December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: The Natives Are Getting Restless
by TruthMonger 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Blanc wrote: > If this society is at war, it is a Civil War, fighting against itself. In > fact, there are many groups fighting against each other, on many different > levels: racial, gender-based, religious, economic, philosophical, not to > leave out political. Companies are fighting each other "tooth & nail" > for survival in marketing turfs, races are still exchanging vicious barbs, > homosexuals are under verbal & physical attack by the socially "normed", &… [View More]gt; the poor still envy & disparage the rich, women & children seem more than > ever to be at risk to attacks from roving sex perverts, the liberals would > love to put the libertarians under, religious groups lecture against the > moral depravity of all those "other" people, and half the country is either > stocking up for a National Disaster or forming into militia groups or other > Think Tanks to fight some sort of government encroachment (even the health > food stores where I shop are always posting sign-up sheets to vote against > something or another the government wants to ban or some right-of-choice > that is being threatened by proposed legislation). Second only to Miss Piggy among deep thinkers, Mrs. Wiggs, the one with the cabbage patch, said this: "In the mud and scum of things ... Something always always sings." I am grateful that there is at least one female on the list who is capable of stepping into the middle of the "Dick Wars" on the list and reminding the men that the "targets" they talk about have names, faces, and children. I am aware that there is a human cost inherent in every conflict, and I accept that it will always be so, but I cannot accept the idea that one can leave their conscience clear by "criminalizing" their target and discounting their target's humanity. I am an anarchist and a realist. If I had a button that would nuke D.C., I might well push it--but I am also a thinking, feeling human, and I would cry a river of tears, as well. When I estimate a "body count", I never fail to count the children. Blanc's aim is true when she speaks of the growth of reactionary posts to the list which fail to include a foundation of creative thought. Anyone can return fire when attacked and turn the situation into a firefight where a random volley of ammo decides the outcome of the battle. However, a good squad leader already has his defences in place to deal rationally with situations that can easily be forseen before they arise. When "they" come for your neighbor today, will you be surprised when they come for _you_ tomorrow? When I first heard of Jim Bell's arrest I began composing a reply to Hallam-Baker's coming post. It may be vocal and emotionally charged, but it is not done solely out of blind reactionism. God bless Blanc. TruthMonger -96 [View Less]

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Re: Why I think Jim Bell is getting railroaded
by TruthMonger #-96 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hallam-Baker, whose posts always seem to read as if they were written by a government disinformant, wrote: > Alan Olsen wrote: > > I think that the Government is trying to make an example of Mr. Bell. I > > think that much of the charges reported in the news are false. > I would not depend on Bell to any extent in any circumstance to > be reliable. That's right. We should not support "wrong" people. So first H-B needs to demean Jim Bell personally. > > 3) The … [View More]

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Key Recovery / The True Story
by nobody＠huge.cajones.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

When Key Recovery and Key Escrow schemes become a fact of life, there will be abuse and fraud of the nature that some on the cypherpunks list have expressed concern about. The grandmother who is arrested for plugging a parking meter will have her computer confiscated so the authorities can search for evidence that her plugging of the meter was pre-planned. Some $20,000/year clerk is going to dip into someone else's funds to support their drug habit. And some government spook is going to break … [View More]

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Re: Spam IS Free Speech
by Mark Grant 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> Spam is interfering with the *real* victim's (the sendmail operator's) > ability to provide customer service; in a very real and fiscally > damaging way. It's worse than that; some asshole has just sent out a spam with a forged return address at $$$$(a)unicorn.com. There is absolutely nothing I can do to stop people sending such forgeries, yet my mailbox is about to explode with megabytes of complaints and mailbombs. I hate to think what kind of mess I'll have to deal with when I … [View More]

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Re: "You have the right to remain silent"
by lucifer＠dhp.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Tim May wrote: > The latest example being the Ramsey case in Boulder ("Home of PGP"). Much > is made of the fact that the Ramseys, not being under arrest, are not > required to *say anything* to the police. (Left unanswered is why innocent > parents whose daughter has been brutally murdered would choose to say > nothing to the police...even I, a skeptic about much that modern cops are > involved in, am suspicious of the Ramseys for their noncooperativeness.) The … [View More]noncooperation of the Ramseys does not reflect on their guilt or innocence, but on the fact that they have an excellent lawyer. People who have average lawyers, or even good ones, have a much greater chance of being convicted of a crime that they did not commit. When the police interview you, they have information or evidence that you and your lawyer aren't aware of. Their job is to get you to make statements that can be used against you in the future if you are charged with a crime. They attempt to lead you into making an innocent statement such as, "I eat eggs sometimes." and the next thing you know you are in court with a prosecutor repeating it and pointing at you accusingly. The fact of the matter is that guilt or innocence is no longer decided on real evidence, for the most part. *Circumstantial* evidence rules the roost, and it has been perverted to become a battle of which lawyer can spin the most convincing tale around indefinite evidence. So you go to jail because you drive a red truck, smoke camels and own a pair of brown socks (despite the fact that all of the witnesses described someone who was a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier). How is this crypto relevant? It is yet another symptom of why we are losing our privacy and our freedom. The Ramseys should live in a world where they can put trust in their government and tell them everything that might remotely help find their child's murderer, instead of unjustly ending up on the chopping block themselves. Cypherpunks should live in a world where they can share their logs with the government to help them catch a child murderer and know that their cooperation will not be used to abuse themself or others who use the remailers. What about the cooperation of Jim Bell's friends. The newspapers report that his friends say they talked about this or that in a joking manner (or somesuch innocuous way), but you can bet your bottom dollar that this is not mentioned on the application for an arrest warrant. When the police interview you and ask you if you plan to kill the president, answer, "Yes. When pigs fly." Which part of your statement will they neglect to mention when they file the charges against you? (Take a wild guess on this one.) If you have joined in the discussion of the AP Bot, then I hope that you saved *all* of your posts, because the government will be introducing the ones where you described a possible implementation but not the posts where you described the system as unfeasible and unrealistic. If Jim Bell and his friends had the Ramseys' lawyer they wouldn't have been so quick to supply information which can be twisted and perverted to support Bell's persecution. TruthMonger [View Less]

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AW: Good book on stegano?
by Hartmut Korth 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Von: Chevreau Sylvain Gesendet: Freitag, 16. Mai 1997 02:37 An: stegano-l Betreff: RE: Good book on stegano? Hi everybody, hi Deepa, 1) Maybe the tutorial/review is being written in some university or company, e.g. for the planed 2nd Int. Workshop on Information Hiding or other publications or internally. Who knows? Because there have been several seperate publications and first compilations in various media in '96 and I haven't yet found any technical paper about steganography … [View More]

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New Chip Verifies Fingerprints (fwd)
by decius＠ninja.techwood.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> Veridicom, a spinoff of Lucent Technologies, just demoed (at > CardTech/SecurTech '97) their chip that can perform fingerprint > recognition/authorization. They plan on selling them for $300 each > (same cost as this face recognition system Gregory's mentioned). The > article doesn't say when they will be available. > > http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/chronicle/article.cgi?file=BU41045.DTL& > directory=/chronicle/archive/1997/05/22 I am mailing this to … [View More]cypherpunks and BCCing the original list because it is not nearly as open. I am putting on my cypherpunk hat here, and although this is not a general discussion list I think this warrants comment. (I would also like to see what the cypherpunks have to say.) Eric Hughes said that "Cryptography is about economics." When I am designing a system, I weigh the cost of securing the system verses the expected loss that will be incurred if the system is not secure. The cellular phone industry decided that it would cost them more to secure their system than it would to swallow the losses. They were wrong, but I will not digress into that. The point here is clear. Security is an economic choice. It is a business decision. Furthermore, if I decide to secure a system, I need only use enough security such that the cost to break that security is equal to the value of that which is being secured. Any additional security is a waste of money. When I am breaking a system I will always attack the weakest link (unless I am doing this for intellectual challenge but that is not really the point here). This is obvious. Lets take a look at a sample Biometric security system: Fingerprints are used to replace the pin codes on an ATM. I am being very general here, but there are four main peices to this system. The banking network itself, which is DES encrypted, the ATM, the biometric system and the human being. Note the contrast with a non-biometric system, which consists of the network, the ATM, and a pin code. Biometrics pull the human into the equation. Cracking DES would cost more than a million dollars. I can't put a value on cracking the ATM, but they are designed to be difficult to open up and most are in places where they are very visible, so the cost is very high. I have not seen anyone present a method for attacking a biometric security device. If you assume that you will have to develop one you are again talking about millions. How about "cracking" the human... How much does a good sturdy knife cost? Less than $20. If I get mugged and the mugger wants access to my bank account all he has to do is chop off the relevant finger. Don't laugh. This *WILL* happen. Biometrics create an general economic incentive for maiming or murdering people. I will take you one further... *When you implement a biometric system you are deciding that the value of that which is being protected is greater than the value of the lives of the people who have access to it.* This is obvious if you look at the trade-offs. You are securing the system such that the easiest way to break it is to kill a person. Obviously this will reduce your instances of fraud, as killing a person is more messy then hacking a pin code. However, because the cost of killing someone is smaller than the value of the object being protected, there are going to be losses. You have to decide that you are capable of swallowing those losses. You have to decide that the value of the decrease in fraud over a non-biometric system is greater than that of the lives of the people who are lost when fraud does occur. This is a despicable situation, but don't think you won't see it. It is probably inevitable now. One additional point. The possibilities for surveilance inherent in biometrics are fearsome. If I managed to compile a large database of people's names, social security numbers, and face prints; I could set up a closed circuit camera system in my store which would provide me with the name, home address, credit, and other information about every person who enters my business, AUTOMATICALLY, without the customers even being cognisant that this is going on. The marketing people will be going nutz over this possibility. I'm going to the drug store for some Pepto... -- */^\* Tom Cross AKA Decius 615 AKA The White Ninja */^\* Decius(a)ninja.techwood.org "If the economic, social and political conditions... do not offer a basis for the realization of individuality, while at the same time people have lost those ties which gave them security... powerful tendencies arise to escape from freedom into submission." -- Erich Fromm [View Less]

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Re: Why I think Jim Bell is getting railroaded
by Mix 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>Before charging to the rescue its a good idea to make sure >that you are rescuing the right person. Government agents >also have the right not to be threatened with murder. Threats are illogical. --Sarin

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Re: SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS
by winsock＠rigel.cyberpass.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Paul Bradley <paul(a)fatmans.demon.co.uk> wrote: >(Tim wrote) >> Notable example: the Malibu doctor suspected--wrongly, it turns out--of >> growing pot on his ranch. He and his wife were startled by the ninjas >> bursting into their bedroom. The doctor reached for a handgun in his >> nightstand and was sprayed with 9mms from the Heckler and Kock MP-5s of the >> raiders. The estate of the doctor is currently suing the LA County >> Sheriff's … [View More]

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News about Sun and Elvis
by Kent Crispin 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----Forwarded message from "Judas, Roland" <rj(a)medos.de>----- From: "Judas, Roland" <rj(a)medos.de> To: "'firewalls(a)greatcircle.com'" <firewalls(a)GreatCircle.COM> Subject: News about Sun and Elvis Date: Thu, 22 May 1997 09:36:44 +0100 X-Mailer: Microsoft Exchange Server Internet Mail Connector Version 4.0.995.52 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: firewalls-owner(a)GreatCircle.COM Precedence: bulk --- … [View More] White House Reviews Sun's Encryption Initiative --- By John Fontana, Communications Week WASHINGTON-The Clinton administration said it is reviewing the relationship between Sun Microsystems and a Russian company that produces a strong encryption product, which Sun is licensing for worldwide distribution. The White House issued a statement last night, saying, "We are reviewing our regulatory posture with Sun to ensure that their arrangement with the Russian encryption company is in compliance with U.S. export controls." The Department of Commerce, which is responsible for export regulations on strong encryption, stressed that the administration was reviewing the relationship and not conducting an investigation, a spokesman said. Last week, Sun, in Mountain View, Calif., told Communications Week that it had licensed an encryption product from Moscow, Russia-based Elvis+ Co., which offers 128-bit keys and would resell it worldwide under the name PC Sunscreen SKIP Elvis+. Sun has approximately a 10 percent equity stake in Elvis+, whose product is based on Sun's Simple Key Management for IP (SKIP) protocol. The specification was published nearly two years ago. Humphrey Polanen, general manager of Sun's security and electronic commerce group, was confident the government would find Sun "in full compliance with the letter of the law." He said a key factor was that Sun offered no technical assistance in the development of the software. U.S. law bars the export of encryption over 56 bits without government approval. Companies seeking to export 56-bit products must also have a system in place within two years for key recovery. Netscape Communications, also of Mountain View, has followed that path with its browser software, but Sun has neither government approval nor a method to recover keys. The administration wants access to keys in cases of criminal investigations. It is concerned that strong encryption products could fall into the hands of terrorists, even though similar products are available from nearly 30 foreign companies. The statement from the White House also said it had not evaluated the product and could not comment on it. If found in violation of export controls, Sun could face civil and/or criminal penalties. Criminal penalties, which would be handed out by the Justice Department, could mean Sun executive officers would spend time in a federal prison. At press time, Sun had not seen the announcement and would not comment. "The administration may have to go after Sun to protect the integrity of its policy," said Marc Rotenberg, the director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "You might see the ,Zimmerman effect,' which would be tremendous public sympathy." Rotenberg is referring to Phillip Zimmerman, who won a battle with the government over his Pretty Good Privacy encryption product, which was distributed free over the Internet. "The White House is at risk by going after a U.S. company for making a good product," Rotenberg said. "This is one more reason to think the administration's cryptography policy is not long for this world." Three bills attacking the administration's policy are being discussed on Capitol Hill, but only one, the Security and Freedom through Encryption Act, has made it out of committee. The bill, which was authored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va), would prohibit mandatory key recovery. President Clinton is opposed to the bill in its current form. -----End of forwarded message----- -- Kent Crispin "No reason to get excited", kent(a)songbird.com the thief he kindly spoke... PGP fingerprint: B1 8B 72 ED 55 21 5E 44 61 F4 58 0F 72 10 65 55 http://songbird.com/kent/pgp_key.html [View Less]

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