December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: GSM crypto upgrade? (was Re: Newt's phone calls)
by Sean Roach 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 11:41 PM 1/16/97 GMT, Adam Back wrote: > >Bill Frantz <frantz(a)netcom.com> writes: >> As long as the man in the middle can't imitate a familiar voice, >> this procedure is reasonably secure. > >This is the approach taken by PGPfone also. If the value of the >conversations was high (>$100,000?) passable voice imitation wouldn't >be that hard I suspect. I have long considered how easy it would be to use a sound card to modify the human voice to match within certain tolerances the voice of another. There are currently on the market, phones specifically designed to modify the voice of the user so that kids can answer as adults, women can answer as thier own protective boyfriends, bosses can answer anonymous calls as the secretary, etc... There are currently on the market keyboards that allow you to sample some real world sound and use it as a voice in your music, (the model I saw, a toy produced by Radio Shack, simply sped up or slowed down the sound to achieve this.) I have thought, if a machine were to take the incoming voice, analize (apologies for spelling) it to get a spectrum signature, a pattern that can be added or subtracted from another, and could then add the difference between that and the victims signature to the users voice, then real-time, on-the-fly con jobs would be easy. The only thing that the user would be responsible for would be the accent, and the day-to-day vocabulary of the victim. I told a friend about this and he confirmed that such was available if you knew where to look.

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Re: Airport security [no such thing]
by drose＠AZStarNet.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Alan Bostick wrote: [...] >She presented the gate agent with *four* tickets and *four* IDs. "Where >are these other people?" the agent asked. "They're parking the car," >said the traveler. The agent gave her all four boarding passes; and my >companion and I were bumped to the third boarding group. > >The woman in front of us was white and middle-class-looking, traveling >with what appeared to be her family. One wonders what would have >happened were she a swarthy man wearing robes and a burnoose. Or if she >were just wearing shabby clothes. My guess is that you and your companion would have been further discommoded, with the possible concomitant saving of your lives.

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No Subject
by owner-cypherpunks 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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Re: Dr. Vulis' social engineering experiment
by Toto 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Jane Jefferson wrote: > Also Sprach Adam Back: > > I await with interest the last phases of Dimitri's experiment, when > > the cypherpunks list becomes a moderated forum. > > That appears to be the main brunt of his efforts, to "push the envelope" > of free speech in order to force it's definition. Perhaps to exhibit > the necessity for a controlling authority, and thus justify the existence > of the various agencies which are trying to control the flow of > information in this country and elsewhere. If what you say is true, then Dr. DV K's efforts are quite possibly the most important issue being addressed in this conference, because behind free speech, lies the most important issue of all--when does it start, and when does it stop. Cryptography, above all, enables the ability of a group or an individual to keep their communications secret, safe from prying eyes. The military-industrial complex proclaims this necessary for the purposes of state-security, and denies that it is used in order to keep their 'sins' from being exposed. (If you believe this, then please contact me by private email regarding an ocean-front property I have available in Tucson, AZ. If you act quickly, I will throw in a set of the Amazing Ginzu Knives as an added bonus.) The crypto-cognizant citizen proclaims cryptographical ability as a means of empowering their rights of free speech. The more intelligent of them recognize as misinformation the government's feeble claims that they cannot successfully investigate someone moving tons of illegal drugs into the country unless they have the capacity to eavesdrop on the private correspondences of 'all' of their citizens. (Which is the equivalent, in my mind, of claiming that AIDS cannot be held in check without knowing the details of all of the citizens sex-lives.) In short, I believe that if the issue of free speech is not one of the central issues on the CypherPunks list, then the list is merely one more heartless, unfeeling extension of the Great Machine which is grinding inexorably forward toward the day when we will all have its numbers tattoo'd on our forearms. As far as I am concerned, any CypherPunk who believes that the socio/politico issues surrounding cryptography are not important enough to be an integral part of this list is falling into the same type of trap as those who think that they can become good cryptographers without becoming good cryptanalysts. Those who seek to become merely cryptographers seem to think that 'numbers rule'--those who seek to be able to analyze the end-result of those 'numbers' realize that the minds, hearts and souls 'behind' those numbers tell the story of how people think and feel, and the motivations behind their cryptographical intent. (And also reveals where their vulnerabilities lie.) Thinking that cryptography is about 'numbers' is akin to thinking that equality is about 'skin-color'. > "In peacetime, a warlike man sets upon himself." -- Nietzsche "In times of war, a peacelike man sets upon others." Bubba Rom Dos Toto

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Re: Newt's phone calls
by Sean Roach 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 12:07 PM 1/20/97 -0500, Phillip M. Hallam-Baker wrote: >Depending on the country and bank you can probably perform almost >any transfer you like by fax. I moved my pension from one bank >to another simply by sending a fax. I have done similar transactions >with Swiss, German and UK banks. > >For some reason the fax is considered to be a practically >infallible authentication device. Quite why is beyond me since >it should be obvious to anyone that all one needs to fake a >fax is a photocopier, document signed by account holder, paste >and scissors. You get everything needed on a signed cheque. > A check is no good, most checks are now printed on paper with special lines that are supposed to become obvious after copying. A signed letter or even a mailing envelope would probably be better. Also, scotch tape makes those pexky shadows disapear like magic. My dad uses it to make multiple versions of make-up math tests that trivially look like the origional in order to goad persons who were sick on test day so that they could get the answers from someone else into printing down those answers and getting less than random probability. (multiple choice)

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Re: [Math Noise] (fwd)
by Kent Crispin 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Jim Choate allegedly said: > > > > Infinity does not have a predecessor, so it makes no sense to > > count back from it a finite number of steps. > > If infinity does not have predecessors (ie is immune to normal arithmetic > operations) then it is not possible for a sequence to approach it by adding > a finite amount to succesive terms in order to approach it. This means that > a sequence can not meaningfuly be asymptotic with infinity (meaning I have to > be able to draw a asymptote, at least in theory, in order to demonstrate the > limit). Jim, the problem here, as elsewhere in your posts, is that you confuse the prosaic meaning of terms with the mathematical meaning. "Approaching" infinity is sort of inane, mathematically speaking, but if it did have a meaning, it wouldn't mean "getting closer to". > > If one constructs the Ordinals, which are isomorphism classes of > > well-ordered sets, and the Cardinals, which are equivalence > > classes of equipotent sets, one will automatically end up with > > all sorts of transfinite numbers. > > If infinity is not a number, how is it possible to have a definite number > (ie transfinite) which is larger than it? > > My contention is that number theory as you present it is playing fast and > loose with the concept of infinity not being a number or visa versa. Your contention is precisely what you are doing. The term "infinity" means several things mathematically speaking, but the various meanings are precise. Your comments demonstrate that you don't really know what those precise meanings are, and thus it is difficult for people who are used to them to communicate with you. So perhaps you could define *exactly* what you mean by "infinity"? -- Kent Crispin "No reason to get excited", kent@songbird.com,kc@llnl.gov the thief he kindly spoke... PGP fingerprint: 5A 16 DA 04 31 33 40 1E 87 DA 29 02 97 A3 46 2F

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Re: Airport security [no such thing]
by Adam Shostack 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Recall that all security is economics. The airlines want the appearance of security without having to pay for it. The '3 questions' ("Pack your luggage? let it out of your sight? Taking any gifts?") originated with El Al, where they are the introduction to a very expensive (and privacy invading) set of screening questions. The El Al people are trained to watch you as they ask the questions, and respond to signs of lying or rehersal. The Americans read the questions off the screen, and pay no attention to your answers. The market, however, is irrational*, and airlines prefer to have government imposed regulations over having to actually figure out what works, and do it. *The market is irrational because statistics on what airlines are safer than others is closely held knowledge of the FAA. Adam Alan Bostick wrote: | She presented the gate agent with *four* tickets and *four* IDs. "Where | are these other people?" the agent asked. "They're parking the car," | said the traveler. The agent gave her all four boarding passes; and my | companion and I were bumped to the third boarding group. | | The woman in front of us was white and middle-class-looking, traveling | with what appeared to be her family. One wonders what would have | happened were she a swarthy man wearing robes and a burnoose. Or if she | were just wearing shabby clothes. -- "It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -Hume

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A Moment of your Time.
by blizz＠capella.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

If I could just have a moment of your time, this is an opportunity message being sent out first to those I would think might be interested. I have a network marketing opportunity to make GOOD money with MINIMAL effort. I will not take up your time with the details. If you are serious about making REAL money in the MLM game, just reply with OK in the message subject and I will send you a Webpage that will explain better than I could ever do via Email. This program uses a database to place people in your downline AUTOMATICALLY as they sign up. you can spend little or even NO time recruiting, the choice is yours. I have never claimed to be articulate when sending Email, so I will end it here, but trust me, this is worth AT LEAST taking a look at. After all, if we don't have the time to check out NEW opportunity's, are we really being honest to ourselves in expecting to ever make money at this? If you wish to be removed from my mailing list, just reply to this with REMOVE in the subject line, and you will automatically be taken from my future mailing lists. I hope you choose to reply with OK, you really should at least take a look... Thanks, and GOOD LUCK Either way!

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Re: UNS_top
by Declan McCullagh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

You'll get the full article soon enough, I expect. The Reuters story isn't quite right, though. Burma has no Net-connection. I stood outside the building that will house it last month (they wouldn't let me in) after hiking five miles through fields to get around police barricades. It should go live this year. For China and Singapore Net-censorship, check out my web site at http://www.eff.org/~declan/global/ -Declan On Mon, 20 Jan 1997, Toto wrote: > John Young wrote: > > Governments in China, Burma and > > Singapore have already tried to discipline this on-line activity with > > minimal success. > > Do you have any pointers to information in regard to this, or are you > just being a goddamn tease? > > Toto > > > >

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Re: Menwith Hill / NSA
by pgut001＠cs.auckland.ac.nz 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I've just heard from Duncan Campbell (who made the documentary), he'll send me a copy of the script which can be put on the web. I'll let people know when it's available. Copies of the tape can be ordered from his company: IPTV Ltd 1 Meadowbank Edinburgh EH8 8JE Scotland, UK E-mail : duncan(a)gn.apc.org Tel : +44 131 659 6566 Cost is \pounds 14.50 stg + any postage costs for outside UK - \pounds 5 will cover it. They have no NTSC versions in stock but can make them from the master. Provided they get orders for at least 10, the cost will be the same. They accept payment in US$ cheques as well as \pounds stg cheques; no credit cards, sorry. He is, in theory, on holiday for another month or so and only has intermittent net connectivity, so please don't flood him with email just yet. Peter.

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