December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Raytheon as Big Brother, Inc.
by Adam Shostack 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

(Excerpted & paraphrased from todays (22 July 1994) Boston Globe:) Raytheon won an 800 billion dollar, six year contract with the government of Brazil to provide monitoring of the Amazon vs. drug & mineral smugglers. System will employ telecomm, satelite imagery, ground & air based monitoring to monitor an area more than 1/2 the size of the US. System will use unspecified defense converted technologies. System will reduce deforestation & wildlife destruction, combat illegal mining & drug trafficing, protect indigenous tribes, *monitor traffic*, stengthen border controls. Team members include IBM/Brasil, INFRANAV, a Brasilian militray contracter, MacDonald Dettwiler (hmmm) of canada, and others. The article fawns about how nice it will be for Raytheon not to go out of buisness. Raytheon has been having difficulty recently, since the Army decided to go with a longer range anti-missile system, bypassing future Patriot missile purchases. "If Brazil wins the world Cup, the government will be able to pass the most repressive legislation ever, and no one will care." -- Pele -- Adam Shostack adam(a)bwh.harvard.edu Politics. From the greek "poly," meaning many, and ticks, a small, annoying bloodsucker.

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Raytheon got a great deal
by rjc＠gnu.ai.mit.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Wow, an 800 billion dollar contract! Someone put me in contact with the government of Brazil! ;-)

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Re: Voice/Fax Checks
by Hal 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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LITTLE BROTHER INSIDE
by Sandy Sandfort 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SANDY SANDFORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C'punks, I was just thinking about computer seizures and thefts. I think I've come up with a couple of interesting solutions. REMOTE CONTROL--In addition to denying access to your files by encrypting, you might want to *change* them in some way *after* your computer has been seized/stolen. Pagers are cheap. They can be pinged no matter where they are located in their service area. They can be accessed from any phone (even a jailhouse payphone). And they are small enough to be wired into your computer. It souldn't be too difficult to fix it so your computer can read transmitted numbers from the pager's memory. Code numbers could be used to tell your computer to take various actions. Depending upon your circumstances, you could tell your computer to decrypt this or that set of files, to reformat the hard drive, to fry the CPU, etc. LITTLE BROTHER INSIDE--Even better than a pager, would be a cell phone. It would be more expensive, but also more versatile. In addition to giving instructions to your computer, a cell phone could be used to *eavesdrop* on the location where your computer is being held. By disabling the ringer and remounting the mouthpiece, you could surreptitiously call your computer, any time, from any phone and monitor conversations in the area. (To paraphrase an old military curse, "bug the bugging buggers.") As long as the computer is plugged in, the cell phones batteries will continue to be topped off. (For the truly thorough privacy advocate, a GPS unit could be hooked into the cell phone to give you its location.) S a n d y ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Re: Double DES calculations
by norm＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 09:05 1994/07/22 -0700, Hal wrote: >I missed the start of this double-des thread due to system problems and >being gone, and I've never been able to pick up the main point since. It >sounds like some kind of meet-in-the-middle attack is being discussed. >It is true that with current technology MITM generally seems more costly >in terms of space than time. However, I have seen references to techniques >which shift this tradeoff some, costing more time and less space. Un- >fortunately, I can't remember where I saw them! ... There may be more than one way that MITM (meet in the middle) may be used to attack Double block cyphers. I assume the following attack. You know some block of plain-text P and corresponding cypher text C. You believe that C = E(k, E(j, P)) where E(k, p) is the encypherment of p with key k. D(k, E(k, p)) = p. You need to find keys k and j. Classic MITM is to produce a file A with records: <k, E(k, P)> for each k, and file B with records <j, D(j, C)> for each j. Sort both A and B on the second field. Pass over the sorted files looking for a record from file A whose second field is the same as a record in file B. To substantially shorten the ammount of tape used by a factor 2^n at the expense of evaluating C and D 2^n more often do the following: For m from 0 to 2^n-1 Do Produce file A with records: <k, E(k, P)> for each k where (the right n bits of E(k, P)) = m. (discarding other records) Produce file B with records <j, D(j, C)> for each j where (the right n bits of D(j, C)) = m Sort files A and B on second field. Pass over files looking for records from A that match records from b in the second field. Enddo. This is still a daunting job and evaluating its magnitide requires several assumptions. The most obvious is the cost of evaluating C and D. Next is the cost of reading and writing tape.

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CYPHERPUNKS TO THE RESCUE
by Sandy Sandfort 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SANDY SANDFORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C'punks, On the noon news in San Francisco, there was an item of crypto interest. It was about something I think they called the "Code Grabber." It is a device which receives and records the coded RF signals used to remotely unlock car and garage doors. The hand-held unit is a little larger than a paperback book. It has a half dozen switches on it. After you intercept someone's code, you can play it back anytime to control that person's car lock or garage door. It's kind of like a TV universal remote. Some politicos have already started talking about banning it, but I think just the publicity will guarantee a healthy black market in such devices. The public will be clamoring for a solution. Enter the Cypherpunks. How can this nifty burglary tool be outsmarted? How about a replacement system that uses strong crypto? The Code Grabber represents a great opportunity for an inventive Cypherpunk to make some money AND promote crypto awareness. The questions are: Could standard auto and garage door openers easily be retrofitted? Could a "crypto remote" with its own CPU be made small enough to fit into a hand-held unit? Could such a system be made for a reasonable cost? S a n d y P.S. I bet there are some other interesting uses to which such a device could put. Any ideas? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Re: CYPHERPUNKS TO THE RESCUE
by norm＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 09:51 1994/07/26 -0400, Russell Nelson wrote: >Why not generate a random number, checksum it, and sign it using a >public key? Or is that overkill? ... Seems good. But to thwart replay of the signed message the garage unit must never accept the same signed number twice. How about the car unit signing successive numbers. The garage unit would remember the last number that it accepted and only accept signed numbers larger than that. Garbled transmissions would then cause no problems. They would be fixed by yet new transmissions, just as with current units.

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No mail?
by will＠thinkmedia.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I haven't recieved the usual deluge in the last 24 hours. Wassup? Is the server down or have I been exorcised? ______________________________________________________________________________ Opinion is a flitting thing, Thinking Media Research But Truth, outlasts the Sun-- will(a)thinkmedia.com If then we cannot own them both-- (408) 423 3720 Possess the oldest one-- Emily Dickinson

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Det./tmp/Nym on Netcom
by whitaker＠dpair.csd.sgi.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Noon 25 July 1994 Prepended disclaimer: I do not speak for Netcom or SGI. I have spoken to Bryant at Netcom's operations center in San Jose, California, and he has asked me to pass along the following to the Cypherpunks list and anyone else concerned with L. Detweiler and system user accounts: nym(a)netcom.com tmp(a)netcom.com Both of these accounts have been suspended. The "nym" account was suspended as of late last week. Although it is not Netcom's policy to give out account user information which includes names, addresses, and other such personal data, Bryant was at liberty to say that the user accounts "tmp" and "nym" were the same person. I approve of this company policy, by the way. The accounts department at Netcom has been made aware by Bryant that trouble has been generated by the singular person writing checks in payment of both the "nym" and "tmp" accounts, and has been told not to accept any new orders from anyone suspected to be the same person. Particular attention is being paid to orders made from the Denver area. Bryant has asked me to add that Netcom's way of handling such trouble is strictly complaint-driven. If you have a complaint about a particular user, your best bet is to call Netcom. Bryant can be reached directly at Netcom by calling 408-983-1510. [bcc: Bryant at Netcom (not email address; call phone)] Appended disclaimer: I do not speak for Netcom or SGI. -- Russell Earl Whitaker whitaker(a)csd.sgi.com Silicon Graphics Inc. Technical Assistance Center / Centre D'Assistance Technique / Tekunikaru Ashisutansu Sentaa Mountain View CA (415) 390-2250 ================================================================ #include <std_disclaimer.h>

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CEB 7 - Cypherpunks' Electronic Book - its still alive!
by Gary Jeffers 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

CEB 7 CYPHERPUNKS' ELECTRONIC BOOK - its still alive! Not long ago someone sent me private email volunteering a workstation to handle the CEB. I have stupidly lost the post. After several hours of hunting thru my unindexed Cypherpunk archives - no luck. Will that person please email me again with CEB in the header? Also, I have a very well qualified volunteer to do the editing of CEB. Hopefully, he may know how to program it as well. I am going to maintain a list of people with different skills who would like to work on the CEB. Anybody would would like to help please post either to me or to Cypherpunks with CEB in the header. Also, would the people who have archieved Cypherpunks' lists please respond as well. PUSH EM BACK! PUSH EM BACK! WWWAAAYYY BBBAAACCCK! BBBEEEAAATTTT STATE! Yours Truly, Gary Jeffers

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