December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Time Magazine: "No Privacy on the Web" (6/2/97)
by Declan McCullagh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

******** >Date: Wed, 28 May 1997 16:17:17 -0400 >To: fight-censorship-announce(a)vorlon.mit.edu >From: Declan McCullagh <declan(a)well.com> >Subject: FC: Time Magazine: "No Privacy on the Web" (6/2/97) >Sender: owner-fight-censorship-announce(a)vorlon.mit.edu >Reply-To: declan(a)well.com >X-FC-URL: Fight-Censorship is at http://www.eff.org/~declan/fc/ > >In this week's Time Magazine (p64-65), you'll find a privacy story that >Noah and I worked on: > >http://www.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/1997/dom/970602/technology.no_priva… >n >.html > >Then there's the sidebar with our report on how much info we were able to >dig up on Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who has introduced legislation that >would slow the spread of Social Security Numbers. Yes, we found her SSN, >unlisted phone number, and home address, but we had to pay for some of it: > >http://www.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/1997/dom/970602/technology.my_wek.h… > >-Declan > > > >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- >This list is public. To join fight-censorship-announce, send >"subscribe fight-censorship-announce" to majordomo(a)vorlon.mit.edu. >More information is at http://www.eff.org/~declan/fc/ >

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CyberPatrol bans Computer underground Digest
by Declan McCullagh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

********* >Date: Wed, 28 May 1997 17:14:43 -0400 >To: fight-censorship-announce(a)vorlon.mit.edu >From: Declan McCullagh <declan(a)well.com> >Subject: FC: CyberPatrol bans Computer underground Digest >Sender: owner-fight-censorship-announce(a)vorlon.mit.edu >Reply-To: declan(a)well.com >X-FC-URL: Fight-Censorship is at http://www.eff.org/~declan/fc/ > >For as long as I can remember, Northern Illinois University criminal >justice prof. Jim Thomas has been editing an online newsletter called >Computer underground Digest. In it, he's chronicled the hacker wars, the >crypto battles, and the fight over the CDA. It's been an invaluable >resource to the Net-community. In fact, you'll see a lot of >fight-censorship posts and articles end up in CuD. > >Now it's been blocked by censorware. Jim's offense? According to >CyberPatrol, he's a "Militant Extremist." > >-Declan > >********** > >Date: Mon, 26 May 1997 22:45:26 -0500 (CDT) >From: Jim Thomas <jthomas3(a)sun.soci.niu.edu> >To: fight-censorship(a)vorlon.mit.edu >Subject: CyberPatrol bans CuD & Crypt Newsletter > >On Mon, 26 May 1997, Declan McCullagh wrote: > >(quoting from George Smith): > >> Huh! Thanks to your page I've just found out Crypt Newsletter is >> banned by the fine folk at Cyber Patrol for being "militant extremists." > >George also forwarded the following to me: > > Jim: > > I suppose you already know this but I just found out Crypt Newsletter > and CuD were blocked by CyberPatrol and NetNanny. > > Crypt Newsletter for being Militant/Extreme > CuD for being Militant/Extreme/violence/Profanity > >Whatever else CuD might be, I'm at a loss to even guess how >"militant," "extreme," and "violent" characterize it. But, some >profanity does slip in, especially in legal documents and similar >resources. > >jt > > >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- >This list is public. To join fight-censorship-announce, send >"subscribe fight-censorship-announce" to majordomo(a)vorlon.mit.edu. >More information is at http://www.eff.org/~declan/fc/ >

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Re: Re: CRACKIT.DAT increased to 50,000 bytes.
by DataETRsch＠aol.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi, In a message dated 97-05-28 04:39:24 EDT, you write: << Actions such as yours inspire trust in the cryptographic software that you write, if it passes the review. >> Thank-you very much. By the way, I realize that increasing the size of the encrypted file used for the contest is unnecessary and actually makes decryption easier in most cases. I'll let everyone @ toad.com know that the original encrypted message was "cut" and "pasted" over and over again to increase the final message to 50,000 bytes. So, there's is *decrypted* data repetition. (I know, it's was a stupid thing to do, but I believe in VSA2048's security, obviously.) However, as you probably have discovered, none of the *encrypted* data repeats or show any congruent/linear pattern. (In fact, there is no pattern whatsoever.) Also, along with the simple decryption tool, a simple flowchart of VSA2048 will be released that will show that VSA2048 is NOT is as simple as many seem to think. (No, it's not just a random XOR-er. Take a look at the VSACMProcessOperation and VSACMInternal functions. If it were simply a random XOR-er, the data could probably be decrypted in a few days, if even that long.) I truly hope that all of the cypherpunks out there are working on cracking the CRACKIT.DAT file used for the decryption contest or have worked on decrypting it but just gave up. (Contest details will be posted every now and then to cypherpunks(a)toad.com and other crypto-related mailing lists.) I realize that many of you out there live to take snake-oil crypto off the face of the planet. Not that it is snake-oil, but take a shot at hacking VSA2048. (Use your Crays, Delta, UNIXs, sync-ed Pentiums, mainframes, whatever. We don't care.) Regards, DataET Research

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Re: Re: CRACKIT.DAT increased to 50,000 bytes.
by DataETRsch＠aol.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi, In a message dated 97-05-28 04:39:24 EDT, you write: << Actions such as yours inspire trust in the cryptographic software that you write, if it passes the review. >> Thank-you very much. By the way, I realize that increasing the size of the encrypted file used for the contest is unnecessary and actually makes decryption easier in most cases. I'll let everyone @ toad.com know that the original encrypted message was "cut" and "pasted" over and over again to increase the final message to 50,000 bytes. So, there's is *decrypted* data repetition. (I know, it's was a stupid thing to do, but I believe in VSA2048's security, obviously.) However, as you probably have discovered, none of the *encrypted* data repeats or show any congruent/linear pattern. (In fact, there is no pattern whatsoever.) Also, along with the simple decryption tool, a simple flowchart of VSA2048 will be released that will show that VSA2048 is NOT is as simple as many seem to think. (No, it's not just a random XOR-er. Take a look at the VSACMProcessOperation and VSACMInternal functions. If it were simply a random XOR-er, the data could probably be decrypted in a few days, if even that long.) I truly hope that all of the cypherpunks out there are working on cracking the CRACKIT.DAT file used for the decryption contest or have worked on decrypting it but just gave up. (Contest details will be posted every now and then to cypherpunks(a)toad.com and other crypto-related mailing lists.) I realize that many of you out there live to take snake-oil crypto off the face of the planet. Not that it is snake-oil, but take a shot at hacking VSA2048. (Use your Crays, Delta, UNIXs, sync-ed Pentiums, mainframes, whatever. We don't care.) Regards, Jeremy Yu-Ramos DataET Research

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(no subject)
by mbm 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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Pleeease help!
by Rui Guedes 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I am living in Portugal and use a PowerMacintosh. Is there any way of using the wonderful Mixmaster mail system or any other safe method? Thanks in advance, Rui Guedes

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SSZ status
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi, SSZ seems to be stable since the power was restored where my ISP was located. There should be no further service interruptions expected. Jim Choate CyberTects ravage(a)ssz.com

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US grants export license for PGP
by Lucky Green 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,11048,00.html?ticker.ms.ie40 PGP crypto approved for export By Tim Clark and Alex Lash May 28, 1997, 7 p.m. PTThe U.S. government has granted an encryption export license to one of the biggest thorns in its side. Pretty Good Privacy says it has won approval to export strong encryption technology overseas. The license allows PGP to export technology up to 128 bits; the government's regular licenses only allow up to 56 bits. To date, the government has only approved 128-bit encryption exports for technology that protects financial transactions but PGP technology can encrypt any kind of digital communication. PGP was founded by cryptographer Phil Zimmermann. Zimmerman became something of a cause celebre when he posted his PGP technology on the Net in defiance of laws prohibiting international distribution of encryption technology. Zimmermann came close to going to jail before the government dropped its case against him. The company said tonight that it counts more than half of Fortune 100 companies use its email software. PGP still has another old foe to worry about. Encryption software giant RSA Data Security earlier this month filed a patent infringement lawsuit against PGP. The suit alleged that PGP is unlawfully using RSA technology licensed to Lemcom before its merger with PGP in 1996. PGP officials say RSA's claims are without merit. -- Lucky Green <mailto:shamrock@netcom.com> PGP encrypted mail preferred

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motherboards with multiple CPUs
by lucifer＠dhp.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I am looking for a place to purchase a motherboard with several cpu slots and a lot of memory. does any one know where one can find a good deal?

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Forward: Tim McVeigh trial info from RISKS DIGEST 19.19 (fwd)
by Paul Bradley 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The following may be of interest to those following the Tim McVeigh OKC trial, it relates to technical flaws in the evidence relating to the telephone debit card McVeigh allegedly used. Datacomms Technologies 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: FC76DA85 "Don`t forget to mount a scratch monkey" ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 May 1997 11:47:43 -0700 (PDT) From: hbaker(a)netcom.com (Henry G. Baker) Subject: Oklahoma bombing trial transcripts RISKS readers may find the following transcript from the OK bombing trial to be particularly interesting: http://www.cnn.com/US/9703/okc.trial/transcripts/may/050697.eve.txt (Note CNN's Y2K problem, but that's for another time!) This transcript was brought to the attention of another usenet group due to its details of how the debit-card business works. The bulk of this transcript deals with the testimony of a Mr. John Kane, an executive of the company that handled the telephone debit card that was allegedly used. Problems: There was no one computer that had all of the information necessary to connect a phone debit-card number, the phone number from which a call was made, and the phone number to which the call was made. 3 different logs from 3 different computer systems whose clocks were not synchronized must be related in order to determine this information. Therefore, it is difficult to relate the logs in an unambiguous manner. Furthermore, the logs indicate only a physical port number, and the only way to determine the correspondence is to _physically inspect_ the connectivity of the cables. Q. How often were the cables rearranged? Since the system would work fine with a different permutation of the cables, what assurance do we have that the cables had not been rearranged by a technician who many never have told anyone, or not even realized himself? Due to the large sizes of these files (2.5 billion calls!), the 'matching' process allowed for +/- 4 minutes 'slop' in comparing the clock times of the different logs. Q. Did they take into account Daylight Savings Time (especially given the problems we're recently been talking about)? Q. Did they take into account the fact that on different days the clocks may have had different discrepancies? There are key items missing from the most important transaction log. This is because this computer was _intentionally rebooted_ 3 times every day (perhaps at midnight, 8AM, 4PM, all Los Angeles time). Each time the computer was rebooted, some transactions were lost; whether from not having been saved from the write buffer, or not being logged during a length boot process, was not made clear. Apparently, a very critical phone call was one of the transactions that were not logged due to this rebooting. (What are the chances of this??) Why was this computer rebooted 3X per day? Because it had apparently been crashing of its own accord prior to this, and those crashes had been very inconvenient, so it was decided that purposely rebooting would result in fewer complaints. This rebooting may have resulted in a slight loss of revenue, as well, as the missing calls may never have been logged. There is a presumption that if a PIN (in this case a 14-digit PIN) is being used, that only one person could possibly have used it. However, apparently this system did not check to see that multiple people (perhaps in different parts of the country) were not using the same PIN number at the same time. (Unlike many prepaid phone cards in Europe, there is no physical card to plug into the phone -- the _only_ proof of identity is the PIN.) Henry Baker ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/hb/hbaker/home.html

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