December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Netscape sub rosa?
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 6:33 AM 9/20/95, Alan Olsen wrote: >At 03:06 PM 9/19/95 -0500, you wrote: >>NPR reported on the security flaw in Netscape, >> >>3:05 pm CDT. > >As well as CNN Headline news. (With the big Netscape N logo and ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >everything.) They spent a fair amount of time (for CNN Headline news) on >the story. Gee, where's that "Cypherpunks logo" when you really need it? A rose covering the Netscape "N" logo? A crypto eagle swooping down and pecking at weak keys? Netscape sub rosa? --Tim May ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Re: Forwarding of Federalist Papers from Canada for U.S. Citizens promoting democracy
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Six wrote: > If you have a desire to educate the citizens of foreign countries > as to the value of democracy, I would be pleased to forward a copy of > the Federalist Papers to any email address you desire, upon receipt > of only the email addresses, with no instructions or requests. I think we should all send a copy of the Federalist Papers to Sadaam Hussein. It would be the American thing to do. Six also wrote: > If for any reason you feel that the terrorists who are ruling your > country might be able to persecute you for exercising free speech, > I would be happy to forward PGP 5.0 upon receipt of only the email > addresses, with no instructions or requests. I am certain we can trust Six not to mix up the addresses with no instructions and no requests meant for forwarding the Federalist Papers with the addresses with no instructions and no requests meant for forwarding strong encryption. TrustingMonger

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Government promotes strong crypto!!!
by EFF 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

[Electronic Forgery Foundation] <Bienfait, Saskatchewan> [Washington, DC] In a startling turn of events, the U.S. government has come out in support of the use of strong encryption. In order to give incentives to criminals to use strong encryption, the government has announced that the penalty for using weak encryption in the commission of a crime will be an extra five years in prison. Lying Nazi Fuck Freeh stated, "Theoretically, the law applies to those criminals who use strong encryption, as well, but in practice, we will not be able to prosecute, because if we can't break it, then we have no way to prove it is being used for criminal purposes." Dog-faced Child Murderer Reno stated that the high level of publicity given to the effective use of encryption in crime has served the government's aim of making certain that the vast majority of criminals will recognize the value of using encryption to hide evidence. Lying Nazi Slut Dying FineSwine stated that she opposed the use of strong encryption by child pornographers because she and the vice police had grown so accustomed to high-quality computer graphics of child pornography, that they just couldn't get off on photographs any more. Marked for deletion SwineSwine said that she would like to comment more on child pornography, but talking about it made her hot, and she then rushed of to the ladies room. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This message was forged under the auspices of the Electronic Forgery Foundation. Any misuse or abuse of this message will probably give your Congressman a hard on. They're weird that way. -----------------------------------------------------------------------

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Any talk of limiting _existing_ crypto?
by Tim May 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

OK, so the imminent legislation will ban sale or distribution unescrowed crypto products after 1999 or 2000 or whatever. Exact details unclear. But I see no language declaring existing products to be contraband. (Though such language could still come, of course...nothing would surprised me at this point.) So, what about Alice and Bob using PGP 5.0 or Explorer with S-MIME, or whatever. Plenty of crypto already out there. They can drop their encrypted text into whatever mail program or browser they're using. If existing crypto is fully legal to use, then it could be years and years before the Freeh-Reno-SAFE outlawing has any significant effect. Is there any reasonable interpretation of any of the SAFE or Pro-CODE bills that could make it illegal to use preexisting crypto programs (before the ban)? Any way they could make it illegal to use PGP or Lotus Notes or whatever in conjunction with a mailer or browser? If not, then our strategy should be to get the simpler, text-centric, crypto programs massively and widely deployed. Spend the year or so we have before D-Day getting crypto onto every CD-ROM being distributed, every public domain site, etc. (An old strategy, and one great progress has been made on. But now we have to really go into high gear, to _really_ get crypto widely deployed.) Integration with mailers and browsers may not even be such a good idea, as the evolution of such products will cause obsolescence. Better, perhaps, to leave the crypto at the "text edit" level, the ASCII level, where it can be dropped in cleanly to whatever program is current. (Also an old strategy, one with many advantages.) The war criminals in Washington will have a real hard time rounding up the crypto deployed between now and D-Day. Fucking criminals. Fight the _real_ criminals. Nuke em til they glow. --Tim May There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws. Only one response to the key grabbers is warranted: "Death to Tyrants!" ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Cypherpunks Bay Area Meeting, This Satuday September 13th
by Hugh Daniel 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

What: Cypherpunks September 1997 Bay Area Meeting When: Saturday September 13, 12 noon till 5pm Where: PGP World Headquarters, 2nd floor meeting room Bayview Bank Building, just south of Hwy. 92 2121 S. El Camino Real, San Mateo California http://www.pgp.com/pgpcorp/contactpgp.cgi#head Agenda: Forbes Article background, everyone Cypherpunks at HIP'97, Lucky Green, David Del Torto Ecash announcement, Jeremey Barrett, BlueMoney Software Corp. Linux Onion Router, Jeremey Barrett Diffie-Helman Free of Patent, ??? New FBI Anti-Crypto Bill, how to react, everyone Domain name conference report, John Gilmore Attacks on US remailers etc., Bill Stewart ??? After: Eat dinner somewhere yet to be decided... PGP Building Access: This is an Open Meeting on US Soil and it is free for anyone to attend. There is a minor building security formality due to the facilities being in a bank building: anytime after 12 noon, approach the Bayview Building's Information window (in the plaza, see below for directions), and ask the Guard on Duty to let you up to the 2nd Floor for the Cypherpunks meeting (use the passphrase "cypherpunks release code"). If you have any difficulty (eg. if the guard is on a break), simply call DDT at +1 415 730 3583 he I'll let you in. You can arrive at any time during the scheduled meeting hours, though earlier is better if you want to hear the interesting stuff.

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Bean Counting
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

After giving careful consideration to the amount of press coverage dedicated to the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building, and judging the proportion of outrage over the deaths of the children in the daycare center compared to the amount of outrage over the remaining victims, I have come to the conclusion that in the interests of saving lives terrorists and psychos should be encouraged to murder the youngest children possible. While my studies are preliminary, they indicate that terroists and madmen would only have to kill half as many people to achieve comparable results in the arena of publicity and public attention if they were to confine their slaughter to young children. This figure declines further if the children are white, and even further yet if they are cute. By promoting cute young white children as the target of preference for terroists and crazy people, we could save innumerable lives each and every year. Next Week: The role of Senior Citizens in slow check-out lines.

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Re: More on House Intelligence committee amendment on crypto
by Lucky Green 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 03:38 PM 9/11/97 -0700, Declan McCullagh wrote: >So I'm reading through the 43-page amendment to SAFE that the House >Intelligence committee approved today. It includes: > >* Ban on sale of crypto without a backdoor. Five year & fine (maybe >$250,000?) if violated. Prosecutions can be held in closed-door >courtrooms, publishers of info about case to be held in contempt of court. Does the bill retain the 5 years first offense, 10 years second offense provisions for using crypto in the comission of a crime? Let's see: Lucky sells five copies of PGP. That's 5+(5+4*10)=50 years in prison. Or is it (5*5)+(5+4*10)=70 years? Doesn't make much of a difference at my age, I suppose. --Lucky Green <shamrock(a)netcom.com> PGP encrypted mail preferred. DES is dead! Please join in breaking RC5-56. http://rc5.distributed.net/

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null
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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Cypherpunks Bay Area Meeting, This Satuday September 13th
by Lucky Green 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Date: Thu, 11 Sep 1997 06:08:29 -0700 (PDT) From: Hugh Daniel <hugh(a)ecotone.xanadu.com> To: cypherpunks-announce(a)toad.com Subject: Cypherpunks Bay Area Meeting, This Satuday September 13th Reply-to: hugh(a)xanadu.com What: Cypherpunks September 1997 Bay Area Meeting When: Saturday September 13, 12 noon till 5pm Where: PGP World Headquarters, 2nd floor meeting room Bayview Bank Building, just south of Hwy. 92 2121 S. El Camino Real, San Mateo California http://www.pgp.com/pgpcorp/contactpgp.cgi#head Agenda: Forbes Article background, everyone Cypherpunks at HIP'97, Lucky Green, David Del Torto Ecash announcement, Jeremey Barrett, BlueMoney Software Corp. Linux Onion Router, Jeremey Barrett Diffie-Helman Free of Patent, ??? New FBI Anti-Crypto Bill, how to react, everyone Domain name conference report, John Gilmore Attacks on US remailers etc., Bill Stewart ??? After: Eat dinner somewhere yet to be decided... PGP Building Access: This is an Open Meeting on US Soil and it is free for anyone to attend. There is a minor building security formality due to the facilities being in a bank building: anytime after 12 noon, approach the Bayview Building's Information window (in the plaza, see below for directions), and ask the Guard on Duty to let you up to the 2nd Floor for the Cypherpunks meeting (use the passphrase "cypherpunks release code"). If you have any difficulty (eg. if the guard is on a break), simply call DDT at +1 415 730 3583 he I'll let you in. You can arrive at any time during the scheduled meeting hours, though earlier is better if you want to hear the interesting stuff. --Lucky Green <shamrock(a)netcom.com> PGP encrypted mail preferred. DES is dead! Please join in breaking RC5-56. http://rc5.distributed.net/

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MITSUBISHI MISTY algorithm
by Nobuki Nakatuji 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Does anybody know MITSUBISHI MISTY algorithm ? If you know it,Please send e-mail to me. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

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Bean Counting II
by bureau42 Anonymous Remailer 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Does anyone know if the government has released any firm figures on the number of lives that would be saved from terrorist activities with the outlawing of strong encryption and mandatory key escrow? If we had the proper figures to work with then we could make a valid judgment as to how many lives anti-GAK supporters would have to put in danger in order to tip the balance so that it would be in the best interests of the citizens to allow strong non-GAK'ed crypto. I, for one, would hate to see lives lost needlessly merely because those opposing GAK did not have the proper figures to work with. I think that in the interests of the greatest number of citizens, the government should supply solid figures as to the body count that would be required to negate the need for laws against strong encryption. Also, the government should provide a separate figure for how many lives of legislators would need to be lost in order to balance the threat of strong encryption. I imagine that it would take far fewer Congressman's lives to balance it out than it would average citizen's lives. Call your Congressman and ask if these figures are available. In order to get the most help possible, begin the conversation by asking the Congressman if he is in favor of saving lives. BeanCounter

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Different Ways to Serial Murder AOL Members' Children
by bureau42 Anonymous Remailer 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Different Ways to Serial Murder AOL Members' Children: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

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Any talk of limiting _existing_ crypto? (fwd)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > Date: Thu, 11 Sep 1997 21:39:52 -0700 > From: Tim May <tcmay(a)got.net> > Subject: Any talk of limiting _existing_ crypto? > If not, then our strategy should be to get the simpler, text-centric, > crypto programs massively and widely deployed. Spend the year or so we have > before D-Day getting crypto onto every CD-ROM being distributed, every > public domain site, etc. > > Integration with mailers and browsers may not even be such a good idea, as > the evolution of such products will cause obsolescence. Better, perhaps, to > leave the crypto at the "text edit" level, the ASCII level, where it can be > dropped in cleanly to whatever program is current. (Also an old strategy, > one with many advantages.) How about the system file i/o level? ____________________________________________________________________ | | | The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there | | be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves. | | | | -Alan Greenspan- | | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http:// www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage(a)ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|

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Different Ways Polly Klaas Could Have Been Killed
by bureau42 Anonymous Remailer 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Different Ways Polly Klaas Could Have Been Killed: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

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Re: The problem of playing politics with our constitutional rights
by Lizard 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:05 PM 9/11/97 -0700, James S. Tyre wrote: >So, the last rhetorical question -- how do you convince someone who's >never used a browser (the vast majority of the voting populace, I'd >think) why crypto is important? > "Excuse me, Mr. Man On The Street...would you give an IRS auditor the keys to your house, without him telling you if he would ever use them or if you were being audited?" "Of course not!" "How would you feel about the government requiring that when you buy a lock, you have to give a key to the IRS, and that they ought to be allowed to sneak into your house at will, without you even being notified you've been charged with a crime?" "That's absurd!" "Well, that's what they're trying to do now." "I'll write my Congressman or woman right now!" (Lizard is currently DLing the PGP plug-in for his beloved Eudora. Never let it be said I can't be a nonconformist like everybody else!) <SETH>And here we see more of the cult's recruitment. Note how he always talks about the *GOVERNMENT* and the *IRS*. Why doesn't he talk about Pepsi or GM wanting the keys to your house? More of this 'government bad, business good' propaganda we've all grown so sick and tired of, being shoved down our throats. Small wonder this list has gone to hell!" </SETH>

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Different Ways to Kill AOL Members
by bureau42 Anonymous Remailer 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Different Ways to Kill AOL Members: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

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Re: Different Ways to Kill AOL Members
by Syniker＠aol.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Subj: Different Ways to Kill AOL Members Date: 97-09-12 01:05:58 EDT From: remailer(a)bureau42.ml.org (bureau42 Anonymous Remailer) Sender: owner-cypherpunks(a)Algebra.COM To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com Different Ways to Kill AOL Members: 1. Just thrust your head and shoulders thru their bedroom window :):) 2. 3. 4. 5.

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Docs in Bernstein converted to HTML
by Greg Broiles 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I've converted two of the newer documents in _Bernstein v. Dept of State_ into HTML; but I'd appreciate it if someone felt like proofreading/comparing them to the original images, it's late and my eyes are tired. Judge Patel's Order of 9/9/97, staying some of the injunctive relief: HTML at <http://www.parrhesia.com/bernstein/stay.html> image at <http://www.eff.org/pub/Legal/Cases/Bernstein_v_DoS/Legal/970909_stay_order. images/index.html> Declaration of William Reinsch in support of emergency motion for total stay: HTML at <http://www.parrhesia.com/bernstein/reinsch.html> image at <http://www.eff.org/pub/Legal/Cases/Bernstein_v_DoS/Legal/970910_reinsch_dec l.images/index.html> -- Greg Broiles | US crypto export control policy in a nutshell: gbroiles(a)netbox.com | http://www.io.com/~gbroiles | Export jobs, not crypto. |

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No Subject
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

It is quite probable that this has been said before. In case it hasn't, however, I feel compelled to point out that mandatory key escrow/recovery could likely mean an economic disaster of unimaginable proportions. Okay, key escrow, whether by the goobermint or a contracted third-party, is beginning to scare the living crap out of me. Okay, let's assume that the ammended SAFE passes and is promptly signed into law(despite what the administration says, I don't think anyone believes for a second that it would be signed without hesitation). It's a simple matter for the Commerce Dept. to modify their review criteria to specify that the key escrow/recovery feature be enabled and that the end user not be able to disable it. This obviously doesn't affect anyone who can get their hands on the source and comment out a line or two, but think about what happens with big corporations, especially financial ones. It's highly likely that a good number of them will use crypto software just the way Big Brother would like them to, happily sending their keys off so that our friends in Washington can keep them nice and safe. Now think about this: You're Joe Random Govt. Worker at the official secret key repository, and there's a budget crisis going on - instead of paychecks, you're getting I.O.U.'s. Your terminal has access to thousands, perhaps millions, of secret keys. You grab one of CitiBank's, forge a few transactions, and 30 seconds later your Swiss bank account is a few million dollars fatter and according to the digital signature, the transaction originated in L.A.. Of course, one doesn't even have to be an underpaid govt. worker to join in on the fun. Just find a buffer overflow in the key repository's daemon software and trick it into tacking on a few secret keys with its "Big Brother thanks you for your cooperation." packet. Considering that even the CIA can't keep their severs secure, why should ANYONE, even thouse naive enough to trust the govt. to respect their privacy, ever trust such a corrupt and insecure organization with their encyption keys. Along the same lines, it's almost certain that someone is eventually going to fat-finger some code and keys are going to get sent in the clear, posted publicly, or something equally bad - with the government running the "key management infastructure", it'll probably be a 12 year old kid who got bored with Minesweeper who causes the global economic collapse.

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Re: Taxless society concerns
by bureau42 Anonymous Remailer 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Thu, 11 Sep 1997, Warpy wrote: > First off. In such a society, who cares for the old, the sick, and the > infirm? How is such care going to be payed for? How will basic services be > maintained without the necessary taxes required to pay for them? Haven't you ever heard of ZPG? The problem with Medicare is that the taxpayers are paying to keep the old people alive, no matter how close to death they are!! Then, on top of that, we give them free money! Come on people, we already have nigh 6 billion people on this planet, I think we can stand to lose anybody over 65. > But the question remains. In such a taxless society, and little or no > government, how are those less fortunate than us going to be cared for? As for the less fortunate, welcome to Evolution 101: Survival of the Fittest, where fit means good education, good job, and enough money to giev your kids the same. -- Run.exe * Value Your Privacy? The Government Doesn't. Say 'No' to Key Escrow! * Adopt Your Legislator - http://www.crypto.com/adopt "If I had only known, I would have been a locksmith." -- Albert Einstein runexe(a)ntplx.net http://www.ntplx.net/~runexe/ PGP encrypted mail prefered

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3% to Freedom
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Just heard a Canadian MP state that he was voting in favour of gun registration because 52% of his constituents were in favor of it. Killing 3% of the people to save the rights of 48% of them seems like a fair trade-off to me. We could kill them with hammers until we killed enough that they passed hammer registration laws. Then we could switch to scissors. Then forks. Then rocks. Of course, it would be impossible to bust all the people who were in possession of unregisterd rocks in their yards, so they would probably have to use selective enforcement against just blacks and longhairs and the like. Am I ready to run for public office, or do I need to get stupider? If so, then I propose that we start killing people by filling their mouths with dirt, then we can pass dirt registration laws. Then we can kill people by filling their lungs with air until they burst and we can pass air registration laws. Then we can leave people out in the sun until they die and pass sun registration laws. "The reason I pulled you over, guys, is because the sun came up. Unless one of you cops to possessing it, I'm going to have to take you all in." Am I stupid enough to be a cop, now? If not, then we can kill people by taking them to the roofs of buildings and throwing them to the ground. Then we can pass roof and ground registration laws. "Hey, pal. Your feet are on the ground. You got a permit?" "Sorry pal, this permit is for a different piece of ground. I'm going to have to take you in. And, since the sun is out, you're going to get an extra five years for possession of the sun in the commission of a crime."

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Soldiers
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Is there a small country that a thousand of us could go to and get citizenship and then have the country declare war on the U.S. after we are all back in the country? If a thousand of us could kill as many people as we could until we got caught, then we could kill a lot of people who are bad for the country and then once we're all caught the small country could surrender and we would all have to be released as prisoners of war, right? We could all be privates. They can't blame privates because they have to follow orders. The guys in the small country could make old guys who were dying soon the leaders, and then when it was time to quit, they could overthrow them and get US government aid. They could set the old guys trial dates for two years down the road and then send them home to die. I saw a guy get killed once and they told the guy who killed him that he shouldn'a done it and they sent him home and said we'll call you and then they took the dead guys sister to jail because she wouldn't stop saying fuck. When they were taking her away I told her she should kill the cops and then go home and wait for them to call. How about if we made a law that you had to kill the president and your congressmen and senators and if you didn't you had to pay a $500.00 fine every year? Do you think they would make sure we all made some money? How about a law here you could kill any politician that forgot to call you sir or ma'am? Or who forgot your birthday? We could save a lot of money just by putting all the politicians who are running for office on a stage and then killing them at random until we had the right number left. Then they would have to think about if they really wanted it. How about if we let people be elected on a first-come first-serve basis but then we could vote to kill them any time we wanted. Think they would do things to make us not want to kill them instead of the other way around like it is now? How about if we killed all of them and just pretended there was someone running the country. Is that a good idea?

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Re: Different Ways to Serial Murder AOL Members' Children
by Syniker＠aol.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Subj: Different Ways to Serial Murder AOL Members' Children Date: 97-09-12 01:00:46 EDT From: remailer(a)bureau42.ml.org (bureau42 Anonymous Remailer) Sender: owner-cypherpunks(a)Algebra.COM To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com Different Ways to Serial Murder AOL Members' Children: 1. I already ate all of mine. How many you got that are edible???? 2. 3. 4. 5.

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House panel votes behind closed doors to build in Big Brother
by Declan McCullagh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 11 Sep 1997 23:37:39 -0700 (PDT) From: Declan McCullagh <declan(a)well.com> To: fight-censorship-announce(a)vorlon.mit.edu Subject: House panel votes behind closed doors to build in Big Brother Software that protects your privacy is a controlled substance that may no longer be sold, a Congressional committee decided today. Meeting behind closed doors this morning, the House Intelligence committee voted to replace a generally pro-encryption bill with an entirely rewritten draft that builds in Big Brother into all future encryption products. (The Senate appears to be moving in a similar direction.) The new SAFE bill -- titled in a wonderfully Orwellian manner the "Security and Freedom through Encryption" act even though it provides neither -- includes these provisions: SELLING CRYPTO: Selling unapproved encryption products (that do not include "immediate access to plaintext") becomes a federal crime, immediately after this bill becomes law. Five years in jail plus fines. Distributing, importing, or manufacturing such products after January 31, 2000 is another crime. NETWORK PROVIDERS: Anyone offering scrambled "network service" including encrypted web servers or even "ssh" would be required to build in a backdoor for the government by January 31, 2000. This backdoor must provide for "immediate decryption or access to plaintext of the data." TECHNICAL STANDARDS: The Attorney General will publish technical requirements for such backdoors in network service and encryption products, within five months after the president signs this bill. LEGAL TO USE CRYPTO: "After January 31, 2000, it shall not be unlawful to use any encryption product purchased or in use prior to such date." GOVERNMENT POWERS: If prosecutors think you may be selling, importing, or distributing non-backdoor'd crypto or are "about" to do so, they can sue. "Upon the filing of the complaint seeking injunctive relief by the Attorney General, the court shall automatically issue a temporary restraining order against the party being sued." Also, there are provisions for holding secret hearings, and "public disclosure of the proceedings shall be treated as contempt of court." You can request an advisory opinion from the government to see if the program you're about to publish violates the law. ACCESS TO PLAINTEXT: Courts can issue orders, ex parte, granting police access to your encrypted data. But all the government has to do to get one is to provide "a factual basis establishing the relevance of the plaintext" to an investigation. They don't have to demonstrate probable cause, which is currently required for a search warrant. More interestingly, this explicitly gives the FISA court jurisdiction (yes, the secret court that has never denied a request for a wiretap). If they decode your messages, they'll tell you within 90 days. GOVERNMENT PURCHASING: Federal government computer purchases must use a key escrow "immediate decryption" backdoor after 1998. Same with networks "purchased directly with Federal funds to provide the security service of data confidentially." Such products can be labeled "authorized for sale to U.S. government" ENCRYPTION EXPORTS: The Defense & Commerce departments will control exports of crypto. Software "without regard to strength" can be exported if it includes a key escrow backdoor and is first submitted to the government. Export decisions aren't subject to judicial review, and the "president may by executive order waive any provision of this act" if he thinks it's a threat to national security. Within 15 days, he must send a classified briefing to Congress. ADVISORY PANEL: Creates the Encryption Industry and Information Security Board, with seven members from Justice, State, FBI, CIA, White House, and six from the industry. INTERNATIONAL: The president can negotiate international agreements and perhaps punish noncompliant governments. Can you say "trade sancation?" (Other provisions barring the use of crypto in a crime and some forms of cryptanalysis are also in the bill.) Next the Commerce Committee will vote on SAFE, and a former FBI agent-turned-Congressman is vowing to ensure that similar language to this is included. (The committees are voting on the bill in parallel, and a four-person team of Congressmen is working to forge a compromise before Commerce votes.) Then the heads of the five committees that have rewritten the legislation will sit down and work out another compromise. If it's acceptable to the House Rules committee -- and if the FBI/NSA get what they want it will be -- the bill can move to the floor for a vote. That's why the encryption outlook in Congress is abysmal. Crypto-advocates have lost, and lost miserably. A month ago, the debate was about export controls. Now the battle is over how strict the //domestic// controls will be. It's sad, really, that so many millions of lobbyist-dollars were not only wasted, but used to advance legislation that has been morphed into a truly awful proposal. I wrote more about this at: http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/opinion/0,1042,1385,00.html -Declan

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Re: The problem of playing politics with our constitutional rights
by Syniker＠aol.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Well -- I wasn't thinking of an encrypted 'channel' -- I mean, just put the damn crypto right on the page as a graphic -- it's a work of art, see -- it's a digital painting... and when it's on the WWW, it's auto public knowledge, and in the public domain... Anyways, I'm not waitin' -- I redid my homepage and have got the two RSA Perl lines on there... I'll hang it by the weekend... too damn tired tonight... Also -- if I can get PGP running this weekend, first two encrypted emails will be to GagMe Gallegly and Diane F... Wait.... fuckin' Gagme doesn't even have email..........OK -- FAX.... Larry.

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