December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

RE: Is Cyberspace Rich Enough?
by Blanc Weber 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: Timothy C. May "(Actually, cyberspace is partly getting "bigger" and partly "increasing in dimensionality." Dimensionality of a space can be related to how many neighbors one has....think of the two nearest neighbors one has in a 1-D space, the 4 (or 8 if diagonals are considered) neighbors in a 2-D space, the 6 in a 3-D space, and so on. Arguably, if one has "100 close neighbors" in a space, it is roughly a 50 dimensional space. An equivalent formulation is in terms of the radius of the n-sphere that everyone fits into. For example, the "six degrees of separation," the 6 "handshakes" that separate nearly any two people in America, suggests that American society is in some important sense roughly a 15-17 dimensional space, because in some sense all 250 million Americans "fit into" a hypersphere of radius 3 (diameter 6) when the dimensionality is around 17. (Or slightly lower, as the slight corrections to V = r ^ n have to be included, which I'm not bothering with). What "increased connectivity" does is to increase dimensionality, about as one would expect from our usual metaphors about "a multidimensional society" and "the world is shrinking"...indeed it is shrinking, even as the absolute volume increases.)" Well, what I want to know about this, is: what are the symmetries involved in the product? (I learned that question this weekend) "What Cypherpunks should be pushing for, in my view, is this increased dimensionality. More places to stick things, more places to escape central control, and more degrees of freedom (which has a nice dual meaning I once used as the working title for a novel I was working on)." I think that this proliferation of places will increase as people find immediate, practical or entertaining uses for home pages and places to stash info, before they will seek to find places to hide, to evade detection, to escape notice, or to blend into the milieu as the aim of their cyberspatial activity. And shouldn't there be some mention of the "hardware" involved in making cyberspace possible? Wouldn't there some requirement for more cables underground to places which don't yet have them, and utility companies to manage the flow of electricity, etc? I don't know a great deal about these things, but it's hardly ever mentioned here, as though electricity just flows by itself somewhere called 'cyberspace' and all one ever has to think about (besides crypto and software commands) are how to plug oneself in, like 3C-PO. But somebody has to install the plugs in, first. .. Blanc

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Re: TEMPEST Paper by Former Civilian (1/2)
by wcs＠anchor.ho.att.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Sigh. Some anonymous poster drags up "Christopher Seline"'s wildly inaccurate article about TEMPEST. Aside from having a reverse- engineered deacronymization of TEMPEST (which isn't an acronym and isn't about Transient Electromagnetic Pulses), misunderstanding TEMPEST certification, not getting its legalities right, it's in general just plain confused and sensationalist. Bill

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bill alert...
by Lile Elam 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Do you think this will force folks into using encryption? If I was a sysop, I sure would have all my users using encryption... :) -lile ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lile Elam | "a brush in hand, a wisp of wind, she sighs lile(a)art.net | knowing that this will be the great one..." http://www.art.net | -lile ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -> EMA ALERT <- News For and About the Members of the ELECTRONIC MESSAGING ASSOCIATION ============================================================ February 3, 1995 -- Number 18 <----------------------------------------------------------> ***** SPECIAL ALERT ***** - Congress to consider making all system operators liable for messaging content. Bill would force employers to monitor message content. ACTION NEEDED NOW! <----------------------------------------------------------> UNREASONABLE NETWORK POLICING PROPOSED Yesterday, Senator Jim Exon (D-NE) introduced S.314, the Communications Decency Act of 1995, in the United States Senate. In an effort to stamp out digital pornography, it makes all telecommunications providers doing business in the United States (from the telephone companies all the way down to offices that use LANs) liable for the content of anything sent over their networks. To avoid the possibility of tens of thousands of dollars in fines and up to two years in jail, business owners would be forced to police their networks and monitor in advance all messages sent over them. WITHOUT ACTION - COULD BE LAW IN MONTHS This bill is substantially the same as the one he put forward last year. He will offer it as an amendment to the pending telecommunications deregulation legislation in the U.S. Senate, which is expected to be enacted by July. Last year, his amendment was adopted even though many thought it hastily drafted and poorly thought out. Fortunately, the telecommunications deregulation legislation died. This year, a more conservative U.S. Congress may be even more reluctant to challenge a "morality" amendment; and its legislative vehicle, the telecommunications deregulation legislation, stands a much better chance of passage this year. ACTION NEEDED NOW Action by the business community is needed now. Please notify your corporate government affairs office and/or your legal counsel. This measure could be adopted as an amendment to the telecommunications bill IN A MATTER OF WEEKS (or potentially added to any legislation pending on the U.S. Senate floor), if business does not mobilize against it. S.314 will not stop digital pornography, but it could devastate the messaging business. If you are interested in further information or are able to participate in lobbying efforts over the next few weeks, contact Sarah Reardon at EMA (see below). ------------------------------------------------------------ EMA ALERT is published and copyrighted (1995) by the Electronic Messaging Association. Permission to reproduce and/or redistribute with attribution is hereby given to all EMA members. For more information about anything in EMA ALERT, contact EMA via e-mail - use either X.400 (S=info; O=ema; A=mci; C=us) or Internet (info(a)ema.org) address, facsimile (1-703-524-5558), or telephone (1-703-524-5550). Any EMA staff member can be addressed directly via e-mail by using, for X.400, G=<firstname>; S=<lastname>; O=ema; A=mci; C=us, and, for Internet, <firstinitial><lastname>@ema.org. EMA's postal address is 1655 N. Fort Myer Dr. #850, Arlington, VA 22209 USA. ------ End of Forwarded Message

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Archives
by cactus＠seabsd.hks.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- (Add to the list of things to do: make a recurring post describing cpunk services available at various places, incl. c2.org, ftp.csua.berkeley.edu, hks.net, Tim's Cyphernomicon, etc. Anybody else willing to put the whole burrito together, or should I add it to my TODO list?) Somebody asked where the cypherpunks archives are. Recent traffic is available via nntp from news://nntp.hks.net/hks.lists.cypherpunks; Traffic older than that, back to June 94 at news://nntp.hks.net/hks.lists.cypherpunks-archive, and back to the beginning of the list from ftp://ftp.hks.net/cypherpunks/All/cypherpunks.archive.[0-3].gz The archives are extrememly difficult to navigate through right now, but the raw material is there and available. One of these days I will finish the harvest and/or hypermail installation to facilitate access. - - -- Todd Masco | "No matter how peculiar the medium or incongruous the scale, cactus(a)hks.net | the instinct to build persists." - Joy Of Cooking Cactus' Homepage - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBLz+PFRNhgovrPB7dAQHc1gP/WSdhsJ7l0LpnEGm8wFBHrBcf4r9ujv7M OpK6SrfV1/ail5eWZN3waZWgMRzxLxVIkxk7cIILMWo7rZgwM3j50UH6VULWX+8f o8XBUsKqKxf2UYsm1Ew92HAXdgZgAHj+L2s3L38t2mFxuobK2JhB2+slFC4JEa1P nBKVgd0O8P0= =5DSV - -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- - --- [This message has been signed by an auto-signing service. A valid signature means only that it has been received at the address corresponding to the signature and forwarded.] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Gratis auto-signing service iQBFAwUBLz/IrioZzwIn1bdtAQExxAGAptVJi2VmN3g+5zH21/GkBI4mft0Ww/S0 ufiqJkfGVSB50HPrKcvyCLmVPq+lcc9s =vg0X -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: bill alert...
by wcs＠anchor.ho.att.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > > Do you think this will force folks into using encryption? > > If I was a sysop, I sure would have all my users using > > encryption... :) > > -lile [ obscene government threats CENSORED ] Well, a good start would be to use an encrypted filesystem for any server that you're allowing the general public on, and to support encryption on any remailers you might run... - --- [This message has been signed by an auto-signing service. A valid signature means only that it has been received at the address corresponding to the signature and forwarded.] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Gratis auto-signing service iQBFAwUBLz/FoCoZzwIn1bdtAQEANgGAipZg3vy7lkdA/WC9LnuCQspo2bXOxVOy ktMyX8kDHpInuZx77TnCq7LwpyC5GkKa =jQov -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: Is Cyberspace Rich Enough?
by Wei Dai 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > That theme is this: Is cyberspace, or the Net/Web/Etc., sufficiently > rich or complex to meet our needs? [deleted] > Consider how the abstractions of the World Wide Web, URLs, HTML, HTTP, > and Web browsers have *increased the size of cyberspace* rather > dramatically in just the past two years. More places to visit, more > interconnectedness, more difficulties in controlling access to stuff, > etc. Home pages containing banned material are proliferating (a la the > Homolka-Teale ritualistic cannibalism trial in Canada, the Scientology > material, and so on--this is not the place for me to recap this). > Sure, ftp sites used to do this pretty well; in fact, I'm considering > ftp sites in this "evolution" toward greater complexity (in the > richness sense). I agree that cyberspace is certainly becoming more complex and interconnected. However, just as a complex ecosystem is not necessarily more stable than a simple one, and a complex cipher is not necessarily more secure than a simple one, greater complexity in cyberspace does not necessarily imply that it is less vulnerable to to centralized control. [more stuff deleted] > What Cypherpunks should be pushing for, in my view, is this increased > dimensionality. More places to stick things, more places to escape > central control, and more degrees of freedom (which has a nice dual > meaning I once used as the working title for a novel I was working > on). But if you wanted to exert greater control over others, you would also be pushing for increased dimensionality, because that shrinks the world and moves everyone closer to you. If you look at history, increased connectivity has always been necessary for increased central control. What I am saying is that increased connectivity alone does not necessarily favor decentralization. What makes the difference is the details -- the nature of the connectivity. > Is Cyberspace already rich enough (= high enough dimensionality) so > that central control cannot be reestablished (to the extent it ever > existed)? > > Many of this think that it probably already is past this point, that > the "point of no return" has been reached. After all, the Soviets > couldn't stop samizdats, the Chinese couldn't stop fax machines, and > the Americans can't stop drug use, so what hope is there in > controlling modems, crypto, cellular phones, satellites, Web links, > stegonography, terabytes of data flowing unobstructed across borders, > and so on. Just to "stop the Net" would disrupt the entire financial > system, which not even Clinton or the next (Republican) President > would be tempted to do....they might as well launch a nuclear war as > try to shut down this "anarchic" ( = high dimensionality) system. I'm not quite so optimistic. One way to control a distributed system such as the Internet would be to use a distributed method. I.e., use something like the Internet Worm, but a thousand times subtler and more powerful. There is no need for them to "stop the Net", just to subvert a substantial part of it. Wei Dai -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBLz/I0Tl0sXKgdnV5AQGEewP7BGVcIdtKv5UIh8z3ydSoMdOdvLyBxww3 N3f4NKaXTwS6PPfdmRafcN7i3mKEDIlB6CKBBEL5qV2GkDpmTi9rehD2q5hZFzEX vdHYg8k/YRo8ZNnLdaelZO7EPFpFwX3XCeyd2Ap6efzrr7djX98ckJWb5ZMnK/Xp BOLeEwxTF6Y= =hcI1 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- E-mail: Wei Dai <weidai(a)eskimo.com> URL: "http://www.eskimo.com/~weidai" =================== Exponential Increase of Complexity =================== --> singularity --> atoms --> macromolecules --> biological evolution --> central nervous systems --> symbolic communication --> homo sapiens --> digital computers --> internetworking --> close-coupled automation --> broadband brain-to-net connections --> artificial intelligence --> distributed consciousness --> group minds --> ? ? ?

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perry@imsi.comRe: Does PGP scale well?
by wcs＠anchor.ho.att.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> > I was just reading RFC1034 about DNS, and one thing I noted was that > > there is a "reverse lookup" feature. [....] > > The RFC did not make it very clear how this is done. Does this use a > > "flat" database? > > No. Its fully distributed. The fact that networks are assigned in > heirarchical chunks should explain how its done, and why the bytes get > reversed for the lookup. As an example, MIT owns network 18, which is > to say that all MIT addresses are 18.XXX.XXX.XXX, and 18.IN-ADDR.ARPA > is a server at MIT. MIT may have sub-servers beyond that level, but > DNS makes us oblivious to this. Of course, that's more useful for MIT, which owns Network 18, than for the thousands of people on networks 192.xxx.xxx; reverse lookups don't seem as reliable for Class C. On the site I run, I implement reverse lookups for my subnet, and the folks who run our larger internal net have pointers that know how to find it. But DNS would work for forward lookups even if the reverse weren't maintained, or deliberately omitted some parts for security/predictability reasons.

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Excel 5 Encryption
by bwern＠jax.jaxnet.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Greetings one and all, I was wondering if anyone out there has played with or 'broken' Microsloths encryption, especially in it's Excel from? The story goes like this: A good friend of mine has an executive who stored a lot of data in excel, with his own password. He has died, and the company would very much like to get ahold of that corporate data. Microsoft has chuckled politely at helping them (they're a rather large company), and my friend has approached me... I don't have any experience with Microsoft encryption.. but I know that the likes of WP can be broken, so I was wondering if something similar to the cracks of that. ANY thoughts, comments, annencdotes, etc, etc. would be greatly appriciated. I'll post a summary to the list, if you send privatly. Danke, Ben Wern (Hopefully this satisfies enough of the Cypherpunks-related content to avoid scorch marks... :) ) bwern(a)jax.jaxnet.com bwern(a)pathtech.com bwern(a)unf6.cis.unf.edu PGP Key Available by Request! PGP mail gets preferred treatment! Ask for it by name!

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Re: lwall
by UseNet＠news.bull.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

DO NOT PANIC! REMAIN CALM! READ *ALL* OF THIS MESSAGE BEFORE GETTING UPSET! Your Usenet test article was received here at the news gateway machine at Bull Worldwide Information Systems, in Billerica, MA, USA. If you want to suppress this message in the future, include the word "ignore" in the Subject: header of any subsequent articles posted to *.test. You could also post your test articles with a Distribution: header of "local" to prevent them from leaving your local machine, or you could also ask your local newsadmin to create a local *.test group that will not propagate outside of your organization. There are typically 5 possible reasons why you were sent this e-mail message: 1) You intentionally posted a Usenet news article to a *.test newsgroup. These newsgroups exist so you can verify that your articles are being propagated correctly. When your article arrives here, we send you this message as confirmation. We will only send you ONE e-mail reply for each of your test articles that we see. 2) You unintentionally posted a Usenet news article to a *.test newsgroup. This is a bit of net.childishness caused by a Followup-To: header directing all replies into a *.test newsgroup. This is done by somebody upset with the content of a discussion thread who wants to "punish" anybody who replies to his message. Your reply will be sent to *.test instead of the original newsgroup, and you will start receiving autoresponder messages similar to this one that you didn't ask for. To avoid this in the future, look for a Followup-To: header and make sure it's appropriate before replying to any articles. 3) You were a victim of a Reply-To: header directing your e-mail into a *.test newsgroup via a mail->news gateway. Similar to 2) above. 4) Somebody has forged a posting in your name to one of the *.test newsgroups. To avoid this in the future, use better net.etiquette and you will make fewer net.enemies. If you want to try and identify the forger, use the following procedure. Make a legitimate posting to the same *.test newsgroup that the forger used. We will send you an e-mail reply. Compare the Path: header from this legitimate reply with the Path: header from the forgery. The front part of the two headers will be the same or topologically similar path to your site. Where the forged header becomes substantially different can provide clues to where the forger lives. Note that if you receive multiple newsfeeds you may need to repeat this process several times so you can discover all legitimate paths between our site and yours. Once you think you've identified the forger's site, try sending POLITE e-mail to the newsadmin/ sysadmin/postmaster explaining the situation. 5) You issued a cancel control message to a *.test newsgroup. Some users dislike autoresponses for cancel messages, but the newsadmins here think it can be a valuable diagnostic tool for verifying cancel propagation. If you don't like it, use the "delete" key in your mail client! All headers plus at most 10 lines of user text from your original article are reproduced below for your perusal: Path: cass.ma02.bull.com!steamer.clam.com!newsie.dmc.com!grapevine.lcs.mit.edu!uhog.mit.edu!news.mathworks.com!zombie.ncsc.mil!news.duke.edu!godot.cc.duq.edu!hudson.lm.com!news.pop.psu.edu!news.cac.psu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!overload.lbl.gov!emf.emf.net!hilbert.dnai.com!nbn!miwok!news.zeitgeist.net!ack.berkeley.edu!not-for-mail Subject: lwall Message-ID: <PINE4545-dhfsdkjc(a)ack.berkeley.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: ack.berkeley.edu Organization: cypherpunks Lines: 2 From: cypherpunks(a)toad.com Distribution: world Newsgroups: alt.test Date: 6 Feb 1995 19:34:19 GMT test test

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EPIC to Debate Exon on CNN
by Connie Sadler 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Subject: EPIC to Debate Exon on CNN Date: Mon, 13 Feb 1995 15:36:11 PDT A1-type: DOCUMENT Importance: normal >CNN's 6:00 p.m. (EST) news broadcast tonight (2/13) will include a >segment on S. 314, "The Communications Decency Act," introduced by >Sen. James Exon (D-NE). Judy Woodruff will moderate a discussion >of the bill with Sen. Exon and Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic >Privacy Information Center (EPIC). >_________________________________________________________________________ >Subject: EPIC to Debate Exon on CNN >_________________________________________________________________________ >David Banisar (Banisar(a)epic.org) * 202-544-9240 (tel) >Electronic Privacy Information Center * 202-547-5482 (fax) >666 Pennsylvania Ave, SE, Suite 301 * ftp/gopher/wais cpsr.org >Washington, DC 20003 * HTTP://epic.digicash.com/epic For those of us who can't see this, will the text be available anywhere? Connie

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