December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: Internet 'terrorism' newsclips [CYPHER, but news]
by azur＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>>There were more than 250,000 attacks on Department of Defense computers last >>year, and 65% were successful. Little is known about who launched them, >why, or >>what they found. In a recent test, Defense Department "red teams" admit to >>intentionally hacking into 18,200 systems, with only 5% of the attacks >>detected; only 27% of those attacks were reported. > >Wonder if the timing of these stories has anything to do with the end of >term legislative push on wiretapping. Quite possibly. The message from this article is clear. Step up investigation and prosecution of illegal government Net activities :-) -- Steve

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Chinese Censorship
by E. Allen Smith 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> _________________________________________________________________ > Cisco-Job Fair > _________________________________________________________________ > CHINA RELAXES CONTROLS ON INTERNET ACCOUNTS > __________________________________________________________________________ > Copyright &copy 1996 Nando.net > Copyright &copy 1996 Reuter Information Service > SHANGHAI (Sep 25, 1996 08:48 a.m. EDT) - China has removed limits on > the country's number of Internet accounts following the recent > installation of safety controls on the computer network, a senior > Shanghai telecommunications official said on Wednesday. Safety controls... nice euphemism, similar to "key recovery". > "Some time ago, our security arrangements were incomplete and there > was a problem with pornographic and politically unacceptable > material," said Zhang Weihua, vice-president of the Shanghai Post and > Telecommunications Administration. [...] > Zhang said access to sites on the Internet containing pornographic or > politically unacceptable material had been restricted, adding, "This > material is restricted all over the world." > He declined to give details of the security controls placed on the > servers, saying he was only responsible for the technical side of the > service. > But Zhang did say he was unaware of any restrictions on access to > major international news sites through China's Internet servers. > Foreign reports have suggested that China has cut off access to such > news sites. Analysts say that China is concerned over development of > public computer networks and their use by people opposed to communist > rule or communist policies. [...] > Zhang said for "security" reasons there was a need to control > information and discussion on the Internet and related bulletin board > services. > "But surveys done on the usage and interests of people in China with > Internet access indicate that virtually all the material they wanted > to look at is domestic," he said. Due to language differences, I would guess. > China's key Internet Service Provider (ISP) selling access accounts is > Chinanet, controlled by the Post and Telecommunications Bureau. > Zhang said the bureau took measures earlier this year to control > unauthorised activities of other access providers, including > Shanghai's Fudan University, in order to handle the security issue. > China currently has access points to the Internet in Beijing and > Shanghai. It has no plans to add more, Zhang said. > He said his department was being assisted in building its computer > network by several American-Chinese originally from mainland China who > spent time working with the U.S. space agency NASA. I see.... (grimace) > Copyright &copy 1996 Nando.net

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Does any body know anything about this?
by nobody＠cypherpunks.ca 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Is this just more snakeoil or is this real? <<<<<<<< FORWARDED MESSAGE >>>>>>>> From: Ross Anderson <Ross.Anderson(a)cl.cam.ac.uk> Date: Fri, 20 Sep 1996 09:05:28 +0100 Subject: Seminar in Cryptology and Computer Security *** *** *** *** *** University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory EXTRA SEMINAR SPEAKER: Matt Blaze AT&T Research DATE: Monday 23rd September 1996 at 11.30 am PLACE: Room TP4, Computer Laboratory TITLE: SYMMETRIC-KEY CIPHERS BASED ON HARD PROBLEMS A useful principle in cipher design is to reduce or at least relate closely the cryptanalysis of the cipher to some long-studied problem that is believed to be difficult. Most public-key ciphers follow this principle fairly closely (e.g., RSA is at least similar to factoring). Modern symmetric-key ciphers, on the other hand, can rarely be reduced in this way and so are frequently designed specifically to resist the various known cryptanalytic attacks. In this informal talk, we examine a simple cipher primitive, based on Feistel networks, for which recovery of its internal state given its inputs and outputs is NP-complete. We outline simple and efficient block- and stream- cipher constructions based on this primitive. * * * The regular Michaelmas term seminar series will resume on the 8th October with a series of talks on Tuesday afternoons at 4.15 PM in room TP4, Computer Laboratory, Pembroke Street, Cambridge. A list of speakers will be circulated shortly. * * *

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earthlink's image
by Allen Robinson 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On 28 Sep 96 at 16:09, Back Draft wrote: > Date: Sat, 28 Sep 1996 16:09:20 -0800 > To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com > From: backdraft(a)earthlink.net (Back Draft) > desubscribe > <sigh> Please do not assume that all earthlink users are alike. I've just mailed instructions on how to unsubscribe to "Back Draft." AR #%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#% "In the end, more than they wanted freedom, they wanted security. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free." - Edward Gibbon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Allen Robinson.........................sebago(a)earthlink.net PGP public key FE4A0A75 fingerprint 170FBC1F7609B76F 967F1CC8FCA7A41F

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newsgoup gateways
by Lurker 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I was wondering if anyone could point me to some servers that will allow me to post to newsgoupes. I have seen some aroud that use the format: newsgroup@domain and forward the mail to the chosen newsgroup. Thanks

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British Censorship
by E. Allen Smith 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The actions they claim they will do will, of course, lead to no results whatsoever in many cases... as it should be. The hotline in question sounds like a number as opposed to an email address... pity, we could just bounce all spam to it and ask them to deal with it. > _________________________________________________________________ > Cisco-Job Fair > _________________________________________________________________ > BRITISH GOVERNMENT SETS UP NET PORN FILTER > __________________________________________________________________________ > Copyright &copy 1996 Nando.net > Copyright &copy 1996 Reuter Information Service > LONDON (Sep 23, 1996 3:48 p.m. EDT) - The British government Monday > set up a watchdog to try to get pornography off the Internet. > Safety-Net, which is being financed by the industry, will have a > hotline to which callers can report suspected illegal material and > will contact police if necessary. Being financed by the industry = if you're going through a British ISP, you're paying for it whether you like it or not. > It will publish a "legality indicator" or rating for each public > access area on the Internet known as a Usenet news group. The rating > will indicate whether the group normally contains illegal or > pornographic material and what kind. > Internet users can contact the hotline to complain about material > received from anyone via an automatic telephone, mail, e-mail or > facsimile. > Safety-Net operators will try to see where the material came from, > contact the authors and ask them to remove it. They can ask the > relevant service provider to take action and pass details to the > British Police National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS). > "We at the Home Office (interior ministry) made it clear to the > Internet providers some time ago that action was needed to deal with > obscene material on the Internet," Home Office Minister Tom Sackville > said. [...] > Science and technology minister Ian Taylor said Safety-Net would act > as a warning system to alert the public. > "As this is an international network, we have to do something to try > to eliminate illegal use of it -- the abuse of the Internet by a few > perverts," he told BBC radio. As this is an international network, this is completely impossible. > "Government and the Internet industry have been working hard to come > up with proposals that can offer real protection to net users while > preserving free speech and recgonizing the value of the net for work, > education and leisure," Taylor added in a statement. Usual government doubletalk.... preserving free speech means no such actions. [...] > Copyright &copy 1996 Nando.net

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Cancelbots in the news
by E. Allen Smith 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> _________________________________________________________________ > Centura > _________________________________________________________________ > HATE HACKERS: KILLING DIALOGUE ON THE INTERNET > __________________________________________________________________________ > Copyright &copy 1996 Nando.net > Copyright &copy 1996 San Francisco Examiner Note the usual misuse of the term "hacker." > (Sep 28, 1996 02:18 a.m. EDT) -- One or more hackers using racist and > other hate terms have erased tens of thousands of messages used by a > wide variety of political discussion groups on the Internet, exposing > new concerns about the security of the worldwide computer system. > At least one Internet customer -- in Oklahoma -- has been blamed for > some of the more than 30,000 killed messages and has been cut off by > his service provider. > "Obviously, the individual responsible is no longer around here," said > William Brunton, president of Internet Connection of Tulsa, one of > several service providers of Usenet news groups that were victimized > during the weekend. "You can be assured it's not going to happen again > from here." The author really doesn't understand USENET, does he (or she)? Evidently, one of the persons posting the cancels was doing so out of this company. > He said he had turned information over to federal authorities and > could not comment further. > In Washington, D.C., an FBI spokesman declined to confirm whether the > matter was being investigated although it was unclear what, if any, > laws may have been violated. > The messages were deleted from system discussion sites used by gays, > Jewish groups, Muslims, feminists and other politically oriented > groups. > The perpetrator or perpetrators used so-called "cancelbot" software > programs labeled with such phrases as "fagcancel" and "kikecancel." > Besides Brunton's small Oklahoma firm, Internet service providers > whose discussion groups were victimized included industry giants > Netcom Inc. of San Jose, and UU Net Technologies of Falls Church, Va. > Officials of those firms were not available for comment. And operating out of these? Or is it simply that the groups in question are carried by these firms? > While some believed such attacks pose a serious threat to the sanctity > of the Internet -- which is virtually unregulated save for a generally > adhered-to protocol known as "netiquette" -- others were less alarmed. Usual mixup between USENET and the Internet, of course. > "There actually are no laws against that sort of thing," said Jonah > Seiger, policy analyst for the Center for Democracy and Technology in > Washington, D.C. "Obviously, it's sort of annoying." > He said a cancelbot, or a forged cancel message, is "a malicious > vehicle and not good netiquette." [...] > Two years ago, when some immigration lawyers "spammed the net" -- > electronically plastering news groups throughout the Internet with a > single message, an advertisement telling how to get a green card -- > "it was the first time someone figured out you could cancel those > messages," Seiger said. > Since then, phony cancelbots have appeared with some frequency. In one > of the better-known cases, the Church of Scientology used cancelbots > to erase messages from news groups used by some of its members with > whom the church was engaged in a legal battle. > The security of the Internet has also been brought into question > recently after hackers altered home pages operated by the CIA and the > Justice Department. [...] > Copyright &copy 1996 Nando.net

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[SPAM] More fan mail from Timmy "peteur" May
by dlv＠bwalk.dm.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

What has Timmy been smoking? ]From paul(a)fatmans.demon.co.uk Sun Sep 29 19:03:40 1996 ]Received: by bwalk.dm.com (1.65/waf) ] via UUCP; Sun, 29 Sep 96 19:14:06 EDT ] for dlv ]Received: from disperse.demon.co.uk by uu.psi.com (5.65b/4.0.061193-PSI/PSINet) via SMTP; ] id AA25790 for dlv(a)bwalk.dm.com; Sun, 29 Sep 96 19:03:40 -0400 ]Received: from post.demon.co.uk ([(null)]) by relay-2.mail.demon.net id ac16129; ] 29 Sep 96 15:59 BST ]Received: from fatmans.demon.co.uk ([158.152.120.223]) by relay-3.mail.demon.net ] id aa09441; 29 Sep 96 15:54 BST ]Received: from fatmans.demon.co.uk by fatmans.demon.co.uk with SMTP ] id AA843903697 ; Sat, 28 Sep 96 09:41:37 +0000 ]Comments: Authenticated sender is <paul(a)fatmans.demon.co.uk> ]From: paul(a)fatmans.demon.co.uk ]To: "Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM" <dlv(a)bwalk.dm.com> ]Date: Sat, 28 Sep 1996 09:21:37 +0000 ]Mime-Version: 1.0 ]Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII ]Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT ]Subject: Re: Possible subs attack???? ]Priority: normal ]X-Pm-Encryptor: JN-PGP-P, 4 ]X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.31) ]Message-Id: <844008901.9441.0(a)fatmans.demon.co.uk> ] ]-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- ] ] ]> The lying sack of shit Timmy May <paul(a)fatmans.demon.co.uk> writes: ] ]> The lying sack of shit Timmy May lies again, as usual. ] ]Fuck you, ] ]I am not Tim May, Check out the return path if you don`t believe me, ]if you still don`t here`s my PGP public key signed by the EFF, they ]don`t sign keys here and there without checking ID`s... ] ]Type Bits/KeyID Date User ID ]pub 1024/5BBFAEB1 1996/07/30 Paul Bradley <paul(a)fatmans.demon.co.uk> ] ]- -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- ]Version: 2.6.3ia ] ]mQCNAjH9j+cAAAEEAMBvREiQR0ot9dFCO0TiSCSunAYLv2g1Bc6I3bz8FzKXNH53 ]6mieJf/W4rD+CxJpT0q9RQaaoRtkHJLwbjfK2il3D7mEahMAyqvF/xRJNqkXfhM3 ]sRJM0Jh43l+W0M5vwokbEbk25/bxWWGspTsLD3YHbzKnG6pOcL5OPIRbv66xAAUR ]tCdQYXVsIEJyYWRsZXkgPHBhdWxAZmF0bWFucy5kZW1vbi5jby51az6JAJUDBRAy ]NwfvNkCBjDT0xHEBATQPA/9TORmN/UjNecj03q4anpvdyCLiez5sKuNbnYK50RiP ]Jj4QpWWvST3smyQ0A86DrZY/re056MXwQmARESx0rFZxdnD0oORICl5r8dJLIy3b ]j8rbA5olXwZwKz73/X5s13v/pvHYX4cIsbVK8NHXqh5llSKt6TBAuGgkIGF29z5k ]C4kAlQMFEDI3B9mdtf/umVkv7QEBcRYD/1FBteLqsUmr81euxqqnnrpLlyHb58B/ ]9sdATuua4uSjX46hXDZ264YozspNrzSB4NEdrmXOWVX3fiE0ga6XkSSkIeF23V90 ]En37Z0BdbFzgF00FRYTFyTq8eezQrdg/+rBPUsZUmG5wpq3e12FKHQsX01i+1mB2 ]YmqqwCV5e95eiQCVAgUQMh8uSb5OPIRbv66xAQEqJwP/fxQyiCasjFcbDpsFfsYp ]put5cCC/9pOx6X3DlbKShPMpUOS+A9HsTEmJQN8Iawv1nSwPdtc2cR/GhW6ilVjW ]LSloGdMVLabm9pGpZZMkRaZlXFUkOv7VhfgsUiL+vIDryBCAwUZCzQiWycjt/cPi ]mUqFH41Z7NkyO8ZFdi5GGX0= ]=CMZA ]- -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- ] ] ] ]-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- ]Version: 2.6.3ia ]Charset: cp850 ] ]iQCVAwUBMkzuH75OPIRbv66xAQHSmQQAqw0F/lIsCcQwOpiSQDx4hMqOVVUVXbyR ]3RMWY20ECE0TpAtJ6hkAiqphsWUSBqiFj2kGHMh+jHSHXIMPF+m1qtwVbgutJC7B ]8VYWj0VP+bGu5dEUisLrVHDNj5ucEIDyK2GnqObiCiKARFUbOuZnMQOp9TDJqibh ]2Wqa5+h8R7g= ]=/M2U ]-----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ] ] Datacomms Technologies web authoring and data security ] Paul Bradley, Paul(a)fatmans.demon.co.uk ] Paul(a)crypto.uk.eu.org, Paul(a)cryptography.uk.eu.org ] Http://www.cryptography.home.ml.org/ ] Email for PGP public key, ID: 5BBFAEB1 ] "Don`t forget to mount a scratch monkey"

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European Censorship Proposals
by E. Allen Smith 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> _________________________________________________________________ > Centura > _________________________________________________________________ > EURO-COMMISSION TO TACKLE PORN ON INTERNET > __________________________________________________________________________ > Copyright &copy 1996 Nando.net > Copyright &copy 1996 Reuter Information Service > BRUSSELS (Sep 24, 1996 08:06 a.m. EDT) - The European Commission, > faced with calls to clamp down on use of the Internet to transmit > pornography following a Belgian paedophilia scandal, will take a first > step in October towards seeing how it can be done. > But Culture Commissioner Marcelino Oreja, who intends to unveil a > discussion paper on new media services on October 9, says that the > process will be a lengthy one in consultation with all concerned and > that at the end of the day a world solution could be needed. [...] > "We have to find mechanisms to see first how we can find the author > who includes this pornography in the Internet and second how we can > encrypt the content of these messages," he said. > The call for a European-wide solution to pornography and paedophilia > on the Internet is expected to be a central theme for EU justice > ministers in Dublin on Thursday and Friday when they discuss ways of > fighting the child sex trade. > EU culture ministers could also discuss it at their own meeting in the > Irish town of Galway on Wednesday. > The discovery of four murdered girls in Belgium and a child murder, > prostitution and pornography ring has focused the world's attention on > the child sex trade and fuelled calls for a clamp down on the > Internet, which at the moment is little policed and where anonymity is > assured. > Oreja said among the options raised in the discussion paper were the > possibility of encrypting access so that only those who pay could see > the material, or including a special computer chip -- commonly known > as a V-chip -- to screen against pornographic content. The obvious solution to this is someone in an unregulated country getting a couple chips or programs for the de-encryption, then making the images/text/whatever freely available. The major hurdles for this are A. digital watermarking to see which chip(s) are used then block their ability to be used (a reason to get more than one chip/program so as to compare to filter out the watermarking - some techniques for watermarking will survive this, but most won't) and B. copyright laws in the countries which do not enforce such provisions. [...] > Oreja, aware that Internet servers can simply move to a neighbouring > country to get round any restrictions agreed at European level, said > problems with satellite television had shown that national and > European regulations were not enough. > "We know that national regulation is not enough, that European > regulation is not enough...We may need to have a world regulation of > these matters, but let's go step by step. We do not have a European > regulation," he said. If they seriously think this will happen, they need to take another look at the international situation. > The idea of a professional code of ethics in which the media would > regulate themselves is acknowledgment that European regulation of the > Internet could face opposition on freedom of information grounds. > "I think everything can not be said. I think that violence can have > its limits, I think that pornography can have its limits. I am in > favour of that, but it can be that the sector itself prepares a code > of ethics," he said. That's funny, if I were in favor of any censorship it would be of government propaganda such as this.... they seem to be calling for violence on a rather frequent basis. > He said such a code could help get round wide differences between EU > member countries, who have widely differing laws on what can be > considered pornography and eroticism. > Copyright &copy 1996 Nando.net

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Re: The Petaflops Boondoggle Computer (was PET_ard)
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 12:16 PM 9/29/96 -0800, Timothy C. May wrote: >At 11:50 AM -0800 9/29/96, jim bell wrote: >>At 10:00 AM 9/29/96 -0800, Timothy C. May wrote: >>>(Hoist by their own petards indeed! Don't tell our Russian what petard >>>means.) >> >>Uh, wasn't that the name of the bald captain on Star Trek Next Generation? >>You know, "Jean-Luc Petard"? > >Picard. I forgot the smiley B^) >> The succeeding >>factor-of-1000 improvement appears (if the item above is accurate) to have >>taken 24 years to accomplish, so it's hard to imagine that the next factor >>of 1000 will arrive appreciably sooner than year 2020. > >I agree. (Actually, it was a factor of 4000 since it was only 64 processors, but who's counting?) Anyway, this reminds me: What was Moore's law? Performance doubling every 18 months as I recall? How does this stack up? Well, 24 years is 16 times 18 months, so the increase in performance should have been 2**16, or 64K. Off by a factor of 16, which is fairly close, as exponential expansions go. If I were inclined to make the numbers fit the theory, I would argue that the design for the Illiac IV was probably based on SSI IC technology that was defined in 1966 or so, which would provide the extra 6 years (four doubling periods) which account for the "error." One of the advantages of modern CAD technology is that chips can go from foundry to a working computer far faster. A few months ago, there was an item about how IBM had demonstrated its ability to produce 0.08 um silicon chips, with a gate delay (don't recall how loaded this was...) of about 24 picoseconds. Such a process could probably be used to produce a single chip that can do about 1 giga operations per second, assuming it was pipelined adequately. But even that's "only" a teraflop with 1000 such chips...It makes me wonder what kind of a rabbit they're gonna pull out of the hat to produce a petaflop. >By the way, I knew some of the folks who worked on parts of the >Illiac-IV, which was still limping along as late as the late 70s (maybe >later). I think it was turned off in about 1982 or 1983. I did a web-search on its history a few months ago. >>Yet a look at Intel's pricing for Pentiums shows that they sell a 120-MHz >>chip for about $135, while they sell a 200-megahertz version for around $550 >>or so. Arithmetic suggests that a person would be far better off with a >>4-120-MHz-processor Pentium (cumulative clock rate 480 MHz) than a single, >>200-megahertz version. (admittedly, peripheral logic costs will adjust this >>a little.) Of course, this would also leave Intel flat on its ass >>attempting to compete with AMD, Cyrix, etc, because a somewhat higher speed >>per cpu is just about the only advantage they have. > >Intel is having no problem at all competing with AMD and Cyrix! Both of >them are struggling---AMD just announced a layoff, and Cyrix is facing >financial troubles. Neither are able to make competitive parts, for reasons >I won't go into here, and neither are making the money they'll need to >compete in the future with Intel. (Intel has half a dozen billion-dollar >wafer fabs, running with extraordinarily high yields--so my sources tell me >:-})--and the more money they make, the more factories they build, the more >they learn about how to make 0.35 and 0.25 micron chips, etc.) True, but the world would be FAR better off if the architecture for the commonly-used PC could be extended to allow multiple processors. Yes, I'm aware of the inefficiency issues associated with multiple processors, but I think the dramatic cost reductions associated with the use of larger numbers of cheaper CPU's would much more than compensate for them. As I see it, there are inefficiencies associated with both making a single CPU do multiple tasks, as well as making multiple CPU's do a single task. The former is one of the reasons that PC's have pretty much mopped the floor with mainframes, because the PC's were not "unfairly" hobbled with having to implement complicated time-sharing software. The latter is the classic problem which kept prople from going to massively parallel machines from scalars. However, I don't think that most of the problems a typical PC accomplishes are those "hard to divide" problems that resist parallel implementation. Rather, a multiprocessor PC would assign larger tasks (programs) to individual CPU's and not try to break up a program. Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

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