December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

national ID cards in the US...
by Jean-Francois Avon 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi! I received that today. Maybe it can interest some of you. ========== excerpt ============ I Am Not a Number! Policy Spotlight on National ID Cards -------------------------------------------------------- http://www.free-market.net/features/spotlight/9811.html While most of us weren't looking, the U.S. Congress passed two bills that effectively authorize national ID cards. One was a law to reform health insurance that included a provision for a "Unique Patient Identifier." The other was an immigration law that required all U.S. states to include Social Security numbers on drivers' licenses. [snip] ========= end of excerpt ============ Ciao jfa "Cryptography is like literacy in the Dark Ages. Infinitely potent, for good and ill... yet basically an intellectual construct, an idea, which by its nature will resist efforts to restrict it to bureaucrats and others who deem only themselves worthy of such Privilege." _ A thinking man's Creed for Crypto/ vbm.

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Rivest Patent
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Ron Rivest received on November 10 "US Patent 5835600: Block encryption algorithm with data-dependent rotations:" http://jya.com/rivest111098.htm (22K)

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How do crack newer Win95 PWL files ?
by Chris 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Does anybody know how the newer Win95 PWL files could be cracked ? I mean not those files which work with GLIDE (Header of those files is: 0xB04D464E = ".MFN", their username starts at position 0x208). I mean PWL files which have the following header: 0xE3828596 and the information begins at 0x252 ! I've pointed out that these PWL files depend in some way on a kind of randomness, a counter how often you have changed your password and may be on the username or the password. So if anybody knows how this could be done please let me know.

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Re: Info Age Crime Terror and War
by Michael Motyka 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

John, The 1st - encrypted communications are speech. The 4th - plaintext that has been encrypted cannot be "found." The 5th - If your password is memorized then the only way to produce it is as a witness against yourself. So much for the layman's view. What is the current legal thinking and, more importantly, the relevant legal precedents? Aren't they ( LE ) making a bit of a leap when they say that the Constitution defines access to information not just items? It looks like the only way to achieve the information access they want is through modification of the Constitution. There is often a right-leaning political flavor to the CP list but isn't it such right-wingers as Rhenquist and Starr who invented the various forms of immunity that already can be used to subvert the 5th? Now they are trying to establish the legal equivalence of the physical and the virtual. I wish Kyle et al well in their fight against legions of terrorists but I hope that they have an impossible battle ahead of them when it comes to downgrading the Bill of Rights. Besides, more than wanting to protect us little lambs from terrorists, I think they recognize the degree to which technology is changing the world and are trying to resist the power shifts that are likely. The other reasons they give are mostly chaff. Regards, Mike John Young wrote: > > Senator Kyl has issued a long report, "Crime, Terror & > War: National Security and Public Safety in the Information > Age," which recounts his Subcommittee's hearings and > recommendations on encryption, Y2K, terrorism, info war, > domestic preparedness, wiretap, and more: > > http://jya.com/ctw.htm (97K) > > It describes a plan to combat threats to critical infrastructure > and the US homeland which, if implemented, would criminalize > much held dear to a few of this list's subscribers; other lurkers > will be overjoyed to read Kyl coming to the rescue of careers > and budgets of MIB and their suppliers of technologies of > political control. > > He wants DoD to get cracking on domestic protection, move over > piddling LEA. Civil liberties, nonsense. Crypto genie out of the bottle, > more nonsense. Getting government access to encrypted > communications, you bet. Through commercial products, yep. >

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Woops! Lest I forget... (was Re: dbts: Hettinga's Road Trip toLondon...)
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text From: "Simon Fedida" <windjammer(a)cableinet.co.uk> To: "Duncan" <dgs(a)live.co.uk>, "Robert Hettinga" <rah(a)shipwright.com> Subject: Re: dbts: Hettinga's Road Trip to London... Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1998 20:24:36 -0000 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.3110.3 Robert - My name is Simon Fedida, a colleague of Duncan's. Don't forget you are giving a talk at the London Business School on Monday 23 November...so don't accept too many beer invitations on monday!! Looking forward to meeeting you Simon -----Original Message----- From: Robert Hettinga <rah(a)shipwright.com> To: Digital Bearer Settlement List <dbs(a)philodox.com>; dcsb(a)ai.mit.edu <dcsb(a)ai.mit.edu>; e$(a)vmeng.com <e$(a)vmeng.com>; cryptography(a)c2.net <cryptography(a)c2.net>; cypherpunks(a)cyberpass.net <cypherpunks(a)cyberpass.net>; mac-crypto(a)vmeng.com <mac-crypto(a)vmeng.com> : : <snip> --- 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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reptilian politicians
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>November 12th, 1998 the Toronto Board of Health announces they > want to ban private >owner ship of snakes, turtles, any and all exotic pets. >Reaction of pet owners was immediate. In this city of just under 3 >Million people, most said they would not abide by the law and >hide their beloved pets. In california, possession of a ferret is illegal. But its illegal for people eat california horses. Or burros, senators, and other asses. Those in the Ferret Underground (TM) find that horsemeat is now cheaper, and the furry ones love it. --Weasels ripped my flesh

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Rememberance Day 1998.
by Jean-Francois Avon 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

================= forwarded from CFD V2 #696 ============ Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1998 06:03:49 -0600 From: Dan MacInnis <dan.louise(a)sympatico.ca> Subject: Rememberance Day 1998. It is past eleven O'clock here. It is November 11th, 1998. On this date every year my mind always returns to thoughts of my uncle, whose body, it's elements long ago returned to the earth, the dust undisturbed in a European grave, the man for whom I was renamed when the sad news reached my mother and grandfather on that early spring morning many years ago. Even as child their wet faces impacted me, forever. It drifted today to Ottawa, where I once stood cold but proud close to one Paul Hellyer, then Minister of National Defense under the Honorable Prime Minister Lester Bowles Pearson. It was Rememberance Day, Paul was delivering the obligatory service beside a Cenotaph, the soldiers, sailors and airmen stood at ease waiting for the ceremonies to end, pretending to listen to his resonant, educated voice. It was a bitter cold day, I knew they would prefer to be at their homes, or in their messes or just anyplace but on parade that day. I was proud to be associated with a government, indeed a country even, with such diversity, such room for individuals to work, play and overcome the challenges each would experience. It honestly was a Free Canada, individuals could aspire to whatever their imaginations deemed them worthy to become. Later that evening, at a Military function, a member of the RCAF suggested to me, each of us with the government issued glass in the right hand, white serviette properly wrapped around it to keep the hand warm and dry for handshaking, that someday he expected I would be Minister of National Defense. Sadly enough, we both believed it. But today is November 11th, 1998, at about 11:50 AM. My pride in the Liberal Party of Canada has been shattered. My belief that issues like Conscription, which polarized our founding peoples for two generations, would never surface, ever again, gone. My belief that MY PARTY stood for individual rights, the only force that would stand between the Elite's and the common person, gone. Forever. So it a doubly sad day for me. My uncle, and my Party. Bill C68 has intruded into the lives of so many Canadians, and if left to stand as is, will undermine everything I stood there that cold Ottawa morning to pay tribute, and everything my uncle died for in that foreign field so long ago. He died with no idea the rifle he carried to fight for our freedoms would become such a divisive symbol a few short years later. On this morning I shall not revisit the implications of C68. Rather, I will ask those struggling to preserve out heritage to continue the fight. Do not surrender. Then, when it becomes our time to let our earthly possessions go, when our bodies begin the journey back to the dust from whence they came and our spirits return to source, perhaps the cold white silk of the casket or the sides of the urn holding our ashes will be a bit warmer knowing we did all we could for those who follow. Anything less of us would be shameful.

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Re: Info Age Crime Terror and War
by Ernest Hua 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Tim May wrote: > At 9:09 AM -0800 11/13/98, John Young wrote: > > Senator Kyl has issued a long report, "Crime, Terror & > > War: National Security and Public Safety in the Information > > Age," ... > > http://jya.com/ctw.htm (97K) > > I'll address one section, near the end of the report: > ... While I wholeheartly believe that the open-minded and interested public would want to hear these mindless rants responded to with some rationality and reason, I don't believe, for a moment that Kyl & gang are serious about debating anything. (Ok, there is a TEENY chance he is just confused.) My money on the claim that these are yet more rhetoric thrown out to confuse as many people who are easily taken over by sound bites as possible. It's not as easy to explain the practical reasons why crypto restrictions are unenforcible and unreasonable, but it's easy to trumpet the national security cause and to raise the spectre of police not being able to protect lil' Johnny and Mary. What I was hoping for from the pro-crypto ads was something like this: 1. Lil' Suzy writes E-Mail to Lil' Mary to meet at the mall at some well-lighted public place. 2. Child molestor X intercepts E-Mail, but it's weak 40-bit encryption, and he breaks it. 3. Mr. X forges E-Mail from Mary to Suzy changing the meeting location to some dark corner A, and forges E-Mail from Suzy to Mary changing the meeting locaiton to some dark corner B. 4. Mr. X's co-conspirators, Mr. Y and Mr Z intercepts Mary and Suzy at the respective dark corners ... they scream for help ... no one answers at either location ... fade to black ... This is the sort of stuff that would really counter the stupid rhetoric from Sen. Kyl. Ern

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U.S. Attorney Morgenthau on Money Laundering
by David Watts 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

New York Times November 9, 1998, Monday Editorial Desk On the Trail of Global Capital By Robert M. Morgenthau What are the five largest financial centers in the world? Many will name New York, London, Tokyo and Hong Kong. But how many will guess the fifth? It's the Cayman Islands -- or so, at least, its Government claims on its Web site. It's certainly the case that huge companies -- including hedge funds like Long-Term Capital Management -- have made the Caymans their nominal home. And bank regulators in the United States have confirmed that bank deposits on the islands now total about $500 billion, twice the amount of four years ago and more than the amount on deposit in the New York Federal Reserve District. That is about $14 million for every man, woman and child in the Caymans. The financial community there consists of 575 banks and trust companies. More than 20,000 corporations are chartered on the Caymans. What draws so many capitalists to so unlikely a spot? Secrecy, for one thing. In the United States, capital markets are regulated by requiring transparency in financial dealings. The Caymans, by contrast, have no such openness, no tiresome restrictions on the pursuit of wealth. With respect to regulation, the Caymans have won the race to the bottom. Take, for example, Long-Term Capital Management, which had to be bailed out earlier this year. The fund's basic operations are conducted in Connecticut, but it is chartered in the Cayman Islands. The fund kept the details of its borrowings and investments secret -- a result not obtainable where there must be concerns for the curiosity of regulators. The results were disastrous. No one knew the absurd extent to which Long-Term Capital's confident superstars were leveraging their assets -- until the bubble burst. The Caymans' financial secrecy laws make it easy to hide suspect dealings. It is now well known that the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, whose collapse in 1991 was the biggest banking scandal in history, took advantage of those laws. Beyond the assistance they lend to criminals, secrecy laws aid reckless acts by high-rolling entrepreneurs. But in fact, most of the ''offshore'' Cayman banks are run not from the islands, but from New York. Amazingly, the Cayman Government Web site itself boasts that, of the 575 banks and trust companies ''based'' in the islands, a full 106 actually have a physical presence there! Resort to these institutions is a simple charade. What would happen if a determined American bank inspector flew to the islands and demanded to see the books of one of these institutions? He would be arrested. It's the law. There is yet another explanation for the remarkable blossoming of financial institutions in the Cayman Islands. The islands have no income tax, no capital gains tax, no value added tax, no sales tax, no inheritance tax and no tax treaties. Sophisticated Americans place billions in Cayman investment vehicles like Long-Term Capital that are carefully structured to reduce American tax liability. Citizens of other countries invest billions there so their incomes will be exempt from American taxes. Commendably, the Treasury Department recently resolved to study ways to keep sham transactions from having an impact on tax liabilities, and the Group of Seven industrialized nations has said that hedge funds should ''possibly'' be subject to disclosure rules. But those are only tentative steps. More can be done. The Cayman Islands are a British dependency, and both the governor and the attorney general are appointed by the British Government. This means Britain can end the laissez-faire practices of the islands. And since, from a financial perspective, the islands are an American dependency, Washington can also stop the offshore shenanigans -- for instance, by imposing more prudent oversight of lenders doing business with Cayman entities. The Caymans are only part of the problem. The Isle of Jersey, the British Virgin Islands, Cyprus, Antigua, Liechtenstein, Panama, the Netherlands Antilles, the Bahamas, Luxembourg and, of course, Switzerland all offer ''offshore'' sanctuary. Until action is taken to eliminate these havens, taxpayers and honest players in the financial markets will be at a very unfair disadvantage. _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

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RE: Rivest Patent
by Harvey Rook (Exchange) 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

It's a little bit more complicated than that. RC-6, which also uses data dependant rotations is patent free. Harv. > -----Original Message----- > From: Eric Cordian [mailto:emc@wire.insync.net] > Sent: Friday, November 13, 1998 11:25 AM > To: cypherpunks(a)cyberpass.net > Subject: Re: Rivest Patent > > > JYA writes: > > > Ron Rivest received on November 10 "US Patent 5835600: > > Block encryption algorithm with data-dependent rotations:" > > http://jya.com/rivest111098.htm (22K) > > So we can't use the rotate instruction with a data-dependent shift > count in a block encryption algorithm without a license from Ron? > > Foo on that. > > -- > Sponsor the DES Analytic Crack Project > http://www.cyberspace.org/~enoch/crakfaq.html >

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