December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: Collection of personal info
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 8:39 PM 9/6/95, David Neal wrote: >From the huge number of people in the database, it would seem that TRW >is now marketing a subset of their credit records they keep on everyone. >Does anyone else remember the flap over Lotus' product (Magellan) that >was going to allow something similar? > >The risks? This is the perfect database if you want to red-line your offerings. >I'm sure others will have more creative answers. About the Lotus Marketplace product of several years ago, many of us thought at the time that the furor was misdirected, and the result ultimately damaging to privacy concerns. Why? Because the ZIP code data is _already_ available to the mass marketers, etc. The Marketplace produce merely made it available to "the rest of us," allowing many people to have their eyes opened about what exists. By getting Lotus to pull the product, the public went back to sleep, lulled into the false sense of privacy that their ZIP codes were once against private. Privacy needs to be protected by keeping some things secret, not by passing laws limiting the records others can collect from public or voluntarily offered information. Don't get me wrong--I don't like TRW Credit, Equifax, TransUnion, or anyone else compiling "dossiers" on my spending habits, my travel itineraries, etc. But by using my VISA and MasterCard cards, and by agreeing to their terms and conditions, I am tacitly accepting that credit reporting agencies will have access to my transactions. If there is a "market for privacy," and this is something we've talked about before, then someone will offer "The Privacy Card." We can debate what this card might offer, randing from complete unlinkability (ecash protocols of various sorts) to non-reporting of records to the Big Three of credit reporting agencies. Even cards issued in the name of pseudonyms, of various sorts and backings. Should there be laws _against_ this kind of Privacy Card, we should fight these laws. But we should not lull ourselves into a false sense of security by adopting the unconstitutional and anti-liberty approach of having "Fair Credit Reporting Act" and "Data Privacy Act" sorts of laws. In my opinion, of course. --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."

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Re: Welfare / Norplant
by Peter Trei 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Tim May writes: > At 5:33 AM -0700 8/25/97, Peter Trei wrote: > >Several years ago I came up with a little variation on the > >Welfare Mother problem which I thought was a lot more > >palatable. > >Offer a 'birthday present' program, under which *any* > >female over the age of 11 who has not yet had a child or become > >pregnant, on her birthday, gets a cash award. The award should > >be high enough to encourage participation; $250 seems about > >right. A woman who can deliberatly turn down a $250 lump sum > >every year for the rest of her life is almost certainly able > >to afford to raise a child. > Possibly more palatable to the majority not already on welfare, but hardly > an incentive to a single mother contemplating the increase in her > AFDC/WIC/etc. benefits should she add to her brood. You are not thinking this through. Under this scheme, every welfare mother would march her girls down to the clinic and get them Norplanted as soon as she could. Those girls would not be able to further add to the welfare rolls until they reach legal age, and could have the contraceptive removed without their mother's permission. By then they'd have developed a habit of contraception, which would likely continue. [...] > But given the obvious flaws in Peter's plan, he probably has a future as a > bureaucrat in Washington. :-) Tim: Your keyboard is on, but the processor socket is empty.... > --Tim May Peter Trei

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Re: PGP5i supports RSA keys?
by John Smith 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>TWOK! Au contraire, mon ami... > >Eric Drexler estimates that with nanotech, it should be possible >to create a 1 GHz processer that fits in 1/8 of a cubic micron. >It would take 1E24 such processors to factor a 2048 bit number. >If we wanted to factor that 2048 bit key in 1E6 seconds, a couple >of weeks, we would need 1E18 processors, which would fit in a cube >100,000 microns on a side. This is 10 cm on a side, about the >volume of a soccer ball. A far cry from the whole earth, no? GURK! I meant that it would take 1E24 seconds for one such processor to factor a 2048 bit number. The rest is right. Use an 8K bit key and it will be 1E30 times harder than a 2K key. Now your soccer ball is comfortably bigger than the earth. You will have to convert the sun into a CPU to break it with nanotech. "John ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

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Re: lack of evolution (So What!)
by Peter Trei 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

One factor which everyone seems to be overlooking in this thread is the future impact of biotechnology. Sure, evolution by natural selection has largely halted for the human race - we were, on average, probably at our fittest about 10,000 years ago, before the introduction of agriculture. However, artificial evolution will soon take over. There are two main forms - purely biological evolution through genetic engineering, and a continued evolution in our collaboration with devices. We are on the verge of achieving the first. We may soon be able to eliminate many genetically related diseases and conditions. While Rifkin and other Luddites rail against the unnaturalness of it all, they will fail. There are too many cases where GE is an unquestionable good. If parents had the option of the following traits in their children, how many would refuse? * Perfect teeth - natural immunity to caries. * Immunity to cancer. * Immunity to AIDS (about 1% of the current population is naturally immune) * Ditto many other diseases, genetic and infectious. All the above may be available in the next 20 years. (The anti-AIDS gene maybe in 10 - it looks like an easy one). In the longer run, almost anything that can be imagined may be possible, including physical immortality and increased intelligence. Secondly, we've evolved as a tool-using species for a million years, and our technology is as much a part of our inheritance as are our genes. Where will it take us no one knows, but the future will be richer and stranger than we can imagine. Our machines will help re-make what it is to be 'human'. This includes all devices - cyborg or external, nano or macro, sentient or dumb. So I'm not too worried that the cull rate due to sabre-tooth tigers has dropped off, nor even that the irresponsible are no longer starving to death, which Tim would seem to want. Our technology can and will overcome these little problems. 'Not in vain the future beckons, Forward, forward let us range. Let the great world spin forever Down the ringing grooves of Change.' - Tennyson Peter Trei trei(a)process.com

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Re: BXA Meet in Portland OR
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Lee Tien wrote: >We discussed the IEEPA issues to some extent in our briefs in Bernstein as >well, in case anyone cares. The gov't also discussed them, opposing our >position. I don't keep track of which briefs are on the EFF website, but I >assume they're both up now. I'd like to applaud all those who've been working on this legal hack for years now, keeping flatfeet to fire. For mind-opening, hard-headed reading, in addition to Froomkin and Bernstein, see the briefs on Karn and Junger, see Gilmore's files, study all the crypto sites which show the depth of research that has often had to be ripped out of the government'g tight paws still fiercely resisting loss of control over "the national interest." Tim's "crazy man" threat, artfully delineated in his CA Manifesto and Cyphernomicon, who might just do what "rational minds" won't, is also to be admired for reminding the insiders that not everyone abides the rules of the court when they are not wisely applied for this time and these newly divergent, even anarchic, interests. Read Tim for inspiration when the briefs numb, then go back and study the briefs some more, and you'll see that they don't read the same, there's more fire there than appears at first glance, then return to Tim and see that, well, god damn, so that's what he's saying and we've not been really hearing. Shit, he's crazier, the briefs are crazier, the government's crazier than rational minds can bear to believe. When you can't take them any more, read Duncan Frissell, and freak with terrible understanding that the world you've long thought solid and, forever around to complain about and blame, may be crumbling, that we're going to be wholly on our own to fight the monsters. Beware, though, you may suddenly want the gov to endure. Too late, the angry power-infected lab rats are loose, AP bent.

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Re: gephardt slams crypto
by harka＠nycmetro.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- -=> Quoting In:vznuri@netcom.com to Harka <=- In> ------- Forwarded Message In> Date: Sat, 23 Aug 1997 00:57:05 -0700 In> From: "J. Orlin Grabbe" <kalliste(a)aci.net> In> Subject: [Fwd: Encryption is vital to the Net BY RICHARD A. GEPHARDT] In> Key recovery won't work unless the many countries that produce In> encryption adopt it. Otherwise criminals could still obtain In> encryption from non-complying countries. But countries like In> Germany have refused to support key recovery. That is not true. While the german government may object to US-escrowed software, they have no problem with GERMAN escrowed-software. There are currently several proposals on the "regulation" of cryptography in Germany, which are (suprisingly) similar to US-plans, i.e. TTP's, key-escrow, and even the possibility of outlawing "non-government-approved" cryptography. Ciao Harka ... "Use a Cipher - Be Free!" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQEVAgUBNAHejDltEBIEF0MBAQHjpgf/QBy++2Dw7+8wOGKBHFygd6MTz1YQy+Wm rRDiIUQTr1io+RkPcGOebujAluykJc+lovc0vWlzlN1Rn/Hto6zujIWwEMwCsMgm Yu3NoNtr5n+XmVVDevyGRa0uVoITQkhr0GmHQZXHj6UqQMIoyOx+o81coHubaSWG qSLRPW+11EKgm4q3XDc8bCDqCSQgHCIp+QFSIK4hKvEdcXVwxwbPGSO1EFFx3nRa X7Ix+2S5acVlhRguFRciz9i2C93wWmm3Smwk6SL3D+IRe1edtlGsoj4RUAH22WKM PeVPIScmdopHd6CZZj/0Z6uvzllI36XNcVyESl19JP5o6+fKrL/1JQ== =SNNn -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- If encryption is outlawed, only outlaws will have encryption...

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Re: BXA Meet in Portland OR
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

John Young wrote to Alan Olsen: > >>I am going to try very hard to be there. It claims that statements will >>be taken on the EAR. Anyone want to help write a statement to be read to >>the commitee? > >An excellent start would be Adam Shostack's questioning of the >legal authority for the feds to restrict publishing. See his Tom Paine >taunt in Peter Wayner's NYT report yesterday, and as posted here. > >Declaring yourself to be a cpunk, well, can you get a hearing at a >hearing of closed EARs any better way? There's a small mountain of info available on the EAR, Wassenaar, and the unfolding crypto regs, providing anyone wants to consult it. Michael Foomkin has reviewed the legal gounds for continuing the "national emergency" undergirding the repeatedly extended period for not legislating up-to-date export regulations. To put off the fight to pass a new law, every August, as done a few days ago (http://jya.com/eo081997.txt) the presiding president issues an executive order under the International Emergency Economic Power Act (IEEPA) extending the national emergency initially declared during what appeared to be a genuine national threat decades ago. It is these series of orders that legalize the EARs, and a lot more, so I read, beyond our decryption of the state/mil/com multi-level DMS. See Michael's site for more on IEEPA and much more A-1 crypto-legal stuff at: http://www.law.miami.edu/~froomkin/froomkin.html We've documented some of the more recent EAR shenanigans on our site at: http://jya.com/eartoc.htm Similarly, background and foreground on the status of BXA implementation of the Wassenaar Arrangement, to be discussed at the Portland meet, is available on Greg Broiles site at: http://www.parrhesia.com And at our site at: http://jya.com/wa/watoc.htm BXA has written me that the bureau expects to issue regulations implementing Wassenaar "this summer," international-oriented regs which will cover the full spectrum of dual-use and militarily critical technologies.The current draft CCL regs circulating for domestic applications seems to part of an orchestrated campaign to address all export issues -- domestic and international -- at once, using one to leverage the other. Something similar appears to be taking place worldwide. See Bert-Jaap Koop's ever-changing survey of world crypto law at: http://cwis.kub.nl/~frw/people/koops/jenc8bjk.htm Even so, it'll be hard to wade through all this e-paper pile before the meet, and probably would not be effective anyway, for the meet's sponsors know all that and couldn't give a shit. A heavy-metal instrument is needed to turn their attention away from impenetrable legal and military and NDA-commercial protection. Now we turn the target-finder over to Mr. Tim May and those anonymees worldwide who wish to ... lock and load, wait, not guns, even more powerful munitions to penetrate through thick skulls who are convinced they're the smartest bastards on earth with the biggest CPUs run by tiniest algos to prove it.

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Re: Mathematics > NSA + GCHQ
by Lucky Green 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:41 AM 8/25/97 -6, Peter Trei wrote: >Interestingly, many of the European workers looked on the monetary >award with disdain - they participated 'to show Internet user >solidarity', and other such reasons. Also, many were using university >owned machines, and were legally constrained from accepting money >earned from their use. I am sure the university will make an exception to the rule once a $1M check for the regents arrives. The Internet idealists are your base for any distributed crack. But the cracks that come next are too complex to be performed by just your base. As in an election, you have to reach beyond your base to win. The students can show their solidarity. It will require tempting cash offers before large scale distributed cracks can suck cycles from the millions of computers in other environments. --Lucky Green <shamrock(a)netcom.com> PGP encrypted mail preferred. DES is dead! Please join in breaking RC5-56. http://rc5.distributed.net/

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Bernstein decision
by John Gilmore 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

[There will be many chances to talk to the press today about this. Call them up. Tell them what it means.] Lucky Green said: > The ruling provides an interesting data point, but is inconsequential > to the software industry. Jonathan Wienke said: > The decision seems to be a step in the right > direction, but a VERY small one. However you slice it, getting a Federal judge to declare both crypto export control regimes unconstitutional is a major accomplishment. This court case has done what a decade of lobbying, two decades of citizen activism, and a decade of crypto software entrepreneurship were not able to do. (Though all these things contributed greatly.) It stopped the export-control machinery in its tracks. Last December, the State Department stopped issuing crypto export licenses. Hugh Daniel had applied for one; it came back marked "returned without action". We later found out, by comparing notes with other export applicants, that this was a general policy; they didn't want to risk enforcing an unconstitutional law. They never did resume. A few weeks later, the Commerce Department started issuing "EI" export licenses under new regulations. Now there's no other department to turn to. We haven't found a third law that lets them regulate crypto export or use. And Judge Patel mentioned in her decision that "the government cannot avoid the constitutional deficiencies of its regulations by rotating oversight of them from department to department". Though she decided that they had not deliberately evaded her previous ruling, she's warning them not to try it. The next few weeks should be very interesting. There's a mailing list for announcements in the case, as appeals are filed, final orders come out, any hearings are scheduled, etc. Send mail to <majordomo(a)toad.com> containing the line "subscribe bernstein-announce". These announcements will also automatically go to cypherpunks, but there are people who don't want the volume but do want to get the news. Let them know. Thanks to all the cypherpunks for your ongoing support and participation in the case! John

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DCSB: Elliptic Curve Cryptography and Digital Commerce
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text X-Sender: rah(a)mail.shipwright.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 12:13:49 -0400 To: dcsb(a)ai.mit.edu, dcsb-announce(a)ai.mit.edu From: Robert Hettinga <rah(a)shipwright.com> Subject: DCSB: Elliptic Curve Cryptography and Digital Commerce Sender: bounce-dcsb(a)ai.mit.edu Precedence: bulk Reply-To: Robert Hettinga <rah(a)shipwright.com> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- The Digital Commerce Society of Boston Presents Dr. Christof Paar Cryptography and Data Security Group, Worcester Polytechnic Institute Elliptic Curve Cryptography and Digital Commerce Tuesday, September 2, 1997 12 - 2 PM The Downtown Harvard Club of Boston One Federal Street, Boston, MA Elliptic Curve (EC) public-key cryptosystems have matured from an area of mainly theoretical interest to a highly practical security tool. EC are a general-purpose public-key scheme which can provide tasks such as digital signature, key establishment, and encryption. EC are extremely attractive because the required operand length is dramatically reduced compared to RSA and DSA-type algorithms: The security of an RSA system with 1024 bits corresponds to the security of an EC system with only 160 bits. This can result in considerably faster processing times, e.g., for digital signature verification, and shorter certificates. One application area of special interest are smart cards. This talk will give a brief, non-technical introduction to EC system. Current security estimations relatively to RSA will be provided. We will talk about performance and the adoption of EC systems in standard bodies. Christof Paar leads the Cryptography and Data Security group in the ECE department of Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Dr. Paar's research interests include security issues in wireless and ATM networks, smart cards, efficient implementation of elliptic and hyperelliptic curve public-key algorithms, and hardware implementation of cryptosystems. Dr. Christof Paar received a BSEE degree from the Technical College of Cologne, Germany. He obtained an MSEE degree from the University of Siegen, Germany, and did graduate research at Michigan Technological University. From 1991-1994 he worked as research fellow at the Institute for Experimental Mathematics in Essen, Germany, from where he received a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering. In 1993 and '94 he spent time as a visiting researcher at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. This meeting of the Digital Commerce Society of Boston will be held on Tuesday, September 2, 1997, from 12pm - 2pm at the Downtown Branch of the Harvard Club of Boston, on One Federal Street. The price for lunch is $30.00. This price includes lunch, room rental, various A/V hardware, and the speaker's lunch. ;-). The Harvard Club *does* have dress code: jackets and ties for men (and no sneakers or jeans), and "appropriate business attire" (whatever that means), for women. Fair warning: since we purchase these luncheons in advance, we will be unable to refund the price of your lunch if the Club finds you in violation of the dress code. We will attempt to record this meeting and put it on the web in RealAudio format at some future date We need to receive a company check, or money order, (or, if we *really* know you, a personal check) payable to "The Harvard Club of Boston", by Saturday, August 30, or you won't be on the list for lunch. Checks payable to anyone else but The Harvard Club of Boston will have to be sent back. Checks should be sent to Robert Hettinga, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, Massachusetts, 02131. Again, they *must* be made payable to "The Harvard Club of Boston", in the amount of $30.00. If anyone has questions, or has a problem with these arrangements (We've had to work with glacial A/P departments more than once, for instance), please let us know via e-mail, and we'll see if we can work something out. Upcoming speakers for DCSB are: October Peter Cassidy Military Fiat and Digital Commerce November Carl Ellison Identity and Certification for Electronic Commerce December James O'Toole Internet Coupons January Joseph Reagle "Social Protocols": Meta-data and Negotiation in Digital Commerce We are actively searching for future speakers. If you are in Boston on the first Tuesday of the month, and you would like to make a presentation to the Society, please send e-mail to the DCSB Program Commmittee, care of Robert Hettinga, <mailto: rah(a)shipwright.com> . For more information about the Digital Commerce Society of Boston, send "info dcsb" in the body of a message to <mailto: majordomo(a)ai.mit.edu> . If you want to subscribe to the DCSB e-mail list, send "subscribe dcsb" in the body of a message to <mailto: majordomo(a)ai.mit.edu> . We look forward to seeing you there! Cheers, Robert Hettinga Moderator, The Digital Commerce Society of Boston -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP for Personal Privacy 5.0 Charset: noconv iQEVAwUBNAGu58UCGwxmWcHhAQEnOAf+IpalsvwPN7bLj4/kVWMQ6MkTFlYEsh5N twWf89hiiSVWlalPuWXmlVbu3AkwBc3oIzde3ZKg0ujlwa9Va0TDquPYhm6B4LvB pKqX9AqHortwmxKSBpesXoxGmhetIQLGrgP2nbiSCpr6g6B4OilHrBJJ0dGL1/XN M5Ca+O76cL/bUcdDIeuYASzk+DI2hCaub9Ir+WpXLXEoTqEFm4PrLI9uC9NlgUHs umBiAnOzGvLvUho0/VQQ0MX9QYGc1t72l+DrFkhmnkj9FSpLgOExwF8GkeJJ6S7I MNgayKwqQU/GKgjpG7UZKxNdIWWty98V44yuuelO62hZb2mtO8c7Ag== =eybl -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) Philodox e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/ For help on using this list (especially unsubscribing), send a message to "dcsb-request(a)ai.mit.edu" with one line of text: "help". --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) Philodox e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/

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