December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: Tim May the Luddite--His Last Message for A While
by Amanda Walker 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> The consensus of the active posters in this latest thread (Perry, > Amanda, Lucky, Jim, others) is that I am a hopeless fuddy-duddy, > unwilling to begin posting in the latest modality. Actually, that's not my feeling at all. I haven't (at least intentionally) been making or intending to make the kinds of "get with the program" remarks that Lucky, Perry, and some other have been. I've just been trying to explain why I think that MIME isn't necessarily bunk. There is a middle ground between "the one true way" and "utter crap," after all, and I found your assertions that MIME was useless to be just as annoying as assertions that it's a panacea. I'm not telling you (or anyone else) to use MIME. Even I don't use the fancy features MIME for most of my off-site email, especially mailing lists, for exactly the reasons you describe. I'm just tired of people deciding the because they're not able to take advatange of something, that it is therefore useless. That's all I've been intending to complain about, and I'm sorry if I've come across more strongly. I certainly don't want to chase you off the list. You're one of the people I take pains to read, even on high-volume email days... > Bluntly, I'm fucking sick and tired of these cheap shots and > personal innuendos. Maybe it's the "young guns" syndrome, with a > codger like me whose first Net account was in 1972 being a ripe target > for the newest pistoleros with their .486-caliber Linux boxes in > their holsters. Well, I came onto the net after the NCP/TCP flag day, so you've got some seniority on me, but I'm hardly a young gun, and I hate Intel processors and UNIX :). I started in the spring of 1982 on a VAX 11/780 with real live DEC VT100s, and an ADDS Viewpoint on a 1200 baud modem (at the time, this was really fast) in my dorm room. I was just awful to come back from a week's vacation and spend a whole hour catching up with Usenet--and that was before you could unsubscribe to individual groups :). To a large degree, it's this dozen years of experience with the net that makes me optimistic about things like encryption, MIME, and so on. Every time the baseline moves up, people complain. It happened moving from NCP to TCP/IP. It happened when moving from A News to B News (my site was actually an A News holdout for a long time). It happened when net.* got broken up into a set of hierarchies (alt.* is a remarkably long-lived fragment of that changeover), and it's happening now with things like PGP & MIME. Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose. Part of the cypherpunks mission, as I understand it, is to help to keep moving that baseline, concentrating on one particular direction (privacy). I'll stop posting on side issues if it will help keep the focus on privacy, and help keep folks like you from giving up in frustration. After all, cypherpunks is far from the only soapbox I subscribe to :). Amanda Walker InterCon Systems Corporation

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something NOT MIME-related
by harveyrj＠vt.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hello: Not to distract from the entertaining MIME thread, but I've got a question that's a little closer to a crypto topic (i.e., software psueudo-random number generators). In the aftermath of the Pentium-can't-divide-accurately flap, I modified a random-number generation routine I'd written to check for the presence of the Pentium divide errors. In the process, I put in a routine that did an elementary benchmarking of the chip's performance in both integer (speed to repeatedly execute an empty for-loop 1 million times) and floating point operations (inserting a divide operation in the loop, and adjusting the resulting execution time by subtracting the time required for the empty loop before computing divide-calculations-per-second performance). This is an admittedly very crude benchmark, but I wanted to get some rough idea how many divides could be performed per minute of program execution (i.e., to estimate how long the program could run before a Pentium-problem might occur). Anyway, I found what appeared to be very strange results when comparing performance on my 486/66 versus a 486/25 and 386/20: namely, although the 386 was dead last on both the primarily integer-based empty- for-loop and for-loop-with-divide timings, the 486/25 and 486/66 turned in effectively identical times in the empty-loop benchmark (the 486/66 was about 33% faster than the 486/25 in the divide-based benchmark). All machines were running essentially equivalent versions of Windows for Workgroups). My question is, why would the 486/66 and 25 produce comparable integer- based empty loop performance? I haven't tried a comparable program running under plain-DOS to see if this is somehow Windows related. I supsect there's an easy explanation, but it escapes me. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. rj ------------------------------------------------------------------ R. J. Harvey (mail: harveyrj(a)vt.edu) (PGPkey 0BADDDB5: 82 42 53 EA 97 B0 A2 B2 FC 92 90 BB C2 26 FD 21)

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PGP key checking
by danisch＠ira.uka.de 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I just signed and checked some pgp keys (using pgp 2.6.1) and I found something unexpected: Keys can be checked with the -kc option. To identify the key to be checked either a string or the KeyID (with 0x-prefix) can be given as an argument. If I do now pgp -kc name_of_anyone pgp -kc 0xanyones_key_id for the very same key (once identified by substring, once by keyid, which should both do the same job) the first command checks many more signatures than the second command. The second command stops earlier, but I couldn't find out yet, whether this stops after finding a trusted path to the checked key or what else could be the reason for this. Any ideas? Hadmut

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Privtool 0.83 Released
by Mark Grant 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Sorry to bring the list back to cryptography, but there's now a new version of Privtool (PGP-aware mailer for Xview) on ftp.c2.org in /pub/privtool/privtool-0.83.tar.Z. This version has two major fixes which greatly improve performance and reduce memory usage, along with a number of minor fixes. In the next few days I'll upload it to ftp.dsi.unimi.it and update the on-line documentation on my WWW site. Mark P.S. No, it doesn't support MIME.

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[Cynthia Clark: RE: I-D ACTION:draft-pgp-pgpformat-00.txt]
by Derek Atkins 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I think that most cypherpunks would be interested in this. I realize that many of you are on the IETF announcement list and probably have already seen this, but I thought that I'd forward it for those of you who aren't on it... -derek ------- Forwarded Message A New Internet-Draft is available from the on-line Internet-Drafts directories. Title : PGP Message Exchange Formats Author(s) : D. Atkins, W. Stallings, P. Zimmermann Filename : draft-pgp-pgpformat-00.txt Pages : 21 Date : 12/13/1994 PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) uses a combination of public-key and conventional encryption to provide security services for electronic mail messages and data files. These services include confidentiality and digital signature. PGP is widely used throughout the global computer community. This document describes the format of "PGP files", i.e., messages that have been encrypted and/or signed with PGP. PGP was created by Philip Zimmermann and first released, in Version 1.0, in 1991. Subsequent versions have been designed and implemented by an all-volunteer collaborative effort under the design guidance of Philip Zimmermann. PGP and Pretty Good Privacy are trademarks of Philip Zimmermann. Internet-Drafts are available by anonymous FTP. Login with the username "anonymous" and a password of your e-mail address. After logging in, type "cd internet-drafts" and then "get draft-pgp-pgpformat-00.txt". A URL for the Internet-Draft is: ftp://ds.internic.net/internet-drafts/draft-pgp-pgpformat-00.txt Internet-Drafts directories are located at: o Africa Address: ftp.is.co.za (196.4.160.2) o Europe Address: nic.nordu.net (192.36.148.17) o Pacific Rim Address: munnari.oz.au (128.250.1.21) o US East Coast Address: ds.internic.net (198.49.45.10) o US West Coast Address: ftp.isi.edu (128.9.0.32) Internet-Drafts are also available by mail. Send a message to: mailserv(a)ds.internic.net. In the body type: "FILE /internet-drafts/draft-pgp-pgpformat-00.txt". NOTE: The mail server at ds.internic.net can return the document in MIME-encoded form by using the "mpack" utility. To use this feature, insert the command "ENCODING mime" before the "FILE" command. To decode the response(s), you will need "munpack" or a MIME-compliant mail reader. Different MIME-compliant mail readers exhibit different behavior, especially when dealing with "multipart" MIME messages (i.e., documents which have been split up into multiple messages), so check your local documentation on how to manipulate these messages. For questions, please mail to Internet-Drafts(a)cnri.reston.va.us. Below is the data which will enable a MIME compliant mail reader implementation to automatically retrieve the ASCII version of the Internet-Draft. - --NextPart Content-Type: Multipart/Alternative; Boundary="OtherAccess" - --OtherAccess Content-Type: Message/External-body; access-type="mail-server"; server="mailserv(a)ds.internic.net" Content-Type: text/plain Content-ID: <19941213160355.I-D(a)CNRI.Reston.VA.US> ENCODING mime FILE /internet-drafts/draft-pgp-pgpformat-00.txt - --OtherAccess Content-Type: Message/External-body; name="draft-pgp-pgpformat-00.txt"; site="ds.internic.net"; access-type="anon-ftp"; directory="internet-drafts" Content-Type: text/plain Content-ID: <19941213160355.I-D(a)CNRI.Reston.VA.US> - --OtherAccess-- - --NextPart-- ------- End of Forwarded Message

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Thoughts on 15 day CJ crypto
by eric＠remailer.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

As most of you know, the SPA/NSA deal for auto-approved export requires 512 bit RSA and 40 bit RC4. Everyone knows that 40 bit RC4 is weak cryptographically, but no one particularly thought that 512 bits RSA was -- weakening, maybe, but not down in the real-time crack range. I had an insight yesterday as to that particular requirement. Consider the standard kind of way that one uses a hybrid crypto system. The secret session key is encrypted with the public key. There are now two ciphers that can be broken. And you only need to break one of them. So the NSA breaks 40-bit RC4 by brute force. The keyspace is small. What is left unsaid about the search is that candidate decryption keys need to be selected. You can't do a ciphertext only attack if the plaintext is random bits. The 512 bit RSA can be used to verify candidate keys. Doing 2^40 modexp's is probably not how it's done (but it might be), but if you can eliminate the bulk of candidate RC4 keys in some other way (by looking at trial decryptions) then you've got a way of verifying the rest of them. If trial decryption can eliminate, say, one of every hundred or thousand keys then the RSA verification could be done in real time. So it's possible the RSA requirement is in there to provide an assurance that the right key was selected. Eric

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Re: Thoughts on 15 day CJ crypto
by Amanda Walker 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> So it's possible the RSA requirement is in there to provide an > assurance that the right key was selected. I would be fairly surprised if this weren't the case, since it allows trial decryption to be done completely without human intervention. This would speed up the cycle time (and reduce the resources needed) for decrypting intercepts, with more reliability than a straight statistical check on the candidate plaintext. Amanda Walker InterCon Systems Corporation

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EPIC Alert 1.08
by Dave Banisar 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Date 12/16/94 Subject EPIC Alert 1.08 From Dave Banisar To info ============================================================= @@@@ @@@@ @@@ @@@@ @ @ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@ @@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @@@ @@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@ @ @@@ @@@@ @ @ @@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ ============================================================ Volume 1.08 December 16, 1994 ------------------------------------------------------------ Published by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) Washington, DC ======================================================================= Table of Contents: Special Issue: Privacy Resources ======================================================================= [1] Privacy Organizations [2] Publications [3] Net Sites for Privacy [4] Privacy Mailing Lists and Newsgroups [5] Donations for EPIC [6] Upcoming Conferences and Events A regularly updated version of this issue will be available at http://epic.digicash.com/epic and at cpsr.org /cpsr/privacy/epic/privacy_resources.faq. This issue is also available in html format from http://epic.digicash.com /epic Send additions, suggestions to alert(a)epic.org. ======================================================================= [1] Privacy Organizations ======================================================================= Electronic Privacy Information Center. EPIC was established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging privacy issues relating to the National Information Infrastructure, such as the Clipper Chip, the Digital Telephony proposal, medical records privacy and the sale of consumer data. EPIC conducts litigation, sponsors conferences, produces reports, publishes the EPIC Alert and leads campaigns on privacy issues. For more info, email: info(a)epic.org, or HTTP://epic.digicash.com /epic. EPIC, 666 Penn. Ave, SE, Suite 301, Washington, DC 20003. (202) 544-9240 (tel). Director: Marc Rotenberg. Privacy International. An international human rights group based in London, England with offices in Washington, DC and Sydney, Australia. PI has members in over 40 countries and has led campaigns against privacy violations in numerous countries including Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines. PI publishes the International Privacy Bulletin and sponsors international conferences on privacy issues. Email pi(a)epic.org. Privacy International c/o EPIC, 666 Penn. Ave, SE, Suite 301, Washington, DC 20003. Director General: Simon Davies. US Privacy Council. A coalition of US privacy groups and individuals founded in 1991 to deal with privacy issues in the US. USPC works in Washington monitoring legislation and the activities of government agencies. USPC works closely with other groups on privacy issues including National ID cards, reforming credit reporting, Caller ID and international issues. Email: privtime(a)access.digex.net. P.O. Box 15060, Washington, DC 20003. (202) 829-3660 (tel). Chair: Evan Hendricks. Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. A California-based organization formed in 1992. The Clearinghouse has produced many fact sheets and an annual report, and maintains a toll free hotline to provide advice to consumers about their rights. Email: prc(a)teetot.acusd.edu. 5998 Alcala Park, San Diego, CA 92110. (619) 260-4806 (tel). 800-773-7748 (in Cal. only). Director: Beth Givens. Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility. A national membership organization of people concerned about the impact of technology on society. CPSR sponsors an annual conference, maintains numerous mailing lists on computer-related issues, a large internet site of information and publishes a quarterly newsletter. It has 24 local chapters across the US and several international affiliates. CPSR sponsors working groups on civil liberties, working in the computer industry and others. Contact: cpsr-info(a)cpsr.org. PO Box 717, Palo Alto, CA 94301. (415) 322-3778 (tel). Managing Director: Kathleen Kells. Internet Society. Group dedicated to fostering evolution of the Internet and its use. Sponsors yearly conference, publishes excellent quarterly newsletter, works with standards committees to develop Internet standards for networking and privacy. Email: isoc(a)isoc.org. http://info.isoc.org/ 12020 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 270, Reston, VA 22091. (703) 648-9888 (tel). Executive Director: Anthony Rutkowski. Electronic Frontier Foundation. Formed in 1990. Maintains an Internet site, publishes an electronic newsletter, and lobbies in Washington. Email: info(a)eff.org. 1667 K St. NW, Suite 801, Washington, DC 20006-1605 USA 202-347-5400 (tel). Director: Andrew Taubman. American Civil Liberties Union. National civil liberties organization. Originally founded in 1920, the ACLU conducts extensive litigation on Constitutional issues including privacy, and free speech. The ACLU Washington office lobbies Congress for civil liberties and civil rights issues. Email: infoaclu(a)aclu.org. 322 Eighth Ave, New York, NY 10001. Executive Director: Ira Glasser. Cypherpunks. Informal group that develops technological solutions to protect privacy. the Cypherpunks write cryptography and other programs, set up anonymous remailers and discuss political and technical issues. Meetings are also regularly held in California and other states. ftp/gopher soda.berkeley.edu Voters Telecom Watch. NY based cyber-rights lobbying group. In 1994 lobbied against the FBI Wiretap bill and for relaxation of export controls on cryptography. Affiliated with Society for Electronic Access. Contact: shabbir(a)panix.com Society for Electronic Access. NY-based electronic civil liberties organization promotes "civil liberties and access in cyberspace". Email: sea(a)sea.org or http://www.panix.com/sea. P.O. Box 7081, New York, NY 10116-7081. (212) 592-3801. President: Simona Nass. EFF Austin. Austin, TX-based, electronic civil liberties organization founded in 1990. Purpose is to engage in and support educational activities that promote a clearer understanding of the social, legal, and technical issues surrounding online telecommunications. Contact: eff-austin(a)zilker.net or (gopher/ftp).zilker.net. Also see newsgroup austin.eff. PO Box 18957, Austin, TX 78760. President: David Smith. ======================================================================= [2] Publications ======================================================================= Privacy Times. Biweekly newsletter on information law. Each issue covers developments related to privacy and information access, including summaries of court decisions on the Freedom of Information Act and other relevant statutes. Editor: Evan Hendricks. Address: P.O. Box 21501, Washington, DC 21501. (202) 829-3660. Cost: $250/Year Privacy Journal. A monthly journal on mainly US privacy, now in its 20th year of publication. Editor: Robert Ellis Smith. P.O. Box 28577, Providence, RI 02908. (401) 274-7861 (tel). Cost: $109/year. The PJ also publishes numerous books and compendiums on privacy including its excellent yearly Compilation of State and Federal Laws. International Privacy Bulletin. Published quarterly by Privacy International. The IPB covers international trends and new technologies. Each issue also includes reports from different countries and reviews of new publications. Editor: Dave Banisar. 666 Penn. Ave, SE #301, Washington, DC 20003. (202) 544-9240 (tel). Cost: $50/year individuals, $200/year organizations. Privacy and American Business. Published bi-monthly. A new publication provides the industry perspective on privacy. Editor: Bob Belair. Bimonthly with special issues. Two University Plaza, Suite 414, Hackensack, NJ 07601. (201) 996-1154 (tel). Cost: $395/year. Full Disclosure. A monthly newspaper on surveillance and civil liberties issues. Editor: Glen Roberts. Box 734, Antioch, IL 60002. (708) 395-6200. Cost: $29.95/year. Low Profile. Asset protection and financial privacy. Published monthly. Editor: Mark Nestman. P.O. Box 84910, Phoenix, AZ 85701. 702-333-5942 (tel). Cost: $149/year. Privacy and Security 2001. Technical aspects of privacy and security. Focuses on electronic surveillance and counter-measures with recent assaults on privacy highlighted. Editor Jim Ross. 504 Shaw Road, Suite 222, Sterling, VA 20166. (703) 318-8600. 10/year. $35/year. 2600 Magazine. Inside technical information on telephone and computer network operations. Published quarterly. Editor: Emmanual Goldstein. Email 2600(a)well.sf.ca.us. P.O. Box 752, Middle Island, NY 11953. Cost:$21/year. Privacy Law and Policy Reporter. A well written, law-oriented overview of privacy developments in NZ and Australia. 10 issues/year. Level 11, Carlton Centre, 55-63 Elizabeth Street, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia. 61-2-221-6199 (tel). Cost: $AZ 345 Transnational Data and Communications Report. Bimonthly international overview of privacy, data protection, telecommunications and information access. Editor: Russell Pipe. P.O. Box 10528, Burke VA 22009-0528. Cost: $280/year. Privacy Laws and Business. A quarterly comprehensive overview of privacy issues in Europe. Focuses mainly on regulatory and data protection from a business perspective. Editor: Stewart Dresner. Cost: 3 Central Avenue, Pinner, Middlesex HA5 5BT United Kindgom. 44-81-866-8641(tel). $UK 240/year. ======================================================================= [3] Net Sites ======================================================================= ACLU On-line Reading Room. Files on civil liberties. ftp/gopher aclu.org CPSR Internet Library. Maintains the online archives for CPSR, EPIC Privacy International and others. FTP/Gopher/WAIS/HTTP cpsr.org /cpsr Cypherpunks. Archives on cryptography and other privacy technologies. ftp/gopher soda.berkeley.edu Electronic Frontier Foundation Archives. Archives on privacy, free speech, underground newsletters. http://WWW.eff.org, FTP: ftp.eff.org Electronic Privacy Information Center. Includes back issues of EPIC Alert, privacy resources, legislation, and articles. http://www.epic.digicash.com/ Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. http://www.manymedia.com/prc/ E-mail: prc(a)teetot.acusd.edu. Gopher: gopher.acusd.edu FTP:ftp.acusd.edu. Telnet: teetot.acusd.edu (local> c teetot, login: privacy). BBS: 619-260-4670 (same login as telnet). ======================================================================= [4] Electronic Newsgroups and Mailing Lists ======================================================================= Unmoderated Newsgroups and mailing lists: Alt.privacy. Unmoderated discussion on privacy. High traffic, low content. Alt.privacy clipper. Unmoderated discussion of the Clipper chip and encryption policy. Comp.org.cpsr.talk. Unmoderated discussion of issues related to the Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility. Topics include privacy, the NII, telecommunications reform and social implications of technology. Comp.org.eff.talk. Unmoderated discussion of issues related to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Cypherpunks Mailing list. Discussion of cryptography and technical protections of privacy. Warning: High Traffic (100+ messages/day). Sci.crypt. Unmoderated technical discussion of encryption. talk.politics.crypto. Unmoderated discussion of the Clipper chip and encryption policy. Moderated Newsletters and Digests: EPIC Alert. Biweekly electronic newsletter of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. Mail to listserv(a)cpsr.org. 1st line: subscribe cpsr-announce. Back issues at cpsr.org /cpsr/alert and http://www.epic.digicash.com/ CPSR-Global. A new CPSR sponsored mailing list on Global information infrastructure issues. Moderator: Marsha Woodbury. To subscribe, email listserv(a)cpsr.org with the 1st line: subscribe cpsr-global Risks Digest. Moderated digest on risks to the public using computers and related systems. Newsgroup: comp.risk. Also available as mailing list from email: risks-request(a)csl.sri.com 1st line: SUBSCRIBE. Back Issues at ftp unix.sri.com /risks. Moderator: Peter Neumann. Computer Privacy Digest. Moderated digest on privacy. Newsgroup: comp.society.privacy. at wam.uwm.edu. Moderator: Len Levine. To Subscribe, email: comp-privacy-request(a)uwm.edu, 1st line "subscribe" Back issues gopher: gopher.cs.uwm.edu, ftp: ftp.cs.uwm.edu/comp-priv. Computer Underground Digest. Weekly moderated digest on computer underground, privacy, free speech issues. Newsgroup: comp.society.cu-digest. Email at LISTSERV(a)VMD.CSO.UIUC.EDU, 1st line: SUB CUDIGEST <your name>. Back issues at etext.archive.umich.edu /pub/CuD/. Moderator: Jim Thomas. Computer Privacy Forum. Moderated digest on privacy sponsored by ACM. To subscribe, send message: help to privacy-request(a)vortex.com. Back issues at ftp.vortex.com /privacy or http://www.vortex.com/. Moderator: Lauren Weinstein. Comp.org.cpsr.announce. Moderated mailing list for CPSR. Includes EPIC Alert, and other CPSR newsletters and releases. Also available as mailing list. See EPIC Alert for subscription info. VTW Announce. Moderated mailing list of Voters Telecomm Watch. Email listproc(a)panix.com, 1st line of the message: SUBSCRIBE VTW-ANNOUNCE <your name>. ======================================================================= [5] Contributions to EPIC ======================================================================= If you'd like to support the work of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, contributions are welcome and fully tax-deductible. Checks should be made out to "The Fund for Constitutional Government" and sent to EPIC, 666 Pennsylvania Ave., SE, Suite 301, Washington DC 20003. Your contributions will help support Freedom of Information Act litigation, strong and effective advocacy for the right of privacy and efforts to oppose Clipper and Digital Telephony wiretapping proposals. ======================================================================= [6] Upcoming Privacy Related Conferences and Events ======================================================================= 1995 Data Security Conference. Jan 9-11, 1995. Redwood City, CA. Sponsored by RSA Data Security. Contact: kurt(a)rsa.com. Second International Conference on Information Warfare: "Chaos on the Electronic Superhighway" Jan 18-19, Montreal, CA. January 18, 1995, Sponsored by NCSA. Contact: Mich Kabay (75300.3232(a)compuserve.com) Privacy, The Information Infrastructure and Healthcare Reform, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, Jan. 27. Contact: vberdaye(a)magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu. Towards an Electronic Patient Record '95. Orlando, FL. Mar. 14-19, 1995. Sponsored by Medical Records Institute. Contact: 617-964-3926 (fax). Access, Privacy, and Commercialism: When States Gather Personal Information, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA, March 17. Contact: Trotter Hardy 804 221-3826. Computers, Freedom and Privacy '95. Palo Alto, Ca. Mar. 28-31, 1995. Sponsored by ACM. Contact: cfp95(a)forsythe.stanford.edu. ETHICOMP95: An international conference on the ethical issues of using Information Technology, DeMontfort University, Leicester, ENGLAND, March 28-30, 1995. Contact: Simon Rogerson srog(a)dmu.ac.uk 44 533 577475 (phone) 44 533 541891 (Fax). 1995 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, Oakland, CA, May 8-10. Contact: sp95(a)itd.nrl.navy.mil. INET '95. Honolulu, HI. June 28-30, 1995. Sponsored by the Internet Society. Contact inet95(a)isoc.org. Key Players in the Introduction of Information Technology: Their Social Responsibility and Professional Training. July 5-6-7, 1995. Namur, Belgium. Sponsored by CREIS. Contact: nolod(a)ccr.jussieu.fr. (Send calendar submissions to Alert(a)epic.org) ======================================================================= The EPIC Alert is a free biweekly publication of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. To subscribe, send the message: SUBSCRIBE CPSR-ANNOUNCE Firstname Lastname to listserv(a)cpsr.org. You may also receive the Alert by reading the USENET newsgroup comp.org.cpsr.announce. Back issues are available via FTP/WAIS/Gopher/HTTP from cpsr.org /cpsr/alert and on Compuserve at Keyword: NCSA, Library 2 (EPIC/Ethics). A HTML version of the current issue is available from epic.digicash.com/epic ======================================================================= The Electronic Privacy Information Center is a public interest research center in Washington, DC. It was established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging privacy issues relating to the National Information Infrastructure, such as the Clipper Chip, the Digital Telephony proposal, medical record privacy, and the sale of consumer data. EPIC is sponsored by the Fund for Constitutional Government and Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility. EPIC publishes the EPIC Alert and EPIC Reports, pursues Freedom of Information Act litigation, and conducts policy research on emerging privacy issues. For more information, email info(a)epic.org, WWW at HTTP://epic.digicash.com /epic or write EPIC, 666 Pennsylvania Ave., SE, Suite 301, Washington, DC 20003. (202) 544-9240 (tel), (202) 547-5482 (fax). The Fund for Constitutional Government is a non-profit organization established in 1974 to protect civil liberties and constitutional rights. Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility is a national membership organization of people concerned about the impact of technology on society. For information contact: cpsr-info(a)cpsr.org ------------------------ END EPIC Alert 1.08 ------------------------ _________________________________________________________________________ Subject: EPIC Alert 1.08 _________________________________________________________________________ David Banisar (Banisar(a)epic.org) * 202-544-9240 (tel) Electronic Privacy Information Center * 202-547-5482 (fax) 666 Pennsylvania Ave, SE, Suite 301 * ftp/gopher/wais/HTTP Washington, DC 20003 * cpsr.org /cpsr/privacy/epic

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Digital privacy
by anonymous-remailer＠shell.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

So I was netsurfing and came across CellularOne's home page. So I thought I'd do a little investigative work...this is the same company which advertises that your digital phone conversation is private even in a crowded restaurant! Here's what its WWW server had to say: >The Difference Digital Makes > >Cellular phones play an indispensable role in everyday life in the 1990s. But >>what exactly does digital technology bring to the table? > >Static meets its match. Since digital transmission only recognizes and >converts >variations in the human voice, static is virtually eliminated. >Voices come >through loud and clear. Background noise isn't just reduced, it's >virtually >eliminated. So is cross-talk. > >Capacity three times. Ultimately, digital technology will triple the size of >>the cellular phone information highway. So as we convert, more room will be >>freed up for more of your important calls. Resulting in more calls going >>through faster. On the first try. And fewer calls being dropped. > >Pssst, what about privacy? Again, since your voice is digitally processed, >it's >less likely that anyone could eavesdrop on your conversations. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ?Como? This is absolutely amazing! ======================Herodotus===================== Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks. ==================================================== _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/ _/ _/_/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/ _/ _/_/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/_/_/ _/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/ _/ _/_/_/ _/

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Re: Digital privacy
by Amanda Walker 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> >Pssst, what about privacy? Again, since your voice is digitally > >processed, it's >less likely that anyone could eavesdrop on > >your conversations. > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > > ?Como? This is absolutely amazing! Well, it is true, from a pragmatic point of view. A neighborhood kid with a Radio Shack scanner can't listen in on digital cellular calls. You have to actually hack a phone, which is a much less prevalent skill. I still think that CDMA+DES is the way to go for secure cellular, but from a purely pragmatic point of view simply going digital does increase privacy. Using analog cellular is like using a walkie-talkie. Amanda Walker InterCon Systems Corporation

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