December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Odds and Ends (Books) (fwd) Re: Books: wanted to buy
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

In article p00122(a)psilink.com, "BSW Gateway" <p00122(a)psilink.com> () writes: >I am searching for two out-of-print books. I would like to purchase one >copy each in reasonably good condition. If you have either and are willing >to part with it, please contact me by email. Thanks. > >Tutorial: The Security of Data in Networks >by Davies >IEEE Computer Society Press, 1981 > >Kahn on Codes >by Kahn >Macmillan, 1983 > >Note: the second book is NOT "The Codebreakers" but a later book by Kahn. I tried e-mail but the message is bouncing around like a kangaroo on certain controlled substances. The following is a list of bookstores dealing, more or less specifically with espionage and intelligence and include some coverage of crypto. My recommendation for the first title would be to try Elm. If you contact C&D, ELM, or NIBC, mentioning my name _might_ help. Alec Chambers Cloak and Dagger Books, 9 Eastman Avenue Bedford, NH 03110-6701 Phone: (603) 668-1629 (evenings) Proprietor: Dan Halpin Jr. Dealer in out of print and rare books relating to nonfiction espionage, crypto, terrorism and partisan and guerilla warfare. Stocks more than 10,000 books and will do searches. Dan is extraordinarily amiable and helpful, but does ask that you send $2.50 for a catalog. I have dealt happily with him for some time. Elm Spy Books, P.O.Box 9753 Arnold, MD 21012 Phone: (301) 544-9014. Proprietor: Emil Levine Has a coverage similar to Cloak and Dagger, but is interested in specializing in crypto (he's not too far from Ft. George mmmmmmmfff...). Another helpful individual with whom I have dealt. Catalog costs $2.00. Military Bookman, 29 East 93rd Street New York, NY 10128. Mail Order (212) 348-1280 Large collection of military titles, including military intelligence. Catalogs available National Intelligence Book Center, 1700 K Street NW, Suite 607 Washington DC Phone: (202) 785-4334 FAX: (202) 331-7456 e-mail: 70346.1166(a)COMPUSERVE.COM Publishes an annotated, bimonthly publication, Surveillant: Acquisitions for the Intelligence and Security Professional, listing new books, paperback editions, foreign language titles, US government documents on intelligence, video, and audio tapes, forthcoming books and works in progress, and news and events. Annual subscription is $96 in the U.S. The Book Center will also compile bibliographies on _specific_ intelligence on request. All sales are now conducted through Olsson's Books, 1200 F Street, NW, Washington DC 20004 (202) 337-8084. Q.M.Dabney&Co., 11910-P Parklawn Drive, Rockville, MD 20852 Phone (301) 881-1470 Very large military collection with some intelligence titles. Carries only out-of-print books. Not a browsing bookstores, phone orders only, catalogs available. I have dealt happily with them for years although they are SLOW on actually sending the stuff out. Ruth Koffsky Books, 5515 Greystone Street, Chevy Chase, MD 20815 Phone: (301) 656-5587 Specializes in ex-library and reader's copies of works on intelligence, politics, and world affairs. Open by appointment only or by mail. Upon request will send a list of titles on a very specific topic. Sidney Kramer Books, 1825 I Street, NW Washington, DC 20006. Mail order: (202) 293-2685 Fax: (202) 835-9756 Large collection of intelligence-related titles in sections on "intelligence," "military affairs," and "regional studies." Offers catalogs and will special order. Sky Books, 48 E. 50th Street, Second Floor, New York, NY 10022 Mail Order: (212) 688-5086. Large selection of titles on military intelligence and espionage. Offers book club with selection of intelligence titles.

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Random Numbers
by Mike Ingle 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

an31185(a)anon.penet.fi writes: >So, it sounds like what we *really* need is a little box with a shot-noise >generator that attaches to a serial port and generates truly random >numbers to use for the key. Anyone out there feel like designing one >for us? That sounds doable. Tune a radio to a spot where there is static, plug it into the audio in port of a SoundBlaster card, sample a few Kbytes, and MD5 it to get your key. Nobody is going to reconstruct that. < MikeIngle(a)delphi.com > P.S. Has anyone called Mykotronx lately? I called a while ago and asked for any databooks and appnotes on Clipper. They said the databooks weren't ready yet, and offered to put me on a mailing list for appnotes when they were ready. I got the impression Mykotronx isn't too happy about the status of the Clipper/Spooktap project. :-)

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Re: caching scripts
by George A. Gleason 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

filler messages.... Little Jack Horner sat in the corner decrypting a long email letter. The letter was dull but the humorous "null" that it ended with made him feel better! -gg

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Digital noise
by I am not a number. I am an unbound variable. 16-Sep-1993 0950 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Timothy Newsham writes: >Last time I was fingering through an analog parts catalog under the >telephony section I noticed a bunch of parts that generate audio-noise. >Maybe some of these would be suitable (if they dont use an internal >digital state machine to generate the noise). Unfortunately, last time I checked, they used a fairly short internal PRNG to generate the "noise" (which means it's not noise at all, it's completely correllated and repeating, it just _sounds_ like noise to a human ear. To get real random noise, try using a transistor "backwards", as a zener diode. Then look at the voltage- it's quite "noisy", esp. if you use a decent-sized series resistor (try 100Kohms). -Bill (done this before)...

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Re: Digital noise
by freeman＠MasPar.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> To get real random noise, try using a transistor "backwards", as a > zener diode. Then look at the voltage- it's quite "noisy", esp. if you > use a decent-sized series resistor (try 100Kohms). When I was in graduate school, a colleague built a gadget based on this principle as a source of Poisson-distributed pulses for testing the post-detector electronics of X-ray and extreme-ultraviolet astronomical instruments. I don't remember the precise source of the noise, but it was similar to the "zener" trick cited in that it was based on quantum phenomena rather than a mathematical generator. The idea was to get random pulses of varying amplitudes, amplify them up and use only those bigger than a threshold to generate output pulses. The instrument also averaged the output rate and used it via feedback to adjust the amplifier, so as to obtain a desired average rate of outputs. I think that for a while at least there was a commercial random-noise generator available that used this principle, though I don't remember whose (and it's been long enough that it probably doesn't matter). Try scientific-instrument catalogs, et cetera. -- Jay Freeman

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Re: Random Numbers
by cme＠ellisun.sw.stratus.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1993 02:38:26 -0400 (EDT) >From: Mike Ingle <MIKEINGLE(a)delphi.com> >Subject: Random Numbers >Message-Id: <01H300QM3KUI8ZG7IN(a)delphi.com> > >That sounds doable. Tune a radio to a spot where there is static, plug it >into the audio in port of a SoundBlaster card, sample a few Kbytes, and >MD5 it to get your key. Nobody is going to reconstruct that. A poster a while back on sci.crypt pointed out that if you plug nothing in to the audio input (eg., /dev/audio on a Sun), what you get is circuit noise. If you then compress it, you get pretty good random input. It's not something someone else can monitor or interfere with. If you then pull off some bits for encryption keys and encrypt the rest using those keys, .... I have a small C program to do that -- do any left-over compression and build a shell script to drive IDEA for encryption. It's avbl by mail if anyone wants it. If enough want it, I'll post it on sci.crypt. > < MikeIngle(a)delphi.com > [p.s.] > I got the impression Mykotronx isn't too happy about the status >of the Clipper/Spooktap project. :-) Yeah? Do tell. What did they say?

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Re: Random Numbers
by mjr＠TIS.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I admit I'm guilty of being somewhat ignorant of how PGP implements randseed.bin. My experience with PGP indicates that it's pretty well-thought-out in general, so perhaps I'm repeating the obvious. One possibility is to treat part of the random seed as if it was your secret RSA key. Systems like PEM store the RSA key encrypted on disk someplace - you could also store an encrypted random seed which you decrypt when you retrieve the secret key, use to bootstrap your PRNG, and then replace with some output from the PRNG when you're done. That way, the seed is (by definition) hidden, and an attacker is going to have much more trouble attacking your PRNG by searching your random seed space. mjr.

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Fwd: PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES (PCS) SPECTRUM AUCTION
by stig＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I thought the Cypherpunks might take an interest in this... In <9309151633.AA29877(a)essential.org>, james love wrote... > > Taxpayer Assets Project > Information Policy Note > September 15, 1993 > > > TAXPAYER ASSETS PROJECT FILES COMMENTS WITH FCC ON > PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES (PCS) SPECTRUM AUCTION > > On Friday September 10, 1993 the Taxpayer Assets Project > (TAP) filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission > (FCC) on the proposed auction of spectrum for Personal > Communications Services (PCS). PCS is the name for a new class > of wireless telecommunications services that industry groups > claim will generate more than $200 billion in revenue by the year > 2010. > > TAP's comments addressed two issues, the size of the > spectrum blocks to be auctioned, and the bidding methods used to > allocate the PCS licenses. > > BACKGROUND > > Congress and the Clinton Administration will use auctions to > award licenses to use new spectrum that was previously allocated > to the government and other uses. Industry groups are engaged in > intense lobbying over the terms of the auctions, which will be > designed by the FCC. A key issue is the number of licenses to be > awarded in each market. PCS Action, Inc., an industry trade > group, wants the FCC to limit the number of licenses in each > market, in order to limit "excessive" competition, that would > "marginalize" PCS services. PCS Action prefers two licenses per > market, and "certainly no more than three." PCS Action, Inc. has > also argued that large blocks of spectrum (40 Mhz) are needed for > each license for technical reasons. If the large 40 Mhz blocks > are used the FCC can award no more than 3 license per market. > > Other potential license holders or PCS competitors have > argued that much smaller spectrum blocks are technically > feasible, and would provide more post auction competition. MCI > and Bell Atlantic have filed comments with the FCC saying that 20 > Mhz blocks are adequate, and some PCS bidders have indicated that > blocks as small as 10 Mhz may be large enough. The issue of the > size of spectrum blocks is important, since it will determine the > maximum number of licenses that can be issued in each local > market. > > A second issue that has received less attention concerns the > methods used to receive revenues from winning bidders. The > government can require bidders to submit up front cash payments, > or payments over time, including royalties against future PCS > revenues. > > > > TAP COMMENTS ON THE SIZE OF PCS SPECTRUM BLOCKS > > Regarding the size of the spectrum blocks to be auctioned, > TAP said: > > The FCC should allow bidders to purchase the smallest > possible blocks of the spectrum, while providing for > mechanisms that will allow bidders to aggregate or > consolidate blocks, subject to FCC approval. . . > > By choosing the smallest possible blocks of spectrum to > auction, the FCC will assign the initial rights to use the > spectrum to a potentially large group of license holders, > who can be expected to consider a wider range on innovative > PCS services. However, some important PCS services may > require the larger bandwidth. The FCC can easily > accommodate this problem by allowing bidders to aggregate > and consolidate spectrum blocks, in order to offer higher > bandwidth services. The aggregation and consolidation of > spectrum blocks should be subject to an FCC finding that the > new allocation is in the public interest. This procedure > would allow more flexibility in determining the size of > allocation blocks with each market, and provide better > opportunities for smaller firms to bid on spectrum. > > The initial size of spectrum blocks will be an important > decision, since it is unlikely that the FCC will "split" > licenses, even if it turns out that smaller blocks are adequate > to provide useful PCS services. By beginning with the "smallest > possible blocks," the FCC can always allow license holders to > aggregate and consolidate blocks, if the larger blocks are truly > needed. This will also allow local markets to consider a wider > range of configurations, including combinations of small and > large blocks, as PCS markets develop. > > > TAP CAUTIONS AGAINST BIDDING METHODS THAT RELY EXCESSIVELY UPON > UP FRONT CASH PAYMENTS > > TAP also told the FCC the auction should not rely > excessively on up front cash payments. The federal government > can structure the payments on the license in a number of ways, > including up front cash payments, fixed payments spread out over > several years, or payments which are contingent on future cash > flows, such as royalties on future revenues or units of services > provided. > > The PCS spectrum auction will be the largest non-financial > auction held by the federal government. But the economic value > of a PCS license will depend upon a highly uncertain cash flow > over the long period of time. If the FCC auctions the licenses > to the highest cash bidders, the government will be asking firms > to pay now for the rights to enter a business that will not be > fully developed for many years. > > TAP raised two objections to excessive reliance upon up > front cash payments to auction the spectrum. First, many smaller > firms will be unlikely to raise enough cash to bid against the > larger incumbents in the telecommunications markets. Second, > bidders will discount the future "economic rents" from licenses > by a higher "discount rate" than the government's costs of > capital (the rate of interest on its bonds), leading to excessive > discounting of license revenues. > > In order to promote more competition in the auctions, and > also to increase the present value of license payments, TAP urges > the FCC to consider a bidding system that combines cash payments > with payments that are contingent upon future PCS revenues, such > as a royalty on future PCS revenues. We believe that over the > long run, the government (the taxpayers) will earn more from > royalties on a mature PCS market, than it will earn from up front > cash payments for licenses. > > --------------------------------------------------------------- > Taxpayer Assets Project, P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036 > v. 202/387-8030; f. 202/234-5176; internet: tap(a)essential.org > --------------------------------------------------------------- > Subscriptions to tap-info are available by sending an email > message to listserver(a)essential.org with the folowing message: > subscribe tap-info your name > --------------------------------------------------------------- ;; __________________________________________________________________________ ;; Stig(a)netcom.com netcom.com:/pub/stig/00-PGP-KEY ;; It's hard to be cutting-edge at your own pace... 32 DF B9 19 AE 28 D1 7A ;; Bullet-proof code cannot stand up to teflon bugs. A3 9D 0B 1A 33 13 4D 7F

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Government agenda on cryptography
by bart＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From the National Information Infrastructure Agenda for Action: Action: Review privacy concerns of the NII. The IITF has developed a work plan to investigate what policies are necessary to ensure individual privacy, while recognizing the legitimate societal needs for information, including those of law enforcement. The IITF has also developed a work plan to investigate how the government will ensure that the infrastructure's operations are compatible with the legitimate privacy interests of its users. Action: Review of encryption technology. In April, the President announced a thorough review of Federal policies on encryption technology. In addition, Federal agencies are working with industry to develop new technologies that protect the privacy of citizens, while enabling law enforcement agencies to continue to use court-authorized wiretaps to fight terrorism, drug rings, organized crime, and corruption. Federal agencies are working with industry to develop encryption hardware and software that can be used for this application. MUST reading I suggest. Sources for FTP: The package is available in ASCII format through both FTP and Gopher. The name of the file is "niiagenda.asc". Access information and directories are described below. FTP: Address: ftp.ntia.doc.gov Login as "anonymous". Use your email address or guest as the password. Change directory to "pub". Address: enh.nist.gov Login as "anonymous" using "guest" as the password. Address: isdres.er.usgs.gov Login as "anonymous". Use your email address or "guest" as the password. Change directory to npr. The package also may be present in a self extracting compressed file named "niiagend.exe". Remember to issue the binary command before "getting" the compressed file. I also have it here on Netcom in /u4/bart/public with read permissions set I think so it can be copied.

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Whit Diffie on satellite TV, Sept 28th
by gnu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Florida SunFlash Sunergy #7 Satellite Broadcast September 28, 1993 SunFLASH Vol 57 #14 September 1993 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 57.14 Sunergy #7 Satellite Broadcast September 28, 1993 Live Satellite Broadcast. Theme is "Cyberjockying in the 21st Century". This next Sunergy live broadcast will focus on the issues and technologies surrounding the worldwide movement of information. It will take a look at the internet, information suppliers, information retrievers and the other related resources. Discussions will also include regulation and security on the internet. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: the Ft. Lauderdale office will be hosting this event in our office at 500 Cypress Creek Rd West, Ft. Lauderdale 305 776 7770 12 noon to 1:45 EDT. -johnj ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contact: sunergy(a)sun.com phone: +1 415/336-5847 If you have satellite receive capabilities and wish to downlink this program please send email to sunergy(a)sun.com. We will add your name to our alias and send the appropriate satellite and transponder information when it becomes available. ##################################### Sunergy #7 Satellite Broadcast September 28, 1993 9:00 - 10:45 am PDT Cyberjockying in the 21st Century ###################################### How will supernetworks transport you to the far reaches of the data galaxy? What is the current status of the internet and other "information highways"? What can these "highways" do for you today? This next Sunergy live broadcast will focus on the issues and technologies surrounding the worldwide movement of information. It will take a look at the internet, information suppliers, information retrievers and the other related resources. Discussions will also include regulation and security on the internet. Demonstrations will include: - a live teleconference over workstations between 3-4 geographies - sending white papers over the vertical blanking interval of a satellite signal to various sites - the use of WAIS to access information - others TBA Guests include: John Gage - Director of the Science Office, SMCC Whitfield Diffie - Distinguished Engineer, Security - SMCC Carl Malamud - President, Internet Multicasting Service Brewster Kahle - President, WAIS Inc If you wish to downlink this broadcast, please send email to sunergy(a)Sun.COM or phone the Sunergy office at +1 415/336-5847 Program is available on satellites over Europe (west, central and east), Canada, Latin America and the US. _______________________________________________________________________ Biographies: John Gage Director, Science Office Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation John Gage works for Bill Joy, the Chief Technical Officer of Sun, and is responsible for Sun's relationships with the world scientific and public policy communities, international scientific institutions and groups developing new forms of scientific research involving computing. He is on scientific and advisory panels of the United States National Science Foundation, the US Congress Office of Technology Assessment, the European institute of Technology and the United States National Academy of Sciences. He has recently been appointed to the US National Research Council Mathematical Sciences Education Board. He is a member of ACM, IEEE, SIAM, AMS, AAAS, and SMPTE. He attended the Harvard Business School and the Harvard Graduate School of Public Policy. He did doctoral work in economics and mathematics at the university of Berkeley at the same time as Bill Joy. Gage subsequently left Berkeley with Joy to start Sun in 1982. Gage is on the Board of Directors of Unicode, an industry consortium of IBM, Microsoft, Apple, Novell, Sun, GO Corporation, and others to provide multilingual capability in all world scripts for all documents and applications. _______________________________________________________________________ Carl Malamud President Internet Multicasting Service Carl Malamud is the author of seven professional reference books including STACKS (Prentice Hall), Analyzing Sun Networks (Van Nostrand Reinhold), and Exploring the Internet: A Technical Travelogue (Prentice Hall). Currently, Carl is producing the Internet Town Hall and Internet Talk Radio series for the Internet Multicasting Service and conducts research on integration of telephone systems into the Internet. ________________________________________________________________________ Whitfield Diffie Distinguished Engineer Sun Microsystems Whitfield Diffie is best known for his 1975 discovery of the concept of public key cryptography, for which he was recently awarded a Doctorate in Technical Sciences (Honoris Causa) by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. For a dozen years prior to assuming his present position in 1991, Diffie was Manager of Secure Systems Research for Northern Telecom, functioning as the center of expertise in advanced security technologies throughout the corporation. Among his achievements in this position was the design of the key management architecture for NT's recently released PDSO security system for X.25 packet networks. Diffie received a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1965. Prior to becoming interested in cryptography, he worked on the development of the Mathlab symbolic manipulation system --- sponsored jointly at Mitre and the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory --- and later on proof of correctness of computer programs at Stanford University. He is the recipient of the IEEE Information Theory Society Best Paper Award for 1979 and the IEEE Donald E. Fink award for 1981. _________________________________________________________________________ Brewster Kahle President Wide Area Information Servers, Inc. Inventor and architect of the WAIS electronic publishing system, Brewster Kahle has lead the multi-company effort to build a practical system for end-users to find and retrieve information from servers worldwide. Before this work, he helped design and build parallel supercomputers at Thinking Machines Corporation. Brewster was schooled at MIT in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. ********************************************************************** For information about SunFlash send mail to info-sunflash(a)Sun.COM. Subscription requests should be sent to sunflash-request(a)Sun.COM. Archives are on draco.nova.edu, ftp.uu.net, sunsite.unc.edu, src.doc.ic.ac.uk and ftp.adelaide.edu.au All prices, availability, and other statements relating to Sun or third party products are valid in the U.S. only. Please contact your local Sales Representative for details of pricing and product availability in your region. Descriptions of, or references to products or publications within SunFlash does not imply an endorsement of that product or publication by Sun Microsystems. Send brief articles (e.g. third party announcements) and include contact information (non-800#, fax #, email, etc) to: John McLaughlin, SunFlash editor, flash(a)Sun.COM. +1 305 351 4909

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