December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

"Smack" the lawyer of your choice...but smack!
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

GEORGE D. HARDY Assistant U.S. Attorney 4. I have been advised by the Federal Bureau of Investigation that the public release of the identity of the two victims could cause serious financial and security difficulties for the victims. Until now, the victims have been identified only to the defense, as part of the criminal discovery in the case. Silly me, I thought the people who had their credit card information exposed were the victims. 5. The difficulties facing these victims include the probability that additional hackers will seek to challenge these computer systems, once the defendant's successful efforts are revealed; and the loss of business due to the perception by others ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ that computer systems may be vulnerable. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Uh... Excuse me, Dude, but I believe that's how life works. Unless, of course, the government steps in to cover up the facts to the benefit of rich corporations and to the detriment of their gullible customers. 8. The defendant's counsel was contacted regarding this motion. She expressed a willingness to agree to it, but only if the government agreed to limit in some way the government's appropriate public release of the defendant's guilty pleas as a deterrent to others. Such an arrangement was not acceptable to the government. Defendant's counsel therefore indicated that she would like to file an opposition to this motion; but would agree that pending the resolution of this issue, that the identities of the victims could be protected. The cunt sold her client down the river for a good tee time with the prosecutor at a private golf course. Put her in charge of defending Terry McNicols. "Smak" delivered an encrypted CD containing over 100,000 stolen credit card numbers. After the validity of the credit card information was confirmed through decryption of the data on the CD, "Smak" was taken into custody by the FBI. And the 100,000 people were immediately notified that their credit cards had been compromised? I fucking doubt it. Better to screw over 100,000 citizen-units than expose the incompetence of a few companies and the government's fight against strong encryption and computer security. ShitMonger

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Crypto FAQs
by Dave K-P 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Someone wrote: > Dose Cypherpunks have an FAQ? and dose it need one? There is a "cypherpunk FAQ", but you'd be better off reading the sci.crypt FAQs first. Consult your favorite search engine for locations.

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International Relations
by Dave K-P 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

"[I]t seems pretty clear that no civilized people will ever again permit its government to enter into a competitive armament race." -- Nicholas Murray Butler (President of Columbia University), quoted in the Literary Digest, October 17, 1914

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No Subject
by bureau42 Anonymous Remailer 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Rabid Wombat wrote: > > On Mon, 1 Sep 1997, Anonymous wrote: > > > "Smak" delivered an encrypted CD containing over 100,000 stolen > > credit card numbers. After the validity of the credit card information > > was confirmed through decryption of the data on the CD, "Smak" was > > taken into custody by the FBI. > > > > And the 100,000 people were immediately notified that their credit > > cards had been compromised? I fucking doubt it. Better to screw over > > 100,000 citizen-units than expose the incompetence of a few companies > > and the government's fight against strong encryption and computer > > security. > > I was recently notified by a bank that issued one of my credit cards that > my card number had been sold, along with thousands of other account > numbers, to an undercover FBI agent. The bank canceled my account, opened > a new one, and overnighted a replacement card. No big deal, and no loss > to me. > > OTOH, it *might* have been in response to a different incident. Keep > those paranoid rants coming. Why don't you tell us the name of the company that has such lousy computer security that your credit was placed in jepoardy, so that we can decide if we want to avoid doing business with them? RantMonger

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Encouraging News - France
by Brian B. Riley 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From <http://www.ft.com/hippocampus/8e46a.htm> >Encryption technology: French boost for internet software >MONDAY SEPTEMBER 1 1997 >By Andrew Jack in Paris >France is poised to liberalise regulations on computer encryption >technology which could boost its efforts to encourage development of the >internet. >The government is shortly to publish an official decree which would for >the first time allow easy access to and use of software which encodes >sensitive information in order to protect it from unauthorised >interception. >The move could prove especially important for companies attempting to >sell products and services over the internet, but which have been >concerned about their protection of credit card numbers and other >financial information provided by their customers. > >France remains one of the few western countries to impose such >restrictive legislation on encryption, with only certain categories of >users currently allowed to use the software. >Other nations which continue to restrict the use of cryptography tightly >in order to control the transfer of sensitive information include Iraq, >Libya, Singapore and China. >While many more countries - including EU member states and the US - >restrict the export of sophisticated encryption technology as a product >important to national security, most have more liberal guidelines >concerning the circulation and application of software within their own >borders. >The new decree in France follows a 1996 telecommunications regulation >law, which opened the way to liberalisation of encryption software but >which has so far not led to publication of any details of how the >measures could be applied. >The latest move comes after Lionel Jospin, the prime minister, made a >speech last week highlighting the "delay" in France of uptake of the >internet and promising initiatives to give it a higher priority. >--------- Brian B. Riley --> http://www.macconnect.com/~brianbr For PGP Keys - Send Email Subject "Get PGP Key" "One of the deep mysteries to me is our logo, the symbol of lust and knowledge, bitten into, all crossed with in the colors of the rainbow in the wrong order. You couldn't dream of a more appropriate logo: lust, knowledge, hope, and anarchy." -- Gassee - Apple Logo

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List of reliable remailers
by Raph Levien 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I operate a remailer pinging service which collects detailed information about remailer features and reliability. To use it, just finger remailer-list(a)kiwi.cs.berkeley.edu There is also a Web version of the same information, plus lots of interesting links to remailer-related resources, at: http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~raph/remailer-list.html This information is used by premail, a remailer chaining and PGP encrypting client for outgoing mail. For more information, see: http://www.c2.org/~raph/premail.html For the PGP public keys of the remailers, finger pgpkeys(a)kiwi.cs.berkeley.edu This is the current info: REMAILER LIST This is an automatically generated listing of remailers. The first part of the listing shows the remailers along with configuration options and special features for each of the remailers. The second part shows the 12-day history, and average latency and uptime for each remailer. You can also get this list by fingering remailer-list(a)kiwi.cs.berkeley.edu. $remailer{'cyber'} = '<alias(a)alias.cyberpass.net> alpha pgp'; $remailer{"mix"} = "<mixmaster(a)remail.obscura.com> cpunk mix pgp hash latent cut ek ksub reord ?"; $remailer{"replay"} = "<remailer(a)replay.com> cpunk mix pgp hash latent cut post ek"; $remailer{"jam"} = "<remailer(a)cypherpunks.ca> cpunk mix pgp hash middle latent cut ek"; $remailer{"winsock"} = "<winsock(a)rigel.cyberpass.net> cpunk pgp pgponly hash cut ksub reord ?"; $remailer{'nym'} = '<config(a)nym.alias.net> newnym pgp'; $remailer{"squirrel"} = "<mix(a)squirrel.owl.de> cpunk mix pgp pgponly hash latent cut ek"; $remailer{'weasel'} = '<config(a)weasel.owl.de> newnym pgp'; $remailer{"reno"} = "<middleman(a)cyberpass.net> cpunk mix pgp hash middle latent cut ek reord ?"; $remailer{"cracker"} = "<remailer(a)anon.efga.org> cpunk mix remix pgp hash ksub esub latent cut ek reord post"; $remailer{'redneck'} = '<config(a)anon.efga.org> newnym pgp'; $remailer{"bureau42"} = "<remailer(a)bureau42.ml.org> cpunk mix pgp ksub hash latent cut ek"; $remailer{"neva"} = "<remailer(a)neva.org> cpunk pgp pgponly hash cut ksub ?"; $remailer{"lcs"} = "<mix(a)anon.lcs.mit.edu> mix"; $remailer{"medusa"} = "<medusa(a)weasel.owl.de> mix middle" $remailer{"McCain"} = "<mccain(a)notatla.demon.co.uk> mix middle"; $remailer{"valdeez"} = "<valdeez(a)juno.com> cpunk pgp pgponly hash ek"; $remailer{"arrid"} = "<arrid(a)juno.com> cpunk pgp pgponly hash ek"; $remailer{"hera"} = "<goddesshera(a)juno.com> cpunk pgp pgponly hash ek"; $remailer{"htuttle"} = "<h_tuttle(a)rigel.cyberpass.net> cpunk pgp hash latent cut post ek"; catalyst(a)netcom.com is _not_ a remailer. lmccarth(a)ducie.cs.umass.edu is _not_ a remailer. usura(a)replay.com is _not_ a remailer. remailer(a)crynwr.com is _not_ a remailer. There is no remailer at relay.com. Groups of remailers sharing a machine or operator: (cyber mix reno winsock) (weasel squirrel medusa) (cracker redneck) (nym lcs) (valdeez arrid hera) The remailer list here has been out of date for some time, but should be up to date now. I'm still working on updating the web page. Last update: Mon 1 Sep 97 6:49:30 PDT remailer email address history latency uptime ----------------------------------------------------------------------- mix mixmaster(a)remail.obscura.com +++++++**+*+ 18:43 99.99% weasel config(a)weasel.owl.de --+++-++++- 1:36:13 99.95% bureau42 remailer(a)bureau42.ml.org -------..--- 5:27:26 99.94% nym config(a)nym.alias.net +#+###* #### 1:28 99.82% cyber alias(a)alias.cyberpass.net +**++* *+*** 11:22 99.68% winsock winsock(a)rigel.cyberpass.net ---+..----- 6:54:29 99.64% neva remailer(a)neva.org ** +#*+-+*#+ 17:59 99.55% squirrel mix(a)squirrel.owl.de ------_---- 3:56:24 99.35% reno middleman(a)cyberpass.net + +- -+++..+ 4:18:57 99.02% hera goddesshera(a)juno.com ---.------- 8:07:05 98.39% arrid arrid(a)juno.com ----+ --- - 5:23:18 96.51% redneck config(a)anon.efga.org #*#+*#* - 36:25 95.93% cracker remailer(a)anon.efga.org ++++++++ 38:21 90.88% jam remailer(a)cypherpunks.ca ++++++++ 51:19 88.75% replay remailer(a)replay.com +** +*** 11:21 88.18% valdeez valdeez(a)juno.com -------- 7:02:22 63.69% History key * # response in less than 5 minutes. * * response in less than 1 hour. * + response in less than 4 hours. * - response in less than 24 hours. * . response in more than 1 day. * _ response came back too late (more than 2 days). cpunk A major class of remailers. Supports Request-Remailing-To: field. eric A variant of the cpunk style. Uses Anon-Send-To: instead. penet The third class of remailers (at least for right now). Uses X-Anon-To: in the header. pgp Remailer supports encryption with PGP. A period after the keyword means that the short name, rather than the full email address, should be used as the encryption key ID. hash Supports ## pasting, so anything can be put into the headers of outgoing messages. ksub Remailer always kills subject header, even in non-pgp mode. nsub Remailer always preserves subject header, even in pgp mode. latent Supports Matt Ghio's Latent-Time: option. cut Supports Matt Ghio's Cutmarks: option. post Post to Usenet using Post-To: or Anon-Post-To: header. ek Encrypt responses in reply blocks using Encrypt-Key: header. special Accepts only pgp encrypted messages. mix Can accept messages in Mixmaster format. reord Attempts to foil traffic analysis by reordering messages. Note: I'm relying on the word of the remailer operator here, and haven't verified the reord info myself. mon Remailer has been known to monitor contents of private email. filter Remailer has been known to filter messages based on content. If not listed in conjunction with mon, then only messages destined for public forums are subject to filtering. Raph Levien

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Patel's Opinion
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

John and Stanton, Greg Broiles fedexed us a clear, scannable copy of Patel's August 25 Opinion, which we've digitized and formatted, in case EFF wants to use it to supplement the admirable volunteer effort: http://jya.com/bernstein-III.htm (93K)

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No Subject
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 05:55 PM 8/26/97 +1000, A non-stoned David Formosa wrote: >I take a second sample from our plunger wealding cop, its the blood of a >homospapain i.e. a human. > >The cop can't become inhuman by any action thay take. Humans can be very kind and polite, or they can just be murdering assholes. So in Dave's defense, despite the fact he made an argumant sounding like he was on crack, I have to say that plungering someone is part of human nature. We're all capable of things along that line, and anyone who thinks otherwise must have forgotten about the holocaust. Does that make it any less wrong to do that? Fuck no. That cop should still go to prison for life, at least.

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The End of Politics
by Steve Schear 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The End of Politics Every 500 years or so Western history seems to reach a turning point: the founding of democracy (Athens, c. 500 B.C.), the death to Christ, the fall of the Roman Empire and beginning of the Dark Ages (c. 500 A.D.), the ascendancy of the Catholic Church and beginning to the Middle Ages (c. 1000 A.D.) and the Renaissance (c. 1500 A.D.). These points of inflection are often evidenced by a dramatic raise in corruption and lack of faith in institutions. At the start of the 16th century few could have imagined a secular Europe. Though its rampant decadence and debauchery was widely known, the Catholic Church permeated almost every aspect of life and its economic tentacles denominated all commerce. Yet by 1600 many city states had thrown off the ecclesiastical yolk and Protestantism was born. With the near constant stream of corruption revelations and the inability of the political process within the nation-states to deal with important social issues, it isn't hard to see the reflections in current events. Many claim our nation has diverged very far from its founding roots and, through expansive Supreme Court, Executive and Legislative Branch actions, the Feds have laid claim to almost every facet of American life not specifically nailed down in the Constitution (and many we thought were). Two turning points were catalyzed by military technology (metal armor and gunpowder) which dramatically altered the economic scale and payback for violence. We may be nearing the end of another such military technology cycle, which for the last 200 years favored those states which could muster the largest economies for warfare. With the fall of the Soviet Union it is obvious that democracies were able to extort more GNP through taxes than the communist could through outright state ownership of property. However, the cost of producing weapons of mass destruction (especially chemical and biological) has fallen dramatically and is now within reach not only of small nations but increasingly individuals. If one accepts that the wielding of such power has been instrumental in shaping world politics then the conclusion is almost inescapable that dominance by nation-states will be on the wane. The last turning point was also catalyzed by information technology: the moveable type printing press, the first mass-production technology. By 1500 hundreds of European printing presses had churned out over 20 million books. Early expectations were that the press would reinforce the use of Latin and the Church, but most Europeans were monoglot and few authors could compose satisfactory new Latin works. The rest, as they say, is history. Many have compared the Internet with the press and it's not unfair to characterize it as nothing short of an information revolution. The victory of the Western democracies over their Communist opponents was a political watershed. With no Soviet bogeyman to wave in front of voters, and the need to maintain their self-importance, politicians have had to reach into the bag for new villains. They have invoked the new Four Horseman (terrorists, pornographers, money-launderers and drugs-dealers ) as a threat with which only they can effectively deal. Only they can't and they know it. These issues are either outside their control, no matter what restrictive laws they pass, or of their own making. The Internet will play a key part in disintermediating governments and markets. To escape heavy regulatory burdens, significant information-based business, investments and individuals will become jurisdiction-less. With their ability to regulate and tax Internet commerce and content denied a major source of revenue will evaporate which be which cannot be replaced by sales and property taxes. This will spell the end of mass wealth redistribution and signal a massive global down-sizing of government. As the power of the nation-states to dictate world affairs slips, look for an eclipse of democracy and with it politics as we know it. Western thought is so infused with politics that few can imagine society without. Yet politics in the modern sense, the preoccupation with controlling and rationalizing the power of the state, is mainly a modern invention. It will end with the modern world just as the tangle of feudal duties and obligations which engrossed the attentions of people in the Middle Ages ended with the Middle Ages. --Steve

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Re: Encouraging News - France
by Tim May 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I should've added to my last post that not only am I skeptical that citizens in France will be able to use truly strong, unbreakable crypto, but that the "encouraging news" is quite likely just the opposite. No solution which involves key escrow or "mandatory voluntary" key recovery is "encouraging." The French do not have a solid basis for protection of free speech, as the United States (mostly) does. We Americans can point to the First Amendment and pretty much nuke any proposals to place prior restraint on the forms or content of speech, including the languages we speak to each other in, whether Navaho, Urdu, or PGP. This is why so many of us are opposed to SAFE, which for the sake of eased export requirements would infringe on domestic use of crypto. (By felonizing crypto use in conjunction with a crime, and that crime could be any one of thousands of crimes on the books.) So, I doubt strongly the news out of France is "encouraging." Rather, I expect France is about to fall into line with the OECD agreements on escrowed encryption. As so many Cypherpunks apparently like to say, "Feh." --Tim May There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws. Only one response to the key grabbers is warranted: "Death to Tyrants!" ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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