December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

National Security Agency markets commercial ASICs
by Alan Olsen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

http://techweb.cmp.com/eet/news/97/965news/national.html National Security Agency markets commercial ASICs By Loring Wirbel SNOWMASS, Colo. -- On a scale unprecedented for a government intelligence arm, the National Security Agency (NSA) is expanding its selling of ASICs and design services, even offering commercial semiconductor designs for selected space-based and terrestrial applications. Terry Brown, NSA deputy chief of microelectronics, said the customer list will still be so specialized that the agency won't compete directly against developers of military ASICs and rad-hard devices. "Any customer of ours would still require a government sponsor at some level," he said. Nevertheless, at an IEEE conference held recently, representatives of Harris Semiconductor and UTMC Microelectronic Systems wondered how and why a secret government agency would compete against them. One representative of a commercial IC house, who asked not to be identified, said, "Whenever the government thinks it can sell products to OEMs, it inherently raises some problems." The commercial efforts involve NSA's 6-inch CMOS fab, run by National Semiconductor Corp., at NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Md., and a Microelectronics Research Lab run by NSA at an undisclosed Maryland location. The agency has developed special ASICs for selected customers ever since National helped open the fab in the late 1980s. Some, such as the Mykotronx division of Rainbow Technologies Inc., were partners in crypto chips, while others sought NSA expertise in radiation-hardness for space applications. Looking to expand that customer base, the agency has named Leland Miller its first director of marketing for microelectronics. At the IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference, NSA had a large trade booth advertising the capabilities of "NSA Microelectronics." Brown said NSA has special talent in data-path design, used in signal and image processing but ignored by many ASIC vendors. NSA's fab has a library of more than 100 standard cells, optimized for CMOS feature sizes from 0.5 to 1.2 microns. The fab handles double- and triple-metal designs and is just beginning to add non-volatile EPROM and E2PROM cell capabilities.

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0728dod.html
by Damaged Justice 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

[1][ISMAP] [2] [LINK] [LINK] [1.][January..] ___Audio ___Video __ [3][ISMAP]-[4][USEMAP] [5][ISMAP]-[6][USEMAP] July 29, 1997 Internet Technology Invades Dept. Of Defense (07/228/97; 4:00 p.m. EDT) By Saroja Girishankar, [7]CommunicationsWeek When it comes to embracing Web technologies, no organization in the world has mobilized its forces as extensively as the U.S. Department of Defense. In what could become a textbook example for other nations and major businesses, the DOD's deployment of Web servers and browsers is expected to encompass 2 million users across an assortment of military and civilian agencies, making it the world's largest single community of Web users. To date, 1.5 million Web browsers have been installed across DOD's classified and nonclassified intranets. Already, Web servers at 16 major server sites, applications across 530 military command sites and an additional 37 component command sites provide a secure environment for tens of thousands of high-level Army, Navy and Air Force personnel, plus the joint chiefs of staff. They will use it to plan military exercises, perform logistics for troop movement, ready medical services and other operations related to combat. The ultimate goal is to provide all military personnel in need with a single, multimedia view of military command, control, communications and intelligence information, regardless of where they are located, according to Frank Perry, technical director for the engineering and interoperability directorate and the joint interoperability and engineering organization. Perry said Web technologies, from basic E-mail, newsgroups and Internet chat rooms to more advanced Java programs, are making that possible. Extending DOD's Reach "The Web browser and applications have made a profound difference in getting more and more things to more and more people in the DOD, and basically have given us a broader, faster and simpler reach for various applications in a truly network-centric way," Perry said. One area where this plays out is managing the movement and deployment of U.S. troops in Bosnia. According to Lt. General Albert Edmonds, who last month retired after a three-year stint as director of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), and who oversaw the Web implementations, critical information related to the deployments were downloaded and easily replicated across secure Web servers that could be accessed by all parties involved. Regardless of the different desktops and laptops, personnel could download and access information, and the distributed format reduced bandwidth congestion as well. Before the Web rollout, most databases were on mainframes and could be accessed only by a small group of people. The DOD, along with other government agencies, has for some time relied on commercial products and technologies for faster development and lower costs. DISA, which is responsible for operating four networks -- the Defense Information Systems Network (DISN), Global Command and Control System (GCCS), Global Combat Support System (GCCS) and the Defense Messaging System (DMS) -- under the umbrella organization called the Defense Information Infrastructure -- has been moving its antiquated mainframe-based networks to distributed [8]TCP/IP[LINK] networks and other emerging technologies. According to Perry, all GCCS users are being moved to Windows NT desktops outfitted with browsers from both Netscape Communications and Microsoft. This enables them to exchange E-mail and participate in newsgroups and Internet relay chat for planning military exercises. For GCCS and GCSS users who have real-time needs of even more reliable and secure access, existing Unix clients will be retained. Users who have traditionally been using Unix-client software are being gradually moved to thin clients that use browsers with Java applets. Over time, all GCSS users will also be given similar software. Lastly, both GCCS and GCSS are moving to Java-based applications with authentication and cryptographical capabilities required for high security. Perry said Microsoft's [9]ActiveX[LINK] has not been an option because it allows executable content to move around distributed environments in a mobile mode and raises security questions. Java Virtual Machine and its sandbox construction offer better assurance, he said. Perry said GCCS and GCSS operate over a high-security TCP/IP router network called the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network that has 500 core routers as well as hundreds of routers at regional and local networks linked to a WAN using a [10]T3[LINK] line. A nonclassified network, called the Nonclassified Internet Protocol Router Network, which is made up of [11]ATM[LINK] switches and TCP/IP routers, provides the basic infrastructure for all of DOD. Although only data traffic now goes over ATM, plans are for future transmission of all voice, data and video over that cell network. DMS Affected By Web Technologies The adoption of Web technologies is affecting plans for the DMS. Perry and Tom Clark, the DMS program manager, said they will adopt the emerging Internet Message Access Protocol 4 -- the Internet E-mail standard that promises to let disparate E-mail clients and servers talk to each other. DMS, which is expected to have 250,000 users by year's end and 2 million during the next few years, is an X.400 electronic messaging backbone under construction at DOD. DISA said the GCCS, which replaced the older mainframe-based Worldwide Military Command and Control System, was completed in 21 months instead of the typical five years previously required. In addition, the agency said it expects savings of $260 million in the systems and operational costs of its networks during the next five years. "Using and adapting the commercial Web technologies permits [the DOD] not to spend 20 years building military-unique systems from scratch and it requires less training of our users," said Emmett Paige Jr., president and COO at OAO, a Greenbelt, Md., systems integrator. Paige was the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence) until he retired last month. He headed the DOD's adoption of a common operating environment and the move to TCP/IP and Web technologies. end Related articles from: [12]Techsearch Search TechWire & CMP Archives [All CMP Publications] ____________________ ______ [13]Get TechWeb Delivered -- Subscribe now for FREE! Sponsored By: [14]In the time it takes to read this, SnapShot (TM) can duplicate your enterprise data. (IBM) [15]TechWire + [16]Headlines + [17]Top Stories + [18]Industry + [19]Financial + [20]Internet Daily + [21]Software + [22]Networking + [23]Components + [24]Hardware + [25]International [26]Techsearch Search the archives: _______________ ___ TechWire ___ All CMP Pubs ______ [27][LINK] = Link to our [28]tech encyclopedia for more info. [29]Click here to visit NetGuide [30][ISMAP]-[31][USEMAP] _________________________________________________________________ [32][USEMAP] References 1. http://192.215.107.71/general/logos/brandbar.gif.map 2. http://www.techweb.com/cgi-bin/ad_client.cgi?creativeId=1986&pubId=16&cmd=c… 3. http://www.techweb.com/ads/graphics/tw/right2.map 4. LYNXIMGMAP:http://192.215.107.71/wire/news/jul/0728dod.html#right2 5. http://192.215.107.71/general/logos/secbar.map 6. LYNXIMGMAP:http://192.215.107.71/wire/news/jul/0728dod.html#SECBAR 7. http://www.techweb.com/cw 8. http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.cgi?sstring=TCP/IP 9. http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.cgi?sstring=ActiveX 10. http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.cgi?sstring=T3 11. http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.cgi?sstring=ATM 12. http://www.techweb.com/search/search.html 13. http://192.215.107.71/delivery/delivery.html 14. http://www.techweb.com/cgi-bin/ad_client.cgi?creativeId=4246&pubId=16&cmd=c… 15. http://192.215.107.71/wire/wire.html 16. http://192.215.107.71/wire/news/news.html 17. http://192.215.107.71/wire/wire.html 18. http://192.215.107.71/wire/industry/industry.html 19. http://192.215.107.71/investor/newsroom/newsroom.html 20. http://192.215.107.71/wire/online/online.html 21. http://192.215.107.71/wire/software/software.html 22. http://192.215.107.71/wire/networking/networking.html 23. http://192.215.107.71/wire/chips/chips.html 24. http://192.215.107.71/wire/products/products.html 25. http://192.215.107.71/wire/international/international.html 26. http://www.techweb.com/search/search.html 27. http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/ 28. http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/ 29. http://www.techweb.com/cgi-bin/ad_client.cgi?creativeId=8606&pubId=16&cmd=c… 30. http://192.215.107.71/general/toolbar/toolbarPB.gif.map 31. LYNXIMGMAP:http://192.215.107.71/wire/news/jul/0728dod.html#promomap 32. LYNXIMGMAP:http://192.215.107.71/wire/news/jul/0728dod.html#toolbarmap

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This is an E-Mail Chain Letter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
by ahoier＠juno.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I'm passing around this letter so write a comment on it then forward it to some friends wonce you see 100 names on it E-MAIL it to ahoier@juno.com.......K -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Write 1st comment here then pass on to friend...K

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Gone for vacation
by William H. Geiger III 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hi, I will be on a much needed vacation for the next couple of weeks in Chicago. If any CP's wish to get together this weekend while I am up there please let me know by Wed afternoon. I'll be droping my subsrciptions down to only the ssz list for the duration of my vacation. Thanks, - -- - --------------------------------------------------------------- William H. Geiger III http://www.amaranth.com/~whgiii Geiger Consulting Cooking With Warp 4.0 Author of E-Secure - PGP Front End for MR/2 Ice PGP & MR/2 the only way for secure e-mail. OS/2 PGP 2.6.3a at: http://www.amaranth.com/~whgiii/pgpmr2.html - --------------------------------------------------------------- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3a Charset: cp850 Comment: Registered_User_E-Secure_v1.1b1_ES000000 iQCVAwUBM96F3Y9Co1n+aLhhAQEeTAP/ecq7igtdSWV1bFnBAz+FydZd+e8+WDai G9FMA7nMw2Bn7ERf5oaBl1yDnVj+LGUOPO6+/aa2iRL7vXvgSzWuNDG2HkQYD8GB GnAuYljAyLmKjCYChtIaaEgfax5r9NYOgEV8U3beRYoUlAZNY9icn6tZ1+MOGxlo wH1aIdbXKPU= =e4Q4 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: Attorneys: RSA patent invalid
by Tim Dierks 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Michael C Taylor <mctaylor(a)nb.sympatico.ca> wrote: >At 05:29 PM 23/07/97 -0700, you wrote: > >$25K upfront is prohibitively expensive for freeware and > >for garage-shop programmers. It's a drop in the bucket for a > >large project such as Netscape that wants to add some security, > >but in a 3-person-month email widget it's excessive. > > > >On the other hand, it's now possible to license RSAREF for a much > >more reasonable fee from Concentric; I think it's just per-copy > >rather than a big up-front hit. > > As of March, 1997 Consensus Development (www.consensus.com) stopped > licensing RSAREF for a very reasonable amount (~$200 US + 2-3% range I > think it was??) > > Consensus' "SSL Plus" toolkit requires licensee to also license BSAFE from > RSADSI. > > Maybe too many people were using commerical RSAREF licenses rather than the > BSAFE toolkit. In truth, issues surrounding the functionality and licensing requirements of RSAREF meant that it wasn't a sustainable business for us, so we decided to return the rights to RSA. The license fee was no upfront + 5%. While the upfront was cheap, the percentage was significantly higher than what can be negotiated for BSAFE from RSA. This, plus the limited functionality of the RSAREF toolkit (both technically and due to license restrictions), meant that most customers preferred to just get BSAFE. This limited commercial demand is the same reason why we currently don't support RSAREF in SSL Plus. Please cc me on any responses, as I don't read Cypherpunks any more. (I found this posting on Bob Hettinga's e$pam). - Tim Tim Dierks - timd(a)consensus.com - www.consensus.com Software Haruspex - Consensus Development Developer of SSL Plus: SSL 3.0 Integration Suite

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upside of y2k
by Antonomasia 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Vladimir Z. Nuri wrote: > Speaking of banks, what if your savings account is in XYZSavings and > Loan of South Poobah? If depositors begin to worry about XYZ's > year-2000 compliance in late 1999, will they begin withdrawing all of > their money? If they do, will you be able to withdraw your money on > January 3, 2000? Indeed, given the delicate balance of the fractional > reserve system used by banks, it doesn't take a very large percentage > of panicky customers to cause a bank run. The worst-case scenario in > this area is pretty scary -- it might not be just the XYZSavings and > Loan that suffers a bank run, but the big banks too. If the banks > close for more than a couple of days, then how does the government > collect taxes? If the government can't collect taxes, what happens to > the value of its bonds, T-bills, and other financial instruments? On Tue, 29 Jul 1997, Anonymous wrote: > There is an underground computer organization in place which is > actively working toward sabotaging government and corporate efforts > to resolve the Year 2000 problems. This all reminds me of the old Polish joke.... Man takes week's wages into his bank, and he hands it over the counter he has second thoughts, so he asks the teller "What if the bank collapses ?" T: "Easy, sir. We're in a federation that will bail us out." C: "And if it's widespread, beyond the scope of the federation ?" T: "Then the government bails us out." C: "What, our Polish government ? It could be too much for them." T (getting bored): "Then the _Soviet_ government gets involved." C: "It could get really big, affecting a number of satellites what if it gets beynd the reach of the Soviet gov ? I mean, it could result in the collapse of communism!" T: "And isn't that worth a week's wages ?" -- ############################################################### # Antonomasia ant(a)notatla.demon.co.uk # # See http://www.notatla.demon.co.uk/ # ###############################################################

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National Security Agency markets commercial ASICs (fwd)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi, This has to be a first. Usually the central government wants its citizens to pay taxes. What a novel idea investing our tax dollars this way. When can we expect to get our dividends as tax payers and therefore inherent investors in this little enterprise? Sounds like somebody in the NSA is getting ready to have their collective butts fried... ____________________________________________________________________ | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http:// www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage(a)ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________| Forwarded message: > From owner-cypherpunks(a)ssz.com Tue Jul 29 15:59:12 1997 > Message-ID: <33DE5CF2.2424(a)nwdtc.com> > Date: Tue, 29 Jul 1997 14:13:22 -0700 > From: Alan Olsen <root(a)nwdtc.com> > Organization: Xerox Business Services - NW DTC > X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01 (X11; U; SunOS 5.5.1 sun4m) > MIME-Version: 1.0 > To: cypherpunks(a)algebra.com > Subject: National Security Agency markets commercial ASICs > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > Sender: owner-cypherpunks(a)ssz.com > Precedence: bulk > X-Mailing-List: cypherpunks(a)ssz.com > X-List-Admin: list(a)ssz.com > X-Loop: ssz.com > http: //techweb.cmp.com/eet/news/97/965news/national.html > > National Security Agency markets commercial ASICs > By Loring Wirbel > > SNOWMASS, Colo. -- On a scale unprecedented for a government > intelligence arm, the National Security Agency (NSA) is expanding its > selling of > ASICs and design services, even offering commercial semiconductor > designs for selected space-based and terrestrial applications. > > Terry Brown, NSA deputy chief of microelectronics, said the customer > list will still be so specialized that the agency won't compete directly > against > developers of military ASICs and rad-hard devices. "Any customer of ours > would still require a government sponsor at some level," he said. > > Nevertheless, at an IEEE conference held recently, representatives of > Harris Semiconductor and UTMC Microelectronic Systems wondered how and > why a secret government agency would compete against them. > > One representative of a commercial IC house, who asked not to be > identified, said, "Whenever the government thinks it can sell products > to OEMs, it > inherently raises some problems." > > The commercial efforts involve NSA's 6-inch CMOS fab, run by National > Semiconductor Corp., at NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Md., and a > Microelectronics Research Lab run by NSA at an undisclosed Maryland > location. The agency has developed special ASICs for selected customers > ever since National helped open the fab in the late 1980s. Some, such as > the Mykotronx division of Rainbow Technologies Inc., were partners in > crypto chips, while others sought NSA expertise in radiation-hardness > for space applications. > > Looking to expand that customer base, the agency has named Leland Miller > its first director of marketing for microelectronics. At the IEEE > Nuclear > and Space Radiation Effects Conference, NSA had a large trade booth > advertising the capabilities of "NSA Microelectronics." > > Brown said NSA has special talent in data-path design, used in signal > and image processing but ignored by many ASIC vendors. > > NSA's fab has a library of more than 100 standard cells, optimized for > CMOS feature sizes from 0.5 to 1.2 microns. The fab handles double- and > triple-metal designs and is just beginning to add non-volatile EPROM and > E2PROM cell capabilities. >

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Re: Thoughtcrime (fwd)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > Subject: Re: Thoughtcrime > Date: Tue, 29 Jul 1997 20:58:09 -0700 (PDT) > From: Mike Duvos <enoch(a)zipcon.net> > > An interesting aside. A reliable source tells me that the thing that > pushed XtatiX.com over the edge was a threat by US Customs to seize all > their equipment for > > "Investigation of an International Child Pornography Ring" > > Note this is merely an "investigation," not even an allegation that a > crime has actually occurred. Apparently, they seize all your assets, then > investigate, and keep them regardless of the outcome. > > XtatiX, consisting of two not particularly wealthy guys and a Linux box, > had no alternative but to remove from their system free speech the Feds > didn't like, in order to remain in business. > > The thumbscrews of Democracy work in mysterious ways. :) This is a cop-out attitude. They should have screamed bloody murder and demanded at least a public apology. Every commercial customer should understand their right to sue for losses related to 'work in progress' and for such seizures to be legal must be explicity listed on the search warrant. Simply buying service from a company isn't worth the hassle to push as probable cause, especialy if wrong even in one instance. Hell, if they make less than a million a year each now it is in their best interest to fight. The income potential alone is worth it assuming they had the moxy to figure out a good way to market it. Which might be a novel tactic to use, "screw with me and I'll make money off it, screw with me more and I'll make even more..." If the NSA can take our federaly mandated tax dollars to run a commercial enterprise in the market they set legislation for why should anyone object to others making a profit off their actions? We need an amendment something akin to the 1st relating to the relationship between government and commercial enterprise. ____________________________________________________________________ | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http:// www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage(a)ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|

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Work at Home
by CBRAT97＠aol.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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[NEWS}: "Jim Bell to Face More Prison Time than Pol Pot"
by Tim May 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Reuter, Seattle: In an ironic twist, notorious info-terrorist and thought criminal James Dalton Bell is expected to be imprisoned longer than former Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot will be imprisoned in Cambodia. Reached for comment, U.S. Deputy Assistant Persecutor Francine P. Malveaux admitted that Bell's punishment is indeed harsher than that befalling Pol Pot, accused of ordering the killing of 3 million Cambodians from 1975 to 1979. She said, "But Bell confessed to his crimes, and Pol Pot just took the Fifth, so Mr. Pot was actually not convicted of anything more serious than selling contraband copies of "Zap Comix," which his rebel band was smuggling in from Myanmar." FBI Director Louis Unfreeh acknowledges the harsh treatment Bell is receiving is meant as a deterrent. "We are looking into the possibility of inviting Mr. Pot to come to the United States after he completes his 3 months of community service...we'd like him to advise us on our growing internal security problems," he noted. Bell could not be reached for comment. --

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