December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: INFORMED CONSENT
by nobody＠rosebud.ee.uh.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Sandy Sandfort <ssandfort(a)attmail.com> writes: S> Nobody wrote: S> S> You know, this radiation experiment reminds me of S> another incident. A group of African-American men were S> injected, without their knowledge or consent, with live S> syphilis spirochaetes, and studied for a number of S> years. No attempt at therapy was ever attempted, as I S> recall, for these individuals. . . . S> S> Actually, this is wrong on two counts. One, the men were not S> injected with syphilis; they had already contracted it when S they went into the program. Correct. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. S> Two, in most cases, they *were* given S> therapy. What was withheld was penicillin. The subjects who S> were treated, were given relatively ineffective and dangerous S> mercury therapies. >From what I've been able to glean from the below reference, at the very beginning of the study, in 1932, the subjects were given rather innefective treatment. From about 1933 on the focus of the study became purely one of longterm _untreated_ syphilis. Indeed, during United States Public Health Service campaigns against V.D. in the South, during the late '30s and into the '40s when more effective therapies were coming into use, subjects of the study were actively *denied* treatment; to the point of actually pulling them out line at clinics (those who sought treatment), telling them that they weren't supposed to be treated, and sending them home. This "study" was conducted under the auspices of the United States Public Health Service, was not a secret, and ran for 40 years. --Nobody ================================================================== Author: Jones, James H. (James Howard), 1943- Title: Bad blood : the Tuskegee syphilis experiment Impr/Ed: New York : Free Press ; Toronto : Maxwell Macmillan Canada; New York : Maxwell McMillan International, c1993 : LCCN: 92034818

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Re: Cypherpunk Credit Union
by wcs＠anchor.ho.att.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

LD asks about the status of digicash credit unions and such. > 1. Do you have to join the CA cypherpunks to learn about this? > Obviously you guys have been working on this a long time, and as > long as I was on the list I barely saw any peep about it. Several different projects are going on. The credit-union approach is from some folks in the Austin cypherpunks group whose names I've forgotten, who posted a rather funny article to the net a few months back about their drive to Dallas to meet Chaum; I think it was on both sci.crypt and cypherpunks. The other project I know about is the one Eric Hughes and friends are working on. Anything having to do with banking law tends to take an immense learning-curve hit just to do the legalities - they're often harder than the technical work, given the availability of Chaum and other people's work in the academic community. As with most projects, people spend a while kicking around what they'd like a system to do, and developing technology to do it (often in parallel, and sometimes science-fiction writers tell us what a system *ought* to be doing for us long before anybody figures out the details of how to do it or what the real implications of technology are), but sitting down and actually implementing something is often a lot of work - especially if you're doing stuff like writing business plans and hunting down venture capitalists, which may not go on as publicly. Unfortunately, certain flame-wars have made it difficult for people to do real work on cypherpunks (ahem!), and have forced people to adjust the priorities of what they read and think about and how much time they spend doing or talking about new fun stuff. (Flames to /dev/null :-)) This means that sometimes the only way to find out what people are doing is to meet them in person, or send private email saying "what are you up to these days?" One of the valuable parts of CA-cypherpunks has been everybody going around the room saying "here's what I've been playing with lately." > 2. Is this a private development group? Is it open to anyone who > wishes to join? If so, are cy{b,ph}erwonks allowed to join in the > development? We are interested in these kinds of projects. Don't know; you can ask the people doing the work by email, and maybe they'll think it's worth their time to bring you up to date and ask for your help if you've got usefl contributions. Or you can go out and start one yourself, and ask for help; lots of the important projects get the bulk of their work done by 1 or a few people working hard. > 3. [other mailing lists?] Nobody's invited me :-), except there's the IMP lists, which I haven't taken the time for yet. > 4. If any of your projects are indeed secret, why are many > cypherpunks actively engaged in a campaign on the imp-interest > list (Internet Mercantile Protocols)? Why don't you just stick to > your own project and let the Internet sort out which protocol is > more acceptable to the world-at-large? There are dozens of different flavors of applications for moving money, goods, and services around the Internet, with different needs, different economic characteristics, etc. Most of them need some form of crypto to be usable, whether to prevent forgery or counterfeiting, preserve privacy, guarantee you'll get paid, deliver the goods and cash at the same time, etc. That means that cypherpunks, sci.crypt readers, and people like us who may or may not have time to follow the lists :-) are generally the experts on this sort of technology among internet-users, except for corporate efforts which may be going on in proprietary-space. An IMP needs to accommodate a wide range of needs, and needs to avoid re-making mistakes that cypherpunks have already learned to avoid. While I certainly am concerned about keeping information about where I'm travelled and when private, both I and the subway providers are willing to risk using little mag-cards bought for cash with the $5-20 they hold; on the other hand, I'd really rather not file my income tax return on postcards or satellite broadcast-grams with payment attached via my credit-card numbers, SSN, mother's maiden name, and digitized-ink signature. You may have other preferences :-) > 5. What about the rumors that seem to be confirmed by what > B.Stewart said about evading tax laws and black marketeering, > that the cypherpunk credit union is actually a surreptitious > front for plans to provide money laundering over the Internet? That's a political question for another thread, and most of what I said was political discussion, it wasn't market surveys of customers. FOllowups to cypherwonks, please. Any sufficiently advanced technology... > 7. What is the David Chaum connection to all this? I know that he > met with E.Hughes to discuss plans but are the Cypherpunks to be > understood as the U.S.-based Chaum group? Chaum and the folks at C.W.I. and Chaum's company have developed a lot of the interesting technology, or at least patented it in the U.S., so you *have* to deal with them if you want to go into business. That doesn't mean you become a subsidiary, just a customer. Meanwhile, the meeting you're referring to was between Chaum and the Austin folks, as I and others have mentioned. Bill Stewart # Bill Stewart NCR Corp, 6870 Koll Center Parkway, Pleasanton CA, 94566 # Voice/Beeper 510-224-7043, Phone 510-484-6204 # email bill.stewart(a)pleasantonca.ncr.com billstewart(a)attmail.com

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REQUEST: PGP Lib status
by pckizer＠tamu.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- A while back, whenever someone talked about perhaps working on libraritizing PGP themselves, the reply would be "someone's working on it," or "it will be in the next release." Anyone have the current status of this? Thanks, philip ____________________________________________________________ Philip Kizer ___ Texas A&M CIS Operating Systems Group, Unix fnord pckizer(a)tamu.edu -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLSrSCbZspOMRmJBhAQFcsQP+JGGrou0fBnfYVOnD1PA9Zkxyq7uGNW7T nuaNgAdj7CIb8HU7oykCond9d5HC7KmZXsQRz4pEtzPWBl5fLvTe33cgfAtRtPxk PBsrDuriB6FwK6i/OdB7ac0NxIdCGCWRwrpjCWb5DfFzQN+/fmV86gHBt++t+6qz gkXI5xaftOQ= =WKcl -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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RSA Conference 1/12-1/14
by Hastings＠courier8.aero.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Here's a recent e-mail exchange, between RSA Data Security, Inc. <info(a)rsa.com> and myself, that may interest you cypherpunks: - ---------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Crypto FAQ Request Author: Hastings(a)courier8.aero.org at INTERNET Date: 1/4/94 10:31 AM My deadline for the first issue of the Agorist Quarterly is rapidly approaching. I'm writing an article about digital cash protocols for use on Internet e-mail accounts, comparing Chaum's recent work with Representative/Observer hardware versus software-only approaches like Netcash and rumors about better things from the cypherpunk list. Of course, RSA will get mentioned as one of the foundations of digital cash, along with Chaum's blind signatures, mixes, remailers, DC-nets, and etc. Your latest cryptography FAQ that I've seen is Revision 2, dated October 5, 1993. Is that the latest version? If so, I'm all set. If not, please e-mail the latest version to me here at hastings(a)courier8.aero.org. If it is only available on paper, please send a copy to me at this address: The Agorist Institute 291 S. La Cienega Blvd #749 Beverly Hills, CA 90211 If your company has any products specifically targeting paperless checks, cash, or related applications, let me know and I'll include them in the article. Thanks for your help. Kent - <hastings(a)courier8.aero.org> Ham packet radio: WA6ZFY @ N6YN.#SOCA.CA.USA.NA ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Kent: Yes, release 2 is the latest release of the FAQ. David Chaum is going to be speaking at our conference next week, and will be available for interviews. Since you're press, you get in free: will you be coming? Finally, what is the Agorist Institute? Kurt Stammberger RSADSI ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ The Agorist Institute is a non-profit educational institute that is best characterized as a libertarian think tank. It was established "on the last day of 1984 to mark the end of Orwell's nightmare future." Seminars on agorist subjects, like Austrian Economics, and Feminism And The State, have been held in Southern California. The Institute's Directorate maintains a semi-monthly presence at the Albert J. Nock Forum, and at the H.L. Mencken Supper Club, to distribute publications, and serve as speakers when appropriate. For example, I gave a speech about digital cash, "Cyber Cash: Free-Market Money Comes of Age," to three different groups at the end of September, 1993. The speech was first delivered to a World Future Society chapter in Santa Ana, the H.L. Mencken Forum in Hollywood, and to a Libertarian Party chapter in Culver City. Note: The Agorist Institute does not endorse candidates for any political party. We serve the vast libertarian movement outside the small numbers of L.P. activists. The Director presented a libertarian analysis of our current business environment at a 1993 conference held in Midlands, Michigan. The conference was called "Freedom, Trade, and Markets in a High-Tech Age." He has been invited back, to give seminars this March, 1994, along with other Institute researchers, on topics ranging from electronic publishing, to How To Sell Freedom to a Hostile Audience. Unlike the Cato Institute, which provides libertarian policy advice to Washington D.C. politicians and lobbyists, the AI's research mainly covers the gray market and black market areas we call "counter-economics." This is also the focus of other institutes, like the one associated with Peruvian writer Hernando de Soto, famous for his book, The Other Path, which documented the growth and present influence of the "informal economy" in Peru. The informal economy grew steadily in the big cities of Peru, from nothing, to controlling over 90% of what are normally considered "public" services (like bus transportation, and road construction and maintenance), all despite a succession of formal left-wing and right-wing governments. So you can see why the development of untraceable digital cash for any e-mail user would interest us. With 20 million Internet accounts throughout the world, and Internet usage doubling every year, digicash will have a profound impact on businesses, government, and consumers. The Institute studies, but does not encourage, activities that are illegal. Still, if it weren't for gun smugglers, tax cheats, and traitors, the United States would still be a British colony, and Eastern Europe would still be Communist. It is unlikely that I will be able to travel to Northern Cal. next week, (I have a real job, too!), but if you send me the date and time, I could arrange for a local person to attend the Chaum conference. I could announce it at tonight's Albert J. Nock Forum meeting, if you want me to. You might give me prices for the non-press attendees in that case. Thanks again for your prompt reply. Kent - <hastings(a)courier8.aero.org> Ham packet radio: WA6ZFY @ N6YN.#SOCA.CA.USA.NA ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Send me your fax number and I will fax you a complete comnference agenda: David's talk is on the third day. Non-press attendees are $245 each (just a break-even fee: we feed you breakfast and lunch all three days, and proceedings and hardcopies of the presentations, a various other goodies) Kurt RSADSI 415/595-8782 - -------------------------------------------------------- I suppose you could call Kurt, and tell him I sent you. The conference begins on Wednesday, January 12, 1994. Registration is at 415/595-8782. The conference is at the Hotel Sofitel January 12-14, 1994 in Redwood Shores, CA about 15 minutes south of the San Francisco International Airport. Rooms are available at the Sofitel (415/598-9000) "at a special guaranteed rate for conference attendees." - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Here's a PGP public key for use at my office computer only: - -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.3a mQCNAixhYsIAAAEEANPvKYGwdSeUvJuMF1PH4sydYFiAOV3iKW+ZUle9HeTeG8xq hEJNu3MsOqsnYSeXkamsVlNR07bWipSAdSmeHJKVhARLDchN7P0n8gg65lJzZBJc ZaOo8KfCd6fF1etj8g8TD7cf7rHhOLI2QyPtNq0N2/i/W/lNPvEzOz6fx5dFAAUR tC1KLiBLZW50IEhhc3RpbmdzIDxoYXN0aW5nc0Bjb3VyaWVyOC5hZXJvLm9yZz4= =Yxil - -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Kent - <hastings(a)courier8.aero.org> Ham packet radio: WA6ZFY @ N6YN.#SOCA.CA.USA.NA -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLSrrovEzOz6fx5dFAQGzRAP+LupdOPffenceBEzZjz50S3nL+jjHNsfK EmRpj4FfTiQfSu6HLeBTV8H9QJtQ9lJX8Q7US8nWvOkcT/6UXMWJEUL6aOFZpe8d +PDq5Z00EO7pMN6odmijfZtGZOhVF/GIscgwokhWHiCi2ZBPIXtooet/7bK0DOK6 12cGySl0WPo= =VjBf -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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One-Time Pad Available
by jpinson＠fcdarwin.org.ec 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

A Beta test version of OTP-PC is ready for release. OTP-PC is a MS DOS version of the Vernam One-time pad, an unbreakable but somewhat clumsy cipher. I have added several features to make the one-time pad easier to use. -OTP-PC can use a large pad (codebook) for multiple messages. This feature is more efficient than using multiple smaller pads. -Optional Precompression of the plain text reduces consumption of the pad, and masks the size of the original file. -The portions of the pad used each session are overwritten, both on encoding and decoding, to prevent reuse. -Encoded files have a 2-stage header. The first stage, an un- encrypted "bootstrap", automates the decode process. The second encrypted header contains more sensitive information. -A 32 bit CRC (stored in the encrypted header) verifies reconstruction of the original file. -Automatic wiping of intermediate compressed files. If anyone would like to volunteer to test OTP-PC, and give me any suggestions or bug reports, please send me a message. Please indicate your preference for UUencode, Mime Base64, BinHex, or PGP ASCII Armor. I will send you both the executable and ANSI C (Borland C++ V3.0) source code. Jim Pinson jpinson(a)fcdarwin.org.ec

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Wiping files on compressed disks.
by jpinson＠fcdarwin.org.ec 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I did a few tests on wiping compressed (Stacker) files: Sdir, the Stacker directory command, reported a 900k PKZip file had a compression ratio of 1.0:1 (no compression). I wiped the file using the same character repeatedly, and sdir reported the resultant file had a compression ratio of 15.9:1 I wiped another copy of the zip file using sets of increasing characters (0-255). After this wipe the compression ratio was 8.0:1 Lastly, I wiped the file using random characters, generated using Turboc's random() function. This time, the compression ratio was 1.0:1, the same as the original. Sounds like wiping with random characters may indeed be the way to go to avoid "slack" at the end of the file. One interesting note: When I fragmented the original zip file into 50K segments with a "chop" program, sdir reported that each segment had a compression ratio of 1.1:1, even though the original file showed no compression. When I created 10K segments, I got a compression ratio of 1.6:1 Pkzip however, was unable to compress these file segments at all. I suspect that Stacker is not really compressing these smaller files in the normal sense, but is storing them more efficiently (better sector or cluster size?). Jim Pinson

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cryptocosmology
by Brian D Williams 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Cryptocosmology: sufficently advanced communication is indistinguishable from noise. I really like this! Its kind of a corollary to Clarks (Arthur C that is) third law "Any sufficently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." I guess this means that if there are other civilizations out there, and they have Cypherpunks, and they are just a little more advanced, then the people at S.E.T.I. are wasting there time (and to beat Tim to it "our Bucks!") Brian Williams Extropian Cypherpatriot -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLSswbtCcBnAsu2t1AQET7QP/fYzAidhb05NkSJOLNEDHLtclna47n1Im hxRYGgKZGAgkHkM1BfsCCOBNSZehhQ2H36WM6VGs/ZZDHlowrbunfBuEtEWl52Lm rchJPCnpK0Z72M+oTBtDo2V+eUdppTCaLaJ9EEvzLRCaRnpOjhTwFAtmkjKjKhNh mkE9jDlfJlk= =fvQv -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Extropians please excuse the dupe.

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automatic mail scanning software
by Matt Blaze 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I was just cleaning up my office, throwing out a bunch of vendor literature from a recent unixexpo, when a flyer for a product called "MpScan" from an outfit called "CyberSoft" caught my eye. This product, as advertised, "automatically searches outgoing email for company classified material". Aside from being configurable to do stuff like block mail to certain addresses, it also " ...uses the powerful, user-tested CVDL scanning language..." and can generate "...reports which can be used to look for unusual changes in Email usage...". A "version 2" promises "many more feaures using an AI engine". All this can be yours for only $49,000 per mail server, or $200,000 per site license. You get free upgrades until the end of 1997. -matt

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Non-techie Crypto book?
by fnerd＠smds.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Is there a good not-very-technical, but up-to-date book on crypto? An acquaintance asks. -fnerd - - cryptocosmology- sufficiently advanced communication is indistinguishable from noise - god is in the least significant bits -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a aKxB8nktcBAeQHabQP/d7yhWgpGZBIoIqII8cY9nG55HYHgvt3niQCVAgUBLMs3K ui6XaCZmKH68fOWYYySKAzPkXyfYKnOlzsIjp2tPEot1Q5A3/n54PBKrUDN9tHVz 3Ch466q9EKUuDulTU6OLsilzmRvQJn0EJhzd4pht6hSnC1R3seYNhUYhoJViCcCG sRjLQs4iVVM= =9wqs -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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ASAP'94: Call for papers
by cappello＠cs.ucsb.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Since many people withdrew for the holidays, I thought it best to resend the following Call. The Conference attracts those who design/implement special-purpose computing systems. I welcome privately mailed suggestions for either a keynote speaker or an invited speaker (we will have up to 3 invited presentations). Pete ----------------------------------------------------------- A S A P '94 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON APPLICATION-SPECIFIC ARRAY PROCESSORS 22-24 August 1994 The Fairmont Hotel San Francisco Sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society ASAP'94 is an international conference on application- specific computing systems. This conference's lineage traces back to the First International Workshop on Systolic Arrays held in Oxford, England, in July 1986, and has con- tinued through the International Conference on Application- Specific Array Processors held in Venice, Italy, in Oct. 1993. Areas for application-specific computing systems are many and varied. Some samples areas follow: CAD tools; com- putational biology, chemistry, geology, pharmacology, phy- sics, and physiology; cryptography; data base, information retrieval, and compression; electronic commerce; high- performance networks; medical equipment; robotics and prosthetics; signal and image processing. Aspects of application-specific computing systems that are of interest include, but are not limited to: - Application-specific architectures - Application-specific fault tolerance strategies - Application-specific test & evaluation strategies - CAD tools for application-specific systems - Design methodology for application-specific systems - Special-purpose systems for fundamental algorithms - Implementation methodology & rapid prototyping - Standard hardware components & software objects - Systems software: languages, compilers, operating systems The conference will present a balanced technical pro- gram covering the theory and practice of application- specific computing systems. Of particular interest are con- tributions that either achieve large performance gains with application-specific computing systems, introduce novel architectural concepts, present formal and practical methods for the specification, design and evaluation of these sys- tems, analyze technology dependencies and the integration of hardware and software components, or describe and evaluate fabricated systems. The conference will feature an opening keynote address, technical presentations, a panel discussion, and poster presentations. One of the poster sessions is reserved for on-going projects and experimental systems. INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS Please send 5 copies of your double-spaced typed manuscript (maximum 5000 words) with an abstract to a Pro- gram Co-Chair. Your submission letter should indicate which of your paper's areas are most relevant to the conference, and which author is responsible for correspondence. Your paper should be unpublished and not under review for any other conference or workshop. The Proceedings will be published by the IEEE Computer Society Press. CALENDAR OF SIGNIFICANT EVENTS 18 Feb. Deadline for receipt of papers. 29 Apr. Notification of authors. 24 Jun. Deadline for receipt of photo-ready paper. 22 Aug. Conference begins. GENERAL CO-CHAIRS Prof. Earl E. Swartzlander, Jr. Prof. Benjamin W. Wah e.swartzlander(a)compmail.com wah(a)manip.crhc.uiuc.edu Electrical & Computer Engineering Coordinated Science Lab. University of Texas University of Illinois Austin, TX 78712 1308 West Main Street Urbana, IL 61801 (512) 471-5923 (217) 333-3516 (512) 471-5907 (Fax) (217) 244-7175 (Fax) PROGRAM CO-CHAIRS Prof. Peter Cappello Prof. Robert M. Owens cappello(a)cs.ucsb.edu owens(a)cse.psu.edu Computer Science Computer Science & Engineering University of California Pennsylvania State Univ. Santa Barbara, CA 93106 University Park, PA 16802 (805) 893-4383 (814) 865-9505 (805) 893-8553 (Fax) (814) 865-3176 (Fax) EUROPEAN PUBLICITY CHAIR Prof. Vincenzo Piuri e-mail piuri(a)ipmel1.polimi.it Dept. of Electronics and Information Politecnico di Milano p.za L. da Vinci 32 I-20133 Milano, Italy +39-2-23993606 +39-2-23993411 (Fax) Please forward this Call to all interested parties.

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