no expectations of privacy in public," he said. Ballard asserted that the policy was constitutional and did not fall under any wiretapping laws. When asked if all of the vehicles that employ this surveillance policy post signs to inform passengers that their conversations are being recorded, he said, "This policy does not require signs." </quote> Frankly, if I'm sitting in the back of an empty bus, talking to the person next to me, it's my opinion that there certainly is a reasonable expection of privacy. Does anyone more qualified than I care to tell me why I'm right or wrong? Legal or not, I'm also curious to see what the EFF has to say about this wonderful incarnation of Big Brother. http://www.sfbg.com/SFLife/35/51/cult.html

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Re: FC: Oracle's Larry Ellison urges national ID card for Americans
by Bill Stewart 24 Sep '01

24 Sep '01

I hate to trigger Godwin's Law so soon (though somebody else already did it), but are there any Bay Area tattoo shops that want to volunteer to help with the National ID numbers? At 12:40 AM 09/24/2001 -0400, Declan McCullagh wrote: >Matt Drudge writes: >http://www.drudgereport.com/id.htm >>A proposal for the creation of a national ID card was presented to >>President Bush in recent days, top government sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT. > >http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/svfront/ellsn092301.htm >>``We need a national ID card with our photograph and thumbprint digitized >>and embedded in the ID card,'' Ellison said in an interview Friday night >>on the evening news of KPIX-TV in San Francisco. >>``We need a database behind that, so when you're walking into an airport >>and you say that you are Larry Ellison, you take that card and put it in >>a reader and you put your thumb down and that system confirms that this >>is Larry Ellison,'' he said. [...] >>``We're quite willing to provide the software for this absolutely free,'' >>he said. > >---- > >Date: Sat, 22 Sep 2001 18:49:33 -0700 >To: declan(a)well.com (Declan McCullagh) >From: David Theroux <DTheroux(a)independent.org> >Subject: Ellison and ID cards > >Dear Declan, > >According to Drudge, Larry Ellison is now offering to donate the >technology to create a national ID card. What else would we expect from a >firm that was created by the CIA: > >http://beta.kpix.com/news/scripts/fri5pm.htm#77tz:_Ellison > >Best regards, > >David

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Ellison, National ID discussion on Slashdot
by Bill Stewart 24 Sep '01

24 Sep '01

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/09/23/2235219&mode=thread Most of it's not very deep... > > will you divest? > yes Two months ago would have been better :-) http://www.schwab.com/SchwabNOW/navigation/mainFrameSet/0,4528,529|3283,00.… They've gone from about 20 to 10.7....

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Re: CDR Anonymizer <cpunks_anon@einstein.ssz.com> ?
by Steve Furlong 24 Sep '01

24 Sep '01

Karsten M. Self wrote: > ...neatly sidestepping the fact that fraud is a crime, stupidity isn't. Stupidity _is_ a natural crime. Mommy states have attempted to repeal that law, but succeed mainly in redirecting the costs of stupidity from the stupid to society as a whole. -- Steve Furlong Computer Condottiere Have GNU, Will Travel 617-670-3793 Improve the species: eat the stupid

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FW: Registration Request for boycottoracle.com Received.
by Bill Scannell 24 Sep '01

24 Sep '01

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by business1＠tangfeng.org 24 Sep '01

24 Sep '01

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Re: CDR Anonymizer <cpunks_anon@einstein.ssz.com> ?
by Karsten M. Self 24 Sep '01

24 Sep '01

on Sat, Sep 22, 2001 at 08:32:46PM -0700, CDR Anonymizer (cpunks_anon(a)einstein.ssz.com) wrote: > The cypherpunks list received yet another copy of the > "Nigerian Corrupt Official's Bank Account" scam spam. > No surprise, though lne.com's filters usually block them. > The interesting thing was that this claims to be sent by the > CDR Anonymizer <cpunks_anon(a)einstein.ssz.com> FYI, info on the scam. This is the tenth instance I've seen this year. Please feel free to distribute the following if you encounter the scam on other NGs or mailing lists. I've compiled a set of rants (frequently repeated essays/posts) at http://kmself.home.netcom.com/Download/rant-o-matic.tar.gz This is an example of the "Nigerian Scam", also called 419 Letters, or just plain 419. Most 419 letters and emails originate from or are traceable back to Nigeria. However, some originate from other nations, mostly also West African nations such as Ghana, Togo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast ( Cote D'Ivoire ) etc. It's the current wrinkle of a decades-old scam that nets tens of millions of dollars per year, and may be the third largest industry in Nigeria. The 419 Coalition believes that it is the elites from which successive governments of Nigeria have been drawn who are the scammers. Expect little cooperation from Nigerian authorities. Information in this notice is compiled from various sources, links below. Keep reading for reporting information. The Scam operates as follows: the target receives an unsolicited fax, email, or letter concerning Nigeria containing either a money laundering or other illegal proposal OR you may receive a Legal and Legitimate business proposal by normal means. Invariably, the proposition involves resources which are somehow locked up: oil or other invoice problems, a bequest, money cleaning, or misallocated funds. At some point, the victim is asked to pay up front an Advance Fee of some sort. If the victim pays the Fee, there are many "Complications" which require still more advance payments until the victim either quits, runs out of money, or both. To report the scam: If you are a United States Citizen or Resident and have suffered NO Financial Loss, write "No Financial Loss - For Your Database" on the documents you received and Fax them to the US Secret Service Task Force handling Scam matters at 202-406-6930. Documents may be emailed to mailto:419.fcd@usss.treas.gov?subject: "No Loss -- 419 Scam" IF you are a United States Citizen or Resident and YOU HAVE SUFFERED A FINANCIAL LOSS write "Financial Loss - Contact Me ASAP" on the documents you have received and Fax them to the Task Force at 202-406-6930 and give Your telephone number(s). A Secret Service Agent will call you back as soon as possible to discuss the matter with you (don't worry, you're Not in any trouble). (Above from http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal/index.htm) Other countries have their own reporting methods, see above for more info. Additional information: Google search: http://www.google.com/search?q=nigeria+scam Federal Republic of Nigeria, Embassy: http://www.embassy.org/embassies/ng.html Sierra Leone: Nigerian 419 Scam: http://www.sierra-leone.org/scams.html Sample letters are archives as no's 01 - 33: http://www.sierra-leone.org/scam01.html - http://www.sierra-leone.org/scam33.html Nigeria Scam Letter Archive http://www.scamorama.com/ Nigeria - The 419 Coalition Website http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal/index.htm U.S. Postal Authorities crack down on Nigerian Spam http://www.usps.gov/websites/depart/inspect/pressrel.htm Nigeria - The 419 Coalition Website http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal/index.htm Urban Legends: Nigerian Scam http://www.snopes2.com/inboxer/scams/nigeria.htm Salon: I crave your distinguished indulgence (and all your cash) http://www.salon.com/people/feature/2001/08/07/419scams/print.html Nigerian 419 Scam "Game Over!" http://home.pacbell.net/jpaladin/ Book describes how the scam plays out. Thank you. Peace. -- Karsten M. Self <kmself(a)ix.netcom.com> http://kmself.home.netcom.com/ What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand? Home of the brave http://gestalt-system.sourceforge.net/ Land of the free Free Dmitry! Boycott Adobe! Repeal the DMCA! http://www.freesklyarov.org Geek for Hire http://kmself.home.netcom.com/resume.html [demime 0.97c removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature]

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