December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: New Paper by Ron Rivest
by lucifer＠dhp.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Robert Hettinga wrote: > > From: "Phillip M. Hallam-Baker" <hallam(a)ai.mit.edu> > To: "Micropay (E-mail)" <micropay(a)ai.mit.edu> > Subject: New Paper by Ron Rivest This interplay between C2Net schills and MIT schills is getting more than a little boring. We always seem to have the same actors involved in the attacks on the cypherpunks. First, lightweights like Kent Crispin post some dribble before the 'event' takes place. After the 'event', the heavyweight … [View More]

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Re: Feds reading this list, Jim Bell, and threats
by Toto 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Kent Crispin wrote: > > I think it is fairly clear that AP is a Chimera. The problem with > lurid fantasies like it, though, is that they give the press and > politicians convenient targets. In fact, a case could be made for > considering Jim Bell as a NSA shill. Certainly he is a perfect foil > for a statist agenda. So, now Kent is volunteering to testify to the fact that Jim Bell is an NSA shill. (and still seems ashamed of his .gov address) I am waiting for a post … [View More]

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Re: Feds reading this list, Jim Bell, and threats
by Kent Crispin 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Mon, Apr 07, 1997 at 07:24:03PM -0600, Toto wrote: > Kent Crispin wrote: > > > > I think it is fairly clear that AP is a Chimera. The problem with > > lurid fantasies like it, though, is that they give the press and > > politicians convenient targets. In fact, a case could be made for > > considering Jim Bell as a NSA shill. Certainly he is a perfect foil > > for a statist agenda. > > So, now Kent is volunteering to testify to the fact that … [View More]

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AP--the choice of Postal Workers everywhere
by Toto 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

snow wrote: > Crispy Critters wrote: > > you are either born into that social contract, or you move > > into it. In either case the social contract that makes up the state > > predates your involvement. You are free to accept or reject the > > terms of that social contract. If you chose to reject them, then you > > should leave -- since the individuals who composed that contract were > > there before you, their rights take priority. > > … [View More]

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Re: Wassenaar Arrangement now available
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

We've converted the AU version of Wassenaar "Part 3 Category 5 - Telecommunications and Information Security" DOC to HTML: http://jya.com/aucat_5.htm "Part 2 - Information Security" fits the notes on cryptography posted here by Hayashi Tsuyoshi and fills in the missing pieces.

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Re: $20,000 the going rate?
by Toto 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

William H. Geiger III wrote: > > I am forwarding a message from another list as I felt it may be of intrest > to some here. > > Subject: SCANNER LISTENER FOILS MURDER PLOT > Following from the > Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Friday, April 4, 1997 > =========================================== > "TWO ACCUSED OF MURDER-FOR-HIRE PLOT" > > Overheard phone call leads to arrests And the way this relates to Jim Bell is... -- Toto "The Xenix Chainsaw Massacre" http://bureau42.base.org/public/xenix/xenbody.html

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Tim I.R.S. May
by nobody＠huge.cajones.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Tim Bell wrote: At 10:57 PM +0100 4/7/97, Adam Back wrote: >I can think of at least half a dozen posts dealing with the ethics, the >need (they claim) for independent review, the immmorality of the death >penalty in general, and so on. >Exactly what more is needed? >If you mean that no one is talking about the mechanics of actually setting >up such a market, this may be true. For lots of reasons. Could be folks >just have no particular interest in spending the time to … [View More]actually set one >up, even a "play" AP system. Could be they perceive other projects to be >more important. Or it could be that those who are setting up AP systems are not leaving themselves open to attack. >(Sidenote: the work Robin Hanson and others did on "idea futures" is an >example of something that's more important, and more "doable," and less >dangerous. And yet I see precious little discussion of _it_ on this list. Maybe that is because it doesn't address issues that the government feel are enough of a threat to suppress. >>Perhaps I'm just imagining things, but it would seem to me that if one >>had in the past made comments on the list suggesting that AP might >>even be a _good thing_, Jim Bell's experience might make one think now >>was be a good time to disclaim that one was talking theoretically. >But, on the contrary, I've seen more "positive" comments, in absolute >numbers, about AP in the last several days than I recall seeing in the last >several months. Perhaps if you weren't so liberal in your use of killfiles, then you wouldn't be so out of touch with what cypherpunks list members discuss on the list. >>I've viewed several posters comments on AP ever since Jim Bell got >>involved in discussing anonymous markets in illegal services as being >>careful to stay on the side of speech. >> >>It is almost as if they are afraid to discuss openly their views on >>the subject. >Example, please. Who was previously an advocate of AP on a regular basis >that has recently spoken only of it terms of speech? Tim, lacking the ability to read, asks about those who "advocate" AP. Adam is quite correct in his perception of cypherpunks pussyfooting around their true views on AP since the government attack on Jim Bell's views. Of course, Tim May attacks those who choose to remain anonymous via the cypherpunks remailers. Tim and the IRS make quite a tag-team in denigrating those who would speak freely about AP. >(Actually, I recall very few supporters of AP, even before the list >subscribership dropped dramatically.) Since you shitcan the posts of a variety of list subscribers, your recollections don't count for very much, do they? >I like a lot of your stuff, Adam, but on this one I think you're 175 >degrees out of phase with reality. Perhaps Adam's view of reality encompasses a broader range of posts to the list than Tim's does. Perhaps those who put all cypherpunks in their killfiles could claim that the cypherpunks don't really exist. TruthMonger (#1--the shit disturber) [View Less]

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Blanc Weber / Positivist Schill
by Toto 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Blanc Weber wrote: > --------------------------------------------------- > In "Human Action", by Ludwig von Mises, he explains very well how > nations which restrict their market options create the tensions and > circumstances which lead to wars between them. All of the good computer gurus I know have degrees in Political Philosophy, and the like. You must be one of them. > I was considering, likewise, that the current developing technologies > might open up people's … [View More]

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Fucking Idiots
by lucifer＠dhp.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

XX Xnon-to: PRESIDENT(a)WHITEHOUSE.gov The New York Times, April 7, 1997, pp. D1, D7. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- U.S. Restrictions on Exports Aid German Software Maker By EDMUND L. ANDREWS BOBLINGEN, Germany, April 3--Boris Anderer and his four partners have a message for the spy masters in America's national security establishment: thank you very, very much. Mr. Anderer is the managing director for marketing at Brokat … [View More]Informationssysteme G.m.b.H., a three-year-old software company here that is growing about as fast as it can hire computer programmers. When America Online wanted to offer online banking and shopping services in Europe, it turned to Brokat for the software that encodes transactions and protects them from hackers and on-line bandits. When Netscape Communications and Microsoft wanted to sell Internet software to Germany's biggest banks, they had to team up with Brokat to deliver the security guarantees that the banks demanded. But what is most remarkable is that Brokat's rapid growth stems in large part from the Alice in Wonderland working of American computer policy. Over the last two years, Brokat and a handful of other European companies have carved out a booming business, selling powerful encryption technology around the world that the United States Government prohibits American companies from exporting. Mr. Anderer could not be happier. "The biggest limitation on our growth is finding enough qualified people," he said, as he strode past rooms filled with programmers dressed in T-shirts and blue jeans. The company's work force has climbed to 110 from 30 in the last year, and the company wants to add another 40 by the end of the year. "This company has grown so fast that I often don't know whether the people I see here have just started working or are just visitors," he said. Encryption technology has become a big battleground in the evolution of electronic commerce and the Internet. As in the United States, European banks and corporations are racing to offer on-line financial services, and many of these services are built around Internet programs sold by American companies like Netscape and Microsoft. Cryptography is crucial because it provides the only means for protecting customers and companies from electronic eavesdroppers. Though the market for encryption software is in itself tiny, it is a key to selling technology in the broader market of electronic commerce. Encryption is the first line of defense against hackers eager to pry loose credit card information and raid bank accounts, so it plays a critical role in the sale of Internet servers and transaction-processing systems. Brokat, which has revenues of about 10 million marks ($6 million), uses its cryptography as a door-opener to sell much more complicated software that securely links conventional bank computer systems to a bank's Internet gateways and on-line services. Netscape, Microsoft and computer equipment manufacturers all include encryption in the networking systems they sell to corporations. But the United States Government blocks American companies from exporting advanced encryption programs, because agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Security Agency fear that they will lose their ability to monitor the communications of suspected terrorists and criminals. Far from hindering the spread of powerful encryption programs, however, American policy has created a bonanza for alert entrepreneurs outside the United States. Brokat's hottest product is the Xpresso Security Package, a set of computer programs that bump up the relatively weak encryption capability of Internet browsers from Netscape and Microsoft. Besides America Online, Brokat's customers include more than 30 big banking and financial institutions around Europe. Deutsche Bank A.G., Germany's biggest bank, uses Brokat's software at its on-line subsidiary, Bank 24. Hypo Bank of Munich uses Brokat in its on-line discount stock brokerage operation. The Swiss national telephone company and the Zurcher Kantonalbank are also customers. Among Brokat's competitors, UK Web Ltd., based in London, is marketing an equally powerful encryption program in conjunction with a Silicon Valley company C2Net Software. Recently, UK Web and C2Net boasted of selling "full-strength" cryptography developed entirely outside the United States. "We don't believe in using codes so weak that foreign governments, criminals or bored college students can break them," the two companies said in a statement, in a stinging swipe at the American export restrictions. Bigger companies are starting to jump into the fray as well. Siemens-Nixdorf, the computer arm of Siemens A.G., recently began marketing a high-security Internet server program that competes with products from Netscape. Companies can download the software from Siemens computers in Ireland. There is nothing illegal or even surprising about this. The basic building blocks for advanced encryption technology, a series of mathematical algorithms or formulas, are all publicly available over the Internet. American companies like Netscape sell strong encryption programs within the United States, and companies like Brokat are even allowed to export their product to customers in the United States. For many computer executives, the real mystery is why the United States Government continues to restrict the export of encryption technology. "The genie is out of the bottle," said Peter Harter, global public policy counsel at Netscape, who complained that American policy thwarts his company's ability to compete. "I have a good product, and I can sell it to Citibank, but l can't sell it to Deutsche Bank," Mr. Harter said. "It doesn't make any sense. Why shouldn't they be able to buy the same product as Citibank? It makes them mad, and it makes us mad." In response to industry complaints, American officials have repeatedly relaxed the restrictions on encryption over the last several years, and they did so again last November. But because the speed of computers has increased so rapidly codes that seemed impenetrable just a few years ago can be cracked within a few hours. In a policy announced last fall, the Clinton Administration announced that it would allow American companies to freely export cryptography that used "keys" up to 40 bits in length. The longer the key, the more difficult a code is to crack. But banking and computer executives say that 40-bit codes are no longer safe and can be cracked in as little as a few hours by skilled computer hackers. The minimum acceptable code, according to many bank executives, must have keys that are 128 bits long. "From our point of view, there is at least the possibility that a 40-bit encryption program can be broken, and that means there is a danger that our transaction processing could be compromised," said Bernd Erlingheuser, a managing director at the Bank 24 unit of Deutsche Bank. Bank 24 has about 110,000 customers in Germany who gain access to banking services over the Internet using either the Netscape Navigator or Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Anette Zinsser, a spokeswoman for Hypo Bank, concurred. "Forty bits is just too low," she said. Hypo Bank offers Internet-based banking and discount brokerage services to about 28,000 customers. In a country not known for high-technology start-ups, Brokat jumped at the opportunity. Mr. Anderer, a former consultant at McKinsey & Company in Germany, teamed up three years ago with two fraternity friends, Michael Janssen and Stefan Roever, and two seasoned computer experts, Achim Schlumpberger and Michael Schumacher. The group originally conceived of building a company around modular software components that were designed for the banking industry, and they financed the company for nearly two years through the money they earned from consulting projects. But they were quickly drawn to the area of encryption, and developed a series of programs around the Java technology of Sun Microsystems. The Xpresso encryption package is installed primarily on the central "server" computers that on-line services use to send material to individual personal computers. Customers who want to connect to a bank's server download a miniature program, or applet, that meshes with their Internet browser program and allows the customer's computer to set up an encrypted link with the server. The effect is to upgrade the 40-bit encryption program to a 128-bit program, which is extremely difficult for outsiders to crack. Now, in another step through the looking glass of encryption policy, Brokat is trying to export to the United States. There is no law against that, but American laws would theoretically prohibit a company that used Brokat's technology from sending the applets to their online customers overseas. So the company is now negotiating with the National Security Agency for permission to let American companies send their software overseas, which is where it started from in the first place. If Brokat convinces the spy masters, the precedent could help American software rivals. "This could open a new opportunity that would benefit American companies if they understand the implications," Mr. Anderer said. [Photo (14K)] The five managing partners and founders of fast-growing Brokat Informationssysteme are (left to right) Boris Anderer, Michael Janssen, Achim Schlumpberger, Michael Schumacher and Stefan Roever. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Why don't you fucking losers at the whitehouse just line American businessmen up against the wall and blow their brains out? Go to Germany and buy a fucking clue (if American $ are still worth anything by the time you're done fucking American business.) TruthMonger (#2) [View Less]

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ZDNet Announces HealthyPC.com!
by announce＠lists.zdnet.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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