December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

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17 Dec '03

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Dead man running; metabolism no problem to candidates
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 03:13 PM 11/3/98 -0800, Bill Stewart wrote: >On the other hand, it's still tempting to see about putting Frank Zappa >on the ballot. He is a bit metabolically challenged these days, Here in LA, we had a Dead Man Running for sheriff. This Shermie Block character croaked before the race, but his party still urged voting for him, to spite his opponent. (Some "board" would appoint a replacement, so the vote was actually for the board.)

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No Subject
by atlantis＠earthlink.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

11/04/98 Y2K Solution! 8 Pine Circle Dr., Silicon Valley, Calif. USA OTC Company "TCFG" 21 st. Century Frontier Group has through several members of their administrative research department leaked vital information about their companies efforts. Everyone was tight lipped and interviews were refused, and through un-named sources we have learned that the technology and software solution are in the process of being patented! In over 1640 trials, using various data systems the use of the new technology and software solved the Y2K problem 100% of the time. This small publicly traded company "TCFG" which is just 3 years old is through various sources now negotiating with the "Big Boys"! "TCFG" the letters to look for!

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hoping to obtains copies of documentation ...
by Steven Cooper 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

There are two informative documents available from GEMPLUS (France) as part of their development kit for their GPK4000 smartcard. 1. GPK4000 Application Notes (for public key applications) Banking, Personal Identification, Internet Transactions 2. Electronic Purse Architecture for MPCOS-EMV (for DES and 3-DES applications) Unfortunately, it the kit costs more than US$4k. Any chance some kind soul could forward a copy of these documents? If so, email me directly to make arrangements. -- scoop

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0851244.shtml
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Advertisement Welcome to Slashdot Science News Technology Star Wars Prequels The Internet faq code awards slashNET older stuff rob's page submit story book reviews user account ask slashdot advertising supporters past polls features about jobs BSI Review:Handbook of Applied Cryptography Encryption Posted by Hemos on Wednesday November 04, @08:51AM from the just-the-facts-ma'am dept. Giving some actual theory to the whole cryptography discussion, Ian S. Nelson's review of Handbook of Applied Cryptography takes a look at this veritable tome of information. This isn't a book for those of you trying to figure out exactly what the NSA actually does; this is for the real meat and numbers behind it all. Click below for more info. REVIEW: Handbook of Applied Cryptography Alfred J. Menezes, Paul C. van Oorschot, Scott A. Vanstone CRC Press (ISBN 0-8493-8523-7) Nutshell Review: Required reading for any cryptography freak. Rating: 9/10 The Scenario CRC Press has been building a series of books on discrete mathematics and its applications. Doug Stinson wrote the theory book on cryptography (Cryptography: Theory and Practice (ISBN: 0-8493-8521-0, if you don't like this book you'll vomit when you see the Stinson book) and this is the application book on cryptography. It's close to 800 pages chocked full of information. I must confess that I'm a cryptography freak and I'm a little sick of the constant political discussions and lack of tech talk, this book is all tech and might even be a little much if you're not into math. It's a wonderful companion to the Schneier books (Applied Cryptography 1st or 2nd Edition A.K.A. "the crypto bible") if you're into the nitty gritty details of cryptography. What's Bad? I really like this book and I can't find a lot that I don't like about it... but I think in places the math gets a little thick. I have a degree in math and I find myself returning to the math overview section more often than I'd like to admit. If you're not familiar with discrete math and combinatorics then this book probably isn't for you. If you enjoy that stuff, then this will be a piece of cake. If you're looking to build your crypto book library up I'd highly recommend this book before you get some of the more hard-core books. Something else I feel is lacking is cryptanalysis on ciphers. They discuss attacks on various protocols and hashes but actual attacks on ciphers are glossed over. As a companion to Cryptography: Theory and Practice, which covers cryptanalysis in more detail, it is understandable to leave that material out of this book but I think they could discuss it a little more than they do without going into specifics. The no-nonsense style can be a little dry at times, there aren't a lot of jokes or anecdotes to lighten things up in this book. What's Good? Cipher isn't spelled with a 'y' anywhere in this book. It's not filled with a lot of opinion or rumor. It doesn't hardly bring up ITAR, key escrow, or the NSA's mystical superpowers. This book is about cryptographic techniques and a listing of patents is about as political or opinionated as it gets. It is kind of like a textbook without the problems at the end of each chapter. It is written in an outline format with subitems of "Definition", "Fact", "Notes", "Example", and "Algorithm." Each subitem is followed by a few short but concise paragraphs of explanation. Plenty of charts and figures fill the pages and everything is explained well. While it lacks source code, there is certainly enough information for you to implement any of the ciphers, hashes, or protocols covered. It even includes some test vectors for a lot of the algorithms. So What's In It For Me? If you want to learn about cryptography, not the politics but the actual technology, then this is a great book to get before you get over your head. It's very readable and while the math can be a little heavy in places it is accessible and useful. It gives you a good flavor of how more advanced papers and books on the subject are and it avoids the nonacademic discussions surrounding cryptography. To pick this book up, head over to Amazon and help Slashdot out. Table of Contents 1. Overview of Cryptography 1. Introduction 2. Information Security and Cryptography 3. Background on Functions 4. Basic Terminology and Concepts 5. Symmetric-key Encryption 6. Digital Signatures 7. Authentication and Identification 8. Public-key Cryptography 9. Hash Functions 10. Protocols and mechanisms 11. Key establishment, management, and certification 12. Pseudorandom numbers and sequences 13. Classes of attacks and security models 14. Notes and further references 2. Mathematical Background 1. Probability theory 2. Information theory 3. Complexity theory 4. Number theory 5. Abstract algebra 6. Finite fields 7. Notes and further references 3. Number-Theoretic Reference Problems 1. Introduction and overview 2. The integer factorization problem 3. The RSA problem 4. The quadratic residuosity problem 5. Computing Square roots in Zn 6. The Discrete logarithm problem 7. The Diffie-Hellman problem 8. Composite moduli 9. Computing individual bits 10. The subset sum problem 11. Factoring polynomials over finite fields 12. Notes and further references 4. Public-Key Parameters 1. Introduction 2. Probabilistic primality tests 3. (True)Primality tests 4. Prime number generation 5. Irreducible polynomials over Zp 6. Generators and elements of high order 7. Notes and further references 5. Pseudorandom Bits and Sequences 1. Introduction 2. Random bit generation 3. Pseudorandom bit generation 4. Statistical tests 5. Cryptographically secure pseudorandom bit generation 6. Notes and further references 6. Stream Ciphers 1. Introduction 2. Feedback shift registers 3. Stream ciphers based on LFSRs 4. Other stream ciphers 5. Notes and further references 7. Block Ciphers 1. Introduction 2. Background and general concepts 3. Classical ciphers and historical development 4. DES 5. FEAL 6. IDEA 7. SAFER, RC5, and other block ciphers 8. Notes and further references 8. Public-Key Encryption 1. Introduction 2. RSA public-key encryption 3. Rabin public-key encryption 4. ElGamal public-key encryption 5. McElliece public-key encryption 6. Knapsack public-key encryption 7. Probabilistic public-key encryption 8. Notes and further references 9. Hash Functions and Data Integrity 1. Introduction 2. Classification and framework 3. Basic constructions and general results 4. Unkeyed hash functions (MDCs) 5. Keyed hash functions (MACs) 6. Data integrity and message authentication 7. Advanced attacks on hash functions 8. Notes and further references 10. Identification and Entity Authentication 1. Introduction 2. Passwords (weak authentication) 3. Challenge-response identification (strong authentication) 4. Customized zero-knowledge identification protocols 5. Attacks on identification protocols 6. Notes and further references 11. Digital Signatures 1. Introduction 2. A framework for digital signature mechanisms 3. RSA and related signature schemes 4. Fiat-Shamir signature schemes 5. The DSA and related signature schemes 6. One-time digital signatures 7. Other signatures schemes 8. Signatures with additional functionality 9. Notes and further references 12. Key Establishment Protocols 1. Introduction 2. Classification and framework 3. Key transport based on symmetric encryption 4. Key agreement based on symmetric techniques 5. Key transport based on public-key encryption 6. Key agreement based on asymmetric techniques 7. Secret Sharing 8. Conference Keying 9. Analysis of key establishment protocols 10. Notes and further references 13. Key Management Techniques 1. Introduction 2. Background and basic concepts 3. Techniques for distributing confidential keys 4. Techniques for distributing public keys 5. Techniques for controlling key usage 6. Key management involving multiple domains 7. Key life cycle issues 8. Advanced trusted third party services 9. Notes and further references 14. Efficient Implementation 1. Introduction 2. Multiple-precision integer arithmetic 3. Multiple-precision modular arithmetic 4. Greatest common divisor algorithms 5. Chinese remainder theorem for integers 6. Exponentiation 7. Exponent recoding 8. Notes and further references 15. Patents and Standards 1. Introduction 2. Patents on cryptographic techniques 3. Cryptographic standards 4. Notes and further references 16. Appendix A: Bibligraphy of Papers from Selected Cryptographic Forums 1. Asiacrypt/Auscrypt Proceedings 2. Crypto Proceedings 3. Eurocrypt Proceedings 4. Fast Software Encryption Proceedings 5. Journal of Cryptology papers < The demise of Crack.com | Reply | Flattened | 50 Gb drives from Seagate > Related Links Slashdot Cryptography: Theory and Practice book Amazon Ian S. Nelson's NSA More on Encryption Also by Hemos [INLINE] Amazon Info The books here are brought to us in Partnership with Amazon.com. If you follow the links around here, and eventually buy a book, we get a percentage of the cost! Want books about any of these things? Perl, Linux, Unix, Gardening, CGI, Java? Still not finding what you're looking for? Visit Amazon.com from this link, and we still get some credit. Or you could even Search Amazon using this convenient form: ____________________ ______ [INLINE] The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. Slashdot is not responsible for what they say. < Down One | This Page's Threshold: 0 | Up One > (Warning:this stuff is extremely beta right now) Amazon.com confuses "Applied Cryptography" with "H by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 04, @09:09AM For those of you who order the Handbook of Applied Cryptography, don't be suprised if amazon sends you Bruce Schneiers "Applied Cryptography" instead.....its happened to me and another person I know.. [ Reply to this ] politics / history is relevant (Score:1) by harshaw on Wednesday November 04, @10:00AM (User Info) On of the great things about Schneier's Applied Cryptography was how he intertwined the mathematics with the political ramifications of the particular crypto algorithm. I think the study of Crypto needs to be tightly coupled with an understanding of the societal / political issues around it. For instance, you can't simply implement 128 bit RC5 in your product and ship it of to Iraq without having RSA (for patent violations) and the NSA (for the obvious reasons) come down on your head. IMO, Crypto is a VERY tough subject and requires an intense amount of study to understand the math. If the text you are studying is dry and lacking wit or humor, it makes the job even harder :( [ Reply to this ] * politics / history is relevant by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 04, @11:57AM Loved it! I laughed! I cried! (Score:1) by bobse on Wednesday November 04, @11:14AM (User Info) What I liked was the way that each algorithm was reviewed in a very consistent manner. Most algorithms were described not just with words and mathematics (which is good), but also with pseudocode (which is great if you are actually trying to implement this stuff). The consistent, itemized format also allows you to compare the strengths/weaknesses of different algorithms yourself, instead of relying on someone else to do it for you. Very cool. 9.5/10 [ Reply to this ] Price Check (Score:1) by Ralph Bearpark on Wednesday November 04, @12:15PM (User Info) As an onging service to /. readers ... Amazon = $84.95 BarnesAndNoble = $109.50 (HAHAHAHA!) Shopping books = $71.96 Spree books = $67.99 (Is it my imagination, or is /. reviewing increasingly expensive, non-Amazon-discounted books? Surely not. :-)) Regards, Ralph. [ Reply to this ] * Price Check by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 04, @01:12PM The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. Slashdot is not responsible for what they say. < Down One | This Page's Threshold: 0 | Up One > (Warning:this stuff is extremely beta right now) ____________________ ______ All newspaper editorial writers ever do is come down from the hills after the battle is over and shoot the wounded. All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest &copy 1998 Rob Malda. [ home | awards | supporters | rob's homepage | contribute story | older articles | advertising | past polls | about | faq | BSI ]

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MS "halloween" doc, vs. linux
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

some people objected to my last post ranting about MS tactics relative to the browser market. there has been a remarkable development that shows how MS deliberately attempts to "sabotage" markets through FUD etc.... an internal policy memo that discusses their tactics leaked to the public.. good article on Slate about how MS is attempting to sabotage the growth of new free linux software through a systematic strategy of "decommoditizing" or "embrace and extend" where some people call this "copy and corrupt": http://www.salonmagazine.com/21st/ if MS's strategies in the world were as simple as "make good products so people will buy them", who could complain? but they constantly see software development as trench warfare and a bloody, no-hold-barred melee. I'm positive they will be chastised after this antitrust trial finishes.. we'll see..

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No Subject
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

To: efc-talk(a)efc.ca From: David Jones <djones(a)efc.ca> Date: Mon, 2 Nov 1998 11:21:57 -0500 (EST) Seems a bit strange that just when the private sector is recognizing that smart cards are not yet ready for prime time, the Ontario government is gearing up to launch a "universal smart card" for the delivery of government services. But don't worry, the government smart card will be better than Mondex ... it will have biometric identification. ;-) Ontario considering smart cards http://www.efc.ca/pages/media/national-post.30oct98.html Mondex pulls plug on Guelph pilot project http://www.efc.ca/pages/media/globe.01nov98.html Old-fashioned cash outsmarts smart card http://www.efc.ca/pages/media/national-post.01nov98a.html

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DigiCash Inc. to File Reorganization, Seeks Partners to Drive eCash Forward
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text Reply-To: <sjl(a)sjl.net> From: "Scott Loftesness" <sjl(a)sjl.net> To: <dbs(a)philodox.com> Subject: DigiCash Inc. to File Reorganization, Seeks Partners to Drive eCash Forward Date: Wed, 4 Nov 1998 12:32:56 -0800 Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-Msmail-Priority: Normal Importance: Normal X-Mimeole: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.3110.3 Sender: <dbs(a)philodox.com> Precedence: Bulk List-Subscribe: <mailto:requests@philodox.com?subject=subscribe%20dbs> X-Web-Archive: http://www.philodox.com/dbs-archive/ FYI... DigiCash Inc. to File Reorganization, Seeks Partners to Drive eCash Forward PALO ALTO, CALIF.--November 4, 1998 DigiCash Inc. has announced that it is entering into a Chapter 11 reorganization to allow it to pursue strategic alternatives for its electronic cash ("eCash" ) products and the associated intellectual assets pioneered by DigiCash. According to Scott Loftesness, interim CEO of DigiCash, "The company is exploring a range of potential alternatives including working with major strategic players to finance the market development of eCash or the sale and/or licensing of the Company's intellectual property portfolio." Loftesness added, "eCash, as it has been developed by DigiCash, is an important and inevitable payment solution in the world of global electronic commerce." The DigiCash payment solution is currently in use by leading banks in Europe and Australia. These banks have deployed the DigiCash eCash solution and continue to add to their respective consumer and merchant eCash acceptance networks. DigiCash's eCash payment solution offers a secure, low cost and private payment option to consumers for payments of any amount. The intellectual property owned by DigiCash consists of a series of patents, protocols, and software systems that were specifically designed to be privacy protecting for consumers and which also enable other applications like online electronic voting. The ability to pay privately, without revealing personal information, and avoiding the capture of personal transaction information for marketing or other subsequent uses is a growing concern among consumers globally. Contact: Scott Loftesness: (650) 798-8183 or via email: sjl(a)sjl.net --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)philodox.com> Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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IP: ISPI Clips 6.05: U. of T. Students Question Smartcard Technology & Privacy
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: "ama-gi ISPI" <offshore(a)email.msn.com> Subject: IP: ISPI Clips 6.05: U. of T. Students Question Smartcard Technology & Privacy Date: Tue, 3 Nov 1998 00:19:58 -0800 To: <Undisclosed.Recipients(a)majordomo.pobox.com> ISPI Clips 6.05: U. of T. Students Question Smartcard Technology & Privacy News & Info from the Institute for the Study of Privacy Issues (ISPI) Tuesday November 3, 1998 ISPI4Privacy(a)ama-gi.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This From: WIRED News, November 2, 1998 http://www.wired.com Students Wonder: How Smart? http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/15978.html by Marlene Blanshay, blanshay(a)total.net TORONTO -- A coalition of University of Toronto students is leading an open forum on smartcard technology Monday to discuss concerns that a new campus card program may be compromising their privacy. The T-card pilot project began last year when the university distributed 45,000 smartcards to students, staff, and faculty. Like many students across the US, where such programs are common, the 39,000 Toronto volunteers were sold on the convenience of having all their ID combined on a single piece of plastic. "[Students] don't have to carry around so many cards," said University of Toronto registrar Karel Swift, the chairwoman of the school's T-card implementation committee. Not everybody feels that way. The university says it has been open about the new program, but some students feel that the school has not been up front with them about what is being done with information on purchases made with the card. "We just want some answers," said James Hooch of the Identity Technology Working Group, the coalition of students and faculty that will host Monday's forum. "We feel we are being used as a captive market." Andrew Clement, a professor of information studies at the University of Toronto, said the university has an obligation to be more open about the project. "We don't think they are up to some nefarious scheme," said Clement, moderator of Monday's forum. "But they are implementing the new technology, which is going to be used in a wider setting, and should be setting a good example." Nevertheless, Swift said that students have not been left out of the process. "We consulted with student reps when the project was under consideration," Swift said. She added that the university has privacy policy and that their records are protected by a rigorous access to information policy. Some still worry that the university, in the interest of efficiency, is introducing a new technology without looking at the potential uses or misuses. "There is a lot of concern among the students about collection of information for purposes they are not aware of," says Jack Dimond, the university's commissioner for freedom of information and privacy. "My concern is that as smartcards are used more, there is a procedure of review of information it collects. When you begin using the new applications, you have to look at them closely." One freedom and privacy advocate encourages students to boycott the cards. "[Students] should just say, 'I refuse to use this card for any cash purchases until you tell me where this info is going and what you're doing with it,'" said David Jones, president of Electronic Frontier Canada. Copyright © 1994-98 Wired Digital Inc. --------------------------------NOTICE:------------------------------ ISPI Clips are news & opinion articles on privacy issues from all points of view; they are clipped from local, national and international newspapers, journals and magazines, etc. Inclusion as an ISPI Clip does not necessarily reflect an endorsement of the content or opinion by ISPI. In compliance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed free without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ISPI Clips is a FREE e-mail service from the "Institute for the Study of Privacy Issues" (ISPI). To receive "ISPI Clips" on a regular bases (up to 3 - 8 clips per day) send the following message "Please enter [Your Name] into the ISPI Clips list: [Your e-mail address]" to: ISPIClips(a)ama-gi.com . The Institute for the Study of Privacy Issues (ISPI) is a small contributor-funded organization based in Victoria, British Columbia (Canada). ISPI operates on a not-for-profit basis, accepts no government funding and takes a global perspective. ISPI's mandate is to conduct & promote interdisciplinary research into electronic, personal and financial privacy with a view toward helping ordinary people understand the degree of privacy they have with respect to government, industry and each other and to likewise inform them about techniques to enhance their privacy. But, none of this can be accomplished without your kind and generous financial support. If you are concerned about the erosion of your privacy in general, won't you please help us continue this important work by becoming an "ISPI Supporter" or by taking out an institute Membership? We gratefully accept all contributions: Less than $60 ISPI Supporter $60 - $99 Primary ISPI Membership (1 year) $100 - $300 Senior ISPI Membership (2 years) More than $300 Executive Council Membership (life) Your ISPI "membership" contribution entitles you to receive "The ISPI Privacy Reporter" (our bi-monthly 12 page hard-copy newsletter in multi-contributor format) for the duration of your membership. For a contribution form with postal instructions please send the following message "ISPI Contribution Form" to ISPI4Privacy(a)ama-gi.com . We maintain a strict privacy policy. Any information you divulge to ISPI is kept in strict confidence. It will not be sold, lent or given away to any third party. **************************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address or (un)subscribe ignition-point-digest email@address **************************************************** www.telepath.com/believer ****************************************************

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IP: [FP] L.A. DMV Tries to Stem the Tide of Fake Licenses
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: "ScanThisNews" <mcdonalds(a)airnet.net> Subject: IP: [FP] L.A. DMV Tries to Stem the Tide of Fake Licenses Date: Mon, 2 Nov 1998 22:30:13 -0600 To: ignition-point(a)majordomo.pobox.com SCAN THIS NEWS [This is a little dated, but well worth reading] -------------------------------------------- Sunday, April 5, 1998 DMV Tries to Stem the Tide of Fake Licenses Crime: Demand for IDs fuels counterfeiting rings and corruption inside the agency. Officials respond with anti-tampering features, more monitoring of workers. By VIRGINIA ELLIS, Times Staff Writer SACRAMENTO - The California driver's license's preeminence as a form of identification has spawned a thriving black market for fraudulent licenses and a major corruption scandal in the state's motor vehicle department, records and interviews show. In recent years, as the lowly driver's license has been redesigned to make it more tamper-resistant, the card has increasingly become the dominant piece of identification for cashing checks, obtaining credit and securing government services. This, in turn, has caused the black market value for licenses to soar, providing a catalyst for counterfeiting and bribery of Department of Motor Vehicles employees. Scores of DMV workers in offices from San Diego to Sacramento already have been caught illegally issuing driver's licenses, and officials say many more are under investigation. "We have, in effect, created a cottage industry," said Steve Solem, a DMV deputy director. "A lot of different changes have been evolving over the years that have made...people feel the need to get a driver's license at any cost." As a result, officials report that: * Counterfeiting rings operate in every large city in the state, serving up fake licenses of varying quality for sale on the streets. In Los Angeles, business is so competitive that state investigators say a prospective customer can bargain for the best price. A counterfeit identification package, including a license, usually sells for $100, but state agents have paid as little as $35. * At many of the DMV's busiest offices, scam artists make use of loopholes in procedures to get legitimate licenses, which are then peddled to undocumented immigrants or suspended drivers. In Santa Clara County, a four-month surveillance of DMV offices recently led to 26 felony and 16 misdemeanor arrests for using false documents to obtain driver's licenses. * In the past two years, 144 DMV employees were fired or otherwise disciplined for illegal activity, primarily driver's license fraud. Most cases were referred for prosecution. The corruption affected more than a third of the DMV offices. "It's by far the biggest scandal and case of severe corruption in my 16 years here," said state Sen. Steve Peace (D-El Cajon), who heads a legislative task force on personal privacy. "It's not a single organized entity. It's a number of entrepreneurial criminal activities." Late this year, officials plan to begin issuing new licenses with even more sophisticated anti-tampering features to help stem the tide of license-related crime. Among the features will be a tiny ghost image designed to make it harder to substitute one person's photo for another. "You've got to be as technologically alert as the criminals out there," said DMV Director Sally Reed. "You've got to keep changing the license. You've got to keep changing your practices." Complicating the task is an overwhelming DMV workload. The department licenses more than 20 million California drivers, issues more than 6 million new licenses and identification cards a year, and operates 172 licensing centers around the state. How many fake and fraudulent licenses may be in circulation is impossible to calculate. But state officials say the problem is rampant, its impact on society insidious. A fraudulent driver's license that is used to steal someone's identity can cause years of frustration as the victim suddenly finds his or her credit destroyed. Or the fake license can put a convicted drunk driver back on the highway, where the next accident may cause someone's death. The role of the driver's license in criminal activity was heightened not only by the technological changes that made it so widely accepted, but by governmental decisions to use it as a tool for punishment. New laws have made a larger and larger pool of people susceptible to losing their license for activities unrelated to driving. The license can be suspended for spraying graffiti, failure to pay child support, truancy and certain kinds of prostitution. And immigrants who lack proper proof of residency cannot be issued one. "If you're a drunk driver, you want a fake ID," said Alison Koch, a senior special investigator for the DMV in Sacramento. "If you're in a gang, you want a fake ID. If you're a deadbeat dad, you want a fake ID. If you're an illegal alien, you want a fake ID. If you want to commit check or credit card fraud, you want a fake ID. "There is hardly a crime out there that doesn't demand some kind of fraudulent identification." For many minor crimes, she said, a bogus license - even a poor one - is all the fraud artist needs. The quick glance that many business people give the license before cashing a check or accepting a credit card is not enough to discern that it's fake. For more sophisticated crimes, said Vito Scattaglia, an area commander for DMV investigators in Los Angeles, criminals want the real thing - and this demand for legitimate licenses has put heavy pressure on low-level state employees to commit fraud. "When you have a technician who is making $2,000 to $2,400 a month and you have an individual who is willing to pay $1,000 to process one driver's license, you don't have to be a genius to figure out how tempting that is," he said. But Peace, the state senator, said high-level officials did not recognize how extensively their department had been infiltrated by criminals until an embarrassing KCBS-TV Channel 2 report last year caught a DMV employee on camera processing illegal licenses. Until the Los Angeles broadcast, only a handful of DMV investigators had been monitoring employee fraud, and they were struggling with a huge backlog. Then Reed temporarily assigned 213 DMV investigators to employee fraud and announced that it would be the agency's No. 1 priority. The results were staggering. Using everything from surveillance to informants, investigators caught dozens of DMV employees around the state processing illegal licenses. Many were teamed up with grifters on the outside, who usually worked the DMV parking lots, preying mostly on immigrants who would be guaranteed a license for about $1,000 to $2,000. Typical was the case of an 18-year Torrance employee who was targeted after a DMV computer in Sacramento showed irregularities in licenses he had issued. After investigators interviewed dozens of his customers, the employee was charged with computer fraud and altering public records. "The first person I interviewed, I knew I was on the right trail," recalled Ken Erickson, a senior DMV special investigator. "The customer was honest. He said, 'Yeah, I'm here illegally and I can't read or write either English or Spanish.'" But, Erickson said, data the Torrance employee had entered into the DMV computer stated that the man was a legal resident of California who had passed the written driver's test in English. Investigators searched the employee's car and found $14,280 in cash stashed behind the front seat, Erickson said. They estimated that over a 15-month period he had improperly issued at least 70 licenses. After pleading no contest to two felony counts, he was fined $14,280 and placed on three years probation. He also was fired and barred from future government employment. The employee fraud, Peace said, is "not some sort of single grand conspiracy with a godfather sitting on top pulling levers." "What it has been is a culture within the department that has allowed for a whole variety of entrepreneurial criminal behavior. It was a culture which says, 'I've got my little deal and you've got yours. Don't mess with mine and I won't mess with yours.'" Although the problem predated Reed's appointment as director, Peace faulted her for initially disbelieving it and being "slow to react" until the television report. Reed acknowledged the bad publicity was a wake-up call but disputed Peace's contention the DMV has a culture of corruption, saying the vast majority of the DMV's 8,600 workers are law-abiding. A spokesman for the California State Employees Assn., which represents DMV employees, accused the department of overreacting. He said the crackdown has destroyed worker morale and become so broad that "it could very likely be called a witch hunt." Investigators concede that corruption within the DMV probably pales compared to that on the outside. Richard Steffen, chief consultant for a legislative task force investigating state government, said crime rings are able to get legitimate licenses simply by knowing how to work the system. He said they know, for example, that photos and thumbprints are not taken until the end of the licensing procedure, a process tailor-made for the use of ringers. The ringer takes the driver's test, then the customer comes in the next day and completes the process. "There is a pattern here that is known on the street," said Steffen, who is preparing to release a report on the DMV. "It's not like masterminds come up with this." Birth certificates, which the DMV requires, are easily counterfeited, and phony ones are hard to spot, officials said. The appearance of birth certificates varies from state to state and sometimes, as in California, from county to county. Adding to the problem is California's open birth certificate procedure, which allows virtually anyone to get a certified copy of anyone else's birth record. One team of ringers arrested by the California Highway Patrol was found with counterfeit birth certificates from Oklahoma, Utah, New York and Texas, according to Bruce Wong, a senior DMV investigator in San Jose. "They were driving up the state from Southern California, stopping at different DMV offices and submitting license applications under different names," he said. "In one day of driving, they had accumulated eight different instructional permits, which they could then sell along with the counterfeit birth certificate." Solem said some loopholes in licensing procedures will be closed when the department begins issuing the new licenses and taking photos and thumbprints at the beginning of the process. "But this is a problem that's going to be with us," he added. "Government does something and the crooks figure a way around it and then government catches up. It goes on and on." Scattaglia said much of the counterfeiting may have its roots south of the border, but no one knows for sure because investigators have only been able to arrest the sellers, not the suppliers. "We have gone into places and recovered sheets and sheets of holograms and state seals - literally a setup [for] putting a license together," he said. "But we've never found the commercial facility that has the printing presses and all the orders. The informants we have all indicated that that place is somewhere in Mexico." Beth Givens, director of the San Diego-based Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a consumer information and advocacy program, predicted that driver's license fraud will always be difficult to control because it's not a violent crime and punishment is light. "If these criminals happened to break and enter or use a gun, it would be one thing," she said. "But because they're using paper and documents, they're not seen as a threat to society." Banking officials are starting to rethink their heavy reliance on the driver's license. "That's certainly a trend that's underway because they are increasingly fake," said Gregory Wilhelm, lobbyist for the California Bankers Assn. 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