December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Zions Bancorp to offer Digital Certificates
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 10:47:01 -0800 (PST) From: William Knowles <erehwon(a)dis.org> To: DCSB <dcsb(a)ai.mit.edu> cc: DC-Stuff <dc-stuff(a)dis.org> Subject: Zions Bancorp to offer Digital Certificates Organization: Home for retired social engineers & unrepented cryptophreaks MIME-Version: 1.0 Sender: bounce-dcsb(a)ai.mit.edu Precedence: bulk Reply-To: William Knowles <erehwon(a)dis.org> [Techweb 1.12.98] Zions Bancorp, a $9 billion regional bank in Salt Lake City, this week will become the first financial institution to offer a service that lets organizations use digital certificates to secure internal and business-to-business communications. Digital certificates, which electronically confirm a user's identity, are generated and managed by certificate authorities. Companies can set up authorities themselves or use authorities created by third parties. Although certificate-authority services are available from technology vendors [such as GTE, IBM, and VeriSign, Zions said customers will feel more comfortable letting a bank manage their digital certificates. "Banks in the paper world already do this. They write letters of credit," said Michelle Jolicoeur, director of government implementations at Digital Signature Trust, the Zions unit that will offer the service. "Our business is trust." Digital Signature Trust has conducted pilots of its service with Utah's Department of Commerce, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and internal departments for about a year. The service uses digital certificate software from several vendors, including Certco, Entrust, GTE, VeriSign, and Xcert. Separately, Certco and Entrust will unveil new features to their certificate-authority offerings at the RSA Data Security conference in San Francisco this week. Oppenheimer Funds, which plans to implement digital certificates by midyear to bolster IT security, is investigating whether to operate its own certificate authority or to outsource. "A bank is generally going to be a more stable company," said Jim Patterson, an Oppenheimer technology vice president in Englewood, Colo. "But on the other hand, do I want a bank that I currently don't have a relationship with to know so much about me?" Still, Patterson said digital certificates will be important in business-to-business commerce and communications. "With digital certificates, I can start getting or sending requests to perform business functions over any medium I want, including the public Internet," he said. Pricing for the Digital Signature Trust service will be subscription-based and will depend on the customer's applications and number of certificates. == The information standard is more draconian than the gold standard, because the government has lost control of the marketplace. -- Walter Wriston == http://www.dis.org/erehwon/ For help on using this list (especially unsubscribing), send a message to "dcsb-request(a)ai.mit.edu" with one line of text: "help". --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) Philodox e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/ Ask me about FC98 in Anguilla!: <http://www.fc98.ai/>

1 0

autonomous agents
by Adam Back 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

A canonical way to do implement things like remailers, eternity servers etc. is to build a distributed computation system to allow autonomous agents to be distributed across the internet. Create a market for CPU resources, bandwidth and disk-space so that the agent can pay it's way. Charge per CPU/hour, Mbit comms at given data rates and Mbyte/year storage, base it on Java as a portable network based language with code distribution support. Then let people fire off what ever they like, so long as they are paying. In this environment an eternity variant, or remailers, or anything else becomes a collection of autonomous agents which must fund their own distribution. The autonomous agents could send back profits to their creators, or use the profits to self propagate. Someone who thought up a good application, and got the economics right for their bot's buy and sell algorithms might become rich, even. I had considered that a generic perl execution system charging for resources would be useful for remailers a few years back. Java seems pretty good for this purpose also, being another portable network aware language. >From what Ryan has said his design uses markets for resources also. The question is though would you let a bot of this sort loose on your system? For agents to be able to achieve anything useful, the Java sandbox model has to be relaxed to allow the agent to make network connections to other than the machine the code was served from. Java has support for this in that signed applications are allowed to make external network connections. The problem is the flexibility would allow an autonomous agent to pay it's way in say breaking into a series of machines, and sending back obtained documents via remailer to the operator. A well funded attacker could cause lots of problems for operators. However the system as a whole is nice for our `creating lawful excuses' drive, because there are many applications which could make good use of the distributed computation system: filmatic quality image rendering computations, scientific computations, code breaking efforts, distributed web server applications. The liability questions are interesting also. If the participant in the CPU resource market is not expected to be able to vet all source code he runs, this gives the would be eternity operator a chance to distribute his risk. If the system becomes widely used, this helps protect it from attack. Adam

2 1

autonomous agents (fwd)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 19:25:53 GMT > From: Adam Back <aba(a)dcs.ex.ac.uk> > Subject: autonomous agents > A canonical way to do implement things like remailers, eternity > servers etc. is to build a distributed computation system to allow > autonomous agents to be distributed across the internet. Create a > market for CPU resources, bandwidth and disk-space so that the agent > can pay it's way. Charge per CPU/hour, Mbit comms at given data rates > and Mbyte/year storage, base it on Java as a portable network based > language with code distribution support. Then let people fire off > what ever they like, so long as they are paying. Has anyone done any work that you are aware of under the Plan 9 os? With it's fundamental seperation of i/o, process, and file servers along with it's inherent bidding/scheduling mechanism it seems to me that a lot of this work has already been done. In addition there are programs that allow Linux boxes to participate as Plan 9 compliant file servers. ____________________________________________________________________ | | | Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make | | violent revolution inevitable. | | | | John F. Kennedy | | | | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http://www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage(a)ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|

3 2

Talk of Banning Research into Human Cloning
by Tim May 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

This has some tangential list relevance in that it involves the Brave New World, so to speak, of the government deciding what research is legal and what is not. Clinton is asking Congress to ban research into human cloning. Importantly, this is not a proposal to cut federal funding of such efforts, as this would be unexceptionable (except to certain obscurantists). That is, the NSF or HHS or NIH or whatever is free to not fund all sorts of research projects. (Obviously many of us would cut nearly all such funding.) No, Clinton is asking for Congress to *ban* such research, regardless of where the funding came from. "Clone a cell, go to jail." "Clinton's proposal would make illegal any attempt to create a human being using the so-called somatic cell nuclear transfer technology that produced Dolly the sheep, in which an adult cell was fused with an egg. " Though I'm not a constitutional expert, this would seem to me to be a violation of various rights. A First Amendment right to speak and publish as one wishes for one, a Fourth Amendment right against search and seizure and to be secure in one's papers, and probably more general rights that have long-held that government agents cannot tell people what books they may read, what thinking they may do, and whom they may asssociate with (if the Civil Rights Act is viewed as the unconstitutional anomaly it is). Only a very few types of research are banned. And these are all ostensibly "national security" areas. Namely, chemical and biological warfare research, heavily regulated (private companies can do such research, but only with government approval, supervision, and generally _for_ the government). And nuclear weapons research (probably as part of the Atomic Energy Act). (If anyone can think of other "bans on research," besides weapons areas, let me know.) But a ban on cloning research would not be a matter of "national security," only of ethics and religious beliefs. Whatever the arguments for banning unapproved research into CBW and nuclear weapons, banning cloning research is an entirely different set of issues. Will Congress pass such a ban? Unknown. (They didn't pass the last such ban Clinton asked for.) Will the Supreme Court hear the case if such a ban is passed and then challenged? Unknown. Any implications for crypto? If Congress can successfully make certain types of science illegal, felonizing the search for truth, why not a ban on certain types of mathematics research? --Tim May The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^2,976,221 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

2 3

Talk of Banning Research into Human Cloning (fwd)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 12:32:18 -0800 > From: Tim May <tcmay(a)got.net> > Subject: Talk of Banning Research into Human Cloning > (If anyone can think of other "bans on research," besides weapons areas, > let me know.) Class 1 drugs. ____________________________________________________________________ | | | Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make | | violent revolution inevitable. | | | | John F. Kennedy | | | | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http://www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage(a)ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|

1 0

Sun to fight MS w/ new workstations [CNN]
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > New Unix workstations, lower pricing seen as bulwark against Microsoft > NT > > January 12, 1998: 1:11 p.m. ET > > Java goes to set-top boxes - Jan. 9, 1998 > > Sun cross-pollinates Intel - Dec. 16, 1998 > > More related sites... PALO ALTO, Calif.(Reuters) - Sun Microsystems > Inc. will launch a new line of workstations Tuesday, aiming to > challenge its rivals and blunt the spread into markets for > high-powered desktop computers used by engineers of PCs using > Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT. > [INLINE] The new workstations are the result of a two-year effort by > Sun to design products that greatly reduce the cost of the computers > used by power-hungry engineers, while still providing the blistering > performance they demand. > [INLINE] "This is really big. We think we can create an alternative to > [PCs running] NT," Ed Zander, president of Sun Microsystems Computer > Co., the company's largest division, said in an interview with Reuters > ahead of the announcement. [text deleted] ____________________________________________________________________ | | | Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make | | violent revolution inevitable. | | | | John F. Kennedy | | | | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http://www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage(a)ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|

2 1

Re: Congratulations!
by nobody＠nsm.htp.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>To: Anonymous <anon(a)anon.efga.org> >cc: cypherpunks(a)toad.com, abuse(a)MCI.Com, >hostmaster(a)cyber-dyne.com Ha, ha, ha! who CC'd the "Congratulations" thread to those addresses?? <LOL> (would they know how to smurf d00d?) This list gets fucking better!

2 1

USPS loosing business to email [CNN]
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > U.S. POSTAL SERVICE LOSING BUSINESS TO COMPUTERS > > e-mail vs. snail mail January 12, 1998 > Web posted at: 3:25 p.m. EST (2025 GMT) > > NEW YORK (CNN) -- The U.S. Postal Service is facing stiff > competition from computers, according to an article in the January > 19 issue of Time Magazine. > > Electronic mail could replace 25 percent of conventional mail, or > "snail mail," by the year 2000, the article said. > > The Postal Service lags behind Federal Express and United Parcel > Service in shipping packages. The latter already moves 80 percent of > the country's packages, according to the article. [text deleted] ____________________________________________________________________ | | | Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make | | violent revolution inevitable. | | | | John F. Kennedy | | | | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http://www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage(a)ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|

2 1

DCSB: Michael Baum; PKI and the Commercial CA
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- The Digital Commerce Society of Boston Presents Michael S. Baum VeriSign, Inc. PKI Requirements from a Commercial CA's Perspective Tuesday, February 3, 1997 12 - 2 PM The Downtown Harvard Club of Boston One Federal Street, Boston, MA Requirements for the provision of commercial certification products and services are under consideration by many companies. Similarly, efforts to regulate certification authorities (CAs) and public key infrastructure (PKI) are proliferating by many domestic and foreign governments. Underlying many of these efforts is the intention to assess and assure quality and trustworthiness, and yet the nature, scope and regime to accomplish these goals remain elusive or at least have been balkanized. This presentation will consider CA and PKI requirements from the experiences and perspective of a commercial CA. It will survey current approaches to ascertaining quality and performance as well as their limitations. It will then propose a path forward. Many of these issues are present real challenges to both the CAs and the user community. A lively dialog is welcomed. Michael S. Baum is Vice President of Practices and External Affairs, VeriSign, Inc. His responsibilities include developing practices and controls under which VeriSign conducts its public Digital ID and private label certificate operations. Mr. Baum is the Chair of the Information Security Committee, and Council Member of the Section of Science and Technology, of the American Bar Association. He is Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) ETERMS Working Party and a Vice Chairman of the ICC's Electronic Commerce Project, a delegate to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law on behalf of the ICC. He is a member of various digital signature legislative advisory committees. Mr. Baum is co-author (with Warwick Ford) of Secure Electronic Commerce (Prentice Hall, 1997), author of Federal Certification Authority Liability and Policy - Law and Policy of Certificate-Based Public Key and Digital Signatures (NIST, 1994), co-author of Electronic Contracting, Publishing and EDI Law (Wiley Law Publications, 1991), and contributing author to EDI and the Law (Blenheim Online, 1989), and the author of diverse information security publications including the first American articles on EDI law. He was honored as an EDI Pioneer in 1993 (EDI Forum) and was the Recipient of the National Notary Association's 1995 Achievement Award. He is a member of the Massachusetts Bar. This meeting of the Digital Commerce Society of Boston will be held on Tuesday, February 3, 1997, from 12pm - 2pm at the Downtown Branch of the Harvard Club of Boston, on One Federal Street. The price for lunch is $32.50. This price includes lunch, room rental, various A/V hardware, and the speaker's lunch. ;-). The Harvard Club *does* have dress code: jackets and ties for men (and no sneakers or jeans), and "appropriate business attire" (whatever that means), for women. Fair warning: since we purchase these luncheons in advance, we will be unable to refund the price of your lunch if the Club finds you in violation of the dress code. We will attempt to record this meeting for sale on CD/R, and to put it on the web in RealAudio format, at some future date. We need to receive a company check, or money order, (or, if we *really* know you, a personal check) payable to "The Harvard Club of Boston", by Saturday, January 31st, or you won't be on the list for lunch. Checks payable to anyone else but The Harvard Club of Boston will have to be sent back. Checks should be sent to Robert Hettinga, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, Massachusetts, 02131. Again, they *must* be made payable to "The Harvard Club of Boston", in the amount of $32.50. Please include your e-mail address, so that we can send you a confirmation If anyone has questions, or has a problem with these arrangements (We've had to work with glacial A/P departments more than once, for instance), please let us know via e-mail, and we'll see if we can work something out. Upcoming speakers for DCSB are: March Joseph Reagle "Social Protocols": Meta-data and Negotiation in Digital Commerce April Adam Shostack Digital Commerce Security: Beyond Firewalls May Jeremey Barrett Digital Bearer Certificate Protocols We are actively searching for future speakers. If you are in Boston on the first Tuesday of the month, and you would like to make a presentation to the Society, please send e-mail to the DCSB Program Commmittee, care of Robert Hettinga, <mailto: rah(a)shipwright.com>. For more information about the Digital Commerce Society of Boston, send "info dcsb" in the body of a message to <mailto: majordomo(a)ai.mit.edu> . If you want to subscribe to the DCSB e-mail list, send "subscribe dcsb" in the body of a message to <mailto: majordomo(a)ai.mit.edu> . We look forward to seeing you there! Cheers, Robert Hettinga Moderator, The Digital Commerce Society of Boston -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP for Personal Privacy 5.5.3 iQEVAwUBNLutasUCGwxmWcHhAQGiBwf6A7rhL5aztElh5nDDLgGU7vjBdXuryH+x OKnzXLE5364SLIr5KoRIfjRU0WB07jtB8bKeaE9DeiZbSC5i6QODmzK3cBfljVUx Ju5pBKeTwcvVtDXzcBjB9swL2TvNtv77x7dQLitZmziMjgX2tUR1yPhdbRnsJ0kl 8kBuWl681sh3oPEq4fGXTVDcP/vx31riZkZHhVcFHG/vyfR4eUznKe0lq1L1babb mwro6uPZ0W5Sy6F9rllqdPVbXGTh6LxlGwWbcBf9oO8+D+HAZAtjNm80WhtpN8aF Kbd115jJgkxdUlBeU44gib1r2ViV0rvNBI6sW/jwyUzYGQYhnyDJpg== =2cOQ -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) Philodox e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/ Ask me about FC98 in Anguilla!: <http://www.fc98.ai/>

1 0

Feds to Idaho: Kiss Our Butts
by Eric Cordian 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The manslaughter case against Ruby Ridge shooter Lon Horiuchi was effectively neutered today when a federal judge acquiesed to demands by Justice Department lawyers and moved the case out of Idaho's jurisdiction and into federal court. This means that Horiuchi will be tried in federal court in front of a federal jury on state manslaughter charges, and not in front of a jury from Idaho's Boundary County, where the shooting took place. This ruling, by U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge, came just six days after Boundary County Magistrate Quentin Harden ordered Horiuchi to stand trial. State manslaughter charges had been filed against Horiuchi for the death of Vicki Weaver in August. The Justice Department, which has denied that Horiuchi did anything wrong, provided the lawyers who argued that any case in which federal agents are acting in their official capacity may be transferred and tried in federal court, in front of a federal jury. The trial is scheduled to begin March 10. Horiochi has continued to work for the FBI since the charges were filed. -- Eric Michael Cordian 0+ O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division "Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"

3 2