December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

EzStego in Java!: Now Disappearing At A Site Near You
by romana＠glamazon.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

EzStego, my tool for "steganography made easy", now has its own web site at http://www.fqa.com/ezstego/ EzStego is currently alpha software. Use it at your own risk. It is a reimplementation in Java, with much improvement, of my notorious shareware product, Stego. EzStego is also shareware. I have made the source code available for peer review and verification. EzStego and EzSteggy are (C) Romana Machado 1996. All rights reserved. Romana Machado romana(a)fqa.com http://www.fqa.com/romana/ http://www.glamazon.com/

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Re: White House crypto proposal -- too little, too late
by Joseph M. Reagle Jr. 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

"if you become a dangerous criminal," <> "innocent until proven guilty" At 10:39 AM 10/2/96 -0700, Declan McCullagh wrote: >[But how does one undo the dangerous criminals without violating the >privacy rights of everyone else? --Declan] >---------- Forwarded message ---------- >Date: Wed, 2 Oct 1996 10:30:43 -0700 (PDT) >From: Joe Shea <joeshea(a)netcom.com> >To: Declan McCullagh <declan(a)well.com> >Subject: Re: White House crypto proposal -- too little, too late > > > If you become a dangerous criminal, Declan, I think law >enforcement does have the right to use key escrow to undo you. That has >nothing to do with spying. You need to be a little more selective about >your language, and to make distinctions a little more rationally than you >do. > >Best, > >Joe Shea >Editor-in-Chief >The American Reporter >joeshea(a)netcom.com >http://www.newshare.com:9999 > > >On Wed, 2 Oct 1996, Declan McCullagh wrote: > >> BTW, Joe, I'm still waiting for your response to my comments on why >> your endorsement of key escrow (GAK) is braindead. Or do you still >> think that the Feds should have the right to spy on my conversations, >> just like you thought that "porn isn't speech?" >> >> -Declan >> >> >> On Wed, 2 Oct 1996, Joe Shea wrote: >> >> > Date: Wed, 2 Oct 1996 09:47:59 -0700 (PDT) >> > From: Joe Shea <joeshea(a)netcom.com> >> > To: Declan McCullagh <declan(a)well.com> >> > Cc: cypherpunks(a)toad.com >> > Subject: Re: White House crypto proposal -- too little, too late >> > >> > >> > >> > Declan, how does your list work? Do you only publish comments >> > that agree with you? I didn't see my first two, and this one only came >> > with your response. Is this your version of freedom of the press, or what? >> > >> > Joe Shea >> > Editor-in-Chief >> > The American Reporter >> > joeshea(a)netcom.com >> > http://www.newshare.com:9999 >> > >> > >> > On Wed, 2 Oct 1996, Declan McCullagh wrote: >> > >> > > >> > > >> > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- >> > > Date: Tue, 1 Oct 1996 20:19:16 -0700 (PDT) >> > > From: Declan McCullagh <declan(a)well.com> >> > > To: fight-censorship(a)vorlon.mit.edu >> > > Cc: joeshea(a)netcom.com >> > > Subject: Re: White House crypto proposal -- too little, too late >> > > >> > > [Joe, this may be yet another area where we disagree. It represents a >> > > power grab by law enforcement; the infrastructure is prone to failure >> > > and can be compromised; it's more government meddling and coercion and >> > > more restrictions on free speech; the Fed bureaucrats controlling this >> > > are vulnerable to special-interest lobbying; the Constitution gives >> > > the Federal government no right to impose such restrictions; the FBI >> > > has demonstrated that we can't trust the Feds with our most personal >> > > information; it violates an absolute right to privacy; and it's >> > > technically impractical for a good number of applications. --Declan] >> > > >> > > >> > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- >> > > Date: Tue, 1 Oct 1996 15:57:51 -0700 (PDT) >> > > From: Joe Shea <joeshea(a)netcom.com> >> > > To: Declan McCullagh <declan(a)well.com> >> > > Cc: fight-censorship >> > > Subject: Re: FC: White House crypto proposal -- too little, too late >> > > >> > > >> > > Declan's most recent piece makes much more sense than the earlier >> > > one. He is quite correct in emphasizing the future vulnerability of the >> > > encryption logarithms rather than centering on whether or not terrorists >> > > might use them. By making them impossible to crack without the key, and >> > > permitting the key to be available to appropriate law enforcement >> > > authorities when absolutely necessary, everyone's real needs are >> > > satisfied, I think. I enjoyed this report a lot. >> > > >> > > Best, >> > > >> > > Joe Shea >> > > Editor-in-Chief >> > > The American Reporter >> > > joeshea(a)netcom.com >> > > http://www.newshare.com:9999 >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > >> >> > > > _______________________ Regards, You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus. -Mark Twain Joseph Reagle http://rpcp.mit.edu/~reagle/home.html reagle(a)mit.edu E0 D5 B2 05 B6 12 DA 65 BE 4D E3 C1 6A 66 25 4E

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Net-freedom roundup: Algiers, Malaysia, Burma, Hong Kong...
by Declan McCullagh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 3 Oct 1996 05:59:08 -0700 (PDT) From: Declan McCullagh <declan(a)well.com> To: fight-censorship(a)vorlon.mit.edu Subject: Net-freedom roundup: Algiers, Malaysia, Burma, Hong Kong... [Update on situations in Algiers, Malaysia, Burma, Singapore, European Union, U.K., Hong Kong, China, and Germany. More at http://www.eff.org/~declan/global/ --Declan] ******** SUSPENDED ALGERIAN DAILY OFFERED INTERNET PAGE Copyright 1996 Reuter Information Service PARIS (Sep 30, 1996 1:24 p.m. EDT) - A press freedom watchdog on Monday offered the suspended Algerian daily La Tribune a page on its Internet site to give it an airing during the six-month ban. "Thanks to this initiative, these journalists, banned from writing by the Algerian authorities, will be able to practice their trade again," the Paris-based Reporters without Borders (RsF) said. An Algiers court suspended La Tribune for six months on September 3 over a cartoon mocking the Algerian flag. [...] Fifty-seven journalists have been murdered by suspected rebels. RsF said authorities had suspended or seized newspapers on 55 occasions and 23 journalists had been held for more than 48 hours since the conflict broke out over the 1992 cancellation of a general election fundamentalists were poised to win. ******** UNITED NATIONS, Sept 27 (Reuter) - Malaysia's prime minister accused the West on Friday of spreading smut and violence, particularly on the Internet. In his speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Mahathir bin Mohamad said that although the information age facilitated worldwide knowledge, it also demeaned moral values. ``Smut and violence gratuitously distributed by criminals in the North is no less polluting than carbon dioxide emissions nor less dangerous than drug trafficking.'' In a reference to the United States he said if one great power could apply its laws to citizens of another country for drug trafficking ``why cannot countries with different moral codes extradite the traffickers of pornography for legal action?'' ``Before the whole world sinks deeper into moral decay, the international community should act. Abuse of the ubiquitous Internet system must be stopped,'' he said. Politically, he said the monopoly of the West's electronic media should be broken on so-called world news networks. ``Not only are distorted pictures of our countries being broadcast but our own capacity to understand what is happening is being undermined,'' he said. [...] ``It is boring almost. And yet nothing much has been done which could bring about amelioration of this sad state of affairs, `` he said. ********* RANGOON, BURMA, 1996 SEP 27 (NB) -- Burma has made owning, using, importing or borrowing a modem or fax machine without government permission a crime, punishable by up to 15 years in jail, according to a report by United Press International. Burma's military government has imposed what's called "The Computer Science Development Law" which empowers the Ministry of Communications, Posts and Telegraphs to specify what exactly can be restricted, UPI reports. UPI quotes the government-run newspaper New Light of Myanmar as saying the same punishment is prescribed for anyone who sets up a link with a computer network without the prior permission of the ministry, or who uses computer network and information technology "for undermining state security, law and order, national unity, national economy and national culture, or who obtains or transmits state secrets." UPI reports that in July a diplomat, Leo Nichols, died in prison after he was sentenced to a lengthy term for illegal possession of fax machines. *********** SINGAPORE, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Internet users in Singapore are complaining that a new system to police the massive global communications network is slowing down access to websites rather than speeding it up as promised by government officials, news reports said Saturday. Earlier this month, special computers called proxy servers began censoring all requests for websites from Singapore Internet users, blocking access to those deemed ``objectionable'' by the government. The proxy servers, which began regulating cyperspace Sept. 15, delay access to the Internet because they first have to check a list of banned websites before retrieving requested homepages, the Straits Times reported. ``I've found that it can take twice as long to access the sites I commonly access,'' said Teo Mei Chin, a 22-year-old undergraduate. Users pointed out that slower access translated into longer on-line time and higher telephone bills. Although many Internet subscribers in the tightly-controlled city- state anticipated such delays under the new system, the Singapore Broadcasting Authority assured users access to certain websites would actually be quicker since the proxy servers are able to store frequently requested homepages. But Internet users say the filter computers also are dishing up outdated homepages. Walter Wu, who uses the Internet for up-to-date stock market and business data, said some financial websites he requested were at least a day old. [...] *********** LONDON, ENGLAND, 1996 SEP 27 (NB) -- By Steve Gold. The British government has added its support to plans to handle the problem of child pornography on the Internet. The proposals, which have been drawn up by the Home Office with assistance from Peter Dawe, the founder of Pipex, the UK's largest Internet service provider (ISP), are known as Safety Net. According to Dawe, recent discussions in the industry, culminating in a letter from the police to the various ISPs in the UK, has meant there is considerable pressure on the ISP industry to exercise a degree of self-regulation. "Public opinion said that something had to be done. I came to the conclusion that it was going to be impossible to establish industry- wide consensus on how to tackle this issue," he said, adding that the idea of Safety Net is gathering support in the UK ISP community. According to Dawe, Safety Net has the backing of the Internet Service Provider's Association (ISPA), as well as the London Internet Exchange, two groups which claim to represent most of the ISPs currently operating in the UK. [...] Quite how the ISPs will tackle the problem, such as blocking access to those Web pages, remains to be seen, but Dawes claims that the ISPs will have no excuse in law of being unaware of offending Web pages and Usenet newsgroups. [...] ********** BRUSSELS (Reuter) - European Union telecommunications ministers, reacting to a child-sex scandal in Belgium, pledged Friday to consider ways to keep illegal material that could harm children off the Internet. Belgian Telecommunications Minister Elio Di Rupo announced that his government planned to implement new measures requiring Internet access providers to monitor and report material featuring sexual abuse or exploitation of children. He asked his colleagues to join forces with him. ``Today a big legal vacuum exists, for legislation is falling behind technological evolution,'' he said, according to a speaking note that was distributed to reporters. ``There is a big risk that it will create an enormous market of children fed on by criminals.'' The ministers agreed to expand a working party that has already been set up to look at the question of illegal material on the Internet and asked it to come up with concrete proposals before they meet again in November. The group will include representatives of the 15 EU telecoms ministries and of companies that provide access to online services or prepare the content, a statement adopted by the ministers said. The accord follows an agreement by EU justice ministers in Dublin Thursday to extend the scope of the EU police agency Europol so it can fight the sex trade in women and children. The moves come in the wake of the discovery in Belgium of a paedophile network and the murders of four young girls. But some of the telecoms ministers, including those from Britain and Sweden, warned that the EU could not wander into censorship and had to focus on fighting truly illegal material. [...] ******** CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1996 SEP 26 (NB) -- By Eric Lai. A Hong Kong Internet enthusiast is claiming that his Web site, featuring sexually suggestive photos of himself, was forcibly removed by his Internet service provider (ISP) two days ago in a seeming act of premature censorship. Donald Tu, 32, is a former radio and TV presenter and aspiring bodybuilder and model. In May, he put up his Web site, http://members/hknet.com/~hkstud/ , which featured photos of himself topless, often wearing nothing more than wet, slightly transparent briefs, posing in a studio and outdoors at scenic locations around Hong Kong. Tu, who was interviewed on last night's premiere of the Dataphile On-Air radio show, says his site has received thousands of "hits" coupled with encouraging e-mail, especially after a local Chinese language newspaper on September 17 reviewed his Web site. But a single complaint outweighs those thousands of positive comments, at least according to his Web host, HKNet. After receiving a single complaint from a member of the public, HKNet wrote to Tu on Tuesday that "the government may take action against the site because of its content and 'exposure,' based on the letter of the law governing obscene and indecent materials, and recent experiences in its enforcement. Therefore, we have made the decision to bar access to the questionable materials for the time being." But ISPs which censor and regulate content are not currently being compelled by the government, according to a spokesperson at the Broadcasting, Culture, and Sport Branch. The Branch has been devising Internet content regulations all summer which should be announced soon. [...] ********* BEIJING, Sept 27 (Reuter) - China's Communist Party chief Jiang Zemin moved on Friday to tighten the communists' grip on the state media and to strengthen his position with a blaze of publicity before a party plenum. He used a visit to the Beijing offices of the People's Daily, the party mouthpiece, to deliver a hardline speech on the importance of maintaining communist control of all media, the newspaper reported, splashing the news and three photographs of Jiang across its front page. Diplomats said the speech by Jiang was aimed at bringing back into line Chinese writers and more daring media organisations that have tried to push the limits of propaganda [...] ``Historical experience has proved repeatedly that whether guidance of news is right or wrong has to do with the party growing strong ... the solidarity of the people and the prosperity of the nation,'' Jiang said. [...] ******** HotWired 27-29 Sept 96 The Netizen by Wendy Grossman London, 26 September Last Monday, a unified front of British police, government, and representatives of leading ISPs announced proposals for cracking down on illegal material available on the UK's portion of the Internet. The first target is child pornography, but the protagonists have already said they've set their sights on other types of illegal material such as copyright violations, obscenity, and possibly hate speech. Called R3/Safety-Net, the proposals were presented to the media by Science and Technology Minister Ian Taylor and representatives from the Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA), the London Internet Exchange (LINX), and the Home Office, which is the government department charged with law enforcement. [...] As it turns out, Demon and the Department of Trade and Industry had been talking without publicity for months about taking action against obscenity on the Net. But the media raised the pressure, as did complaints on uk.censorship about a list of 133 newsgroups that Superintendent Mike Hoskins of the Clubs and Vice unit of the Metropolitan Police had sent ISPs as a guide to the location of illegal material. Hoskins and the ISPs all swear no threat was intended or taken, but the underlying tone was still: You do something about it, or we'll do something about it. R3/Safety-Net is that something. [...] No one is going to oppose these measures. How can they, when the 1994 revision of the Criminal Justice Bill allows the police to arrest, without warrant, people suspected of obscenity and certain child pornography offenses? Child pornography is, of course, illegal to create, distribute, or possess in Britain. For the purposes of the Obscene Publications Act and the Protection of Children Act, if something looks like a child in a sexual act, it is child pornography. [...] So it seemed like with Monday's announcement, everybody wins - almost. The government gets to look like it's doing something big. The ISPs get to stay out of jail. The police get to arrest people. Peter Dawe gets to be a hero. Britain gets to be a world leader. And we get ... well, what do we get? We get the certain knowledge that they will not stop here. They have already said so. Books like the Anarchist's Cookbook are banned here in print, and in a country where last Monday police seized a massive haul of IRA explosives intended to rearrange the landscape, the argument for letting people read alt.engr.explosives is likely to lead to the withdrawal of reference books from the public libraries. Britain has an Official Secrets Act, not a Freedom of Information Act. Government can proceed only with the consent of the governed, and on Monday what that unified panel asked for was our trust. They will not censor free speech; it's just the small percentage of illegal stuff they want cleaned up. So we're left asking before every move, "Daddy, is this illegal?" ********** Subject: Germany Bans Web Pages for Minors - and ALL To: fight-censorship(a)vorlon.mit.edu Date: Mon, 30 Sep 1996 13:37:52 +0100 (MET) Reply-To: um(a)c2.net (Ulf Moeller) Organization: private site, Hamburg (Germany) From: um(a)c2.net (Ulf Moeller) The report is essentially correct. In Hamburg, the prosecutors decided themselves that AOL had done nothing illegal, so as far as I know there was no court decision. Also, it appears that said Federal Office is neither responsible for electronic nor for foreign publications. I think the minister is trying to spead FUD. >From: taxbomber(a)taxbomber.com >Newsgroups: alt.censorship,alt.privacy,alt.security,news.admin.censorship >Subject: Germany Bans Web Pages for Minors - and ALL >Date: Sat, 28 Sep 1996 06:46:58 GMT >Message-ID: <324cc9c7.7567566(a)news.c2.net> >NNTP-Posting-Host: md19-017.compuserve.com According to Germany's leading tabloid paper "Bild" (Saturday edition), Federal Minister for Familiy Affairs, Claudia Nolte (Christian-Democrat), in an unprecedented decision has formally had several Web pages banned for being "X"-rated by the "Federal Office for the Evaluation of Literature Hazardous to Minors". These are pages featured by Ernst Zuendel, a leading political revisionist located in Canada whose purportedly "Neo-Nazi" views have been the subject of much controversy in Germany. Ms Nolte is quoted as saying: "It is not tolerable that the Internet should be an island with special privileges, on which thoughtless or unscrupulous providers may pursue their infamous activities with impunity." This effectively forces Internet providers to restrict minors' access to said pages - a technical impossibility since most minors accessing the net are be using their parents' accounts. No "Netwatch" or other self-censorship software will suffice to conform with this provision, as it is THE PROVIDERS, not the kids' legal guardians who have to comply with this restriction. Following a recent decision by the State of Hamburg's Supreme Constitutional Court to the effect that service providers cannot be held responsible for possibly illegal contents of data transfers via their networks (here, AOL was accused of disseminating child pornography), this move must be regarded as a circumvention tactics to put the thumbscrews on ISPs nevertheless by invoking Minors Protection legislation instead. (Also note that the Hamburg decision ruled that email message were protected by privacy laws as any snail mail letter - hence, providers could not be expected to monitor their contents as this would violate constitutional rights.) This implies that German based ISPs (including AOL's and Compuserve's local services) will actually have to ban ALL GENERAL access to the Zuendel pages from their systems unless they are willing to risk running afault of the law. ******** [Posted to soc.culture.singapore through an anonymous remailer in\ Germany. No wonder the SBA wants to censor the Net! --Declan] Mon, 23 Sep 1996 01:32:06 soc.culture.singapore Thread 228 of 350 Lines 18 SBA is screwed!! No responses mix(a)squirrel.owl.de Squirrel Remailer __ __ __ __/o \_ __/o \_ __/o \_ \____ \ \____ \ \____ \ / \ / \ / \ __ //\ \ __ //\ \ __ //\ \ __/o \-//--\ \_/__/o \-//--\ \_/__/o \-//--\ \_/ \__SBA ___ \ | \__ISP ___ \ | \__PAP ___ \ | || \ |\ | || \ |\ | || \ |\ | _|| _||_|| _|| _||_|| _|| _||_|| #### # # #### # # ##### # # #### ### ### ## # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #### # # # ## # #### #### #### ### #### # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #### #### # # # # # #### ### ### # # ###

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British Labour leader's pager messages intercepted
by Nicolas J. Hammond 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The following article appears in the Electronic Telegraph today (Oct 3) TWO sensitive messages detailing Tony Blair's movements are among a list of electronic pager notes about the Labour leader and members of the shadow cabinet intercepted by hackers. The list of messages, which was shown to The Daily Telegraph, had been read by equipment freely available on the Internet for as little as £200. Further investigations by the Telegraph show that the vulnerability of pagers could expose nearly a million users to blackmail over sexual liaisons, for example, as well as robbery, commercial espionage and terrorist attack. The Blair messages were almost certainly sent to Alastair Campbell, his press secretary, and Tim Allan, Campbell's deputy. Many of them give a fascinating insight into how Mr Blair and the spin doctors who surround him make determined efforts to present Labour favourably in the media. The intercepts for Sept 14 show how the Labour leader's office was bombarded with anxious messages about a front page report in the Sunday Times newspaper headlined: "Blair aide tells Labour to forget about socialism". The transcripts also show how Peter Mandelson, one of Mr Blair's closest aides, closely monitors BBC news reports. On Sept 16 he sent a message to the leader's office saying that a report by one of the BBC's political correspondents, Jon Sopel, referred strongly to the strained links between the Labour leadership and the unions which had dominated the previous week's TUC conference. After Mr Blair made a speech to the City of London, a message from Hilary Coffman, one of his press aides, anticipated the reaction of the newspapers, saying that most papers, except the Telegraph and Independent had reported favourably. In fact, the Telegraph's headline on the story was: "Blair's good times pledge" above a story saying that he was committed to rising living standards and prosperity. One of the most intriguing messages Campbell received from Jonathan Powell, Mr Blair's chief of staff, said: "Pls call when you and TB are free. I have a message from Mrs T. - Jonathan." Jonathan Powell is the younger brother of Sir Charles Powell, who was Lady Thatcher's private secretary at 10 Downing Street. <blockquote><h4>Scotland Yard said this was the first time it had heard that pager messages could be intercepted</h4></blockquote> Around the time of the call Mr Blair's office was making a determined effort to scotch reports, allegedly attributed to Tory spin doctors, that Lady Thatcher found the Labour leader "creepy". Labour spin doctors were later involved in passing on a message from Lady Thatcher countering the reports and making clear that she still "rather admired" Mr Blair's determination to modernise his party. The police, the Home Office and the Department of Trade and Industry expressed surprise at the latest telecommunications tapping and said that they would investigate if pager-hacking becomes widespread. "It is an offence under the Wireless Telegraphy and Interception of Communications Acts for anyone to receive messages not intended for them," a DTI spokesman said. "However, it is not an offence to own the equipment, so we need to catch perpetrators in the act." Scotland Yard said this was the first time it had heard that pager messages could be intercepted. The Federation of Communications Services has called for the legislation to be changed, making illegal the selling or ownership of radio scanners - a market worth an estimated £200 million a year to the telecommunications industry. An investigation published today in What Cellphone explains how hackers have used a radio scanner coupled to a cheap electronic decoder and a computer running freely available software to receive other people's pager messages from anywhere in the country. It is not an offence to own either a scanner - they are used by yachtsmen to monitor weather forecasts - or the electronic decoder, which is advertised on the Internet as a home automation device. It is the marrying of radio and computer technology that makes pager hacking more of a threat to businesses and individuals than eavesdropping on cellphones. If the scanner is left connected to a computer, a log of every pager message sent by anyone in the country can easily be recorded. This log can then be used in a common word processor program and searched for key words, such as the names of politicians, celebrities or companies. Details of how hackers can send false messages has appeared on the Internet in the past few days. <blockquote><h4> Other messages seen include arrangements for sexual liaisons and details of fruit machines that are malfunctioning</h4></blockquote> "Hacking into pagers is very easily done by anyone with some DIY experience and potentially much more damaging than listening in on cellphone calls," said Bob Tomalski, editor of What Cellphone. "With cellphones, hackers have to listen to the messages as they happen. With pagers they can record a day's messages and search through them later." Once a message has been linked to a particular caller, the software can be set up to search specifically for that pager's identification code, which appears at the beginning of each pager message. Retail chains use the pager system to send details of each store's takings to head office. Messages seen by the Telegraph range from "Yesterday takings £659, see you in pub in 10 minutes" to the precise breakdown of the sales of a big supermarket chain. Other messages seen include arrangements for sexual liaisons and details of fruit machines that are malfunctioning and paying out big amounts in pubs. Of particular concern is the revelation that hackers have intercepted passwords used to switch off alarm systems sent to security guards via the pager network. For years, analogue cellphones have been known to be vulnerable, culminating in the publication of conversations between members of the Royal Family. But despite concerns about the vulnerability of mobile phones, little attention has been paid to pagers, which are much easier to tap. Mobile telephones use several thousand radio frequencies and have a limited range, so the eavesdropper must be near the cellphone receiving the call and have technical knowledge to track the call. Pagers by contrast, receive easily decoded analogue signals based on 25-year-old technology and transmitted on only 10 - published - frequencies. Because the networks do not know where each pager is located, each message is beamed across the country, so that a hacker can receive messages destined for any of the 900,000 pager users from Penzance to Aberdeen. -- Nicolas Hammond NJH Security Consulting, Inc. njhm(a)njh.com 211 East Wesley Road 404 262 1633 Atlanta 404 812 1984 (Fax) GA 30305-3774

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Re: FUCK!!!!!!;-) The Book
by jya＠pipeline.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

A new book, "Digital Soldiers," by James F. Dunnigan, emphasizes that information warfare -- deceiving the enemy -- is as old as war, and that the PR-driven media today work closely with the warfighting industry to protect their mutually lucrative markets. The latest GAK PR campaign fits this. Dunnigan also makes hash of the recent opportunistic "infowar" PR, along with adept grinding of the vast, corrupt high-tech defense industry worldwide, led by the US war-prognosticating PR-media-policy lizards. As he says, bad news is always good news for the Hearsts and Rasputins (Responsible Personages), for the liars of brimstone religion, for all the terrifying doomsayers peddling trust-my-god: me, now tithe or be taxed. Dunnigan's sermon: stop the pork, then there will be plenty of resources to deal with the rest of society's ills. Otherwise, peace, real or vitural, is war, sustained barbarity camouflaged by self-interested civility -- the peacefighting, ticket-punching officer, er, journalist, class. Digital Soldiers The Evolution of High-Tech Weaponry and Tomorrow's Brave New Battlefield James F. Dunnigan St. Martin's Press, New York; $25.95 ISBN 0-312-14588-8

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Re: The Right to Keep and Bear Crypto
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:09 AM 10/3/96 -0700, Bill Stewart wrote: >At 08:29 PM 10/2/96 -0700, azur(a)netcom.com (Steve Schear) wrote: >>Unless we get the strong support of the gun lobby and NRA. > >The gun lobby and NRA are generally against handgun registration, >but haven't stopped it. We're against crypto key registration. >The gun lobby and NRA are generally against machine gun licensing requirements, >but haven't stopped it. We're against strong crypto licensing requirements. >The gun lobby and NRA are generally against firearms dealers' licensing, >but haven't stopped it. We're against crypto dealers' licensing. >The gun lobby and NRA are generally against assault weapon import laws, >but haven't stopped them. We're against strong crypto import laws. If the wimps at the NRA had any guts, they would poll their membership, asking if anybody would be willing to make "the sacrifice" (presumably due to a recent terminal illness diagnosis). Then, they'd get on the phone to the Supreme Court, and point out that they'd just noticed that Supreme Court appoints were ONLY "good for life" and suggest nicely that if all of the above outrages (WRT guns) weren't reversed within the year, they predict about nine open seats shortly thereafter. Okay, maybe it's only wishful thinking, but... If you take the position that all human life is equally valuable, then you must concede that the deaths of nine fools is no worse than the deaths of nine randomly-selected individuals who found themselves the victim of gun laws. Crypto relevancy? Well, the so-called "gun nuts" have already tolerated far more regulation and restriction of guns than we should ever accept. But if we use their tactics, can we expect any better results? Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

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The New GAK-Clipper Thing will Fail
by Timothy C. May 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Comparing the latest GAK/Clipper III (or is it Clipper IV?) thing to the original Clipper announcement in April 1993, I sense a lot more confusion, a lot more thorny issues, and a lot more vagueness. They just seem more disorganized and less committed than the last time around. Each iteration of Clipper gets less focussed and seems to last a shorter time before the next version is being talked about. A good thing, of course. Some random points: * Unlike with Clipper, where a specification existed and was available within a few weeks for analysis, and where hardware existed (the Mykotronx chips, the AT&T phone), what has been publically presented so far is just a vague commitment to participate. * There seem to be many ways around the new GAK: --superencryption is essentially impossible to stop (e.g., use PGP on text messages, then use the officially-approved GAK--how could this be outlawed?) --the large pool of _existing_ crypto products means people will be using these products for years to come (possibly within GAK wrappers, as just noted)...unless the New World Order (tm) somehow locates, seizes, or otherwise makes criminals out of those who use a once-legal product, how could this be stopped? --the "degrees of freedom" for messages have sharply increased in the last several years: messages inside Web accesses, messages "sent" by posting to message pools (*), direct phone calls, the Net, etc. (* Will posting encrypted messages to the Usenet or world-readable Web sites become a crime? Or will attempts be made to limit distribution of Usenet and access to Web sites? Neither of these seems feasible, but how else could the stated goals of the Administration ("stopping terrorists, etc. from conspiring") be stopped?) (On this point above, yes, I know that there has been no talk of illegalizing the sending of mere encrypted data, only the export of non-GAKked programs. But I think it likely that the LEAs will realize that "criminals" are still conspiring with crypto. One thing they may try is to require that any communication with a non-U.S. site involve GAK. This then raises the Usenet/message pool directly. Since such sites have world-distribution, currently, posting encrypted messages to alt.anonymous.messages or to a mailing list like this necessarily involves export of the messages. It gets complicated to enforce, naturally.) * The Cabal itself seems confused as to what's involved. They seem to be counting on IBM and/or TIS to deliver the solution, and may be just signed on for what they think are reasons of political expediency. * As the IBM scheme gets attacked (in the way Matt Blaze attacked Tessera), as questions are raised about the Key Authorities and their cooperation, and as the _costs_ are revealed....well, I expect further crumbling. (On the "costs" issue, running these Key Authorities, staffing them, complying with subpoenas (and who will _fight_ the subpoenas?), etc., will not be cheap. For software products like Navigator and Explorer, that are either free or very cheap, just who will pay for this infrastructure? Someone at the EPIC Pro-CODE conference in Palo Alto a few months ago--I forget whom--presented calculations of just how expensive a "key recovery" infrastructure could be. Will it cost $50 to send a message to a foreign site? Better to use message pools! :-}) I apologize for the random nature of my comments here. I just see so many points of attack, so many ways to skirt the intentions of GAK, and so much ambivalent commentary from the companies involved, that I am convinced this whole thing will crumble. Unless a "major terrorist incident" galvanizes the effort, it looks to start falling apart almost immediately under the onslaught of Cypherpunks, hackers, other governments (think France wants the USG having access to their traffic?), and the "crypto anarchy" of nations whose borders are not even speed bumps. --Tim May We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I 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: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Re: The Right to Keep and Bear Crypto
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 08:29 PM 10/2/96 -0700, azur(a)netcom.com (Steve Schear) wrote: >>T[i]m May wrote: >>I've argued since 1992 on Usenet and here that "crypto as arms" is a >>potentially dangerous tack to follow. (Others, including legal experts, >>have also argued this point.) >> >>Given that it is well-established, whether we agree or not, that the USG >>may restrict private ownership of atom bombs, nerve gases, CBW weapons, >>machine guns, switchblade knives, nunchuk sticks, and various other "arms," >>the association of crypto with armaments is potentially *DISASTROUS*. > >Unless we get the strong support of the gun lobby and NRA. The gun lobby and NRA are generally against handgun registration, but haven't stopped it. We're against crypto key registration. The gun lobby and NRA are generally against machine gun licensing requirements, but haven't stopped it. We're against strong crypto licensing requirements. The gun lobby and NRA are generally against firearms dealers' licensing, but haven't stopped it. We're against crypto dealers' licensing. The gun lobby and NRA are generally against assault weapon import laws, but haven't stopped them. We're against strong crypto import laws. The NRA supports Instant Background Checks (because it thinks they're less bad than N-Day Waiting Periods). We're against central government permitted-users databases, and we're against Key "Escrow" even if some people think it's less bad than an outright ban. The NRA supports the politically incorrect hunting enthusiasts. We (generally) support politically incorrect tax evasion, black markets in recreational pharmaceuticals, and free speech for people we dislike. If your lobbyists lose and you have to register your gun, it still works. If your lobbyists lose and you have to register your crypto keys, you lose; that means the government or anybody who can get your keys can crack your stuff. If your lobbyists lose and you have to get permission to make guns, most of the interesting guns can still be made. If your lobbyists lose and you have to get permission to write crypto, many of the interesting crypto applications won't get written - we not only depend on the free flow of ideas, but on people doing applications as a hobby or a small business that can't afford to become Registered International Arms Dealers, don't want to wait the months that such registration takes for background checks, and don't want to give up all the privacy involved just so they can write a bug report for somebody else's code or suggest an improvement. Face it, as much as the Gun Lobby has slowed down the growth of anti-gun laws, they've still lost step by step, law by law, against a government that's succeeded in scaring the public about threats to public safety and in convincing the public that only the military needs strong weapons and that registering everyday-use weapons is just fine. I support much of what they do, and I'd be happy if they supported us, and it's probably easier to get their support on crypto than drug rights, but we can't _depend_ on it. Also, getting public support for crypto is a hearts-and-minds deal; the press generally dislikes guns, and generally approves of free speech, and press support is important - especially since the press's default behaviour is to believe government press reports about crypto-narco-porno-terrorists using assault remailers. # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com America's Open Presidential Debate - Beyond Dole and Clinton! <A href="http://gate.net/~bdcollar/bbe/debate.htm">Tuesday, Oct. 8th 8:00 PM EDT</a>

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Re: NYT on IBM GAK
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 07:51 AM 10/3/96 -0500, Adam Shostack wrote: >Rich Burroughs wrote: > >| The word "boycott" leaped into my mind. I personally do not believe that I >| will be buying products from any of these companies, as long as thay >| participate in this GAK charade. > > Folks, > Lets be reasonable. Its time to jump on board the GAK >bandwagon. After all, where better to disrupt the music? We need to >start writing GAK software, and it better be up to the high standards >that the NSA sets for itself. > > Once we've written it, and its being distributed, we can say >'See, another broken bit of GAK software. Not even the NSA could get >it right. Our data is too important to be using broken software to >protect us.' > And we have 56 bit exportability in hand. >Adam The problem is that the appearance of defeat could easily guaranteee the real defeat itself. Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

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RE: The Right to Keep and Bear Crypto
by Mullen Patrick 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

[Assumptions: Crypto is arms. We have the right to bear arms. Therefore: We have the right to bear crypto.] Following along with the news stories, it would seem the USG doesn't disagree with this logic. What they are attempting to do is limit world distribution, *not* internal distribution. Even with the new key recovery idea, crypto which remains in the US will continue to be unregulated. Another fear is that the administration is using export limits to control domestic use of encryption. While Gore directly stated yesterday that domestic use of encryption will remain unregulated, the double standard for domestic ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ and international products might discourage U.S. companies from developing two different versions, leaving U.S. and Canadian customers with the same products that the federal government has deemed safe to ship overseas. [_GAK_Rat_Pack_, John Young, 3 Oct 96] This may (will?) limit the products which are produced by large corporations, as their need for a single, globally distributable product is respected. However, smaller companies who have neither the desire nor finances to distribute their product on a global scale will be unaffected. Shareware/ freeware products will also be unaffected (unless someone from another country pulls it off a website, or similar means). However, all of this is irrelevant, because I must say, Tim May has the proper idea -- We may have the right to bear crypto, but the government has the right to limit the types/amounts of crypto we bear. ** Success in this matter is classifying crypto as speech ** I read somewhere (probably here) about a case which was (was destined??) to be a precedent for crypto as speech. All I can remember was something about the code being classified as speech, or something like that. Sorry I can't quite remember what it was. Anyone have any suggestions/references? Patrick

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