November 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

secure cellphones go commericial, part II
by Major Variola (ret.) 19 Nov '03

19 Nov '03

Yes, from /. New Cellphone Offers Big Shots Eavesdrop-Proof Call Tue Nov 18,10:23 AM ET Add Technology - Reuters to My Yahoo! By Lucas van Grinsven, European Technology Correspondent AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A German company launched a new mobile handset on Tuesday targeted at business executives that secures lines are free from eavesdroppers, sparking criticism that it could also make criminals harder to catch. Missed Tech Tuesday? Find the perfect tricked-out cell phone, plus best hybrid phones and great phone games. Berlin-based Cryptophone, a unit of privately held GSMK, developed the phone by inserting an encryption software inside a standard handheld computer phone. This ensures that calls can only be decoded by a similar handset or a computer running the software. But the phone is seen as a mixed blessing in some European countries. While the benefits for business managers exchanging sensitive information are obvious, such a device could potentially have the side effect of helping criminals. Security specialists in the Netherlands said the device could threaten criminal investigation by the Dutch police, which is one of the world's most active phone tappers, listening in to 12,000 phone numbers every year. But privacy lobbyists say the new handset is a "freedomphone" much more than a "terrorphone." "It's a tremendous step forward, because the level of surveillance by authorities is breathtaking," said Simon Davies, director of Privacy International in Britain. Cryptophone says unlike rivals such as Sweden's Sectra, Swiss Crypto AG and Germany's Rohde & Schwarz, it has no ties to national security and defense organizations and that there is no back door for government agencies. "We allow everyone to check the security for themselves, because we're the only ones who publish the source code," said Rop Gonggrijp at Amsterdam-based NAH6. Gonggrijp, who helped develop the software, owns a stake in Germany's GSMK. <snip> http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20031118/tc_nm/tech_cellp…

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How The Wright Brothers Blew It
by R. A. Hettinga 19 Nov '03

19 Nov '03

For the better part of a decade, now, I've compared David Chaum to the Wright Brothers... Read the article, and try to keep from laughing -- or blushing in the shock of recognition. National monopolies only worked for dynamite. The Chaum patents expire in less than a year. Cheers, RAH ----- <http://www.forbes.com/2003/11/19/1119aviation_print.html> Forbes A Century Of Flight How The Wright Brothers Blew It Phaedra Hise, 11.19.03, 7:00 AM ET The Flyer takes off from Kill Devil Hill, with Orville Wright at the controls, while his brother Wilbur looks on, on Dec. 17, 1903. In 1905 the Wright brothers enjoyed a complete monopoly on heavier-than-air aviation. They had the world's only working airplane, were the only two pilots able to fly it, and had applied for a formidable patent that would cover any plane with three-axis control. Yet within five years they would regularly be surpassed by competitors at home and abroad, and before what was remembered as the Golden Age of Aviation arrived in the 1920s, they would be out of the aircraft business entirely. What happened? <Snip...> -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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OpenLinux: Key validity bug in GnuPG 1.2.1 and earlier (fwd)
by Thomas Shaddack 19 Nov '03

19 Nov '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 10:56:58 -0800 Subject: OpenLinux: Key validity bug in GnuPG 1.2.1 and earlier From: security(a)sco.com To: announce(a)lists.caldera.com, bugtraq(a)securityfocus.com, full-disclosure(a)lists.netsys.com, security-alerts(a)linuxsecurity.com

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Ashcroft's bake sale, no questions allowed, gvt-issued photo ID required
by Declan McCullagh 19 Nov '03

19 Nov '03

PRESS GUIDANCE WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2003 ATTORNEY GENERAL WASHINGTON, D.C.- Attorney General John Ashcroft will deliver welcoming remarks at the Department of Justice Fallfest at 11:10 A.M. EST. Local farmers will offer herbs, jams, baked goods, and fresh-from-the-farm seasonal vegetables for purchase. CFC charities that work to reduce hunger in our community will be present. There will be no questions and answers. WHO: Attorney General Ashcroft WHAT: Remarks at the Department of Justice Fallfest WHEN: 11:10 A.M. EST Media arrival and registration BY 10:00 A.M. EST due to extra security measures WHERE: The Great Hall Main Justice Building Constitution Avenue NW Washington, D.C. 20530 NOTE: Media must enter the Department at the center entrance on Constitution Avenue, N.W., between Ninth and Tenth Street. ALL media MUST PRESENT GOVERNMENT-ISSUED PHOTO ID (such as driver's license) as well as VALID MEDIA CREDENTIALS. A mult-box will be available. Press inquiries regarding logistics should be directed to Heather Cutchens at (202) 532-5403. Attorney General John Ashcroft will hold a photo-op with Solicitor General of Canada Wayne Easter at 12:00 P.M. EST. There will be no questions and answers.

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New PGP Universal beta: PGP and S/MIME
by Lucky Green 19 Nov '03

19 Nov '03

Cpunks, I spent the last few months working at PGP on a nifty new solution to an old problem: how to get email encryption deployed more widely without requiring user education. Since ideas for solving this problem have been discussed on this mailing list for over 10 years now, some of you might wish to take a peek at the solution that we came up with. The public beta of PGP Universal 1.1 is now yours to download for free from http://www.pgp.com/products/beta1.1.html One of the many interesting features of our approach is the ability to secure all users of a mail server, without the users needing to understand what encryption is or does, no need for MUA-specific plugins, interchangeable use of PGP keys or S/MIME, and much more. And yes, you can still keep your 4096-bit RSA key on your PC only. I am using PGP Universal myself. It is really cool. Note that the download of PGP Universal is 322MB in size and requires a dedicated x86 server to install. Have fun, --Lucky Green <shamrock(a)cypherpunks.to>

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EDRI-gram: RFID-blocker wins German idea-contest
by Thomas Shaddack 19 Nov '03

19 Nov '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2003 16:26:40 +0100 (CET) Subject: EDRI-gram newsletter - Number 22, 19 November 2003 From: EDRI-gram newsletter <edrigram(a)edri.org> To: edri-news(a)edri.org <snip> ================================================================== 6. RFID-DETECTOR WINS GERMAN IDEA-CONTEST ================================================================== The German civil rights and privacy-organisation FoeBuD is the winner of an idea-contest for a national awareness campaign about the infringement of civil liberties through new technologies. With the price of 15.000 Euro, FoeBuD wants to develop a 'Dataprivatizer', a tool to detect RFID's, minuscule spy-chips that are increasingly built into consumer goods. RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) are tiny computer chips with an antenna that can be read without touching or even seeing it. These transponders can be built into every yoghurt cup or piece of clothing. The chips can secretly divulge information about the buyer. With these data firms can set up profiles about the shopping behaviour and leisure activities of their customers. This is not a remote future. The German chain of supermarkets and DIY-stores Metro AG already won a Big Brother Award last month for implementing this technology. Idea contest (winner announced 06.11.2003) http://www.bridge-ideas.de <snip>

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Re: [silk] bloody hell. (fwd from udhay@pobox.com)
by Eugen Leitl 19 Nov '03

19 Nov '03

----- Forwarded message from Udhay Shankar N <udhay(a)pobox.com> -----

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[linux-elitists] STANFORD LOCAL: Wednesday 19 November 2003: Microsoft will claim that Palladium is good for you, Richard Stallman asks your help in telling the truth (fwd from jays@panix.com)
by Eugen Leitl 19 Nov '03

19 Nov '03

----- Forwarded message from Jay Sulzberger <jays(a)panix.com> -----

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Physics News Update 662 (fwd)
by Jim Choate 18 Nov '03

18 Nov '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 11:34:46 -0500 From: physnews(a)aip.org To: ravage(a)SSZ.COM Subject: Physics News Update 662 PHYSICS NEWS UPDATE The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Physics News Number 662 November 18, 2003 by Phillip F. Schewe, Ben Stein, and James Riordon A LIQUID WALL IN A FUSION ENERGY DEVICE has improved the performance [SSZ: text deleted] ELECTRON SPINS CAN CONTROL NUCLEAR SPINS in a semiconductor when trapped in a very confined space, a recent experimental development which calls upon laser science, solid-state physics, and nuclear magnetic resonance. David Awschalom and his colleagues at the Center for Spintronics and Quantum Computation at UC Santa Barbara begin by lithographically creating a quantum well, an extremely thin, practically two-dimensional region inside a semiconductor capable of trapping electrons. First, a laser pulse injects polarized electrons (their spins have a definite orientation determined by the laser's polarization) into the well. Once in the well, the tiny disk of electrons (with a radius of about 20 microns but a thickness of only 20 nm) can be controllably moved along one axis, much as an abacus bead can be slid along a wire, by simply changing a voltage. In this case, the disk can be positioned with nm-accuracy. The nuclei of atoms residing within the thin volume occupied by the spin-polarized electrons will in turn be polarized; that is, the spin of these nuclei will tend to align themselves with the spin of the electrons. The result is an extremely thin region---equivalent to the thickness of several tens of atoms--- of polarized nuclei which can be precisely positioned by changing a single voltage. These thin sheets of nuclear polarization could constitute the basic elements of an information storage device in which nuclear spin determines the logical state of the system. One may ask, why not take out the "middle man" and just use the electron spin to encode information? The answer: nuclear spins have a weaker interaction with the surrounding environment than electron spins. While harder to flip, once oriented, nuclear spins preserve their state longer than do electrons. One may also wonder, why not just use some large magnet to orient the nuclear spins? Why use electrons as intermediaries? The answer: all-electronic control of spin is desirable because electric fields are so much easier to control and create on a small scale than magnetic fields. They are scalable and easy to implement, while it is notoriously hard to produce large and localized magnetic fields. In addition, all of our current integrated circuit technology is based on charge and electric field; it would certainly be helpful to manipulate spin using "knobs" which are well developed and familiar to engineers. Awschalom (awsch(a)physics.ucsb.edu, 805-893-2121) believes this current result is the first step toward the establishment of an all-electrical manipulation of countable numbers of nuclear spins.(Poggio et al., Physical Review Letters, 14 November 2003) *********** PHYSICS NEWS UPDATE is a digest of physics news items arising from physics meetings, physics journals, newspapers and magazines, and other news sources. It is provided free of charge as a way of broadly disseminating information about physics and physicists. For that reason, you are free to post it, if you like, where others can read it, providing only that you credit AIP. Physics News Update appears approximately once a week. AUTO-SUBSCRIPTION OR DELETION: By using the expression "subscribe physnews" in your e-mail message, you will have automatically added the address from which your message was sent to the distribution list for Physics News Update. If you use the "signoff physnews" expression in your e-mail message, the address in your message header will be deleted from the distribution list. Please send your message to: listserv(a)listserv.aip.org (Leave the "Subject:" line blank.)

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Gestapo harasses John Young, appeals to patriotism, told to fuck off
by Anonymous 18 Nov '03

18 Nov '03

>Cryptome received a visit today from FBI Special Agents Todd Renner and Christopher >Kelly from the FBI Counterterrorism Office in New York, 26 Federal Plaza, telephone >212) 384-1000. Both agents presented official ID and business cards. Good stuff. Pigs getting concerned about cryptome means they are scared.

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