December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

No Subject
by nobody＠soda.berkeley.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

ECHOING ECU'S anyone? After a lecture on cosmology, William James was accosted by a little old lady. "Your theory that the sun is the center of the solar system, and the earth is a ball which rotates around it has a very convincing ring to it Mr. James, but it's wrong. I've got a better theory," said the little old lady. "And what is that madam?" inquired James politely. "That we live on a crust of the earth which is on the back of a giant turtle." Not wishing to demolish this absurd theory by bringing to bear the masses of scientific evidence he had at his command, James decided to gently dissuade his opponent by making her see some of the inadequacies of her position. "If your theory is correct, madam," he asked, "what does the turtle stand on?" "You're a very clever man, Mr. James, and that's a very good question," replied the little old lady, "but I have an answer to it. And it is this: the first turtle stands on the back of a second, far larger turtle, who stands directly under him." "But what does this second turtle stand on?" persisted James patiently. To this the little old lady crowed triumphantly. It's no use, Mr. James--it's turtles all the way down."

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anarchy and sobatage! cryptos beware...
by Darren Reed 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>From a local newspaper, a quote which some of you might find interesting: 'The virtual anarchists pose another security problem for the Internet because they have formed an organised group aimed at sabotaging US Government moves to enfore digitial signiatures on the Internet to allow authorities to identify the source of all messages on the system. According to Listwin, opponents of the scheme have begun advertising for "top-notch nerds" to join the group. "It's like the spy movies where secret agents do blind drops of information. People are doing blind drops on the Internet so that you don't know where the messages come from," Listwin said.' (from an article on the 'recent' breakin at Cisco, The Age, 15/4/94, Charles Wright. Don Listwin is Cisco's vice-pres. of marketting. As a result of this breakin, he says Cisco will move to hand held response challenge cards). Anyone got any suggestions for replies I could send back to the author, relating to the subject of anonymity, digitial signiatures, etc ? Darren

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Re: spyproofing your house/work building
by System Operator 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Don Melvin <anagld!access.digex.net!storm> writes: > > Have I forgotten anything? > > > Guard physical access so a mic/camera (1/8") can't be placed after > construction. > > Drapes so the lip readers can't see you. Make sure the drapes block IR. There are instances of even local police forces flooding the front of a house with IR light, and viewing the activities inside with IR viewers -- all of this through closed drapes. -- system(a)decode.UUCP (System Operator) Cryptography, Security, Privacy BBS +1 410 730 6734 Data/FAX

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Re: Nature of RSA's patent
by ag588＠cleveland.Freenet.Edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> >> I've got a guy who's telling me that PGP-encrypted communications sent >> into the U.S.A. from abroad can be stopped at the border as infringing >> "products," pursuant to this statute. > >I know you are looking for legal advice, but the idea of some stiff trying >to stop a communication at the "border" just seemed rather ludicrous to >me. Somehow I don't think he'll have much luck imposing national >boundaries on cyberspace, which has no borders, save those of private, >individual systems. Once something is on the net, they'd do better of >thinking of it as instantly being everywhere, rather than beating their >heads against the wall with old, hidebound ideas of restricting the flow >of information. > >-- > Joel Mueller - <Insert your favorite witty quote here; I'm tired.> > GAT/O -d+(---) -p+ c++@ l+ u++ e m+ s+/- n- h-- f+@ g+(-) w+ t(--) ry? > PGP 2.3a Public Key : finger jmueller(a)gac.edu or on keyservers. > 0C6D75 01 0E 16 A7 29 C4 48 75 54 CD 99 09 88 88 3C 39 > > While am in agreement with your sentiments, the fact remains that governments certainly are attempting to assert their dominion over portions of cyberspace. Are these the final death throes of a doomed species, with corporations and loose confederations of hackers destined to take their places, or will this be part of the justification for a one-world government? -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am an attorney, seeking a position in the area of Computer Law. If you know of such a position available, or of someone who may know of such a position, please send e-mail! Thanks.

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Re: Seattle Cypherpunks Physical Meeting
by mdbomber＠w6yx.stanford.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>anyone else in the la area? Assuming that means the Los Angeles area, I am. Internet: mdbomber(a)w6yx.stanford.edu Matt Bartley GPS: 33 49' xx'' 117 48' xx'' (xx due to SA :-)

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Re(2): Canon Copiers
by Harry Shapiro Hawk 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

------ From: Edward J OConnell, Tue, Mar 15, 1994 ------ @ interestingly, they are often loath to demonstrate this features, @ apparently, according tomy service man. I recently purchased one of these. The cost for the entire setup, was over $100,000. The salesman was VERY happy to show me all the features, including this one. /hawk Harry Shapiro Hawk Manager of Computer Services Warwick Baker & Fiore habs(a)uucp.warwick.com

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Re: NY UNIX Clipper Article
by smb＠research.att.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> > "When I saw that I said 'Wow. That is not right,' and I raised > > hell about that," Gore said in an interview Thursday. > > > I'm glad the VP jumped on this right away. 8-| Amazing, ain't it? Umm -- wasn't that story datelined February 11? My oppinion is that while Bill may or may not be guilty, he'd probably get away with it regardless... who in hell wants to be known as the person responsible for sending a president up the river? Think back 20 years -- it would have happened then, to history's most famous unindicted co-conspirator, had not Ford pardoned him for anything he might or might not (hah!) have done. (Fortunately, Agnew had already resigned.) Still, we did have to get rid of Bush and Quayle... :-I Yup!

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Future Remailers
by Brian D Williams 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- I have a suggestion on building future remailers. Let's not overlook the idea of operating them "Out of band." At intervals ( preferably random) it would be possible to transmit messages via the phone network, or spread spectrum, to other remailers. (encrypted links of course)( encrypted UUCP?) This would make traffic analysis more difficult. It would also be possible to bounce messages through diverters in other states, further hindering TA. This might also work well for random sources for one time pads. Brian Williams Extropian Cypherpatriot "Cryptocosmology: Sufficently advanced comunication is indistinguishable from noise." --Steve Witham -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLYYmetCcBnAsu2t1AQGrcAP9Frr3RqyemW+SsQ/aCJKMK1qrGbxBNsmN hioP1tZFVkCWBEUi5lKxn3xcy5fh3neN8ow6tDQbBBy8KmBNvfwiaM6cmRu0VAJ5 sUKNUz0drcgnoEdSyiV4BHFLTz1X0XdeYZ8brtLBC2uu991yf3sw6J7XA5z6E93x +fk13mAssMQ= =KeL3 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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my letter to Time's Editor re: Clipper
by Carl_Ellison＠vos.stratus.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

To: Time Magazine Letters FAX: (212) 522-0601 From: Carl M. Ellison Stratus Computer, Inc. 55 Fairbanks Blvd Marlborough MA 01752 FAX: (508) 624-7488 Re: March 14, 1994; Vol. 143, No. 11; p. 90 "Beware, Uncle Sam Wants to Listen In" Dear Editor: I enjoyed your article and was pleased to see that a poll of American citizens showed 80% opposed to Clipper. That matches my own informal count. However, the introductory paragraph of your article comes close to repeating a very common misconception by claiming that cryptography was secret and was dominated by the National Security Agency. These statements give the impression that cryptography was somehow the property of the government until recently, and that civilian cryptography is a recent development. The only thing which is new in this field is the personal computer -- making cryptography easy to apply without errors. Cryptography itself is as old as writing. David Kahn's history of cryptography, "The Codebreakers" (Macmillan, 1967), shows that cryptography strong enough to frustrate governments of the day has been invented and used by private citizens for the entire 4000 year history of cryptography. Cryptography has not been secret, either. As of 1931 when Herbert Yardley published "The American Black Chamber" (Bobbs-Merrill), there was no legal secrecy applied to even government uses of cryptography. There never has been secrecy applied to civilian cryptography. [A desire to do so was announced back in the late 1970's by the NSA's Bobby Inman about the time public-key cryptography was first published but that desire was soundly denied by Congress in the Computer Security Act of 1987.] The National Security Agency was created in the early 1950s, but strong cryptography in private hands in this country dates back to the country's beginnings. For example, the only provably unbreakable cipher (Vernam's one-time-tape) was put into public hands in about 1920, while a system cooked up between Thomas Jefferson and a civilian friend of his was strong enough that it was reinvented and used by the Navy in WW-II. "The Codebreakers" gives many more examples, through history, of civilian cryptography as strong as or stronger than that used by the military of the time and I recommend that your readers check it out in the local library. Sincerely, Carl Ellison

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Re: anarchy and sobatage! cryptos beware...
by lefty＠apple.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

"Sobatage"? What's that, the destruction of machinery through the use of Japanese buckwheat noodles? -- Lefty (lefty(a)apple.com) C:.M:.C:., D:.O:.D:.

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