December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: Anonymous stock trades.
by jamesd＠echeque.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 1:15 AM -0400 6/9/96, jamesd(a)echeque.com wrote: >> Brand [the whales] and herd them like open range cattle: The west did not >> need a government to do that, though they did need to hang a few >> folk who favored a different method of open ranging. At 09:02 AM 6/9/96 -0400, Robert Hettinga wrote: > Ah. Transponders. Could blind-sign 'em. Maritime specific-identity > accounting. Trade 'em on the open market. Actual anonymous er, stock, > ownership? Whale-meat futures on the hoof, er, fin? Thanks for this clarification: I fear my post had a lot of people thinking of whalers sitting around a sagebrush campfire heating extremely large irons red hot. Really large irons. Really, really, really large irons. And a really big sagebrush campfire. --------------------------------------------------------------------- | We have the right to defend ourselves | http://www.jim.com/jamesd/ and our property, because of the kind | of animals that we are. True law | James A. Donald derives from this right, not from the | arbitrary power of the state. | jamesd(a)echeque.com

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Re: Report from Germany on "backdoor" net-censorship
by um＠c2.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

[German institutions' cancelling pornography, violence and Nazi propaganda on Usenet will certainly have large international impact. Thus I strongly suggest that you ask <summa(a)eco.de> for an official translation. I cannot guarantee for this rough translation to be correct. -- Ulf] From: summa(a)eco.de ("Harald A. Summa") Press Release, June 5, 1996 Internet Media Counsil presents fist measurements for Voluntary Self-Control [Voluntary Self-Control is the doublespeak term for censorship on pornography, violence, etc. It is, of course, not voluntary. um] The leading Internet Serive Providers, on whose initiave the Internet Medienrat, have deciced to found the Internet Content Task Force (ICTF) for the purposes of Voluntary Self-Control. The ICTF will introduce technical and organizational measurements to put up effective control against contents harmful to minors and national-socialist propaganda material. As a first step, the ICTF occupy itself with the News service, and later with other forms of content transport in the Internet as well. The Internet Content Task Force will supply a news server specificially configured for purposes of self-control at DE-CIX, the national data exchange point of the Internet Service Providers. Proof of origin of critical articles will be processed by the server, archived in a data base observing privacy laws, and stored at a central facility. Furthermore, sample news articles will be suject to detailed legal evaluation. Should this result in suspicion or proof of transportation of illegal contents, the ICTF can launch various steps to work against propagation of these contents. For example, it can arrange for blocking of complete newsgroups or retrospect "Cancel" of articles already transmitted. ICTF can direct possible criminal investigation with help of its data base. Criteria for the ICTF's proceed will be developed, evaluated and continuously updated by the Internet Medienrat. As an independant gremium, the Internet Medienrat tries to achieve a social consensus in the use of online media without government [sic! um] censorship. The formation of the Internet Medienrat, which is currently preparing its working basis, is being pushed ahead by Prof. Goetze, COE of Springer Verlag Heidelberg, and eco Electronic Commerce Forum e.V. It will present its members and organization to the public on September 19, 1996. >From govenment side, the Internet Medienrat is supported by the Federal Ministry of Economy. Min. of Economy Rexroth: "I appreciate the German online industry's initiative to found an Internet Media Counsil as a gremium of Voluntary Self-Control." Background Information on the Internet Content Task Force (ICTF) The problem of protection of minors and of spreading national-socialist ideas in the new media - especially on the Internet - is currently being discussed intensively and controversially. Meanwhile, politics and investigation authorities have begun to proceed against the distribution of illegal contents the the Internet. In the past weeks, the press has been reporting intensively about investigations against large service providers. However, the current legal situation gives few starting points for coordinated proceeding. Lawyers cannot even agree on who can and should be punished for distributing contents relevant to criminal law on the Internet. Depending on standpoint and interests, even noted criminal lawyers hold different views. Some do not consider distribution of pornography and national-socialist writings in electronic form punishable at all, others even want to hold service providers responsible for mere transportation of data. Mediating opionions imply that only the author of the message be punishable. The only strong fact in the complete discussion is that the matter -- as always in difficult dogmatic questions in penal law -- will finally be decided by courts. It is also a fact that the true authors of illegal messages -- especially those with an especially high criminal energy -- can be determined only with great difficulty, so that the threat of punishment insofar is void. The solution to this problem is being complicated by the continuing political discussion and superposed by other question complexes. For example, the states regard new media as an extension of their traditional radio regulation competence. They are trying to ensure future influence by an extensive interpretation of the constitutional regulation of competences and the laws and state treaties based on it. The draft State Treaty on Media Services that applies to the whole field of Internet and online services is one result of these reasonings. To create facts in this field, the state treaty shall be passed soon. Lead by the "Future" Ministry, the federation is also working on legal framework for new information and communication services to comprehensively cover the subject. The Ministry of Interior on its side is concerned with restricting Freedom of Communication with priority. This activity has already resulted in the novel Wiretap Law and the Telecommunication Surveillance Decree. Further laws, especially a ban on crytography, are planned. On the European level, a working group initiated on the last G7 conference, is trying to achive international consesus. Legal clarification, which is strictly needed but with still open result, is faced by fear of censorship and too wide-reaching government interference. Since a long time, the leading German Internet Service Providers have been trying to solve the now openly visible conflict betreen the "Information Police State" and the "Anarchy in the Net" as feared by politics. Thus they have propagated founding a Voluntary Self-Control and initiated the formation of an Internet Medienrat. As a further buiding stone, the Internet Content Task Force (ICTF) is now being put to existence. This shall also work against the impression that the main purpose of the Internet were distributiong extremist and pornographic contents. At least this was the result of numerous -- often badly researched -- reports in the recent weeks. They did neither differenciate between the Internet services (Mail, News, WWW, Chat and others), nor present the relation of doubtlessly useful and the less desired contents. ICTF now turns towards the problem in a much more refined way. There, it first will occupy itself with the currently probably most critcal part of the Internet, the so-called News service. The special problem of the News service is that information can be distributed world-wide, yet anonymously. This is different of at least fundamentally more difficult in other parts of the Internet, so that the volume of critical content in the News is comparably high. The ICTF will register the information availible on the origin of news and store them in a data base as to make it possible to determine who has sent an article or disguised the real author's identity, in retrospect. The data base will be kept observing privavy laws and third parties' protection-deserving interests [the Privacy Law puts limits on databases with "protection-deserving" personal information, um]. To avoid abuse, the data will regularly be exported to hard storage and deposited with an attorney. Furthermore, the existing or newly created newsgroups will be classified, so that groups serving to distribute exclusively or predominantly illegal contents can be excluded from further distribution. Sample investigation of articles and analysis of articles as necessary will also make it possible to limit the transportation of individual articles. Founding the ICTF, the Internet Service Providers accept part of the responsibility in forming a modern information society. It is clear that preventive action on a national level cannot stop illegal action on a global level. Thus, the ICTF is a model for similar initiatives in other countries, and is to be seen as an appeal to politics to make their contribution to solving the problem. Currently, the ICTF is the only perceptible approach to respect the need for "Law and Order" and yet leaves the new medium Internet with the freedom needed for futher prosperation. On the other hand, national legislator's attempts to solve the problem on its own will hardly solve the problem, but put severe damage to the economic site Germany. For one thing is clear in the virtual worlds of communication networks: Borders lose their importance, and location is no longer an issue. There is nothing to prevent an enterprise from moving its online activities to a country with less bureaucrary and legal restrictions. First tendencies for migration are already percepted. The Internet Content Task Force is supported be the following Internet Service Providers: CERFnet GmbH, Heidenrod ECRC GmbH, Muenchen, EUnet Deutschland GmbH, GTN GmbH, Krefeld, ipf.net GmbH, Frankfurt, IS/Thyssen Internet Service GmbH, Hamburg, Point of Presence, Hamburg, nacamar GmbH, Dreieich, NTG-X/link GmbH, Karlsruhe, roka GmbH, Duisburg, seicom GmbH, Pfullingen, spacenet GmbH, Muenchen. Further information can be obtained from: eco Electronic Commerce Forum e. V. c/o Harald A. Summa Schaeferkampstr. 19 44287 Dortmund Tel: +49 (0) 231 44 79 49 Fax: +49 (0) 231 44 81 35 E-Mail: summa(a)eco.de http://www.eco.de/ or attorney at law RA Michael Schneider Dickstr. 35 53773 Hennef / Sieg, Tel: +49 (0) 2242 9270-0 Fax: +49 (0) 2242 9270-99 E-Mail: Michael.Schneider(a)Anwalt.DE http://www.anwalt.de/ +++ eco - Electronic Commerce Forum e. V. c/o Harald A. Summa Schäferkampstr. 19 44287 Dortmund Tel 0231 / 44 79 49 Fax 0231 / 44 81 35 Email info(a)eco.de +++

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[NOISE] "Fascism is corporatism"
by jamesd＠echeque.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 12:44 AM 6/9/96 -0700, Rich Graves wrote: [A whole bunch of totally irrelevant boring distractions, amongst them]: > The Encyclopedia Brittanica says of Mussolini: > > He read widely and voraciously, if not deeply, plunging into the > philosophers and theorists Immanuel Kant and Benedict de Spinoza, Peter > Kropotkin and Friedrich Nietzsche, G.W.F. Hegel, Karl Kautsky, and Georges > Sorel, picking out what appealed to him and discarding the rest, forming no > coherent political philosophy of his own To argue that fascism has no philosophy without mentioning Maurice Barres is nearly as silly as arguing that communism has no philosophy without mentioning Marx. If you delete all reference to Fascist philosophers, you will of course come to the conclusion that fascism has no coherent philosophy. Fascism got its epistemology from Barres, and its economic theory from Sorel. Your argument is analogous to someone who argues that communism had no coherent philosophy by talking about Mao as if he had popped out of nowhere, and failing to mention Marx and Lenin. In my opinion the most coherent fascist philosopher that preceded the fascist rise to power was Maurice Barres. (Of course once fascism was on the rise, you got a bunch more fascist philosophers, most of them way to the left of Barres.) This thread in philosophy has continued to the present day, though it was abruptly renamed after the defeat of Hitler. Barres's arguments are logically and philosophically coherent, and are clearly and unambiguously recognizable as the epistemology, and much of the claptrap and rhetoric of fascism, and as the epistemology, and much of the claptrap and rhetoric of modern PC, and we can trace the philosophical thread connecting modern PC to Barres through known Nazi philosophers who not merely philosophized, but also participated actively in Hitler's regime, and to direct and immediate disciples of those philosophers, such as Derrida. > > Many of my readers will think I am excessively harsh, calling Rich > > Graves a liar rather than a fool, but I hear the above story > > (that fascism is not a coherent ideology or philosophy) primarily from > > those whose interests this story serves, and if they genuinely > > thought this story was true, they would not know that it is in their > > interests to push it. > Huh? In English, please. Perhaps I was elliptical in the above. I will restate: The claim that fascism lacks an economic program and/or a philosophy comes primarily from those whose economic program and/or philosophy bears a marked resemblance to fascism. If they were not aware of this resemblance they would not so vigorously seek to redefine fascism as military dictatorship, racism, etc. This leads me to doubt the basic human honesty of those who push this line, and their concern for human lives. > Anyway, I never suggested that there was no such thing as fascist > philosophy; just that fascism was not rooted in a well-developed ECONOMIC > ideology, Revisionism alert: I just deleted vast chunks of text from your message above where you presented negative evidence that fascism had no philosophy, and I was just thinking that maybe I had overdone it and would get flamed for deleting arguments rather than answering them. > and that Tim's definition of corporatism is incorrect both in the > abstract and in the cases of Italian fascism and Nazism. Revisionism alert: Tim gave a perfectly correct definition of corporatism, and you then proceeded to give a very similar definition, and you then proceeded to smear Tim by falsely implying that he gave a silly ignorant definition, radically different to the one he did in fact give. You also have carefully avoided mentioning Sorel, who of course advocated roughly the economic problem that Mussolini attempted to implement, that Hitler did implement, and that Timothy May condemned, long before Mussolini got of the ground. Sure sounds like an economic ideology to me. > > Not only do such concepts as feminist science, phallocentric science, > > etc, strongly resemble such concepts as aryan science, jewish science, > > etc, but they are justified using the same arguments from the same > > philosophers. Indeed Heidegger was not only a philosopher of fascism, > > but he personally participated in Hitler's terror, terrorizing his academic > > colleagues, and Paul De Man of Yale University worked directly for the > > Nazis as a propagandist in occupied Belgium. > Here James demonstrates his absolute mastery of the subject. > > Heidegger only really supported Nazism from 1933-34; in the 40's and > thereafter, he referred to Nazism as a disease. Yeah, right, And the only fifty thousand jews were murdered. :-) Historical Revisionism alert: The above is wildly implausible: You do not call Nazism a disease in Nazi Germany and live to tell of it, let alone call Nazism a disease and get appointed to the important and well paid job of terrorizing your academic colleagues. The above is also infamously false: As rector, Heidegger denounced those of his colleagues he wished murdered as jews, including his own teacher, and he organized paramilitary camps for his students, spouting martial rhetoric about the "inner truth and greatness of National Socialism," see citation below. > He is remembered as an > existentialist, not a Nazi, Historical Revisionism alert: See http://www.inlink.com/~dhchase/heidig.htm for how he is REALLY remembered. Heidegger himself claimed at the time, his political activities grew out of his philosophy, and this claim seems to me to be very obviously true. Indeed what he claimed then is equivalent to what I have been telling you in public and private email: That your ideas lead to people being murdered by the state, and therefore you should consider them more carefully. > though he did join the party when he became the > rector of Freiburg. Historical revisionism alert: His most infamous work was his laudatory speech on Hitler given when he was appointed rector of Freiburg. In addition he never disowned his works on the "jewish problem". As rector he imposed Nazism on his colleagues by the usual means. > The fact that Paul de Man, in his early years in Nazi-occupied Belgium, > wrote antisemitic propaganda for a number of local collaborationist journals > was not discovered until four years after his death (by Ortwin de Graef). The fact that Paul de Man's philosophy had a very strong resemblance to fascist philosophy was discovered considerably earlier. The fact that he also wrote the kinds of racist propaganda that are no longer politically correct was merely the icing on the cake. > By the way, I voted for Bush, and no matter how many times you contradict > me, I know I don't support the government's actions at Ruby Ridge. Revisionism alert (or perhaps in this case merely a reinterpretation alert): In previous mail you claimed it was not a government action, it was just a few FBI guys running amuck entirely on their own initiative. --------------------------------------------------------------------- | We have the right to defend ourselves | http://www.jim.com/jamesd/ and our property, because of the kind | of animals that we are. True law | James A. Donald derives from this right, not from the | arbitrary power of the state. | jamesd(a)echeque.com

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List of reliable remailers
by Raph Levien 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I operate a remailer pinging service which collects detailed information about remailer features and reliability. To use it, just finger remailer-list(a)kiwi.cs.berkeley.edu There is also a Web version of the same information, plus lots of interesting links to remailer-related resources, at: http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~raph/remailer-list.html This information is used by premail, a remailer chaining and PGP encrypting client for outgoing mail. For more information, see: http://www.c2.org/~raph/premail.html For the PGP public keys of the remailers, finger pgpkeys(a)kiwi.cs.berkeley.edu This is the current info: REMAILER LIST This is an automatically generated listing of remailers. The first part of the listing shows the remailers along with configuration options and special features for each of the remailers. The second part shows the 12-day history, and average latency and uptime for each remailer. You can also get this list by fingering remailer-list(a)kiwi.cs.berkeley.edu. $remailer{"extropia"} = "<remail(a)miron.vip.best.com> cpunk pgp special"; $remailer{"portal"} = "<hfinney(a)shell.portal.com> cpunk pgp hash"; $remailer{"alumni"} = "<hal(a)alumni.caltech.edu> cpunk pgp hash"; $remailer{"c2"} = "<remail(a)c2.org> eric pgp hash reord"; $remailer{"penet"} = "<anon(a)anon.penet.fi> penet post"; $remailer{"flame"} = "<remailer(a)flame.alias.net> cpunk mix pgp. hash latent cut post reord"; $remailer{"mix"} = "<mixmaster(a)remail.obscura.com> cpunk mix pgp hash latent cut ek ksub reord ?"; $remailer{"replay"} = "<remailer(a)replay.com> cpunk mix pgp hash latent cut post ek"; $remailer{"ecafe"} = "<cpunk(a)remail.ecafe.org> cpunk mix"; $remailer{"amnesia"} = "<amnesia(a)chardos.connix.com> cpunk mix pgp hash latent cut ksub"; $remailer{'alpha'} = '<alias(a)alpha.c2.org> alpha pgp'; $remailer{'nymrod'} = '<nymrod(a)nym.jpunix.com> alpha pgp'; $remailer{"lead"} = "<mix(a)zifi.genetics.utah.edu> cpunk pgp hash latent cut ek"; $remailer{"treehole"} = "<remailer(a)mockingbird.alias.net> cpunk pgp hash latent cut ek"; $remailer{"exon"} = "<remailer(a)remailer.nl.com> cpunk pgp hash latent cut ek"; $remailer{"vegas"} = "<remailer(a)vegas.gateway.com> cpunk pgp hash latent cut"; $remailer{"haystack"} = "<haystack(a)holy.cow.net> cpunk mix pgp hash latent cut ek"; $remailer{"ncognito"} = "<ncognito(a)rigel.cyberpass.net> mix cpunk pgp hash latent"; catalyst(a)netcom.com is _not_ a remailer. lmccarth(a)ducie.cs.umass.edu is _not_ a remailer. usura(a)replay.com is _not_ a remailer. Groups of remailers sharing a machine or operator: (c2 alpha) (flame replay) (alumni portal) Use "premail -getkeys pgpkeys(a)kiwi.cs.berkeley.edu" to get PGP keys for the remailers. Fingering this address works too. Note: The remailer list now includes information for the alpha nymserver. Last update: Mon 10 Jun 96 6:48:03 PDT remailer email address history latency uptime ----------------------------------------------------------------------- replay remailer(a)replay.com *+*********+ 5:38 99.97% nymrod nymrod(a)nym.jpunix.com +**# 7:18 99.95% flame remailer(a)flame.alias.net ---+++++++++ 1:07:16 99.94% alumni hal(a)alumni.caltech.edu -##-*###### 8:52 99.92% mix mixmaster(a)remail.obscura.com +++-_.-.-+++ 9:01:40 99.88% treehole remailer(a)mockingbird.alias.net -.-_.--+-+++ 6:53:46 99.87% alpha alias(a)alpha.c2.org ++**++-++*** 43:27 99.82% ecafe cpunk(a)remail.ecafe.org ##*#**#*##.- 2:32:01 99.82% c2 remail(a)c2.org ++++----++-+ 50:04 99.80% amnesia amnesia(a)chardos.connix.com ----------- 3:25:22 99.74% vegas remailer(a)vegas.gateway.com -***+**-** * 12:10 99.57% portal hfinney(a)shell.portal.com # ##-####*## 9:04 99.37% lead mix(a)zifi.genetics.utah.edu ++++ +++-+++ 57:39 96.99% ncognito ncognito(a)rigel.cyberpass.net -. 5:56:16 96.90% exon remailer(a)remailer.nl.com * *+****** * 5:53 96.70% haystack haystack(a)holy.cow.net +# ##*#*#* + 9:32 96.44% penet anon(a)anon.penet.fi __----- 39:12:37 88.74% extropia remail(a)miron.vip.best.com -----.---- 7:07:20 83.80% History key * # response in less than 5 minutes. * * response in less than 1 hour. * + response in less than 4 hours. * - response in less than 24 hours. * . response in more than 1 day. * _ response came back too late (more than 2 days). cpunk A major class of remailers. Supports Request-Remailing-To: field. eric A variant of the cpunk style. Uses Anon-Send-To: instead. penet The third class of remailers (at least for right now). Uses X-Anon-To: in the header. pgp Remailer supports encryption with PGP. A period after the keyword means that the short name, rather than the full email address, should be used as the encryption key ID. hash Supports ## pasting, so anything can be put into the headers of outgoing messages. ksub Remailer always kills subject header, even in non-pgp mode. nsub Remailer always preserves subject header, even in pgp mode. latent Supports Matt Ghio's Latent-Time: option. cut Supports Matt Ghio's Cutmarks: option. post Post to Usenet using Post-To: or Anon-Post-To: header. ek Encrypt responses in reply blocks using Encrypt-Key: header. special Accepts only pgp encrypted messages. mix Can accept messages in Mixmaster format. reord Attempts to foil traffic analysis by reordering messages. Note: I'm relying on the word of the remailer operator here, and haven't verified the reord info myself. mon Remailer has been known to monitor contents of private email. filter Remailer has been known to filter messages based on content. If not listed in conjunction with mon, then only messages destined for public forums are subject to filtering. Raph Levien

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Re: Anti-Scientologists
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Anonymous wrote: > > >1. There's a gang of flamers (David Gerard, Jon Noring, Ron Newman, Rob J. > >Nauta, and the like) who try to stop $cientologists from discussing their > >religion on the Usenet newsgroup alt.religion.scientology. Most of them are > >disgruntled former cult members and/or members of other similar cults. > > Untruth #1. Aside from the "religion" red herring you tossed in (it's a cult), the critics expose the lies, doubletalk and inconsistencies posted by cult apolo Truth #1: It is a religion Truth #2: It is no longer a cult, since the leader is dead.

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No Subject
by winn＠Infowar.Com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Class III InfoWar Part 2 Report from Europe FEEL FREE TO DISTRIBUTE WIDELY I am ostensibly on vacation with my wife and two children ages 11 & 5 : Here we are in Venice, Italy but I can't ignore what seems to be going on in England. American media does not appear to be following it. So here 's what is happening. Headline of June 9, 1996 Sunday Times in London reads: "Secret Inquiry into Cyber Terror." This is a follow-up of last Sundays story about alleged extortion attacks against British financial institutions using Trojan Horses and /or HERF Guns. According to today's article, the British government is holding secret investigations into the "attacks" for more than two years involving the Dept. of Trade and Industry (DTI), government communications headquarters (GCHQ), the Brits NSA, The Defence Research Agency (DRA), and the Bank of England. On June 8, the DTI issued a public statement which included : "We are very interested in the allegations of extortion directed at City of London institutions which were brought to our attention in 1994. We responded then by involving many government organizations ... so far we have not been presented with any hard evidence from victims. We would urge those threatened to come forward." DTI Director of Technical Affairs, David Hendon wrote a letter in May 1995 saying they took the extortion issue "Extremely seriously." The Times' reporter's say they have seen some of the evidence that was submitted to DTI and GCHQ which includes a chart on 46 of the attacks. According to the article DRA Senior Director, Professor David Parks, his agency is " especially interested in the "weaponry" deployed by the cyber terrorists." The Tmes continued : "The agency (DRA) believes high intensity radio frequency "HIRF" guns may have been used to black out trading positions in City finance houses. The weapon disables a computer by firing elctromagnetic radiation at it and is a "Black Programme" at the Defence Ministry, one of the highest security classification levels." In Dec. Of 1995, the DRA and Parks approached a company who specializes in information warfare and asked them to "arrange a demonstration of a portable HIRF weapon in Germany." The article further states that details on the HIRF systems and their use in the City of London have been compiled by a British computer magazine and are being passed onto government officials. ***** I have spoken to more than fifty media in the last week about this story: The comments range from "suspicious" of the British reports, "sounds psy -fi", "alarming", "scary" and the like. Even though I am on vacation (Ha!) I called a few of my expert friends for a sanity check and here is what we have to say. * The alleged software attacks mentioned in last weeks article are more likely the weapon than HERF/HIRF attacks that todays' article focuses on. * "Given the kind of systems they use and their connectivity, I can figure a hundred ways to do what the article say" one of my experts stated. * As for the HERF/HIRF we have worked out a number of models for a number for the attacks scenarios mentioned, but we have a targeting problem. A free-space (air) based attacked would create a wide dispersion pattern and likely have effected other organizations not just those specifically under attack. * A ground plane attack might cause the alleged results but requires more physical access to the facility. A few thoughts of the potential motivations: * Were the alleged attacks meant as a malicious Denial of Service (DNS) attack or as a profit scheme? * Were trading volumes and the stock prices of the alleged victims effected during the times in question? * Was internal profit taking an ulterior motive ? * I have to keep in mind if we give these stories credence, that over 50% of computer crimes involve insiders. According to my British friends, the Sunday Times is preparing even more on this story which will appear next Sunday - when I will be in London to get it back to you within minutes. So, the kids are fine. "Thanks for asking." My life is almost relaxed, and we are now headed into the Alps for a leisurely 8 hr drive and will spend the night at the Jungfrau. "Damn, it's raining. It will have to be beer and sauerkraut." In the meantime, contact betty(a)infowar.com at Interpact for comments and interviews. Back at your later! Winn Schwartau Peace Winn Winn Schwartau - Interpact, Inc. Information Warfare and InfoSec V: 813.393.6600 / F: 813.393.6361 Winn(a)InfoWar.Com

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TST on Cyber Terror Inquiry
by jya＠pipeline.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The article Winn Schwartau cited today and a related column: ---------- The Sunday Times (London), June 9, 1996, p. 1/8 Secret DTI inquiry into cyber terror [Insight Column] The government has been holding a secret investigation into attacks by "cyber terrorists" on the City of London for more than two years. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Bank of England, GCHQ, the secret listening station, and the Defence Research Agency (DRA) are involved in the inquiry. The existence of the investigation, which began in April 1994, emerged after The Sunday Times revealed last week that banks, broking firms and investment houses had paid millions of pounds to gangs that threaten to wipe out computer systems. Correspondence from the investigating authorities, seen by Insight, include letters from civil servants saying they are "extremely concerned" at the evidence of extortion demands. Yesterday the DTI issued a statement confirming the inquiry and suggesting its work had been hampered by the lack of co-operation from City institutions. "We are very interested in the allegations of extortion directed at City of London institutions which were brought to our attention in 1994. We responded then by involving many government organisations, including the DTI, the police, the Bank of England and other agencies. So far, we have not been presented with any hard evidence from victims. We would urge those threatened to come forward," a spokesman said. In one letter, dated May 1995, David Hendon, director of DTI technical affairs, wrote to a company specialising in computer security work stating that he was taking the City extortion issue "extremely seriously". Insight has since seen the evidence passed to the DTI and GCHQ which sparked the investigation. In 1994, a consultant working for a company which undertakes computer risk assessments for City institutions compiled a table of 46 attacks on banks and finance houses in New York, London and other centres, starting in January 1993. The list included details of raids on three British banks and one American investment house. The documents suggested that operations in the futures markets had been a focus for some of the attacks. Documents sent by the DRA, from the office of Professor David Parks, a senior director, indicate that the agency is especially interested in the "weaponry" deployed by the cyber terrorists. The agency believes high-intensity radio frequency (HIRF) guns may have been used to black out trading positions in City finance houses. The weapon disables a computer by firing electromagnetic radiation at it and is a "black programme" at the defence ministry, one of the highest security classification levels. Last December, Parks approached a company which specialises in defensive measures against information warfare and carries out work for GCHQ. For a L30,000 fee it was asked to arrange a demonstration of a portable HIRF weapon in Germany. Details of the HIRF weaponry and its use in the City have also been compiled by Computing magazine, which intends to pass them to the DTI and other authorities. [End] ---------- [Related column, p. 2/4] Held to ransom by superhighway-men Private Account [Column] By Jeff Randall Forget Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the world's financial institutions have a new type of bank robber to deal with -- the cyber terrorist. Before you start thinking it sounds like science fiction, consider this: the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) this weekend confirmed there is an official investigation into "raids" by gangs of computer experts who threaten to wipe out electronic information and trading systems, unless they are paid off. The DTI spoke out after last weekend's scoop by the Sunday Times' Insight team revealing that some of London's best- known institutions have paid huge ransoms to "electronic highwaymen" to prevent the meltdown of computer networks. These revelations have sent a shiver up the spines of the City's top banks. Financiers are terrified the emergence of a gaping hole in their systems will cause a loss of investor and customer confidence -- and rightly so. Can you imagine calling your stockbroker to buy a few thousand ICI shares, only to be told its entire information bank had been blown away by a Dick Turpin with a PhD in electronic engineering? If, like me, you know nothing about computer technology, and care even less, the temptation is to dismiss the problem as the creation of Arthur C Clarke. But the DTI has acknowledged for the first time that an investigation into these "attacks" has been under way for two years. The Bank of England and GCHQ, the government's secret listening station, are working alongside the DTI in the inquiry. Agencies in Britain and America believe there have been more than 40 raids on investment firms in New York, London and other European financial centres since 1993. Victims are understood to have paid up to L13m a time after blackmailers showed their ability to bring electronic trading in shares, bonds and commodities to a halt. Futures-market systems have been a favoured target of the space-age bandits. In some cases, the blackmailers have used technology developed by military scientists. But here is the paradox: the DTI has been hampered by the reluctance of City firms involved to co-operate. Extortionists have so frightened the investment houses, they fear reprisals if they are discovered helping official agencies track down the gangs. There is also concern that an admission of the threats would diminish confidence in the banking system and create a loss of face for the victims. A banker told Insight: "You will never get a financial institution to admit it has an extortion policy, let alone that it has paid money." That begs the question: who in London has paid up? Insight has been told of at least four blue-chip firms caving in to extortionists. For the time being, we have agreed to keep certain information confidential to preserve the integrity of the institutions while the agencies investigate. But the names will eventually surface, and then there will be some serious explaining to do. [End]

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Re: Anti-Scientologists
by jamesd＠echeque.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 07:13 PM 6/9/96 +0200, Anonymous wrote: >Truth #1: It is a religion >Truth #2: It is no longer a cult, since the leader is dead. Truth number 3: It charges fifty thousand dollars or so for secrets of "religous technology" that are available free of charge on the internet. --------------------------------------------------------------------- | We have the right to defend ourselves | http://www.jim.com/jamesd/ and our property, because of the kind | of animals that we are. True law | James A. Donald derives from this right, not from the | arbitrary power of the state. | jamesd(a)echeque.com

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Re: Report from Germany on "backdoor" net-censorship
by Duncan Frissell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>Criteria for the ICTF's proceed will be developed, evaluated and >continuously updated by the Internet Medienrat. As an independant >gremium, the Internet Medienrat tries to achieve a social consensus >in the use of online media without government [sic! um] censorship. Is that any relation to the Judenrat that ran the inside of the Ghettos and Concentrated Camps during the late unpleasantness in Deutschland? DCF

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Re: Anonymous computer contractors
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 01:24 PM 6/9/96 -0500, Igor Chudov @ home wrote: >Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM wrote: >[we were discussing jimbell's assassination clearinghouse - Igor] > >> > Maybe your hint really makes sense and after initial depopulation the >> > citizens will use different, more considerate, ways of dealing with each >> > other. >> >> I think it would take very few 'depopulation' incidents to improve manners. >> Humans, like rats, are very good at learning from others' mistakes. > >Alright, but since quite a few people have quite a few present enemies, >the depopulation may be severe enough. I disagree. While each of us may arguably have a number of enemies, if our lists were compared I think most of those enemies can be located in a relatively tiny group of people, most of whom exercise government authority. Eliminate them, and a relatively small number of criminals, and it'll be a rather safe and pleasant society. > The only hope is that the assassin market will become tight. I think that the _need_ will drop long before the supply of potential assassins will. Resignations will occur, and criminals will straighten up quickly. Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

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