December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

The dangers of using radar
by Arun Mehta 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I picked this up on Marsha Woodbury's jokes list (not all are fiction!): >>Two members of the British Lothian and Borders traffic police were out on >>the Berwickshire moors with a radar gun recently, happily engaged in >>apprehending speeding motorists, when their equipment suddenly >>locked-up completely with an unexpected reading of well over 300 mph. >> >>The mystery was explained seconds later as a low flying Harrier hurtled >>over their heads. The boys in blue, upset at the damage to their radar >>gun, put in a complaint to the RAF, but were somewhat chastened when the RAF >>pointed out that the damage might well have been more severe. >> >>It seems that the Harrier's target-seeker had locked onto the 'enemy' >>radar and triggered an automatic retaliatory air-to-surface missile attack. >>Luckily, the Harrier was operating unarmed. >> >>Otherwise... "Gee Officer, sorry about your patrol car........" Arun Mehta Phone +91-11-6841172, 6849103 amehta(a)cpsr.org http://www.cerfnet.com/~amehta/ finger amehta(a)cerfnet.com for public key

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Re: Lunch with Bill, anyone?
by Marc J. Wohler 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 05:31 AM 8/16/96 -0700,John C. Randolph wrote: >Meeting Bill Gates would be every bit as exciting as meeting Tony >Orlando. Or maybe Wayne Newton. I don't mind the sarcasm regarding Gates, but watch what you say about Wayne Newton!

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Re:BlackNet as a Distributed, Untraceable, Robust Data Haven
by mccoy＠communities.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Tim May writes: > > I have to speak up here and say that there is an actual working exemplar of > a distributed, untraceable data haven. While it lacks a robust _payment_ > mechanism, that is also untraceable, so does the "Visit Port Watson" > example (which has never actually existed) BlackNet also lacks any sense of persistence. A message posted lives at the whim of newsgroup expiration policies and getting a copy of an expired message is a non-trivial task. It is also not an overt data haven, there is really no address or pointer you can direct someone to and say "look here." Usenet as a data haven is like dropping messages in to bottles and casting them in to the sea; getting it where you want and having the intended recipient be able to find the data easily is still an unsolved problem. It is a bulletin board for establishing private two-party communications on any topic, but it is not even close to being a mechanism for "publishing" in the manner to which people have becomed accostomed to on the net. jim

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Offshore data havens
by Arun Mehta 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 17:30 15/08/96 -0700, Timothy C. May wrote: >As with offshore buoys, how long do you think such an entity would last? > >You mentioned Greepeace...don't forget that the French intelligence >apparatus sunks a Greenpeace ship in a New Zealand harbor. Don't forget the >way the U.S. mined Managua's harbor. And so on. >Think of how any of these schemes are vulnerable to a cheap torpedo, >"anonymously mailed" from several miles away. There is another aspect to this: the French sinking of the Greenpeace ship in New Zealand was arguably the best thing that ever happened to the organisation. They certainly got lots of publicity, new members, money... On the Internet, news spreads fast, so the cost of such an attack in terms of damage to reputation would be high. Of course, if the torpedo were truly anonymous, we wouldn't know who to blame. All criminals attempt to commit crimes "anonymously", yet many do get caught. >Oil rigs, buoys, pirate ships....these are all examples of hopelessly >insecure systems. I could say more, but what's the point? OK, suppose someone were to bury the server deep in a valley or shaft under the water, with only an antenna sticking out (and a supply of spare antennae that could be automatically deployed if one got knocked out)? And, with Moore's law in operation, one might even be able to deploy large numbers of such servers that mirrored each other at reasonable cost. Once connectivity is via LEO satellites, unless those beasts are equipped for the purpose, I suspect locating the source of transmission will not be all that easy. Arun Mehta Phone +91-11-6841172, 6849103 amehta(a)cpsr.org http://www.cerfnet.com/~amehta/ finger amehta(a)cerfnet.com for public key

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Re: Stealth Buildings Was Re: "X-Ray Gun" for imperceptible searches
by Alan Horowitz 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I repeat. Generations of sweating engineers have discovered and confirmed that there is not an easy, "Silver Bullet" cure of the canonical problem of shielding electromagnetic energy from reaching someone who knows how to interpret it. Bill, you are welcome to look at a layer of tin foil and give a sigh of relief that you've shielded your gun or your crypto diskette or your private body parts feom someone who knows what they're doing. Go ahead, chant a mantra too, if it makes you feel better.

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[Noise] Re: Lunch with Bill, anyone?
by Alan Olsen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 05:31 AM 8/16/96 -0700, John C. Randolph wrote: >Latest from Microsoft(R): > >> > The Windows 95 Anniversary is just around the corner. >> > Stay tuned to WinNews for special announcements to learn how >> > you could win lunch with Bill Gates, chat with industry >> > luminaries, and download a really cool screen saver. Do we get to decide where to have lunch? I know this great biker bar... ]:> --- |"Computers are Voodoo -- You just have to know where to stick the pins."| |"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: [SIGNAL] Microsoft's Internet Explorer
by Jüri Kaljundi 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Wed, 14 Aug 1996, Lucky Green asked: > I don't see the 128 bit version. URL? It is now available from www.microsoft.com/ie/download/ Choose the 128-bit IE 3.0 for Windows 95 & NT 4.0 In reply I got: Your Domain Name is not registered in the US or Canada Someone please upload the 128-bit version to somewhere in Europe =) Jüri Kaljundi AS Stallion jk(a)stallion.ee

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Lunch with Bill, anyone?
by John C. Randolph 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Latest from Microsoft(R): > > The Windows 95 Anniversary is just around the corner. > > Stay tuned to WinNews for special announcements to learn how > > you could win lunch with Bill Gates, chat with industry > > luminaries, and download a really cool screen saver. Does Microsquish *know* any industry luminaries? I mean, Cutler used to be one, but he's pretty burnt out, if Windoze NT is any indication. > Seems a fine opportunity. Though Bill _and_ the screen saver might > be just too much excitement for one day. Meeting Bill Gates would be every bit as exciting as meeting Tony Orlando. Or maybe Wayne Newton. -jcr

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ECC_pow
by jya＠pipeline.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

8-15-96. BW: "Certicom's High Efficiency Elliptic Curve Cryptosystem to be applied to Motorola's Wireless products." Dr. Scott Vanstone, Certicom's Chief Cryptographer, added, "Certicom is currently completing an ECC software toolkit." The Elliptic Curve Cryptosystem is the world's most efficient public-key system, providing the highest strength-per-bit of any known public-key system and minimizing the requirement for large key lengths. "UK Company Unveils E-Mail Encryption Software." Pow! Distribution has taken the wraps off PrivaSuite, an e-mail encryption package that works as a drop-in to many existing e-mail applications software. It can handle almost any file format, encrypting the file using the DES algorithm, it can also be set up to handle fax image files. The package was developed by Aliroo, an Israeli software house that specializes in document security products. Aliroo was founded in 1995 by ex-Israeli Military Intelligence officer Itzhak Pomerantz. ----- http://jya.com/eccpow.txt (9 kb for 2) ECC_pow

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NPR Science Friday for 8/16
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text X-Sender: oldbear(a)pop.tiac.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Fri, 16 Aug 1996 08:54:37 -0300 To: dcsb(a)ai.mit.edu (Digital Commerce Society of Boston) From: The Arctos Group <arctos(a)arctos.com> Subject: NPR Science Friday for 8/16 This afternoon's program on "Science Friday" on National Public Radio, broadcast from Washington, DC at 1800hrs GMT (2PM EDT) is on the future of the internet. I was unable to get a list of guests, but past programs would suggest that there likely will be some interesting individuals. Host Ira Flatow is much more techno-savvy than the usual broadcast personality. Here is the description from the npr.org web site: Show Date: 8/16/96 Topic for Hour One: Internet Update Synopsis: A War is waging over the future of the Internet. Who will control it, and what will it look and sound like as it reaches maturity? In this hour of Science Friday, find out who the players are, and what you can expect to see, or not see, on your computer screen in the years to come. Sorry for the short notice. I just heard the teaser this morning. --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "'Bart Bucks' are not legal tender." -- Punishment, 100 times on a chalkboard, for Bart Simpson The e$ Home Page: http://www.vmeng.com/rah/

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