December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: [NOISY] Your own Zundelsite in five minutes or less
by shamrock＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 23:45 1/30/96, Rich Graves wrote: [...] >I do not expect these news outlets to bother to, or know how to, check >whether mirror sites had already popped up before these "demands." I do >not expect these news outlets to find out and publicize the fact that it >was a couple of cypherpunks who detest Mr. Zundel who came up with the >idea the afternoon of January 27th, and handed it to Zundel the next day. So we don't get the credit and the nazis do. We'll survive. Everybody on this list knows what happend. -- Lucky Green <mailto:shamrock@netcom.com> PGP encrypted mail preferred.

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from http://www.fv.com
by gimonca＠skypoint.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Far be it from me to add to this, but this is from FV's own website: [begin quote] [2] Why don't you use encryption with First Virtual? Encryption is almost always cumbersome and difficult. And it always adds an additional step, and something else to worry about. After all, even banks and armored cars are subject to robbery attempts, and sometimes those attempts succeed. Rather than use encryption, we decided to design a system in which it wouldn't be necessary. [end quote] I, uh, think that speaks for itself.

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FV, Netscape and security as a product
by Greg Broiles 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

NSB's messages have suggested, amongst the fear-mongering, that the real target of the card-shark publicity campaign is not Joe Consumer but bankers, investors, and other "big money" folks; people who care about the large-scale fraud rate of credit card use. (Yes, the rate of fraud affects all consumers, but most people experience it as a relatively small and unavoidable cost lost in the noise of other small costs.) NSB/FV used the Murky News to reach those people the way that some people will rent a freeway-visible billboard to propose marriage to a single commuter. The trouble and expense that the sender was willing to suffer to send the message are intended to cause the reader to take the message more seriously. The rest of us who see the message on C-punks or drive past and wonder "Who is Bonnie, and why is Clyde proposing marriage to her on the freeway?" aren't an important part of the process. But I don't see FV's tactics as being especially different from folks at IBM writing a virus which affects Windows but not OS/2, and quietly shopping it around to scare Microsoft customers, or Ford underwriting an NBC news program which shows Chevy pickups blowing up. (both are hypotheticals.) Sure, it can be done, and perhaps it's not dishonest, and perhaps they can wear the hat of "Consumer Protector Man", but I think it'd come across as less offensive if it weren't presented as a discussion about security. Statements which can be boiled down to "We think our product is superior to our competitor's product" don't mix well with quotes from academics and a "Chief Scientist" signature block. While, as Vin McLellan points out, Simson Garfinkel's articles were technically accurate (modulo the quote from Daguio, where he's quoted as suggesting an "out of hand" transaction, which is likely either a typo or a misunderstanding - dollars to donuts he said "out of band"), they also appeared as part of a marketing process. Netscape and FV have both taken a "security is a product" stance, which is a gross misrepresentation. FV and NSB's materials have done a good job of critiquing Netscape's "security is a product / don't worry, just look for the cute blue key" approach, but would replace it with their own "security is a product / trust the phone but not the net" approach. Both suggestions (and the implication of the Murky News articles, that one can be trusted but not the other) are wrong. Security is never a product. (Not a firewall, not a fancy browser, not PGP, not a gun, not the Club, not an airbag.) FV has tried to productize their approach (out-of-band transfer of credit card number + long clearing time for sellers + negligible per-unit cost for goods sold) but it won't work any better for FV consumers than it does for anyone else who tries to buy something which can't be sold. It's a shame that Garfinkel didn't spend more time/column space on suggestions or observations from the independent people he interviewed and less time on the "hot news - Netscape security broken by a competitor" angle. Are there really any "big money" people left who don't have formal or informal access to someone computer/Internet savvy enough who could have pointed out that the cardshark attack is nothing new? Yes, bad things happen if you run bad software. A two-way link between your computer and the rest of the world means it's possible for bad software to send your data to other people. It's the "Prodigy reads your hard disk/Microsoft Registration Wizard reads your hard disk" scare all over again, with "Prodigy" replaced by "evil untraceable criminals" and "hard disk" replaced by "keystrokes". Duh. We should, however, learn from what FV did right - they wrote software which (apparently) had or can have a real political effect. (It seems to have worked on Garfinkel, anyway). Cypherpunks write code? FV wrote code and got some attention for their otherwise unexciting message. (It seems to be a combination of working code and good user interface - witness the cooing over the icon indicating which type of credit card you're using and the fact that it uninstalls itself.) It's a shame that they won't use their powers for good instead of evil. -- "The anchored mind screwed into me by the psycho- | Greg Broiles lubricious thrust of heaven is the one that thinks | gbroiles(a)netbox.com every temptation, every desire, every inhibition." | -- Antonin Artaud |

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FYR_wal
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

1-31-96. WSJ: "Chinese Firewall: Beijing Seeks to Build Version of the Internet That Can Be Censored." "We've eliminated what is undesirable and kept what is good." Which is, succinctly, China's riposte to the information age, from satellite television and real-time news to the Internet. Beijing eagerly seeks the fanciest information hardware, but it fears much of the software. China, in short, is determined to do what conventional wisdom suggests is impossible: Join the information age while restricting access to information. The reason: If the Internet has proved its utility, it has also become a fluid medium for the two things China's authoritarian government most dreads, political dissent and pornography. Industry insiders say China -- which has already bought some of the most powerful equipment available, from U.S.-based Cisco Systems Inc. and Sprint International, a unit of Sprint Corp. -- ultimately aims to create a monolithic Internet backbone, centrally administered, that minimizes the threat posed by the Internet's amoeba-like structure. FYR_wal

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PoM 4: Anti-Government Growth
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Today's fourth article of The Washington Post series on "The Politics of Mistrust" is: "Public Grows More Receptive to Anti-Government Message." The public sees the quality of life deteriorating or not improving from the 1960s, with family breakup, increased violence, a failure to produce better jobs, and, in addition, with the Cold War over, they don't see any real reduction in the risks of the possibility of a third world war. All this occurs at a time when taxes have been increasing. The small government, low tax environment creates a real opportunity for Republicans.... The general force of this sense of no progress is to favor the more conservative party. Next: Generation divide Series to date available at: http://www.replay.com/young/

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Chomsky
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 7:07 PM 1/31/96, Alan Bostick wrote: >In article <ad33b5f134021004e5fb(a)[205.199.118.202]>, >tcmay(a)got.net (Timothy C. May) wrote: > >> Interesting term, similar to Chomsky's "Manufacturing Consent" (which >> obviously must've come later...). > >Wow, that was fast! Only two days in the FV FUD flamewar, and already >someone said "Chomsky". > >Alan "Still holding out for 'Hitler'" Bostick What's the big deal about mentioning Chomsky? --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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Netscape encrypted email!!
by Vincent Cate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> * Integrated email - Netscape Navigator 2.0 offers full-featured and rich > email capabilities, allowing you to both read and send secure email > messages without launching an external email application. I downloaded it and checked it out. But it was not clear how to use this secure email - so it may lack something yet in user friendlyness, or I may have just missed it. Anyway, it should be much easier to use than PGP. Are we all going to switch to Netscape for email? Is anyone using this? Want to tell us how? -- Vince INTRODUCING NETSCAPE NAVIGATOR 2.0 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- END-USER FEATURES * Enhanced performance - New features such as client-side image mapping, Progressive JPEG support, and support for multiple simultaneous streaming of video, audio, and other data formats enhance the performance of Netscape Navigator 2.0. * Integrated email - Netscape Navigator 2.0 offers full-featured and rich email capabilities, allowing you to both read and send secure email messages without launching an external email application. * Integrated newsgroups - Sort, read, and post newsgroup messages in fully threaded hierarchical windows. * Security - New dynamic trust capability allows users to accept new certificate authorities. Other features include improved security user interface and protection against a site impersonating another site.

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Re: NRO Slush Fund
by koontz＠MasPar.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>Spy Agency Said to Have Spare Billions Sad to think that the undersecretary for defense who used to have oversight of the NRO is now the Secretary of Defense. One would guess he is trying not to pick up any bricks right now

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Afternoon Conference: UCC 2B: Information Contracts
by Steven C. Perkins 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Excuse x-posting. Please forward to appropriate lists. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- February 14 -- 1:30-4:30 PM -- UCC Article 2B: Information Contracts Rutgers School of Law-Newark and the New Jersey State Bar Association will co-sponsor a program to introduce lawyers, business, and others to the current draft of new Article 2B of the Uniform Commercial Code, Digital Electronic Information and its Transfer. Professor Raymond T. Nimmer, University of Houston and the Uniform Laws Commission Drafting Committee Reporter, and two members of the Committee, Professor David A. Rice of Rutgers School of Law-Newark and Professor Amy Boss of Temple University School of Law, will present the draft, seek comments, and respond to questions. Other panelists include Donald Cohn, Esq. of DuPont Corporation, Co-Chair of the ABA Software Contract Law Task Force and Holly Towle, Esq. of the Seattle law firm of Preston Gates & Ellis. This program is free; however, there is limited seating available. Please call Assistant Dean Margaret C. Bridge at 201/648-5968 to reserve seating. RELATED CONFERENCE: COPYRIGHT ISSUES AND THE NATIONAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE - February 15, 1996. Please see the Conference home page at URL:"html://www.rutgers.edu/RUSLN/copyconf.html". ----------------------------------------------------------------------- February 14, 1996 UCC 2B REGISTRATION DEADLINE: February 10, 1996 (Walk-in registration permitted beginning at 8:30AM) Number Attending: ________ Name(s)_____________________________________________________________________ ________ Affiliation_________________________________________________________________ ___________ Address _______________________________ City _________________ State _____ Zip _________ Telephone (_____)__________________ Mail to: Rutgers School of Law-Newark 15 Washington Street Newark, NJ 07102-3192 Attn: Assistant Dean Margaret C. Bridge For further information, call Assistant Dean Margaret C. Bridge at (201) 648-5094, or send email to Professor David A. Rice at drice(a)world.std.com. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------- **********||||||||||\\\\\\\\\\*//////////||||||||||********** Steven C. Perkins sperkins(a)andromeda.rutgers.edu User Services Coordinator Ackerson Law Library http://www.rutgers.edu/lawschool.html Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, School of Law at Newark http://www.rutgers.edu/RUSLN/rulnindx.html VOX: 201-648-5965 FAX: 201-648-1356 |||||||||||||||\\\\\\\\\\\\\||*||///////////////|||||||||||||||

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Re: [NOISY] Your own Zundelsite in five minutes or less
by shamrock＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 19:55 1/30/96, Declan B. McCullagh wrote: >As of this afternoon, there are Zundelsite mirrors operating at MIT, >Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of >Texas, and the University of Pennsylvania. I am really interested what the German government is going to do next. Force their universities to dismount AFS? How can we best get the fact the their censorship efforts have hit *the wall* to their attention? Any Germans on this list that can file a complaint against the sites with the German authorities? What about contacting German Telekom? We won't have won until they restore the routes to Webcom. -- Lucky Green <mailto:shamrock@netcom.com> PGP encrypted mail preferred.

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