December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

The ecash protocol (for real)
by Ian Goldberg 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Well, they did it. Probably quite a few people are sending something to this effect to CP right now, and we're crossing paths. Check out http://www.digicash.com/ecash/protpublish.html. Analysis is forthcoming (I'll probably have something useful to say by the December Bay Area meeting...). - Ian

1 0

Attribution: GAK, Netscape, CyberDog, and you.
by rah＠shipwright.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- In the heat of the moment, I failed to attribute something to someone who you all should know about: Tim May, one of the founders of cypherpunks, and the person who used a greatly expanded form of this argument yesterday on that list. While I'm not a journalist, I did violate the rules of "News 101", and did not attribute the source of this excellent argument. Heavy lifting, indeed. Of course, that's nothing new. I don't believe I've ever had an original thought in my life... ;-). Cheers, Bob Hettinga P.S. Sorry, Rich, but I just had to do this one... >Netscape's Jim Clark has quite a tightrope act going. He has a stock price which gives Netscape a P/E ratio of something like 7,000 (the S&P average right now is about 14), which means he really ought to get some revenue in the door, or his investors are going to have his hide. The next thing is, the government is a *really* big customer, and *they* want GAK, in case you haven't noticed. ;-). Couple this with the fact that Netscape is pretty much replicable by concentrated developer effort because its underlying technology is an open standard, *and* the fact that any significant attempt by them to create any real proprietary standards on the internet is practically impossible in the long run, unless they get a whole lot of very big customers in a hurry. > >Now, it looks like that's what happened already, because a lot of very large companies have signed on to using Netscape servers, but you can also see how really weak Netscape's position is when Uncle Sam knocks on their door and asks for a key escrow "bug" in every "secure" Netscape web session. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBML92Q/gyLN8bw6ZVAQF1KQQAkqsgQJ/u9123iqLzYuduTbz6uQJtUuSQ q5DQY/3mwGMqwoXHgWnKkx3gsT0kAZwYWIUTaKB81S7GNsgrTtqabhAy+WlemACT 7bw1TbxRL80GKXSiSfeb1BdCyUyi/yfFO6zB3m8wWB4632Bpo5RqQEd1+jCHmDgw JHo6plE8oQ0= =/Kd2 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA (617) 958-3971 "Reality is not optional." --Thomas Sowell The NEW(!) e$ Home Page: http://thumper.vmeng.com/pub/rah/ >>>>Phree Phil: Email: zldf(a)clark.net http://www.netresponse.com/zldf <<<<<

1 0

Re: GAK, Netscape, CyberDog, and you.
by rah＠shipwright.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 12:45 PM 12/1/95, Rich Salz wrote: >And my god, >five lists this time, at least some of which have over a thousand readers? Ouch! Actually, semper.fi has many times that many readers... ;-). Rich, you must be the *only* person, (besides myself), who's subscribed to *all* of those lists. I think if you check it out, that post was germaine to every single one of the lists in question. However, I'm sorry to bury you in a snowstorm. Getting 6 copies of the same thing must have pissed you off, and for that, I apologise. Cheers, Bob Hettinga ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA (617) 958-3971 "Reality is not optional." --Thomas Sowell The NEW(!) e$ Home Page: http://thumper.vmeng.com/pub/rah/ >>>>Phree Phil: Email: zldf(a)clark.net http://www.netresponse.com/zldf <<<<<

1 0

Aware's radiation detector
by s1113645＠tesla.cc.uottawa.ca 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

This month's Scientific American has an ad by Aware for that serial port radiation detector we were discussing a while back. Upper right corner of page 109, I think. Sells for $149 US, 45 day money back guaranty.

2 1

Draft agenda for 12/5 Key Escrow Workshop
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

To: Key Escrow Distribution List From: Ed Roback, NIST Subject: Tent. Agenda for 12/5 Meeting Following for your information is the tentative agenda for the meeting next Tuesday. Attachment --------------------- D R A F T Proposed 64-bit Software Key Escrow Encryption Export Criteria Meeting Red Auditorium National Institute of Standards and Technology December 5, 1995 9:00 Welcome Ed Roback, NIST 9:10 Perspectives, Objectives of Criteria, and Future Plans Michael Nelson, Co-Chairman Interagency Working Group on Encryption and Telecommunications (IWG/ET) 9:30 Exportability Criteria Discussion Clint Brooks National Security Agency 10:45 Break 11:00 Draft Key Escrow Agent Characteristics Geoff Greiveldinger U.S. Department of Justice 12:00 Lunch (on your own, NIST cafeteria available) 1:00 Industry Perspectives Bill Sweet & Ken Mendelson, TIS Dorothy Denning, Georgetown University Melanie Janin, U.S. Council for International Business Ed Scheidt, Tecsec Jerry Berman & Daniel Weitzner, Center for Democracy and Technology Paul Lambert, Oracle David Sobol, Electronic Privacy Information Center Padgett Petersen, Lockheed-Martin Robert Holleyman, Business Software Alliance Alex McIntosh, PC Security Limited (UK) Doug Miller, Software Publishers Association (time permitting:) Randy Sabett, Spyrus Shabir Safdar, Voters Telecommunications Watch Viktor Hampel, Hampel Consulting 2:30 Break 2:45 Cont. (as necessary) 3:45 Wrapup & Adjourn Ed Appel, Co-Chairman, IWG/ET ***************************************************** Elaine Frye Computer Security Division National Institute of Standards and Technology Bldg. 820, M.S. Room 426 Gaithersburg, MD 20899-0001 Voice: 301/975-2819 Fax: 301/948-1233 ***************************************************** [Note that the planned breakout sessions originally appear to have been axed, and the meet has dwindled to a vent for industry reps who've already publicized their positions. Now watch brute key escrow spread covertly for "public security."]

1 0

C'MON N' GIVE 'EM HELL, NET-NERDS!!!!
by lindat＠iquest.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

They asked for it: "To secure Net communications, the government will need to have access to private data exchanges using what is known as a key escrow security system," -Netscape Communications chairman Jim Clark, arguing for a security system called key escrow that would require you to give the government access to your private messages. Source: STAMPER'S NEWS NUGGETS (1) SPAM THE SIGN Netscape has a webpage at www.netscape.com. There is a "toys" area and any message you leave in that area goes to an ELECTRONIC MARQUEE SIGN at Netscape that all the employees can see. SPAM THAT SIGN. (2) SPAM NETSCAPE Here's where the EMAIL BLITZ should go (extra points for creativity): info(a)netscape.com General information admgr(a)netscape.com Netscape site advertising sales x_cbug(a)netscape.com Bug reports from X Window users win_cbug(a)netscape.com Bug reports from Windows users mac_cbug(a)netscape.com Bug reports from Macintosh users hr(a)netscape.com Netscape Human Resources department training(a)netscape.com Netscape Training programs information admgr(a)netscape.com Netscape site advertising sales and Sponsor program information proprietor(a)netscape.com Netscape electronic store feedback editor(a)netscape.com Feedback about Netscape's Net site ssl-talk-request(a)netscape.com E-mail list for Secure Sockets Layer protocol discussion standards(a)netscape.com Questions about Netscape's open-standards activities nswinapi-talk-request(a)netscape.com E-mail list for users of the Windows Netscape Server API CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS ------------------------------------------------------------- NETSCAPE COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION 501 E. Middlefield Rd. Mountain View, CA 94043 415/528-2555 Product and sales information (7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. PST) 415/254-1900 Executive offices 415/528-4124 Fax http://www.netscape.com ATLANTA Netscape Communications Corporation 1850 Parkway Pl. Suite 420 Marietta, GA 30067 CHICAGO Netscape Communications Corporation 2159 N. Seminary Chicago, IL 60614 DALLAS Netscape Communications Corporation 17304 North Preston Road Suite 800 Dallas, Texas 75252 NEW YORK Netscape Communications Corporation 599 Lexington Ave. Suite 2300 New York, NY 10022 NORTHWEST Netscape Communications Corporation 501 Middlefield Rd. Mountain View, CA 94043 SOUTHWEST Netscape Communications Corporation 111 N. Sepulveda Blvd. Manhattan Beach, CA 90266 WASHINGTON, D.C. Netscape Communications Corporation 6701 Democracy Blvd. Suite 300 Bethesda, MD 20817 THANKS AND A HAT TIP TO HELEN AT E.PLURIBUS FOR GETTING ALL THE ADDRESSES!!!!!!!! Kind regards, *********************** V ************************* DEATH TO THE NEW WORLD ORDER **************************************************** Linda Thompson American Justice Federation Home of AEN News & news videos, "Waco, the Big Lie," "America Under Siege" 3850 S. Emerson Ave. Indianapolis, IN 46203 Telephone: (317) 780-5200 Fax: (317) 780-5209 Internet: lindat(a)iquest.net ************************************************** Remember Waco. The Murderers are still free. *************************************************** The Army is going to courtmartial Spc. Michael New for not wearing a U.N. uniform, but the Army won't courtmartial the members of the 160th and 158th Special Operations, 82nd Airborne, Ft. Hood Cav Members, and 10thMountain Division members who helped MURDER CHILDREN at Waco. What's wrong with this picture?

2 1

Cyberspace Inc & Robber Baron Age
by James M. Cobb 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Friend, 11 29 95 Computer underground Digest carries the complete text of Rick Moore's article, Cyberspace Inc and the Robber Baron Age, an analysis of PFF's "Magna Carta" scheduled to appear in the print journal, The Information Soci- ety. Here's a sample: Instead of an infrastructure for public communications -- like the current Internet, or the American highway system -- cyber- space would be developed as a corporate owned monopoly -- priced at whatever the traffic will bear. Instead of providing a "space" in which citizens are free to speak and associate (like Internet), cyberspace would become a profit-machine and propaganda channel for media conglomerates. PFF's manifesto is a formula for neo-feudalism in the "Know- ledge Age" -- it is a charter for what could aptly be dubbed "Cyberspace Inc". The most recent issues of CuD can be obtained from http://www.soci.niu.edu/~cudigest Cordially, Jim

1 0

Too much crossposting! Choose your community and stop crossposting.
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Note: I'm not subscribed to any of the lists here except the Cypherpunks list, which I've of course been on for several years, since the start in '92. I try to avoid cross-posting to multiple lists, and almost never to lists I am not a subscriber to. (Cypherpunks gets enough spams from well-meaning folks and groups who simply must have their announcements blasted out to all the lists they think are important.) In this case, I am leaving all of the cc: lists on this message, which is a meta-message. (Hopefully some of the lists block messages from non-subscribers, which will mean those readers won't see this.) At 9:30 PM 12/1/95, Robert Hettinga wrote: >At 12:45 PM 12/1/95, Rich Salz wrote: >>And my god, >>five lists this time, at least some of which have over a thousand readers? > >Ouch! Actually, semper.fi has many times that many readers... ;-). > >Rich, you must be the *only* person, (besides myself), who's subscribed to >*all* of those lists. I think if you check it out, that post was germaine >to every single one of the lists in question. > >However, I'm sorry to bury you in a snowstorm. Getting 6 copies of the same >thing must have pissed you off, and for that, I apologise. Bob Hettinga often has some good things to say (though his journalist-style prose can get a bit purple at times, but that's just his style). However, a lot of folks have good things to say at times, and clearly these good things cannot be bounced around to all the lists which might contain readers of these good things. Mailing lists simply cannot survive if these kinds of cross-posts to four, five, or even six different lists continue. Filters are nice, though I don't relish putting Bob H. into a kill-file. People pick the mailing lists, the communities, they wish to participate in. This means they are electing not to read the traffic of other lists. C'est la vie. Even worse, massive cross-posting often produces follow-ups--such as mine here--which are "out of synch" with the themes of the particular lists. Thus, on the Cypherpunks list we sometimes get cross-posts which argue why privacy is or is not a good thing. Perhaps a reasonable thing to argue, but not on Cypherpunks. I'm sure the other lists here have had similar experiences. I urge everyone to practice some restraint. --Tim May, who has a hard enough time reading the traffic on Cypherpunks and Cyberia-l (legal issues in cyberspace) without gettting traffic on CyberHound, WWW-BUYNOW, etc. Views here are not the views of my Internet Service Provider or Government. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- 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."

1 0

Re: Aware's radiation detector
by rah＠shipwright.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>> This month's Scientific American has an ad by Aware for that serial port >> radiation detector we were discussing a while back. Upper right corner >> of page 109, I think. Sells for $149 US, 45 day money back guaranty. > >This wouldn't be the wavelet company in Cambridge, MA, would it? This reminds me at mobile world this week, some of the wearables guys at Steve Roberts' BEHEMOUTH booth showed me a $20 alpha and beta detector half the size of a matchbook. Said something about it being Russian surplus... Cheers, Bob ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA (617) 958-3971 "Reality is not optional." --Thomas Sowell The NEW(!) e$ Home Page: http://thumper.vmeng.com/pub/rah/ >>>>Phree Phil: Email: zldf(a)clark.net http://www.netresponse.com/zldf <<<<<

1 0

A "Warning Banner" for Netscape Navigator? Good idea!
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:16 PM 12/1/95, Brian Davis wrote: >And thus we return to my original point, which is that it will depend on >what is said/disclosed. If every copy of GAKscape had a banner, bigger >than the Netscape "N" which said, "The government can read every message >you send using this software no matter what you do" then I think >consumers will be hard pressed to say they weren't warned. I agree with this. In fact, I think it's an excellent argument for providing this in Netscape. Seriously. A version of Netscape with such warning banners (exact wording to be determined, but probably mentioning limited key lengths, GAK, etc.) would be a Good Thing. And if Netscape Communications will not release their products in such a way, some alternatives may exist. Maybe: 1. A patch that adds this, analogous to the patches that alter the Netscape logo. 2. An entirely patched new version. Good idea, Brian! One patch I'd pay money to have is one which intercept the "commercials" Netscape blasts out at us and replace them with something else (maybe nothing, maybe a "quote for the day," maybe something from a user-selectable file of items). I understand that Netscape is collecting money for these "commercials," and that they control what is sent out. So, any such patch to intercept/remove these commercials would have to be done locally. Can this be done? --Tim May Views here are not the views of my Internet Service Provider or Government. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- 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