December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Feds on Internet Banking
by E. ALLEN SMITH 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Evidence that the Fed has noticed Internet banking. It looks like they're more concentrating on electronic checks than on digital cash, though; I may be mistaken in that, however. Any of the lawyers on here know much about banking law? -Allen Reuters New Media _ Friday January 26 2:01 PM EST _ Boston Fed Minehan Warns Of "Virtual" Bank Danger NEW YORK - Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Cathy Minehan is warning against potential risks of "virtual" banking -- or electronic account systems handling electronic money. Minehan stressed that the regulatory community has just begun to consider these issues and that much work needs to be done before it even knows all the questions to ask, let alone what answers to give. "Legislation and regulation of new payments system alternatives could be unwise right now, but that does not mean that participants in such systems should not oversee them or that central banks should not be concerned" Minehan said in an address to the Goldman, Sachs Conference on Risk Reduction in Payments, Clearance and Settlement Systems. "'Smart' card technology is now being used to store electronic 'notes' authorized by the card-holder's bank that can be used to transfer value between banks, consumers and merchants," she said. "These electronic 'notes' flow over the Internet and give authorization for funds to be withdrawn from a bank account and paid to another party electronically," Minehan said. "This can come close to being a new form of currency in that the potential exists for the value on the card to remain in circulation, transferring from card to card, and one endpoint to another, without necessarily being converted to a more traditional form of money," she said. [...] "'In this regard, it is especially intriguing to consider how the 'virtual' bank might be regulated," said Minehan. "Some maintain that virtual banking is just a new form of bank which all the usual rules and regulations apply," she said. Copyright, Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved

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Banned French Book Online
by Declan B. McCullagh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

As Tim May noted a few messages ago, the French government censored a book written by the physician to their late president, Francois Mitterrand. An enterprising fellow in eastern France scanned it into 189 pages of GIF files and put it online. Now the French police have arrested him, ostensibly on unrelated charges. I'm putting the complete version of the banned book, _Le Grand Secret_, online -- you can find it on the following identical sites: http://web.mit.edu/afs/athena/contrib/bitbucket2/le-grand-secret/secret/ http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/declan/www/le-secret/complete/ http://robotweb.ri.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/declan/www/le-secret/complete/ http://mousa.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~stephane/secret/ Since the combined size of the files is 9 MB, Seth Finkelstein and I stripped the images from 4 bpp to 1 bpp (greyscale to monochrome), and reduced the combined size to 2 MB. The stripped GIF files are on: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/declan/www/le-secret/reduced/ http://robotweb.ri.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/declan/www/le-secret/complete/ http://web.mit.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/declan/www/le-secret/complete/ http://joc.mit.edu/le-secret/reduced-gifs.tar [tar file] http://joc.mit.edu/le-secret/reduced-gifs.tar.gz [compressed tar file] Related stories and commentary are available at the following identical sites: http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~declan/ http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/declan/www/le-secret/ http://www.well.com/~declan/le-secret/ http://robotweb.ri.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/declan/www/le-secret/ http://web.mit.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/declan/www/le-secret/ -Declan

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Re: Denning's misleading statements
by Alan Olsen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 07:49 PM 1/26/96 -0800, Rich Graves wrote: >On Fri, 26 Jan 1996, Thomas Grant Edwards wrote: > >> I think the big bait-and-switch is her description of the various >> companies falling over themselves to get to _VOLUNTARY_ key escrow to >> avoid losing data and protecting themselves against employee problems >> versus _MANDATORY_GOVERNMENT_ key escrow to ensure that individuals >> cannot hide information from the government. >> >> Key escrow is good. Key escrow against your will is bad. > >Yo. > >I especially enjoyed this sentence: "Individuals would be allowed to >develop their own encryption systems for personal or educational use >without obtaining licenses, though they could not distribute them to >others." Why is it that whenever I read Denning's pronouncements I feel like I am reading something from a villainess in an Ayn Rand novel? Denning has become the epitome of the pure authoritarian government world view. Analysis of her viewpoints makes me more of an anarchist every time I read her rants. It is that smarmy "We know better than you do" with absolutely no rational argument as to why it is true. It is people like this that are generating such distrust in Government by promoting irrational statism. (Government by random fiat keeps a high employment for those who make their living off of political parody, paranoia of the government, the court system, lawyers and lawmakers, and anarchists everywhere.) >It's unclear whether it's OK to share books, algorithms, and source code; >or if it is, what's the point? Depends on your ability to challenge the status quo. A vague law with lots of harsh but undefined penalties is much more effective than something that is rigidly defined. With rigidly defined laws, you can find loopholes and ways to push the envelope. With vague rules, people will tend to err on the side of caution. >Outlaw cryptography, and only cryptographers and outlaws will have >cryptography. "Hey, we found this Tim May guy down at the school playground selling crypto to the kids! Let's throw the book at him!" Alan Olsen -- alano(a)teleport.com -- Contract Web Design & Instruction `finger -l alano(a)teleport.com` for PGP 2.6.2 key http://www.teleport.com/~alano/ National Security uber alles!

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Re: Denning's misleading statements
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:51 PM 1/27/96, Alan Olsen wrote: >Why is it that whenever I read Denning's pronouncements I feel like I am >reading something from a villainess in an Ayn Rand novel? > >Denning has become the epitome of the pure authoritarian government world >view. Analysis of her viewpoints makes me more of an anarchist every time I >read her rants. It is that smarmy "We know better than you do" with One of the interesting things about the whole crypto debate, going back at least to the Clipper announcement (and actually some months before) has been that the pro-restrictions, pro-GAK side of the argument has almost no defenders! Except for David Sternlight, Dorothy Denning, and Donn Parker ("attack of the killer Ds"?), there are almost no public spokesmen for the pro-restriction, pro-GAK side. She has written numerous pro-GAK position papers for various conferences, journals (including the "Proc. of the ACM"), and other fora. Where are the other defenders? Even the producers of GAKked products are fairly careful to finesse their positions by saying they are only doing what they are doing because the government is paying them to, or because the export laws leave them few other options. I've never met Dorothy Denning, so I hesitate to characterize her as a villainess. But certainly she's the only noted cryptographer I know of who's gone so far out on a limb to defend a position the vast majority of computer scientists, civil libertarians, and cryptographers scoff at. (And I don't just mean it is we libertarians and civil libertarians who are scoffing, I mean that nearly every noted expert who has carefully reviewed the various schemes to control crypto and to provide GAK has found them to be essentially unenforceable except via draconian police state methods, and maybe not even then.) I personally believe her estrangement from the mainstream position these last several years and her apparent close association with the inside-the-Beltway crowd has actually skewed her judgment, that she is no longer evaluating policies and capabilities based on reasonable objective, academic analysis. Her views, and even many of her examples, are very close the views and examples used by FBI Director Louis Freeh in his testimony to Congress a few years ago. (I scanned and OCRed this testimony as a favor to Whit Diffie, so in reviewing the text for OCR corrections, I became very familiar with Freeh's fear-inducing testimony.) I don't mean this as a cheap shot against her, but I would not be surprised to see her take on some sort of "Undersecretary for National Information Infrastrucure Affairs" or somesuch position in the next Administration (no matter which side wins the election). She's become a player in the Washington game. >Depends on your ability to challenge the status quo. A vague law with lots >of harsh but undefined penalties is much more effective than something that >is rigidly defined. With rigidly defined laws, you can find loopholes and >ways to push the envelope. With vague rules, people will tend to err on the >side of caution. Psychologists call this "random reinforcement." A plethora of vague laws about intent, conspiracy, and threshold have made this the norm. When there are 25,983 distinct laws on the books, what else is to be expected? >"Hey, we found this Tim May guy down at the school playground selling crypto >to the kids! Let's throw the book at him!" "This could not have been me, Your Holiness! I would never think to _sell_ cryptography to the kids--I would give them free samples first." --Tim Boycott espionage-enabled software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- 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: 2^756839 - 1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Re: Banned French Book Online
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:24 PM 1/27/96, Declan B. McCullagh wrote: >As Tim May noted a few messages ago, the French government censored a >book written by the physician to their late president, Francois To set the record straight, Tim Dierks mentioned this in response to my point that the French do some things right. (Emphasis on "some.") Also, while I'm clarifying things, at least two recent messages have referred to me as "Dr. May." Normally I don't feel obliged to correct such things, but I will here. I don't have a Ph.D., just a bachelors degree. Sosumi. --Tim Boycott espionage-enabled software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- 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: 2^756839 - 1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Re: "This post is G-Rated"
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 11:33 PM 1/25/96, Mike McNally wrote: >Bill Frantz writes: > > and whole newsgroups. > >Since nobody "owns" newsgroups, and nobody controls what's posted to >them, I don't see how that's possible at all. I agree. When I was replying to Bill Frantz's points, I neglected to comment on this point. Suppose "alt.fan.barney" is rated G, by "someone." Since I can post stuff with strong language, and worse, to alt.fan.barney, is it still rated G, or was my stuff blocked? When the Germans told MeinKampfuServe to block 200+ newsgroups (well, it's clear that some BavarianKops showed MKS a list of groups that they thought needed to be pulled, and MKS obliged them), a bunch of folks started copying soc.culture.german on some highly explicit stuff normally found in alt.sex.*. No word yet on whether soc.culture.german is now banned in Germany. --Tim May Boycott espionage-enabled software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- 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: 2^756839 - 1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Unsub request delete at will
by Michael G Thornton 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

With apoligies for posting this to the general list community, please unsub me from this list as I am having some software conflicts with unsubing via your server, your assistance is appreciated. Many thanks Regards Michael rlwmgt(a)mpx.com.au

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#pgpfone on IRC
by ISP-TV Central 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I suggest the use of #pgpfone on IRC for setting up impromtu tests of PGPfone over the internet. I hope it works better than NetPhone! -Thomas

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Re: John Doe
by tallpaul＠pipeline.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Jan 25, 1996 20:58:48, 'jdoe-0007(a)alpha.c2.org' wrote: >The John Doe NYM/Remailer interface for Windows is a most excellent >program that will allow even the most cypher-illiterate to make use of >the technology that has been the exclusive domain of those in the >"techno-know". It was a piece of cake to set up, obtain a NYM and select >inbound and outbound remailers with options to chain as many as your >paranoia deemed appropriate. > >$25.00 seemed a little steep but they will get my $$$. Nice Job. > >John Doe 0007 > No, I am not jdoe-0007. We satanic-socialist-statists all use preliminary trial copies of JOHN-DOE set to jdoe-666. It is in our contract with the Sales Rep of Darkness and we are widely known for always respecting contracts. Look out UNIX users! With JOHN-DOE us WINDOZE users under the leadership of our glorius Chairman Bill are gonna' get the rest of your body too! (Unlike jdoe-0007 I think $25 is a very low price to pay for the new capacity. What the hell! We're not gonna' pay for it out of our own lazy pockets. We'll raise the tax on hot tubs and get other people to buy it for us.) -- tallpaul "To understand the probable outcome of the Libertarian vision, see any cyberpunk B movie wherein thousands of diseased, desparate and starving families sit around on ratty old couches on the streets watching television while rich megalomaniacs appropriate their body parts for their personal physical immortality." R. U. Sirius _The Real Cyberpunk Fakebook_

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SEAL cipher info requested (something actually list related!)
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Anybody have info on the SEAL cipher? I can't find any descriptions or analysis of it. Refs, proceedings or URLS would be a good thing. (It isn't related to NSEA is it?!?)

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