December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

IRS plans
by nobody＠shell.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>From: johnl(a)iecc.com (John R Levine) >Newsgroups: comp.society.privacy >Subject: What the IRS is up to Here's some excerpts from a speech by Coleta Brueck, Project Manager, Document Processing system, at the Internal Revenue Service, that she gave at the Computer Press Association Awards luncheon in New York on April 15th. I was at the lunch, but the transcript of the speech just arrived today. The ellipses are mine, but I think I'm not distorting what she said. She started by explaining that their current systems are functionally based on punch card systems from the 1950s, and they want to get more stuff on-line so that when you call with a question, the person at the IRS can retrieve a copy of your records while you're still on the phone. But then: "We should be able to provide you on-line access to that information. ... You will have the availability to know what your current account information is, very much like if most of us who have an American Express Card, you can call -- you don't really know where that 800 number goes, but what you do know is when that person answers your call, they have your complete account information. ... They can give you information on your account, they can update your account, or they can provide you futuristic looks into your account as to where you might be next year, even, for filing tax returns. We've often talked about, and this is the terminology that I used when I was in on a task group, we've talked about the "golden eagle" return. This is the golden -- or gold American Express Card return. At the end of each year, if you have an American Express Card, you get a gold account summary of what you've done for the year. ... Basically, what I say is that if I know what you've made during the year, if I know what your withholding is, if I know what your spending pattern is, I should be able to generate for you a tax return so that I only come to you and tell you, 'This is what I think you should file for the next year, and if you agree to that, then don't bother sending me a piece of paper.' ... But I am an excellent advocate of return-free filing. We know everything about you that we need to know. Your employer tells us everything about you that we need to know. Your activity records on your credit cards tell us everything about you that we need to know. Through interface with Social Security, with the DMV, with your banking institutions, we really have a lot of information, so why would you, at the end of the year or on April 15th, today, do we ask the post office to encumber themselves with massive numbers of people out there, picking up pieves of paper that you are required to file? ... We could literally file a return for you. This is the future that we'd like to go to." Lest there be any doubt, she was entirely serious, and she clearly expected that that we'd all think this is as wonderful as she does. Regards, John Levine, johnl(a)iecc.com, jlevine(a)delphi.com, 1037498(a)mcimail.com

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BANK: quite a bit of interest.
by Matt Thomlinson 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I've had quite a few people ask for instructions for retreiving the ghostmarks I promised. Good to see that more people are getting involved. I'm more than willing to help people get going using the magic money implementations. I've just paid the winner of the sonics/nuggets pool. I'm offering 15 more ghostmarks to the person most closely guessing the spread of the sonics/nuggets game 5 on saturday. (as a reference, the winner this time was only within 14 points of the spread!) You need not have your client installed to enter the pool. I have a feeling that within the next few weeks we're going to see more and more items available via ghostmarks/tacky tokens/bakuins. Get set up now so you can participate later. Email for info. mt Matt Thomlinson University of Washington, Seattle, Washington. phone: (206) 548-9804 Check my home page -- ftp://ftp.u.washington.edu/public/phantom/home.html PGP 2.2 key available via email, or finger phantom(a)hardy.u.washington.edu

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Cypherpunks change bytes!
by greg＠ideath.goldenbear.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- I ought to be studying, but goofing off is more fun. I generated a test key with the binary distribution of PGP 2.3a for DOS. I then changed the byte at offset 2F688 in PGP.EXE from 0x33 (ASCII "3") to 0x34 (ASCII "4"), and the byte at offset 2F689 from 0x61 (ASCII "a") to 0x00 (null). The patched PGP.EXE identifies itself as "Version 2.4" in ASCII armor blocks and otherwise; the key generated with the "2.3a" version extracts as a "2.4" key after the patch. ViaCrypt PGP 2.4 for DOS can successfully read files encrypted with the patched PGP.EXE, and add keys generated under "2.3a" but labelled as "2.4" keys. I haven't done a lot of testing, but spot checks make it look like everything's fine. I don't see the point in forcing everyone to patch their binaries or recompile from source - does anyone else? Bidzos & Co. are certainly smart enough to anticipate this step. What's the catch? -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLclzd33YhjZY3fMNAQGiDwP9HjSYfNfn4q/9L/BOqXluH06015x3YmDM gNPfg5T2lWcsYJyyx/tMnVWdtAnFENAFUB7zK5vNq+Y/tquKaE6kEuZeUzZz1o+k sOofUAR1Y+sUii4Fu8R2J7scNCDL2pjl/hIqAAfT0voHiexxOTR9uxCDeiWxz9w0 xpyuvJBLQq8= =G5Oq -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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(fwd) What the IRS is up to
by catalyst-remailer＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

---------forwarded message---------

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Reap and Sow
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The Congressional Record reprinted July 23 "Anti-Government, Anti-Social Attitudes," a news column which examines the increasing discontent caused by governmental programs. It describes the increasing psychopathology by those who have suffered economic harm due to shifts in the nation's and international resources and the appeal of anti-government and anti-social acts in response to failure to meet obligations to the citizenry. Not a few think OKC bombing is the the way to fight government-sponsored terrorism against civilians. http://jya.com/anti-gov.txt Couple that with reports on DoD's efforts to combat terrorism against its troops abroad, more funding of counterterrorism and more sharing of "dual-use" weaponry with jittery, trigger- itchy law enforcement and IRS infohighway bandits around the globe. Boil the frogs. Says the snarling marshal (OSFOR trooper), just back from stress counseling and a beer, to the neighbor (rapee) kicking and screaming: It's dog eat dog, in the battle to keep our family fed, so sorry, but we gotta enforce order and the law (our exculpatory Bible), burp, tell it to the judge (the President), my therapist (godfather). Meanwhile have a pleasant remand while the court's on vacation.

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MacPGP 2.5?
by fhalper＠pilot.njin.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Does anyone have any info on when I mac version of PGP 2.5 will be released? Thanks, Reuben Halper Montclair High

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Re: Why Digital Cash is Not Being Used
by pcw＠access.digex.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> Date: Tue, 3 May 1994 11:48:18 -0800 > From: tcmay(a)netcom.com (Timothy C. May) > > - Digital Postage. This remains my favorite. There's a _need_ for > untraceable payments (else why use a remailer?). I've written about this > extensively, as have others. > I should point out that Pitney Bowes has a patent on using digital signatures and RSA to "sign" a postal meter application. The patent begins by noting that postal meters are literally machines that print money. It goes on to show how to control this with digital signatures. There is some kind of bar code applied to the stamp. My impression is that getting the info density on the envelope is a bit of a problem with the invention. But I'm not sure.

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remailer list wanted
by nate＠VIS.ColoState.EDU 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I need the latest and greatest remailer listing. thanks, -nate -- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Nate Sammons <nate(a)VIS.ColoState.Edu> <nate(a)yuma.ANCS.ColoState.Edu> | | Colorado State University Computer Visualization Laboratory | | Data Visualization/Interrogation, Modeling, Animation, Rendering | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Re: NYT op-ed May 8
by peb＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I'm writing up a response to the Gelernter e[Ad[Bitorial and have the following notes...if you have any comments, please send me mail so I can revise and add to the argument. Also, I recall an NSA spokesperson said something that amounted to an admission that Clipper would not stop the smart terrorist or somesuch in response to a question at a press conference. Does anyone know what snippet that is (unfortunately, my archive tapes are inaccessible right now). This would be a nice quote to include. Paul E. Baclace peb(a)netcom.com -------------------------------------------- What Gelernter does not mention: We have wiretaps today and he still got bombed. (I deplore the Ludite terrorist who allegedly did the bombing and I am not unaffected by this in circuitous ways...) Some crimes are always hard to stop, regardless of technology. Note that arson and serial murders still happen and we have a free society. Only a police state would mitigate such crimes, but who would guard the guards? The real decision that people need to make about privacy regards balance of power. Privacy is power. Setting up laws that require privacy to be violable for all time to come is giving up the most important non-enumerated right. People who live under oppressive governments need privacy. There is no guarantee that the U.S. government will never abuse its power. The digital telephony bill and Clipper initiative, if both are passed, will pave the way for desktop wiretaps. A warrant could be requested and granted by a judge by electronic mail and then the wiretap itself could be turned on remotely. It could be accomplished in minutes after the required forms are filled out. Wiretaps will become cheaper and faster. This will be very tempting to abuse. Remember that Nixon kept a list of enemies and had them wiretapped. This brings into question the whole warrant issuing process and has nothing to do with technology. Prediction: If Clipper is used widely one day, the first time a terrorist blows up a building and uses unbreakable encryption in order to pull it off, the government will not be able to resist a new effort to ban cryptography. Since neither the Digital Telephony bill or Clipper will stop the smart terrorist, it is only a matter of time. Cryptography amounts to inventing a private language. A ban on cryptography would thus violate the First Amendment. As people conduct more of their life on the information superhighway, privacy will become more important over time. The passing of the digital telephony bill put in place cheap mechanisms for spying on citizens that a corrupt government could use.

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Re: KQED Clipper discussion....
by dwitkow＠eis.calstate.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 6:38 PM 5/10/94 -0400, Perry E. Metzger wrote: >Lile Elam says: >> Is anyone up for discussing the Clipper and why it's bad for us >> on KQED this thursday night? > >I would suggest contacting EFF and seeing if they have a spokesperson >handy. In general they are likely good people to contact for this sort >of thing. > >Perry I concur. The following is a listing of KQED-local EFF members. CALIFORNIA San Francisco Bay Area: This!Group Mitch Ratcliffe coyote(a)well.sf.ca.us or Mitch_Ratcliffe(a)macweek.ziff.com Glenn Tenney tenney(a)netcom.com Judi Clark judic(a)netcom.com ...dtw ---------------------------------------------------------------- Notice of address change: Please send mail to the following: dwitkow(a)eis.calstate.edu (Mail sent to dwitkows(a)nermal.santarosa.edu will be forwarded) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Transmitted via modified Eudora 1.4.2 over LINUX host dialup! ---------------------------------------------------------------- Finger dwitkows(a)nermal.santarosa.edu for PGP key ----------------------------------------------------------------

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