December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

SS Obergruppenfuhrer Zimmermann (NOT!)
by mpd＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Anonymous User <nobody(a)c2.org> writes: > "Private communications between neo-Nazis on the network are > effected under a program called "Pretty Good Privacy", > devised by an American neo-Nazi sympathiser." > Robin Gedye (in Bonn) p.23 of "The Sunday Telegraph" > January 21, 1996 Before anyone takes this nonsense too seriously, one should realize that the exhibition of such microscopic views of technology by journalists and politicians is fairly common. Who can forget Caspar Weinburger's stirring speech in front of an illegally exported low-end VAX, explaining that the machine was a sophisticated electronic device for the tracking of missiles and troop movements, now in the hands of America's enemies. Then there was the newspaper article which explained in perfect seriousness that "GIF" was a secret computer code used by child molesters to encode images of their victims. Characterizing PGP as a neo-Nazi tool for private communications written by a sympathizer, while absurd in a larger sense, is hardly sillier than the prior examples. And all such scenarios contain a microscopic grain of truth as seen by someone somewhere with a severe case of tunnel vision. The reporter no doubt reports correctly that some neo-Nazis use PGP to communicate privately. Doubtless PKZ supports the right of all people, including those with diverse political views, to conduct legal private conversations which cannot be overheard by their governments, as do most of the people on this list. I suppose in some obtuse sense this is sympathy. It is highly unlikely that anyone who uses Cypherpunk technology is as ignorant as this reporter. So let's just mail the poor guy a clue and move on. Things like this happen often, and it's not really worth a prolongued debate. -- Mike Duvos $ PGP 2.6 Public Key available $ mpd(a)netcom.com $ via Finger. $

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Re: You want to read MY e-mail?
by Alan Pugh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

=snip= >A bill by Sen. Paul Weissmann, R-Louisville, to make e-mail as privileged as >telephone conversations was killed in a Senate committee. > >A somewhat stronger bill still rests in the House. =snip= >Jim Carpenter, press secretary for Romer, said his office was "looking at all >the issues, all the options." > >Duke said he has always complied with requests for public records, but said the >request for e- mail messages goes too far. > >"I'm disturbed by it," Duke said. > >(John Sanko writes for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver.) > > OK, if _I_ can't read your e-mail Mr. Legislator, why should you >be able to read _mine_? a good question. perhaps _now_ they'll get serious about recognising email as eqivalent to postal mail. this would be an excellent way of pushing this elsewhere. when _their_ ox is gored, they'll scream like stuck pigs. one interesting aspect of this would be whether regular mail is considered a public record under the law as far as legislooters mail goes. if so, then she should get it. amp

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Re: The Collapse of Ideas in a Pop Culture
by Scott Staedeli 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>(If you don't know who Jules Bergmann was, you're a GenXer and > can't be held responsible for your ignorance :-}.) I _am_ a GEnXer, and I worshipped Jules Bergmann as a child. Some of my first memories is pressing my nose up to the tv, watching Saturn V's lifting off. If I ever win the lottery, I'm going to take the Saturn that's lying on it's side at Cape Kennedy, refurbish it, and launch that baby just to watch it go. ;-))) - --scottst(a)ionet.net---------------------Scott Staedeli-- >~<^xXx | "Information is the currency of xX # | democracy." (XXX) # | (XXXXXXX) | DON'T TREAD ON ME| --Thomas Jefferson ========================================================

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Welcome to cypherpunks
by Majordomo＠toad.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-- Welcome to the cypherpunks mailing list! If you ever want to remove yourself from this mailing list, you can send mail to "Majordomo(a)toad.com" with the following command in the body of your email message: unsubscribe cypherpunks Cypherpunks Mailing List <cypher(a)infinity.nus.sg> Here's the general information for the list you've subscribed to, in case you don't already have it: About cypherpunks ----------------- I. Administrivia (please read, boring though it may be) The cypherpunks list is a forum for discussing personal defenses for privacy in the digital domain. It is a high volume mailing list. If you don't know how to do something, like unsubscribe, send mail to majordomo(a)toad.com and the software robot which answers that address will send you back instructions on how to do what you want. If you don't know the majordomo syntax, an empty message to this address will get you a help file, as will a command 'help' in the body. Even with all this automated help, you may still encounter problems. If you get really stuck, please feel free to contact me directly at the address I use for mailing list management: cypherpunks-owner(a)toad.com Please use this address for all mailing list management issues. Hint: if you try to unsubscribe yourself from a different account than you signed up for, it likely won't work. Log back into your old account and try again. If you no longer have access to that account, mail me at the list management address above. Also, please realize that there will be some cypherpunks messages "in transit" to you at the time you unsubscribe. If you get a response that says you are unsubscribed, but the messages keep coming, wait a day and they should stop. For other questions, my list management address is not the best place, since I don't read it every day. To reach me otherwise, send mail to eric(a)remailer.net This address is appropriate for emergencies (and wanting to get off the list is never an emergency), such as the list continuously spewing articles. Please don't send me mail to my regular mailbox asking to be removed; I'll just send you back a form letter. Do not mail to the whole list asking to be removed. It's rude. The -request address is made exactly for this purpose. To post to the whole list, send mail to cypherpunks(a)toad.com If your mail bounces repeatedly, you will be removed from the list. Nothing personal, but I have to look at all the bounce messages. There is no digest version available. There is an announcements list which is moderated and has low volume. Announcements for physical cypherpunks meetings, new software and important developments will be posted there. Mail to cypherpunks-announce-request(a)toad.com if you want to be added or removed to the announce list. All announcements also go out to the full cypherpunks list, so there is no need to subscribe to both. II. About cypherpunks The cypherpunks list is not designed for beginners, although they are welcome. If you are totally new to crypto, please get and read the crypto FAQ referenced below. This document is a good introduction, although not short. Crypto is a subtle field and a good understanding will not come without some study. Please, as a courtesy to all, do some reading to make sure that your question is not already frequently asked. There are other forums to use on the subject of cryptography. The Usenet group sci.crypt deals with technical cryptography; cypherpunks deals with technical details but slants the discussion toward their social implications. The Usenet group talk.politics.crypto, as is says, is for political theorizing, and cypherpunks gets its share of that, but cypherpunks is all pro-crypto; the debates on this list are about how to best get crypto out there. The Usenet group alt.security.pgp is a pgp-specific group, and questions about pgp as such are likely better asked there than here. Ditto for alt.security.ripem. The cypherpunks list has its very own net.loon, a fellow named L. Detweiler. The history is too long for here, but he thinks that cypherpunks are evil incarnate. If you see a densely worded rant featuring characteristic words such as "medusa", "pseudospoofing", "treachery", "poison", or "black lies", it's probably him, no matter what the From: line says. The policy is to ignore these postings. Replies have never, ever, not even once resulted in anything constructive and usually create huge flamewars on the list. Please, please, don't feed the animals. III. Resources. A. The sci.crypt FAQ anonymous ftp to rtfm.mit.edu:pub/usenet-by-group/sci.crypt The cryptography FAQ is good online intro to crypto. Very much worth reading. Last I looked, it was in ten parts. B. cypherpunks ftp site anonymous ftp to ftp.csua.berkeley.edu:pub/cypherpunks This site contains code, information, rants, and other miscellany. There is a glossary there that all new members should download and read. Also recommended for all users are Hal Finney's instructions on how to use the anonymous remailer system; the remailer sources are there for the perl-literate. C. Bruce Schneier's _Applied Cryptography_, published by Wiley This is required reading for any serious technical cypherpunk. An excellent overview of the field, it describes many of the basic algorithms and protocols with their mathematical descriptions. Some of the stuff at the edges of the scope of the book is a little incomplete, so short descriptions in here should lead to library research for the latest papers, or to the list for the current thinking. All in all, a solid and valuable book. It's even got the cypherpunks-request address. IV. Famous last words My preferred email address for list maintenance topics only is hughes(a)toad.com. All other mail, including emergency mail, should go to hughes(a)ah.com, where I read mail much more regularly. Enjoy and deploy. Eric ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cypherpunks assume privacy is a good thing and wish there were more of it. Cypherpunks acknowledge that those who want privacy must create it for themselves and not expect governments, corporations, or other large, faceless organizations to grant them privacy out of beneficence. Cypherpunks know that people have been creating their own privacy for centuries with whispers, envelopes, closed doors, and couriers. Cypherpunks do not seek to prevent other people from speaking about their experiences or their opinions. The most important means to the defense of privacy is encryption. To encrypt is to indicate the desire for privacy. But to encrypt with weak cryptography is to indicate not too much desire for privacy. Cypherpunks hope that all people desiring privacy will learn how best to defend it. Cypherpunks are therefore devoted to cryptography. Cypherpunks wish to learn about it, to teach it, to implement it, and to make more of it. Cypherpunks know that cryptographic protocols make social structures. Cypherpunks know how to attack a system and how to defend it. Cypherpunks know just how hard it is to make good cryptosystems. Cypherpunks love to practice. They love to play with public key cryptography. They love to play with anonymous and pseudonymous mail forwarding and delivery. They love to play with DC-nets. They love to play with secure communications of all kinds. Cypherpunks write code. They know that someone has to write code to defend privacy, and since it's their privacy, they're going to write it. Cypherpunks publish their code so that their fellow cypherpunks may practice and play with it. Cypherpunks realize that security is not built in a day and are patient with incremental progress. Cypherpunks don't care if you don't like the software they write. Cypherpunks know that software can't be destroyed. Cypherpunks know that a widely dispersed system can't be shut down. Cypherpunks will make the networks safe for privacy. [Last updated Mon Feb 21 13:18:25 1994]

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yo subscribe!!
by Garry Bentlin 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

how do I? and can you ? thanks heeeps! reg, garryb

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NY State to restrinct netporn?!
by Deranged Mutant 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

This in today's LI Newsday, p. A6: Crime Time in Albany Bills Reflect now popular get-tough stance by Liam Pleven, Albany Bureau Albany - A bill that would restrict sexually explicit material on the Internet - which the Assembly took little notice of last year - is suddenly headed tothe governor's desk after winning legislative approval yesterday. ... --- "Mutant" Rob <wlkngowl(a)unix.asb.com> Send a blank message with the subject "send pgp-key" (not in quotes) for a copy of my PGP key.

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Re: Blacknet & Lotus Notes
by Herb Sutter 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 19:13 01.18.1996 -0500, Adam Shostack wrote: > So, lets buy the espionage enabling secret key. Its an >obvious target, not just for cypherpunks, but for the KGB, Mossad, >Toshiba, IBM, and anyone else who wants to read their competitors >correspondance. Lets face it, this key will get out there, and be >available to all the big players; lets make it available to everyone! I think people are missing the point... even if we assume the absolute worst case, that the private key is broken and becomes publicly available, international Notes users are no worse off than before. That said, it shouldn't happen soon. One of the things Ray said in his announcement was that the government agreed to both generate and then guard this key with the same diligence with which they guard their most important secrets (he specifically mentioned nuclear missile controls). While it makes for a nice sound bite, I'm comfortable that there's probably also a lot of truth to it. Herb ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Herb Sutter (herbs(a)connobj.com) Connected Object Solutions 2228 Urwin - Suite 102 voice 416-618-0184 http://www.connobj.com/ Oakville ON Canada L6L 2T2 fax 905-847-6019

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Re: Crippled Notes export encryption
by droelke＠rdxsunhost.aud.alcatel.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Herb Sutter wrote: > At 20:32 01.17.1996 -0500, Perry E. Metzger wrote: > > > >Alan Pugh writes: > >> infoMCI (sm) > >> Lotus-Security - Lotus Announces Compromise for Export of Strong > >> Encryption > > > >So, Lotus thinks they can fool people by back-dooring in key escrow, eh? > > > >Time to break out the artillery. > > > >Perry > > Careful... what would YOU have done, with your customers demanding stronger > crypto today and you unable to legally give it to them? > > Again, folks, try to remember that this is NOT key escrow... international > Notes customers are no worse off than before, and a darn sight better off > against everyone besides Uncle Sam. > > Herb Not key escrow - WHAT?!?!? Then, what do you call giving government access to 24 out of 64 bits of the key. This reduces the keyspace to a measly 40 bits. As we have seen - 40 bits is trivial to crack without a multi-billion dollar budget. I think that Lotus did what all corporations do - it thought was best for it's bottom line, and so chose the limited keyspace with key-escrow approach. It is our job (as cypherpunks and US citizens) to show Lotus and the world that this is NOT a good approach. Dan ------------------------------------------------------------------ Dan Oelke Alcatel Network Systems droelke(a)aud.alcatel.com Richardson, TX

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Re: Crippled Notes export encryption
by Rich Salz 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>By the way, I really think Netscape should simply ship Jeff and other >people to the Amsterdam office or wherever else seems reasonable and That won't work -- they gotta hire non-US persons to do the work.

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January 22 Infoworld
by Dwight Brown 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Nicholas Petreley's "Down To the Wire" column is a short take on the insecurity of encryption schemes used by most commercial software. There shouldn't be much new here to cypherpunks (he discusses the vulnerabilities of WordPerfect, Word for Windows, Excel, and Compuserve's CIS.INI, and uses some out of date examples "to protect the integrity of current software": bad move, Nicholas), but it'd make a good introduction for people who aren't familiar with the issues. Petreley also announces that InfoWorld is planning a "network-cracking event", in which they plan to set up various network OS'es, make them as secure as they can, invite "a small number of accomplished hackers" to attack them, and publish the results. He says they're looking for participants... InfoWorld's web site is http://www.infoworld.com. Petreley can be reached at nicholas_petreley(a)infoworld.com. ==Dwight

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