December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

RSA Announces New "DES Challenge"
by Bob Baldwin 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

RSA Announces New "DES Challenge" Tens of thousands of dollars in cash prizes offered; contest should improve overall Internet security by illustrating relative strength of different crypto algorithms and keysizes. Business Editors and Computer Writers REDWOOD CITY, Calif.-Jan 2, 1997--RSA Data Security, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Security Dynamics Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: SDTI), today announced an Internet-based contest with cash prizes. The contest, known as the "RSA DES Challenge", challenges mathematicians, hackers and computer experts around the world to decipher encrypted messages. The goal of the contest is to quantify the security offered by the government endorsed DES encryption standard and other secret-key ciphers at various key sizes. The challenge proper will be launched during the RSA Data Security Conference to be held in San Francisco, January 28-31, with the target ciphertexts for the different contests being simultaneously posted on the company web-site, at http://www.rsa.com/ RSA Data Security pioneered the Internet-based "cracking" contest, when it launched the original "RSA Factoring Challenge" back in 1991. Since then, the company has paid out over $100,000 in prize money to mathematicians and hackers around the world, and the data gained from that Challenge (which is ongoing) has greatly increased mathematicians' understanding of the strength of encryption techniques based on the "factoring problem", such as the RSA Public Key Cryptosystem T. Background It's widely agreed that 56-bit keys, such as those offered by the government's DES standard, offer marginal protection against the committed adversary. By inertia as much as anything else, DES is still used for many applications, and the 20-year-old algorithm is proposed to be exportable under the latest incarnation of Clipper. It is the perfect time to demonstrate to the world that better systems are both required - and available - thus improving the world's security. There have been theoretical studies done showing that a specialized computer "DES cracker" could be built for a modest sum, which could crack keys in mere hours by exhaustive search. However, no one is known to have built such a machine in the private sector - and nobody knows if one has been built in any government, either. The successes of the RSA Factoring Challenge show that for some types of problems, it's possible to recruit spare "cycles" on a large number of machines distributed around the Internet. Therefore, by offering a suitable incentive, it should be possible to recruit sufficient CPU power across the Internet to exhaustively search the DES keyspace in a matter of weeks. Computer scientists have already developed software that will allow even the novice computer user to participate in the cracking effort. By incorporating the key search software in a "screen saver", a simple PC anywhere on the Internet can devote its spare time to working on the problem - remotely and completely unattended. Even people with limited computer skills will be able to participate. In the RSA DES Challenge, the motto will definitely be "The More, The Merrier". The Contest Full details of the RSA DES Challenge will be posted on the RSA home page (http://www.rsa.com/) during the first weeks of January. Complete rules for the competition will be provided as well as example challenges and solutions against which computer scientists and hackers can test their software. In conjunction with the RSA DES Challenge, RSA will simultaneously launch a series of other contests based around the RC5 Symmetric Block Cipher (another encryption algorithm). Since RC5 is a variable key length block cipher, targets that offer increasing resistance against so-called "exhaustive search attacks" will be posted in the hope of assessing the full impact of a widely-distributed exhaustive search. There will be 12 challenges based on the use of RC5. Prizes will be awarded for the recovery of each of 12 keys which are chosen to be of lengths varying from 40 bits all the way up to 128 bits, with the length increasing in steps of eight bits. The email sender of the first correctly formatted submissions to each contest will receive a cash prize. For the RSA DES Challenge the first sender of the secret DES key will receive $10,000. For the other contests the prize money awarded will vary with the difficulty of the RC5 key attacked. For more information about the ongoing RSA Factoring Challenge send email to challenge-administrator(a)rsa.com and for the latest news and developments send email to challenge-news(a)rsa.com. About RSA Data Security, Inc. RSA Data Security, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Security Dynamics Technologies, Inc., is the world's brand name for cryptography, with more than 75 million copies of RSA encryption and authentication technologies installed and in use worldwide. RSA technologies are part of existing and proposed standards for the Internet and World Wide Web, IT4, ISO, ANSI, IEEE, and business, financial and electronic commerce networks around the globe. The company develops and markets platform-independent developer's kits and end-user products, and provides comprehensive cryptographic consulting services. For more information on any of RSA's encryption technologies, please call RSA directly at 415/595-8782 or send electronic mail to sales(a)rsa.com. RSA also provides information on its Web site at http://www.rsa.com. **************************************************************** Kurt R. Stammberger Director, Technology Marketing RSA Data Security, Inc. (A Security Dynamics Company) 415-595-8782 vox 415-595-1873 fax kurt(a)rsa.com www.rsa.com

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Re: Accounts payable
by nobody＠replay.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Timothy May the self-admitted child molester possesses a rudimentary dick less than one inch long, half the size of his mother's clitoris, that barely makes a fistful. Thereby hangs the root of this Jew-hating sissy's sick fixation on little boys and Usenet forgeries. ____ \ _/__ Timothy May \\ / \/

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Re: OCR and Machine Readable Text
by Jim Byrd 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I used to work for an OCR company (Kurzweil, a division of Xerox; now Xerox Advanced Imaging). The OCR software they had did better than 95% over 10 years ago. And yes, you could run on a 286. The trick was to use a board plugged into the 286 which itself had enough horsepower (a Motorola cpu) to do the job. I actually started a project to develop a Windows (version 1.3!) driver for this, but at the time Xerox had no interest in Windows. So the project was cancelled and the Windows people essentially dismissed. Xerox now has a Windows product called TextBridge. At 12:35 PM 1/3/97 -0500, /**\\anonymous/**\\" <panther(a)iglou.com> wrote: >Alan Olsen wrote: >> I used to work for a company that would transfer entire archives of medical >> journals. Much of it we would just OCR. Some of it we would send off >> shore. The OCR software was about 95% reliable and this was over 5 years >> ago. (And we were using 286 boxes for much of the OCR work. Not a heavy >> technoligical investment.) I am sure that things have improved a great >> deal since then. (My new scanner included OCR software. I will have to >> run a test and report the findings. > > I'd like to know what OCR software you were using. All tests we >completed at my place of employment were very poor quality wise. We >showed >a %65 accuracy rate. Not very good when you need to transfer a five >year >backlog of medical and technical journals. This was using a high >resolution >scanner with a package that was bundled along with it. About a year >ago, >my employer considered transfering data taken off of forms into a >relational >database using an OCR program. Again, we found the findings to be too >innacurate for our needs. I may have just been using the wrong programs >for >the job, but the findings were depressing... > >panther > >> --- >> | If you're not part of the solution, You're part of the precipitate. | >> |"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.ctrl-alt-del.com/~alan/ |alan(a)ctrl-alt-del.com| > >

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WIPO and domain names
by azur＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

For those who haven't seen it already, there is something in the bushes: http://www.wipo.org/eng/internet/domains/index.htm

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What happened to remailer-operators@c2.org?
by lcs Remailer Administrator 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Sorry for this somewhat off-topic post, but I figured it was the best way to reach people who would know. Does anyone know what happened to the remailer-operators(a)c2.org mailing list? I get: rcpt to:<remailer-operators(a)c2.org> 550 <remailer-operators(a)c2.org>... User unknown Thanks.

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ONE MILLION CHILDREN.....
by gary＠safetydisk.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

...and pets are lost or turn up missing every year! Protect your loved ones today! Think about all the things you do to protect your loved ones. Isn't there one more thing you should do? Child and Pet ID Kits have been around for years, but most of them haven't changed with the years. Traditional ID Kits allow you to compile valuable information about your child or pet that you can use in the event your child or pet is missing. We are responding to the rapid changes in technology. We know that any ID Kit just isn't good enough. Our ID Kit is quite different! You supply us with up to three photos and pertinent information about your child or pet and we create a SAFETYDISK. In PC or MAC format, SAFETYDISK is a 3 1/2" disk that contains photos and valuable information that could help law enforcement agencies in the search for a missing child or pet. What makes our kit so unique is that each SAFETYDISK is actually pre-formatted for the World Wide Web. SAFETYDISK can be put on any Internet server within seconds and displayed to millions and millions of people who might spot your child or pet! For more information, visit our website at http://www.mvisibility.com/sd/ Thanks, Gary Aikens President, SafetyDisk, Inc.

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RE: Crypto reg clarification from Commerce Department
by Blanc Weber 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The General Prohibitions: (ii): You may not, without a license from BXA, think about technical things with respect to encryption items, as described in Sec 744.9 of the EAR.Instead, when you reason upon the validity and consequencs of your code or your actions, you will set your neural systems to reference Sec. 736.2(b)(10) and Sec. 764.2 (b) & (e). .. Blanc

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No Subject
by Bovine Remailer 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Big Brother's little helpers: http://www.anet-stl.com/~wrogers/biometrics/index.html

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'Fuck_God_Up_The_Ass' (was: invitation)
by nobody＠replay.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

fgle(a)sun1.uconect.net spammed: > Received: (from majordom@localhost) by toad.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) id HAA09438 for cypherpunks-outgoing; Fri, 3 Jan 1997 07:09:39 -0800 (PST) > Received: from sun1.uconect.net ([206.156.42.50]) by toad.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id HAA09425 for <cypherpunks(a)toad.com>; Fri, 3 Jan 1997 07:09:27 -0800 (PST) > From: fgle(a)sun1.uconect.net > Received: from fgle.uconect.net ([206.156.55.17]) by sun1.uconect.net (8.6.12/8.6.12) with SMTP id KAA13920 for <cypherpunks(a)toad.com>; Fri, 3 Jan 1997 10:07:22 -0500 > Date: Fri, 3 Jan 1997 10:07:22 -0500 > Message-Id: <199701031507.KAA13920(a)sun1.uconect.net> > To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com > Subject: invitation > Sender: owner-cypherpunks(a)toad.com > Precedence: bulk > X-Newsgroups: list.cypherpunks > > Fuck_God_Up_The_Ass, [snip] > Douglas Cymbala > Membership Department I somehow doubt that Douglas has sufficient Vaseline to fulfill his erotic fantasies! (Or his "god" is rather small...) How many clueless spammers need to get stung by indiscriminately posting to spam-bait addresses planted in Usenet until they figure out that it's a Really Bad Idea[tm]? I've heard rumors that at least one idjit spammer lost his account for spamming a religious mailing list with something like that! Can you say "oops"?

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ONE MILLION CHILDREN.....
by gary＠safetydisk.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

...and pets are lost or turn up missing every year! Protect your loved ones today! Think about all the things you do to protect your loved ones. Isn't there one more thing you should do? Child and Pet ID Kits have been around for years, but most of them haven't changed with the years. Traditional ID Kits allow you to compile valuable information about your child or pet that you can use in the event your child or pet is missing. We are responding to the rapid changes in technology. We know that any ID Kit just isn't good enough. Our ID Kit is quite different! You supply us with up to three photos and pertinent information about your child or pet and we create a SAFETYDISK. In PC or MAC format, SAFETYDISK is a 3 1/2" disk that contains photos and valuable information that could help law enforcement agencies in the search for a missing child or pet. What makes our kit so unique is that each SAFETYDISK is actually pre-formatted for the World Wide Web. SAFETYDISK can be put on any Internet server within seconds and displayed to millions and millions of people who might spot your child or pet! For more information, visit our website at http://www.mvsibility.com/sd/ Thanks, Gary Aikens President, SafetyDisk, Inc.

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