December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Andy Grove on Clipper
by Duncan Frissell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

T >Denning, Andy Grove, and others. In this campaign, the second T >approach mentioned above will be dominant: a focus on pedophiles who T >"encrypt their list of victims," a focus on "terrorists who form T >virtual networks around the world," and a focus on "money launderers T >who use crypto anarchy to spread their poison." I agree of course that technological fixes are superior to political argument. In fact, I *use* technological fixes as a political argument. For example, "While you might like to censor video nasties, you should know that censorship is no longer technologically feasible. There are so many different communications channels that you can't possibly block all of them." It can be convenient to work on some anti Clipper/DTI soundbites though. Since coding sentences are more my specialty than coding software... "The administration wants us to spend $300 million of our own money to help them perform just a few wiretaps a year. It isn't worth it." "Yeah, and we could use torture to catch pedophiles too. Do you favor torture?" "Strong cypyto *prevents* crime by protecting people from criminals." "The government didn't think we needed strong crypto until the market demanded it. Why should we trust their judgement as to what kind we need?" "How does the government think that it can compete in a software and hardware market that will frustrate the brightest marketers around." "I guess the government thinks that forcing Microsoft, Novell, and IBM overseas so that they can incorporate strong crypto into their products is a good idea." DCF "Do you suppose the Feds can completely upgrade their hardware/software crypto system every 6 months to keep up with the market?" "In 1946, Soviet and U.S. electronics technology was approximately equal and the U.S. had a 10-year lead in nuclear weapons technology. By 1986, U.S. and Soviet nuclear weapons technology was approximately equal but the U.S. had a more than 10-years lead in electronic technology." Trust the market. --- WinQwk 2.0b#1165

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Re: Another Cellular Vict
by Duncan Frissell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com C.>No doubt this will eventually be marketed as a feature you can pay C.>extra for... intended so people can track their spouses' movements C.>so they know when they're getting home, if they're stuck in a traffic C.>jam, etc. Bell Atlantic already announced a joint venture with one of the electronic navigation companies to supply drivers with position info using cellular triangulation. DCF --- WinQwk 2.0b#1165

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RE: Beware of Roman Catho
by Duncan Frissell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

N >It looks like Ralph Stokes has finally learned about Internet and N >Usenet gateways and is now spreading his prenicious religious N >bigotry beyond the borders of Fido-land. (He spammed several At least he's using PGP. We are making progress. Nothing wrong with a strong expression of religious opinion (as long as it was limited to the religious USENET groups and mailing lists). At least he's not asking for a new government program. Must be a lot of papists out there if they fear hearing the "truth" once in a while. DCF "If the language of the Authorized Version (1611) was good enough for our Lord Jesus Christ -- it's good enough for me." -- actually, not a bad read. --- WinQwk 2.0b#1165

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No Subject
by smb＠research.att.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

There are a few things to watch out for. First, it's really easy for subtle (or not so subtle) biases to be present in a noise source. These can be due to component drift, external noise (i.e., power supply coupling), etc. You want a design that isn't sensitive to such things, if possible. Second -- and it's partly a corollary to the first -- the designs I've seen for real RNGs have always included a scrambler step, to mix up the bits, account for biases, etc. The first such scrambler was, I think, described by von Neuman himself. I have the citation in my office; I'll try to post it tomorrow.

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Re: Having your own computer means never having....
by smb＠research.att.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I can't think of any real security risks introduced by allowing employees the use of encryption, that weren't present already. Certainly none mentioned thus far fit the bill. Have a look at Matt Blaze's paper from Usenix last week. He describes a smart-card based key escrow system for file encryption -- the risk to the company is that an employee will quit, forget a password, walk in front of a truck, etc. -- at which point they're unable to get at the files that this person created -- files that the company owns in accordance with the provision of the free-market contract willingly agreed to by this employee.

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Hardware generators was: your mail
by Pat Farrell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

In message Sat, 18 Jun 94 19:30:35 EDT, Adam Shostack <adam(a)bwh.harvard.edu> writes: > Making it PC only shuts out the Mac/UNIX market for your > devices. There are probably lots of folks in the research/scientific > community who use UNIX & would buy a random number dongle that hangs > off the serial port. For $25, I'd probably get our lab to buy 3 or 4. > > If you put it on a PC card, you're cutting out all other > computers from using it. Adam's points are correct, and I thought of them before I posted the initial message. My thinking was that about 90% of all computers sold are Intel PCs, and to get my manufacturing costs down, I need volume and simplicity. So by addressing the 90% solution first, I have a larger market without the complexity of multiple platforms. Once I've sold thousands of Hardware random number generators, then I can afford the design effort for other platforms, if they still exist then :-) Pat Pat Farrell Grad Student pfarrell(a)cs.gmu.edu Department of Computer Science George Mason University, Fairfax, VA Public key availble via finger #include <standard.disclaimer>

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Re: Decline and Fall
by lethin＠ai.mit.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

In article <2tnlbgINNjss(a)life.ai.mit.edu> you write: >Decline and Fall of the Nation State: > >Tuesday's WSJ had an article on how private money market funds are >starting to jawbone foreign governments just like the World Bank used to. > >Case cited was Fidelity Investments calling Mexican bank officials during >the Peso crisis after the recent assasination. They said "we'll invest >another $18 billion (of ours and other fund's money) if you do what we say >and if not..." > >DCF > >"If they hadn't killed quite so many people, you'd almost have to feel >sorry for them." > >--- WinQwk 2.0b#1165 > Noam Chomsky spoke here in January and made the point that the increasing mobility of capital increasingly holds governments hostage. He felt that it was the current greatest danger to democracy, because it bypasses any leverage voters might have on politicians at the ballot box. It's not clear how well his argument really holds together, though, since the leverage that the mobile capital has is via the satisfaction of the voters. If capital flees a country, the population will be less productive, dissatisfied and vote the politicians out of office. So policies that favor capital in some sense also favor labor. Anyone else care to take shots at his argument or support it? Mobile capital does mean that population and government lose their ability to decree the relative rewards made to capital and labor. If labor requires too high a return, capital will go somewhere else. The ownership and control of capital IS highly skewed, but since it's still distributed among many parties, it is forced to compete and remain engaged, lest it depreciate in value. Go cyphercredits.

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Re: Having your own computer means never having....
by tim werner 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>Date: Sun, 19 Jun 1994 22:27:23 -0700 >From: nobody(a)kaiwan.com (Anonymous) >carterm(a)spartan.ac.brocku.ca (Mark Carter) wrote: >> Beyond that, unrestrained encryption is dangerous to corporations, because >> what's to stop a ticked off employee from encrypting everything in the >> office as revenge for some imagined slight? > >If he was pissed off and wanted revenge, he would not waste his time >encrypting it, he could just delete it, and/or steal all remaining copies. Not necessarily. One could get in the habit of keeping all one's files encrypted, decoding only the material that one has to occasionally release in order to convince one's boss that one is doing productive work on one's computer. :-) Many times when one is fired, one does not have the option of logging in one last time. The boss taps you on the shoulder, and escorts you to human resources. While you are having your exit interview, the sysadmin is disabling your account. For instance, the emacs editor has a mode (see crypt++.el) that automagically prompts for a decryption key wheneve you open a file that appears not to be pure text, in case you want to pass it through crypt before editing it. Only in the editor's buffer does it ever appear in decoded form. On the disk it is always encrypted. If one got fired unduly, one's former bosses would have to ask for the key. Of course, the usual reason peopnle get fired is incompetence, so there may not be anything worthwhile laying around anyway. tw

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L.J. Freeh and the Opposition
by Dave Otto 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Check out sunday's _Parade_ magazine for an article on Louis J. Freeh, the director of the F.B.I. "Tough on crime", "man of the streets", and ruthless eliminator of directors :-) If he ever throws his weight behind Clipper, the battle will get *MUCH* tougher. Dave Otto -- dave(a)marvin.jta.edd.ca.gov -- daveotto(a)acm.org "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" [the Great Oz] {I *DO* have a life, it's just that my kids are using it right now!}

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Re: Having your own computer means never having....
by nelson＠crynwr.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Date: Mon, 20 Jun 1994 02:37:42 -0400 From: snyderra(a)dunx1.ocs.drexel.edu (Bob Snyder) Cc: cypherpunks(a)toad.com What to stop him/her from shredding everything in the office? Um, because desks don't *fit* in the shredder? :) Sorry about that, but this thread *is* becoming a little silly on its own. -russ <nelson(a)crynwr.com> ftp.msen.com:pub/vendor/crynwr/crynwr.wav Crynwr Software | Crynwr Software sells packet driver support | ask4 PGP key 11 Grant St. | +1 315 268 1925 (9201 FAX) | Quakers do it in the light Potsdam, NY 13676 | LPF member - ask me about the harm software patents do.

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