December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

IP: Uncle Sam Wants Spooks.
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text Delivered-To: ignition-point(a)majordomo.pobox.com X-Sender: believer(a)telepath.com Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 09:31:49 -0600 To: believer(a)telepath.com From: believer(a)telepath.com Subject: IP: Uncle Sam Wants Spooks. Mime-Version: 1.0 Sender: owner-ignition-point(a)majordomo.pobox.com Precedence: list Reply-To: believer(a)telepath.com Status: U Source: Wired http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/15816.html Uncle Sam Wants Spooks by Arik Hesseldahl 4:00 a.m.26.Oct.98.PST With the Cold War over and United States intelligence agencies in flux, both the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency have begun to struggle with an issue plaguing the private sector: how to hire and retain talented employees. In a world that increasingly uses computer networks to communicate and transfer information, the agencies are specifically looking for people who can navigate the Net and other networks. The CIA launched the most ambitious hiring program in the agency's history earlier this year, and it is expected to hire record numbers of case officers between now and 2005. Along with a new, Java-heavy recruiting section on the agency's home page, the agency is advertising widely in magazines like The Economist and recruiting on college campuses and within the military. "Our recruiting efforts are much more focused than they have been in recent years and we have a better idea of our target audience," said CIA spokeswoman Anya Gilsher. "We're facing increasingly difficult challenges like terrorism, mass destructive weapons, and narcotics. These are all very difficult targets, which require innovative approaches and a talented work force." Computer programmers and engineers are as in demand in the intelligence business as they are in any other industry, Gilsher said. "We're looking for people who can deal with different computer systems and software. Someone who is creative in their ability to handle and manipulate information technology and build programs that could be useful to us," she said. While Gilsher would not go into specifics, an article in The New York Times in June suggests that the proliferation of computer networks around the globe has, for example, complicated the ability of agents to slip in and out of countries covertly using fake passports. It's a different story for the National Security Agency, the country's super-secret signals intelligence agency. In an unusually candid series of answers to written questions, the NSA said it is struggling with one of the same issues plaguing the private sector: employee retention. A recent article in the magazine Government Executive said the agency is suffering a "brain drain," losing some of its best code-makers and code-breakers to the private sector. In a written statement, NSA spokesman Patrick Weadon confirmed that the agency is working harder than it has in the past to attract and keep its employees. "NSA, like most of the nation's IT community, has had significant challenges in hiring and retaining IT personnel," Weadon wrote. "Having said that, NSA has been successful attracting computer professionals with the stimulating nature of the work, student programs, and the total benefits package." The NSA also happens to be the country's single-biggest employer of mathematicians, and expects to hire more than 100 Ph.D.-level mathematicians in the next three years. Like the CIA, the NSA has launched a recruitment Web page, which has attracted 20 percent of its recent resumes. The NSA also posts its job openings on employment Web sites like Job Web and Career Mosaic. The agency has been aggressively marketing itself to students, offering several internship programs. One program gives college juniors 12 weeks of summer work experience, after which they return to school for their senior year with a job offer in hand. Another program allows college students to alternate working for the agency and going to school each semester. Some personnel also qualify for a fully funded graduate studies program, during which they can go to school full time for a year and still earn a salary, provided they commit to work for NSA for three years. NSA employees aren't likely to take jobs for the money, however. Computer science jobs at the NSA pay between US$35,000 and $70,000 a year, much less than in the private sector. "IT professionals seek out the NSA due to the unique nature of our work," Weadon wrote. "This has made us successful in attracting computer professionals over the past several years, and we believe this appeal will continue into the future." Not everyone agrees. Steve Aftergood, a research analyst for the Federation of American Scientists, said the allure of working in the intelligence community is wearing thin. "The intelligence agencies have an unattractive air about them," Aftergood said. "They have an aura of failure about them, especially in recent years. Rightfully or wrongly, they have been attacked as incompetent and even obsolete. Those charges may or may not be true, but they cast a long shadow over the agencies in the public mind." In recent years, the CIA has faced its share of problems within and criticisms from without. This year, for example, the agency was criticized for not having predicted nuclear weapons tests by India and Pakistan. In 1994, CIA employee Aldrich Ames was caught after revealing the identities of CIA operatives in the Soviet Union over the course of nine years. For its part, the NSA has been criticized for its efforts to keep strong encryption systems out of the hands of private citizens. Both the CIA and NSA still maintain a technological edge over the private sector, but Aftergood said that lead is shrinking. "The reality is that the private sector now competes in many areas that used to be the exclusive domain of the intelligence agencies," he said, citing encryption, computer software implementation, and analysis of foreign military and economic conditions as examples. The schools that train the spies and intelligence analysts of the future are placing a new importance on learning to use the Net and other online resources to get the job done. Robert Heibel, director of the Research/Intelligence Analyst Training Program at Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pennsylvania, said students get a thorough exposure to the Net and computers in general. The program trains students to "drink from the firehose," to glean important nuggets of information as tools for decision makers, Heibel said. Graduates of the program have gone on to become analysts for the CIA, NSA, FBI and other agencies swimming in the intelligence community's alphabet soup, he said. "We teach a concept called open source and public domain intelligence -- that is, taking what is in the public domain and creating new knowledge by analysis and interpretation," he said. "If you spend 20 percent of your intelligence budget on open source intelligence you'll be able to answer 70 percent of the boss's questions." Applying for a job with the CIA is easy: Send a resume. The CIA scans the resumes it gets using optical character recognition technology. An applicant for either agency must also submit to a thorough background investigation, a polygraph test, and medical and psychological examinations, said Gilsher, who went through the process herself. The process currently takes five to six months, but the agency is hoping to shorten that to three or four months, she said. Copyright © 1994-98 Wired Digital Inc. All rights reserved. ---------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- **************************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address or (un)subscribe ignition-point-digest email@address **************************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **************************************************** --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)philodox.com> Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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Re: Java applet security, exportability, Jon Postel haiku
by Martin Minow 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

A few Java comments on David Conrad's <drc(a)adni.net> questions: > >As they go through the data entry process I collect bits of entropy from >mouse and keyboard events in a java.security.SecureRandom object. Java 1.1 lets you attach event handlers to every user-interaction class. For example, you can watch mouse movement, mouse entry and exit into your components, and character entry in all text fields. You might try adding handlers and capturing mouse position and the system clock. Each event, by itself, won't give you much entropy (and, of course, they are highly correlated event-to-event), but you should be able to get a bit or two from each event. > >... I was flabbergasted when I found out that jdk >1.0 had no printing API and so our applet, if it should allow users to >print, must be a 1.1 applet, and very few browsers have 1.1 support Java 1.1 is real, and support is becoming available on all platforms. The lack of a printing API in Java 1.0 was probably a good thing: printing is hard to get right, especially in a cross-platform environment, and waiting for a more mature AWT will avoid compatibility issues. Since your customers use a browser, why not display the data and have the browser handle the printing? Martin Minow minow(a)pobox.com

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RE: capitalism run amuck by Korton
by Matthew James Gering 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

David Korton wrote: > exchange rates and stock markets into wild gyrations wholly > unrelated to any underlying economic reality. Who has both the motive to deny economic reality and the power to do so in the short term? > To understand what is happening we must educate ourselves > about the nature of money http://www.ecosystems.net/mgering/money.html > we give to the institutions and people who control its > creation and allocation the power to decide whether we > shall live in prosperity or destitution. Who controls it, how and why? > Contrary to its claims, capitalism is showing itself to > be the mortal enemy of democracy and the market. Capitalism and democracy have nothing to do with each other. "capitalism is...the mortal enemy of ...the market." "capitalism is...the mortal enemy of ...the [free] market." "capitalism is...the mortal enemy of ...[free] market [capitalism]." "capitalism is...the mortal enemy of ...[capitalism]." Hmmm, there is a problem here. "[Modern pseudo-]capitalism is the mortal enemy of [free] market [capitalism]." There, that works. > Under capitalism, money rules. Money can't rule, it is not sentient. Who controls money? > The challenge is to replace the global capitalist > economy with a properly regulated ...economy > United Nations, as the protection of people and > communities from predatory global corporations > and finance I can't believe after 69 years people are still shoveling the same socialist and protectionist bullshit. I cannot figure out how someone can get so close to pointing on the problem with [modern] capitalism and still come to all the wrong conclusions. I've never seen populism and [free] market economics twisted together so perversely. Matt "I think you have to define what you mean by a free market. If you have a fiat currency, which is what everyone has in the world --- ...That is not a free market. Central banks of necessity determine what the money supply is. If you're on a gold standard or other mechanism in which the central banks do not have discretion, then the system works automatically. " --Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan

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log files (was: Re: dbts: Cryptographic Dog Stocks, The Dirigible Biplane, and Sending the Wizards Back to Menlo Park )
by Steve Bellovin 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> It strikes me that while Mr. Hettinga and other e$ seers may have > spent the past decade considering how to allow transactional exchanges to > escape a human linkage, most professional sysops and network managers have > been concerned with how to strengthen the linkage between on-line accounts, > actions, and audit trails -- and the humans to which a user's account has > been assigned. Leaving aside the rest of this discussion, Vin touches on a point that I think has been ignored by some: operations demand log files. That is -- and I'm doffing my security hat here and donning the hat of someone who has been running computer systems and networks for 30+ years -- when I'm trying to manage a system and/or troubleshoot a problem, I *want* log files, as many as I can get and cross-referenced 17 different ways. This isn't a security issue -- most system administrator headaches are due to the "benign indifference of the universe", or maybe to Murphy's Law -- but simply a question of having enough information to trace the the perturbations caused to the system by any given stimulus. The more anonymity, and the more privacy cut-outs, the harder this is. I claim, therefore, that the true cost of running such a system is inherently *higher*. There may be, as some have claimed, offesetting operational advantages. But the savings from those advantages need to be balanced against losses due to hard-to-find bugs, or even bugs that one isn't aware of because there's insufficient logging. Remember that double-entry bookkeeping catches all sorts of errors, not just (or even primarily) embezzlement. To be sure, one can assert that the philosophical gains -- privacy, libertarianism, what have you -- are sufficiently important that this price is worth paying. With all due respect, I will assert that that debate is off-topic for this list, and is best discussed over large quantities of ethanol.

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Re: Rendering ( was MIB Subponeas )
by ILovToHack＠aol.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

First of all i want to apoligize for posting this. Second i am a little off on the AP bot could some one please take the time to explain this to me. Thanks. -Mike

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Available For Download: Chapter on Electronic Cash for Upcoming Handbook by CRC Press
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text From: brands(a)xs4all.nl X-Sender: brands(a)xs4all.nl (Unverified) Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 22:09:06 +0100 To: Robert Hettinga <rah(a)shipwright.com> Subject: Available For Download: Chapter on Electronic Cash for Upcoming Handbook by CRC Press Cc: Digital Bearer Settlement List <dbs(a)philodox.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Sender: <dbs(a)philodox.com> Precedence: Bulk List-Subscribe: <mailto:requests@philodox.com?subject=subscribe%20dbs> X-Web-Archive: http://www.philodox.com/dbs-archive/ Hi all, In light of some questions about my electronic cash systems by Frank Sudia and Robert Hettinga, and some requests I received via e-mail, I decided to make available my chapter on electronic cash that I wrote mid 1996 for the upcoming "Handbook on Algorithms and Theory of Computation," Michael Atallah (editor), CRC Press, ISBN 0849326494. It is an introduction to electronic cash, and contains a high-level description of my system as well as a highly practical implementations of it. You can download the PDF file from http://www.xs4all.nl/~brands Alternatively, get it directly as http://www.xs4all.nl/~brands/draft.pdf Regards, Stefan PS The above book chapter has a very narrow focus, and does a poor job of highlighting the generality of my techniques, which are much more generally applicable than just for the purpose of electronic cash. Over the past two years, I have been busy writing a book, with the preliminary title "Electronic Money and Digital Eligibility Certificates." Currently, over 500 of the approximately 750 pages are finished, and I aim to have it published early next year. If the publisher allows it, large parts of the book will be made available as PDF files as well, but nothing is clear yet. There are also some very real commercial things happening right now; I hope to be able to announce something in the next few months as well. --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)philodox.com> Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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17 Dec '03

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Telecom Italia to Appoint ceo this
by totaltel＠total.emap.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Welcome to the Total Telecom news update. http://www.totaltele.com ------------------------------------- today's top story:- Scramble to Appoint Telecom Italia ceo this Week Telecom Italia SpA, Italy's former telephone monopoly, aims to find a chief executive within a week, an official said, after executive chairman Gian Mario Rossignolo resigned, ending a 10-month tenure http://www.totaltele.com/cgi-bin/news.cgi/20250/worldmore.html ***************************************** ITU Plenipotentiary 98 Conference in Minneapolis. with the conference moving into it's third week, keep up to date with events as they unfold over the remaining two weeks. Plus an update of the election results. http://www.totaltele.com/plenipot98/ ***************************************** current Total Telecom headlines include..... Nokia Turns to Networks After Becoming Top Mobile Phone Company Nokia Oyj, the world's biggest mobile phone company, said it's introducing several products that will boost subscriber capacity up to 10 times as it plans to increase its presence as a network supplier... http://www.totaltele.com/cgi-bin/news.cgi/20274/worldmore.html ------------------ SBC Moves in on Bell Atlantic with Completion of SNET Buy SBC Communications Inc. completed its $6.5 billion purchase of Southern New England Telecommunications Corp., moving the No. 2 U.S. local telephone company into No. 1 Bell Atlantic Corp.'s territory. http://www.totaltele.com/cgi-bin/news.cgi/20270/worldmore.html ---------------- Carrier 1 Offers ISPs a Pay-Per-Use Service Carrier 1 has rolled out the first usage-based billing service for pan-European wholesale IP traffic. Europe's newest wholesaler is pitching the pay-per-packet facility as a cost-saving option to attract http://www.totaltele.com/cgi-bin/news.cgi/20275/worldmore.html --------------- Omnicom Revived by Long Distance Supermarket Tie-up Omnicom SA shares surged 20% after Carrefour SA, France's largest food retailer, picked the French phone company to offer long-distance phone services to its clients. In a partnership with Omnicom, Carrefour...... http://www.totaltele.com/cgi-bin/news.cgi/20271/worldmore.html ---------------- Telekom Says No Date Set for Share Sale Deutsche Telekom AG, Europe's largest telephone company, said it hasn't set a date to sell a second slice of the company, denying a report that a share sale planned for next spring would be postponed. http://www.totaltele.com/cgi-bin/news.cgi/20272/worldmore.html ---------------- plus Asian-American Axis Leaves Europe in the Cold FCC Begins Overhaul of Complex Phone Subsidy System Telecom Italia Chairman Rossignolo Resigns Telia Raises Netia Stake Ahead of Polish Deregulation AT&T, BellSouth to Form New Company to Manage Wireless Venture .....go to the front page for the full list of headlines http://www.totaltele.com ******************************************** Forgotten your password? For help go to:- http://www.totaltele.com/register/reghelp.shtml Any other problems, email:- webmaster(a)totaltele.com ------------------- If you wish to be removed from future mailings, please reply with "Remove" in the subject line and we will automatically block you from this list. Thank you for reading Total Telecom

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digital cash
by bill payne 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I am reading http://www.xs4all.nl/~brands/draft.pdf Attached in mirrored at http://www.aci.net/kalliste/bw1 I only built THEM. I am not into crypto. But sort-of understand how it works. Let's hope this gets settled. bill Title: Black and White Test of Cryptographic Algorithms Jump to Forum Click Image to Jump to Next Article Go to Text Only Print Version Black and White Test of Cryptographic Algorithms by William H. Payne This article requires special formatting. Please Click Here to Read Send This Article to a Friend: Your Name: Email Address of your Friend: Your Email address: Back to Home Page Quick Menu Visit the Button Shop Interactive Forum Black and White Test of Cryptographic Algorithms E-mail the Editor

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unsubcribe
by StoneCold-PT 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

unsubcribe ---Chip Mefford <cmefford(a)video.avwashington.com> wrote: > > > > Where possible, > > fuk a bunch of airlines anyway. > > Travel by train is a lot more enjoyable, relaxing, fun. > Folks that travel by train could fly, but would > preferr to enjoy the ride, cause it ain't no cheaper, > > except, !! > > you can pay with cash and show no id and go > where you would like in the lower 48. > > anonymously. > > On Tue, 27 Oct 1998, Anonymous wrote: > > > At 02:43 PM 10/26/98 -0400, Robert A. Costner wrote: > > >At 01:15 PM 10/26/98 -0500, Duncan Frissell wrote: > > >>9. "I do not posses any government-issued photo ID and thus cannot travel > > >>to the location stated in the subpoena. > > > > > >ROTFLMAO... > > > > > >This last one is too funny to not use. I don't have a subpoena, but I can > > >just see myself writing back explaining this and requesting assistance with > > >a plane flight to solve this problem. > > > > Actually you don't need state id to fly, legally. But the airlines will > > hassle you and not put your bags aboard til you are. There > > are references on the net to flying without state id. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > == My Favorite Surfing Sites: http://www.dilbert.com/ and http://www.nro.odci.gov/ "To keep you is no benefit; to destroy you is no loss" by Thida Mam _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

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