December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

BIG NEWS: PRZ investigation dropped!
by John Gilmore 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: Stanton McCandlish <mech(a)eff.org> Date: Thu, 11 Jan 1996 11:53:46 -0800 (PST) Justice Dept. dropped investigation of Phil Zimmermann, declines to prosecute. They put out a press rel. about it, already got a journo call regarding this. More when I find it. -- <HTML><A HREF="http://www.eff.org/~mech/"> Stanton McCandlish </A><HR><A HREF="mailto:mech@eff.org"> mech(a)eff.org </A><P><A HREF="http://www.eff.org/"> Electronic Frontier Foundation </A><P> Online Activist </HTML>

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New Ecash Consumer Fee Schedule
by Frank O. Trotter, III 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

----------------------------------------------------------- MARK TWAIN BANK (Member FDIC) ANNOUNCES NEW CONSUMER FEE STRUCTURE FOR ECASH See all the information at: www.marktwain.com or email us at: Ecash-info(a)marktwain.com Mark Twain Bank is rolling back consumer Ecash fees in reaction to the tremendous positive response to Ecash. "Because of the level of interest we have elected to reward users for their acceptance of Ecash," said Frank Trotter, Mark Twain Ecash project director. "Ecash represents the future of money and we want to make it available to all Internet users." Ecash enables you to control your money and your privacy while doing business on the Internet. The Ecash software is available free of charge when you sign up for an account. Once your application has been approved you can download the software directly from the Internet and start using Ecash right away! WORLD CURRENCY ACCESS ACCOUNTS ARE INSURED BY THE FDIC. AMOUNTS HELD IN THE ECASH MINT OF ON YOUR HARD DRIVE ARE NOT INSURED BY THE FIDC. NEW FEES FOR CONSUMERS ----------------------- There is no charge for movement of money within the Ecash system! Once the money is in Ecash you can do as many transactions as you like and it won't cost you anything more! There is only a charge to move money back and forth between your WorldCurrency Access account and the Ecash system (much like an ATM fee). Depending on the Schedule you select, and the balances you keep, there may be no monthly fee for your WorldCurrency Access account or for money movements between your WorldCurrency Access account and the Ecash Mint! That means a no monthly fee account is within your reach! -------------------------------------------------------- Remember that you can also earn interest by maintaining a balance over $2,500 in an interest bearing WorldCurrency Access account. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ SCHEDULE OF CHARGES You choose the option that suits you best: Schedule 1 Schedule 2 Schedule 3 ========================================================== Ecash Account Opening Fee $11.00 $25.00 $25.00 Monthly Fee: 1.00 2.00 5.00 Number of included monthly transfers in to Mint: 1 2 5 (any dollar amount!) Cost of transactions within Ecash system: Zero Zero Zero Average balance in WorldCurrency Access to waive Monthly Fee: $500 $750 $1,500 Cost per additional transfer to Mint: 3.00 2.00 1.00 Move money out of Mint: 5.00% 4.50% 4.00% (percent of balance transferred) Additional transfers to Mint and fees to move money out of Mint apply at all balance levels. ================================================= Explanation of fees: There are several types of fees that are designed to be easy to understand, and low where you want them to be low. 1) Ecash Account Opening fee - this covers the processing involved in setting up an account. 2) Monthly Maintenance Fee - low if you are an infrequent user - higher if you want to reduce your overall cost. The monthly fee covers the scheduled number of transfers to the Ecash system from your WorldCurrency Access Account, and each schedule type receive a different charge for transfers from the Ecash system Back to the WorldCurrency Access account. 3) Additional transfer fee - cost per additional transfer per month to the Ecash system from your WorldCurrency Access account- if you just do one large one per month then you may never need this. 4) Move money out of Mint - when you want to move your money from the Ecash system to your WorldCurrency Access account. To make this cost effective to you there is no minimum charge per transfer charge, only a charge based on a percentage of the balance transferred! 5) Average Balance in WorldCurrency Access to waive Monthly Fee: If you maintain this amount as an average daily balance for the entire interest payment period, the monthly fee will be waived. Additional transfer fees and "Move money out of Mint" fees will continue to apply and can result in a charge. Contact: Mark Twain Bank Frank O. Trotter, III Vice President Capital Markets Group Director International Markets Division ftrotter(a)marktwain.com Phone: +314-997-9213 Fax: +314-569-4906 ===========================================================

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Zimmermann case is dropped.
by Philip Zimmermann 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- My lead defense lawyer, Phil Dubois, received a fax this morning from the Assistant US Attorney in Northern District of California, William Keane. The letter informed us that I "will not be prosecuted in connection with the posting to USENET in June 1991 of the encryption program Pretty Good Privacy. The investigation is closed." This brings to a close a criminal investigation that has spanned the last three years. I'd like to thank all the people who helped us in this case, especially all the donors to my legal defense fund. Apparently, the money was well-spent. And I'd like to thank my very capable defense team: Phil Dubois, Ken Bass, Eben Moglen, Curt Karnow, Tom Nolan, and Bob Corn-Revere. Most of the time they spent on the case was pro-bono. I'd also like to thank Joe Burton, counsel for the co-defendant. There are many others I can thank, but I don't have the presence of mind to list them all here at this moment. The medium of email cannot express how I feel about this turn of events. -Philip Zimmermann 11 Jan 96 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMPDy4WV5hLjHqWbdAQEqYwQAm+o313Cm2ebAsMiPIwmd1WwnkPXEaYe9 pGR5ja8BKSZQi4TAEQOQwQJaghI8QqZFdcctVYLm569I1/8ah0qyJ+4fOfUiAMda Sa2nvJR7pnr6EXrUFe1QoSauCASP/QRYcKgB5vaaOOuxyXnQfdK39AqaKy8lPYbw MfUiYaMREu4= =9CJW -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: Zimmermann case is dropped.
by Censored Girls Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

CLAP!!! CLAP!!! CLAP!!! CLAP!!! At 03:35 AM 1/8/96 -0700, you wrote: >-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > >My lead defense lawyer, Phil Dubois, received a fax this morning from >the Assistant US Attorney in Northern District of California, William >Keane. The letter informed us that I "will not be prosecuted in connection >with the posting to USENET in June 1991 of the encryption program >Pretty Good Privacy. The investigation is closed." > -Philip Zimmermann > 11 Jan 96 > >-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- >Version: 2.6.2 > >iQCVAwUBMPDy4WV5hLjHqWbdAQEqYwQAm+o313Cm2ebAsMiPIwmd1WwnkPXEaYe9 >pGR5ja8BKSZQi4TAEQOQwQJaghI8QqZFdcctVYLm569I1/8ah0qyJ+4fOfUiAMda >Sa2nvJR7pnr6EXrUFe1QoSauCASP/QRYcKgB5vaaOOuxyXnQfdK39AqaKy8lPYbw >MfUiYaMREu4= >=9CJW >-----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > > -- Member Internet Society - Certified BETSI Programmer - Webmistress *********************************************************************** Carol Anne Braddock (cab8) carolann(a)censored.org 206.42.112.96 My Homepage The Cyberdoc *********************************************************************** ------------------ PGP.ZIP Part [017/713] ------------------- M8H,),S$8G>&.WP(8IRA`-M['+`Q%&_C"">5-F%LX@<_Q$;*P'',Q$Z/AA[8M MF=O0H+*%(-S%&>S%+FS&<LS%3(Q&#W1"<]2%`H^;,]^1C$'HBN8PX$4SYAU^ MPGD<Q0ZLA0D+,`MCT!LA**4M[-JPAK9F?40!AJ,CW"'%DR#:'9?Q)3[%<DQ` ------------------------------------------------------------- for next chunk to export --> http://dcs.ex.ac.uk/~aba/export/

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Mitnik and Shimomura
by Mark 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>Shimomura had almost complete packet traces of the break-in, which >allowed him to reconstruct the attack. >It was a trap. It was not a trap. Shimomura was caught with his proverbials down. His arrogance made him complacent and as such he didnt take the most basic steps to keep the attack out. According to Tsutomo's own account of the incident he was only able to decipher what happened because the attacker(s) didnt clean away the info off the hard drive when they were finished. They rm'd sure but he dd'd the raw disk to another drive and worked through the blocks until he found the two tools that were used to effect the intrusion. He was also able to recover the tcpdump logs that were erased. If the intruder(s) had rm'd the data and THEN done a mkfile that filled the disk with 0's then most of what we know today would not be available. As mentioned a week or two back, filling the unused portions of blocks with 0's would probably also be necessary. As to wether Mitnik is capable of effecting the intrusion, that is yet to be ascertained. He claims no involvement in it and based on whats known of his cracking prowess there is a certain truth to it. He's infinitely better with a phone than a keyboard.

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Re:
by andr0id＠midwest.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>[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.] > Am I the only one getting this message several times? (\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/) (http://www.oicu812.com Maybe one of the ) ( cheapest Internet services! ) (andr0id(a)midwest.net callsign: N9XLM) (Finger andr0id(a)oicu812.com for public PGP Key)

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Re: Zimmermann case is dropped.
by Michael C. Peponis 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Good news, but lets not forget that winning the battle isn't winning the war. > > The dropping of the case means that the legality of the ITAR restrictions goes > untested. Had the case not been dropped it would have expired shortly under the > statute of limitations. > > The real issue here is the abuse of the investigative powers of the FBI in > support of their own political agenda Congradulations to Philip, but Phill(boy this is getting confussing) is right. By dropping the case, the goverment avoids a high visiblity case that could change the rules. What happened to Phillip Zimmermann is unexcusable, but others must continue in his footsteps in order to win a decicive victory. Gee, Anybody got a good public-domain Windoz version of PGP? -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2i iQCVAwUBMPUxI0UffSIjnthhAQGkZQP/eTE7ngFyUPE3RqHB3spKmSiqneNw9WBy 5SkR4njN56ylUklkQjkxEtLijucugbsmiwIglBVaVaqwMKMoOjtbxyTrnoJj/8rk YjvGn5Zgn4oD0fTegTKmSk3H2QzdzaHJo+l829KOAsvMOaaazsal3ml2+m5BGWpa kwf11AglmOs= =RPqk -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Regards, Michael Peponis PGP Key Avalible form MIT Key Server,or via finger

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Re: Shimomura on TV?
by Douglas F. Elznic 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:08 PM 1/10/96 -0500, John Young wrote: >Someone just said that NBC's Dateline showed a snippet of >Shimomura on an upcoming show about rampant cyber-crime and >that he was the best hope against it, or something to that >effect. Did anyone see it and get the time and date? > > >Anyone attend the Shimomura-Markoff lecture at Stanford today? > > >Is this the media blitz for their pot-boiler? Can't wait to >slurp it. > > > > > > Has anyone heard anything else about this? I am getting real sick of the media's portrayal of the internet. They never say anything good about it. If they were to mention C2's system they would say how it is a no-rules server to hide thugs and pornos from the police. I am getting sick of watching this trash. The whole realm of the internet and computers and their associated areas are very dear to me I am sick of the media bludgeoning them to death. -- ==================Douglas Elznic=================== delznic(a)storm.net http://www.vcomm.net/~delznic/ (315)682-5489 (315)682-1647 4877 Firethorn Circle Manlius, NY 13104 "Challenge the system, question the rules." =================================================== PGP key available: http://www.vcomm.net/~delznic/pgpkey.asc PGP Fingerprint: 68 6F 89 F6 F0 58 AE 22 14 8A 31 2A E5 5C FD A5 ===================================================

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Shimomura on BPF, NSA, Crypto
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Shimomura on BPF, NSA and Crypto: One of the tools I modified for my work was a sophisticated piece of software called the Berkeley Packet Filter. ... Unlike the original BPF, my version was designed to bury itself inside the operating system of a computer and watch for certain information as it flowed through the computer from the Internet. When a packet from a certain address, or for that matter any other desired piece of information designated by the user flashed by, BPF would grab it and place it in a file where it could be kept for later viewing. I had developed my initial version of the faster BPF in the expectation that I would receive additional research funding for the work from the National Security Agency. The Agency had begun supporting my work under a Los Alamos National Labs research grant in 1991, and had promised to extend their support for my work, but the funding was never forthcoming. I developed the tool, but after I completed the work, in early 1994, the bureaucrats in the agency reneged on funding. The idea of working with the NSA is controversial in the community of security professionals and civil libertarians, many of whom regard the NSA as a high-tech castle of darkness. Libertarian by inclination or by the influence of their colleagues, the nation's best computer hackers tend to possess a remarkable sensitivity to even the slightest hint of a civil liberties violation. They view with deep distrust the work of the National Security Agency, which has the twin missions of electronic spying around the globe and protecting the government's computer data. This distrust extends to anyone who works with the agency. Am I contaminated because I accepted research funding from the NSA? The situation reminds me of the scene in the movie Dr. Strangelove where General Jack D. Ripper is obsessed by the idea of his bodily fluids being contaminated. I think the idea of guilt by association is absurd. My view is very different. First of all, I don't believe in classified research and so I don't do it. The work I was undertaking on packet-filtering tools was supposed to be funded by the agency for public release. The tools were to be made widely available to everyone, to use against the bad guys who were already using similar tools to invade people's privacy and compromise the security of machines on the Internet. But even more to the point, I believe that the agency, rather than inherently evil, is essentially inept. Many people are frightened of the NSA, not realizing that it is like any other bureaucracy, with all of a bureaucracy's attendant failings. Because the NSA staff lives in a classified world, the government's normal system of checks and balances doesn't apply. But that doesn't mean that their technology outpaces the open computer world; it just means they're out of touch and ponderous. In any case, I feel strongly that tools like BPF are absolutely essential if the Internet is to have real security, and if we are to have the ability to trace vandals through the Net. If people are concerned that individual privacy is at stake, they should probably worry less about who should have the right to monitor the networks, and instead focus their efforts on making cryptographic software widely available. If information is encrypted it doesn't matter who sees it if they can't read the code. Cryptography is another example of my point that a tool is just a tool. It was, after all, used primarily by kings, generals, and spies until only two decades ago. Then work done by scientists at Stanford, MIT, and UCLA, coupled with the advent of the inexpensive personal computer, made encryption software available to anyone. As a result, the balance of power is dramatically shifting away from the NSA back toward the individual, and toward protecting our civil liberties. ["Takedown," pp. 102-04]

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Toad Sex
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The oldest and most trustworthy way to crack crypto -- and a cryptologist -- is sex, regularly employed by royalty and traitors, tyrants and anarchists, governments and bandits, warfighters and jealous lovers, spouses and businesses, and whatever other position/opposition pleasures and betrays. If you have a security system that does not protect against it you're really fucked. Just who is doing what to who in "Takedown" constitutes its shameless Hollywoodian prurience, as it was in Littman, Clancy, Vinge, Tolstoy, the Bible, the Koran, the Kama Sutra, any indecent Exon-prohibition of your dreams. Shimomura, Markoff, Mitnick -- are the games of seductive illusion they're playing so different from vaunted cryptography of the ever-randy, coy/decoy Net? Has nobody ever blurted their password in the throes of passionate words? Imagine Toad Hall and what was up in the hot tub.

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