December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: rant on the morality of confidentiality
by Tim May 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 3:26 PM -0800 1/8/98, David Miller wrote: >Tim May wrote: > >> Consider Andrew Wiles, Princeton math professor, and the prover of Fermat's >> Last Theorem. He labored in secrecy for many years, only going public when >> he felt his results were complete. (As it turned out, they were not, and he >> needed another year or two to fill in some gaps.) > >You may have seen the same TV show I saw on him. I really enjoyed it. No, I didn't get my information from television. I presume you mean the "Nova" show some months back. >Is there any evidence that he got (ahem) outside funding for his project? >In the back of my paranoid mind, I wondered that since he was dealing with >elliptic curves and modular arithmetic if... I mean, how did he pay his >mortgage? The show implied that he was not doing any real teaching most >of that time, and if no one at the school knew of his work, then where was >the money coming from? Why don't you use the Web and report what you find? I'm not inclined to go out and do this research to answer your questions. (I just found 800 hits on his name, including biographical material.) If, by the way, you are surmising that he may've received NSA funding, this seems dubious. Just because "elliptic functions" are involved.... In any case, his salary was paid by Princeton for most or all of those years. As he had no equipment to buy, no students to support...his costs were low. --Tim May The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^2,976,221 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Question on U.S. Postal Service and crypto
by Declan McCullagh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

This is for a story for Time on the "new" U.S .Postal Service. I vaguely recall the USPS trying to set digital signature standards and/or serve as a CA. I'd like to mention this. Can't remember the details, though. Does anyone have 'em (or a pointer to them) handy? -Declan

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WHY NOT GIVE ME A CALL.......
by 30469616＠juno.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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No Subject
by jalonz＠openworld.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

># SAN DIEGO DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE. ># ># Computer Security - Provide computer security assistance in criminal ># investigations. Tasks include data decryption, recovering erased data, ># password retrieval, data line monitoring, and protected system entry. > >Isn't that last item special? > >---guy > > And a possible reason for heading the other way. guy, tough noogies deal with it... Notice the words "criminal investigations"? God forbid talent could actually be used for a good cause. The incidents in question were actually quite serious (Chinese mafia money laundering via phony real estate deals) and not at all like the porno bbs confiscation crap you'd be thinking of. Besides the DA office reference (I can completely understand about that one), which was consulting work, what's your point in laying someone's life out on a page? Who cares? Yeah, its a lot of stuff, I just happen to work for start-up companies and thus I jump around a lot - given that most of them never make it due to one problem or another. :) jqz

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Re: Silly Shrinkwrapped Encryption
by jim＠mentat.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Eric Cordian says: > Could someone poke through Lotus Notes with a debugger and see exactly how > this "giving 24 bits to the government" is implemented? Lotus produced a "backgrounder" called "Differential Workfactor Cryptography" when they first promulgated the 64/40 stuff. It says (in part): We do that by encrypting 24 of the 64 bits under a public RSA key provided by the U.S. government and binding the encrypted partial key to the encrypted data. I haven't seen the USG RSA key -- if it's 512 bits, that would be a humorous next factoring target. Jim Gillogly 15 Afteryule S.R. 1998, 20:02 12.19.4.14.15, 12 Men 13 Kankin, Seventh Lord of Night

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Re: rant on the morality of confidentiality
by Jim Gillogly 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Vladimir Z. Nuri wrote: > scientists who agree to government secrecy to develop > their inventions are agreeing to a lot more than > mere secrecy. they are committing to a paradigm that > is at odds with science itself, which only advances through > the open literature. Why limit your annoyance to government scientists? Scientists in private industry are in the same position, developing (e.g.) algorithms and analytical methods protected by trade secrets. Society recognizes this tendency and tries to advance science anyway by offering patent protection. You don't make money by giving away your intellectual capital. Seems to me that schools and independently wealthy scientists/foundations are the only ones who don't merit your censure on this count. -- Jim Gillogly Trewesday, 17 Afteryule S.R. 1998, 13:04 12.19.4.14.17, 1 Caban 15 Kankin, Ninth Lord of Night

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Austin Cypherpunks - Physical Meeting - Sat. Jan. 17, 1998
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi, The Austin Cypherpunks will be holding a physical meeting on Saturday, January 17th, 1998. It will be from 6-7pm at Flipnotics on Barton Springs Rd. The meeting is open to all. If you would like directions please send a note to austin-cpunks(a)ssz.com. ____________________________________________________________________ | | | Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make | | violent revolution inevitable. | | | | John F. Kennedy | | | | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http://www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage(a)ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|

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Fast Elliptic Curve Math
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

7 January 1998, Nikkei Industrial Daily Toshiba Unveils Fast Formula For Elliptic-Curve Cryptography Tokyo -- Toshiba Corp. has developed an arithmetic formula which it claims offers the world's fastest processes of elliptic-curve cryptography. The formula cuts processing time by almost half from current methods used in elliptic-curve systems. Toshiba's formula is based on the Montgomery arithmetic system, a special method of calculation which requires no division. Elliptic-curve cryptography is considerably faster than the Rivest Shamir Adleman (RSA) system currently in common use. Toshiba hopes to apply the system in a wide range of fields, including corporate information systems and electronic commerce. ----- Is there other information on this?

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No Subject
by Mix 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Tim C. May's reheated, refurbished, and regurgitated cud is completely inappropriate for the mailing lists into which it is cross-ruminated. | | | O | Tim C. May (--|--) | / \

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"Trade a Tape, Go to Jail?" from Wired News
by Declan McCullagh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 8 Jan 1998 18:46:37 -0500 From: Steve Silberman <digaman(a)wired.com> To: declan(a)well.com Subject: Re: FC: How long you'll be in jail for copyright violations Declan: An interesting corrollary to the Netly story - I wrote an article for Wired News today that might be of interest to anyone who trades tapes on the Net, especially those who post their "lists" to the Web and accept cash for trades - even when there is no profit involved. "Trade a Tape, Go to Jail?" http://www.wired.com/news/news/culture/story/9532.html Steve ********************************** Steve Silberman Senior Culture Writer WIRED News http://www.wired.com/ ***********************************

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