December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Privacy books
by ichudov＠algebra.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Could anyone suggest a book that gives recommendations on improving privacy? I do not want my name to be in too many databases. There are very many such books but I am not sure which one is best. Thank you. - Igor.

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CIA Blasts Bay of Pigs Op
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The NY Times reports today that the National Security Archive has obtained under FOIA the sole remaining copy of the CIA's 1962 Top Secret survey of the Bay of Pigs disaster. The highly critical document is termed one of the most secret documents of the cold war. We've put a copy of the article at: http://jya.com/cia-pigs.htm The full declassified docs are at: http://www.seas.gwu.edu/nsarchive They are entirely in JPG images, over 400 of them. We're transcribing to ASCII but it will take a day or two.

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request for remailler services
by MegaLeads＠aol.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

please send any info you can to megaleads(a)aol.com

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Re: Is spam really a problem?
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi! 'Masque' here again. The same one who wrote the original 'Is spam really a problem?' post. (I won't attempt to prove that :-). I'm really astounded at "sunder's" PK based solution; it's akin to proposing decapitation as a cure for pimples. >It eats up your valuable time. You might not see it for what it is, but >it is an interruption of normal service. It's annoying as having your >pager go off durring sex and having to call back your boss instead of >ignoring it. (Presume you can't shut off your pager.) It takes away >from the continuity of life. You can't even come up with a valid analogy. Any pager I've ever carried could be put in silent mode. With email, you decide when to check it, and if you have two brain cells to rub together you can identify and kill spam reliably on just the Subject and Sender data, without reading it. To reiterate, it takes me less time to manually kill spam than to trash the junk in my snail mail. Spam is simply Not A Big Problem, and much less an irritation than telemarketer calls. What do you propose? >Have every sendmail server use a PK scheme to talk to every other >server and authenticate the connection. Have every sendmail server accept >mail only from those whose key is verified. Oh boy. Mandatory signing, with registered keys. Great. Why not also require people to have their SSN's tattooed on the inside of their forearms? That way, if some one is so foolish as to say something you didn't want to hear, you'll know who to sue 'for the theft of your valuable time'. You're doing the Surveilance State's work for it. People who whine 'there oughta be a law' everytime anything in life goes against their expectations are helping build Big Brother. This is called 'being a Useful Idiot'. >Further, some of us use ISDN to get their email and transferring the >extra junk adds to the pay/minute connections. So the rest of the world should give up privacy and anonymity to fix your poor choice of service provider? You made your bed; now lie in it. sunder: get a grip. Coercive legislation is simply not the appropriate solution for such a minor problem as spam. guy(a)panix.com writes: >Why are you asking the cypherpunks list? Because I'm active on the list, and I spend more time here skipping messages about spam than I do killing actual spam. Masque.

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CryptoGate, from CAQ
by mf＠mediafilter.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Crypto AG: The NSA's Trojan Whore? by Wayne Madsen FOR AT LEAST HALF A CENTURY, THE US HAS BEEN INTERCEPTING AND DECRYPTING THE TOP SECRET DOCUMENTS OF MOST OF THE WORLD'S GOVERNMENTS It may be the greatest intelligence scam of the century: For decades, the US has routinely intercepted and deciphered top secret encrypted messages of 120 countries. These nations had bought the world's most sophisticated and supposedly secure commercial encryption technology from Crypto AG, a Swiss company that staked its reputation and the security concerns of its clients on its neutrality. The purchasing nations, confident that their communications were protected, sent messages from their capitals to embassies, military missions, trade offices, and espionage dens around the world, via telex, radio, teletype, and facsimile. They not only conducted sensitive albeit legal business and diplomacy, but sometimes strayed into criminal matters, issuing orders to assassinate political leaders, bomb commercial buildings, and engage in drug and arms smuggling. All the while, because of a secret agreement between the National Security Agency (NSA) and Crypto AG, they might as well have been hand delivering the message to Washington. Their Crypto AG machines had been rigged so that when customers used them, the random encryption key could be automatically and clandestinely transmitted with the enciphered message. NSA analysts could read the message traffic as easily as they could the morning newspaper. [...] >From CAQ #63 http://caq.com/cryptogate

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A virtual Swiss bank for the rest of us, from Time/Netly News
by Declan McCullagh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Sicherheit und Privat will be issuing digital cash, digital letters of credit, and use a secret-sharing crypto app on a Pilot to handle stock trading. A bunch of cypherpunk regulars, including Black Unicorn, are involved. Below is my writeup that's in this week's Time magazine. For details check out my article in today's Netly News: http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/opinion/0,1042,1756,00.html -Declan **** A VIRTUAL SWISS BANK FOR THE REST OF US Time Magazine March 2, 1998 Page 20 Got the urge for offshore banking but not the cash to try it? Rather than saving up for a plane ticket to Grand Cayman, check out a new online bank opening its virtual doors this week. Sicherheit und Privat (Security and Privacy) is an Austrian bank that offers encrypted communications, digital cash transactions and a privacy-protected MasterCard for a minimum deposit of $1,000 (as opposed to $10K to $50K in a typical Swiss bank). Could be just the thing for low rollers trying to hide cash from a spouse's divorce lawyers--or the IRS.

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FYI!!!! - NETA to buy TIS
by Steve Orrin 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hot off the Press: http://biz.yahoo.com/snp/980223/tisx_dtp_m_1.html Monday February 23, 10:21 am Eastern Time Trusted Information Systems to Be Acquired by Network Associates TRUSTED INFORMATION SYSTEMS INC. Signs Definitive Agreement to Be Acquired by Network Associates Inc. Feb. 23, 1998, Network Associates Inc. (Nasdaq:NETA - news) and Trusted Information Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:TISX - news) said they signed a definitive agreement under which NETA will acquire TISX in a transaction valued at over $300,000,000. Each TISX share will be exchanged for 0.323 of a NETA share. Subject to approval by TISX stockholders, among other conditions, the transaction is expected to close within about 90 days. A Picture Tells A Thousand Words. STEGO

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Re: Is spam really a problem? (fwd)
by Brandon Crosby 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> > >It eats up your valuable time. You might not see it for what it is, but > >it is an interruption of normal service. It's annoying as having your > >pager go off durring sex and having to call back your boss instead of > >ignoring it. (Presume you can't shut off your pager.) It takes away > >from the continuity of life. > > You can't even come up with a valid analogy. Any > pager I've ever carried could be put in silent mode. > With email, you decide when to check it, and if you > have two brain cells to rub together you can identify > and kill spam reliably on just the Subject and Sender > data, without reading it. To reiterate, it takes me > less time to manually kill spam than to trash the junk > in my snail mail. Spam is simply Not A Big Problem, and > much less an irritation than telemarketer calls. > Asside from this, when everyone finally figures out how to MIME encrypt images, movies, sounds, etc. into their E-Mails, the net will become a sespool of junk mail w/ 16-bit images that only really use 16 colors, constantly flowng to and fro in a broth. Try to go to world-famous sites? Ha! Spam is there, too. The net can only handle so much, and spam by tradition isn't high on the list. > What do you propose? > > >Have every sendmail server use a PK scheme to talk to every other > >server and authenticate the connection. Have every sendmail server accept > >mail only from those whose key is verified. > > Oh boy. Mandatory signing, with registered keys. Great. Why not > also require people to have their SSN's tattooed on the inside of > their forearms? That way, if some one is so foolish as to say > something you didn't want to hear, you'll know > who to sue 'for the theft of your valuable time'. When this happens, two problems arise: (1) people (not to forget Gov) will have a reason to break singing codes (2) confidence in the system will make signing fraud a very happy-day bussiness. I would suggest, we all send a bit of spam out, 'accidentally' freeze the net and show people what can happen. Asside from this personality change, little can be done to keep people from sending spam (or, for that matter, pesonal letters). -Brandon Crosby

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Re: FCPUNX:'close to the machine'
by Sal Denaro 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Sun, 15 Feb 1998, Vladimir Z. Nuri wrote: > fun new book: "close to the machine" by Ellen Ullman. anybody > here seen/read it? a highly > personal and emotional book at times about working in the computer > industry. author is a software engineer whose done a lot of contract > work. I think many here will find it worth a look and/or worth I read it. After a while I noticed that I had a lot in common with the young programmer that she had an affair with. It took a while to come to terms with being a "type" :) There were two things about the book that I disliked: 1) Macho-computing. A number of consultants tend to act as if they are sliting the atom or landing a man on the moon as they work. While I agree that programming is hard work, and that a lot of what programmers do is on the edge, it is hardly ground breaking to implement YA DBMS, even if it is Java based and web-centric. 2) I think she was tring to hard to look technical. -- sal(a)panix.com Salvatore Denaro "The reality of the software business today is that if you find something that can make you ridiculously rich, then that's something that Microsoft is going to take away from you." -- Max Metral

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Re: FYI!!!! - NETA to buy TIS
by Austin Hill 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

<snip> TIS provides a full line of security products and services including: Gauntlet firewalls to protect network connections; Gauntlet Global Virtual Private Networks to secure electronic communications worldwide; Stalker misuse detection solutions to ensure the integrity of servers which, when used in conjunction with Network Associates' CyberCop, extends this level of protection to networks; and TIS Consulting and Training services to facilitate a company's network running smoothly. TIS' RecoverKey encryption technology provides flexible, scalable, user-controlled key recovery, and has been implemented by multinational organizations for their global networks. TIS is a founding member of the Key Recovery Alliance, an organization of over 60 international companies working together to facilitate the worldwide commercial use of strong encryption. "This announcement represents a fundamental shift in the way large customers will implement security technology," said Bill Larson, chairman and CEO of Network Associates. "Network Associates is the first company to deliver this caliber of technology and this breadth of security products. The ability to tie all of these components together in a centralized management environment is critical to customer success, and Network Associates is the only company to combine security with industry-leading network management capabilities." <snip> Well I guess this returns Network Associates to the Key Recovery Alliance. I wonder what the PGP division thinks about the new member of the family being the founding member of the KRA? -Austin Quoted text from Steve Orrin (sorrin(a)syndata.com ) on 2/23/98 11:46 AM >Hot off the Press: > >http://biz.yahoo.com/snp/980223/tisx_dtp_m_1.html > > >Monday February 23, 10:21 am Eastern Time > >Trusted Information Systems to Be Acquired by Network Associates > >TRUSTED INFORMATION SYSTEMS INC. Signs Definitive Agreement to Be Acquired >by >Network Associates Inc. > >Feb. 23, 1998, Network Associates Inc. (Nasdaq:NETA - news) and Trusted >Information Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:TISX - >news) said they signed a definitive agreement under which NETA will acquire >TISX in a transaction valued at over >$300,000,000. > >Each TISX share will be exchanged for 0.323 of a NETA share. > >Subject to approval by TISX stockholders, among other conditions, the >transaction is expected to close within about 90 days. > > > > >A Picture Tells A Thousand Words. > STEGO >

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