December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Patel decision pages 1-6 handled
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

2 1

Re: Hacking banking (fwd)
by Andrew Loewenstern 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

David Weisner writes, in a message forwarded by Brad Dolan: > "Already, Fuentes said, federal authorities in New York are > investigating whether programmers hired to write software for a > financial institution may have left a 'back door' open in the > program, one through which money may have been diverted to foreign > bank accounts." > Does anyone know what this federal investigation in New York is > about? How about copying this note around and seeing what people > can find out? Perhaps this is related to the recent Citicorp (Citibank? I have trouble keeping up...) job done by the people in Russia? andrew

1 0

Re: Scientology tries to break PGP - and fails?
by Rev. Mark Grant 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Fri, 8 Sep 1995, Tom Rollins wrote: > I took a look at the FACTNet web page. There is a file encrypted with > PGP using the "-c" option. They are asking for people to help guess > the Pass Phrase. Why would anyone bother if they had no clue that the > file contained anything 'interesting'. I can only assume one of two things - either this is a joke, as the decrypted contents are nothing special as far as I can see (though 'interesting' in a sense), or that someone is very, very clever and managed to hide two different messages in there with different passphrases. > If this is the file that the Co$ is trying to crack, then what the > is being asked for is a pass phrase that can be handed to the Co$ that > will pass the PGP valid key check and still not decrypt the data to > anything usefull. If this is the file the Co$ want to crack, they're a) clearly cryptographically inept, and b) the joke's clearly on them 8-).. Any hacker worthy of the name ought to get the passphrase within three attempts (I got it first time). Note for paranoids: Of course, this message may just be a ruse to put the Co$ off the scent ;-).. Mark

2 1

64-bit GAK && 128-bit hashes
by Andrew Loewenstern 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The recent guidelines for proposed export regulations from NIST include 64-bit keys and several people here have commented that this implies NSA ability to brute-force 64-bit keys now or in the near future ("belt and suspenders"). How does this bode for 128-bit hash functions such as MD5? If 64-bit encryption algorithms can be brute-forced, could birthday attacks and the like on 128-bit hashes be feasable as well? Perhaps the crypto community should start serously considering moving away from MD5 and towards 160-bit hashes such as SHA or even 256-bits... andrew

1 0

Patel decision page 17 handled
by landon_dyer＠wayfarer.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

1 0

Privacy book list
by SINCLAIR DOUGLAS N 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I got a letter in the mail today from Plenum Publishing Corp in NY, advertising a book called _Mind Your Own Business: The Battle for Personal Privacy_ by Gini Graham Scott. It seems I am on a mailing list for privacy freaks. Oh the irony! They must have gotten my name from somewhere. The only two sources that I can think of are the lists for CFP '94 and '95, and a revolver club that I used to be a member of. Has anyone else on the list gotten this ad?

1 0

Commercial Speech over Internet product
by baldwin 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Here's an article about a commercial company that is doing speech over the Internet. Maybe someone would like to help them add encryption. --Bob Baldwin, speaking for myself only. ------------------------ TrueSpeech Player enables real-time audio over Internet SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- DSP Group Inc. (NASDAQ:DSPG) announced a new Windows product, TrueSpeech Player, that is freely available on the Internet. The TrueSpeech Player enables TrueSpeech- encoded speech to be played in real-time over the Internet. Kurt Magdanz, director of business development at DSP, told Newsbytes, "The TrueSpeech Player utilizes the TrueSpeech compression technology bundled in Microsoft's Windows 95 and Windows NT. True Speech is a very high quality algorithm which compresses speech. TrueSpeech Player allows users to decompress TrueSpeech in real time." With the TrueSpeech compression algorithm, speech is communicated in real- time over standard telephone lines to computers capable of communicating at data rates of 14.4kbps (kilobits per second) or above, Newsbytes was told. Because the TrueSpeech Player converts compressed speech data in real-time, World Wide Web site visitors have access to high-quality speech over the Internet in real time, said Magdanz. "The TrueSpeech Player is our first step in enabling high-quality speech communication in real-time over the Internet," said Yuval Cohen, vice president of business development with the DSP Group. "World Wide Web site and content developers can immediately begin developing TrueSpeech Player- compatible content without paying fees." "Content developers who wish to create TrueSpeech Player-compatible speech content should visit our World Wide Web site for detailed instructions on how to use this new product," said Cohen. DSP Group is currently developing an advanced TrueSpeech Server software package which will offer content developers tools, interaction with the TrueSpeech Player to enable advanced features, live broadcasting capability and enhanced server control with diagnostics, said Magdanz. The TrueSpeech Player can be downloaded freely from DSP Group's World Wide Web site, http://www.dspg.com . DSP is headquartered in Santa Clara, California. (Richard Bowers/19950831/Press Contact: Kurt Magdanz, DSP, 408- 986-4300)

4 3

Correction about who opposes crypto regulations....
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 2:16 AM 9/8/95, hallam(a)w3.org wrote: >>Nope. but the patriots & the cyPHerpunks share a common goal, and belief >>that it is none of the government's business what we think or want to >>share with our computers. > >Poor you, the only major political party to come out with a pro crypto >statement >is a socialist party. On the contrary, the Libertarian Party has come out strongly in favor of cryptography and privacy, and they are consistently either #3 or #4 in popularity. (I believe Peace and Freedom is usually #4 and LP is usually #3.) Their home page (http://www.access.digex.net/~lphq/lphq.html) says: "The LPHQ is the center of activities of the Libertarian Party, the third largest political party in the U.S. We stand for individual liberty, both in terms of personal and financial freedom." It is impossible to argue that the Libertarian Party is opposed in any way to the right to encrypt, and their 1994 platform makes this clear: "We oppose all proposed regulations of civilian research on encryption methods. We also oppose government classification of such research or requirements that deciphering methods be disclosed to the government." I point this out not to argue in favor of the LP here, but to correct a seriously incorrect statement. --Tim May ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."

2 1

ON OFF-TOPIC
by gjeffers＠socketis.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

ON OFF-TOPIC THE UNITED STATES "FEDERAL" GOVERNMENT HAS NO LEGITIMACY! CRYPTO CODERS SUPPLY THE MEANS! CONSPIRACY THEORISTS SUPPLY THE MOTIVATION! conspiracy theorist = alternative political theorist NOT= AP/ABC/CBS/NBC/CIA/FBI/U.S GOV'N./New York Times/Washington Post opinion moulders syndicate "extremist right-wing kook" = old fashioned American patriot Left term used often by left-wing extremist liberal statist kooks. The United States "Federal" Government - we'll be even more American without it. PUSH EM BACK! PUSH EM BACK! WWWAAAYYYY BBBAAACCCK! BBBEEEAAATTTT STATE!

9 12

cryptography eliminates lawyers?
by Cortland D. Starrett 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

As a follow-up to the article reference I posted, I pose the following question: Will cryptographic technology and information (communication) technology reduce the need for legal services in the future? (especially regarding contracts, buying/selling, patent law, etc.) Will legal services just look different? Will they be more efficient (cheaper)? Put bluntly, will cryptography put lawyers out of business? Any comments would be appreciated. Cort.

4 3