December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

More on "Fraud" and Anguilla
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I've been thinking about this whole "Taxbomber" issue of "fraud." (I'm still not completely sure whether Taxbomber lost his account at Offshore Information Services Ltd. because: a) what he was offering actually violated Anguillan law (was there a determination that selling camouflage passports violates a specific statute?) b) what he was offering constituted fraud (to whom? His customers certainly knew what they were buying. To potential victims in the future?) c) he brought unwelcome attention to Anguilla in general and to Offshore Information Services Ltd. in particular. (Vince's mention that the whole island had read the story suggests something to this.) d) he violated some particular clause of his service agreement with Offshore Information Services Ltd. >From Vince's homepage (http://online.offshore.com.ai/) "Could You Use a Virtual Presence Offshore? Do you have an offshore corporation and need an offshore web site? If your offshore corporation does business from offshore is it tax free? Is your country trying to censor the Internet? Can talking about abortion on the net get you in trouble? Are they censoring information about an ex-president in your country? Are your political views suppressed where you live? Is Amway the only multi-level-marketing company allowed in your country?" Now I read from this that Vince is encouraging "multi-level-marketing companies" to use his service. Am I wrong on this? Another name for this, commonly used, is "pyramid scheme." Or "Ponzi scheme." There are many summaries of MLM on the Net. Here's one, from http://www.best.com/~vandruff/mlm1.html : (begin quote) "For most MLMs, the product is really a mere diversion from the real profit-making dynamic. To anyone familiar with MLMs, the previous discussion (which focused so much on the fact that MLMs are "doomed by design" to reach market saturation and thus put the people who are legitimately trying to sell the product into a difficult situation) may seem to miss the point. The product or service may well be good, and it might oversaturate at some point, but let's get serious. The product is not the incentive to join an MLM. Otherwise people might have shown an interest in selling this particular product or service before in the real world. The product is the excuse to attempt to legitimate the real money-making engine. It's "the cover." "Intuitively, we all know what is really going on with MLMs. Just don't use the word "pyramid"! ""You see, if you can convince 10 people that everyone needs this product or service, even though they aren't buying similar products available in the market, and they can convince 10 people, and so on, that's how you make the real money. And as long as you sell to a few people along the way, it is all legal." Maybe. . . ." (end quote) Now, personally, and from a libertarian free-market free-choice perspective, I have no problem with pyramid schemes. I think of them as examples of evolution in action, like gambling. But I rather suspect that setting up a pyramid scheme in the towns of Anguilla would generate reaction by the authorities. (To be sure, certain MLM enterprises escape prosecution in the U.S., some get closed down...I have no idea which would be acceptable to the Anguillan authorities and which would go too far.) Why do I mention all this stuff? Why focus on Vince's invitation for MLMs to set up shop on his service? This should be clear. Operating a pyramid scheme is arguably more a clearcut case of "fraud" than selling pieces of paper to willing buyers. The items in Vince's list are certainly more consistent (which is good) with what we expect "data havens" to support. I just can't square the name, "Offshore Information Services Ltd.," (which is also good), and the list I quoted above with Vince's recent comments about wanting "clean" businesses! It seems from his recent comments that he wants nice, simple "widget makers" to offer nice, simple, legal-in-all-jurisdictions "tax avoiders." When I asked if his site would accept or tolerate "Let's kill the Queen" screeds, he replied "Not acceptable. This is not the market I am after. I don't see the profit in it." Well, as Steve Martin used to say, "Ex-c-u-u-s-e me!" Namely, this appears to conflict directly with two of Vince's suggestions for why his site is attractive, namely: "Are they censoring information about an ex-president in your country? Are your political views suppressed where you live?" Suggestions that Brits ought to rise up and kill the monarchy are of course time-honored political expressions, common in Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and even in parts of Merry Old England herself. This has even happened in the past. And a certain Iranian exile, living in Paris in the 1970s, routinely called for the killing of the Shah. I imagine Khomeini would've had his Anguilla account revoked. "Not acceptable. This is not the market I am after. I don't see the profit in it." I'm sorry to be so harsh to Vince and his fledgling service. But we have a duty (to the themes of our list) to call a spade a spade. A nominal data haven which invites customers to do the things Vince describes in his home page, but then which cuts and runs when the heat is applied....well, this is not a good thing. --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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cypher-illiteracy
by rollo＠artvark.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

David Lesher or Mike Duvos or somebody said, Re: FPGAs and Heat (Re: Paranoid Musings) > That's one of the things that killed Thinking Machines. It turned out > that a standard supercomputer with PIM chips for memory could give the > same performance for less money. See: http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/beuwolf/beuwolf.html I had a bit of difficulty connecting with the URL, finally discovering that it's "beowulf", not "beuwolf". So try: http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/beowulf/beowulf.html Also, re pipe bombs, attempting to access the URL http://sdcc13.ucsd.edu/~m1lopez/pipe.html yields (as of Tue, Aug 13, 1996(13:31 MDT)) The requested URL /~m1lopez/pipe.html was not found on this server. Rollo Silver / Amygdala | e-mail: rollo(a)artvark.com 216M N. Pueblo Rd, #107 | Website: http://www.artvark.com/artvark/ Taos, NM 87571 USA | Voice: 505-751-9601; FAX: 505-751-7507

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RE: National Socio-Economic Security Need for Encryption Technology
by Blanc Weber 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>From: Bart Croughs > >You haven't answered this question yet. I don't claim that the U.S. is worse >off when US capital moves abroad. I only ask: how can you proof that the US >isn't worse off when US capital moves abroad? ............................................................. You have to be able to imagine the advantages, and you can only imagine them when you have the background to understand the difference between having fewer choices rather than more, a limited market base rather than an open one full of unlimited opportunity, and the increased domestic tensions from frustrated consumers who are likely to set up blackmarkets as work-arounds to the lack of desired goods & services. Essentially, you have to want to see, and work for, the difference resulting from unprotected markets. I think people who put up a lot of objections are afraid and do not want any proof of their error. You'd have to hold their nose to the figures, and even then they might close their eyes.... .. Blanc > > > > >

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InfoWar Press Release
by winn＠Infowar.Com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Information Warfare: Electronic Civil Defense NCSA Press Release National Computer Security Association 10 South Courthouse Avenue Carlisle, PA 17013 For Information Contact: Kevin Stevens - PRESSMarketing/CommunicationsNCSA(717) 258-1816 ext. 224(717) 243-8642 Faxemail: kstevens(a)ncsa.com Robert Steele - SponsorChairman & CEOOpen Source Solutions(703) 242-1701(703) 242-1711 Faxemail:ceo@oss.net Winn Schwartau - SponsorPresident & CEOInterpact, Inc.(813) 393-6600(813) 393-6361 Faxemail:winn@infowar.com INFORMATION WARFARE: CONFERENCE ON ELECTRONIC CIVIL DEFENSE September 4-5-6, 1996 Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel 1700 Jeferson Davis Highway Arlington, VA 22202 August 14, 1996; Carlisle, PA. International security experts, including military general officers responsible for C3I, intelligence and security professionals from government agencies, and corporate information assurance and security executives will review state-of-the-art techniques in countermeasures necessary to combat information warfare attacks against the information infrastructures of the United States and allied nations. Leaders from industry, government and the international scene will also discuss policy options for defense as well as response to attacks. Information Warfare is likely to influence both military operations other than war (OOTW), and the violent peace with which both law enforcement and corporate security professionals must concern themselves. Electronic Civil Defense for the 21st Century is the focus of this conference. Information Warfare represents a direct threat to governments, financial and business information systems of corporations and private businesses, and the personal privacy of ordinary citizens. Information Warfare is a relatively low cost method for less- developed nation-states or underground organizations and trans-national gangs to acquire technology, along with tactical and strategic economic information, from more-developed nations, governments, corporate/business entities, and individuals. Information Warfare is also a means for terrorists, criminals, or politically-motivated splinter groups to attack their enemies. Methods for launching Information Warfare attacks can be done anonymously and remotely, circumvent laws and detection, and employ an array of clandestine electronic and human intelligence techniques. Electronic Civil Defense is the guiding concept which unites all aspects of a nations information infrastructure into a unified mindset. Its purpose is to prepare for, and where necessary, counteract the effects of organized and unorganized attempts on the part of individuals, terrorist elements, criminal enterprises, or rouge nations to subvert friendly nations, commercial institutions, and armed forces through malicious destruction of critical information systems assets such as banking, medical, or defense-related systems. The conference is sponsored by two internationally known experts: Mr. Winn Schwartau (author of INFORMATION WARFARE: Chaos on the Electronic Superhighway); and, Mr. Robert Steele (author of various works which focus on the common theme of "Smart People, Dumb Nations: Bad Business"), and by the National Computer Security Association (NCSA), Carlisle, PA. Speakers include: Dr. Peter Tippett, President, NCSA; Steve Katz, CISO, Citibank; Sally Katzen, Administrator for Information and Regulatory Affairs, OMB; Drs. Anders Eriksson and Peter Wallstroem, National Defense Research Establishment, Dept. of Defense Analysis, Sweden; Dr. Leroy Pearce, Canada; General Jim McCarthy, USAF (Ret); Capt. Gregory Blackburn, Director of Information Warfare, OSD/C3I; Air Vice Marshall Brendon OLoughlin, Australian Defense Attaché; Ron Eward, Martech, Inc.; Michael Logan, Federal Planning Associate, American Red Cross; William W. Donovan, FEMA; Greg Brown, IBM Business Recovery Services; Danielle Cailloux, Judge, Committee on Intelligence, Belgium; Col. Charles Dunlap, Judge Advocate, USAF; and many more experts. To obtain detailed program and registration information, send a fax with your return address, and fax number or email address to +(717) 243-8642 attn. Conference Registrar. Download information from NCSA Web Site at <http://www.ncsa.com>. Send email to <infowar(a)ncsa.com>, or if a CompuServe member, GO NCSA. PRESS ADVISORY: Press passes for the conference are available for $100 - luncheon included. Fax or email requests for press passes to: Kevin Stevens, <kstevens(a)ncsa.com>, Marketing/Communications, NCSA. Proof of press credentials, including photo identification, are required. <---- End Forwarded Message ----> Peace Winn Winn Schwartau - Interpact, Inc. Information Warfare and InfoSec V: 813.393.6600 / F: 813.393.6361 Winn(a)InfoWar.Com

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Re: [NOISE] "X-Ray Gun" for imperceptible searches
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 09:27 AM 8/13/96 -6, Peter Trei wrote: > >Tim writes: > >> I don't see how "remote scanning" of the population at large, without >> probable cause, is much different from the cops listening in from a >> distance with parabolic antennas. Both cases involve detection of signals >> emitted from the target. And yet such long-distance interception is not >> allowed without a warrant. > >I vaguely remember another possibly relevant precedent, where a >judge ruled that a warrant was required before a thermal imager >could be used to look at a house suspected by the police of >being a (pot) grow house. >Peter Trei >trei(a)process.com There was just such a decision in Washington state about a year ago, as I recall. However, as I recall there has been a contradictory decision elsewhere, so the law isn't clear. It seems to me that the main problem with such "evidence" is not the search itself, but the interpretation of the results: Having a hot house isn't a crime, and indeed it was not practically detectable before IR viewers. And an IR viewer only tells you the house is hot; it doesn't say why its hot. Apparently, when the "justice system" gets a new toy, it subtly adjusts its standards to use that toy, regardless of minor issues such as right and wrong. Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

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South Florida Cypherpunks Meeting Reminder
by Joey Grasty 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Y'all: The South Florida Cypherpunks will meet at Hops Grill & Bar in Boynton Beach, FL on Saturday, August 17 at 2:00 PM. As always, our meeting place is at a microbrewery, and this one has some very fine brews. Jim Ray will show off his Snake Oil bottle, signed by Phil Zimmermann, who wrote PGP. I will also hand out copies of my WinSock Remailer to anyone who wants to check it out. Other than that, we have no agenda, other than discussing cypherpunkology and drinking some fine brews. Directions: Take I-95 to Boynton Beach Blvd and go west. When you get to Congress Ave., turn right (north) and go one stoplight until you get to Old Boynton Beach Blvd. Turn left (west) and go behind Longhorn Steakhouse and turn right into the parking lot behind Longhorn Steakhouse. Hops is just north of Longhorn on Congress Ave. Hops Grill & Bar 545 N. Congress Ave. Boynton Beach, FL. In addition, the Cypherpunks Brewmaster, Jim Ray, is brewing up a special "cypherpunks summer dark" brew for the meeting. (I sampled some of the brew before bottling, and BBBUUURP! it was good.) We will enjoy his fine beer at my house following the meeting. I'll pass out maps to my house in Deerfield Beach for anyone who wants to go. Please send me a note if you plan to attend so that I can alert the restaurant on how many will attend. Send me your key and fingerprint for keysigning if it hasn't been signed by any cypherpunks before. Regards, -- Joey Grasty jgrasty(a)gate.net [home -- encryption, privacy, RKBA and other hopeless causes] jgrasty(a)pts.mot.com [work -- designing pagers] "Anyone who considers arithmetical methods of producing random digits is, of course, in a state of sin." -- John Von Neumann PGP = A7 CC 31 E4 7E A3 36 13 93 F4 C9 06 89 51 F5 A7

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Changing the headers
by sasa.roskar＠uni-lj.si 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Can someone please tell me how you can change the From: header in the email? I know it's possible... my computer teacher used to do it all the time... but how? (unfortunatelly his explanation was to hard to comprehend for me at the time). Thanks a lot... And in case it helps... I'm using a VAX.. regular text account. If it makes any difference. Doesn't it have something to do woth getting into the mail port? Roki

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[NOISE] Re: photographed license plates
by mccoy＠communities.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

rpowell(a)algorithmics.com writes: >Simon Spero <ses(a)tipper.oit.unc.edu> writes: > > In the UK they now use cameras to deter speeding [...] > > In Ontario, they tried this on some of the major highways. The most > interesting thing about it was that it was proved time and time again > that the technology was not up to snuff: there was an almost 0% chance > of being caught. When the license plate wasn't obscured or unreadable > (which it usually was) the computerized mailing system made some > stupid mistake that allowed the person to get off if they challenged > it. One problem with using such systems in the US (I have no idea about traffic laws in Ontario so maybe this was the loophole you mentioned) is that even with a perfect shot of the license plate the system only identifies a car, not a driver. Speeding tickets are given to drivers, not necessarily to the owner of the speeding car. Here in the states the easy challenge to such a ticket would be "it was not me driving when that photo was taken" and the burden of proof is on the prosecution to prove that you were the driver. Since some states do not require front license plates the cameras take shots of the tail end of the car, not the best angle for identifying drivers. jim

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Replace Key
by Pronto Secure Beta Feedback 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Type Bits/KeyID Date User ID pub 1024/998463CD 1996/04/01 Pronto Secure Beta <secure(a)commtouch.com> - -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.6.3i mQCNAzFf7jAAAAEEAMI8wSoVVRRv0Sr68myImRaQH9N/uvZ2agoJHgxk70NYkQhp BD72rz/7lO4HK51pe/9kTTFsZPAUoTG+xdWAgSrclG1auTjHQPnb/9m/H4SYKi4n hcNDrq3HmbaHYZjsJGAUHdWV7Kj82z1ad39nCS2yjuh396RcpSbCxfqZhGPNAAUR tClQcm9udG8gU2VjdXJlIEJldGEgPHNlY3VyZUBjb21tdG91Y2guY29tPokAlQMF EDFgONAmwsX6mYRjzQEB7M8D/0yjy/7i6ICm9Qa6ff8skvnZdKrPJYqgnOg14Nx5 2DKGbSAbwnvq94UaQ0tCqsQNrKRO0pWOnBIOT++3oibKl39tTi/uQV4vtSPvSvia xUp4emtY/hhhls7Nbv0TcHPysjT8cp4vtRk7zpFbCsNIKIk7tAWF3U7OSEc/sLCg ixxW =Ovh1 - -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- - --- [This message has been signed by an auto-signing service. A valid signature means only that it has been received at the address corresponding to the signature and forwarded.] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Gratis auto-signing service iQBFAwUBMhEG2SoZzwIn1bdtAQG3xQF/Vlb4Cy/l1JVTHBiMZ0AWl+TuhjjjRRFz T3mDP76QBCPrmftAA68a1krz0wOl6Dh6 =1HZk -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: [NOISE] Geek Apartments
by Jeremy Mineweaser 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:41 AM 8/13/96 -0500, you wrote: >* I can see it now. Apartments full of geeks because the apartments >* were originally built with 100BaseX to each place and a T3 in the >* basement going direct to the local ISP. > >Yes, it has already happened, although in a slightly different >context. The Georgia Tech campus dormatories got wired with Ethernet >back in 1994, and there was quite a rush by the sizable geek >population to get dorm rooms in the buildings slated to get >installation first. It worked out quite well, especially the privacy >aspects, as the dorm routers encrypted all packets so only the >intended Ethernet node could receive it (at least that is what they >said). > >So, in this case it was only 10BaseT and gatech.edu as the ISP, but it >still was very neat. Thanks to the Olympics, Georgia Tech now has 100% Ethernet availability in its dormitories. Currently the system utilizes a fiber-optic campus backbone with network hardware in each building providing a 10BaseT port to each student. Work is underway to install ATM hardware and upgrade ports to 100Mb/s networking technology. Jeremy L. Mineweaser | GCS/E d->-- s:- a--- C++(+++)$ ULC++(++++)>$ P+>++$ gt4436c(a)prism.gatech.edu | L+>++ E-(---) W++ N+ !o-- K+>++ w+(++++) O- M-- | V-(--) PS+(--) PE++ Y++>$ PGP++>+++$ t+() 5 X+ R+() *ai*vr*vx*crypto* | tv(+) b++>+++ DI+(++) D+ G++ e>+++ h-() r-@ !y-

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