December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Electric Library
by Electric Library 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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Re: Vulis on the remailers
by nobody＠cypherpunks.ca 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Vulis writes: >nobody(a)cypherpunks.ca (John Anonymous MacDonald) writes: > >> Please, remailers, source block Vulis for a week. >> Remailer Fan > >I'm not sending anything via any remailers. Hmmmm. Let's see...I'll respect you in the morning, the check is in the mail, I won't come in your mouth... Get real, kook.

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Re: Legal Definition of Encryption?
by Richard L. Field 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The U.S. Export Administration Regulations (Commerce Department) include the following definitions: "Cryptography" -- "The discipline that embodies principles, means and methods for the transformation of data in order to hide its information content, prevent its undetected modification or prevent its unauthorized use. 'Cryptography' is limited to the transformation of information using one or more 'secret parameters' (e.g., crypto variables) and/or associated key management. Note: 'Secret parameter': a constant or key kept from the knowledge of others or shared only within a group." (Part 772) "Information security" -- "All the means and functions ensuring the accessibility, confidentiality or integrity of information or communications, excluding the means and functions intended to safeguard against malfunctions. This includes 'cryptography', 'cryptanalysis', protection against compromising emanations and computer security." These definitions and others are used within the Commerce Control List (Supplement No. 1 to Part 774) to regulate the export of certain Information Security related equipment, software, etc. (Category 5:II). The U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations (State Department) also regulates (until 1/1/97, when jurisdiction is expected to move to Commerce) the export of certain "Cryptographic systems", etc. including those with the capability of maintaining secrecy or confidentiality of information systems. (The United States Munitions List, Section 121.1, Category XIII-Auxiliary Military Equipment) - Richard Field At 01:48 PM 11/8/96 -0400, "William H. Geiger III" <whgiii(a)amaranth.com> wrote: >Is there any law(s) that actully define encryption? > >At it's very basics encryption is taking a group of 1's & 0's converting them into a different group of 1's & 0's and providing a mecanisim to change them back to the original group of 1's & 0's. > >>From a legal standpoitnt how is PGP any different than PKZIP? How does the law make a diference between an "encryption" program and a "compression" program other than the fact that the encryption program is advertized as encryption and the compression program is advertized as compression?

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No Subject
by Bovine Remailer 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Tim C. May has been beaten up numerous times by fellow prostitutes for driving blow job prices down.

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Re: Why is cryptoanarchy irreversible?
by Paul Bradley 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> It appears to be widely believed that cryptoanarchy is irreversible. > Everybody believes that the race to deploy or forbid strong cryptography > will define the outcome for a long time. This is certainly my position... > I can't think of a reason why this should be so. > If the wide use of strong cryptography results in widely unpopular > activities such as sarin attacks and political assassinations, it > would not be all that hard to forbid it, even after deployment. I don`t think so. The point is that cryptoanarchic ideals and strong cryptography will be too widely deployed to remove them from circulation. Also I believe that the sheer amount of traffic over the internet will make it virtually impossible to find encrypted messages even if strong encryption is outlawed. And last but not least the system of anonymous remailers and the ease with which return addresses can be forged means people using strong cryptography couldn`t be traced anyway. Datacomms Technologies web authoring and data security Paul Bradley, Paul(a)fatmans.demon.co.uk Paul(a)crypto.uk.eu.org, Paul(a)cryptography.uk.eu.org Http://www.cryptography.home.ml.org/ Email for PGP public key, ID: 5BBFAEB1 "Don`t forget to mount a scratch monkey"

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French Smart Card Firms in Merger Deal
by Dildophus 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

NEW YORK -- Schlumberger Electronic Transactions, a leading French smart card company, said Wednesday it signed a letter of intent to acquire Soliac, a unit of the French processing company Sligos that makes magnetic stripe and smart cards. The Schlumberger company's agreement to buy Solaic points to further consolidation in the smart card industry, which has seen a number of joint ventures and acquisitions in the past year. Solaic has manufacturing facilities in France and Spain. Its marketing operations are primarily in those countries, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The proposed transaction, which is subject to the signing of definitive agreements, would include a partnership to develop smart-card-based systems.

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FICS Group to Build On Microsoft Platform
by Dildophus 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

BRUSSELS -- FICS Group, an international banking systems company, announced a major electronic delivery initiative based on Microsoft Corp. technology. Expanding on the personal computer and telephone modes of banking service delivery, FICS said it is expanding into smart phones, personal digital assistants and wireless phones, electronic wallets, and Internet-based services. Microsoft platforms play a major role in FICS offerings, and Microsoft's Activex technology will be employed in Internet development. "The fact that FICS has chosen Windows NT as one of its key development platforms and adheres to the Open Financial Connectivity standard makes the company a valuable partner for Microsoft," said Ashley Steele, the Redmond, Wash., software company's marketing manager for the banking industry. FICS also participates in the Tandem Computers Inc. "payments factory" program, also based on Windows NT. Separately, FICS said it entered into a strategic partnership with Swift, the global banking telecommunications network. As a Level 3 partner, FICS is one of a few select firms that exchange strategic information with Swift and promote each other's products.

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Why Crypto Is Hard
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

We've put Bruce Schneier's "Why cryptography is harder than it looks" November 6 post to Risks at: http://jya.com/whyhard.htm Thanks to SZ.

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Re: Legal Deffinition of Encryption?
by ph＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 2:17 PM 11/9/1996, Mark M. wrote: >On Sat, 9 Nov 1996, Benjamin Grosman wrote: >> I have absolutely no idea: this is a very interesting problem. Not for just >> compression and encryption differention legally, but also, well, ANY other >> data form. If one defines a new format for saving data (i.e a new image >> format), and then exports this technology from the USA, is this exportation >> of munitions due to it's unknown qualities? Or what? >> I know that in Australia there have been problems defining electronic data, >> especially pictures (usually porn), for the purposes of prosecution. >> Because, really, a pornographic picture is no more than 1's and 0's arranged >> in a different way by a different algorithm. >> Thus I think it most likely that the law would try and approach it from the >> direction of the algorithm that saved the data and the intent with which the >> algorithm was written. >> Otherwise, I don't know. > I can't define encryption, but I know it when I see it. They way it will be forbidden is by outlawing the execution of the algorithms. The algorithms (the secure ones anyway) are well defined as is executing them. The legal system has dealt with greater ambiguities than this. An analogy to the drug laws might be useful. We don't outlaw all drugs that cause you to have weird visions and to act strangely. That would be hard to define and would cover a number of legal drugs. Instead, the specific chemicals are forbidden as they are discovered. Peter Hendrickson ph(a)netcom.com

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Why Crypto Is Hard
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Bruce asks his Risk post not be distributed on the Web. Okay.

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