December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

CYPHERPUNKS CRIMINAL T-SHIRTS
by cvoid＠albemuth.tatertot.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I will be sorting through the t-shirt requests and compiling a list. It will be done in a few days. As soon as I finish this, I will mail everyone on the list, and we can start hashing out a design. I have a screening company I work with, and am currently working out the details with them. Any questions can be directed to me at <albemuth.tatertot.com> or <netcom.com>. Thanks. Christian Void /T71 | "I don't like it, and I'm sorry I | V/M/Research, Inc. cvoid(a)netcom.COM | ever had anything to do with it." | P.O. Box 170213 Tel. 1+415-807-5491 | -Erwin Schrodinger (1887-1961) | SF, CA 94117-0213 * PGP v2.3a Public Key Available Via Finger *

1 0

Re: NSA Insecure Remailers
by hfinney＠shell.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

As Tim says, it is no secret on this list that the remailers are not presently secure. I posted a long message a few months ago outlining possible attacks on the remailers. It's worth noting that Karl Barrus' remailer does batch up messages and send them out once a day. If enough people use it that will help mix them up. There is still the message size to match them up, though (and, believe it or not, the Subject: line!). Karl is working on padding code. Really, fixing these problems is not hard. There will be some penalties in terms of usability of the systems. Subject lines will have to be embedded in the encrypted message blocks, so the software which sets up cascaded message commands will need to do this. More intrusively, I think all messages will have to be padded to be the same size everywhre in the remailer network. We need to pick a size large enough to accomodate most messages yet not so large that padding all messages to that size will be too expensive or wasteful. Then messages bigger than that size will either be rejected or at least some warning given to the user that his message will be trackable. The traffic volume problem should be solved by having a source of random messages which traverse the network, mixing in with user messages. This will help, but you still have the problem that only user messages will leave the network. The biggest problem is that many remailers are on unsecure systems. The PGP keys and passwords for these remailers are on the disk IN THE CLEAR. Anyone who can get privileges on these systems (many hackers, these days, not to mention the NSA) can get the remailer's keys and decrypt any messages sent to those remailers. Karl's monthly posting shows which remailers are on private machines; those are the only ones which have any hope of being secure against the NSA. As I said, I think most of these problems are fixable, or at least can be significantly improved. Perhaps after the holidays interested parties can set up a sub-list to discuss "Mark II" remailers which will more closely approximate Chaum's vision. Hal Finney hfinney(a)shell.portal.com

1 0

Two Articles FYI
by jdwilson＠gold.chem.hawaii.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

CP's: Two articles you might find interesting: November 15, 1993 InfoWorld, p. 57, "From the Editor": Article titled "Top 10 Reasons the Feds Shouldn't Build the Data Highway" Also PC Week November 1, 1993 Special Report p. 86 "Hitch a ride on the digital highway." Aloha no -Jim

1 0

Re: EFF Op-Ed from the NY Tim
by trestrab＠GVSU.EDU 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Perry Metzger writes: > Matthew J Ghio says: >> If you're not enrolled at a major university, or employed >> at a computer-related company, and don't subscribe to an expensive >> online service, getting an internet account is NOT easy or cheap. > >To most of the nations population, which lives in cities, it costs >under $25 a month total variable cost including phone costs. It is >likely far more expensive in rural areas. > >Perry Indeed. My account at Delphi costs $20/ month for the first 20 hours and $1.80/hr thereafter (plus $3/mo surcharge for Internet access other than e-mail). The total cost is not signifigantly more than the cost of the daily paper (yet its far more informative...). There is a $9/hr charge for access 6am-7pm, though, so I use my wife's account to read this and other lists (and you probably thought I was psuedospoofing :-)) Jeff

1 0

N-Gram
by an4914＠anon.penet.fi 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> > Joseph M. Bugajsky quit Ford Motor Co. in 1985 to pursue his dream of >inventing a computer formula that would analyze and store data the same way >the human brain does. This September, his efforts paid off with a U.S. patent >on a system that spots patterns in data and compresses the data into >"memories." These memories, Bugajsky says, take up only one-half of 1% of the >original space. That could make them a boon to banks, libraries, and >laboratories flooded with data. [...] >Any comments? Compression down to 0.5% ?!? HA! Try saying that on comp.compression!!! Let's see... That's half a typed page of data crunched down into five bytes. Give me a break. That guy ought to be sued for false advertising. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To find out more about the anon service, send mail to help(a)anon.penet.fi. Due to the double-blind, any mail replies to this message will be anonymized, and an anonymous id will be allocated automatically. You have been warned. Please report any problems, inappropriate use etc. to admin(a)anon.penet.fi.

1 0

Re: N-Gram
by peb＠PROCASE.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Sounds like Bugajsky creates a generative grammar and then stores list of productions that specifies a walk on the tree to extract data. This is a form of Kolmogorov Complexity compression, which has been expanded upon most notably by Chaitin. In the general case, the program could be for a Turing complete machine: e.g., if I want to compress 3.14159265..., the compression algorithm could recognize the sequence and give an essentially infinite compression if you want an infinite number of digits (that's right, my patented algorithm can compress your data, as found inside pi, to 0.0000000000000% of original size! Oops, pi can't be patented, well, then I'll have to use the mumble secret sequence which can be patented! ;^) I wonder whether Bugajsky includes the size of his grammar in the compressed size...if he doesn't then his 0.5% non-lossy compression is overstated. Barnsley fractal compression achieves very high compression rates like this, but it could take days to compress one picture (of course, faster compression algorithms exist that don't compress as much). JPEG can get very high compression rates if loss of exact data is okay (which it is for pictures). And yet another lossy compression example is Sony's MiniDisc which biases to the loss of data to areas that are difficult for most humans to recognize. Paul E. Baclace peb(a)procase.com Bib: Chaitin. "Algorithmic Information Theory", Cambridge University Press, 1987. Kolmogorov. "Three Approaches to the Quantitative Definition of Information", Problems of Information Transmission 1, 1-7 [1965]. Kolmogorov. "On the Logical Foundations of Information Theory", Problems of Information Transmission 5, 3-7 [1969].

1 0

Re: N-Gram
by collins＠newton.apple.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>[algorithm to] store data the same way the human brain does. >[stored data would] take up only [0.5%] of the original space. Whoever said the human brain stores data compressed to 0.5% of its original size, and what is its original size anyway. Paul Baclace says: >Sounds like Bugajsky creates a generative grammar and then stores list >of productions that specifies a walk on the tree to extract data. This >is a form of Kolmogorov Complexity compression, which has been expanded >upon most notably by Chaitin. I agree. The description sounds more like this than anything else I'm familiar with. Paul Baclace goes on to say: >I wonder whether [he] includes the size of his grammar in [the claim] 0.5% is a questionable claim. If it includes the grammar, then the grammar must be very simple, and the data of very low entropy with respect to it -- in which case 0.5% would be an uninteresting experimental result. If the claim does _not_ include the size of the grammar, then the claim is useless for evaluating this scheme. Scott Collins | "Few people realize what tremendous power there | is in one of these things." -- Willy Wonka ......................|................................................ BUSINESS. voice:408.862.0540 fax:974.6094 collins(a)newton.apple.com Apple Computer, Inc. 5 Infinite Loop, MS 305-2B Cupertino, CA 95014 ....................................................................... PERSONAL. voice/fax:408.257.1746 1024:669687 catalyst(a)netcom.com

1 0

Re: NSA CAN BREAK PGP ENCRYPTION
by rxt109＠psu.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

check out this load of bull that I pulled off of alt.privacy today. Reminds me of those chain letters.... > > > A lot of people think that PGP encryption is unbreakable and that the >NSA/FBI/CIA/MJ12 cannot read their mail. This is wrong, and it can be a deadly >mistake. In Idaho, a left-wing activist by the name of Craig Steingold was >arrested _one day_ before he and others wee to stage a protest at government >buildings; the police had a copy of a message sent by Steingold to another >activist, a message which had been encrypted with PGP and sent through E-mail. > > Since version 2.1, PGP ("Pretty Good Privacy") has been rigged to >allow the NSA to easily break encoded messages. Early in 1992, the author, >Paul Zimmerman, was arrested by Government agents. He was told that he >would be set up for trafficking narcotics unless he complied. The Government >agency's demands were simple: He was to put a virtually undetectable >trapdoor, designed by the NSA, into all future releases of PGP, and to >tell no-one. > > After reading this, you may think of using an earlier version of >PGP. However, any version found on an FTP site or bulletin board has been >doctored. Only use copies acquired before 1992, and do NOT use a recent >compiler to compile them. Virtually ALL popular compilers have been >modified to insert the trapdoor (consisting of a few trivial changes) into >any version of PGP prior to 2.1. Members of the boards of Novell, Microsoft, >Borland, AT&T and other companies were persuaded into giving the order for the >modification (each ot these companies' boards contains at least one Trilateral >Commission member or Bilderberg Committee attendant). > > It took the agency more to modify GNU C, but eventually they did it. >The Free Software Foundation was threatened with "an IRS investigation", >in other words, with being forced out of business, unless they complied. The >result is that all versions of GCC on the FTP sites and all versions above >2.2.3, contain code to modify PGP and insert the trapdoor. Recompiling GCC >with itself will not help; the code is inserted by the compiler into >itself. Recompiling with another compiler may help, as long as the compiler >is older than from 1992. > >Distribute and reproduce this information freely. Do not alter it. >------------------------------------------------------------------------- >To find out more about the anon service, send mail to help(a)anon.penet.fi. >Due to the double-blind, any mail replies to this message will be anonymized, >and an anonymous id will be allocated automatically. You have been warned. >Please report any problems, inappropriate use etc. to admin(a)anon.penet.fi. > > --**--**-- R X T 1 0 9 @ E M A I L . P S U . E D U --**--**-- Bob Torres | "I don't know what I'm writing about: plato(a)phantom.com | I'm obscure even to myself." PGP PUB KEY AVAILABLE ** | -C. Lispector, _The Stream of Life_

3 2

Re: NSA CAN BREAK PGP ENCRYPTION
by jazz＠hal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Major-league guffaws. > A lot of people think that PGP encryption is unbreakable and >that the NSA/FBI/CIA/MJ12 cannot read their mail. This is wrong, and it >can be a deadly mistake. In Idaho, a left-wing activist by the name of >Craig Steingold was arrested _one day_ before he and others wee to stage >a protest at government buildings; the police had a copy of a message >sent by Steingold to another activist, a message which had been >encrypted with PGP and sent through E-mail. Craig Steingold indeed. Looks so much like Craig Shergold, of infamous dying-boy-wants-Guiness-record fame, that I had to read it twice. > Since version 2.1, PGP ("Pretty Good Privacy") has been rigged >to allow the NSA to easily break encoded messages. Early in 1992, the >author, Paul Zimmerman, was arrested by Government agents. He was told >that he would be set up for trafficking narcotics unless he >complied. The Government agency's demands were simple: He was to put a >virtually undetectable trapdoor, designed by the NSA, into all future >releases of PGP, and to tell no-one. Paul, not Phil (his actual name). > After reading this, you may think of using an earlier version of >PGP. However, any version found on an FTP site or bulletin board has >been doctored. Only use copies acquired before 1992, and do NOT use a >recent compiler to compile them. Virtually ALL popular compilers have >been modified to insert the trapdoor (consisting of a few trivial >changes) into any version of PGP prior to 2.1. Members of the boards of >Novell, Microsoft, Borland, AT&T and other companies were persuaded into >giving the order for the modification (each ot these companies' boards >contains at least one Trilateral Commission member or Bilderberg >Committee attendant). Oh, no, not the Trilateral Commission again! > It took the agency more to modify GNU C, but eventually they did >it. The Free Software Foundation was threatened with "an IRS >investigation", in other words, with being forced out of business, >unless they complied. The result is that all versions of GCC on the FTP >sites and all versions above 2.2.3, contain code to modify PGP and >insert the trapdoor. Recompiling GCC with itself will not help; the code >is inserted by the compiler into itself. Recompiling with another >compiler may help, as long as the compiler is older than from 1992. Right. Every commercial compiler has code that recognizes every version of GCC source since 2.2.3 and inserts into the generated object code some new stuff that makes the freshly compiled GCC recognize every version of PGP released since 1992 and inserts into *its* object code magic breakage that creates an NSA trapdoor. I hereby nominate this message for the Cypherpunk's Paul Bunyan award, 1993, in the category of "Biggest Whopper". (Oh, yeah. While I'm at it - Detweiller's Medusa theories, in conjunction with his pseudospoofed distribution techniques, are hereby nominated for the Goebel's Memorial award for "Best Big Lie" of '93.) Jason Zions "Wish I really were Eric Hughes or Tim May, or at least that sharp"

1 0

An Occupied Nitch?
by an4914＠anon.penet.fi 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- >From: jimn8(a)netcom.com (Jim Nitchals) >Date: Thu, 2 Dec 93 10:08:08 PST > >Because the spelling of my last name is fairly uncommon, and someone >used a pseudonym that happens to be a good part of said name, I just >wanted to make it clear that an4914(a)anon.penet.fi is not me, and I >have no idea who "Nitch" actually is. > Terribly sorry to frighten you, Jim. Nitch is a (very) little-known nickname of mine from quite some time ago. There are probably only five people who ever knew that it had been given to me. Funny name collision. I never expected it. Hope you don't get fired. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLP451+yu9liBvjrdAQH34wP+OK+BV+iiC9B1CUQquVwpvcxzGgMZiwej lfFtc+PXPqOHx4vEkWfzbKCoQrRElbBg3Iy6F7m73w+lTe57sggd0HKp9V7U75r6 hXzuuKhDSbNfgSy4OVVjVIGcpDImcpfJSsRQFeE3fch2CWne0VpxzJdVjE12iL5o lv9F3KNdxFw= =cXBb -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To find out more about the anon service, send mail to help(a)anon.penet.fi. Due to the double-blind, any mail replies to this message will be anonymized, and an anonymous id will be allocated automatically. You have been warned. Please report any problems, inappropriate use etc. to admin(a)anon.penet.fi.

2 1