December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Health Security Card
by Duncan Frissell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Senator Harris Wafford (sp?) on Larry King Live just flashed a mockup of the Health Security Card. It is white. It has a red, white, and blue flag on it. It looks like it has a 7 digit number on it in the EIN split pattern 99 99999. It was hard to count digits though. It might have 9 digits rather than 7. Wafford did use the term "smartcard." I'm sure Willy will feature one in his speech tomorrow night. Duncan Frissell "Where's your Health Security Smartcard." "Sorry, I'm don't believe in that sort of thing. I'm an anarchist. You know, that's an alternative life style sort of like sodomy. They're starting to teach it in the schools and everything." --- WinQwk 2.0b#0

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Re: the $64K question?
by peter honeyman 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> This definition does not > include information concerning general scientific, > mathematical, or engineering principles commonly > taught in academia. as a matter of fact, i am teaching a graduate course in cryptography this semester and am using pgp as a pedagogical tool. peter

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Source code
by trestrab＠GVSU.EDU 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I would be interested in taking a look at the source for the encryption program you mentioned in your post. Thanks. I would also be interested in your paper on the subject. Jeff trestrab(a)gvsu.edu

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list split?
by L. Detweiler 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

this has been discussed a long time ago, but there is definitely some serious volume lately on the list. of course, its been a problem for as long as I can remember. I still like the mailing list flavor vs. a newsgroup, but the piles are really deep recently. (right now some people are thinking `of all the people to point this out' or `some nerve' :) anyway, here's what I propose. I think a split to mailing lists cpunk-remailers (policies, modifications, etc.) cpunk-code (PGP, encryption software, phones, etc.) cpunk-issues (Clipper, PGP investigation, etc.) cpunk-announce (news articles, fwds from elsewhere on internet services, etc. -- very low volume) would probably come pretty close to chopping up the current traffic in popular ways. NOTE! since meta list discussions like this generate a notorious amount of traffic, *please* DO NOT POST to the list on this subject immediately. Send your mail to list moderator hughes(a)soda.berkeley.edu, who just recently complained about the volume and urged that things be kept to private mail. If EH does not want to do this, let him speak up and say so and let the froth awash us on the list instead. But maybe he could come to some kind of conclusion from the email and describe a course of action. IMHO, a split is the most pragmatic approach to dealing with the volume, and we really should be a bit embarrassed not to have done it before. now, of course, the major headache for EH is that he currently has to handle subscription requests manually. So I wonder if he would like to explore automated list software, of which there is a great deal. Like EH I'm genuinely concerned about the really high-class people that are finding no signals in the noise, despite their basic. The attrition is really a pity.

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Re: REMAIL: policy
by hfinney＠shell.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Remailers: hfinney(a)shell.portal.com hal(a)alumni.caltech.edu I keep logs only of the date/time at which my remailers get used; no logging is kept of the message contents. I do this only to get a picture of the overall volume of messages passing through my remailer. The Unix systems on which I run these remailers may also do some logging; I haven't been able to determine exactly what is done. I presume this might include incoming and outgoing addresses as well as message date/time and possibly size. (I am familiar only with uucp mail and don't know where to look on these net-connected Unix systems for sendmail logs.) My account on alumni.caltech.edu is free, based on my membership in the school alumni association (for which I paid some $300 about fifteen years ago for a life membership). My account on shell.portal.com costs my about $20 a month in fixed costs, plus $2/hour connect charges which typically run another $30 a month or so. So I am paying these people quite a bit and I hope therefore that this will give me some bargaining strength if political problems arise from the remailers. However, due to the large number of users on these systems, there are many restrictions on my usage. I cannot leave daemon processes running, nor can I use at or cron to schedule periodic jobs. The nice thing about the current remailer scripts is that they can be triggered by incoming mail without having a high profile to system administrators. Both of these systems appear to be well connected on the net and are almost always available. Both support PGP encryption. I am hoping to add batch capabilities to the remailers soon, based on Karl's scripts. I also like Karl's suggestion to add message padding to outgoing messages. If this system were used in conjunction with batching then if all messages in a batch were outgoing-padded (undetectably) to the size of the largest message in the batch then there would be total hiding of the incoming-to-outgoing message mapping. Earlier I had assumed that both incoming and outgoing messages would have to be standardized in size but now I see that padding of outgoing-only messages would be sufficient. Hal Finney hfinney(a)shell.portal.com

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NYT article - WOW
by L. Detweiler 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Markoff has written a BRILLIANT article. Virtually all the facts are right on, and he dances around the technical issues expertly, cutting to the core. This is FANTASTIC fodder for the cypherpunk cause! Probably just what PRZ dreamed of when he first wrote PGP :) Does anyone know Markoff's email address? Some minor idiosyncrasies, though. >Receiving the Federal subpoenas were Viacrypt, a Phoenix company >that plans to sell a licensed version of P.G.P., and Austin Code >Works of Austin, Tex., which is selling a version of P.G.P. for >other software developers to incorporate their own programs. Say what? this is false, from what I understand. *Maybe* `selling a version of RSA'? There is a rumor that G. Ward intended to include PGP in distribution disks, unconfirmed. But so far it appears there is very little related between G. Ward and PGP. >The >grand jury subpoenas, which the companies received Sept. 9 from what I can figure out so far, ViaCrypt got theirs on Tuesday, G. Ward on Thursday. This from their online statements. But it could have happened on the same day. Note that getting *served* a subpoena on the same day is very interesting -- if they were just dated on the same day and received at different times, that would be more realistic. If they were *served* simultaneously, that implies some kind of systematic coordination. Did somebody want to make sure that both places were hit exactly at the same time? Did they anticipate the rapid-fire explosion in cyberspace that would ensue? Remember, the grand jury is in California -- it would take some planning to have the summons *received* simultaneously. Don't they have to be delivered in person by agents? >Both publishers said they had no plans to sell their products >abroad. hee, hee. I wonder what Austin Code Works would think of G. Ward's Usenet postings... Pres. Leonard Mikus of ViaCrypt >"They're on a fishing expedition [...] hm, I wonder where I saw that term used before? >President Clinton alluded to the problems of controlling >distribution of software technology in a speech last week promoting >the North American Free Trade Agreement. > >"Nothing we do in this great capital can change the fact that >factories or information can flash across the world, that people >can move money around in the blink of an eye," the President said. >"Nothing can change the fact that technology can be adopted, once >created, by people all across the world and then rapidly adapted in >new and different ways by people who have a little different take >on the way that technology works." holy *cow* -- this sounds like something John Barlow of EFF would write! he almost appears to be alluding to *digital cash*! Obviously, Mr. President forgot to clear his remarks with the NSA first! Saying things like this, perhaps we should start a cypherpunk feed to president(a)whitehouse.com! cypherpunks, who'd ever have thought we'd have something from Mr. President for our signatures?! `technology rapidly adapted in new and different ways by people who have a little different take on the way that technology works' -- this is virtually from the Cypherpunk Charter. GAD! >"There is a First Amendment right to speak in a encrypted way," >said Eben Moglen, a professor of law and legal history at Columbia >University who is familiar with the case. "The right to speak >P.G.P. is like the right to speak Navajo. The Government has no >particular right to prevent you from speaking in a technical manner >even if it is inconvenient for them to understand." wow, this is *awesome* press. First time I've seen the constitutional aspect of cryptography dealt with. Markoff has got to be my absolute favorite writer. this is all what is called `bitter joy' ...

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Sorry about that...
by nobody＠soda.berkeley.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Aargggh! Sorry about the multiple postings of Master Key. The mailer here has been very strange lately. Sometimes it's down, and when it comes back up, things which were sent get sent again... --==<< Infocalypse >>==--

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minor address correction
by bart＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > Date: Tue, 21 Sep 93 21:35:16 -0600 > From: "L. Detweiler" <ld231782(a)longs.lance.colostate.edu> ... > > note: the new sci.crypt FAQ will have a much-improved section on public > key cryptography. watch for it on the newsgroup or > rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/news-answers/cryptography-faq if you want it right away. > > You'll do better in: /pub/usenet-by-group/news.answers/cryptography-faq" is current directory. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^

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Re: Master Key: A Clipper Story
by George A. Gleason 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

This is odd,... I never got the original posting; if anyone can email it to me I'd be thrilled (gg(a)well.sf.ca.us) thanks- -gg

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New York Times: Federal Inquiry on Software...
by gtoal＠an-teallach.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

In article <199309220117.AA11227(a)bongo.cc.utexas.edu> zeek(a)bongo.cc.utexas.edu writes: > ---------------------------- > The New York Times > Tuesday, September 21, 1993 > Business Day > ---------------------------- > > Federal Inquiry on Software Examines Privacy Programs > > By John Markoff John Markoff regularly writes good and informed articles that he has clearly researched (if that's the right word) by reading usenet and possibly lists like this one. Yet I've *never* seen the guy post. John, if you're reading this, drop me a line to say hello just so I have your email address, in case I ever want to mail you something. Graham -- Personal mail to gtoal(a)gtoal.com (I read it in the evenings) Business mail to gtoal(a)an-teallach.com (Be careful with the spelling!) Faxes to An Teallach Limited: +44 31 662 4678 Voice: +44 31 668 1550 x212

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