December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: Zimmermann case is dropped.
by Michael C. Peponis 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Good news, but lets not forget that winning the battle isn't winning the war. > > The dropping of the case means that the legality of the ITAR restrictions goes > untested. Had the case not been dropped it would have expired shortly under the > statute of limitations. > > The real issue here is the abuse of the investigative powers of the FBI in > support of their own political agenda Congradulations to Philip, but Phill(boy this is getting confussing) is right. By dropping the case, the goverment avoids a high visiblity case that could change the rules. What happened to Phillip Zimmermann is unexcusable, but others must continue in his footsteps in order to win a decicive victory. Gee, Anybody got a good public-domain Windoz version of PGP? -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2i iQCVAwUBMPUxI0UffSIjnthhAQGkZQP/eTE7ngFyUPE3RqHB3spKmSiqneNw9WBy 5SkR4njN56ylUklkQjkxEtLijucugbsmiwIglBVaVaqwMKMoOjtbxyTrnoJj/8rk YjvGn5Zgn4oD0fTegTKmSk3H2QzdzaHJo+l829KOAsvMOaaazsal3ml2+m5BGWpa kwf11AglmOs= =RPqk -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Regards, Michael Peponis PGP Key Avalible form MIT Key Server,or via finger

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Re: Shimomura on TV?
by Douglas F. Elznic 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:08 PM 1/10/96 -0500, John Young wrote: >Someone just said that NBC's Dateline showed a snippet of >Shimomura on an upcoming show about rampant cyber-crime and >that he was the best hope against it, or something to that >effect. Did anyone see it and get the time and date? > > >Anyone attend the Shimomura-Markoff lecture at Stanford today? > > >Is this the media blitz for their pot-boiler? Can't wait to >slurp it. > > > > > > Has anyone heard anything else about this? I am getting real sick of the media's portrayal of the internet. They never say anything good about it. If they were to mention C2's system they would say how it is a no-rules server to hide thugs and pornos from the police. I am getting sick of watching this trash. The whole realm of the internet and computers and their associated areas are very dear to me I am sick of the media bludgeoning them to death. -- ==================Douglas Elznic=================== delznic(a)storm.net http://www.vcomm.net/~delznic/ (315)682-5489 (315)682-1647 4877 Firethorn Circle Manlius, NY 13104 "Challenge the system, question the rules." =================================================== PGP key available: http://www.vcomm.net/~delznic/pgpkey.asc PGP Fingerprint: 68 6F 89 F6 F0 58 AE 22 14 8A 31 2A E5 5C FD A5 ===================================================

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Shimomura on BPF, NSA, Crypto
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Shimomura on BPF, NSA and Crypto: One of the tools I modified for my work was a sophisticated piece of software called the Berkeley Packet Filter. ... Unlike the original BPF, my version was designed to bury itself inside the operating system of a computer and watch for certain information as it flowed through the computer from the Internet. When a packet from a certain address, or for that matter any other desired piece of information designated by the user flashed by, BPF would grab it and place it in a file where it could be kept for later viewing. I had developed my initial version of the faster BPF in the expectation that I would receive additional research funding for the work from the National Security Agency. The Agency had begun supporting my work under a Los Alamos National Labs research grant in 1991, and had promised to extend their support for my work, but the funding was never forthcoming. I developed the tool, but after I completed the work, in early 1994, the bureaucrats in the agency reneged on funding. The idea of working with the NSA is controversial in the community of security professionals and civil libertarians, many of whom regard the NSA as a high-tech castle of darkness. Libertarian by inclination or by the influence of their colleagues, the nation's best computer hackers tend to possess a remarkable sensitivity to even the slightest hint of a civil liberties violation. They view with deep distrust the work of the National Security Agency, which has the twin missions of electronic spying around the globe and protecting the government's computer data. This distrust extends to anyone who works with the agency. Am I contaminated because I accepted research funding from the NSA? The situation reminds me of the scene in the movie Dr. Strangelove where General Jack D. Ripper is obsessed by the idea of his bodily fluids being contaminated. I think the idea of guilt by association is absurd. My view is very different. First of all, I don't believe in classified research and so I don't do it. The work I was undertaking on packet-filtering tools was supposed to be funded by the agency for public release. The tools were to be made widely available to everyone, to use against the bad guys who were already using similar tools to invade people's privacy and compromise the security of machines on the Internet. But even more to the point, I believe that the agency, rather than inherently evil, is essentially inept. Many people are frightened of the NSA, not realizing that it is like any other bureaucracy, with all of a bureaucracy's attendant failings. Because the NSA staff lives in a classified world, the government's normal system of checks and balances doesn't apply. But that doesn't mean that their technology outpaces the open computer world; it just means they're out of touch and ponderous. In any case, I feel strongly that tools like BPF are absolutely essential if the Internet is to have real security, and if we are to have the ability to trace vandals through the Net. If people are concerned that individual privacy is at stake, they should probably worry less about who should have the right to monitor the networks, and instead focus their efforts on making cryptographic software widely available. If information is encrypted it doesn't matter who sees it if they can't read the code. Cryptography is another example of my point that a tool is just a tool. It was, after all, used primarily by kings, generals, and spies until only two decades ago. Then work done by scientists at Stanford, MIT, and UCLA, coupled with the advent of the inexpensive personal computer, made encryption software available to anyone. As a result, the balance of power is dramatically shifting away from the NSA back toward the individual, and toward protecting our civil liberties. ["Takedown," pp. 102-04]

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Toad Sex
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The oldest and most trustworthy way to crack crypto -- and a cryptologist -- is sex, regularly employed by royalty and traitors, tyrants and anarchists, governments and bandits, warfighters and jealous lovers, spouses and businesses, and whatever other position/opposition pleasures and betrays. If you have a security system that does not protect against it you're really fucked. Just who is doing what to who in "Takedown" constitutes its shameless Hollywoodian prurience, as it was in Littman, Clancy, Vinge, Tolstoy, the Bible, the Koran, the Kama Sutra, any indecent Exon-prohibition of your dreams. Shimomura, Markoff, Mitnick -- are the games of seductive illusion they're playing so different from vaunted cryptography of the ever-randy, coy/decoy Net? Has nobody ever blurted their password in the throes of passionate words? Imagine Toad Hall and what was up in the hot tub.

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The cost of victory?
by Marc J. Wohler 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Anyone care to estimate the *true cost* to PRZ for this victory? Haven't the bad guys made their point? -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMPWtdGeikzgqLB7pAQHGfAQAifBSfY7fSLccdhpdWnNSW/prMdKyPaRF XqEHfc9L+g2rYggYxWFXAZYBef2UjX8sQV6IZG7YN4wIT2IlifYa9GO0xVXC5LiC Diu0GPgXD6mg2WInfhzedCQNOfby+LF+oEo04whvz1dkMjo8ntEsczjY82VRYBh1 wUmdZyBsVNE= =RHPc -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ***Preserve, Protect and Defend the private use of Strong Crypto*** * * * PGP for the masses * * * Finger mjwohler(a)netcom.com for Marc Wohler's public key fingerprint= F1 70 23 13 91 B5 10 63 0F CF 33 AD BE E6 7B B6

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Re: Shimomura on TV?
by Michael C. Peponis 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> Has anyone heard anything else about this? I am getting real sick of the > media's portrayal of the internet. They never say anything good about it. If > they were to mention C2's system they would say how it is a no-rules server > to hide thugs and pornos from the police. I am getting sick of watching this > trash. The whole realm of the internet and computers and their associated > areas are very dear to me I am sick of the media bludgeoning them to death. Douglas, Why let it bother you? You must understand that the majority of the population of the United States is working class trash, the news media is just peddeling to the masses, just like the morons that hold elected office. They can keep up the bitching, but that's a good thing, I encourage the spread of this kind of disinformation, it keeps even more of the masses from getting on for fear of being offenced. Regards, Michael Peponis PGP Key Avalible form MIT Key Server,or via finger

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C2 and the Worst Case
by Bruce Baugh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- First off, this is _not_ a criticism - c2.org provides wonderful services, and I'm budgeting to buy more from them. However, I'm curious. Consider a reasonably worst case, in which ye jack-booted thugges come through the door unannounced, scoop up everything, and haul it off for examination. The question is, how much would they get? How much information about c2 users would fall into the wrong hands? -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQEPAwUBMPSLo33AXR8sjiylAQEHOgfPQyULO5Ni/4VCZPo8PNLbURy7bgkMG7aw UWeorZr95e8kFA3JA6VxCpmgRmStpeX78ZcN9a35Z0lguRF5+VNddzQYv/ydZxtg u5HP2stit9PG8fyP0SEGrxEVpnbwchOxtUxhuxJ7CZsZfMGWKi6EtXrQ5LhNGSCZ isoShwOXse5/XLHY3JzcrjbSa6PDHxmpwhYbkk8tyi8jQWFDDc+HbncgaC4FZL4V 2tntjx3HPe9Hy92v24K59UnzIpudVqF8f1jX6Z+m7lLzStARkNZwliRjL6pIz8G7 fz2uSXrgbAMVIkK6g9DOP3A48prob7LFnPZmEw4J6gF4fA== =+ZDY -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Bruce Baugh bruceab(a)teleport.com http://www.teleport.com/~bruceab

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No Subject
by anonymous-remailer＠shell.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The other day I was poking around lists of open NNTP servers, and came across something odd at llyene.jpl.nasa.gov . It appears that nothing has ever been expired there. Some groups had hundreds of thousands of messages. This might be interesting and useful for some purposes. Anyone know if that's where Dave Hayes does his amazing administrative thing?

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Re: E-cash and Interest
by loki＠obscura.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 2:52 PM 1/11/96, Ryan Lackey wrote: <SNIP> >By integrating all of these services under Mark Twain Bank Ecash Mint, I >would get all of the advantages of a rather pricey bank, 4-5% loss on all >my deposits, minimal privacy protection, no FDIC protection, $2500 ^^^^^ >initial deposit (not a problem for me, but it does keep many of the >people I'd like to send money to out of the system..always a feature), >and _tens_ of places to spend my ecash, only 4 or 5 of which that really >sell things. > Where do people keep getting this number. I have an account, my initial deposit was $36 ($11 for startup and $25 to play with). >-- >Ryan Lackey -*- ryan(a)pobox.com -*- http://www.netaxs.com/people/ryan/ -Lance ---------------------------------------------------------- Lance Cottrell loki(a)obscura.com PGP 2.6 key available by finger or server. Mixmaster, the next generation remailer, is now available! http://obscura.com/~loki/Welcome.html or FTP to obscura.com "Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra. Suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night the ice weasels come." --Nietzsche ----------------------------------------------------------

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Re: Zimmermann case is dropped.
by Frank Stuart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Since there is no longer an ongoing investigation, perhaps now would be a good time to file FOIA requests to see if there is evidence of the Justice Department acting improperly. | (Douglas) Hofstadter's Law: Frank Stuart | It always takes longer than you expect, even fstuart(a)vetmed.auburn.edu | when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.

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