December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

[CRYPTO] Classic Cryptography
by Brian D Williams 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 6 February 1997 Aegean Park Press proudly announces publication of CLASSICAL CRYPTOGRAPHY COURSE - VOLUME II by Randall K. Nichols [LANAKI]. [ISBN: 0-89412-264-9, 1997, 464 pages, $US 40.80 ] Volume II presents Lectures 11 - 22 (of a total of twenty five) from his successful course in Classical Cryptography taught in 1995 and 1996 to 391 students via the Internet and an additional 65 via regular mail. Volume II covers polyalphabetic substitutions ciphers in the Vigenere family (Viggy, Variant, Beaufort, Porta, Gronsfeld, Portax, Gromark), decimation, principles of symmetry, isologs and superimposition solution techniques. Volume II describes the difficult aperiodic cipher systems (Interrupted key, Autoclave, Progressive, Running Key used in cipher machines) and their analysis by isomorphs, and repetitions. Cryptarithm solutions for extended bases are presented. The theory of coincidences and statistical attacks (Kappa, Chi, Phi) derived from this important theory are detailed. Transposition theory and a variety of transposition ciphers are solved (Columnar, Amsco, Myszkowski, Cadenus, Grille, Swagman, Auto-Transposition). Volume II has two chapters on the difficult cipher systems invented by the famous French cryptographer Delastelle: Foursquare, Bifid and Trifid. Volume II presents a detailed chapter on passwords, law and data protection. Volume II ends with a historical look at codes, commercial code systems, and famous cipher machines. Volume II is a potpourri of advanced topics in classical cryptography. The Cryptographic Resources and References section has been expanded to cover all phases of involvement with cryptography: cryptanalysis, history, legal, social, classical, modern, NSA, mathematical techniques, recreational, intelligence, tactical, strategic, National Defense, INFOSEC: offensive and defensive, hardware, software, standards, public key cryptography, web sources, and applicable Senate and House bills. Readers are encouraged to expand their knowledge in the many directions possible to them through this section. For orders or Information Contact: Aegean Park Press, P.O. Box 2837, Laguna Hills, Ca. 92654. Telephone: 1-800-736-3587; Fax: 1-714-586-8269. Group discounts available. REVIEW OF CLASSICAL CRYPTOGRAPHY COURSE, VOLUME I By the Honorable David Kennedy, Director of Research, NCSA. Classical Cryptography Course, Volume I. By Randall K. Nichols; published by Aegean Park Press, (714) 586-8811 (phone) (714) 586-8269 (fax); (800) 736 - 3587; 301 pages (with index); $34.80 (American Cryptogram Association members receive a 20% discount through ACA or NCSA Members receive a 10% discount if purchased from the NCSA Bookstore) In Classical Cryptography Course, Volume I, author Randall K. Nichols has created a benchmark for serious students of the science of cryptography. This is a text. It is for learning, and with it one cannot help but learn about the foundations of the science. An outgrowth of Nichols' admitted "labor of love" in the online Cryptography Courses he teaches over the Internet, Volume I creates the foundation for understanding the development of the science. The ten chapters of this volume lead the student through simple substitutions, substitutions with variants, multiliteral substitutions, xenocrypts (foreign language substitutions), cryptarithms, the Enigma machine (separate Enigma95 program disk available direct from the author) and finally to polyalphabetic substitutions. Seven chapters conclude with problems; solutions and discussions are provided in an appendix. The text is indexed with twenty-four pages of references for further study. I found Nichols' sense of the history of cryptography particularly noteworthy. The volume is liberally salted with citations from history with applications of the methods developed in the text. From Revolutionary France through the American Civil War, the Tammany Hall scandal, Revolutionary Soviet ciphers and Japanese successes against Chinese codes prior to Pearl Harbor, the text provides touchstones for student to understand and relate to. Phil Zimmermann observed in the documentation to his Pretty Good Privacy Program to "Beware of Snake Oil." Among his arguments is this anecdote: I remember a conversation with Brian Snow, a highly placed senior cryptographer with the NSA. He said he would never trust an encryption algorithm designed by someone who had not "earned their bones" by first spending a lot of time cracking codes. Where Schneier's Applied Cryptography is a crash course in some encryption protocols and algorithms in use today, Nichols' text begins the teaching of Snake Oil detection and prevention. Learning the fundamentals, developed throughout the text, brings a richer understanding of the science, it's history and insight into it's possibilities and some vulnerabilities lurking for the unwary. Nichols plans for release Volume II in the series with advanced material on from the online course which includes statistical attacks and transposition in February, 1997. Reviewer: Dave Kennedy, CISSP, is Director of Research for the National Computer Security Association, Carlisle, PA. He is a retired Army military police officer and member of NCSA, ASIS, ISSA and the Computer Security Institute.

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DCSB: Online Government & Electronic Commerce - Legislation and Public Sector Initiatives
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- The Digital Commerce Society of Boston Presents Daniel Greenwood, Esq. Deputy General Counsel Information Technology Division Commonwealth of Massachusetts "Online Government & Electronic Commerce - Legislation and Public Sector Initiatives" Tuesday, March 4, 1997 12 - 2 PM The Downtown Harvard Club of Boston One Federal Street, Boston, MA Dan will give us an update on recent information age legislative and operational developments in the public sector. Special attention will be paid to: Electronic Signature and Record Legislation; Joint Government/Private Sector Attempts to Set Certification Authority Standards; Cutting Edge Public Sector PKI Projects; Recent Coordinated State-Federal-Foreign Electronic Commerce Policy Initiatives; and much, much more . . . Speaker: Daniel Greenwood, Esq. Information Technology Division, Deputy General Counsel Commonwealth of Massachusetts Office: http://www.state.ma.us/itd/legal home: http://www.tiac.net/biz/danielg Mr. Greenwood practices information technology law for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Recent relevant activities include: * Co-Author of the Draft 1997 Mass. Electronic Records and Signature Act * Chairman of the Commonwealth of Mass. PKI Task Force * Chairman of the ABA Info. Security Comm., Legislative Sub-Committee * Co-Chair of the ABA Cyberspace Law Comm., Legislative Work Group * Contributing Author: ABA Digital Signature Guidelines * Negotiator of Contracts for Internet Security and Payment Systems * Board Member of SigNet.Org and Chair of Legal Special Interest Group * Director of the Virtual State House Project (MIT/Stanford Law School) * Faculty Member: MCLE Health Care & Info. Technology Program * Guest Lecturer for Suffolk Law School High Tech. Symposium * Selection Board Chairman for First Commonwealth of Mass. C/A Business This meeting of the Digital Commerce Society of Boston will be held on Tuesday, March 4, 1997 from 12pm - 2pm at the Downtown Branch of the Harvard Club of Boston, One Federal Street. The price for lunch is $27.50. This price includes lunch, room rental, and the speaker's lunch. ;-). The Harvard Club *does* have dress code: jackets and ties for men, and "appropriate business attire" for women. We will attempt to record this meeting and put it on the web in RealAudio format at some future date We need to receive a company check, or money order, (or, if we *really* know you, a personal check) payable to "The Harvard Club of Boston", by Saturday, March 1, or you won't be on the list for lunch. Checks payable to anyone else but The Harvard Club of Boston will have to be sent back. Checks should be sent to Robert Hettinga, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, Massachusetts, 02131. Again, they *must* be made payable to "The Harvard Club of Boston". If anyone has questions, or has a problem with these arrangements (We've had to work with glacial A/P departments more than once, for instance), please let us know via e-mail, and we'll see if we can work something out. Planned speakers for DCSB are: March Daniel Greenwood The Role of State Government in Digital Commerce April Stewart Baker Encryption Policy and Digital Commerce We are actively searching for future speakers. If you are in Boston on the first Tuesday of the month, and you would like to make a presentation to the Society, please send e-mail to the DCSB Program Commmittee, care of Robert Hettinga, <mailto: rah(a)shipwright.com> . For more information about the Digital Commerce Society of Boston, send "info dcsb" in the body of a message to <mailto: majordomo(a)ai.mit.edu> . If you want to subscribe to the DCSB e-mail list, send "subscribe dcsb" in the body of a message to <mailto: majordomo(a)ai.mit.edu> . Looking forward to seeing you there! Cheers, Robert Hettinga Moderator, The Digital Commerce Society of Boston -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMwB+VvgyLN8bw6ZVAQEsRAQAiInZXDXlzdMn0B+b9A6zgWHH5POJku5v k9HIZK286Paw1KWKYsw8VyYjUoG4vq/LAh1CagWkwL4EN9Ysg7kbU+LP0W4u04vb /QoKk5rWpmXuplXx1Fp9IhIe2O6oV0vTInJqPV3zkXk4qGzYUrQ0bqLbQn769iMO 7pwwVbkioSc= =m5Pz -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) Philodox e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "Never attribute to conspiracy what can be explained by stupidity." -- Jerry Pournelle The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/rah/ FC97: Anguilla, anyone? http://www.ai/fc97/

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Indiana judge extends gag order to the Net, from TNNN
by Declan McCullagh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 11 Feb 1997 06:31:28 -0800 (PST) From: Declan McCullagh <declan(a)well.com> To: fight-censorship(a)vorlon.mit.edu Subject: Indiana judge extends gag order to the Net, from TNNN The Netly News Network http://netlynews.com/ Gag On This by Declan McCullagh (declan(a)well.com) February 10, 1997 The point of moving a trial or selecting a jury from a distant county is, of course, to prevent jurors from being influenced by the local media and opinions of the nearby community. But what if the media are global and the community is virtual? That enigma is causing problems for an Indiana couple on trial for reckless homicide in the November 1995 death of their son from meningitis. Bill and Sarah Planck had hoped to demonstrate their innocence through the Net, and so another son created a web site with documents from a counter-lawsuit filed against the county welfare agencies and sheriff's department, detailing how police threatened and intimidated the family. Now the judge presiding over their criminal trial has ordered the Plancks to pull the plug on the site. Madison County judge Fredrick Spencer told me he extended an existing gag order to the Internet because the tort claim notice could influence jurors. "We went two counties away to get the jury. But people in Randolph County have computers and America Online. So to avoid any possible problem, I ordered them to take it off," Spencer said. Spencer says the order was necessary to preserve the integrity of the trial. "It's only the trial that I'm concerned with," he said. "If I don't do what I can, I risk having to do [the trial] over again." Yet as soon as the Plancks yanked the documents offline on January 27, copies sprouted on the web site of a supporter -- beyond the reach of Judge Spencer. Who's right, Spencer or the Plancks? I posed that question to David Post, a professor at Georgetown Law School. "Gag orders may in a way be a thing of the past," he replied. "It becomes an enforcement dilemma with respect to the Internet. It's a hell of a lot easier to enforce that gag order [locally]. You really only have to keep your eye on a very small number of dissemination vehicles," Post said. "Gag orders are violated on occasion, but by and large you have some confidence that they'll be respected. Obviously you can't anymore." Gag orders stem from the right to an impartial jury. "We think that sometimes -- rarely, but sometimes -- that can best be accomplished by controlling the kind of information potential jurors might see. The Net deforms the landscape," Post said. Katharine Liell, the Plancks' attorney, was reluctant to discuss the case for fear of violating the gag order -- which covers her as well. "I'm uncertain what I can and can't say due to the vagueness of the gag order," she said. "Gag orders are supposed to be specific in nature, but I don't understand the nature or breadth of this gag order so I'm not comfortable commenting at this time." The legal question at issue in this prosecution is whether the Plancks are guilty of four felony charges, including reckless homicide and involuntary manslaughter, in the death of Lance Planck from pneumococcal meningitis. The verdict may depend on the answer to one question: Did the Plancks wait too long to call 911? More than the couple, however, is on trial. The case also reveals how a child protection agency can be used as a weapon to threaten parents and divide a family. The mirrored documents tell a sad story of a poor family who lived in a trailer park and home-schooled their eight children, and their long-standing battle with Madison County social workers. The first salvo came in 1992, when a social worker visited the Planck home to investigate the children's alleged vision problems. Based on that visit, a judge ordered that their eyes be examined. A month later, police invaded the Planck home and forcibly removed the children. The tort notice describes other encouters, including tear gas canisters lobbed into their home and warrantless arrests. "I've known the Plancks for a long time," said Brent Tobin, an electrical engineer who mirrored the web site. "I've lived in the town all my life. I know there's nothing going on there. The deputy prosecutor made them out to be religious weirdos, but they're not." "I put up the web site since I don't feel that the county government should have jurisdiction over the World Wide Web. I think there should be freedom of speech. I feel gag orders are a violation of rights," Tobin said. For his part, Judge Spencer emphasized that his gag order "expires at the end of the case. Free speech is an important right and I'm going to be the last person to have a problem with it." What about the mirror site? Has his order accomplished anything? "The Planck supporters are going to put it on there," Spencer replied. "If you're suggesting that I'm tilting at windmills, perhaps you're right." ###

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STE_pup
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

2-10-97: "Euro's creation raises money laundering fears" OECD task force report(*) identifies perils of a single currency and suggests Russian crime groups are linking up with the Mafia and Colombian drug cartels for laundering the new currency. Warns of other e-cash hazards. "Visa to Test Cards For Possible Use On the Internet" E-cash cards to be manufactured by Schlumberger and will use "virtually unbreakable" public-key cryptography. "Computer Security Becomes Biometric With Print Matching" Oracle's new fingerprint checking device to assure bona fide log-on privileges. Covers other such devices, quotes a maker: "if criminals or hackers get through these, industry will step up one more level." ----- STE_pup * A search is on for the report. Leads welcomed. The task force met last week in Paris.

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Re: Moderation experiment almost over; "put up or shut up"
by Alan Olsen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- At 05:50 AM 2/11/97 -0800, Sandy Sandfort wrote: >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > SANDY SANDFORT > . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . > >C'punks, > >You have probably just read John's post. I truly hope YOU (each >and every one of you) can rise to his challenge. If you have >offered nothing in the past but criticism, it's now time to get a >bit more real. What will it be, your money, time, equipment? What kind of memory requirements/machine load does the list eat up? I have a machine that may fit this purpose... (Need to know if I need to upgrade the box though.) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 4.5 iQEVAwUBMwCeq+QCP3v30CeZAQGpwAf+MXRvC4wB6LeJkwsQa7yWI1g2TEYFJZ6O 1wD1S1QeRu1GMGRfUC3/9OTsQFijQLrOVb3MIXiy7bYxzcZsShd2cgKf4cL3HhjV T/PH1M2uUEpOJEHLF4jCKvspySgCuLfHK+7V0+fNRO0MFQZZeCNvEd2Awog8Ue0q OIi/jwBvzNITeBQzGu8zrBuS3VHWjMmi66kio1GV6xFL+JLwQWMsi6hT8hSiZ/TT fOhvAfECT/hGFFDdu3/R0JYkw1B9IO7Uh0NNgH1pl7HoJiBWfU/HTDoRsruKkweX 7eDVPxB0MR10Q5XCeoH1EA3Lwd3HdNFVEsUJc+myjN58vnZ5Vo+TGQ== =CWO1 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --- | "Mi Tio es infermo, pero la carretera es verde!" | |"The moral PGP Diffie taught Zimmermann unites all| Disclaimer: | | mankind free in one-key-steganography-privacy!" | Ignore the man | |`finger -l alano(a)teleport.com` for PGP 2.6.2 key | behind the keyboard.| | http://www.ctrl-alt-del.com/~alan/ |alan(a)ctrl-alt-del.com|

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Recommendation: Creation of "alt.cypherpunks"
by Timothy C. May 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

(Please leave my name in any replies to ensure I see your comments.) I talked to Hugh Daniel at the Saturday meeting about the creation of an "alt.cypherpunks" unmoderated (of course) newsgroup as a possible alternative (or supplement) to cypherpunks(a)toad.com. Greg Broiles and John Gilmore were there for part of the discussion, too. (We did not, unfortunately, get to the "future of the list" topic at the physical meeting...the excellent presentations ran way over the expected time and we never got to this topic. Sort of too bad, given John's edict that we have 10 days to find and implement an alternative....) A Usenet newsgroup has many advantages and disadvantages. Whether it might be gatewayed to other mailing lists--perhaps even the list(s) which survives "cypherpunks(a)toad.com"--depends of course on the decision of those hosting others lists. A charter statement is needed, and then the issuance of a creation message. A better charter statement will increase the chances of more sites carrying the newsgroup. While many sites carry essentially all newsgroups--more than 30,000--, some sites do not and only carry some of the alt.heirarchy. And some sites do not carry _any_ of the alt newsgroups. At Hugh's suggestion, I'm suggesting a "first cut" at a charter statement. Suggestions for additional language or changes are welcome. Charter for alt.cypherpunks: (suggested) "Alt.cypherpunks is for the unmoderated discussion of cryptography and the political, social, and economic implications of unrestricted, strong cryptography. The Cypherpunks grpup has existed since 1992 and has been central in the debate about strong crypto, government restrictions, crypto anarchy, and in showing weaknesses of various ciphers and security products. The mailing list has had as many as 1500 subscribers, plus gateways to newsgroups and Web sites. It is expected that "alt.cypherpunks" will be a free-wheeling forum for many viewpoints. As it is unmoderated, readers are strongly advised to learn how to use filters and other tools for making virtual anarchies manageable for their own tastes." I invite your comments, editorial suggestions, etc. Perhaps when enough of the "collective mind" has made inputs (ughh!), the charter can be submitted with the creation message. (I'm not knowledgeable about the process, but I'll bet many of you are.) There are of course disadvantages to such a newsgroup, as any Usenet user certainly knows. However, there are advantages as well. Here are some of each: * Advantages: - Usenet is set up to automagically propagate articles across tens of thousands of sites. - there is no "nexus" of control, no chokepoint, no precedent (in the U.S.) for halting distribution of Usenet newsgroups. (Canada stopped some Homulka-Teale newsgroups a few years ago, other countries have blocked entire sections, but note that the Scientologists have been unable to block "alt.religion.scientology"...I surmise that a mailing list version of a.r.s. would have faced lawsuits against the list.owner, if reachable in U.S. or European courts...a lesson to think about with the current imbroglio over certain claims about certain products and the possible liability of Sandy and/or toad.com.) - fairly sophisticated newsreading software already exists. - no "unsuscribe" and "unscrive" messages! (It makes it easy for newcomers to discover the group, read it for a while, then stop. It also, of course, increases the number of "What is crypto?" sorts of messages.) - persons cannot be unsubscribed from an unmoderated list - with a Usenet group, there is no ability to impose notions of "order" on the list (e.g., requirements for PGP-signing, demands for "on-topic" posts, removal of "illegal" posts, etc.). Thus, people must deal with a virtual anarchy by using proper tools, by ignoring what they don't want to see, or by contracting out the role of "nanny" to others. * Disadvantages - Usenet newsgroups are easy targets for spammers, even more so than are mailing lists. - crossposting often gets out of hand. (With 30,000+ newsgroups, even well-intentioned posters often pick the "three or four most likely" targets for their posts). - propagation is often spotty, and some sites have no access at all to the "alt.*" hierarchy. (Many corporate sites block the alt heirarchy. Many academic sites block just the alt.binaries.pictures heirarchy. Etc. A news to mailing list gateway is possible for these readers.) - propagation may be slower than mailing lists. - Usenet is of course archived and easily searchable via Alta Vista, Deja News, etc.. This bothers some people. (However, the CP mailing list is now also archived and searchable, so the disadvantage is becoming moot.) - persons cannot be unsubscribed from an unmoderated list (this is also an advantage, of course) - there will be more newbie-type messages, as casual browsers of Usenet discover alt.cypherpunks and ask questions. This is both a disadvantage and an advantage. * Discussion of some of these points: 1. The issue of slow- or non-propagation can be handled by having mailing lists which bounce the traffic (from a well-connected site) to folks who get slow distribution, or no distribution at all. News to mail gateways, in other words. Traffic in the reverse direction (end reader back to alt.cypherpunks) can be handled either by "blind posting" to the a.c. newsgroup, via one's newsreader, or through mail-to-news gateways, or perhaps via the distributor described here. 2. And the services of "moderators," such as Eric Blossom's and Ray Arachelian's "best of" lists, or even Sandy's list, are of course still possible. A newsgroup does not change this, except for the latency in getting messages out to newsgroup sites. 3. The advantages of a "no nexus, no chokepoint" distribution are huge. The Usenet carries huge advantages in terms of having no place to attack it. 4. Some have raised the point that Usenet is "inefficient" and should not be used for this reason. Well, it may indeed be ineficient, but the costs have already been incurred, and alt.cypherpunks would only be 1/30,000th of additional load (very roughly speaking). In other words, might as well use what's out there. If a "second Usenet" ever comes into existence, fine. 5. Some of us discussed the creation of alt.cypherpunks back in '92-93. At that time, we thought the mailing list had some major advantages. In my view, the situation has changed dramatically since then. The mailing list has become huge, the volume of noise has increased, majordomo is allowing the list to be used for spamming (any 'bot system will probably have this), and the list is already gatewayed to many sites as a _newsgroup_ anyway. So, I think the time has come to just create it. The "activation energy barrier" of a mailing list, where people would have to make the effort to subscribe, has long since become irrelevant. It may be a target for spammers, but it's hard to imagine it being much worse than what we have now. Usenet is an anarchy. We might as well use it. I've never created an alt group, but I presume many of you have (and I know of one currently fed up Cypherpunk who created the entire alt.* hierarchy a decade or so ago). I presume some of you can thus help in such an effort. --Tim May Just say "No" to "Big Brother Inside" We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- 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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STE_pup
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

2-10-97: "Euro's creation raises money laundering fears" OECD task force report(*) identifies perils of a single currency and suggests Russian crime groups are linking up with the Mafia and Colombian drug cartels for laundering the new currency. Warns of other e-cash hazards. "Visa to Test Cards For Possible Use On the Internet" E-cash cards to be manufactured by Schlumberger and will use "virtually unbreakable" public-key cryptography. "Computer Security Becomes Biometric With Print Matching" Oracle's new fingerprint checking device to assure bona fide log-on privileges. Covers other such devices, quotes a maker: "if criminals or hackers get through these, industry will step up one more level." ----- STE_pup * A search is on for the report. Leads welcomed. The task force met last week in Paris.

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Re: Moderation experiment almost over; "put up or shut up"
by Firebeard 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>>>>> John Gilmore writes: JG> Sandy has agreed to continue moderation through the end of the JG> original 1-month experiment (through Feb 19). And it's a good JG> thing, too, because the "cypherpunks community" had better get off JG> its whining butt in the next ten days, or it will no longer exist. [...] JG> This is a "put up or shut up" to the cypherpunks community. This appears to be as good a time as any to announce that I'm "putting up". I've already taken steps, along with Jim Choate, to start a network of majordomos hosting a Cypherpunks mailing list. I didn't intend to announce this until Jim and I had gotten the first pair of 'domos working properly, but this means that we'll need to speed things up. Our intention is to have a set of majordomos which are intersubscribed to a cypherpunks list on each one, with measures taken to ensure that mail loops don't develop. As the resulting mailing list from each 'domo will be identical, periodically (initially weekly), the subscriber lists of all of the participating majordomos will be compared, with any duplicate subscribers being removed from the 'domo(s) with the longest subscriber list. There will be no filtering done of any mail to the collective list, although anyone interested in providing a filtered list will be welcome to subscribe to the list. Anyone interested in joining the 'domo network with the conditions described (duplicate subscriber checking and no filtering) is welcome. John, I'd appreciate your permission to use your Cypherpunks welcome message as the basis for the welcome message of this new list. Also, while we will make every effort to have this new list available for subscriptions by Feb 20, I'd appreciate it if you could consider making the current list available for a short period longer if we encounter unanticipated difficulties. -- #include <disclaimer.h> /* Sten Drescher */ ObCDABait: For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses. [Eze 23:20] ObFelony: President Clinton, you suck, and those boys died! Unsolicited bulk email will be stored and handled for a US$500/KB fee.

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Digital Signature Legislation (MN)
by Kevin L Prigge 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Minnesota Legislature has a bill pending in both houses regarding digital signatures, defines certification authorities, and provides for licensing of authorities. http://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/cgi-bin/bldbill.pl?bill=H0056.0&session=… http://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/cgi-bin/bldbill.pl?bill=S0173.0&session=… A quick read looks good, although I am not a lawyer. This only affects digital signatures used in financial transactions, AFAIK, and does not prohibit non-licensed cert authorities. -- Kevin L. Prigge | Some mornings, it's just not worth Systems Software Programmer | chewing through the leather straps. Internet Enterprise - OIT | - Emo Phillips University of Minnesota |

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Recommendation: Creation of "alt.cypherpunks"
by Timothy C. May 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

(Please leave my name in any replies to ensure I see your comments.) I talked to Hugh Daniel at the Saturday meeting about the creation of an "alt.cypherpunks" unmoderated (of course) newsgroup as a possible alternative (or supplement) to cypherpunks(a)toad.com. Greg Broiles and John Gilmore were there for part of the discussion, too. (We did not, unfortunately, get to the "future of the list" topic at the physical meeting...the excellent presentations ran way over the expected time and we never got to this topic. Sort of too bad, given John's edict that we have 10 days to find and implement an alternative....) A Usenet newsgroup has many advantages and disadvantages. Whether it might be gatewayed to other mailing lists--perhaps even the list(s) which survives "cypherpunks(a)toad.com"--depends of course on the decision of those hosting others lists. A charter statement is needed, and then the issuance of a creation message. A better charter statement will increase the chances of more sites carrying the newsgroup. While many sites carry essentially all newsgroups--more than 30,000--, some sites do not and only carry some of the alt.heirarchy. And some sites do not carry _any_ of the alt newsgroups. At Hugh's suggestion, I'm suggesting a "first cut" at a charter statement. Suggestions for additional language or changes are welcome. Charter for alt.cypherpunks: (suggested) "Alt.cypherpunks is for the unmoderated discussion of cryptography and the political, social, and economic implications of unrestricted, strong cryptography. The Cypherpunks grpup has existed since 1992 and has been central in the debate about strong crypto, government restrictions, crypto anarchy, and in showing weaknesses of various ciphers and security products. The mailing list has had as many as 1500 subscribers, plus gateways to newsgroups and Web sites. It is expected that "alt.cypherpunks" will be a free-wheeling forum for many viewpoints. As it is unmoderated, readers are strongly advised to learn how to use filters and other tools for making virtual anarchies manageable for their own tastes." I invite your comments, editorial suggestions, etc. Perhaps when enough of the "collective mind" has made inputs (ughh!), the charter can be submitted with the creation message. (I'm not knowledgeable about the process, but I'll bet many of you are.) There are of course disadvantages to such a newsgroup, as any Usenet user certainly knows. However, there are advantages as well. Here are some of each: * Advantages: - Usenet is set up to automagically propagate articles across tens of thousands of sites. - there is no "nexus" of control, no chokepoint, no precedent (in the U.S.) for halting distribution of Usenet newsgroups. (Canada stopped some Homulka-Teale newsgroups a few years ago, other countries have blocked entire sections, but note that the Scientologists have been unable to block "alt.religion.scientology"...I surmise that a mailing list version of a.r.s. would have faced lawsuits against the list.owner, if reachable in U.S. or European courts...a lesson to think about with the current imbroglio over certain claims about certain products and the possible liability of Sandy and/or toad.com.) - fairly sophisticated newsreading software already exists. - no "unsuscribe" and "unscrive" messages! (It makes it easy for newcomers to discover the group, read it for a while, then stop. It also, of course, increases the number of "What is crypto?" sorts of messages.) - persons cannot be unsubscribed from an unmoderated list - with a Usenet group, there is no ability to impose notions of "order" on the list (e.g., requirements for PGP-signing, demands for "on-topic" posts, removal of "illegal" posts, etc.). Thus, people must deal with a virtual anarchy by using proper tools, by ignoring what they don't want to see, or by contracting out the role of "nanny" to others. * Disadvantages - Usenet newsgroups are easy targets for spammers, even more so than are mailing lists. - crossposting often gets out of hand. (With 30,000+ newsgroups, even well-intentioned posters often pick the "three or four most likely" targets for their posts). - propagation is often spotty, and some sites have no access at all to the "alt.*" hierarchy. (Many corporate sites block the alt heirarchy. Many academic sites block just the alt.binaries.pictures heirarchy. Etc. A news to mailing list gateway is possible for these readers.) - propagation may be slower than mailing lists. - Usenet is of course archived and easily searchable via Alta Vista, Deja News, etc.. This bothers some people. (However, the CP mailing list is now also archived and searchable, so the disadvantage is becoming moot.) - persons cannot be unsubscribed from an unmoderated list (this is also an advantage, of course) - there will be more newbie-type messages, as casual browsers of Usenet discover alt.cypherpunks and ask questions. This is both a disadvantage and an advantage. * Discussion of some of these points: 1. The issue of slow- or non-propagation can be handled by having mailing lists which bounce the traffic (from a well-connected site) to folks who get slow distribution, or no distribution at all. News to mail gateways, in other words. Traffic in the reverse direction (end reader back to alt.cypherpunks) can be handled either by "blind posting" to the a.c. newsgroup, via one's newsreader, or through mail-to-news gateways, or perhaps via the distributor described here. 2. And the services of "moderators," such as Eric Blossom's and Ray Arachelian's "best of" lists, or even Sandy's list, are of course still possible. A newsgroup does not change this, except for the latency in getting messages out to newsgroup sites. 3. The advantages of a "no nexus, no chokepoint" distribution are huge. The Usenet carries huge advantages in terms of having no place to attack it. 4. Some have raised the point that Usenet is "inefficient" and should not be used for this reason. Well, it may indeed be ineficient, but the costs have already been incurred, and alt.cypherpunks would only be 1/30,000th of additional load (very roughly speaking). In other words, might as well use what's out there. If a "second Usenet" ever comes into existence, fine. 5. Some of us discussed the creation of alt.cypherpunks back in '92-93. At that time, we thought the mailing list had some major advantages. In my view, the situation has changed dramatically since then. The mailing list has become huge, the volume of noise has increased, majordomo is allowing the list to be used for spamming (any 'bot system will probably have this), and the list is already gatewayed to many sites as a _newsgroup_ anyway. So, I think the time has come to just create it. The "activation energy barrier" of a mailing list, where people would have to make the effort to subscribe, has long since become irrelevant. It may be a target for spammers, but it's hard to imagine it being much worse than what we have now. Usenet is an anarchy. We might as well use it. I've never created an alt group, but I presume many of you have (and I know of one currently fed up Cypherpunk who created the entire alt.* hierarchy a decade or so ago). I presume some of you can thus help in such an effort. --Tim May Just say "No" to "Big Brother Inside" We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- 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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Spamming the list
by nobody＠huge.cajones.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

When Derogatory Virus K]ankersore[OfTheMoment's mother gave birth to him after fucking with a bunch of sailors, she didn't know who the father was but decided to tell him that he was a Russian as the Russian sailor was the one who satisfied her the most. o/ Derogatory Virus K]ankersore[OfTheMoment <| / >

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Suggestion for the future of the list
by Lucky Green 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

o Make the list a newsgroup "alt.cypherpunks". This will alleviate any concerns about one party taking control of the list. Good filters exist and the newsgroup can be read via Deja News, etc. o For those using remailers or those unable to post to newsgroups, create a mail-to-news gateway at cypherpunks(a)toad.com. OK, how will take the fist step and newsgroup alt.cypherpunks? -- Lucky Green <mailto:shamrock@netcom.com> PGP encrypted mail preferred "I do believe that where there is a choice only between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence." Mahatma Gandhi

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Pending Attack on Mailmasher and Pseudonymous Posting
by nobody＠wazoo.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

One of the denizens from alt.flame (wotan(a)databasix.com / wotan(a)netcom.com) is on a personal crusade to get the Mailmasher pseudonym server shut down, claiming that it was "abused" by accepting "forgeries". As you'll recall, the pretext of "abuse" was conveniently used my the CoS to get several remailers shut down. Let's not let the enemies of privacy win this one! Here's how William McClatchey, aka "Wotan", concluded his post: > Well, I was nice and polite when the forgeries began. I sent toxic a > nice message asking that he disable the abitlity to forge wotan@databasix > and wotan@netcom. That appears to be too hard for him. He gets his > access from mci. > > I encourage anyone who is being forged due to the deliberate negligence > on toxic's part to write hotwired and MCI asking that mailmasher be shut > down until it can longer be used to commit forgeries. Mr. McClatchey (Wotan) is certainly well aware that you can't detect "forgeries" without positive proof of a person's identity, which would defeat the entire purpose of posting anonymously/pseudonymously. And to "disable the ability to forge" e-mail addresses is well beyond the scope of Mailmasher, since it's as easy to do as changing the settings in Netscape, Eudora, etc. His demands are like asking the USPS to make sure that the return address you put on each envelope you mail is your own!

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17 Dec '03

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GAK
by nobody＠huge.cajones.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Tim C[ocksucker] May is just a poor excuse for an unschooled, retarded thug. <o o> Tim C[ocksucker] May /-+-- --+X /> <\

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RE: Recommendation: Creation of "alt.cypherpunks"
by Blanc Weber 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: Timothy C. May - no "unsuscribe" and "unscrive" messages! (It makes it easy for newcomers to discover the group, read it for a while, then stop. It also, of course, increases the number of "What is crypto?" sorts of messages.) ........................................ In regards to the newbie questions, it occurred to me that it would be useful to have a FAQ, much shorter than the Cyphernomicon, which would get some basic questions answered and contain many collected references & web sites for all the other questions which typically have come up on the list and would certainly show up in a newsgroup. Maybe LD could be prevailed upon to write it (he's probably not occupied doing anything useful, anyway).... :>) .. Blanc

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re: Moderation experiment almost over; "put up or shut up"
by Martin Minow 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

*** This is for Sandy and John, not for the list itself *** Damn. Another example of the Tragedy of the Commons. I'm sorry you decided to pull the plug -- but I fully understand your reasoning. As I mentioned in an e-mail (and/or conversation a while back), I'd be happy to help with the moderation as long as (a) it doesn't prevent me from doing my "real" job and (b) we can figure out a solution to the obvious logistics problems (I'm on a Mac, not a Unix box). In any case, thanks to John and Sandy for all the hard work. Martin.

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Re: Network of majordomos
by pdh＠best.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 1:09 PM 2/11/1997, Greg Broiles wrote: >At 10:45 AM 2/11/97 -0600, Firebeard wrote: >> [...] I've already taken steps, along with Jim Choate, to >> start a network of majordomos hosting a Cypherpunks mailing list. >> [...] Our intention is to have a set of majordomos which >> are intersubscribed to a cypherpunks list on each one, with measures >> taken to ensure that mail loops don't develop. > I still think you're just rediscovering Usenet technology.... > And, if you must, run mail-to-news gateway(s) which send the newsgroup to > people who want it as E-mail. > Usenet technology does exactly what you're describing:... How about this? The people who like Usenet should race ahead and set it up. The people who like networks of majordomos should race ahead and set those up. Just so long as the tracks meet somewhere in Utah. The more people are involved with distributing the "list" the more robust it will be. Peter Hendrickson pdh(a)best.com

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Mac-Crypto 1997 session Schedule
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text Sender: mac-crypto(a)thumper.vmeng.com Reply-To: Vinnie Moscaritolo <vinnie(a)webstuff.apple.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Precedence: Bulk Date: Tue, 11 Feb 1997 13:43:19 -0800 From: Vinnie Moscaritolo <vinnie(a)webstuff.apple.com> To: Multiple recipients of <mac-crypto(a)thumper.vmeng.com> Subject: Mac-Crypto 1997 session Schedule hey all; I have posted a preliminary list of sessions for the 1997 Mac-Crypto conference at the Mac-Crypto conference at the webpage http://www.vmeng.com/mc/conf.html if you haven't registered, please get your name in now! if you want to give a talk, please drop me a line asap. Vinnie Moscaritolo http://www.vmeng.com/vinnie/ Fingerprint: 4FA3298150E404F2782501876EA2146A ------------------------------------------------------- ...I know what probably happened. A new high-level manager at Apple picked up some old dusty videotape off the shelf, labelled "Super Bowl 1984", played it and said, "Yah know, that guy on the screen was making a hell of a lot of sense until that trouble-maker smashed it!" --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) Philodox e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "Never attribute to conspiracy what can be explained by stupidity." -- Jerry Pournelle The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/rah/ FC97: Anguilla, anyone? http://www.ai/fc97/

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alt.cypherpunks
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hey, folks, I thought all you had to do to create an alt.group was to have a news admin somewhere just make a group; send out a control message of somekind. I thought that alt groups didn't have to go through a charter, or voting process, or anything else. They just happened. Then, everyone just has to tell their local news admin that they went to see it, or they can wait until their news admin sees it flying by, and adds it to the available groups list at his own discretion. It's not like we want comp.cypherpunks or something, with a voting process, right? Cheers, Bob Hettinga ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) Philodox e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "Never attribute to conspiracy what can be explained by stupidity." -- Jerry Pournelle The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/rah/ FC97: Anguilla, anyone? http://www.ai/fc97/

3 2

Re: Moderation experiment almost over; "put up or shut up"
by Sean Roach 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

What about totally uncentralized. Instead of using a system like majordomo.com, each person maintain a list of "subscribers", I would be willing to at least attempt to be one lightening rod for "subscriptions". Since I am using the schools machine to read the list, and I don't have any extra priveledge, I would have to do it manually and might quickly stop, but I would be willing to try. In this way, everyone is moderately censored by the processor time expended in mailing a message CC:'d to everyone, but no one could effectively do any type of blocking of the list. Those acting in the place of majordomo could regularly trade lists for alphabetization, (so that the lists should be identical), and file comparing. This list could then be sent to anyone who wanted to be a "subscriber" so that they could post as well. A more effective way would be to have the distributed list as previously discussed, or even maintain one account or web-page to hold the names, but I can't help with that. Just an idea. One small problem, with such a list, advertisers may feel less obligated to follow standard rules of ettiquite. They may feel that the list is even more "open season" than they as a group feel now. I hope that everyone will post to this thread as I would like to be able to "fall in" with the majority decision. To do that, there needs to BE a majority decision.

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Re: Moderation experiment almost over; "put up or shut up"
by ichudov＠algebra.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Patrick May wrote: > Before doing this, I'd need the answers to a few questions: > > - Is there still any interest in a cypherpunks mailing list? yes > - Is alt.cypherpunks a better alternative? it is not an alternative, it is a complement. i think that alt.cypherpunks will be a failure because all of the troubles of alt.* hierarchy. > - Majordomo can be configured to require confirmation of > subscription requests, thus avoiding some attacks. Is there > any simple way to protect against mailloops? Directly > accessing the listname-outgoing alias? Add X-Loop: header and use procmail to protect against messages FROM_DAEMON and FROM_MAILER. > - Is a pentium up to the task of running a list of this size and > volume? yes, it is the other stuff that's the problem -- memory, connection speed, etc. - Igor.

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Re: Moderation experiment almost over; "put up or shut up"
by Sean Roach 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:45 AM 2/11/97 -0600, Firebeard wrote: >>>>>> John Gilmore writes: > >JG> Sandy has agreed to continue moderation through the end of the >JG> original 1-month experiment (through Feb 19). And it's a good >JG> thing, too, because the "cypherpunks community" had better get off >JG> its whining butt in the next ten days, or it will no longer exist. > >[...] > >JG> This is a "put up or shut up" to the cypherpunks community. > > This appears to be as good a time as any to announce that I'm >"putting up". I've already taken steps, along with Jim Choate, to >start a network of majordomos hosting a Cypherpunks mailing list. I >didn't intend to announce this until Jim and I had gotten the first >pair of 'domos working properly, but this means that we'll need to >speed things up. Our intention is to have a set of majordomos which >are intersubscribed to a cypherpunks list on each one, with measures >taken to ensure that mail loops don't develop. As the resulting >mailing list from each 'domo will be identical, periodically >(initially weekly), the subscriber lists of all of the participating >majordomos will be compared, with any duplicate subscribers being >removed from the 'domo(s) with the longest subscriber list.... You might want to set up a temporary majordomo on the same machine as one of the permanent daemons for debugging purposes. It is conceivable to me that a message might be sent to one sub-list, be forewarded to two lists, and then each of those foreward the same message to each other, causing duplication. You might get around this if the daemons keep track of each others, unique, message ID numbers. In other words, if each unit were to apend the message ID with a personal ID number when the message came from someone other than a majordomo, then they could collate them by number, eliminate duplications, and send them on down the line. To do this, the majordomo daemons will probably have to have a guaranteed seat in the front of the cue. This is probably a stupid point to bring up as you have probably already cured this problem, but I decided to post it anyway.

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NEW CYPHERPUNKS LIST (was Re: Moderation experiment almost over; "put up or shut up") (fwd)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > Date: Tue, 11 Feb 1997 18:49:46 GMT > From: Adam Back <aba(a)dcs.ex.ac.uk> > > > This appears to be as good a time as any to announce that I'm > > "putting up". I've already taken steps, along with Jim Choate, to > > start a network of majordomos hosting a Cypherpunks mailing list. I > > didn't intend to announce this until Jim and I had gotten the first > > pair of 'domos working properly, but this means that we'll need to > > speed things up. Our intention is to have a set of majordomos which > > are intersubscribed to a cypherpunks list on each one, with measures > > taken to ensure that mail loops don't develop. > I'll contribute what I had planned: > > As a stop gap measure you could create a standard majordomo at the > beefiest of your 'domo hosts. While it is true I was planning on bringing the Austin Cpunks remailer back (kourier.ssz.com) this rather unexpected expansion has got me backpedalling. So it looks like it will take about 3 weeks to get the intial site ready for public access. Right now my ISDN based site is all we have working. We have another site through another ISP in the process of registering and configuration. I have currently created a 'cypherpunks(a)ssz.com' but still have a couple of other issues to work out. The most relevant one is that I will be upgrading both Linux and Majordomo in approx. 2 weeks. We will be discussing this issue further on Saturday at the Austin Cypherpunks meeting. If all goes well with our discussion and my upgrade we should have the SSZ cypherpunks site available in about 2 weeks. Sten and I hope that we can pursuade some others to get involved both running remailers as well as modifying the various scripts. At this point everything we do will be released to the public domain. We also are expecting to add a proviso that all submissions to the cpunks distributed remailer will be de facto public domain unless a specific 'fair use' header is included in each submission. Finaly, another issue that will slow me down is the upcoming SRL show here in Austin. I have committed time and effort so I don't know yet how the conflicts will come or how I will resolve them. The next SRL planning meet is Thu. nite so I will have a clearer idea of my upcoming schedule. > Or you could create a quick 'n dirty mail exploder, by taking the > current subscribers, and putting 100 mail addresses in a .forward file [much good comments cut out] > Final comment: perhaps you've investigated this, but what Perry > Metzger has for the majordomo running cryptography(a)c2.net is excellent > at stopping people forging subscribe and unsubscribe messages. > > And would really cut down the nuisance of people subscribing others > without their knowledge. These are several of the issues that we will be discussing this Saturday. We will also be looking at various means to distribute the subscriber list. The current lead suggestion is to have subscriptions at any of the cpunks be evenly distributed among them. This would somewhat complicate the subscriber process. Another aspect that I am hot to trot on is setting the system up so that some of the cpunks sites could be anonymous, crypto, or combo remailers as well. Jim Choate CyberTects ravage(a)ssz.com

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Re: Recommendation: Creation of "alt.cypherpunks"
by Lucky Green 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 09:15 AM 2/11/97 -0800, Timothy C. May wrote: >- propagation is often spotty, and some sites have no access at all to the >"alt.*" hierarchy. (Many corporate sites block the alt heirarchy. Many >academic sites block just the alt.binaries.pictures heirarchy. Etc. A news >to mailing list gateway is possible for these readers.) Everybody with a web browser has access to alt newsgroups via http://www.dejanews.com/ -- Lucky Green <mailto:shamrock@netcom.com> PGP encrypted mail preferred "I do believe that where there is a choice only between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence." Mahatma Gandhi

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