December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

y2k: 37% govt computers
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

------- Forwarded Message Date: Thu, 05 Mar 1998 07:04:43 -0600 To: believer(a)telepath.com From: believer(a)telepath.com Subject: IP: Y2K-37% of most critical gov't computers will not be updated in time Source: Los Angeles Times Thursday, March 5, 1998 House Panel Warns of Year 2000 Computer Crisis By RALPH VARTABEDIAN, Times Staff Writer WASHINGTON--In the most dramatic warning yet of an impending computer crisis in the government, a congressional panel said Wednesday that 37% of the most critical computers used by federal agencies will not be updated in time to handle dates in the year 2000 and will be subject to widespread failure. The estimate calls into sharp question past assurances by the Clinton administration that it is moving quickly enough to avert serious outages that could undermine military forces, benefit payments to the public and the nation's air transportation system, among much else. With just 666 days left until the year 2000, a slew of reports and investigations in recent weeks have raised serious concerns that the government is not acting fast enough to avoid serious problems. The executive branch has almost 8,000 computer systems that are considered critical to government operations, and nearly 3,000 of them will not be able to read dates in 2000, according to the report issued by the subcommittee on government management, information and technology of the House Government Operations and Oversight Committee. The computers will either shut down or spew out erroneous data. California Rep. Steve Horn (R-Long Beach), the subcommittee chairman who has taken the lead in Congress in solving the problem, issued a "report card" along with the new report that gave the federal government a D-minus in its efforts to avoid a crisis. "Failure is intolerable," Horn said. The year 2000 problem results from widespread use of two digits in software to designate years. Computers assume that every year starts with "19," so when 2000 arrives, they will interpret "00" as the year 1900. President Clinton created a White House panel on Feb. 4 to lead the government's efforts in solving the problem and appointed John A. Koskinen, former deputy director at the Office of Management and Budget, to lead the effort. But Koskinen has not yet started his work, and his panel has hardly gotten off the ground after 28 days, according to Horn's staff. White House press officials did not respond to queries about Horn's report. As the scope of the government's problems become clearer, the cost to avert a crisis is also growing. The Office of Management and Budget had long insisted that the problem would cost a little more than $2.3 billion to fix, but that figure has been growing over the last year. Its most recent estimate pegged the cost at $4 billion. Horn estimated that the government is facing a cost of $10 billion. Copyright Los Angeles Times ********************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: subscribe ignition-point email@address or unsubscribe ignition-point email@address ********************************************** ------- End of Forwarded Message

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by datasystem＠mailcity.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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Re: Gun Grabbers in WASHINGTON -- Friday
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Anonymous wrote: > >8 a.m.-Noon. POWDER TAGGANTS - Conclusion of a two-day conference by a >National Resarch Council committee examining the technical viability of >and issues related to tagging black and smokeless powders. > Location: National Academy of Sciences, 2100 C St. NW. > Contact: 202-334-2138. The New York Times reported today that the National Research Council found that it was not feasible to require taggants in explosives and recommended that the technology not be pursued. Instead, it proposed improved licensing and protection of storage. The panel noted that it would be very difficult to restrict access to common materials for manufacturing explosives, and that law enforcement should improve investigation, intelligence and education of the public. An unconfirmed Reuters is that the panelists fist-fought tooth-and-nail gouch&suck-eyeballs over the issue of a confidential investigation to determine why there were no ATF agents in Murrah, only the head-hammered remains of all the agency's Wintel boxes choked with endless incoming of "The Availability of Bombmaking Information on the Internet" auto-forwarded from Senator_Feinstein(a)remailer.to.

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by poc＠search-engine-help.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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Barry Smith (FBI) speaks today 3:30pm at UMBC
by Dr. Alan Sherman 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The UMBC Security Technology Research Group presents A Law-Enforcement Perspective on Encryption Policy Barry Smith Supervisory Special Agent, FBI moderated by journalist Peter Wayner 3:30pm - 5:00pm Friday, March 6, 1998 Lecture Hall III University of Maryland, Baltimore County http://www.cs.umbc.edu/events/spring98/crypto.shtml The second lecture and discussion in a two-part forum on encryption policy. Journalist Peter Wayner will introduce and moderate the event, which is free and open to the public. In Part I, freedom activist John Gilmore and Fritz Fielding (Ex-Associate General Councel, NSA) gave their divergent views, focusing on the Burnstein case. Barry Smith will articulate the needs of law enforcement to conduct lawful wiretaps; he will advocate the use of key-recovery techniques to achieve this end as a way that provides adequate privacy to law-abiding citizens. Schedule: The event will begin with a brief (10 minute) introduction by Peter Wayner. Following Barry Smith's talk, which will last approximately 45 minutes, there will be an opportunity to ask questions for approximately 20-30 minutes. Questions: Attendees are encouraged to ask questions in advance by sending email to sherman(a)cs.umbc.edu Directions: Take Exit #47B off interstate I-95 and follow signs to UMBC. LH III is in the Administration Building, adjacent visitor's parking lot near the I-95 entrance to UMBC. Host: Dr. Alan T. Sherman Associate Professor, Computer Science sherman(a)cs.umbc.edu http://www.umbc.edu (410) 455-2666 This event is held in cooperation with the UMBC Intellectual Sports Council Honors College Phi Beta Kappa honors society CMSC Council of Majors IFSM Council of Majors ACM Student Chapter at UMCP

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BXA 97 Report on Encryption
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

BXA issued its 1997 Annual Report on March 4. We've excerpted the sections on encryption, which summarize the administration's policy, goals and accomplisments: http://jya.com/bxa97-encry.htm (43K) Sample: In the nine month period from the transfer of commercial encryption items to Commerce through the end of FY 1997, BXA has received over 1,000 encryption license applications valued at more than $500,000,000. Forty companies have submitted commitment plans which lay out how they will build and market key recovery products. These companies include some of the largest software and hardware manufacturers in the country. BXA has approved 32 of these plans; none have been rejected. Furthermore, eight companies have submitted requests for a one-time review of key recovery encryption items which will facilitate the establishment of a key management infrastructure (KMI). Four of these products have been approved for eligibility under License Exception KMI. BXA has also approved four U.S. entities to serve as their own Key Recovery agents for these products (i.e. corporate "self-escrow").

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UPS to market DIGITAL SIGNATURE AUTHENTICATED DIGITAL DOCUMENT DELIVERY, $5 < $x < $10
by David Honig 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/technology/wired/story.html?s=n/reuters /980306/wired/stories/ups_2.html UPS ships high-tech security along with packages By Randolph Court SAN FRANCISCO (Wired) - United Parcel Service stepped into the secure-electronic-data-transmission business this week, promising to make online-document delivery as trustworthy and easy to use as a dollar bill minted by the US Treasury. "We view ourselves as a trusted third party," said Mark Rhoney, vice president of marketing for electronic commerce at UPS. But can UPS shift its focus from shipping cartons into computer bits? Its move marks a head-on assault at a growing business now handled by much smaller, specialized high-tech companies. What UPS will offer by the second quarter of 1998 is an alternative to existing systems offered by lesser known entities like Entrust Technologies and Network Associates' PGP division. Entrust and PGP hawk encryption systems that allow one person to send a secure data file to someone else with no meddling from any outsiders. UPS's new service, developed in partnerships with Tumbleweed Software and NetDox, is based on the idea that a supervisor should be involved in the process to guarantee the integrity of the information being sent. Say a lawyer wants to send a contract worth $3 million, but the recipient decides to tinker with the numbers and knock the figure down to $2.5 million. The situation dissolves to finger pointing, each side saying they agreed to something different. With the UPS system, the data that is sent will be digitally fingerprinted and archived with time stamps and receipts from each party, so there will be records of whether or not a document has been tampered with. "The document is digitally notarized and legally binding," said NetDox spokesman Lee Kallman. If there is a finger-pointing situation, UPS will be able to prove in court exactly what was sent, by whom, who received it, and when. "That's what you don't get with other encryption systems, and that's the void UPS wants to fill," said Kallman. The service will play a role not unlike the role a government plays when it guarantees the value of currency, Kallman said. UPS will insure the integrity of each document, and the identity of both sender and receiver, for up to $100,000. The system is called UPS Document Exchange, and it will offer two levels of security - Dossier for the strong stuff and Courier for the milder version. For the most sensitive data, UPS will use a system designed by NetDox that requires users to download a software client that wraps data - any sort of digital information, from simple documents to multimedia - in two layers of encryption, an inner 40-bit layer, and an outer 128-bit layer. The data is sent to a UPS server where it is unwrapped, and a digital fingerprint is taken and stored; then it is re-wrapped and sent to its destination, where the recipient opens it with the NetDox client software. For less-critical data packages, UPS will use a system designed by Tumbleweed that encrypts data with a varying number of bits to accommodate the different encryption levels supported by browsers in different countries. The encrypted data is then sent to a UPS server, where it is stored at a 128-bit encryption level. The server sends an email message to the recipient telling him or her the Web address where the data resides and how it can be accessed via browser with RSA encryption. --- UPS has been close-mouthed on the question of price, saying only that delivery will be more expensive than a 32-cent stamp and cheaper than a traditional overnight delivery. NetDox has been charging $5.35 for domestic transactions and $10.70 for international data exchanges, according to Kallman. But it hasn't had much competition. If the UPS service proves viable and other competitors emerge, prices could drop precipitously, Kallman said. News of the UPS service was greeted warmly in some corners of the encryption industry, and skeptically in others. "We're very excited to hear that a large company like UPS is rolling out a broad-based service like this," said Gina Klein Jorasch, director of enterprise marketing at VeriSign. The company provides digital certificates, which act like identity cards tying a user's identity to a public key that enables the encryption process. --- VeriSign has reason to be hopeful, though. Software clients like the ones provided by NetDox and Tumbleweed require digital certificates, just like those provided by VeriSign. "A deal between VeriSign and UPS is very conceivable," Jorasch said. Jeff Harell, the product manager for PGP products at computer security giant Network Associates, quarreled with the fundamental idea of involving outsiders in the data transmission process. "Why would a corporate customer want to go to third-party systems?" Harell asked. "A lot of companies don't want to involve a third party that they are required to trust." Many companies view their data as too important to risk exposing to a system with so many junctions and exchange points. PGP is a proprietary system. Users sending and receiving data must both have PGP, and their keys can only be provided and verified by PGP. All of this is new in the traditional package delivery industry, but not unexpected. "Now that the Web has become so ubiquitous, this strikes me as something that UPS and the other delivery companies needed to do," said Rita Knox, an industry analyst with the Gartner Group. "This is a pretty compelling service," Knox added. "It's available 24/7 and it's virtually instantaneous." Federal Express, after a failed attempt to introduce an electronic service in the early 1980s, ended up setting a standard in the industry in 1995 when it launched a self-service ordering and tracking system on the Web. Similar services have since been adopted by UPS and Airborne Express, among other competitors. Analysts are looking ahead to the possibility of UPS's online delivery service becoming an industry must-have if it proves successful. "I definitely anticipate another domino effect if UPS has any success with this at all," said Michael Sullivan-Trainer of International Data Corp. "All it takes is one competitor to introduce a new software innovation and it changes industry dynamics." ------------------------------------------------------------ David Honig Orbit Technology honig(a)otc.net Intaanetto Jigyoubu "But if we have to use force, it is because we are America; we are the indispensable nation." ---Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright http://www.jya.com/see-far.htm

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No Subject
by David Honig 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Politicians still think they're relevant... Given that this bill passed 414-1, it'll likely be US law soon. Does this mean that law enforcement will now need a judicial wiretap order to go scanning for evidence to get a warrant? http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/technology/story.html?s=n/reuters/98030 6/tech/stories/privacy_1.html Friday March 6 10:33 AM EST House Passes Wireless Privacy Bill WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a bid to protect privacy for cellphone or digital calls, the House Thursday voted 414-1 to make intercepting such phone conversations illegal. The Wireless Privacy Enhancement Act makes clear that the act of interception -- whether or not the call is later divulged or disseminated in any way -- is against the law. It bans modification of scanners that are now on the market that can easily pick up calls made on cell phones, and prevents a market for new scanners capable of intercepting digital communications. The bill, which the Senate has not yet acted on, increases penalties for intercepting or divulging private communications, making them subject to a $2,000 fine and six months in jail. Earlier laws had not treated such interceptions as serious offenses if they were not used for financial gain. Although the bill had broad bipartisan support, it was a particular favorite of Republicans, who were furious after a December 1996 cellphone conversation involving House Speaker Newt Gingrich and fellow Republican leaders was taped by a Florida couple. House Republicans have alleged that Washington Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott then leaked it. McDermott -- who voted for the wireless privacy act -- has not publicly commented on those allegations. Ohio Republican Rep. John Boehner, who was using a cellphone in his wife's car in that conversation with Gingrich, enthusiastically backed the bill. "Our message should be plain and simple," he said. "If you violate someone's privacy, you are not creating idle mischief, you are breaking the law and of the land and you will be brought to justice." Roughly 50 million Americans use some kind of new mobile electronic communications services, according to the bill's sponsors. The sole vote against the bill came from Ron Paul, a Texas Republican. He was not immediately available for comment. ------------------------------------------------------------ David Honig Orbit Technology honig(a)otc.net Intaanetto Jigyoubu If you start now, the year 2038 problem might be tractable.

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by Eng500 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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RE: Crypto as contraband
by Dave Emery 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Subject: Re: [LEGAL] Crypto as Contraband? Reply-To: die(a)die.com References: <v03102809b1265edd4202(a)[207.167.93.63]> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.85 In-Reply-To: <v03102809b1265edd4202(a)[207.167.93.63]>; from Tim May on Fri, Mar 06, 1998 at 06:20:39PM -0800 On Fri, Mar 06, 1998 at 06:20:39PM -0800, Tim May wrote: > > (Even with guns, in the U.S., there have historically been > "grandfatherings" of existing guns. Not always, as with certain machine > guns. And not with gold, which was declared contraband by the Reichsfuhrer > in 1933.) > > Could possession of PGP be still legal, but _use_ declared illegal? > > (Not addressing the First Amendment issues, which are even stronger, but > just the issue of retroactive contrabanding of something which was acquired > legally, and by hundreds of thousands of law-abiding citizens.) > The House has just done this yesterday as mentioned in several items posted to this very list: From HR2369, the Wireless Communications Privacy Enchancement Act of 1998, passed by the House 414 to 1.... "(4) Any person who manufactures, assembles, modifies, imports, exports, sells, or distributes any electronic, mechanical, or other device or equipment, knowing or having reason to know that the device or equipment ..." .... clause concerning satellite piracy gear omited ..... " , or is intended for any receipt, interception, divulgence, publication, or utilization of any communication in violation of subsection (a), shall be fined not more than $500,000 for each violation, or imprisoned for not more than 5 years for each violation, or both. For purposes of all penalties and remedies established for violations of this paragraph, the prohibited activity established herein as it applies to each such device shall be deemed a separate violation." Subsection a: " ....... No person not being authorized by the sender shall intentionally intercept any radio communication *or* divulge or publish the existence, contents, substance, purport, effect, or meaning of such intercepted communication to any person..........." [note that *and* was changed by this bill to *or*, making interception itself criminal] The only exception being : "Nothing in this subsection prohibits an interception or disclosure of a communication as authorized by chapter 119 of title 18, United States Code." [which covers broadcast, ham, marine, aviation. governmental, and communications readily accessible to the general public, whatever that means] While this doesn't exactly retroactively ban *possession* of radio gear capable of intercepting banned radio communications, it provides extremely stiff felony level penalties for manufacturing, assembling, modifying, importing, exporting, selling, or distributing any radio receiving gear that might be construed to be intended for receipt or interception of any radio communications not on the allowed list. And these penalties apply to each individual sale. Thus selling an old scanner at a Saturday morning hamfest to a stranger for cash - a scanner legally purchased from Radio Shack in the era before cell phone frequencies were outlawed on scanners - could conceivably result in a $500,000 fine and a five year jail term. And Lord knows what horrible penalties could be assessed against innocent people selling the sort of oddball specialized communications gear and test equipment that are the stock in trade of many of the more interesting ham fests and swapmeets [MIT's monthly fleas for example]. Perhaps such informal personal sales will never be prosecuted, but most sales of gear at hamfests and the like are anonymous cash transactions between total strangers with every possiblity that the guy a table over with the video camera is filming your sale for evidence. And for those who like to hack, tinkering quietly in their basements with communications monitoring and decoding software and hardware, manufacture and assembly have been defined in other federal cases to include merely writing software for one's own use. Surely this would apply to creating cryptanalysis software for any form of radio communications at all, since it is not legal to intercept any radio communications that are "scrambled or encrypted". And there is no exception made for research and development or academic purposes. So yes, they have done at least as bad a thing to people who merely want to tinker with their radios and occasionally explore what is out there in the ether by passively and in private receiving radio signals as they have to gun owners, who at least possess a weapon capable of doing some serious harm. And there is not a single sentance in the legislation providing any kind of encouragement for the use of cryptography to protect the privacy of openly broadcast signals receivable for miles around, let alone mandating it. -- Dave Emery N1PRE, die(a)die.com DIE Consulting, Weston, Mass. PGP fingerprint = 2047/4D7B08D1 DE 6E E1 CC 1F 1D 96 E2 5D 27 BD B0 24 88 C3 18

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