December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

An old _Discover_ article explaining RSA
by scrappo.reverb＠juno.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I had found this article in an issue of Discover I've had for a few years. It is a comic strip-type article by Larry Gonick article explaining, in Layman's terms, the very basics of RSA. This article was printed in the April 1992 issue of Discover magazine (some liberties taken regarding pictures, etc.). Box1:Prime Time featuring SEYMOUR Cloak-and-Dagger Mathematician! (sh!) Box2:PRIME NUMBERS-numbers that can't be broken into a product of smaller factors- have always been one of the most amusing and USELESS topics in mathematics. Box3:Then why are Banks, Businesses, Mathematicians, and Government SPY AGENCIES fighting over prime numbers? (STOP RIGHT THERE!) Box4:It has to do with CRYPTOGRAPHY-secret codes. (The patriotic thing to do would be NOT to read one more word!) Box5:In the computer age, cryptography is MATHEMATICAL: Inside the computer, every MESSAGE is a string of ONES and ZEROES: a number, in other words. (PLEASE!!!) Box6:ENCRYPTING a message means scrambling this number, using a reversible formula based on a secret number or numbers called the KEY. message-->key-->cyphertext DECRYPTING the cyphertext is done by applying the key in reverse. Box7:It would seem that both the sender and receiver need to know- and conceal-the key, but in the 1970's, WHITFIELD DIFFIE and MARTIN HELLMAN showed a way to MAKE KEYS PUBLIC! (Hippy-Diffie!) Box8:Knowing how to SCRAMBLE, said Diffie, is not the same as knowing how to UNSCRAMBLE. Consider the egg!!! Box9:Suppose a code had TWO KEYS, a scrambler and an UNSCRAMBLER... and suppose it was IMPOSSIBLE to compute one key from the other-in the sense that no computer could do it in less than the lifetime of the UNIVERSE??? (crank crank crank) Box10:You'd have an UNBREAKABLE CODE! (Wait... Almost got it...) Box11:It works like this: Everyone owns a unique pair of keys. One remains private. But the other, public key is listed in a directory. To send me a message, you look up my public key and use it to scramble the message. My private key is the only way to unlock the message. Result:total secrecy and privacy!! Box12:Diffie's idea soon became a reality, as three guys at M.I.T. created a public-key algorithm known as RSA, from their initials. (picture)Rivest (picture)Shamir (picture)Adleman Box13:RSA's unbreakability depends on the "impossibility" of FACTORING large numbers. (15? that's 3 x 5! Easy!) (3,447,981,101,346,271,113,552,476,003,201, 119,181,244,551,900,123,549,822,344,722,436,001? um..) Box14:It's not hard to find two large PRIME NUMBERS P and Q. But if I hand you their PRODUCT, PQ, your supercomputer will never find P and Q again. (SOB!) Box15:Under RSA, each user gets a 160 digit number, N, which is the product of two large primes, P and Q. Box16:The number N is made public, while P and Q remain secret. A simple formula completes the encryption, which can't be cracked without FACTORING! (ngh) Box17:The National Security Agency didn't like this! The spy bureau wants the ability to crack any code! (Your assignment Seymour: FACTOR FASTER!!) Box18:But spies aren't the only ones who need cryptography! Anyone who transmits ELECTRONIC DATA wants to secure the information's integrity. (Why? What? This is an OPEN SOCIETY!) Box19:Unbreakable public-key code would effectively Protect money transfers from tampering Shield sensitive business data from the competition Immunize software against viruses (Allow us to gossip securely by E-Mail!) Box20:So-After years of resisting Public-Key systems, the government in 1991 finally endorsed one as a new NATIONAL STANDARD. (I WAS WRONG! EMBRACE ME!) Box21:Unlike RSA, however, the government's DSA (Digital Signature Algorithm) depends on a single, government-issue PRIME NUMBER. (Take a P! Not any P!) Box22:Within months, mathematicians had shown how this could give the government, and the government alone, the ability to BREAK the code-and so the argument continues... (Trust, Where is the trust??)

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jury nullification/selection
by Greg Broiles 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Sorry if I was too terse earlier. I hadn't intended to start a big FIJA dustup. I think that government sleaziness is not only useful in a true nullification argument ("he's guilty but you should acquit anyway") but where it reflects on the credibility of testimony and the prosecution's case in general. It's easy to imagine a prosecution which rests on the testimony of people who lie every day (criminally involved informants, jailhouse informants, and undercover cops) and/or real evidence which was gained through the use of subterfuge and trickery (like wiretap/body wire evidence). The idea is to make the government look sleazier and trickier than the defendant(s) and the defense witnesses. If the government's evidence ends up being tainted directly or indirectly by lying, trickery, etc., then the defense can argue "Hey. You can't trust anyone who got up on that stand and talked to you. And if you don't know who to trust and you think everyone's lying, the government's got no case. And if they've got no case, the judge will tell you that you must acquit." So I think that public distaste and discomfort with weirder and sleazier tactics on the part of cops can be (and is) discussed and used and "voted on". "Not guilty" doesn't necessarily mean "innocent", sometimes it means "The prosecution didn't have enough evidence I thought I could trust." And yes, I agree that even mentioning nullification during voir dire will probably get you kicked off of a jury; and I think that's partly because one party or the other will be scared of nullification, and partly because the term "jury nullification" makes people think of FIJA and associated loons. Nobody wants a loon on the jury. (I don't think everyone who argues for nullification is a loon, but some of them sure are - and there's no good way to figure out whether someone's a loon or not in the middle of jury selection.) And I also agree that the jury selection process tends to select away from a true cross-section of society; but the few easily available examples (big trials like OJ or the Menendez Bros. or Wm. Kennedy Smith or whoever) are poor examples because they're not typical. Trials where lots is at stake (death penalty or celebrity defendant or big $ civil trials) tend to have longer processes (which weed out everyone who isn't incredibly boring) but it's not at all uncommon to pick a jury in a morning or in a day or two. In federal court, the judge usually questions the jury instead of the attorneys (which is faster), and may or may not ask questions that the attorneys have suggested. Also, sometimes one side or the other will *want* especially analytical or technical or well-trained jurors. Attorneys want to pick a jury they can persuade, but they also want to pick a jury that can understand their theory of the case. So I guess my point is that while the jury system isn't perfect, it is in some ways a much more direct way to "vote" on how things work in the judicial and law enforcement systems. I think it's more immediately and directly democratic than the electoral system. All of the legal bullshit aside, it's possible to think about trials as a way for people who have some sort of problem (they've been injured or accused of a crime or whatever) to tell a group of uninvolved people about the problem and ask them what the right thing to do is. Yeah, that's really oversimplified, but I think that what juries do is important and that what they do has a political and a moral dimension even if attorneys aren't supposed to talk about it during argument. -- Greg Broiles | "We pretend to be their friends, gbroiles(a)netbox.com | but they fuck with our heads." http://www.io.com/~gbroiles | |

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Re: Child porn as thoughtcrime
by amnesia＠chardos.connix.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Chuck Thompson writes: > > Well Andrew, pornography is meant to lead to arousal, which can lead to > aggression, which may lead to abuse. It's a fairly common path according to > what I've read on deviancy. Going into a bank can lead to casing out the joint, which may lead to a heist. Should this make the posession of pictures of banks illegal? I don't think that anyone here is advocating kiddie porn. The problem that TCM pointed out is that in fighting kiddie porn, legislators have started banning _thoughts_ that _could_ lead to child abuse. This is one great leap forward into the police state. > Following is one association's opinion, but > don't stop there, read for yourself what some of the deviants themselves > have to say: You're seeing the trees and missing the forest. It could be any activity, say the abuse of animals, that winds up being used as a wedge to create the police state. If the government started tatooing red 'P's on the foreheads of convicted pedophiles, would anyone notice the irony? Bobo

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New type2.list/pubring.mix
by John Perry 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I just updated the type2.list/pubring.mix combination on jpunix.com to reflect the disappearance of the ncognito remailer. I've been getting nothing but bounces and the owner doesn't seem to be around to fix it. The updated lists can be obtained by WWW from www.jpunix.com and by anonymous FTP from ftp.jpunix.com. -- John Perry KG5RG perry(a)alpha.jpunix.com PGP-encrypted e-mail welcome! WWW - http://www.jpunix.com PGP 2.62 key for perry(a)jpunix.com is on the keyservers.

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Re: na673130@anon.penet.fi gone [Anonymous service rejected your mail.] (fwd)
by Johan Helsingius 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 21:49 96/09/11 -0400, Andy Dustman wrote: >Looks like Spambo either deleted his id or Julf pulled the plug on him. I pulled his plug. But his real address has been on this list several times. Julf

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Sen. Burns' statement on postponement of Crypto vote today.
by jseiger＠cdt.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

As you may have heard by now, the Senate commerce committee markup of the Burns/Leahy "Pro-CODE' bill, originally set for today, has been postponed. Indications from the Commerce Committee staff are that this was largely due to scheduling issues, although end-of-the-session politics are also playing a role. Both the Committee staff and Senator Burns himself (see note below) have said they are committed to holding a markup before the end of the session. We expect more information early next week and will post updates as soon as new information becomes available. Senator Burns asked us to forward the following note to the net.community: >X-POP3-Rcpt: jseiger@mailserver >From: Conrad_Burns(a)burns.senate.gov >Date: Thu, 12 Sep 96 09:55:35 EST >To: jseiger(a)cdt.org >Subject: Open Letter to the Internet from Senator Burns > > The Commerce Committee markup on Pro-CODE, S. 1726, that we had > expected to have held on Thursday, September 12 has been postponed. I > am fully committed to taking Pro-CODE to markup, out of committee and > onto the floor of the Senate in this Congress. I believe that this > legislation is vital to ensuring the continued strength of America's > high-tech community and the privacy of its citizens. I would like to > thank the many thousands of Netizens who have expressed their support > for Pro-CODE. > > Sincerely, > > U.S. Senator Conrad Burns > Please keep your phone calls coming to the Senate Commerce Committee members offices, and be sure to sign the petition at http://www.crypto.com/petition/. A coalition alert with more information will be posted soon. Jonah ** THE FIGHT FOR FREE SPEECH ONLINE CONTINUES TO THE SUPREME COURT ** It's not too late to be a part of history -- Join the Lawsuit <http://www.cdt.org/ciec> -- <ciec-info(a)cdt.org> -- Jonah Seiger, Policy Analyst Center for Democracy and Technology <jseiger(a)cdt.org> 1634 Eye Street NW, Suite 1100 Washington, DC 20006 PGP Key via finger (v) +1.202.637.9800 http://www.cdt.org/ (f) +1.202.637.0968 http://www.cdt.org/homes/jseiger/

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[BOOK] Competitive Intelligence
by Brian D Williams 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Competitive Intelligence "From Black Ops to Boardrooms- How Businesses Gather, Analyze, and use Information to Succeed in the Global Marketplace." ISBN 0-684-81074-3 Simon and Schuster ($24.00) Preface: Being a Hero and not a Bum Part One: What is Competitive Intelligence? 1.) The Rise of Competitive Intelligence 2.) What Competitive Intelligence can do for your company: Information vs Intelligence 3.) Why most managers are still stuck in the information age Part Two: Real-World Competitive Intelligence 4.) The Intelligence Cycle 5.) Planning and Direction 6.) Collection 7.) Analysis 8.) Dissemination 9.) Mergers and Acquistions 10.) Benchmarking and Competitive Intelligence 11.) How the Japanese Perform Competitive Intelligence 12.) Competitive Intelligence in other Countries 13.) Building a Competitive Intelligence System Part Three: Issues, Opportunities, and the Future 14.) Justifying the cost of Competitive Intelligence 15.) Using Competitive Intelligence in the European Union 16.) Ethics 17.) The New Gatekeepers 18.) Why the U.S. Government must get involved in Competitive Intelligence 19.) Competitive Intelligence-The Next Generation Glossary of Competitive Intelligence

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Re: ISODE Consortium X.509 Certification system
by Carl Ellison 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Bill, thanks for forwarding this to me. It really bothers me whenever I see someone mouthing plattitudes about certificates, like: >The ITU-T, through X.509, recommend strong authentication based on public >key cryptosystems as the basis for providing secure services. The ISODE >Consortium uses X.509 as the core of its security strategy. >X.509 provides a flexible, scaleable and manageable algorithm-independent >authentication infrastructure, which can be used as the basis for a wide >range of security services such as message encryption and access control. Fact is, identity certification (which is what X.509 gives) is neither necessary nor sufficient for providing secure services -- and there's nothing magic about X.509. There are marketeers, however, who want the world to believe that the generation and use of X.509 certs will somehow give you security -- so they can sell machinery or a service which makes those certs. - Carl P.S. My USENIX paper giving the case against certification authorities is on-line now at <ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/cme/usenix.ps> = <http://www.clark.net/pub/cme/usenix.ps> +------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Carl M. Ellison cme(a)acm.org http://www.clark.net/pub/cme | | PGP 2.6.2: 61 E2 DE 7F CB 9D 79 84 E9 C8 04 8B A6 32 21 A2 | +-Officer, officer, arrest that man. He's whistling a dirty song.--+

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Re: Bubba Bottoming out on Cocaine Paranoia?
by attila 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

In <v03007808ae5dadc0f80f(a)[207.79.65.35]>, on 09/12/96 at 08:16 AM, Chip Mefford <cmefford(a)avwashington.com> said: = > 2. the rewrite of history to reflect not only the = > politically correct views, but to reflect history as = > the elite wish to see it --even to the point of rewriting = > quotations of Thomas Jefferson to suit their purpose. = > = Can you give a clear example of this?? = Just asking the most blatant one was the rewording of Jefferson's words for the equality of all men about two years ago. As we know, Jefferson was all for freedom, and had a "God bless you, you're a slave" attitude, but he was clearly not for the equalization. when that one came out of washington, several papers had a hard time with it, but I have seen it since. I have been collecting Jefferson quotes for years; frankly, I always considered the Dems were off base: Jefferson was the Republican --leaving Hamilton and his Federalists as pawns pawns of the Illuminati as advocates of the independent Federal Bank (the worst of the Rothschilds (Maurice, I think) who made the statements regarding control of the government by control of the money was in his prime around 1800). I am not a dedicated Jeffersonian scholar, but he has been the corner stone of my (now long blown) faith in our government. I would a complete set of Jefferson's works --if, and only, if I could find a good edition published over a 100 years ago. secondly, Jefferson is now interpreted as being the great enfranchiser, which is not even close to his view. Jefferson's writings clearly emphasize that the electorate should be comprised of the landed and merchant class; secondly, it was Jefferson's statement that the electorate, and therefore the juries should be composed "...of a well educated and informed citizenry." Jefferson was interested in an electorate which was of substance and possessing of a stake in America. One of the clear principles of Jeffersonian thought was that jury, beyond the requirement of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, was to _vote its conscience_. Jefferson was responsible for including the constitutional language which makes this possible, even today, despite instructions from judges who could care less about the intent of the constitution and are treating the accused as nothing more than cattle on the way to the abattoir --if they are not guilty this time they will be next time, so why waste further time --sometimes known as "collateral damage." = > Why has it gone this far? because Joe-Six-Pack will sell = > all his freedom in return for the promised security. who is = > the Judas goat? the captive press. = > = Actually, being a "Joe six pack" my own damn self, I'd have to say = that this is simply not the case. It is Joe six pack who makes up the = body of the NRA and most other freedom watch dog organizations. = Just for yer information, the pendulem has been swinging very much = the other way, with 36 or 37 states recently following Floridas lead = on concealed weapons carries. Not only that, but even NPR has even = admitted that it has been effective. Agreed on the restoration of concealed weapons rights which had been regulated out of existence. Granted, Joe-Six-Pack may not be the perfect analogy, but I refer to America's working class, blue collar and the grunts of the white collars as Joe-Six-Pack --maybe I should say Joe-Couch-Potato. the class" referenced is a collection of many levels --what they have in common is they work and then confrom to the current norm of 7.2 hrs/day in front of the tube which becomes their entire source of information --THEY will sell out from ignorance. If you refer to Joe-Six-Pack as the the classic Southern red neck, any attempt to limit their freedom, particularly the right to a pickup truck with a gun rack, and their handguns --that's a very different situation. and that extends to small town westerners, like myself, and to the plains. I grew up on a farm, went to Harvard, joined the spooks for six years of a bloodpath, bounced around the world in different fields, and I am back in a very small community in the high desert: 100 families. Noone around here questions my bad attitude --the admissions requirements are at least 5 kids and 2000 rounds. However, I think Joe-Six-Pack, in this constrained social set, for the vast majority would sell out on freedom of cryptography. they do not understand it, particularly against the onslaught of the pinko-liberal captive media. Our job is to educate them --and not with defiant rhetoric (such as mine). As for concealed weapons permits, bank robberies should certainly drop --all it would take is one cowboy (and I'll volunteer) and anything other than a large coordinated operation is in serious trouble. One unsuspected, mean and surly patron with a .357 who seriously knows how and when to use same is very effective. On the other hand, I do not recommend carrying an assault rifle on a sling over your shoulder to visit the bank.... The simple (I think) point I was trying to make was: the vast majority of our U.S. citizens would acquiesce to the deployment of federal troops in return for security, rather than being armed, Posse Comitas not withstanding, to wipe crime off the streets. The point could even be made: the troops might as well be doing something useful rather than sitting around their bases; we do have a rather large standing army --unfortunately, they would become poorly trained and poorly disciplined --and could easily be part of the massive corruption in our cities (and every other government over many people). Frankly, we should all vote in a _free_ cyberspace; forget the current system of choosing party loyalists and presidential electors. The application of a military mentality on the streets is not my idea of law and order --they could kill off the majority of the crime by legalizing all drugs and dispensing them in clinics. Britain reduced their second story (burglary) crime rate by over 60%; they did find they had a great many more addicts than the thought, however. A second benefit is that it takes some of the mystery and challenge out of drugs --however, be prepared for the alcohol problem, although that effect would be significantly less than the current social cost of having 10% of the male black population in lockdown. no, my bottome line is the Bubba has sunk to bottom with paranoia, both he and the elite money interests which jerk all of the politicial habituites who depend on their soft money for their campaings and who wish to participate at the trough of influence and greed (ever see someone retired after many years in Washington without a bundle). --attila -- one of the few things we all share: the utter, corrosive contempt for our elected officials.

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Getting the word "GAK" into common usage
by Jim Ray 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com Date: Thu Sep 12 11:20:55 1996 cypherpunks: As most of you know, I have been trying to bring "our" word, "GAK" into common usage, as opposed to the "key-escrow" Newspeak proposed by some (unnamed) big-government bureaucrat, and unfortunately adopted in most discussions of cryptography policy, (especially those outside this forum) in spite of the true English meaning of the word "escrow." There is a resource called "Infomania," which you can learn about by sending a blank message with the subject "help" to <infobot(a)infomania.com>. The service provides, via email, services that are normally only available to people who have real internet acess (ie, "WHOIS,") but there is also a heavy bias toward humor. Sending it the subject "GEEK," for example, returns the current version of the Code of the Geeks. Sending the subject CHEF with some dry, boring text (such as this message) in the message body returns you a truly hilarious transmogrification. :) Anyway, I have been in contact with Jason Fesler, who administers the site for Infomania [a firm which produces film separations for commercial grade printers and which provides this free service] about putting in a new command, "GAK," which will return to senders whatever the current U.S. govt. "key-escrow" Newspeak bigbrother anti-privacy proposal(s) is/are. (ie. clipper1, clipper2, son of clipper etc.). He has agreed that if we can supply a script or url or gopher page or something of that sort to interface it to, and a person to maintain it whenever the policy changes yet again (the hard part) he will do it. I would, of course, expect a bit of cypherpunkly commentary to accompany the text. Perhaps this information already exists (likely it does) on some page, and if you know where and think it is stable and well-updated, please email me privately, and I will try to put the owner of the site in touch with Jason. I am Bccing him with this message. Thanks for your help. JMR Regards, Jim Ray -- DNRC Minister of Encryption Advocacy "As govt.s grow arithmetically, corruption grows exponentially." -- Ray's Law of official corruption. Defeat the Duopoly! Stop the Browne out. Harry Browne for President. Jo Jorgensen for Vice-president. http://www.HarryBrowne96.org/ http://www.twr.com/stbo ___________________________________________________________________ PGP id.E9BD6D35 51 5D A2 C3 92 2C 56 BE 53 2D 9C A1 B3 50 C9 C8 I will generate a new (and bigger) PGP key-pair on election night. <mailto:liberty@gate.net> http://www.shopmiami.com/prs/jimray ___________________________________________________________________ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMjgqXW1lp8bpvW01AQF49wP8Ci8D9blF898dNaFsKesX311qT2MO88zr xM11xZ0g1Ui4ahv3yB4jo6qqv4Z9InjNpiOk6wxcsXUPPtn6UNCBOTdos/DCk/SO SSOupiLA48gBHfoCIMN2f/+hGGM4BcuYC5wQ9rgJrTeiY8nQX18hJxKDxujn7z0A pbvTrSRQozY= =rA5a -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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