December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: NZ or LA in Y2K
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:51 AM 12/1/98 -0600, Igor Chudov @ home wrote: >I am now considering another possibility: what happens if the power DOES >NOT go out? What would the gunnuts do? Um, start shooting the insulators and pole-transformers? :-P Or, if the power does go out but >looting does not start, would the gunnuts shoot some blacks that they >mistake for "looters" but who are just walking down the streets? Now you're confusing arms fanciers and survivalists with violent racists. Get a grip.

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New Brady Bill Implications
by Carol Anne Cypherpunk 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 I'm watching Headline News, and they are reporting that "now", under new provisions in the Brady Bill, and 'instant' background check is being made. This even is for simple rifles and shotguns. Just think, soon there might be 'instant' background checks, even just to use simple 56 bit DES. Or somewhere lurking around in your browser code, a teeny tiny program that sends a cookie to the NSA, FBI, etc every time you use crypto. Who knows, it's probably there already. Or a realtime NCIS check to buy a copy of PGP! Wild! cab8 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP Personal Privacy 6.0 Comment: PGP 6.0 is the "The Living End". iQA/AwUBNmOomDiM2656VXArEQLQRQCgg3l0PO8DOzkj/7McAUI8gQSC03cAnRhk AybC39FkOKoV7ZQUvJcuFTT8 =9sxR -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Member Internet Society - Certified Mining Co. Guide - Webmistress *********************************************************************** Carol Anne Braddock (cab8) carolann(a)censored.org 206.165.50.96 http://www.primenet.com/~carolab http://www.ozones.com/~drozone - The Cyberdoc *********************************************************************** Will lobby Congress for Food & Expenses!!!

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SASMF, Part 2
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Space Aliens Stole My Freedom, Part 2 Know Your Spineless SheepleNeighbor(TM) If the banks can be required to Know Their Customers, maybe you can be required to Know Your Neighbor. This is already an established system in Cuba, so importing it should be cheap, fast and easy. ----- "Know Your Neighbor" Requirements AGENCY: Federal Bureau of Investigation ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking. SUMMARY: The FBI is proposing to issue regulations requiring FBI-supervised citizen-residents to develop and maintain "Know Your Neighbor" programs. As proposed, the regulations would require each citizen-resident to develop a program designed to determine the identity of its neighbors; determine its neighbors' sources of gossip and political views; determine the normal and expected comings and goings of its neighbors; monitor household activity for things that are inconsistent with those normal and expected activities; and report any activities of its customers that are determined to be suspicious, in accordance with the FBI's existing suspicious activity reporting regulations. By requiring citizen- residents to determine the identity of their neighbors, as well as to obtain knowledge regarding the legitimate activities of their neighbors, the proposed regulations will reduce the likelihood that citizen- residents will become unwitting participants in illicit activities conducted or attempted by their neighbors. It also will level the playing field between citizen-residents that already have adopted formal Know Your Neighbor programs and those that have not. --- Minimum steps to take to comply with the Know Your Customer rule. Identify the neighbor. Paragraph (d)(2)(i) requires that the Know Your Neighbor program provide a system for determining the true identity of prospective neighbors. If a citizen-resident has reasonable cause to believe that it lacks sufficient information to know the identity of an existing neighbor, paragraph (d)(4)(ii)(A) also requires that the program provide a system for determining the identity of that neighbor. --- Determine the source of people and property. Paragraph (d)(2)(ii) requires that the Know Your Neighbor program provide a system for determining the source of a neighbor's possessions and household members. The amount of information needed to do this can depend on the type of neighbor in question. Determine normal and expected comings and goings. Paragraph (d)(2)(iii) requires that the Know Your Neighbor program provide a system for determining a neighbor's normal and expected comings and goings involving the citizen-resident. A citizen-resident's understanding of a neighbor's normal and expected comings and goings should be based on information obtained both when a neighbor relationship is established and during a reasonable period of time thereafter. It also should be based on normal comings and goings for similarly situated neighbors. Without this information, a citizen- resident is unable to identify suspicious comings and goings. Determine if activity should be reported. Once an activity is identified as inconsistent with normal and expected behavior, paragraph (d)(2)(v) requires that a citizen-resident determine if the activity warrants the filing of a Suspicious Activity Report. This is consistent with a citizen-resident's existing obligations under 12 CFR 353.3(a). --- A. Reasons for and objectives of the proposed rule. The proposed Know Your Neighbor rule is designed to deter and detect neighborhood crimes, such as plots to establish "Constitutional government," gathering of information about alleged "crimes" committed by government agents, and meeting to discuss subversive literature such as the Constitution. B. Requirements of the proposed rule. The proposed rule would require citizen-residents to identify their neighbors, determine their neighbors' normal and expected activities, determine their neighbors' sources of possessions and household members, monitor neighbors' activities to find those that are not normal and expected, and, for activities that are not normal and expected, identify which are suspicious. Know Your Neighbor monitoring would be similar to monitoring that citizen-residents already do. For example, citizen-residents monitor neighbor activities to ensure that comings and goings exceeding 100 per month are reported under the Neighborhood Secrecy Act, to ensure that neighbors do not overuse their driveways and sidewalks, and to ensure that required comings and goings accurate and timely. ----- Editor's Note: The worst part of this parody is that it's true. Cuba, like most communist dictatorships, has a highly developed system of block watchers. They are responsible for all of the foregoing, making their reports to the secret police. The U.S. government is instituting a system of "bank account watchers," toadies in the supine, excruciatingly closely regulated banking industry, who will have to "know you," get to know your normal and expected bank account activity, and watch your bank account activity to detect and report "Suspicious Transactions." Welkomm to Orwell's 1984. Welkomm to Nazi Amerika. Hold your arm out straight... there... this will just sting a bit... Does anyone not get it yet? There is _nothing_ in the Constitution that gives the federal government any power to subject the American people to financial surveillance, to restrict or require reporting of cash transactions in any quantities, to restrict or encumber firearms ownership to anyone not actually serving time in a prison, or to do _any_ of the onerous abominations being thrust upon us in new and terrible forms almost daily. Does anyone not get it yet? The federal government is forfeiting, just as fast as its android minions can think up new ways to do it, its last shreds of any claim to legitimacy. They may as well fly the skull and crossbones over government buildings. Their occupation army of marauding thugs is _here_, bringing to ghastly life the very words of the bill of particulars laid against King George III of England by the Founders of this now-decayed, now-corrupt, hollow Republic, in the Declaration of Independence. Do they _never_ learn? (Obviously not) Will we _have_ to go through it all again? (Obviously yes) Has the line been crossed? (Obviously yes) Has force been initiated? (Obviously yes) Has the federal government placed itself outside the law? (Obviously yes) So be it. Cry "Havoc!" and let loose the dogs of war. The Revolution is upon us. We have nothing to lose but our imminent slavery. Sam Adams has a piece of advice: Keep your own counsel. Translation: Do your own thing and don't look to prop up your courage with the flawed courage and lack of trustworthiness of others. Don't be a groupie -- be a commando. Required re-reading: http://www.dhc.net/~toarms/henry.htm FuckingFedUpMonger

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Check out the New ZDNet and ZDTV Forums!
by ZDNet Announce 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Dear Forum Member: If you are reading this message, you are a participant in the ZDNet or ZDTV message boards (a.k.a. ZDNet Forums or Community). I would like to take this opportunity to tell you about some changes that will affect you on December 8. We are moving from our current forum software, called Podium, to version 1.0 of new forum software created by Deja News. On Dec. 8, when you follow a link or bookmark to one of our forums, you will be directed to the new software automatically. You don't have to download or install anything -- our forums remain entirely Web-based -- but the apearance and functions of the forums will be different. All your messages posted in Podium are being brought over, so your conversations won't miss a beat. We have been testing the Deja News software in three of our current forums for several months, and we have also created a test forum so you can try out the software and give us your feedback. We know that any change is disruptive; you will have to re-learn some forum functions and get used to a new interface. We apologize in advance for the hassle. We felt the switch to the Deja News software was the only way to improve the performance and reliability of the forums, plus the new software has a better search engine and great possibilities for integrating Usenet newsgroups into our offerings. If you have not yet had a chance to try out the new software, you can do so at any one or all of the forums listed below: Test Forum http://chkpt.zdnet.com/chkpt/zdn11202/f5.dejanews.com/frames/test.html Help Channel General Discussion http://chkpt.zdnet.com/chkpt/zdn11202/f5.dejanews.com/frames/generaldiscuss… Microsoft Office http://chkpt.zdnet.com/chkpt/zdn11202/f5.dejanews.com/frames/msoffice.html Gadget Gab http://chkpt.zdnet.com/chkpt/zdn11202/f5.dejanews.com/frames/gadget.html Please give us your feedback about the new software in the Test Forum. We are using your comments to make the software work better, so we appreciate as much of participation as possible. In addition to the new software, we will be merging several forums. Over the months, ZDNet and ZDTV have created a number of overlapping message boards, and some forums have lost their appeal to users. As part of the switch to Deja News, we'll be integrating forums on similar topics. As a result, expect most forums to be busier after Dec. 8. Thank you for your time and effort. We are looking forward to seeing you in the new forums, and we are glad to have you as a part of the ZDNet Community. We will send you just a few more e-mails like this one to keep you up-to-date on the switch, but we promise not to continue spamming you after the transition is complete. Regards, Wendy Frankwich ZDNet and ZDTV Community http://chkpt.zdnet.com/chkpt/zdn11202/www.zdnet.com http://chkpt.zdnet.com/chkpt/zdn11202/www.zdtv.com _______________________________________________________________________ To be removed from this list, simply reply to this message with "unsubscribe" as your subject.

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Re: "Export" controls
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>Can you give me an example of a commercial vendor who has suffered >because someone bought a "dangerous" product ( Windows, for example ) at >retail and carried it out of the country in a suitcase? My guess would I cannot give such example because hard crypto products are not available to the general public. I am unaware that microshit OS has hard crypto built-in. The only hard crypto package I have ever seen for sale at mail-order (and thus not anonymous) is NAI's PGP (and I have never seen any hard crypto available in a store for cash - but that can only mean that there is no perceived demand). However, any hard crypto that would work on system level and encrypt all communications is not available for purchase (it is available for free, though, in the form of IPSec package with 128-bit block ciphers for *BSD operating systems.) There is a number of VPN companies that offer crypto boxes, but AFAIK they either do not mention crypto scheme they use or they say DES. There is only one VPN company that advertises 128-bit crypto in it's product. >> [ For example, try to buy one of IBM crypto-cards - give them a call >> and ask what does it take to purchase one with hard crypto on it >> >Save me the phone call and describe your experience. BTW - IBM derives a You'll miss all the fun. After talking to 5-6 departments one concludes that no one knows anything about 4758, but they are all nice and helpful, and forward your call to each other. 4758 does not exist for casual callers. My guess is that if you have been dealing with IBM for some time you may be able to get it. To recap, there are no hard crypto drop-in hardware products available to general public in the USA today. >just write a damn book, source, VHDL etc. You can even export that. My The question is how to make money by selling hard crypto in the US. NAI seems to be the only company that can get away with so-called "publishing exception" in the commercial world. Their joining the key recovery alliance is probably unrelated :-) >Disk encryptor - SCSI/EIDE, a bump in the wire between the motherboard >and the disk drive. With its own smartcard/keypad interface, keys are >never seen by OS. It doesn't solve the security problem while the system There are many neat ideas. But no hardware.

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Re: "Export" controls
by Michael Motyka 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> I am unaware that microshit OS has hard crypto built-in. > I was pointing out a retail parallel, not a crypto parallel. You sure it's not Microshaft? More meanings. > The question is how to make money by selling hard crypto in the US. > A little experiment is often a good thing. I heard that the guys who made the DES cracker have had $$ requests for machines and/or chips. > To recap, there are no hard crypto drop-in hardware products > available to general public in the USA today. > In case you missed it, my original reply was an attempt to open discussion on some type of cooperative effort. Look at http://www.xilinx.com/products/xc4000XLA.html for prototype purposes. I wonder how many DES or IDEA engines could be put on a 500K gate array? It would fit about 35 instantiations of Twofish. That should be enough for a phone or a disk encryptor. It's not trivial but - Products can be done. On a shoestring. By the right people. Even non-geniuses. Who want to get them done. <-- the key item No sense pushing the button without critical mass. sigh... A friend's t-shirt many years ago: A penny for your thoughts, twenty bucks to act them out.

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Matt Blaze arrested???
by jim finder 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I heard a shocking thing on the radio a few minutes ago. I'm <*really*> sorry I didn't hear the whole report but I'm hoping someone here can shed some light, According to the report a Bell Labs mathematician named Blaze was arrested at the O'Hare airport today, in some kind of FBI sting operation. I didn't hear the whole segment, but it sounded like it had something to do with passing classified (crypto?) information to a foreign government. The part of the report that I heard didn't say what kind of info or what he was charged with, but I got the impression that it was either some kind of ITAR thing or maybe espionage. They did say it was part of a long term sting operation and mentioned something (that I didn't hear clearly) about "other arrests" that either already happened or were likely to happen soon. Was this Matt Blaze? It sure sounds like it must be. Is there a crackdown going on? Has anyone else been busted? Does anyone have more complete information about this? Jim ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

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Re: Matt Blaze arrested???
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> X-Originating-IP: [208.198.164.2] > From: "jim finder" <jim_finder(a)hotmail.com> > To: cypherpunks(a)cyberpass.net > Cc: cryptography(a)c2.net, mab(a)research.att.com > Subject: Matt Blaze arrested??? The originating IP for this hotmail posting is lpwa.com, the Lucent Personalized Web Assistant. Ken Williams had posted a URL last week which described how to send anonymous mail using lpwa as a proxy to the hotmail service: > I came across a funny article about a "CIA, DEA, FBI, Lucent > Technologies, Replay.com, Seed-bank.com Grand Conspiracy" at > http://members.tripod.com/~spookbusters/sunnysnooping.htm This is easy to do and provides moderate levels of anonymity. You set lpwa.com as your proxy in the browser settings, and then set up your hotmail account and send the mail. Maybe Jim Finder was just testing the idea. Blaze has attracted one or two cranks who try to harrass him, and this may be another attempt to make some trouble for him.

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Y2K and Atlas
by Matthew James Gering 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----Original Message----- From: [somebody] Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 1998 5:04 PM To: philosophy of objectivism Subject: For the ARF Ed Yourdon is name known to aging geeks as the developer of structured systems analysis & design. His text on the subject is still in use in C.S. courses around the country. He's also the author of a dozen or so books about programming, particularly mainframe programming. In early 1998 Yourdon and his daughter Jennifer co-authored "Time Bomb 2000: What the Year 2000 Computer Crisis Means to You." (As you might infer from the title, the Yourdons aren't exactly sanguine about the potential impact of the Y2K problem.) (Nor am I.) Yourdon maintains a web site featuring, among many other things, reading list both technical and non-technical about programming and Y2K. Introducing his non-technical list of Y2K books, he recommends Atlas Shrugged with the following comment: >As for Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged ... well, you probably read it in >college, but you've probably forgotten all about it. You probably don't >remember John Galt's famous line, "I will stop the engine of the world." >Well, read the book again now, with Y2K-colored glasses, and remember that >computer programmers are reading it, too. The question you need to ask >them is whether they intend to stay on the job if the lights go out on >January 1, 2000, and whether they feel sufficiently motivated to re-start >the engines of the world. If you don't think that's a question worth >asking, then you haven't read Atlas Shrugged. So I guess I'm not the only person to have made that connection... http://www.yourdon.com/books/coolbooks/coolby2kother.html

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No Subject
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I know this is a little off topic, but has anyone verified the integrity of a web site called "Spy & CounterSpy" located at http://www.spycounterspy.com/? The site is basically a citizens' guide to counterintelligence, and covers topics ranging from anonymous email and encryption to evading FBI surveillance. The author, Lee Adams, claims to have years of experience in these areas but I'm wondering if this site isn't quite what it appears to be -- a site put up by some freedom-loving guy who wants to help everyone enjoy their privacy.

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