December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

book idea: info terrorism/espionage etc.
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

hey, I understand a sequel to Puzzle Palace by Bamford and someone else is due to be published soon. is this correct? when is the due date? has anyone heard about this? I've been seeing a lot of early lead articles from other reporters, such as a GNN article awhile ago, and an assertion that the NSA is working with the GCHQ to monitor American citizens. I was just thinking what an interesting book this could be. if it doesn't cover the ideas of "information terrorism" that are hinted in e.g. Strassman's remailer paper, it seems this is a vacuum that could be filled with a very significant/interesting tome by someone. I hope Levy's cryptography book covers some of these areas too. I would like to just see one entire chapter dedicated to the way the spooks seem to be doing a "bait and switch" now that the cold war is over, with economic espionage and all that. easily an entire book could be dedicated to this subject. I've seen a lot of editorials on reforming the spook apparatus, and it seems now is the prime moment for some very influential books to come out to influence future policy ideas.

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Re: FW: Communications Decency Act (hee-hee)
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

WARNING: If you are under 18, do not read or download this message! Please delete this message NOW and do not either archive it or pass it on. You have been warned, and I can take no further responsibility for your actions. It has become necessary under the Communications Decency Act to make this warning. Regrettably, my political views and financial condition make me a potential target for prosecutors seeking to "set an example" as well as to collect the $500,000 penalties for proving a violation of the CDA. Hence my caution. Furthermore, quoted material may also contain putatively indecent material, as the CDA makes much of ordinary speech a felony if communicated by means of computer, so censorship of certain words and ideas may be necessary. At 2:54 AM 3/4/96, blanc wrote: >Scott Adams, the author of Dilbert, contributes this to the debate: >>From now on, whenever I get the urge to use an offensive word in e-mail I >will substitute the name of an offensive politician. I urge you to do >the same. > >The beauty of this approach is that they can't easily ban these new >naughty words without changing their own names. I know I could get in >trouble for suggesting such a thing, but I don't give a [exonized] >what they think. And if they don't like it they can come over here and >[exonized]. This is of course an old idea. Regrettably, the CDA is not based on a simple bright line test invovling the "Seven [exonized] Words," immortalized in the FCC--Carlin--Pacifica case. Rather, "indecent" is broadly interpreted to mean essentially whatever a prosecutor can convince a panel of bluenosed citizens is indecent. In particular, the examples Blanc includes, which I have exonized to protect myself from having to pay up to $500,000 in fines (and wouldn't you guess that they'd love to make an example out of me...and collect from me!), are still likely to be considered "indecent," as the allusions about what Gingrich can do are still clear. Welcome to the Fourth Reich. --Alan Smithee, for obvious reasons Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Re: Netcom and Credit Cards
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

"If someone's hacked our systems, we'd certainly like to know about it, although it's very doubtful; more likely, this just someone trying to make you nervous" - Netcom admin, 2600, Summer 1994 "Recent reports indicate that Netcom's credit file, stored online and containing information on all their customers, has been compromised" - 2600 Magazine, Autumn 1994 Netcom claim Mitnick broke in during xmas 94, when the reality is that every half decent hacker had already been there. Netcom are an INTERNET PROVIDER!!! You would expect them to know a thing or two about security. But then again, even security samurais have problems setting up firewalls :-)

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Re: Truelly Random Numbers
by electro 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 06:16 PM 3/3/96 -0500, you wrote: >-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > >Mark Allyn 206-860-9454 wrote: >[..] >> Take a piece of non conducting board, say about six by six >> feet. Put electrodes on it; say a pair of electrodes every >> quarter inch or so across and down. >> >> Each pair of electrodes would be connected to logic so that >> it generates a unique number. When the electrodes are shorted, >> the number would be generated. > >Quite elaborate. And unless you live in a rainy part of the world, not >very useful. > >Better off using those contraptions where little steel balls fall around >the electrodes. There's some entropy there... but still, it's too >elaborate for RNG generation. >- --- Well how about putting a 'noise meter' in place of the 'rain sensor' and then just hang it out the window or any place that has some noise.

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RE: FW: Communications Decency Act (hee-hee)
by blanc 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: Timothy C. May This is of course an old idea. Regrettably, the CDA is not based on a simple bright line test invovling the "Seven [exonized] Words," immortalized in the FCC--Carlin--Pacifica case. Rather, "indecent" is broadly interpreted to mean essentially whatever a prosecutor can convince a panel of bluenosed citizens is indecent. .................................................................... Well, if you were prosecuted, you could always explain what it means to kiss your "Gingrich" by pointing to any part of your body you choose. Of course they would be indicating, by their accusations, that they know enough about indecency to become suspicious over the resemblance.... (such sensitive people) .. Blanc

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Re: NYT on Crypto Bills
by mike＠fionn.lbl.gov 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Mar 4, 3:09pm, Adam Shostack wrote: > Markoff shouyld know better than this. There is a long > history of business use of codes & ciphers, going back hundereds of > years, and durring the heyday of the telegraph, there were fair size > companies that created codebooks with (locally configurable) > superencipherment systems for the market. I thought that, for the most part, the telegraph systems described above were to reduce cable charges (1 code word instead of a 15-word sentence, a huge savings in those days). Maybe it's the use to which the encoding's put that's controversial, not the (idea of) encoding itself.

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[BABBLE] Like a Rolling Stone
by Robert A. Hayden 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- I just got off the phone with a writer from Rolling Stone magazine. They are going to be doing an article about the Geek Code. Isn't that just groovy? Maybe they'll let me be on the cover and I can do one of those Howard Stern nude things..... -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: PGP Signed with PineSign 2.2 iQCVAwUBMTuPhjokqlyVGmCFAQGzoAQAqdHYz6tMEPlu/4n/nsrYO/eIz96K/ZSJ 44Gzehrtrlw0zg6rpdWab7BzbCapjqJEgnupRsGRVzlQ449LYLVZ2KIHwMfK5zFe 0hS57USj1ShQyqeNv6K2qGmH38n5/U6oAgnpXo8LPBWgkN9zxBI04hiBtoeQrnak UCfeg31EmWU= =Vq8N -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ____ Robert A. Hayden <=> hayden(a)krypton.mankato.msus.edu \ /__ Finger for Geek Code Info <=> Finger for PGP Public Key \/ / -=-=-=-=-=- -=-=-=-=-=- \/ http://krypton.mankato.msus.edu/~hayden/Welcome.html -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version: 3.1 GED/J d-- s:++>: a-- C++(++++)$ ULUO++ P+>+++ L++ !E---- W+(---) N+++ o+ K+++ w+(---) O- M+$>++ V-- PS++(+++)>$ PE++(+)>$ Y++ PGP++ t- 5+++ X++ R+++>$ tv+ b+ DI+++ D+++ G+++++>$ e++$>++++ h r-- y+** ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

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Re: Bombings, Surveillance, and Free Societies
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 1:28 AM 3/5/96, Phillip M. Hallam-Baker wrote: >Timothy C. May wrote: > >>The Red Brigade in Italy sought a fascist crackdown, and >> the "strategy of tension" is common. (And even revolutionists of crypto >> anarchist persuasion often think laws like the CDA are good in the long >> run, by undermining respect for authority and triggering more extreme >> reactions....) > >It is important to note in this regard that the worst bombing in Italy was >the Bologna station bombing, now decisively linked to right wing facist >groups the involvment in which of ex-prime minister Adreotti is shortly to >be examined in a criminal trial. The point being that the extreemists play >into each others hands. Yes, it is hard to know even which side is pulling the strings. The WW2 Italian fascist commando leader, Otto Skorzeny, not only rescued Mussolini from a ski chalet, he also helped set up the PLO in the 1960s, and consulted for the OSS, CIA, and such. (There is much more to say about this, and about the role of the early NSA in such affairs. However, continuing down this path will produce the inevitable perrygrams from the acerbic Mr. Metzger demanding "What does this have to [whatever my current interest is]?")) >> -- expect the various laws about "talking about explosives on the Net" to >> be used to clamp down on various fringe groups > >Hang on here, some of those groups are actively conspiring to commit >terrorist acts. If someone sends a message saying "lets plant a bomb >under a federal building, that will show them" I'm not worried if the >govt. decides to arrest a few people. There is a border between free >speech and conspiracy to murder which some people have crossed. I don't buy this. I said "talking about explosives on the Net," not openly conspiring to plant bombs in federal buildings. A big difference. (Not that I am aware of the OKC bombers discussing their plans on the Usenet.) >> I predict that it will take about 5 more major bombings in European and >> American cities to trigger substantive changes in laws. > >Generally it takes two. The legislation is written after the first and >then staled until being passed on the second. I am sandbagging by saying "5." I wasn't referring to 5 in, say, the U.S., but to 5 or so "horrific" bombs in Western countries, plus Israel. A second Oklahoma City-type bombing may be enough, a Sarin attack that kills 1,000 will almost surely be enough. (In the bigger scheme of things, the 150-200 or so who died in OKC are a drop in the bucket, and I wouldn't advocate _any_ new surveillance laws for them...putting a day care center in a soft target demonstrates the callousness of the Feds.) >> Personally, while I feel sorry for the dead in Israel, I think anyone who >> moves to a small desert state surrounded on all sides by Arabs who want >> their land back is asking for trouble. > >A point to consider is that there are many Isralis born in Israel who have no >other home. These people did not ask to be born in the middle of a desert >state. As with the Irish problem it is easy to solve if one could change >the past. The fundamental problem being that the wrong side won at Hastings. Let me use the language Bill Stewart used a while back, language which skirts the issue of "right" and "wrong" even more neatly than I did (when I said the Jews were "asking for trouble"): "If a religious group uses force to expel the current occupants of a desert region, and expels them to just beyond their borders, it is "unsurprising" that those expelled, and their children, and their children's children, will swear a blood oath to drive the group into the sea." Put another way, I will not be "surprised" to wake up one morning and hear on CNN that Tel Aviv has been vaporized in a nuclear explosion. Nor will I be surprised to similarly learn that Damascus has been vaporized, and so on. Being an atheist, I treat all religious mystics as suspect. When a bunch of people leave London and Chicago and Paris to live in the desert, surrounded by sworn enemies with nuclear capabilities, I think whatever happens to them is...."unsurprising." I hope this makes my outlook clearer. (And Cypherpunks should fully understand that information-trading systems and unbreakably encryption--the very technologies we so ardently are pushing--make certain actions even less "surprising" than might otherwise be the case. Think of it as evolution in action.) --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Teach the children well...
by Simon Spero 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I got the latest copy of the latest ComputerWare catalog (they're a big mac dealer). Up front, in there list of new releases was something that looked fun; --- Top Secret Decoder (CD-ROM) Ages 8-12 Mysterious, marvelous, mind-stretching software for kids who love creating and cracking secret codes. Kids'll sharpen their critical-thinking skills and earn top-otc secret agent credentials. Includes 300 code-cracking challenges, spectacular printing, plus 10 difficulty levels. $39.99 Houghton Mifflin Interactive ----- There is no truth to the rumours that they are POTP or IPG licencees. If you beat level 10, an animated Jim Bizdos comes out and does a little dance Take a copy along when you do your visit for NetDay Simon --- They say in online country So which side are you on boys There is no middle way Which side are you on You'll either be a Usenet man Which side are you on boys Or a thug for the CDA Which side are you on? National Union of Computer Operatives; Hackers, local 37 APL-CPIO

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Re: Duress
by Black Unicorn 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Sun, 3 Mar 1996, Bill Frantz wrote: > >Of course, all smart air piracy buffs know the transponder code is 7600, > >and refuse to allow the pilots to use it. > > It changes from time to time. Of course subscribing to an IFR chart > service will keep you up-to-date with the changes. You should forward this to the list. > > Regards - Bill > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Bill Frantz | The CDA means | Periwinkle -- Computer Consulting > (408)356-8506 | lost jobs and | 16345 Englewood Ave. > frantz(a)netcom.com | dead teenagers | Los Gatos, CA 95032, USA > > > --- My prefered and soon to be permanent e-mail address: unicorn(a)schloss.li "In fact, had Bancroft not existed, potestas scientiae in usu est Franklin might have had to invent him." in nihilum nil posse reverti 00B9289C28DC0E55 E16D5378B81E1C96 - Finger for Current Key Information

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