December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

No Subject
by cassiel＠alpha.c2.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Thanks for all who wrote with help re: FAQ file! I now have several other sources from which to download the file. Looks pretty interesting.... Cassiel

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Re: Repeated Words/characters in Password/Phrase
by foodie＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>In the real world, where passphrases must be memorized, "long and random" >is an elusive goal, which has to be weighed against the risk of other ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >attacks (such as capturing keystrokes with a sofware monitor, or from afar ^^^^^^^ >with a van Eyk antenna, etc.). > >Me, I use a nonsense phrase which has meaning to me, with a few garbage >characters added to confuse things further. I don't think my passphrase is >the weak link. > >- --Tim May This is, of course, very good advice. Passphrases need only be as strong as every other component of the security system. I'd add that there is a moderately good reason to keep the passphrase _only_ as strong as every other component of the system for psychological reasons. The passphrase is what the user tends to think of when they think of their system. Even if that user is the designer of the system, a false sense of security an be an easy thing to develop. At a past place-of-work, someone there who prided themselves on using difficult passphrases was bitten pretty severely by a faulty .forward file. DES provides similar lessons - searching 56 bits of keyspace requires just barely less effort than that required to launch other attacks on the algorithm (in theory, at least). The system is, as far as anybody knows, secure, and no part of it is significantly more secure than any other. -j -- On the internet, nobody knows you're a diety. _________________________________________________________________ Jamie Lawrence <foodie(a)netcom.com>

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Re: LACC: DEA Agents Accuse CIA of Tapping Phones
by Brian B. Riley 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 I sent a copy of this post to a buddy of mine who retired from the CIA not too long ago ... these were his comments on the matter; FWIW. >>>But legal experts say it could be a difficult lawsuit to >>>win, especially since an employer - in this case the >>>government - generally has a right to listen to employee >>>conversation on office phones. > >They're right. > >>>It also doesn't help that national security was involved >>>and that courts have held that U.S. citizens don't have >>>constitutional rights overseas. > >Completely wrong. No court has so ruled; the writer is confusing >the Bern Convention, signed by almost every nation on earth, which >formally establishes the the rule of "lex loci," or law of the land >where the individual is found. This is only a common-sense >restatement of old principles of Roman AND common law, whereby a >national of country X can never act with impunity in country B. >It's as old as Hammurabi. There is NO "ruling" that establishes >that an American citizen forfeits his Constitutional rights >vis-a-vis the United States Government, and to claim otherwise is >to insult the truth. > >>>``It's an uphill battle. It's going to be a tough suit,'' said >>>constitutional law expert Paul Rothstein of Georgetown >>>University. > >Maybe so. But it'll be fun to watch. We've known for years now that >the jackbooted thugs of the DEA are by far the most law-abusing, >disrespectful, rights-sneering, down-and-dirty, life-threatening, >hair-raising agents of the entire US Government. Bar none. They've >got to be watched, because they're a nasty threat to individual >liberty, and because they routinely interfere with the legitimate >work of other American intelligence agencies. (And they've been >monitored, by the way, since at least 1984, to my knowledge.) > >>>"It is not the CIA's mission, nor is it part of the >>>operations of the agency, to surveil in any manner >>>U.S. officials, or other U.S. citizens at home or >>>abroad,'' Mansfield said. > >Well, that's the kind of in-your-face lying that brings deserved >contempt down on the heads of the intelligence community. I disdain >it, and have done so publicly. The sonofabitch needs to say openly >that you're damned right the CIA and NSA do this, and here's WHY we >do it... > >>>The only exception would be in counterintelligence >>>cases, he added, and then only in consultation with >>>senior Justice Department officials. > >Yeah. A GS-12 giggler. > >>>In Horn's previous case, Leighton said, the Justice >>>Department angered DEA agents by claiming they >>>have no Fourth Amendment constitutional right >>>against wiretapping when working outside the >>>country. > >See? The ignorance of DEA agents is legendary! > >>>Leighton, a former federal prosecutor, said the >>>lawsuit doesn't address the reasons for the alleged >>>electronic eavesdropping. > >Ever heard of Title 18 of the US Code, stupid one? > >>>"My assumption is because they want to know >>>what DEA is doing, they want to rip off DEA >>>informants, they want to know DEA contacts >>>within foreign governments,'' Leighton said. >>>``And with the Cold War over, these agencies >>>are looking for a new mission.'' > >Nice try, slick. But it ain't so much the desire for their network >as it is a desire to prove that a huge number of DEA agents have >been involved in drug-running and foreign government corruption for >at least 14 years now. Like that? > >>>Horn's residence ``was the target of a U.S. >>>Government Agency-sponsored electronic audio >>>intercept,'' it said. > >I'd love to be on the stand here. I'd LOVE to hear this arrogant >schmuck try and "prove" that the "tap" (if there ever was one) was >of US origin! What an ignorant ass... > >>>"Horn had occasion to see a cable containing >>>his words in quotation marks, that he had spoken >>>to another DEA agent, set forth exactly as stated...'' > >Tsk tsk. Imagine that. And of course it just never occurs to the >fool that we can also derive such intel from third-party sources >and governments. > >>>The suit, assigned to U.S. District Judge Harold H. Greene, > >Oh, yea! The same trigger-happy judge that fathered the infamous >AT&T dismemberment! > Hoo-boy! -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP for Personal Privacy 5.0 Charset: noconv iQA/AwUBNCGS/sdZgC62U/gIEQJRfwCgzM5bTHJx6L+oB4dIylrfSHPz8nIAoPh7 J9pGVrkG+cmaWZCyMtAFqtg1 =jc+B -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Brian B. Riley --> http://www.macconnect.com/~brianbr For PGP Keys <mailto:brianbr@together.net?subject=Get%20PGP%20Key> "It is one of the most beautiful compensations in life that no man can sincerely try to help another, without helping himself." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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NID_otp
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

11-16-95. Washrag: "Pentagon Gaining Turf From the CIA." Pentagon agencies and officials are set to play a greater role than before in supervising key intelligence operations including doctoring spy satellite photos, and recruiting then ignoring bumbling agents overseas. There's even a proposal in Congress to create a new, national intelligence director hiding out in the Office of the President (OTP), and supervising nulls with equal job-fears at the CIA and Pentagon. Sen. Bob Kerrey worries about the trend because "in the world of the future, more and more secret garbage would not feed my national interest." He cited Deutch's proposed consolidation of intelligence imagery analysis in a new Pentagon-run advert agency, which would swallow up the CIA's National Photo Interpretation Center along with the Defense Department-based Central Exaggeration Office and Defense Entrapping Agency. "Clinton, Moynihan and Specter are hogs for slop," Kerrey spat, "I want my rep fattened." NID_otp (8 kb)

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No Subject
by cassiel＠alpha.c2.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi All You were all so helpful with my last request, I figured I would go for broke and ask for more advice. The physical security of my computer isn't really that great, so I've been interested in finding utilities that would securely delete the files I want deleted (as well as temp files created, etc.). I run Win 3.1 on DOS 6. What do people think is the best free/shareware file wiping utility (now, there's a Freudian name...) out there? How about for deleteing that pesky Windows Swapfile? I know--best of all worlds I remain in DOS, but this isn't always practical. Any advice would be appreciated. Please cc me directly in your response as I've moved over to Cypherpunk-lite. Thanks again! Cassiel

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Utilize This Valuable Information and It Will Pay For Itself Right Away
by 49268935＠aol.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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THE FRONT PAGE
by Phillip M. Hallam-Baker 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I've edited this down, for fair use reasons, you can get the idea... Worth subscribing to this paper BTW. > The Electronic Telegraph Thursday 16 November 1995 The Front Page > > [The Front Page] > > 'Black Baron' computer virus writer jailed for 18 months > > By Robert Uhlig, Technology Correspondent > > Devils in disguise that preyed on computers > > [Image] THE man who wrote computer viruses which could cause millions of > > pounds of damage, was jailed for 18 months yesterday. > > Christopher Pile, who called himself the Black Baron, not only spread his own > viruses, Exeter Crown Court was told, but also distributed across the world his > program which let other hackers disguise their own viruses. > The viruses have made the "Black Baron" notorious among British companies. > Microprose estimated it lost up to £500,000 and used more than 480 staff hours > checking more than a million files. The computer firm Apricot had to shut down > and check many of its machines. It found that 22 out of 60 had been infected by > Pathogen. -- Phillip M. Hallam-Baker Not speaking for anoyone else hallam(a)w3.org http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/People/hallam.html Information Superhighway -----> Hi-ho! Yow! I'm surfing Arpanet!

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Re: ALERT: On Monday, call Congress to stop Big Brother amendment!
by Declan McCullagh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I just got off a phone with an industry lobbyist. The conversation went something like this. "Can there be a compromise?" I asked. "I don't think there can be one that will satisfy all three or four parties involved." (I was thinking: law enforcement, national security, business, and privacy interests.) The answer: "I don't think compromise is the right word. But we need to give something to law enforcement." -Declan

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Professional interview wanted for report
by byerr＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi. I'm a freshman at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County, Virginia. I am writing a (general) report on cryptography for school, and I was wondering if anyone on this list that works with cryptography in their job would be able to give me a short interview over email. Thanks a lot! -- Ben Byer byerr(a)netcom.com I am not a bushing GCS d-- s: a--- C++ UL++++ P++ L++ E+ W+ N++ o K-- w-- !O M-- !V !PS !PE Y+(++) PGP t+ 5 !X R tv(+) DI+ G e- h! r !y

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Re: NSA, ITAR, NCSA and plug-in hooks.
by Rich Salz 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>are specifically designed for the insertion of cryptographic materials, >or is it the fact that they could be used to support cryptographic >enhancements? Everything is decided on a case-by-case basis. I was in a meeting with some NSA export-control people (Dept Z03) and asked a few questions on this topic trying to nail down the angle of this slipper slope. Basically, generic buffer-manipulation is okay. "Keyed compression" where you explicitly passed something called a key to a DLL routine would be looked on suspiciously. An abstract set of open/modify/close routines (where open returned a pointer to opaque state, say a session key :) would be fine. The technical guy quickly grasped that I was talking about anonymous remailers, but they "conceded" there's nothing they can do about it. I say "concede" because that implies more political/control-issues then were really present at the meeting. /r$

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