December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

IBM cpu breaks 1GHz barrier [CNN]
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > IBM breaks 1,000 MHz > > More related sites... NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Engineers at an International > Business Machines Corp. research facility in Austin, Texas, Wednesday > demonstrated the world's first computer chip to break the 1,000 MHz > barrier. > [INLINE] The chip operates at 1 billion cycles per second. The fastest > commercial microprocessors today operate at around 300 MHz. However, > computer users won't be able to run out and buy a PC containing the > chip anytime soon. IBM isn't expected to make it available > commercially for at least two years. > [INLINE] The news comes just days after rival Digital Equipment > introduced a new version of its Alpha chip that it said would break > the 1,000 MHz barrier. Digital Equipment, which hasn't yet hit that > mark, also said it would take at least two years for the chip to be > available. > [INLINE] IBM will issue a research paper detailing the chip, along > with two related microprocessor papers, at the International Solid > State Circuit Conference in San Francisco Friday. ____________________________________________________________________ | | | The most powerful passion in life is not love or hate, | | but the desire to edit somebody elses words. | | | | Sign in Ed Barsis' office | | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http://www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage(a)ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|

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IRS Technology Chief Resigns [CNN]
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > > IRS TECHNOLOGY CHIEF TO RESIGN > > > WASHINGTON (AP) -- Arthur Gross, the IRS official heading efforts to > update the agency's outmoded computer systems, plans to leave the > agency this spring. > > Gross, chief information officer at the IRS, won wide respect from > congressional Republicans for his computer modernization efforts > even as they grilled the agency for mistreatment of taxpayers last > year. > > He announced his plans to resign Tuesday. ____________________________________________________________________ | | | The most powerful passion in life is not love or hate, | | but the desire to edit somebody elses words. | | | | Sign in Ed Barsis' office | | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http://www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage(a)ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|

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Pepsi a tad anal? [CNN]
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > DRINKING THE COMPETITION LEADS TO LAWSUIT > > POMONA, California (AP) -- Just because he delivers Pepsi doesn't > mean he has to drink it. > > Michael Dillon has filed a discrimination lawsuit against the > soft-drink giant after he was reprimanded for drinking Gatorade on > the job and was publicly chastised for drinking a non-Pepsi product > during a meeting. > > Dillon says both claims invaded his privacy. > > A spokesman for Pepsi says the company doesn't forbid workers from > downing other soft drinks, but expects them to be team players when > it comes to being loyal. ____________________________________________________________________ | | | The most powerful passion in life is not love or hate, | | but the desire to edit somebody elses words. | | | | Sign in Ed Barsis' office | | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http://www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage(a)ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|

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Yeltsin: Clinton to cause next World War? [CNN]
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > > YELTSIN: CLINTON'S IRAQ ACTIONS COULD CAUSE WORLD WAR > > Yeltsin Yeltsin warns Clinton against use of force in > Iraq February 4, 1998 > Web posted at: 11:52 a.m. EST (1652 GMT) > > MOSCOW (CNN) -- Russian President Boris Yeltsin on Wednesday issued > the Kremlin's strongest criticism yet of U.S. threats to launch > military strikes against Iraq, saying such action could trigger > another world war. > > "By his actions, (U.S. President Bill) Clinton might run into a > world war," a somber Yeltsin said at a televised meeting in the > Russian capital. > > "He is behaving too loudly on this -- too loudly", Yeltsin said. And > he added, "Well, now (some are saying) let us flood it all with > planes and bombs. No, frankly speaking, it is not like Clinton at > all." > > "One must be more careful in this world saturated with allsorts of > weapons which are sometimes in terrorists' hands," the Kremlin chief > said, occasionally gripping his desktop andgrimacing. "It's all very > dangerous." ____________________________________________________________________ | | | The most powerful passion in life is not love or hate, | | but the desire to edit somebody elses words. | | | | Sign in Ed Barsis' office | | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http://www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage(a)ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|

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Feds Approve Bank to Certify Digital Signatures
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

There was a note to Dave Farber's list that the Office of the Comptroller of Currency has approved Zion's First National Bank to certify digital signatures. Since they're in Utah, Zion's has a certain amount of legal infrastructure in place. The text version of the story is at http://www.occ.treas.gov/ftp/release/98-4.txt and the 20-page PDF with gory details is at http://www.occ.treas.gov/ftp/release/98-4att.pdf They're going to offer digital signature certificates with the usual binding of a key to a body plus papers, and provide software to support it. Some of their software can be used for encryption, and unfortunately they're going to offer key escrow, though as a separate business service, with keys encrypted by the key's corporate owner as well as by the bank for protection, but it's not going to be a mandatory service, and they have no intention of offering escrow for signature keys, only encryption keys. Their documentation does talk a good bit about crypto technology, in layman's terms, and about risk management and Y2000 compliance, and also in great detail about how things like this are standard banking functions applied in a digital environment (to convince the OCC to let them offer it, since they're a bank and aren't supposed to offer non-bank-related services). There's also a story in Network World at http://www.nwfusion.com/news/0202rsa.html about Verisign and Entrust CAs plans for IPOs. Thanks! Bill Bill Stewart, bill.stewart(a)pobox.com PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF 3C85 B884 0ABE 4639

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Re: The Continued Attack on Cash (Was: "The Right of Anonymity"...)
by Robert H Guttman 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> > "Americans do not buy for quality, they buy for price" > > Which must explain our gross national product, then. Cheaper, > as always, *is* better. > > > as John Ruskin said: > > 1. those who buy for price alone are this man's lawful prey. > > Those who *don't* buy for price alone are usually somebody's > lunch sooner or later. I somehow missed the full thread on this topic, but I disagree that "cheaper, as always, *is* better." There are many markets and situations where people (Americans included) shop by "value" (perceived or otherwise), not just price. This is what VARs and "branding" are about and what enables market power. For example, Gerry Heller, CEO of FastParts - an online auction for semiconductors, was quoted in a recent Forrester Research report as admitting that even in this commodity-like market "availability is more important than price" when it comes to auctioning semiconductors. - Rob ----------------------------------------------------------------- Robert H Guttman voice:617-253-9603 mailto:guttman@media.mit.edu MIT Media Laboratory http://www.media.mit.edu/~guttman Software Agents Group http://ecommerce.media.mit.edu/ Agent-mediated E-Commerce -----------------------------------------------------------------

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STOA Assessment of Techno-Control
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

We've transcribed the Euro-Parliament STOA report, "An Appraisal of the Technologies of Political Control," 6 January 1998, a portion of which was offered earlier by Axel Horns and Ulf Möller. http://jya.com/stoa-atpc.htm (295K text + 210K images) Zipped version: http://jya.com/stoa-atpc.zip (314K) It's a grim assessment, revealing more than most of us want to face about the dark side of high technology, especially what the most technologically advanced nations are deploying, and building to sell to the worst of humanity, and how export laws are flaunted to cut criminal deals in defiance of high-minded law and public policy. It demonstrates that he national security heritage continues, sharing military technology with governmental outlaws around the globe. And the US is leading the market. It would be cathartic for this report was widely read, pondered, then acted upon, in the US and globally. Kudos to the European Parliament for sponsoring it. And congratulations to the authors and the beleaguered organizations who've been trying for years to diminish this over civilized madness, to jolt us out of techno-narcosis. There's much in the report that's been discussed here, and much more that has not but deserves to be. The full report is 112 pages, 50 pages of main body, 13 pages of notes and 25 pages of bibliography. We've not yet transcribed the detailed bibliography. As noted earlier, the contents are: Abstract Executive Summary Acknowledgements Tables and Charts 1 Introduction 2 Role and Function of Political Control Technologies 3 Recent Trends and Innovations 4 Developments in Surveillance Technology 5 Innovations in Crowd Control Weapons 6 New Prison Control Systems 7 Interrogation, Torture Techniques and Technologies 8 Regulation of Horizontal Proliferation 9 Conclusions 10 Notes and References 11 Bibliography [Not yet transcribed] Appendix 1. Military, Security & Police Fairs. [Not provided with report]

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Sun takes over Netscape? [CNN]
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > February 4, 1998: 7:27 p.m. ET > > More related sites... NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Shares of Netscape > Communications Corp. shot up Wednesday amid rumors that the company is > being eyed as a possible takeover target by Sun Microsystems Inc. > [INLINE] The takeover scuttlebut drove Netscape (NSCP) stock up 1-1/16 > to 19-1/4 in active trading. The surge capped a four-day trading > period in which the Internet software company's shares have jumped > roughly 20 percent from a Friday close of 16-1/16. > [INLINE] Despite the leap, Netscape stock remains sharply down in > 1998, having dropped nearly 20 percent in the first 23 trading days of > the year. ____________________________________________________________________ | | | The most powerful passion in life is not love or hate, | | but the desire to edit somebody elses words. | | | | Sign in Ed Barsis' office | | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http://www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage(a)ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|

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Re: Fingerprinting in CA [was Whoa: British SmartCard rollout]
by Information Security 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

How come there is no organized opposition to fingerprinting everyone in the nation? [U.S.-centric talk, but applies to Britain too] There was just a news report on "KidsSafe", a smartcard for holding kids' health details for an emergency. "Eventually, they won't have to carry the card, we can instantly look up the information from their fingerprints". Excerpts from the Cryptography Manifesto follows... BTW, it's finally online! I need to update it for the past 6 months of activity, but... http://www.erols.com/paulwolf/cointelpro/cointel.htm (scroll down) ---- Fingerprinting everyone in the USA - nay, the planet - is a known plot by the NSA: see (the 2nd) "The Body as Password" below. Are we all going to silently roll over and accept this NSA crap??? It's our tax money, but we NEVER got to vote on it. How about some cypherpunk with money challenging it on the basis shown below of violating Privacy Act of 1974? ---guy Sure, government can give debate reasons for requiring fingerprinting for driver's licenses... But it is still a violation of the minimization requirement of the Privacy Act of 1974. Biometric data on citizens is FAR BEYOND any reason government can give. Notice how no citizens in any state ever got to vote on such an important escalation of personal data collection by the government. Indeed, it seems to be accomplished in the quietest way possible, giving citizens the least amount of opportunity to choose their fate. Odd, since tax-payer paid-for government services is what gives them the power. But elected representatives will do, you say? Did you hear any of them mention it during campaigning? Did Alabama elected officials even mention it with their press release of a new driver's license, despite that being the plan? No. What does that tell you? We need a cabinet-level Privacy Commission, with the power to intervene nationwide. Power to protect us little people from fanatical personal data collection. We are losing it piece by piece. Who would have thought the United States would collect fingerprints from all citizens? This is the main way our Federal Government is rolling out the National ID Card, using a Universal Biometric Card: driver's licenses. Divide and Conquer, state by state. It is the beginning of the end. Don't think the biometric driver's licenses are the exact equivalent of a National ID Card? Check out this phrasing from an unimplemented law: # Privacy Journal, By Robert Ellis Smith, October 1983 issue # # Senator Bob Dole wants the government to conduct a three-year study to # unify federal and local requirements for personal identity. # # The bill, S1706, would amend the Federal False Id Act of 1982, to require # a comprehensive identity scheme for the U.S., either THROUGH UPDATING # EXISTING IDs TO BE MORE SECURE, UNIFYING THEM, or creating a new identity # document for all Americans. Collect biometric information from everyone... law enforcement's Evil Holy Grail. * "U.S. Has Plan to Broaden Availability tests of DNA Testing" * By Fox Butterfield, The New York Times, undated but 1996 implied. * * In a little known provision of the Clinton Administration's 1994 Crime * Control Act was a call for the establishment of a nationwide DNA data * bank like the current national system for fingerprints, run by the FBI. * * In the two years since then, 42 states have passed laws requiring prison * inmates give blood or saliva samples for a "DNA fingerprint." * * In a report today, the Justice Department said it is stepping up efforts * to make such DNA biometric capture "as common as fingerprinting" and that * they expect the test in five years to go from $700 each to a mere $10 and * take only hours or minutes to accomplish. And how much hardware is a handheld fingerprint device? * "Lucent in New Identification Joint Venture" * The New York Times, 5/22/97 * * Lucent Technologies [Bell Labs is their research and development arm] and * U.S. Venture Partners said today that they had formed a company that would * make products to help people prove their identities through electronic * fingerprinting technology. * * The first product of the company, Veridicom Inc., will be a postage-size * fingerprint sensor used to retrieve information, authorize purchases or * allow entry into restricted areas. * * The postage-size sensor will measure the ridges and valleys on the skin * when a finger is pressed against a silicon chip, and then check the * measurements against the user's profile. Not big at all, is it? # "Faster, More Accurate Fingerprint Matching" # By Andrea Adelson, The New York Times, October 11 1992 # # "We think there will be a revolution in fingerprinting," said David F. # Nemecek, a deputy for the FBI's Information Service Division. # # The next step is for manufacturers to make a single-finger mobile scanner # for use in patrol cars. Some FBI cars are expected to get them next year. $ "The Body As Password", By Ann Davis, Wired Magazine, July 1997 $ $ In October 1995, the Federal Highway Administration awarded a $400,000 $ contract to San Jose State University's College of Engineering to develop $ standards for a "biometric identifier" on commercial driver's licenses and $ for use in a centralized national database. A centralized national database of biometric information for cross-state driver's licenses, and all individual state driver's license fingerprints available via the FBI's NCIC. * "Project L.U.C.I.D.", by Texe Marrs, 1996, ISBN 1-884302-02-5 * * News reports indicate that, like California, practically all of the 50 * states are in the process of installing news systems for drivers licenses, * often incorporating biometric measurements such as digitization of finger- * prints. That these systems are linked together gives us an indication of * the powerful grip our hidden controllers have on this nation. * * All federal agencies are being integrated into this data net. These Police * State agencies constitute a clear and present danger, not only to the * privacy and constitutional rights of Americans but to our very lives! * * A Hitler, a Pol Pot, or a Stalin would have loved to have had the * microchips, surveillance cameras, lasers, computers, satellites, weapons, * wiretap circuits and communications gadgetry of today's Dick Tracy Police * State. * * Perhaps FBI Director Louis Freeh said it best shortly after his * appointment to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1993. Referring * to the incredible array of computerized control and battle gadgetry * available to federal law enforcement, Freeh, stressing cooperation * between his own FBI and the other alphabet police agencies, sardonically * remarked, "LET'S SHARE OUR TOYS." * * Dick Tracy, of course, was a good guy. But Dick Tracy would have * recognized as unconstitutional the worldwide comprehensive Orwellian * system that has been installed, and reject it as a menace to true law * and order. ! "Welfare Recipients Lose Benefits Through Glitches in Computers" ! By Joe Sexton, The New York Times, 5/16/96 ! ! The fingerprint-imaging system that is a central element of the Giuliani ! administration's effort to crack down on welfare fraud has resulted in ! hundreds of recipients cases being closed. ! ! The public advocate's office has been inundated with complaints from ! improper case closings. ! ! The failure seems to stem from the local offices not transmitting the ! fingerprints to Albany's central computer. This resulted in AUTOMATICALLY ! TERMINATING BENEFITS OF PEOPLE THE COMPUTER THOUGHT WERE NOT FINGERPRINTED. ---- Prior to the fingerprint "final solution" of control over us, there were other attempts---which would have required a vote---which tried to roll out a National ID Card. * "Project L.U.C.I.D.", by Texe Marrs, 1996, ISBN 1-884302-02-5 * * Since total and absolute control can be obtained only by a Police State * bureaucracy, efforts have escalated in recent years to require a National * ID Card. * * Upon Bill Clinton's election as President, Secretary of Health and Human * Services Donna Shalala and Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy jointly * developed a $100 million plan to require all children and babies to have * a dossier established in a national computer registry to insure "universal * mandatory vaccinations." * * When patriotic Americans rose up to protest, the U.S. Senate quietly * shelved the deceptive Shalala-Kennedy proposal. * * The Clinton administration next surfaced with its mandatory health care * plan. A key component of this plot to socialize medical care was the * requirement of a computer I.D. card for every American, linked to a master * computer network. * * Martin Anderson, writing in The Washington Times: * * President Clinton held the pretty red, white and blue "smart card" in * his hand when he addressed the nation, proudly waving it like a small * American flag. * * Only it wasn't a flag; it was a "health security card"---his slick * name for a national identity card. Under his plan a new National * Health Board would establish "national, unique identifier numbers" * for every single one of us. * * Fortunately, President Bill Clinton's healthcare scam never made it * into law. Sadly, few of the complainers were upset about the potential * for abuse by Big Brother. * * Shortly after being elected, one Clinton advisor promoting the biochip * 'mark' is Dr. Mary Jane England, a member of Hillary Clinton's ill-fated * socialized, national healthcare initiative. Addressing a conference * sponsored by computer giant IBM [IBM's Lotus division takes hand biometrics * of employees who use their childcare facilities] in Palm Springs, * California, in 1994, England not only endorsed the proposed mandatory * national I.D. smart card, but went one scary step further: * * The smart card is a wonderful idea, but even better would be the * capacity to not have a card, and I call it "a chip in your ear," * that would actually access your medical records, so that no matter * where you were, even if you came into an emergency room unconscious, * we would have some capacity to access that medical record. * * We need to go beyond the narrow conceptualization of the smart card * and really use some of the technology that's out there. * * California Governor Pete Wilson has actively stumped for a National I.D. * Card system, using the straw man of California's pervasive immigration * problem. California Senators Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer support * it too. The latest proposal is to mandate I.D. cards for all school * children under the Goals 2000 national education program. Another plan * by the U.S. Labor Department would have required it for all users of a * National Job Training and Employment database. * * George Orwell, in 1984, his classic novel of Big Brother and a coming * totalitarian state, observed that very few people are awake and alert * to the machinations and manipulations of the controllers. Thus, the * people, as a whole, fall victim to a colossal conspiracy out of ignorance * and because of apathy and denial of reality: * * The people could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of * reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was * demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public * events to notice what was happening. [ By Walter Cronkite: "Orwell's '1984'---Nearing?", NYT, June 5 1983 In our world, where a Vietnam village can be destroyed so it can be saved; where the President names the latest thing in nuclear missiles "Peacekeeper"---in such a world, can the Orwellian vision be very far away? Big Brother's ears have plugs in them right now (or they are, by law, supposed to), at least on the domestic telephone and cable traffic. But the National Security Agency's ability to monitor microwave transmissions, to scoop out of the air VAST numbers of communications, including telephone conversations, store them in computers, play them back later, has a truly frightening potential for abuse. George Orwell issued a warning. He told us that freedom is too much taken for granted, that it needs to be carefully watched and protected. His last word on the subject was a plea to his readers: "Don't let it happen. It depends on you." ] * * The National Security Agency's Project L.U.C.I.D., with all its * technological wizardry, is a future, planetary dictator's dream---and a * Christian and national patriot's nightmare. Someday, the Holy Bible * prophesies, that planetary dictator will emerge on the scene, lusting * for blood... * * There can be no doubt about it. * * The REAL Chief Executive Officer of the NSA is not a human being. * * The CEO MUST be Lucifer himself. Amen. ---- It is technology driving the capabilities, it is our government using them ruthlessly: without letting us vote on it. Never before could someone walk up to you and number you by scanning your fingerprints. A number that is yours and yours alone. You have been numbered for all time. No ID card needed once portable fingerprint scanners are deployed all over! If the government suddenly ordered all citizens to be numbered with an indelible invisible ink on their arms so they were permanently numbered; so law enforcement could scan them at will: there would be a revolt. Yet that is what is happening. Fingerprints, scanned into a computer, are a number. The number is inescapably yours. Modern technology means they don't have to put the number on you, they can read it off of you by minutely examining your body. And: it is the NSA driving the fingerprint-rollout of the national ID card. # "The Body As Password", By Ann Davis, Wired Magazine, July 1997 # # Currently housed at the National Security Agency, a working group of # federal bureaucrats founded the Biometric Consortium in the early 1990s. # Its 1995 charter promises to "promote the science and performance of # biometrics for the government." # # Consortium mumbers include state welfare agencies, driver's license # bureaus, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Social Security # Administration, and the Internal Revenue Service. If my attempts to show how bad a thing this is have been too rambling, too abstract, here is a simple and accurate analogy: * "Project L.U.C.I.D.", by Texe Marrs, 1996, ISBN 1-884302-02-5 * * It was Martin Anderson who, in his book, Revolution, revealed that during * the Reagan administration during the 1980s, several top cabinet officials * were urging President Ronald Reagan to implement a computerized National * I.D. Card. * * The rationale for the proposal was that such a system would help put a lid * on illegal immigration. [Reagan had been Governor of California] * * But Anderson, who at the time was a domestic advisor to the President and * sat in on this particular cabinet meeting, spoke up and gave the group * something to think about. * * "I would like to suggest another way that I think is a lot better," he * told them, serious in demeanor but clearly being facetious. "It's a lot * cheaper, it can't be counterfeited. It's very lightweight, and it's * impossible to lose. It's even waterproof." * * "All we have to do," Anderson continued, "is tattoo an identification * number on the inside of everybody's arm." * * His reference was to the tattooing of numbers on victims in Nazi * concentration camps. Survivors still bear the dreaded tattoo markings * to this day. * * Mr. Anderson described the stunned reaction of those present, "There were * several gasps around the table. A couple cabinet members looked as if they * had been slapped. No one said anything for a long time." * * Ronald Reagan, a consummately wise politician who professed a belief in * Bible prophecy, caught the implication [about The Mark of the Devil]. * * He then hushed the cabinet and efficiently dismissed the National ID Card * proposal by sardonically remarking, "Maybe we should just brand all babies." "Those that give up essential liberty for a little security, deserve neither liberty nor security." - Ben Franklin "When ID's are mandatory, it is time to leave the planet." - Robert Heinlein * "Project L.U.C.I.D.", by Texe Marrs, 1996, ISBN 1-884302-02-5 * * In the November 1994 publication of the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, * the FBI advocated BIOMETRIC CAPTURE FOR ALL NEWBORN BABIES AND * SIMULTANEOUSLY THEIR MOTHERS.

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Rogue root domain reconfiguration [CNN]
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > ADMINISTRATION SAYS INTERNET RECONFIGURATION WAS ROGUE TEST > > graphic February 4, 1998 > Web posted at: 9:29 p.m. EST (0229 GMT) > > WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Clinton administration said Wednesday it was > confident a researcher in California won't repeat his rogue > reconfiguration of the Internet -- a test that few users noticed but > that raised concerns about how the worldwide network is run. > > Jon Postel, who runs the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority at the > University of Southern California under a Defense Department > contract, last week redirected half the Internet's 12 > directory-information computers to his own system. > > Normally, those so-called "root servers" help users find addresses > on the Internet by pulling data from Network Solutions Inc., a > private company in northern Virginia that operates under a federal > government contract.

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