December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Traffic Analysis (fwd)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > Date: Thu, 02 Oct 1997 23:28:10 -0400 > From: "Robert A. Costner" <pooh(a)efga.org> > Subject: Traffic Analysis > I'm curious about traffic analysis capability. While I don't know the > exact figures involved, I'd say that Cracker throws away about 10% of the > messages it receives. Admittedly, these are probably not encrypted > messages (I don't know. Humans do not get to read the messages.) Does > this make traffic analysis more difficult? Why/how does it decide to throw them away? Does the incoming produce cover traffic even if its thrown away? Traffic analysis generaly does not look at the contents of the packets, encrypted or not is irrelevant. I suspect it would lower the estimated ratio of cover traffic if nothing gets sent out. This would in general lower the cost to analyse the traffic. I would set it up to send bogus outgoing even if the message was dropped. That way the analysis would correlate the dropped message to the outgoing and produce a cover ratio closer to the actual value. Also remember to send n+1 bogus traffic to make up for the dropped outgoing. > Or suppose Redneck sent each nym an encrypted message each day, or more > often? By 'nym' you mean each subscribed address or to each address used in the outgoing? I would say it is bad to send to subscribers. It provides non-covered traffic that identifies your subscribers specificaly (really not a threat since Mallet already has their original incoming and therefore their source address) as well as demonstrating that you are keeping long-term traffic records. The long-term records represent a clear threat to the security and stability of the remailer. If you send out this cover traffic regularly then be shure to use some mechanism to select email addresses randomly or else Mallet will get a list of your bogus addresses and begins to filter them immediately. A commercial remailer should not keep records of its use. However, I suspect that eventualy remailers will be required to keep usage records by law. ____________________________________________________________________ | | | The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there | | be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves. | | | | -Alan Greenspan- | | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http:// www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage(a)ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|

2 1

update.339 (fwd)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > From physnews(a)aip.org Thu Oct 2 16:07:42 1997 > Date: Thu, 2 Oct 97 12:42:29 EDT > From: physnews(a)aip.org (AIP listserver) > Message-Id: <9710021642.AA00390(a)aip.org> > To: physnews-mailing(a)aip.org > Subject: update.339 > > > PHYSICS NEWS UPDATE > The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Physics News > Number 339 October 1, 1997 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben > Stein > > A NEW THEORY OF NMR FOR EXTENDED OBJECTS. > Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) isn't just an imaging > technique, but a valuable spectroscopic tool for deducing the > chemical environment and structural layout of atoms in different > environments. This is because the NMR spectrum of an atom (or > to be more precise, the spectrum of the atom's nuclear magnetic > states) is different depending on the local geometry, just as an > atom's allowed electron energies will be different if the atom is > suddenly lodged in a crystal with many other atoms. Previous > NMR theories have been able to explain accurately what the > NMR spectrum ought to be only for atoms or atom clusters in > isolation. Now, physicists at UC Berkeley (Steven Louie, > louie(a)jungle.berkeley.edu, 510-642-1709) have devised a > method which for the first time makes possible rigorous > calculations of the NMR spectra of extended systems such as > crystals, surfaces, polymers, or even amorphous materials; given > the coordinates of the atoms, the Berkeley researchers were able > to predict the spectrum. They tried out their theory on an > industrially important material---synthetic diamond films used, > for example, as coatings for tools and engine parts. The > prediction of the NMR spectrum for carbon atoms in the diamond > films was in close agreement with the observed spectrum. > (Francesco Mauri et al., Physical Review Letters, 22 Sept. > 1997.) Hell of a way to reverse-engineer just about anything. How long you figure it will be before they start coming out wit industrial units just for materials analysis? I wonder how good it would be at determing the layout of a die through the carrier... > PARTICLE IDENTIFICATION WITH PROBE MICROSCOPY. > Scanning tunneling microscopes (STM) provide pretty pictures of > atoms and can even be used to pluck single atoms from the > sample surface. But often the identity of that atom (especially if > it is an impurity) remains unknown. Physicists at Arizona State > (John Spence, Uwe Weierstall, weierstall(a)asu.edu) have > addressed this problem. First, they use a small voltage to remove > a surface atom or molecule with an STM probe; then a larger > voltage launches the object from the probe toward a distant > detector. A measurement of the time of flight (TOF) supplies a > mass-to-charge ratio for the mystery particle, which in most cases > will supply the identity of the unknown species. The best > resolution achieved by other methods of chemical identification > on surfaces is about 2 nm. This new STM + TOF identification, > with essentially atomic-level resolution, should be handy in a > number of research areas, such as catalysis and the study of the > role of foreign atoms at kinks and steps in crystal growth. This > work will be reported in a session (NS-TuA, Oct. 21) at the > upcoming meeting of the American Vacuum Society (Oct. 20-24 > in San Jose). The program for this meeting can be viewed on the > Internet at this address: > www.vacuum.org/symposium/program.html. (General press > contact at the meeting: 408-271-6000.) Pretty nifty materials analysis tool. Maybe they should shoot the atom toward the NMR... > FISSION HELPS SUPERCONDUCTIVITY. One of the > problems of using high temperature superconductors as wires in > magnets is that the bundles of magnetic field lines that normally > stay put in the presence of low currents start to move around > (dissipating energy thereby) when larger currents are sent through > the wire sample. Scientists working at Los Alamos have now > used a proton beam to induce nuclear fission in mercury atoms in > a mercury/copper oxide superconductor. The defects caused by > the fissioning atoms splay out in all directions in the > superconductor crystal and help to snag the wayward field lines. > This permits the sample to carry much more current. (Nature, 18 > Sept.) ____________________________________________________________________ | | | The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there | | be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves. | | | | -Alan Greenspan- | | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http:// www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage(a)ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|

1 0

index.html
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

CNN logo Navigation Infoseek/Big Yellow Pathfinder/Warner Bros Main banner Move the corporate ladder to your back yard. Because you can. VAIO/Sony rule JUDGE THROWS OUT RUBY RIDGE CHARGES Randy Weaver's house October 2, 1997 Web posted at: 8:36 p.m. EDT (0036 GMT) Latest developments: * Judge invokes double-jeopardy law * Harris accused of killing U.S. marshal * Charges against FBI agent unaffected BONNERS FERRY, Idaho (CNN) -- An Idaho judge dismissed a state murder charge against a man accused of killing a federal agent in the Ruby Ridge shootout, saying he can't be tried again after his acquittal of murder in federal court. Idaho Magistrate Judge Quentin Harden ruled Thursday that the charge against Kevin Harris violate a state law barring prosecution of someone who faced the same charges in another "state, territory or country." Prosecutor Denise Woodbury, who charged Harris and FBI marksman Lon Horiuchi in state court in August, had argued that the state double-jeopardy law was meant to cover prosecutions in other countries, not the United States. "I find that (Idaho law) bars further prosecution of Kevin Harris for the acts set forth ... in the complaint in this case," Harden said. "To rule that the courts of the United States of America do not come under 'another state, territory, or country' would be an anomalous result -- giving more credence to the courts of another country than to the courts of our own nation," Harden wrote. Harris accused of killing U.S. marshal Standoff scene Harris, 29, of Republic, Washington, was accused in the shooting death of deputy U.S. Marshal William Degan and of shooting at another agent in the August 21, 1992, shootout that precipitated an 11-day siege at the cabin of white separatist Randy Weaver. A friend of Weaver's, Harris was staying at the cabin during the shootout and was wounded by an FBI sniper's bullet. Weaver's 14-year-old son, Sam, was killed in the gunfight. His wife, Vicki Weaver, was later shot and killed during the siege by the FBI's Horiuchi. The shootout has become a rallying point for some groups who believe federal law enforcement has encroached too much on citizens' rights. Weaver and Harris were tried and acquitted of federal charges in 1993. But in August, Woodbury charged Harris with first-degree murder in Degan's death and assault with a deadly weapon against Arthur Roderick, another law enforcement officer. Harden also dismissed the assault charge. Woodbury also charged Horiuchi with involuntary manslaughter in the death of Vicki Weaver. Charges against FBI agent unaffected Harden's ruling doesn't affect the charge against Horiuchi, who has never been tried in any court. His lawyers have indicated they will try to move his case to a federal court. Harris was at his job as a welder when he received the news that the murder charge against him had been dismissed, said Diane Peters, his business partner at Eagle Industries. "We were hoping what was fair and just would turn out," Peters said. Harris himself did not return a phone call, and Woodbury declined to comment on Harden's ruling. Reuters contributed to this report. rule Related stories: * Both sides decry new Ruby Ridge charges - August 21, 1997 * FBI senior officials won't be charged in Ruby Ridge siege - August 15, 1997 * Former FBI section chief pleads guilty, admits destroying Ruby Ridge report - October 30, 1996 * FBI official charged with obstruction after concealing Ruby Ridge report - October 22, 1996 Related sites: Note: Pages will open in a new browser window * United States Department of Justice Home Page * Federal Bureau of Investigation External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive. _________________________________________________________________ Infoseek search ____________________ ____ ____ _________________________________________________________________ rule Message Boards Sound off on our message boards You said it... [INLINE] Move the corporate ladder to your back yard. Because you can. VAIO/Sony rule To the top © 1997 Cable News Network, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you.

1 0

Re: http:--www.cnn.com-US-9710-01-shooting.update-
by geeman＠best.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Crypto relevance? Naturally: this wouldn't have happened if strong crypto were outlawed! At 09:51 PM 10/1/97 -0500, Jim Choate wrote: > > CNN logo > Navigation > > Infoseek/Big Yellow > > TEEN KILLS 2 AT SCHOOL; MOTHER FOUND DEAD AT HOME > > Woodham October 1, 1997 > Web posted at: 3:38 p.m. EDT (1938 GMT) > > PEARL, Mississippi (CNN) -- A Mississippi teen-ager slashed his > mother's throat Wednesday morning before going on a shooting rampage > at his high school that left two students dead and at least six > wounded, authorities said. > > The high school junior, Luke Woodham, was arrested and charged with > three counts of murder shortly after the shooting at Pearl High > School, about three miles east of the state capital, Jackson. > > Police Chief Bill Slade choked back tears as he told reporters, > "This was a disgruntled girlfriend-boyfriend thing... We talked to > the youth. He gave us a statement and his manifesto was that he felt > he had been wronged." > etc,..,. obligatory pgp key: -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 4.5 mQENAjMPX3sAAAEIAL8U6IqpMkqM3TcIqU/q7iot8pYk4ifVNaNlIYwwoYmPXH/T dabDzgkQg7h1QsEJU71Ze8EdHmKksfeBEVppJV6X9SyzpFOCgrI/Qr7hMbxnecci SVk2/B2lf4tUPuqm/DGRfAUcd4iG7Gjhw5GRh9Us/jrEtkqr3iIES+9pSNvrEsgB xYYR39eaYwe0gheExaO7vtvDDPUM7C3spbcnwOyLCpURpLCAMHUO8DQc2FO/fN4z TqqIFOect2ea4LYHr0o29RrtY9J85lQj3df8LQvIJWjwzAFfBqOU1KUdXqTayzUj rvY4ZL/1vhTJ5QmlBJ6ognqwk7PVN0SesspU2okABRG0IGdyZWdnIHBlcnNvbmFs IDxnZWVtYW5AYmVzdC5jb20+ =H0bC -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

1 0

Re: http:--www.cnn.com-US-9710-01-shooting.update- (fwd)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > From: geeman(a)best.com > Date: Thu, 02 Oct 1997 20:47:35 -0700 > Subject: Re: http:--www.cnn.com-US-9710-01-shooting.update- > Crypto relevance? Naturally: this wouldn't have happened if strong crypto > were outlawed! > > TEEN KILLS 2 AT SCHOOL; MOTHER FOUND DEAD AT HOME > > > > Woodham October 1, 1997 > > Web posted at: 3:38 p.m. EDT (1938 GMT) > > > > PEARL, Mississippi (CNN) -- A Mississippi teen-ager slashed his > > mother's throat Wednesday morning before going on a shooting rampage > > at his high school that left two students dead and at least six > > wounded, authorities said. This list is involved with much more than just crypto. These were submitted as further datum in the ongoing guns discussion. You might try using procmail filtering on 'gun' to eliminate such traffic. The Cypherpunks Creedo: Empower yourself and quit bothering me. ____________________________________________________________________ | | | The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there | | be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves. | | | | -Alan Greenspan- | | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http:// www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage(a)ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|

1 0

Re: Remailers and ecash
by nobody＠neva.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Anonymous wrote: >> > - Everyone a remailer. Remailers only accept messages from other >> > remailers. To use remailers you must run a remailer. >> >> I don't grow my own wheat, grind it up, and then make my own bread. I >> also prefer not to run a remailer. > >You don't have to. You pay someone to bake your bread for you, and >you can pay someone to run your remailer for you. > >This idea has been around since remailers began. The basic premise >is that a group of remailers are set up which only accept mail from >other remailers. A pinging system can be set up to verify that all >the remailers are operating correctly. > >The catch is that in practice each remailer is only required to >accept mail from other remailers, but can actually accept mail from >anybody the operator wants to. So if you don't want to run a >remailer, just pay someone to run a remailer on your behalf, and then >you can send anonymous messages through that person's site. > >Thus forwarding within the remailer network is free, but it costs >money to insert new messages. This scheme is a little more flexible >than attaching ecash to each message because you can arrange any type >of fee schedule you like, such as a flat rate per month. This is interesting. One nice feature is that there doesn't need to be a standardized payment arrangement with all remailers, just the one you use for your entry point. And, there's nothing that prevents many remailer networks from overlapping. (Actually, the geometry could create some neat problems.) This would be fairly easy to set up, not even really needing client software modifications. However, it does have a "commons" problem. No remailer operator has an incentive to provide really good service. They are all encouraged to provide the bare minimum remailer service and take advantage of the other remailers in the network. For example, what would encourage somebody to have a 24 x 7 remailer service with continuous staffing? This would be desirable because when the bad guys kick down the door, there is somebody awake to pull the plug. There are a zillion other features which won't happen if there isn't a proper incentive. Monty Cantsin Editor in Chief Smile Magazine http://www.neoism.org/squares/smile_index.html http://www.neoism.org/squares/cantsin_10.html -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQEVAwUBNDR4w5aWtjSmRH/5AQEG4gf+M/7L0iR3qLoXB1jhLkCyuq2iasP+7dO8 nv3QkA3LcTk6gcIMvJKYAfGUlsqISOFOhIfB2G37bLIQ9PjPeP99x48lBklwZ61A 64JeiD187qEkS0bXy5Q5OLNnoQ1jhsQOF9dSqDgA7c3n6kDVv0fsIZ3gdCimFNqR 53qBcUQG14NcPIsYURmNUfX8p68T01yc+8rQUkh3xmmXCr89cgodCFoFpwKUojYp tumpPTdDYMZkjflAm2ZQxOgfrKryvtI/ESjy5R2xFxEcxB4nvJ1qZ2fVhhy/dQbS 9EdjT1WSG99rfOKRkJNd/ANeB3HU5ynq1WdrBq95TCRb+/znnguyaw== =HbZJ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

1 0

Kevin Harris Charges Dismissed
by Mike Duvos 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

An Idaho magistrate dismissed state murder and other charges against Ruby Ridge defendent Kevin Harris today, citing double jeopardy. -- Mike Duvos $ PGP 2.6 Public Key available $ enoch(a)zipcon.com $ via Finger $ {Free Cypherpunk Political Prisoner Jim Bell}

1 0

Re: Digital Postage (fwd)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > Subject: Re: Digital Postage (fwd) > Date: Fri, 3 Oct 1997 00:09:22 -0500 (CDT) > From: "snow" <snow(a)smoke.suba.com> > He of the Hyperlong .sig said: I could make it even longer if it would irritate you more... > > Ask yourself this, how attractive would the Internet have been if it had > > required users to install and manage multiple communications protocols for > > every connection? > > You mean like FTP, NNTP, HTTP, SMTP & etc.? > > Rudy can't fail. No, not services, network protocols TCP/IP/UDP...IPX...NetBUI...Lantastic...MosesLAN...ParNet...etc. ____________________________________________________________________ | | | The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there | | be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves. | | | | -Alan Greenspan- | | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http:// www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage(a)ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|

1 0

Newbie Question
by Law Abiding Citizen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I'm new to encryption, having just purchased PGP. I want to abide by the law, but I don't know who to send a copy of my secret key to. Do I send it to the FBI guy who shot the unarmed woman, the FBI guy, Kahoe, who ordered evidence of the FBI murder of citizens destroyed, or to one of the other four top FBI officials who helped with the cover-up? Do I have to send a copy of my secret key to the CIA, as well? If so, do I just give it to my drug dealer and have him pass it along to his connection, or should I just give it to a Jewish person and tell them to have the Mossad pass it along to the CIA? Also, I like sticking large, foreign objects in my rectum. Can I legally do that myself, with a toilet plunger, or are they restricted to only use by LEA's in meeting the legitimate needs of law enforcement. Insincerely, A.L-A. Citizen

1 0

Re: Traffic Analysis (fwd)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > Date: Fri, 03 Oct 1997 01:34:56 -0400 > From: "Robert A. Costner" <pooh(a)efga.org> > Subject: Re: Traffic Analysis > Remailers in general will throw away messages at times. Sometimes on > purpose, sometimes by accident. This is not replaced by any cover traffic. Perhaps this should be added. > For purposes of argument, we could say that a remailer throws away > messages that violate usage policies. This accounts for some amount of > traffic, let's just say 10% to name a figure. Way too high for commercial use. Get it down to something like .01 and that would be workable I suspect (haven't done the math). Course this raises the issue of who pays for dumped mail on a commercial box. Should the customer pay since it was their action that instigated the drop? Or perhaps the remailer since they were selling a service which they didn't provide at their discretion? > Of course this sounds > reprehensible, Not to me. It's your box and your money, set any policy that you desire. If I as a user don't like it, I'll beat feet... > so you ask what sort of message gets thrown out? Some > examples might be: > > * 3,000 copies of the same message to the same person > * Any mail from Sanford Wallace at Cyberpromo.com > * A 300MB mailbomb Let's generalize a bit to see if we can get a clearer picture. - traffic that seems to be duplicate. What if the digital signature on each one is valid implying the originator intended to send the 3,000 pieces. Do you dump them and take the money? - traffic from specific parties whose reputation capital is low. As a business should this really matter as long as the creetin pays the bill? - traffic of an abnormal format Don't see any issues with this one. Are there any other classes that you can think of that you might want to filter on? > Basically some messages that constitute abuse (without examining actual > content) get tossed. Ok, so you are doing header filtering. > These are "valid" messages from people which the > remailer might decide to not continue to send. Much of this mail never > even reaches the remailer code as it gets tossed at an earlier level. > Since about 10% of incoming traffic gets tossed, it would seem that this > would somehow effect traffic analysis. This traffic is not replaced, and > much of the dropped traffic is not even know to the remailer. How much > would this actually effect traffic analysis? Let's see if we can put some numbers to it... We receive n pieces of mail. n/10 is tossed at reception based on header filtering. For each mail that gets to the remailer code we sent m cover messages and 1 real message. So the remailer handles a total of (n - n/10) + (m + 1)(n-n/10) pieces in a given time period, t. Let z stand for (n - n/10) the actual number of processible traffic, we can reduce this to z + (m + 1) z. Let's assume now that we go ahead and transmit cover for those emails we get something like z + (m + 1) z + m ( n/10 ). We don't add a 1 to the m(n/10) because we don't have a real outgoing to process. So the total traffic load of the remailer can be represented by: L = z + (m + 1) z + m ( n/10 ) or, L = (n - n/10) + (m + 1)(n - n/10) + m(n/10) Now if you look at a travelling salesman problem you see quickly that the complexity grows quite quickly. This produces a traffic analysis load of something of the form, T = L ^ v Where v represents the complexity factor in dealing with the possible combinations possible. So, without actualy plugging numbers in there, I would say it looks like a small increase in output could grow pretty quickly because of the power growth factor in the extra traffic and processing it. > As a side point, software problems will at times cause chained messages to > get tossed. From time to time certain remailers become incompatible with > each other, or user held public keys do not get updated properly. This > will also cause messages to get tossed. Ok, let's add a 'software failure' category. > Cracker sends messages as "Anonymous" and does not allow replies to be > returned to the sender. Redneck on the other hand allows each user to pick > a pseudonym and allows relies to be returned to the sender. This is known > as a "nym". The whole point of a nym is to be able to receive replies (as > well as establish reputation capital). People who have nyms on the > remailer want to receive email back to them. Nyms are managed and > authenticated with PGP. My question is would it foil traffic analysis if a > number of remailer server generated messages were to go out to the nyms > without ever having matching incoming traffic? If I understand you the remailer would send outbound traffic to its input for distribution to your subscribers? I don't believe it would factor into the analysis at all if all the source destinations are the same. Outbound traffic from party A that went to party B would be important to track. So, if you wanted to do this sort of stuff and you wanted Mallet to chase their tail I would randomly pick source addresses from my subscriber base and send the bogus messages to my subscribers making shure nobody received an email from themselves. Then it looks like everyone is involved in a conspiracy... > >A commercial remailer should not keep records of its use. However, I suspect > >that eventualy remailers will be required to keep usage records by law. > > I'd be willing to be involved in a first amendment challenge against any > such law. I suspect we would win in the US. At least we won the last 1st > amendment challenge against remailers. (ACLU vs Miller) It has nothing to do with limiting speech so I doubt you'd have a 1st leg to stand on. Furthermore, the 1st doesn't guarantee the right to anonymity. If you want to claim that as a fundamental right you'd need to use the 9th and 10th. It does have to do with being able to trace the perp back if needed. I am not saying I agree with it, just recognize that reasonable people will see this lack of tracability via a court order as a clear threat to their security at all levels. ____________________________________________________________________ | | | The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there | | be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves. | | | | -Alan Greenspan- | | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http:// www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage(a)ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|

2 1