December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: Crypto export legislation defeated in House Intelligence Cmte.
by Bill Frezza 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On 6/17 John said: <If you have any ideas on just how to do this, I'd sure be interested. We've been talking to all the involved people, from NSA "special assistant to the director" to the White House to the Justice Dept to the Intelligence Committee staff to the senators and representatives who are fighting this battle. If they have something that they won't tell us, claiming the info is classified, what do you recommend that we do to change their minds?> I recommend that we give up the battle and go fight the real war. We are totally outgunned if we stick to this approach and are wasting our time. What the entire net community should do is focus it's energies on chopping NSA's budget, period. That's what these guys really care about after all. Let's go on the offense rather than play a losing defense. Make them squirm in appropriation committee hearings, embarrass them for their intelligence failures, and put them on notice that we are going to hit back where it hurts. And don't even bother raising the "freedom of encryption" or free trade issues. Forget it. It's going to happen anyway and they can't stop it. Focus on defecit reduction and downsizing the intelligence community in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Keep the attack very broad and avoid specific "national security" issues. Get the investigative journalists to write exposes on the huge spending black hole these guys have created. Whine about all the other worthy things taxpayer money can be spent on <gag> if we stop giving it to spooks and weirdos. Of course, this strategy may be tough for the EFF if you are simultaneously urging increased government involvement in the "Information Superhighway". Regards, Bill Frezza DigitaLiberty

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Bumper Sticker
by nobody＠shell.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I saw a bumper sticker: I love my country but fear my government. Rat

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Re: Crypto export legislation defeated in House Intelligence Cmte.
by gtoal＠an-teallach.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

: I recommend that we give up the battle and go fight the real war. We are : totally outgunned if we stick to this approach and are wasting our time. : What the entire net community should do is focus it's energies on chopping : NSA's budget, period. That's what these guys really care about after all. There was quite an interesting quotation in one of the British papers recently from Ames, the CIA spy who was caught - he said that the intelligence infrastructure in the US was a self-serving bureaucracy. I forget the exact wording, but it was the sort of thing you'd imagine the head of any big organisation like that would want to say but was never in a position to be able to - of course, now Ames can say what he likes :-) I wonder if he's available for interviews by the Cypherpunk Press ;-) G

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Notes on xmodn...
by Jim choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

n 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 nmod5 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 mult5 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 2 mod3 0 1 2 0 1 2 0 1 2 0 1 mult3 0 0 0 1 1 1 2 2 2 3 3 mod3mod5 0 1 2 0 1 2 0 1 2 0 1 mult 3/5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 mod5mod3 0 1 2 0 1 0 1 2 0 1 0 mult 5/3 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 I am interested in the behaviour of the modamodb and mult a/b. I have been unable to find any kind of work along this line...

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(None)
by Jeff Gostin 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Dave Otto <dave(a)marvin.jta.edd.ca.gov> writes: > ! While they are aware that software for secure encryption is > ! available from non-US, they are making a best effort to prevent > ! a standard from emerging, while hoping that some escrowed > ! encryption scheme will gain acceptance. This is a critically dangerous statement of intent. What we are seeing here the the US government running scared when they consider the fact that they won't be able to pry into our lives without asking permission (IE: for our keys) first. Now it all makes sense. If ever they've sealed their own fate, now is the most damnable time. If only they realized how zealously we will guard our encryption rights before saying something so incriminating, perhaps they would have come up with a better excuse. I don't get active in many things, but, alas, my time of complacency is over. If the pen is mightier than the sword, perhaps a Bic will level Congress. --Jeff -- ====== ====== +----------------jgostin(a)eternal.pha.pa.us----------------+ == == | The new, improved, environmentally safe, bigger, better,| == == -= | faster, hypo-allergenic, AND politically correct .sig. | ==== ====== | Now with a new fresh lemon scent! | PGP Key Available +---------------------------------------------------------+

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Let us attack Clipper
by Ben.Goren＠asu.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

No, not with words, as we're all so fond of doing. Instead, I suggest that the NSA or others provide free access to an EES system on the 'net, for any and all to attempt attacks. They could hook up a workstation or two with a couple Tessera cards, and provide anonymous login access. All functions should be permitted as they will be in a final implementation. This is an inexpensive way that EES advocates can permit access to the system for analysis. It would be only for research purposes--there'd be no way to encrypt a phone conversation, and anybody would have to be stupid to encrypt sensitive data with an NSA-owned machine, even assuming you could get the data to the computer securely in the first place. To the NSA agent who is surely subscribed: if Clipper is so great, prove it. If you won't disclose the Skipjack algorithm (but why not if it's secure?), at least provide access to test its implementation. b& -- Ben.Goren(a)asu.edu, Arizona State University School of Music net.proselytizing (write for info): Protect your privacy; oppose Clipper. Voice concern over proposed Internet pricing schemes. Stamp out spamming. Finger ben(a)tux.music.asu.edu for PGP 2.3a public key.

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Another Cellular Victim
by Duncan Frissell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I'm watching (presumably) OJ being persued live on CNN. They report that he was tracked via his cellphone use. What this country needs is a good anonymous cellphone net. DCF "When entrenching tools are outlawed, only outlaws will have entrenching tools." --- WinQwk 2.0b#1165

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Re: Another Cellular Victim
by Jef Poskanzer 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>They report that he was tracked via his cellphone use. What this country >needs is a good anonymous cellphone net. Really. And what's more: when the Colombian drug lord was located via his cellular use, the story was that the NSA had to bring special equipment into the country to do the tracking. That doesn't wash here. It looks like at least some switches in Amerika are already equipped to read out locations for individual phones. They probably don't even have to wait for you to make a call - they can call you, or even use the phone's automatic pings. --- Jef

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Tracking cellular phones (OJ reference)
by Michael Wilson 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

About the earlier note on tracking cell phones. It isn't hard. In fact, the network HAS TO do it, essentially. A cell phone has a pager in it that signals when it is getting a call, what cell to go for, and frequencies (check out the old Bell System Technical Journals from when cell technology was a research project at what is now Ameritech). Cell receiver stations are arranged in a hex about 8 miles on a face. When a signal gets weak (it can tell signal strengths), the phone is handed off to a better cell; it can go a good round of local cells until it actually hits a stronger receiver site. Using this, you can bounce the phone around to different cell receivers, test signal strength (none of this actually activates the phone, it is part of the standard polling), and get a fairly good fix on location. After that it is simply a matter of flooding the area with enough black and whites to find the phone (in this case, the car that OJ was driving around in, which they did pick up from a helo). No real need for special gear, other than what it might take to track a signal through triangulation on a local basis; standard FCC gear for hunting pirate radio and video bands, and easily available for law enforcement. So think of your cell phone as a leash, 'cause that's what it is. Anyone else notice a serious *lack* of usage of cyberpunk style journalism in this one? Scanners to track police, listening in on 911 reports, hunting down the local cell phones to listen to them, a directional mic to hear negotiations. The local LAPD didn't even know how to pull the number of their own cell phone. Back to lurking... ;) [A special note to our friends in the intelligence community out there... Tag, you're it! With love, The Nemesis Group]

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ADMIN: List Software Upgrade Warning
by hugh＠ecotone.toad.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

This is a "two birds with one stone" message, testing the new version of MajorDomo that I just installed and telling you folks that if you have any strange problems with the list to please contact me about them. ||ugh Daniel Sometimes Postmaster hugh(a)toad.com

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