December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Pyramid schemes and cryptoanarchy
by Clay Olbon II 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

It seems that pyramid scheme spamming has increased of late (if that is possible!). In my lifetime, I can only remember a single snail-mail instance of a pyramid scheme - over the net it is an entirely different story (although the number of instances is probably proportional to the number of lists I subsribe to). With fully anonymous digital cash will come the ability to develop untraceable pyramid schemes. As a staunch believer in the free market, I find laws against these schemes distasteful, quite hypocrytical (i.e. Social Security), and soon to be unenforceable. Pyramid schemes could be a growth market in a crypto-anarchic world. It is yet another market such as gambling, or the lottery, that could be conducted with anonymity. And it appears to be much more widespread on the internet currently, even without anonymity. And unlike gambling or the lottery, the payoffs could increase greatly should anonymity be available. Now, what is the point of this discussion of pyramid schemes? It is to bring to light yet another area that will be untouchable by governments. And I think that it will help continue the development and proliferation of some of our pet projects, specifically fully anonymous digital cash and remailers. Remailer operators could even fund their operations through pyramid schemes (directly, or indirectly through digital postage stamps). I am not, however, advocating spam. I simply see it as a natural extension of current practice, that may actually provide tangible benefits in the near future. Clay ******************************************************* Clay Olbon clay.olbon(a)dynetics.com engineer, programmer, statistitian, etc. Dynetics, Inc. **********************************************tanstaafl

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Pyramid Schemes
by Benjamin Grosman 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Dear Sir, Aren't these Pyramid Schemes Illegal? Yours Sincerely, Benjamin Grosman

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

17 Dec '03

Please, remailers, source block Vulis for a week. Remailer Fan

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a retort + a comment + a question = [RANT]
by SUCRUM22_at_INDY-ADP＠smtp-gw.cv62.navy.mil 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

---------------------------------------------------------------------- tim may wrote: >"...and that discussions of other topics bother you should be a clear >indication you're probably on the wrong list." uh, that's _why_ i am on this list... >"Having a "navy.mil" domain probably is another reason, unless you >are only hear to monitor our discussions of using cryptography to >undermine the state, to liberate military secrets with BlackNet and >the Information Liberation Front, and to punish the millions of >those in the military-industrial complex who have so richly earned >their eventual punishments. military secrets, eh? tell me something mr may, what secrets have you uncovered in your undaunting quest to expose those corrupt little guys in uniform? mr may - i serve in the US Navy so you don't have to, and as much as i sometimes _don't_ like it, i will always, _always_ love the navy for what she gave me. one of the reasons you sit at your terminal drinking your coffe and ranting on and on, is because men and women like myself happen to think that what the military does for the US is a good thing. i skipped collage (don't ask why) after graduating early from HS to enlist in the navy. keeping you free to bitch is why i am here. never forget that the freedom you enjoy comes with a price, mr may. the schools that you send your kids to (forgive me if you're celibate or childless) are run by the govt. am i saying they do a good job? not necessarily, but what i _am_ saying is that your kids _still_ go. i am almost positive, despite attempts to the contrary, that you make use of the US postal system. the phone lines that you connect that computer to were installed by - guess who? - there are a hundred other things you and i and everyone use that wouldn't be there if it weren't for the USG (or state/county/municipal govt's). tell me mr may, how much of this are you willing to give up in your quest for what (i am supposing) you mean in your little blurb at the end of your mail - "collapse of governments"? the writer supposes that mr may would still be against, determined to oppose, and dedicated to the elimination of [pick something, pick anything] if govt's didn't exist. what's the quote? "i may not agree with what you say, but i defend to the death your right to say it." something like that. >Smash the State. aye, aye captain! --------------------------------------------------------------------- mark m wrote: >In order for anonymous remailers to be completely anonymous, only one >remailer in the chain has to be trustworthy. If a message is chained >through N remailers and N-1 of those remailers are run by spooks, the >anonymity of the message depends on the remaining remailer. well, actually, the first remailer has to be the trustworthy one. you send a msg to the first with your "real" address, and if the spook is there, voila! so... i understand your point, but still, it has to be the first one. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dale thorn(?) wrote: >I'm amused to think that, in a nation armed with 20,000 or so nukes, >the paranoid of paranoid nation-states as it were, some of the >erstwhile intelligent citizens think that the U.S. military are just >sitting around wringing their hands over the "fact" that the citizens >have "unbreakable" crypto. >Bear in mind the Scientific American articles on Public Key crypto >back in the 1970's. The military knew the score back then, and if >you think they just sat back and allowed all this to happen, well, >sorry, I don't believe in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. one question (sarcastic and rhetorical): how long did it take for the USG to actually acknowledge that the NSA.NRO.DIA.etc existed? hmmm.... has a segment of the populace gone stark raving paraniod? >Second, any truly secret messaging taking place represents a serious >threat to the military, and contrary to some naive popular opinion, >those guys are not going to lay down for this... what does the military have to do wiht private citizens conversing in secret? are _you_ one of the naive that think men actually in uniform controll the military? hello - the SecDef is a civillian. the president is a democrat. the military does what the white house/ congress tell it (the writer realizes this is a vastly over- simplified response to a vastly broad statement). ---------------------- SUCRUM22(a)cv62.navy.mil ----------------------- a calculated risk based on the possible consequence of an action is better than a haphazard one based on poor judgment or ignorance --------------------------------------------------------------------- Don't confuse my views with those of the DoD or the United States Navy

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ideal secure personal computer system
by tom bryce 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Here's a question: if one were designing for oneself a secure personal computer system, for use in, say, word processing, spreadsheet, communications, the usuals - what system would one purchase and how would one set it up? For example, on the Mac I would envision this as the ideal system: (1) Get a power mac (2) Partition the hard drive into two partitions: install the system folder on one and a copy of CryptDisk make this the startup partition and make it READ ONLY with aliases to folders you want to be modiyfable (such as Eudora Folder in the sys folder) place these folders on the encrypted partition (3) Completely fill the other partition with a CryptDisk file so there is no room for other stuff to be written. Adjust the partition size if needed. (4) Install a screen saver (such as shareware Eclipse) that will password lock the screen after a few minutes of inactivity, and set CryptDisk to dismount the external partition after a few minutes of inactivity (or longer) This would be a basic setup. If one had more complex ideas, such as setting it up so casual onlookers would not notice the system was protected, you could do things like have a decoy normal partition with system folder to boot from by default, to be bypassed with an external locked system folder disk, after which one could dismount the decoy partition and mount the encrypted partition. If locking the startup volume turns out to be too much of a pain, one could install trashguard from Highware software and set it to triple overwrite deleted files, and otherwise not lock the startup partition. How would things work on Windows 95? I imagine most of the old DOS-based encryption utilities may have compatibility problems with W95. What would a similar ideal system be for a PC? Tom

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Re: Why is cryptoanarchy irreversible?
by ph＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 1:02 PM 11/15/1996, Bill Frantz wrote: >At 1:44 PM 11/13/96 +0000, Adam Back wrote: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >> A very good idea. There was some discussion of this kind of thing a >> while back about doing this for Singapore. The suggestion at the time >> was not to do it perfectly, but rather to arrange something simple to >> allow people to circumvent the censorship enforced through their >> compulsory use of a government censored web proxy. > I hope it is ready. To quote from William Safire's 11/14/96 NYT column: ^^^^^^^^ > "Let's run a test. "Information Technology and Political Control in > Singapore" is a paper just issued by Prof. Gary Rodan of Murdoch University > in Perth, Australia, distribued by Chalmers Johnson of the Japan Policy > Research Institute in Cardiff, Calif. It's on this web site: > http://www.nmjc.ord/jpri/. > "If Lee blocks access, Singaporeans, try E-mail: cjohnson(a)ucsd.edu. But be > careful, global business executives: the Architect of the New Century [Lee > Kuan Yew - wsf] may be monitoring everything you download." Guess Safire hits the Cypherpunks list when he needs material! Peter

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RE: Leadership and Inscrutable Deficiencies
by Blanc Weber 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: Vladimir Z. Nuri, in his Ancient Warrior mode: I think many people need to learn a lesson that cyberspace doesn't change certain basic realities, such as how important a dynamic leader is in forward motion in any area. but they will have plenty of opportunities to learn over the next few years and decades. and I'll be snickering in the sidelines as long as they wonder aloud why their realities are as they are and they find the deficiencies therein inscrutable. ..................................................... Oh, Nuri, you're so Morally Superior and so far above us, being more "up" than anyone on inscrutable deficiencies. I find it incredible to realize that it will take *years* in cyberspace before I learn about the immutability of basic realities (and maybe about the Incommensurability of the Diagonal, too). Definitely it will be a very, very long time before I feel the need of being led (around, by the nose?), in place of exercising self-control and reasoned judgement. .. Blanc

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New Cryptography Regulations
by hallam＠vesuvius.ai.mit.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The changes themselves are pretty technical http://docs.whitehouse.gov/white-house-publications/ 1996/11/1996-11-15-exec-order-on-crypto-export-controls-administration.text http://docs.whitehouse.gov/white-house-publications/ 1996/11/1996-11-15-president-letter-on-change-in-crypto-export-control.text The main change is that from now on the decisions are to be made by the department of commerce and not by the department of state. This is probably good news since the commerce department has the interests of industry as its primary mission. There is a third document I believe but its not yet been issued. Phill

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Reminder -- DCCP Meeting on Saturday, November 16
by Declan McCullagh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- WHAT: DC Cypherpunks Meeting WHEN: Saturday, November 16, 1996 @ 3 pm WHERE: 1050 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 850, Washington, DC (Between K and L streets) WHO: From phone on eighth floor, call to be let in WHY: A description of the crypto protocols used in the SET (Secure Electronic Transaction) standard A PGP key signing HOW: Take the orange/blue line to Farragut West, walk two blocks north (past the park), 1050 Conn. Ave will be on left Take the red line to Farragut North, exit on L street at base of 1050 Conn. Ave From Baltimore, take BaltWashExpy south. It turns into New York Avenue, which turns into Massachusetts Avenue. Take Mass. Ave westbound to Dupont Circle. Then take Connecticut Avenue southbound. 1050 Conn. Ave will be about four blocks away on your right. MORE INFO: http://www.isse.gmu.edu/~pfarrell/dccp/

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Re: [REBUTTAL] Censorship on cypherpunks?, from The Netly News
by Terry Wright 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>It just "looks" that way on the net. I do live-fucking, newsgroup >flooding, mailbombing, vote-tampering and defamation all legally, >and OPENLY on the InterNet. > >The more you PGP, the worse you look. Nobody reads your e-mail, >so stop being so paranoid. > >-aga > > Who is this idiot?

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