December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

SAC_ard
by jya＠pipeline.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

August ScaAm has longish article on smart-cards by Carol Fancher, a Motorola engineer and developer of the smart- card market. ----- http://jya.com/sacard.txt (26 kb) Lynx: http://pwp.usa.pipeline.com/~jya/sacard.txt Via www.anonymizer.com SAC_ard

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Re: Stop the presses -- Anti-terrorism bill not that bad
by JonWienk＠ix.netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Fri, 02 Aug 1996, jim bell <jimbell(a)pacifier.com> wrote: >At 07:48 PM 8/2/96 -0500, Declan McCullagh wrote: >> and black and smokeless powder taggants. > >Such materials will be easy to defeat. Find an indoor shooting range, >vacuum up the powder residue that falls in front of the shooting stalls, >and you'll have a concentrated mixture of literally hundreds of types of >taggants. Add to bomb. Laughing, at this point, is optional. > >Jim Bell >jimbell(a)pacifier.com In addition to powder residue, collect all the spent shell casings you can, especially ones that are of the same caliber as weapons you own. In addition to the possibility of reloading them (and saving a bundle on ammo costs) you can sprinkle them around liberally in the aftermath of an encounter (assuming you survive) and give the crime scene people a bunch of red herrings to deal with. Of course, you should never touch them, (the FBI got DNA samples from stamps the Unabomber licked on his mailbombs, so even tiny droplets of sweat can bust you) and you should collect the actual brass fired and sandblast it. Incidentally, one of the interesting traits of a shotgun is that buckshot is not subject to the ballistics matching techniques used on rifle and pistol bullets. The plastic wads (which prevent the shot from touching the barrel) do not take the microscopically detailed impressions from the barrel that copper or lead bullets do. The heat from firing always melts the plastic slightly--enough to defeat this. Of course, if you leave the fired shells lying around, the primer and ejector marks can bite you... > FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE > > MICRON COMMUNICATIONS, INC., ANNOUNCES AGREEMENT WITH THE FEDERAL > AVIATION ADMINISTRATION > > Boise, Idaho, August 2, 1996 - Micron Communications, Inc., today > announced a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRDA) > with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to develop a model > Positive Passenger Baggage Matching (PPBM) system. The objective > of this PPBM system is to automatically recognize when baggage has > been placed on an aircraft without an associated passenger. Of course, this means that every time they lose your luggage, you will be detained for "suspected terrorist activity", and the plane your luggage was wrongly sent to will be evacuated while the bomb squad takes it to a remote area and blows it up... (the luggage, not the plane) Jonathan Wienke "1935 will go down in history! For the first time a civilized nation has full gun registration! Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead in the future!" --Adolf Hitler "46. The U.S. government declares a ban on the possession, sale, transportation, and transfer of all non-sporting firearms. ...Consider the following statement: I would fire upon U.S. citizens who refuse or resist confiscation of firearms banned by the U.S. government." --The 29 Palms Combat Arms Survey http://www.ksfo560.com/Personalities/Palms.htm 1935 Germany = 1996 U.S.? Key fingerprint = 30 F9 85 7F D2 75 4B C6 BC 79 87 3D 99 21 50 CB

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Re: Stop the presses -- Anti-terrorism bill not that bad
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 08:37 AM 8/4/96 -0700, Sandy Sandfort wrote: > >On Sun, 4 Aug 1996, Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM asked: > >> Is there truth to the rumor that poking a file inside the barrel >> will alter the marks on future test firings? >I have heard, but have not evidence for, is that with use, these >characteristic markings change. As a result, putting 200-300 >rounds through a gun at the range is enough to alter its >identifiable barrel markings sufficiently to defeat forensic >matching. Don't know, just heard, but it sounds reasonable. Heard same thing here; it's almost certainly true. It would help if the gun got a thorough cleaning as well: You can "de-copper" a barrel by plugging one end, and filling the barrel with an ammonia solution. (this is available as a commercial product for guns, at wildly-inflated prices. Ordinary ammonia solution works just as well, cheap.) This dissolves the copper left from the passage of copper/brass-jacketed bullets. You can tell it's working: The copper forms the distinctive blue cupramine ion in solution. BTW, all this changes is the microstructure of the markings: The number of riflings and the twist of the riflings are, obviously, unchanged. Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

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Re: Stop the presses -- Anti-terrorism bill not that bad
by David.K.Merriman.-.webmaster＠toad.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com, sandfort(a)crl.com Date: Sun Aug 04 13:07:42 1996 > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > SANDY SANDFORT > . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . > > C'punks, > > On Sun, 4 Aug 1996, Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM asked: > > > Is there truth to the rumor that poking a file inside the barrel > > will alter the marks on future test firings? > > I don't know the answer to this one, but my best guess is, > A) yes, but not enough to alter the test firing, and > B) whether or not it did, it would be strong evidence of an > attempt to screw up such a test. There are few (no?) legitimate > reasons to harm one's gun thusly. > > I have heard, but have not evidence for, is that with use, these > characteristic markings change. As a result, putting 200-300 > rounds through a gun at the range is enough to alter its > identifiable barrel markings sufficiently to defeat forensic > matching. Don't know, just heard, but it sounds reasonable. > > Considering the relative strengths/hardnesses of the metals involved (high-grade steel for barrel, lead and/or copper for projectile), I'd suspect that it would take more than 200-300 rounds to have any significant impact on the barrel rifling. This, of course, is for 'normal' weapons and ammo; using diamond projectiles in a saturday night special voids all warranties, express or implied :-) my ha'penny's worth. Dave Merriman PS - Been using Pronto Secure beta software the last couple of days for email. It's not Eudora, but *very* convenient for signing/encrypting. A couple of bugs/gotchas, but nothing I'd expect to see in for-sale version. I'm actually mildly impressed with how smoothly and transparently it works with PGP on a DOS/Win95 system. PGP Email welcome and encouraged. Visit my web site at http://www.shellback.com/p/merriman for my PGP key and fingerprint -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMgQwKsVrTvyYOzAZAQGacAP+L8CfV6aFmuAsJYTM5ttHqWu6B49vL2cx Ejnxwp2bRcM7winGALg+LQwwqjx1eNd1gKLsjrIRdh4oQgCBobfdEMU2poJvceTD shfPhvZqDWQQgZf0B1OkqzporGprdKM6V/rEbguzDMGt1SaUX585dZaYq5/CtyOO b+NFH+WSemc= =VWgA -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Internet telephony (was Freeh slimes again)
by Arun Mehta 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 13:11 02/08/96 -0700, Lucky Green wrote: >The sound quality really isn't there, unless you have a fast machine or a >fat pipe. In addition, the vast majority of Intel based computers lack the >crucial (for user acceptance) full-duplex soundcard. Add to that the >physical impossibility of getting decent real time services over a >non-isochronous network, such as the Internet, I'net phones just don't >provide suffcient speech quality for business/serious personal use even >without the added overhead of crypto. What I'd like to see -- for which technology is all in place, and none of the shortcomings you mention apply -- is voice mail that functions seamlessly between people who only have a phone, and those with Internet connections on computers with a sound card. Many companies practically use voice mail as an alternative to long phone conversations. This might also help the Internet spread, because with a connection you would be able to save on long-distance charges -- and strong crypto could be used. I'm sure the software for this exists too -- the ISPs only have to run it on their servers. It would be nice, though, if the ISPs had a facility that when there is a voice message for you, it either phones or pages you... Arun Mehta Phone +91-11-6841172, 6849103 amehta(a)cpsr.org http://www.cerfnet.com/~amehta/ finger amehta(a)cerfnet.com for public key

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ANNOUNCE:- RSAEURO Version 1.03
by RSAEURO General 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

ANNOUNCE:- RSAEURO Version 1.03 =============================== What is RSAEURO? ---------------- RSAEURO is a cryptographic toolkit providing various functions for the use of digital signatures, data encryption and supporting areas (PEM encoding, random number generation etc). To aid compatibility with existing software, RSAEURO is call-compatible with RSADSI's "RSAREF(tm)" toolkit. RSAEURO allows non-US residents to make use of much of the cryptographic software previously only (legally) available in the US. RSAEURO contains support for the following: * RSA encryption, decryption and key generation. Compatible with 'RSA Laboratories' Public-Key Cryptography Standard (PKCS) #1. * Generation and verification of message digests using MD2, MD4, MD5 and SHS (SHS currently not implemented in higher-level functions to maintain compatibility with PKCS). * DES encryption and decryption using CBC (1, 2 or 3 keys using Encrypt-Decrypt-Encrypt) and DESX(tm), RSADSI's secure DES enhancement. * Diffie-Hellman key agreement as defined in PKCS #3. * PEM support support for RFC 1421 encoded ASCII data with all main functions. * Key routines implemented in assembler for speed (80386 and 680x0 currently supported). International Use ----------------- IMPORTANT NOTICE: Please do not distribute or use this software in the US it is 'illegal' to use this toolkit in the US, as RSADSI and Cylink hold patents relating to public-key cryptography. If you are a US resident, please use the RSAREF toolkit instead. On The Web ---------- RSAEURO can now be found at http://www.sourcery.demon.co.uk/rsaann.html Ftp Sites --------- RSAEURO can be found at ftp://ftp.ox.ac.uk/pub/crypto/misc Author Details -------------- With comments and suggestions, please address them to Stephen Kapp, at 'rsaeuro(a)sourcery.demon.co.uk' ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- RSAEURO: rsaeuro(a)sourcery.demon.co.uk RSAEURO Bugs: rsaeuro-bugs(a)sourcery.demon.co.uk Tel: +44 (0) 468 286034 Http: http://www.sourcery.demon.co.uk/rsaann.html RSAEURO - Copyright (c) J.S.A.Kapp 1994-1996. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: Digital Telephony costs $2
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 05:09 PM 8/3/96 -0800, Jim Bell talked about mixing telephony, voice compression, and modem functions on future modems, and how doing a 28.8 modem uses up most of a DSP chip, while 2400bps voice coding and decoding also each use up about half, making full duplex tough. One advantage of higher-speed modems is that you can get away with 16kbps ADPCM coding, which is dirt-simple computationally; your 386 probably has enough horsepower to do it, though a PC's interrupt structure may make it tough to shove all the data in and out in real time. You still need a sound card that'll do the A/D and D/A conversion simultaneously if you want full-duplex; that wasn't part of the original market vision of Soundblaster, so vanilla sound cards don't all do it. It also has the advantage that the data is being moved through your CPU, so encryption is an easy add-on, rather than having one combined modem/voiceblaster card which doesn't have any hooks for crypto or other processing. >Sure, it may not be necessary to compress voice audio all the way down to >2400 bps, since the current modem standards allow 28.8kbps and beyond, but I >suggest that decreasing net traffic by a factor of 12 (28.8k to 2.4k) is a >desirable goal. One problem is that tighter compression methods are far more sensitive to network latency than crude ones, and need to process more milliseconds of speech before putting out a packet on the net (e.g. a 64-byte tinygram is 200ms of speech at 2400bps, vs. 32ms at 16kbps.) For modem-to-modem communications, this is no problem; for Internet random delays it is. Also, another big difficulty with full-duplex transmission is that you need echo-cancelling, especially with high-latency circuits. Half-duplex is annoying, but it doesn't echo, and it's more tolerant of delay because you're not expecting it to have natural timing... >The reason I think a system I've described has a future is that modem >manufacturers have a PROBLEM. Their problem is that they've pretty much run >out of room to improve the bit-pushing through a 3 KHz bandwidth. Given that the "3KHz" is almost universally transmitted over 64kbps digital channels, there's really no point in pushing past 33.6 with analog-based coding; better to just do ISDN. (You can still do analog-only calls if you're on an analog central office talking to someone else at the same exchange, but it'd be a flat-rate local call anyway. If there's anybody still using analog trunks between offices, it's some mom&pop rural telco, and you can't get 28.8 on barbed-wire...) # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com # <A HREF="http://idiom.com/~wcs"> Defuse Authority!

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Re: More to be paranoid about...
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:14 PM 8/3/96 -0700, you wrote: >Take a look at: > http://www.spiritone.com/cgi-bin/plates >Feed it an Oregon licence plate number and it will feed you back all sorts >of info about the person/victim. It's interesting to know that Senator Hatfield's wife's birthday is 1/17/29, and that the title to the car is held with a security interest by the US SENATE EMPLOYEES FEDERAL CREDIT, and that (at least) Social Security Numbers weren't listed for the plates I checked. Also that, unlike many states, the Governor doesn't have License Plate #1. # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com # <A HREF="http://idiom.com/~wcs"> Defuse Authority!

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New Agers feeding at the porkbarrel trough
by Alan Horowitz 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Looking at page 98 of the August-September _Home Power_ magazine, I see the publisher, Richard Perez, saying about vendors of non-solar-generated electricity: "None of this money is billed via your electric meter, but instead concealed in taxes or paid out everywhere from supermarkets to hospitals." On page 76 of the same edition, in an article titled "The New Utility", we see the following statement: "If all goes well in November, voters in Davis, California will vote on implementing the first US rate based incentive (RBI) program. As discussed in previous issues of _Home Power_, RBI programs are are locally adopted programs in which communities assess utility bills a 1% surcharge. The surcharge is used to purchase PV [viz., photovoltaic solar-generated] power from participating homeowners at a premium rate. The incentive plus the benefits of net metering [a plan in which electric utilities are required to pay home-based electricity vendors, the full cost of a kilowatt-hour of power, notwithstanding that the homeowner didn't pay for the distribution losses, plant costs of the transmission grid, untimed-to-load-demand supply, etc] should allow recovery of 90% of system investment in 10 years." Now, call me politically incorrect, but I say that utility bills don't get assessed surcharges - *people* get assessed *taxes*. I say that if it's good for the non-solar vendors to be denounced for wanting to offload some of their costs onto taxpayers, then the sauce is good for the solarpower gander, too. I say that Richard Perez makes his living by encouraging the distribution of solarpower hardware and services. I say that Richard Perez has a circle of friends and business associates who are in that industry. I say that Richard Perez has a conflict of interest. I say that Richard Perez is a hypocrite. I will renew my subscription to the magazine.... the non-political articles are high quality and unmatched elsewhere. I will continue to purchase selected items from _Home Power_'s advertisers - they fill my needs. I will agitate strongly against the "establishment" of solarpower (and its lesser analogues, such as microhydro, windturbine, biomass) in the pantheon of pork barrel empires.

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The Hazards of Reading Naughty Newsgroups at Work
by anonymous-remailer＠shell.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The following interesting article appeared on page 6 of the August 3, 1996 Seattle Times. County Accuses Four of Using the Internet to Access Child Porn -------------------------------------------------------------- By Ronald K. Fitten Seattle Times Staff Reporter Four men, including two former Microsoft employees, have been charged with allegedly using computers to access child pornography on the Internet, said King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng. "Traditional law-enforcement efforts against child pornography have focused on magazines, movies, and tangible materials," Maleng said yesterday. "But law enforcement faces new challenges with the emergence of new technology. The Internet, with its millions of international web sites, has become the new underground highway for illegal child pornography." The two former Microsoft engineers, Michael Seaman, 37, of Kirkland, and Ronald Rosul Jr., 31, of Seattle, allegedly used Microsoft computers to access and copy child pornography from the Internet, according to prosecutors. Microsoft said both were fired after Microsoft discovered the alleged crimes in October 1995. Seaman is charged with possession of child pornography. He allegedly used his Microsoft computer to collect more than 2,500 files of photographs of young children in sexual poses or being sexually abused. Rosul is also charged with possession of child pornography. He allegedly used Microsoft equipment to manufacture a CD-ROM disk containing child pornography. Both Seaman and Rosul will be arraigned next week in King County Superior Court. If convicted, both could receive up to one year in jail. Maleng, who said police and prosecutors worked cooperatively with Microsoft throughout the investigation, said law-enforcement officers had confiscated computer hard drives, CD-ROMs, and printed materials as evidence. Microsoft spokesman Mark Murray said the company found out about the activities of its two former employees last year and alerted police. "We provided the police with the computers to pull up the evidence," Murray said. In an unrelated case, William D. Powell, 52, or Renton, and Dwight Hunter, 48, of Bellevue, are charged with possession of and dealing in child pornography. Powell, an unemployed engineer, is accused of using his home computer to exchange child pornography with Hunter. If convicted of both offenses, Powell, who has a warrant out for his arrest after failing to appear at his arraignment three weeks ago, could be sentenced to between 21 and 27 months in prison. Hunter, an unemployed salesman, is accused of using his home computer to exchange child pornography with Powell and of having photographs in his computer disks of children engaged in several types of sexual activities with adults, other children, and a dog. Hunter will be arraigned next week. If convicted, he could receive almost three years in prison.

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