December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: In Search of Genuine DigiCash
by jim＠bilbo.suite.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

A few days ago I asked: > Can a case be made that anonymous digicash is less risky > (to a bank) than NON-anonymous digicash? There were no takers. Therefore, I'll ask different questions: Would a Chaum-style anonymous digital cash service be more profitable to a bank than a NON-anonymous digital cash service? Are the costs involved in offering and supporting anonymous digital cash more, or less, than the costs associated with NON-anonymous digital cash? In other words, why might a bank chose to offer/support anonymous digital cash over NON-anonymous digital cash? If a "bank-centric" case for anonymous digital case over NON-anonymous digital cash can't be made, then there's little chance we'll see anonymous digital cash any time soon. Jim_Miller(a)suite.com

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Some facts on the Cray-3 deal
by pcw＠access.digex.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

<FORWARDS deleted....> I should note that the processors on this machine sound strikingly like the Coherent Memory Chips that I turned into DES crackers. Also, the SRC's observation that the routing network of the SIMD machines is expensive is an old one at Coherent. Their memory chips were only connected with a one dimensional network and Chuck Stormon felt that this was the only connection arrangement that scaled. This is one of the sad limitations of packaging. In SIMD machines with multiple processors per chip it is often impossible to quadruple the number of processors per chip when a new fabrication process emerges. There just aren't enough pins available. It turns out that the 12 dimensional routing network of the Connection Machine was really overkill. A three dimensional one was nice on some problems, but you paid the price in performance. I'm not surprised that the Terasys could really run rings around the CM-2 for some problems that didn't need the bandwidth. It does sound interesting if the scatter/gather hardware can do a good job with the routing. (It is interesting that this announcement came on the same timeframe as the obituaries for Thinking Machine. They all said stuff like "These guys were brilliant and the machine was great...but the market didn't see their brilliance." It would be funny if the old Cray design proved to be just as versatile.) All that being said, I don't really think that this machine will be anywhere near as powerful as the one I described. The 512,000 processors would probably take about 300-1000 days to do a brute force DES search. The main advantage is that the processors have 64 bits available in memory, not 42. That's just enough to store a complete DES (or SKIPJACK!!!) block in place. There is no need to use the communication hardware to go back and forth. I'll do a more complete calculation later. I don't know whether they'll be able to add more SIMD processors with time. 512k words of memory seems pretty small even when there are 8 bytes to a word. -Peter Wayner >Date: Fri, 19 Aug 1994 13:30:42 -0400 (EDT) >From: Ronald G Minnich <rminnich(a)descartes.super.org> >Subject: Re: SSS attachment - is that Splash II? >To: jms <jms(a)central.cis.upenn.edu> >Cc: f-troup(a)AURORA.CIS.UPENN.EDU > >The WSJ article on the Cray-3 deal involves a chip/system designed here >called TeraSys. Maya [Minnich djf] has a forthcoming article in IEEE >Computer about it. >The basic idea is to embed bit-serial processors in the sram chips, one >processor per bit in the memory row register. It's a simple processor with >an ALU and three registers. The memory "words" can now be thought of as >running vertically up the columns, rather than horizontally along the >rows. Every time you fetch a row, you are in fact fetching 64 bits from 64 >different words to be operated on in the ALUs.This gives you roughly a >100-fold increase in memory bandwidth, since you no longer mux the data >down from 64 bits to 1 or 4 bits to bring it off-chip. The key >contribution of the Cray (this idea due to Ken Iobst of SRC, who also was >the architect of the chips) came from Ken's realization that the Cray vector >scatter/gather hardware could push the bits around BETWEEN the chips as >fast as the hardware networks on, e.g., the CM-2. Thus the Cray-3, a >vector supercomputer, can function as a very high-performance SIMD system >as well. You don't need to build the additional network found on so many >SIMD machines, e.g. maspar or cm-2. You also can have phases of a >program, wherein it runs SIMD for a while, then vector, then SMP mode, >etc. > >The TeraSys processors built here at src cost about $80K each, and for >several problems could easily outrun our $6M CM-2. > >The chips are National Semi SRAMS, with mods done here by Mark Norder and >Jennifer Schrader. Ken Iobst is the architect of the chips. The >programming environment was basically Maya Gokhale's DBC language, which >also runs on Splash-2, the CM-2, and clusters. Cray has reimplemented the >chips for the Cray-3. > >In keeping with the NSAs new plans for SRC, this project was terminated >at SRC last January. The systems are gradually being turned off and the >cabinets put to other uses. No further work is occurring at SRC in this >area. > >Feel free to forward this article to people who may ask you. There was >some good work done by people here. > >ron > >rminnich(a)super.org | Error message of the week: >(301)-805-7451 or 7312 | NFS server localhost not responding still trying > > >

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Cray contract info
by Adam Shostack 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

| From: HPCwire article-server <more(a)hpcwire.ans.net> | Message-Id: <199408191753.AA16894(a)hpcwire.ans.net> | To: adam(a)bwh.harvard.edu | Subject: 4493 CRAY COMPUTER AWARDED CRAY-3/SSS DEVELOPMENT CONTRACT August 17 | | CRAY COMPUTER AWARDED CRAY-3/SSS DEVELOPMENT CONTRACT August 17 | IN THE NEWS by Carol Cramer, Managing Editor HPCwire | ============================================================================= | | Colorado Springs, Colo. -- A joint development contract between Cray | Computer Corporation and the National Security Agency (NSA), valued at up | to $9.2 million, is slated to produce a CRAY-3/Super Scalable System (SSS). | | Under the terms of the contract, Cray Computer Corporation will be paid up | to $4.2 million for development costs, and the Government will provide | approximately $400 thousand in software consulting services. The company is | responsible for the balance of the development costs. In addition, it will | have rights to use certain Government technologies. | | The CRAY-3/SSS will be a hybrid high performance system that will offer | vector parallel processing, scalable parallel processing and the | combination of both. | | "NSA selected Cray Computer Corp. to develop the CRAY-3/Super Scalable | System because of its advanced technologies and the CRAY-3 architecture," | stated George Cotter, chief scientist for the NSA. "This is an important | initiative of the Federal High Performance Computing and Communications | (HPCC) program." | | Chuck Breckenridge, executive vice president for Cray Computer | Corporation, noted, "The CRAY-3/SSS will provide unparalleled performance | for many promising applications. We are pleased to participate in this | transfer of government technology and we are eager to help potential | customers explore and develop appropriate applications." | | Based on a September 1993 feasibility study, this development recommends a | hybrid supercomputer composed of a CRAY-3 and a large number of Processor-In- | Memory (PIM) chips, developed by the Supercomputing Research Center (SRC: | Institute for Defense Analyses). The SRC will provide significant technical | assistance in both the software and hardware aspects of the system. | | The Government's technology transfer program is intended to maintain the | country's technology leadership position by providing a cost sharing | arrangement for development and commercialization of advanced Government | technologies. | | The high performance system will consist of a dual processor 256 million | word CRAY-3 and a 512,000 processor 128 million byte Single Instruction- | Multiple Data (SIMD) array. This CRAY-3/Super Scalable System will provide | high-performance vector parallel processing, scalable parallel processing | and the combination of both in a hybrid mode featuring extremely high | bandwidth between the PIM processor array and the CRAY-3. SIMD arrays of 1 | million processors are expected to be available using the current version | of the PIM chip once this development project is completed. | | The scalable array will connect to the CRAY-3 memory interface and will | be addressable as standard memory to facilitate use of the SIMD array with | minimal delays for data transfer. The PIM chip, containing 64 single bit | processors and 128K bits of memory, was developed by the Supercomputing | Research Center for NSA, and tested on a Sun/SPARC workstation with a | parallel version of the C language. | | The PIM chips will be packaged by Cray utilizing its advanced multiple | chip module (MCM) packaging technology that allows the CRAY-3 to operate | with a record breaking 2.08 nanosecond clock rate. The PIM chips are | manufactured by National Semiconductor Corporation. The CRAY-3/SSS is | expected to be demonstrated in the first quarter of 1995. After this | initial demonstration, interested parties will be invited to try out other | applications. | | The CRAY-3 memory interface bandwidth will allow the application specific | SIMD array to provide dramatic performance improvements over existing | architectures for bit and image processing, pattern recognition, signal | processing, and sophisticated graphics applications. A notable strength of | the SIMD processor array is variable precision floating point for those | frequently occurring applications requiring less (and sometimes more) than | the standard 64 bit IEEE floating point arithmetic. A substantial | applications base is available for the CRAY-3, and Cray Computer Corporation | is committed to working closely with customers to develop traditional high | performance vector and scalable applications. | | For suitable applications, the SIMD processor array option offers up to | 32 Trillion Bit Operations per Second and provides price/performance | unavailable today on any other high performance platform. The CRAY-3 system | with the SSS option will be offered as an application specific product and | will be well positioned in the evolving supercomputer marketplace. | | Seymour Cray stated, "The CRAY-3/SSS development project leverages the | company's existing technologies and accelerates our program to develop | parallel architectures and software to reach the TeraFLOPS performance | level. I see a strong SIMD architectural component as crucial to a complete | parallel supercomputer capability." | | ***************************************************************************** | Copyright 1994 HPCwire. | To receive the weekly HPCwire at no charge, send e-mail without text to | "trial(a)hpcwire.ans.net". |

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Re: Cray contract info
by pcw＠access.digex.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

ge. >| >| The PIM chips will be packaged by Cray utilizing its advanced multiple >| chip module (MCM) packaging technology that allows the CRAY-3 to operate >| with a record breaking 2.08 nanosecond clock rate. The PIM chips are >| manufactured by National Semiconductor Corporation. The CRAY-3/SSS is >| expected to be demonstrated in the first quarter of 1995. After this >| initial demonstration, interested parties will be invited to try out other >| applications. I should note that this is almost 10 times faster than the Coherent Chips. Given that there is no need for interprocessor message passing in the DES tests, I rate that this chip could be 20 times faster than the earlier design. That puts it at 100 days per DES attack. This sounds like a pretty fun machine to get. All of the old vector performance of the Cray bundled with the fun of the old CM-1/CM-2. You could get some _great_ results on specific problems. -Peter Wayner

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C.A.N. #94-09 [For Subscribers Only!]
by tcmay＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

[Guvf zrffntr vf sbe fhofpevoref bayl! Vs lbh ner abg pheeragyl fhofpevorq gb gur Pelcgb Nanepuvfg Arjfyrggre _naq_ lbh unir vyyrtnyyl qrpelcgrq guvf zrffntr, lbh ner ivbyngvba bs Srqreny Pbqr 42-666, Qvtvgny Gryrcubal Ovyy. Vyyrtny ernqvat bs guvf cbfg rkcbfrf lbh gb 15-lrne cevfba grez naq n $10,000 cre bppheerapr svar. Vafgehpgvbaf ba jurer gb fraq lbhe purpx sbyybj.] PELCGB NANEPUVFG ARJFYRGGRE, #94-09, 1994-08-19 Serrqbz Svtugref Bognvavat Arrqrq Fhccyvrf. Lncbapuvx vf bssrevat fcbg cevpr bs QZ12.500/tz, Tqnafx envyurnq. Cnlzrag ivn NzRk Zbarltenz, Nehon NRP. Cevapvcnyf bayl. Or pnershy gb nibvq erprag A.R.F.G. grnz, neevivat Onfry, 1994-08-20. Cerffherf zbhagvat va Fgngrf gb "qb fbzrguvat" nobhg erprag fuvczragf. --

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ccc [alt.suicide.holiday #18856]
by solman＠MIT.EDU 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Does decrypting encoded messages really fall under the digital telephony bill? I thought it only applied to hardware. ------ Forwarded Article <3347uc$9l(a)senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU> ------ From solman(a)athena.mit.edu (Jason W Solinsky) [This message is for subscribers only! If you are not currently subscribed to the Crypto Anarchist Newsletter _and_ you have illegally decrypted this message, you are violation of Federal Code 42-666, Digital Telephony Bill. Illegal reading of this post exposes you to 15-year prison term and a $10,000 per occurrence fine. Instructions on where to send your check follow.] CRYPTO ANARCHIST NEWSLETTER, #94-09, 1994-08-19 Freedom Fighters Obtaining Needed Supplies. Yaponchik is offering spot price of DM12.500/gm, Gdansk railhead. Payment via AmEx Moneygram, Aruba AEC. Principals only. Be careful to avoid recent N.E.S.T. team, arriving Basel, 1994-08-20. Pressures mounting in States to "do something" about recent shipments. ------ End of Forwarded Article

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Re: cypherpunks-digest V1 #18
by blancw＠pylon.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

As for "stealing" radio signals that happen to stray onto your property, my position is that it's not theft - any more than it's theft to read a paper one finds in the restroom while sitting on the throne ;) The Communications Act of 1934 spelled this out explicitly. ................................................................ That's why I hate regulations, they get so explicitly particular. Blanc

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coming soon: secure digital time-stamping in practice
by tcmay＠localhost.netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Earlier I said I would forward to the list a posting I did on digital time-stamping, describing the Haber and Stornetta system. But I'll instead repost Stu Haber's comments, for more detail. --Tim >Date: Sun, 19 Jun 1994 21:52:29 -0700 >From: stuarth(a)netcom.com (Stuart Haber) >To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com >Cc: stuarth(a)netcom.com >Subject: coming soon: secure digital time-stamping in practice >Sender: owner-cypherpunks(a)toad.com >Precedence: bulk >Status: RO > >On Thursday, June 16 Tim May very nicely described a digital >time-stamping scheme: > >> The canonical reference for digital timestamping is the work of Stu >> Haber and Scott Stornetta, of Bellcore. Papers presented at various >> Crypto conferences. > >See below for pointers to the papers. > >> Their work involves having the user compute a hash of the document he >> wishes to be stamped and sending the hash to them, where they merge >> this hash with other hashes (and all previous hashes, via a tree >> system) and then they *publish* the resultant hash in a very public >> and hard-to-alter forum, such as in an ad in the Sunday New York >> Times. >> >> In their parlance, such an ad is a "widely witnessed event," and >> attempts to alter all or even many copies of the newspaper would be >> very difficult. (In a sense, this WWE is similar to the "beacon" term >> Eric Hughes used recently in connection with timed-release crypto.) >> >> Haber and Stornetta plan some sort of commercial operation to do this, >> and, last I heard, Stornetta was moving to the Bay Area (where else?) >> to get it started. > >We do indeed plan to do just that. Bellcore has spun off a company, >Surety Technologies, whose charter is to bring digital time-stamping >into widespread use. Resisting the charms of the Bay Area, we decided >to stay in New Jersey. > >Instead of closing off our trees once a week and publishing their roots >in the national edition of the Sunday New York Times, as we've been >doing for over two years now (including this week: look for the Public >and Commercial Notices towards the end of the main news section of >today's paper -- on p. 30 if you get the NY-area edition), we are >planning to close our trees at sub-minute intervals and make their roots >widely available. By the end of the summer, we plan to have a service >bureau (to build the trees) up and running, and client software >available to access the service -- both for time-stamping documents and >for validating (document, time-stamp certificate) pairs. > >> This service has not yet been tested in court, so far as I know. > >Nor as far as I know. But we do plan to push this issue, on several >legal and regulatory fronts, so as to enhance the legal acceptance of >appropriately authenticated digital documents. > >Here are the references: > "How to Time-Stamp a Digital Document," > S. Haber and W.S. Stornetta, > Journal of Cryptology, vol. 3, pp. 99-111 (1991). > A similar version appeared in the CRYPTO '90 Proceedings > (Springer-Verlag LNCS, Vol. 537), pp. 437-455. > > "Improving the Efficiency and Reliability of Digital Time-Stamping," > D. Bayer, S. Haber, and W.S. Stornetta, > Sequences II: Methods in Communication, Security, and Computer Science, > ed. R.M. Capocelli, A. DeSantis, U. Vaccaro, pp. 329-334, > Springer-Verlag (1993). > > >Stuart Haber | Surety Technologies provides >Chief Scientist | Digital Notary(sm) service on the Internet. >Surety Technologies, Inc. | General info: info(a)notary.com >stuart(a)notary.com | (201) 993-8178, fax -8748 > > .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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15 years!
by cyber1＠io.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Mats Bergstrom <matsb(a)sos.sll.se> says: > I commented on this before but feel like repeating myself: So an alt.2600 > tec-addict makes some hardware hacks on his cellular - and gets 15 years > in the slammer for catching some airwaves. A punishment scale suggestive > of a very repressive state! Many laws passed in the last decade have penalties which are coercive rather than punitive. The real intent is to force the accused to give up his accomplices. In fact, law enforcement has had some successes employing this tactic, but at what cost! -- Alex Brock

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Disruptive Tactics
by cyber1＠io.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

There was some discussion recently concerning problems which could arise if the U.S. federal government had a medical database on its citizens. One example of abuse of medical records is documented in the report of the "Krever Royal Commission on the Confidentiality of Health Records", published in 1980 in Canada. In the particular case I'm citing, a (now disbanded) RCMP (federal police) dirty-tricks squad obtained medical records of a dissident, and used them for disruptive tactics. Quoting from page 45: "The letter distributed at King Edward School attempted to use accurate health information to sow dissension, disruption and distrust among the members of the Young Socialists. The three letters were written and distributed by the RCMP. Superintendent Ian William Taylor ... expressly admitted that the letters addressed to Mr. Riddell and the letter distributed at the King Edward School were written by members of the RCMP with the authorization of senior RCMP officers." One of the letters begins as follows: "COMRADE: We have been most disturbed by indications of increasing emotional instability on your part, witnessed by psychiatric consultations, violent outbursts of temper and frequent periods of irritability. We note too from the enclosed letter that your condition has not escaped the notice of others." (etc.) Please note that I have no sympathy at all with the political objectives of this group, but I think the incident is a good example of the sort of abuse which can result when highly personal records are accessible by a government. -- Alex Brock

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