December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: anonymous mailing lists
by Hal 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: ichudov(a)algebra.com (Igor Chudov @ home) > A nice, albeit quite expensive, way of pretection from traffic analysis > is to create a mailing list (or a newsgroup) and forward all messages to > all users of that mailing list or newsgroup. Of course, since messages > are encrypted, only the recipients will be able to decrypt them. This was discussed here several years ago, under the name "anonymous message pools". Myron Cuperman, the operator of the extropia remailer implemented one, although I don't know if it is still running (I haven't gotten any mail from it for years). It was basically just a mailing list specifically for this purpose, that you would use as your anonymous return address. Of course a problem is that there may not be enough people signed up to provide much privacy protection. Hal

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Re: Alternic.net (was domain zapping)
by jamesd＠echeque.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 09:03 AM 6/28/96 -0700, Bill Stewart wrote: > If you don't do it carefully, > you'll end up needing a bunch of Above-Top-Level nameservers that > serve the names of the tens of thousands of top-level domains. Five thousand top level domain names is quite manageable, no big problem provided that their servers are reasonably stable -- and if the unstable ones do not work well, big deal. A hundred thousand would be a problem. Assume a top level domain typically lasts forever, and a top level server typically lasts ten years. Assume two new top level domain names appear each day, and that it typically takes a several of months of reliable service to be added to the most generally accepted lists. This does not seem to constitute an intolerable burden to most domain name server administrators. --------------------------------------------------------------------- | We have the right to defend ourselves | http://www.jim.com/jamesd/ and our property, because of the kind | of animals that we are. True law | James A. Donald derives from this right, not from the | arbitrary power of the state. | jamesd(a)echeque.com

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Message pools _are_ in use today!
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 4:37 PM 6/29/96, Hal wrote: >From: ichudov(a)algebra.com (Igor Chudov @ home) >> A nice, albeit quite expensive, way of pretection from traffic analysis >> is to create a mailing list (or a newsgroup) and forward all messages to >> all users of that mailing list or newsgroup. Of course, since messages >> are encrypted, only the recipients will be able to decrypt them. > >This was discussed here several years ago, under the name "anonymous >message pools". Myron Cuperman, the operator of the extropia remailer >implemented one, although I don't know if it is still running (I >haven't gotten any mail from it for years). It was basically just a >mailing list specifically for this purpose, that you would use as your >anonymous return address. Of course a problem is that there may not be >enough people signed up to provide much privacy protection. The newsgroup "alt.anonymous.messages" has existed for a year or two, and serves to be working reasonably well as a message pool. Check it out. One will find numerous messages of the sort copied below. Having browsed some of the less common newsgroups (and trolled, in my my earlier days), I surmise that messages to nyms like "TheBear" are related to "support and recovery" sorts of topics. (I mention this because this is a compelling example of where anonymity is often sought; that people are using remailers and message pools to communicate is interesting. When Louis Freeh claims that remailers are only being used by hackers and Russian mafia arms exporters, this is a counterexample.) Here's just one such message, of several I saw this morning in "alt.anonymous.messages". (Note that anonymous message pool sorts of messages also appear directly from time to time in groups like "alt.abuse.recovery" and that ilk.) --begin copied message-- From: nobody(a)REPLAY.COM (Anonymous) Newsgroups: alt.anonymous.messages Subject: TheBear Date: 15 Jun 1996 14:26:12 +0200 Organization: Replay and Company UnLimited Lines: 14 Sender: replay(a)basement.replay.com Message-ID: <4pua54$gt6(a)basement.replay.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: basement.replay.com X-XS4ALL-Date: Sat, 15 Jun 1996 14:26:17 MET DST XComm: Replay may or may not approve of the content of this posting XComm: Report misuse of this automated service to <abuse(a)REPLAY.COM> -----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Processed by Mailcrypt 3.4, an Emacs/PGP interface hIwDrINEDTBBpVEBA/4sKOcgI33fdk6Pz5V27OIX0KiVfb4YDwgNLDpf6Wy0uvix 4oQ9p+vmtsZ32dPBoG4aF7bvh5ejqwZSpvuKOpgt1M8SKbA+Nma+EclMzQ3us3Ey OX5aFKo3TwB1Ck8tZPhpF8b/fI8gqz5v2FJhnon6NdktjFBVo3SBXya8AdlgUaYA AABsOTd6WOMH8PWnKHuP7PMCflH2p+halmCDsn9ytmoG6uzrINHH/B8c7aW6c7xw 9nXbB+99xLldhAqyg1M/oKi4pjfJ8cuSonDxMPTP8rr49XTCFaiOuQ7JUe3MEaop NIppnoBMrBvGRkKOgrYy =lYbJ -----END PGP MESSAGE----- --end copied message-- --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" 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, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Re: anonymous mailing lists
by Hal 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Wei Dai did some nice statistical analysis of this type of attack sometime a year or two ago. Even with countermeasures such as you suggest, if they are not perfect, so some information leaks correlating incoming and outgoing messages, Wei showed that it was possible to deduce the owners of the nyms surprisingly quickly. The countermeasures do work - if you get and send exactly 50 pieces of 4K byte email every day, no matter what, then correlations don't exist - but they are expensive to do perfectly. For now we have much worse weaknesses; none of the current return-address systems are really safe, other than posting encrypted mail to newsgroups (and even that may be a problem if they suspect who you are and are monitoring your computer link to see if you download certain messages). Hal

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Re: crypto and bagpipes [NOISE]
by Alan Olsen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:55 PM 6/28/96 -0400, Declan B. McCullagh wrote: >Excerpts from internet.cypherpunks: 27-Jun-96 Re: crypto and bagpipes >[NO.. by "Perry E. Metzger"@pierm >> No one who has heard sustained bagpipe playing can deny the fact that >> bagpipes are indeed an instrument of war, with no legitimate place in >> peaceful everyday society. > >Hmm... Carnegie Mellon University is the only school in the country with >a bagpipe major, you know. You haven't lived until you've heard a >screeching 'pipe at 3 am in front of Hunt Library. I guess this explains the pro-censorship outlook of the students and staff there. Maybe someone should be investigating the evil effects of bagpipes on the mind. (The Freudian implications of bagpipe playing alone should get someone there to do something about it...) --- |"The moral PGP Diffie taught Zimmermann unites all| Disclaimer: | | mankind free in one-key-steganography-privacy!" | Ignore the man | |`finger -l alano(a)teleport.com` for PGP 2.6.2 key | behind the keyboard.| | http://www.teleport.com/~alano/ | alano(a)teleport.com |

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Re: crypto and bagpipes [NOISE]
by Michael Myers 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 12:37 PM 6/29/96 -0500, Adam Shostack wrote: >Damnit, Perry, the fact that you don't like them doesn't mean we >should outlaw them! :) > >Adam > >Perry E. Metzger wrote: >| vinnie moscaritolo writes: >| > >>>Mr Brooks, the piper, (...) >| > >>>claims he wasn't playing a musical >| > >>>instrument, but practising with a weapon! >| > >>> >| > >>>The imagination boggles if his claim is successful! >| >| No one who has heard sustained bagpipe playing can deny the fact that >| bagpipes are indeed an instrument of war, with no legitimate place in >| peaceful everyday society. >| >| Perry Of course...when bagpipes are outlawed... -- Michael Myers Vote Libertarian....you'll sleep better! Don't like abortion? Don't have one. Don't like guns? Don't buy one. | Don't like bagpipes? Don't play one! | blackavr(a)aa.net E-mail for PGPv2.6.2 public key \____________ http://www.aa.net/~blackavr/homepage.htm ________________/

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Re: fbi botches intel "ecspionage" case
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 7:25 PM 6/29/96, Larry Detweiler wrote: >we already have a very good example where this has >backfired. I was watching Nightline on Tues night or >so in which there was info about how the FBI helped >get an informant into Intel in a *very* sensitive >position, where he was able to film the pentium chip >plans. he said he sold them, as I recall, >to iraq, syria, china, etc. I didn't see this particular "Nightline," so I can't be certain this is the same case I have been casually following for a couple of years. However, it sounds like the case of the guy who spent a year at Intel, stole some design tapes, went to work for AMD, offered them to AMD, had AMD refuse him and report his offer to Intel (the chip companies are very cooperative in these matters), and then proceeded on a bizarre course of offering the tapes to various foreign nations. A comedy of sorts, and his "damage" was essentially meaningless. I don't recall _anything_ about him being planted by the FBI within Intel, nor can I imagine any circumstances in which the FBI would try this. So maybe I'm thinking of a different story. >solve the problem. there was much lamentation over the >fact the criminal in question only got about 33 months >of prison time or something. > >the FBI emerged with great egg on their face. I would >say if anyone wants to ridicule them for getting into >covering "ecspionage" cases, this is a prime candidate >case. is this what they are aiming for? heh, heh. Well, the "33 months" sounds like the story I remember. Bear in mind that the tapes he took were essentially useless. A comedy, as I said. (He was down in Brazil, living with his parents, sending out press releases on how he had sold the tapes to Cuba and other such countries. He voluntarily returned to the U.S. to face charges, so it sure looks like he wanted to get caught....a psychological case more than a national security case.) >somehow we have missed a good public debate about >ecspionage in the country. there were a few NYT >editorials, but it is clearly being used as a very >major aspect of promoting the new post-cold-war spy >and intelligence strategy without almost any notice >by major analyists. Larry, you must not have been subscribed during the months when we debated this issue many times. There have also been numerous mentions of this since at least 1990, when I recall discussions of a change in mission for the NSA. >2. we have a tradition of separation of church and state in >this country, and also separation of the public government >and private industry. suddenly we have the FBI saying they >want to infiltrate companies to deal with economic espionage. >well, these companies have their own policy, and what do >they gain by having a government agency working inside them? >in the above case I note, it led to exactly the *opposite* >of what was intended: the theft of *highly*sensitive* plans >by an FBI mole. In the case I described, involving Intel and Pentium plans and a recent prison sentence, this was not the case. The FBI did not plant the thief. >if someone else can give more info on this case (apparently >a book is coming out about it or something) including the >guy's name, I'd appreciate it, I didn't take any notes so >this is a bit fuzzy. I'm sure an Alta Vista search would turn up this story. I don't plan to do it, though. I'm relatively certain the "Nightline" piece you cite is related to the case I've described. Whether "Nightline" got its wires crossed, or Larry did, is unknown to me. --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" 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, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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The Net and Terrorism
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

There have been many recent reports linking the Net and anonymous remailers, pseudonyms, and (of course) strong crypto to various possible and actual terrorist events, with an emphasis on the "possible." (If the Net is linked to _actual_ terrorist incidents, little is being disclosed publically as of yet.) Recent comments by John Deutch, William Perry, and Louis Freeh make reference to the growing danger of the Net. And the "Russian mafia" is playing a major role in this debate; I won't recap the various articles in major magazines about arms sales from the former Soviet Army, the reports that an entire paramilitary unit of the KGB is now working for the Russian mafia, and the obvious corruption of the entire former Soviet system (I'm not saying it wasn't corrupt before, just that now the paymasters have changed). Can anything be done? To stop the likely effects of lots more surface-to-air missiles, lots more nerve gas available on the black market, and so on? In a word, "no." I've been thinking about this a lot, reading the various articles, and pondering the implications. The plain fact is that the modern world is one of great "liquidity," and the vast amount of arms built up by the U.S.S.R. (thanks in large part to responding to a similar build-up in the U.S., without taking any sides...) are now "leaking out" in increasing numbers. (The leakage is quite similar to that seen in the 1975-79 period, when thousands of tons of armaments abandoned by the U.S. in Viet Nam were sold around the world. Except, of course, that the the Soviet weapons include some interesting new things.) Not even a police state can stop armaments from being diverted in situations such as faced in the former U.S.S.R. (For those not familiar with the conditions, read up on it. The combination of former command economy, secret police, selling off of industry to highest bidders, lack of a conventional industrial base...all of this makes it nearly unavoidable that much of the former state industry is now controlled by black marketeers and former Party apparatchniks....after all, who else would have the money to buy these former State industries?) In fact, a former police state does not change its stripes. The names and paymasters change a bit, but the organism lives on. (One need only look at the police states of Central and South America and their platitudes about the "Drug War" to understand the realities of such markets.) Unbreakable crypto will of course be used. This is unsurprising. A few airliners will shot down by Soviet surface-to-air missiles. This is unsurprising. I expect a city or two to get nuked in the next decade or so. (Haifa or Tel Aviv would be my leading candidates.) To me, this is unsurprising. My personal solution dovetails with other perceived threat responses: avoid living in or near major cities and take reasonable measures to cope with moderate economic or physical crises. (No, I am not a "survivalist," just mentally and physically prepared to deal with a major earthquake, economic dislocation, or terrorist incident in San Jose, which is 30 miles north of me.) FBI Director Louis Freeh and the TLA spooks are already sounding the alarm about the "Four Horsemen." Sen. Sam Nunn is calling for measures to ensure that cyberspace is "secured" and that the Net is not used to further chemical and biological terrorism. The point is that even a police state cannot stop the consequences of the increased "degrees of freedom" the modern world (and the Net) provides. In fact, police states tend to make the scale of the corruption even greater, as the Soviet and Latin American examples show. (I could of course get into the examples of arms dealings in Iran-Contra, the CIA's role in covert arms supply, etc., but this should be self-evident to all.) An Australian radio journalist asked me if the Net could make possible new types of terrorism, and could allow terrorists to plot crimes in new ways. He seemed surprised when I said "Of course" and then proceeded to give some examples of how the Net can be used to undermine governments (what those governments of course refer to as "terrorism," even when it is mostly not). I'm not advocating such "terrorism," by the way, merely telling it like it is. Arguing that the Net cannot and will not be used in such ways is naive and ultimately counterproductive. It is more accurate and useful to point out that the increased role of terrorism is due to many factors, including prominently the vast amount of armaments in the world, the role of police states which have benefitted from these build-ups in the military-industrial complex, the expansion of "virtual communities" around the world, and, crucially, the expanded number of degrees of freedom in transportation, communication, banking, and other such Information Age channels. Keep your head down, avoid crowded downtown areas, prepare for moderate disruptions, and reject arguments that an American Police State will do anything to stop terrorism. (Remember, terrorism is just warfare carried on by other means, with apolgies to Von Clausewitz.) --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" 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, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Important News from The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition
by The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Dear Wall Street Journal reader: If you haven't visited the Money & Investing Update in a while, we wanted to let you know we've made some dramatic changes. On April 29, we became The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition (http://wsj.com) That means we've expanded, to bring you the entire spectrum of business coverage provided by The Wall Street Journal. You'll see not only our pioneering, continually updated coverage of the markets, but all the most important stories in technology, marketing, the law--even sports and weather. We've also added new features we hope make the Interactive Edition even more useful, such as Personal Journal, which enables you to create your own personalized view of today's news, and the ability to build and monitor your own personal stock portfolio. As a trial subscriber to Money & Investing Update, we are eager to have you try the Interactive Edition. So, your User Name and Password for the Update are valid for the Interactive Edition as well. Plus, as a special thank you for your early support, your access to the Interactive Edition WILL CONTINUE TO BE FREE THROUGH AUGUST 31, 1996, after which time a very modest subscription fee will be required to continue. But remember, NO CREDIT CARD OR OTHER PAYMENT INFORMATION is required until after August 31, and ONLY THEN if you decide you want to join us as a paid subscriber. Until then, read the Interactive Edition as often as you like at no charge. To see the Interactive Edition, you can jump directly to the front page at http://wsj.com/edition/current/summaries/front.htm, or take a brief tour of the most interesting new features at http://wsj.com/tour.htm. We look forward to hearing your reactions to our interactive efforts, since the comments of readers like you have already played a powerful role in shaping our future. Please write us at the address below with any questions or comments. Neil Budde Editor The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition info(a)interactive.wsj.com P.S. If you experienced difficulty accessing the Interactive Edition during our first few weeks, we apologize. Reader interest completely exceeded our expectations. However, we've made a number of major system improvements since then and we encourage you to come back and try again. -------------------------------------------- If you don't want to receive future mail from the WSJ-ANNOUNCE list, simply reply to this message with UNSUBSCRIBE WSJ-ANNOUNCE3 in the message body.

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Re: crypto and bagpipes [NOISE]
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 01:01 PM 6/29/96 -0700, Michael Myers wrote: >>Perry E. Metzger wrote: >>| vinnie moscaritolo writes: >>| > >>>Mr Brooks, the piper, > (...) >>| > >>>claims he wasn't playing a musical >>| > >>>instrument, but practising with a weapon! >>| > >>> >>| > >>>The imagination boggles if his claim is successful! >>| >>| No one who has heard sustained bagpipe playing can deny the fact that >>| bagpipes are indeed an instrument of war, with no legitimate place in >>| peaceful everyday society. >>| >>| Perry > >Of course...when bagpipes are outlawed... Do you mean the FULL-AUTO "Assault Bagpipes," the ones that produce more than one "toot" per blow? Or the more "responsible" (but still dangerous!) semi-auto bagpipes, where you have to blow each time you want a toot. Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

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