December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Cypherpunkspeople
by merriman＠metronet.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>| A(a)ron M. Freed s009amf(a)discover.wright.edu > >Well for me as a Daytonian living in the Midwest, I can hardly make the >journey out to SF every month. Maybe we could branch out Cypherpunk >groups as a SIG in different cities, so each city or region could have a >physical meeting once in a while. IT's so crazy it might work... > > Oo! Oo! Cue time for keysigning(s)! Works for me - anybody in the DFW area (other than me, that is :-) Dave Merriman - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Finger merriman(a)metronet.com for PGP/RIPEM public keys and fingerprints. Unencrypted Email may be ignored without notice to sender. PGP preferred. Remember: It is not enough to _obey_ Big Brother; you must also learn to *love* Big Brother.

1 0

RE: H.O.T. WATER (Cold on Rishab)
by blancw＠pylon.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>From Sandy Sandfort: Acapulco H.E.A.T., with dubious crypto and suspect technology, has become an inside joke for Cypherpunks. When we watch it, we see things the average person misses. This is something we share, and something that helps create the lighter side of Cypherpunk culture. ...................................................... Yeah, Rishab. What about all that social-cyberspatial-culture philosophy stuff you write. Surely you see a relation here to the concepts of tribal and cyberspatial society? Blanc

1 0

Anyone seen the 'quantum cryptanalysis' thread on sci.crypt?
by Sherry Mayo 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hi all, Sorry if this has already been brought up (I've been skimming through c'punx lately and may have missed it) but does anyone have any comment on this thread (see title). I first read about this in New Scientist (Sept 24th, No 1944). To summarize: Shor came up with an algorithm that could use quantum effects to rapidly factorise large primes. To build such a quantum computer requires manufacturing techniques not yet available, although two other researchers (one is called Eckart) streamlined Shor's algorithm and proposed a design for a "factorization engine" using quantum dot technology. You'd need to put a lot more quantum dots on a chip than is currently possible to build such a device, but the suggestion could be possible in a few years time. the article hinted that Hitachi were already hard at work on the problem. Detractors of the proposed technique say problems of noise and sensitivity to mechanical defects are insurmountable and the technique could never work. I was wondering if anyone here has any comment. After reading the New Scientist article I immediately checked it out in sci.crypt and saw a few articles there (but they weren't on the whole any more enlightening that the New Scientist article). I was wondering if anyone here had any views (informed or otherwise :-) I suppose cypherpunks should keep up with the latest developments (or even possibilities), and where there's quantum cryptanalysis presumably there's also quantum cryptography :-) Sherry ps if anyone is interested I'll try and dig out the references. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6 iQCVAgUBLokdq+Fu4n6w1qeBAQEnQgP+Mcu2NV89WuaZ9gJu5tluDzDDj0eZTj41 fWl/Opdw7mY+EqE+RZyWCHKXCx5ibgupZiAoliOfH9VoACd3aoAFJWb+4sMbPwKS ycb6IhKHKhQQA7Q/wnVUGBb4G4B1ozC/2spCmLM83Nv2mcIzXfo5OlPU6ppg4oRU pIfJzpcB7hM= =iG+g -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

6 5

Fortress/Little Bro
by j.hastings6＠genie.geis.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- FORTRESS remailers should be disguised in some way: "DBN announced solemnly that it was everyone's duty to turn in all computers and radios to the authorities for the duration of the Emergency. Not many were impressed by this pronouncement unless you counted laughter. I'd hate to be on the side trying to confiscate everything. That cactus might be a combination photovoltaic cell and radio antenna with green chlorophyll-enriched paint. Or it might just be a cactus. Maybe that flag pole is a hidden shortwave antenna. Should we tear down our own flag? That car engine, vacuum cleaner, hospital centrifuge, or those countless damned white-noise decoys might be unauthorized spread-spectrum radio transmitters. Or not. The bitter end had come, but the Feds wouldnÕt back down..." Another Little Brother problem: "Consumers wanted businesses to 'get it' concerning their preferences, without any effort on their part. But they insisted on absolute individual privacy. A method of scanning the face was devised that could evaluate and report the emotional state of the viewers, without disclosing the identity of any particular viewer, via a blind-audit protocol. This compromise was accepted by most broadcast receiver customers. It was not generally known that the biggest consumer of collective emotional data was the Department of National Security. The data was purchased under a number of marketing research company names, then transmitted directly to DNS in real time, making it the most important tool DNS had for "the manufacturing of consent." A Presidential speech was broadcast, and the sum of the viewer reactions was received. The speech program was adaptive, so statements evoking the most positive response were generated, if they fell within the policy constraints set by the Directorate of the Department." Excerpts from "Revolution Is My Hobby" by me. Kent - j.hastings6(a)genie.geis.com Ham packet AX.25: WA6ZFY @ WB6YMH.#SOCA.CA.USA.NA -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3 iQCVAgUBLoo7/DQYUX1dU7vxAQHYlQP/Sq2eIcPOFzae5L+IFu/sKLc7ssGAE18T bWuAIOOGVWwhT4GAgnxDnYiJjn2Azt9pCeTLpe4ppPQ88SS3hX9fkg4cNWF3rRd1 gKRn7w7cwBwPZhJuvHEMUno/KFsEizFYFzLSEISp4DETp2TWpkowh65RB/RRGFM+ RMiAR2s2bNw= =VRH0 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

1 0

BATF info...
by Jim choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

BATF now has a site located at: atf.ustreas.gov It contains the crime bill and quite a few other tid bits...

1 0

Think you're a hacker, eh?
by Bill Baker 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Well, the only thing the pseudohackers seem to be able to do is forge-cancel postings that make them feel bad. So here it is again, with some extra data at the bottom. mjr(a)tis.com (Marcus J Ranum) writes: > > Sidewinder: > > Internet Security That Strikes Back > > Security software that strikes back? This sounds > cool. Is it like tcp_wrappers with the -retaliate option? > > :) > > mjr. No, it's actually Type Enforcement with the -patented option. :) :) Anybody wanting to bang into it for real can take a run at sidewinder.com (199.199.22.1 for the DNS-impaired). If we configured it with the product-level LOCKout I&A then nobody would get in far enough to bump into Sidewinder's defense in depth. So we left the door open a crack by allowing password-based logins (and what *are* those passwords? Well, hackerfolk, that's for us to know and you to find out). We particularly await the net.chatterers from the dank lowlands, who we invite to slip out of their wooden shoes, clear the pot fumes from their heads and show that xs4all can walk the walk as well as talk the talk. And of course we'd love to encounter Chaos Club (aka the Milli Vanilli of the Internet). Do hope that they can find time between press conferences to rememeber how its done. And our thanks to the uninvited visitors to sidewinder.com who helped us debug in the last couple of weeks. Pity that you can't enjoy the munged gifs of solar eclipses that we set up under hotcha file names as much as we enjoyed tracking your downloads. The breakin attempts were pretty pathetic (we thought the folks from oz were better than that, actually). Sorry to inform you that all that stuff you sniffed and saw was bogus. NetAdapts don't exist, nobody uses a STU-III to login on Internet, and the progress reports were a figment of our imagination. Hope you enjoyed the play as much as we enjoyed putting it on. Now please stay away and leave room in the log files for the next bunch of suckers. ---------------------- begin additional data ------------- Well, it's been pretty quiet here at the old secure site. Seems the vaunted hackers are real good at sniffing reusable passwords from bilgewater.edu and clueless.com but they're not so brave when it comes to running up against a real system. The official announcement is on Oct 11th, which is when we take sidewinder.com off the net. So, you self-proclaimed wizard hackers, you have until then to get to the machine which is on the other side of sidewinder.com. After that we play for keeps, and start putting you out of business one Sidewinder site at a time. So come on, wizzies, make our day. Or be forever exposed for what you are, a bunch of self-promoters who do the net.equivalent of snatching purses from old ladies and then crow about what a tough bunch of outlaws you are. Personal invitations have been sent to sexlessbe4all and the Chaos Chickenheart Club. The rest of you know who and what you are. able baker (bakerw(a)sidewinder.com)

1 0

quantum-factoring talk at Columbia Univ. tomorrow
by stuarth＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Some cyherpunks readers who know their cryptography might be curious to see Rabin's talk as well as Peter Shor's. If you need directions by email you can send me private email (stuarth(a)netcom.com) ========================================================================== THE 24th THEORY DAY at Columbia University SPONSORED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1994 10:00 PROFESSOR MICHAEL RABIN Harvard University and Hebrew University "A New Paradigm for Hashing Data into Memory, and Applications" 11:00 DR DAVID KARGER AT&T Bell Laboratories "Approximate Graph Coloring by Semidefinite Programming" 2:00 PROFESSOR TOM LEIGHTON MIT "Multicommodity Flow: A Survey of recent results and algorithms" 3:00 DR PETER SHOR AT&T Bell Laboratories "Can Quantum Mechanics Help in Factoring Large Numbers?" Coffee will be available at 9:30AM. All lectures will be in the auditorium of the Schapiro Center for Engineering and Physical Sciences Research. This building is adjacent to the Mudd Building and entrance is from the campus. The lectures are free and open to the public. Call (212) 939-7000 for more information. Theory Day is supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

1 0

REGIONAL MEETING
by Sandy Sandfort 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SANDY SANDFORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C'punks, I've been having Cypherpunks-physical-meetings withdrawal since leaving the SF Bay Area. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to conjure up a venue nor enough folks for the Cypherpunks anniversary last month. For October, however, I've gotten a firm offer of the NYC living room of a local Cypherpunk (Hero of the Revolution). I also have compiled a list of a dozen and a half current C'punks and interested fellow travellers. Unless some problem comes up, we'll be getting together on the 8th of October at noon or so. If you are interested in attending, and we *haven't* communicated already, drop we some e-mail. Also, if you know anyone who might want to be on the Cypherpunks list, give me their contact info so I can invite them. We'll have ever so much fun. S a n d y ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1 0

(n!)modx ...
by Jim choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The nth derivative of x^n is n! ...

2 2

Re: Anyone seen the 'quantum cryptanalysis' thread on sci.crypt?
by Carl Ellison 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>Date: Wed, 28 Sep 1994 11:21:45 -0700 >From: doug(a)OpenMind.com (Doug Cutrell) >I won't argue whether Shor's work will be implemented or not within any >given time period, but I thought that one of the most important properties >of it is that once (and if) achieved, the resources required to factor >increasingly large moduli lengths go up only polynomially, not >exponentially. The real roadblock might be that there are limits to how many bits there can be in a register. NIST's recent Quantum Computation conference included discussion of the expected lifetime of a computation (what fraction of a second the computation would have to complete in before the internal state space goes incoherent). The more bits are bound together, the shorter the lifetime of those bits, according to one result. However, the more bits you have the longer the computation has to be. This suggests that any given Quantum Computer technology point will lead to a maximum state size (likely in a small number of bits) for a given application. Trouble is, I'm not a quantum physicist, so my understanding of this is superficial. Any real physicists out there? - Carl

2 1