December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Netly News on Nutly News (resend)
by Declan McCullagh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1998 05:42:20 -0700 (PDT) From: Declan McCullagh <declan(a)well.com> To: politech(a)vorlon.mit.edu Subject: The Arrest of the Nutly Bomber http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/0,2326,201980909-14593,00.html TIME Digital Daily September 9, 1998 The Arrest of the Nutly Bomber By Declan McCullagh (declan(a)well.com) [Part I of a Series For two years a pair of anonymous Net crackpots have been posting angry tirades to a cryptography discussion list under a takeoff of Netly called "Nutly News." Now the FBI and Royal Canadian Mounted Police say that a digital signature connects them to a bomb discovered last June in a Canadian courthouse.] It was about 5 p.m. on August 18. Carl Johnson, 49, was beating the heat inside the Rialto Theater in what passes for downtown Tuscon, Ariz. That morning a friend had tipped off Johnson that the police were trying to find him, but for now he had something else on his mind: his music. The itinerant musician and writer had spent the last month furiously scribbling lyrics, friends say, and he wanted a loan from someone he knew who worked at the theater. It was for some recording work, Johnson explained. This was going be his third album, after "My Way or the Highway" and "Please! Stop Me Before I Sing Again." But when Johnson left the Rialto, his musical career was cut short by two federal agents from the IRS's internal security division. They arrested him on charges of Internet threats against federal judges and police. The Canadians wanted Johnson, too, on charges of planting a bomb in a Saskatchewan courthouse.

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Netly News on Nutly News
by Declan McCullagh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/0,2326,201980909-14593,00.html The Arrest of the Nutly Bomber By Declan McCullagh (declan(a)well.com) [Part I of a Series For two years a pair of anonymous Net crackpots have been posting angry tirades to a cryptography discussion list under a takeoff of Netly called "Nutly News." Now the FBI and Royal Canadian Mounted Police say that a digital signature connects them to a bomb discovered last June in a Canadian courthouse.] It was about 5 p.m. on August 18. Carl Johnson, 49, was beating the heat inside the Rialto Theater in what passes for downtown Tuscon, Ariz. That morning a friend had tipped off Johnson that the police were trying to find him, but for now he had something else on his mind: his music. The itinerant musician and writer had spent the last month furiously scribbling lyrics, friends say, and he wanted a loan from someone he knew who worked at the theater. It was for some recording work, Johnson explained. This was going be his third album, after "My Way or the Highway" and "Please! Stop Me Before I Sing Again." But when Johnson left the Rialto, his musical career was cut short by two federal agents from the IRS's internal security division. They arrested him on charges of Internet threats against federal judges and police. The Canadians wanted Johnson, too, on charges of planting a bomb in a Saskatchewan courthouse. [...]

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Checking CDR
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Those of us on cyberpass.net are not getting mail this morning so I've subbed to algebra and ssz to see if the x-posting is working.

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SCADA in power grid
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

this is from http://www.garynorth.com/y2k/detail_.cfm/2439 Gary North's Y2K Links and Forums Summary and Comments (feel free to mail this page) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Category: Power_Grid Date: 1998-08-29 13:57:30 Subject: The Convenient Lie: Link: http://y2ktimebomb.com/PP/RC/dm9834.htm Comment: On August 27, I spoke before a meeting of 500 people -- 5% of a local town. At that meeting, representatives of several industries spoke: banking, telephone, electrical power. When pressed by someone in the audience, the representative of the power company insisted they could run the entire company on manual systems without compliant computers. Forget about noncompliant chips. The company can do it manually. I asked him straight: Can they run the SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) system without telecommunications? That's the computerized system that tells them how much power is running through the lines. "Yes," he said. A week before I had been told by an engineer with a large urban power company that without SCADA, they would fry the lines permanently. "There is no way we could run the system manually." I guess engineers don't agree. I told the audience this: "No system can be switched to pre-computer manual operations without training. Any outfit that claims that it can be run manually had better have a highly trained technical staff to take over in 2000. Does the outfit have a training manual? How much training money has it budgeted?" Any outfit that does not have the staff being trained right now is lying when it says that it can be run manually. It cannot be run manually by phantom workers. The men who knew how to run it manually were fired 30 years ago. The manual systems were replaced. The industry did not spend hundreds of billions of dollars on computerization so as to have two separate operation systems. They spent the money to get rid of manual systems. Any time you hear some representative tell you his public utility can be run manually, ask five questions: 1. How many trained personnel do you need, including substitutes, to run your system manually? 2. How many are currently undergoing training for this task, and how many have finished it? 3. May I come in and see your training manual that you use to train these people? 4. How much money has your company budgeted to train this staff? 5. How much has already been spent? You must call their bluff. They're lying. They have no intention of trying to run anything manually. It's just a PR ploy. It's Monica Lewinsky syndrome. Nobody suffers any consequences for lying to the public. But can't they be sued for lying, i.e., misleading the public? Not if all companies in the industry collapse for the same reason. They will share the blame, or pass it on to a higher authority: "An act of God." When you catch one of them in a lie this big, you can rest assured: he knows that it can't be fixed by anyone, so he knows he can't be successfully sued. Training to convert to manual systems won't work, of course. The power industry can't be run manually, and it's too late to fix the code. Besides, nobody in the industry will pay any attention to such warnings. But at least it lets the industry know that you don't believe the lie any more. Dick Mills, who is a public optimist about the power grid, recently issued a warning to the industry: begin contingency planning. This includes training. This is the best advice that anyone could give the power industry -- not because the advice could work at this late date, but because it's time to call their bluff. This is from Westergaard's site. * * * * * * * * * . . . Isn't there already a national emergency plan in place for such as critical infrastructure such as power? No, not to my knowledge. Please write and tell me if I'm wrong. Never before, has there been a threat to the power system of such sweeping scope and magnitude as Y2K. There was no need for a national electric-power emergency plan. Prudence requires that we have such a plan, not only for Y2K but also for other future threats. I foresee that this plan will need to span national, state, local, public, private, utility and non-utility boundaries. How might we accomplish that? I've been told that existing presidential executive orders allow the entire industry to be nationalized at the stroke of a pen in case of emergency. Thus the authority exists, but it will do no good unless there are plans and trained organizations in place to use it effectively. There are numerous mitigating possibilities to be considered. That is true of not only to electric power but also to all industries and all facets of the Y2K problem. . . . It is already too late to finish Y2K remediation for many companies, but it is not too late for disaster preparations. To actually get practical and practiced disaster preparedness plans in place, we must accomplish three things. I see these three as my working goals. I hope you do the same. . . . We must plan, train, and practice the implementation of emergency procedures. Those are key elements of all emergency services like fire and police. In the Y2K case, we have to combine strangers into teams, invent new roles, and practice. That takes time. Link: http://y2ktimebomb.com/PP/RC/dm9834.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------- Return to Category: Power_Grid Return to Main Categories Return to Home Page

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Re: RUSSIAN DEFECTOR WARNS OF PRE-POSITIONED PORTABLE NUKES
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

An interesting report from a GRU defector. How much of it is true? How much is rehashed? In any case, somebody must have cursed us, because we truly do live in interesting times. Y2K, terrorism, busts of cypherpunks, martial law contingency plans, a meltdown of Asian and Russian economies (with Latin America apparently headed down the same drain), Asama bin Laden, VX nerve gas, Ebola being developed in weapons labs, and on and on. I'm glad I live far away from safe targets and have accumulated enough supplies to "hunker" down for a long time. There are two articles here, both interesting. --Tim May In article <199809082136.VAA01195(a)earth.wazoo.com>, Anonymous <nobody(a)earth.wazoo.com> wrote: > Colonel Stanislav Lunev, Russian GRU defector talks about the BACKPACK NUKES > on KSFO, Geoff Metcalf Show > > KSFO 560 AM San Francisco, Geoff Metcalf Show > > GUEST:Colonel Stanislav Lunev, Russian GRU defector, author of "Through the > Eyes of the Enemy" > > SUMMARY OF LUNEV'S REMARKS > > Boris Yelstin is a mafia tool, an alcoholic who has not at all decreased his > habit of drinking who "cannot appear more than one hour in public or he > looses control over himself". He is a "decoration of power" controlled by > criminals and industrial tycoons who rule Russia behind the scenes. > > "Russia as Friend" is a theme slavishly pursued by breathless Western-types, > but in fact is an illusion. Only 2 months ago a large secret Soviet Air Base > conducted a very large-scale simulation of all-out nuclear with the West. A > similar exercise undertaken by Soviet Northern Fleet only 2 weeks ago. > > In case of outbreak of war (something that Lunev sees as a greater danger > NOW than at any time in the past), portable containers of chemical, > biological, and nuclear for use by Spetnaz against command and control > centers, water and air supplies, and specific individuals in a "decapitory > strike"-type scenario. > > Prior to hostilities, "students and businessmen" infiltrate into the US > using regular airlines, discard their disguises, and proceed to weapon > storage sites and then onto final targets. > > 100 of these weapons are stored outside the former Soviet Union. > > 57 main cells of industrial techno-snooping exist around the San Francisco > Bay Area. > > In February 97, Boris Yelstin gave a special order to Russian intelligence > to dramatically increase industrial espionage against the USA. Lunev > estimates that just in the last several years, espionage within America has > roughly doubled. > > Lunev indicates that China and Russia have entered into substantial, formal > cooperation in their espionage efforts against the USA. He adds that in the > outbreak of war, both countries could fight together against America. > > Metcalf closes by saying that Lunev's book can be ordered by calling > 1-888-606-0614. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > [www.FreeRepublic.com] > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > USG Ignores Soviet Special Troops Inside Our Borders > by Neil C. Livingston and M. K. Pilgrim > > The following scenario outlining typical Spetsnaz-type operations > prior to a Soviet main-force incursion into a foreign country comes > from unclassified U.S. government documents. > > "An unconventional warefare scenario: The following hypothetical > scenario illustrates the employment concept for the full exploitation > of Soviet UW [unconventional warefare] assets. > > "In support of a coordinated attack, air-dropped or air-landed GRU > special purpose teams would be introduced into their respective target > areas some days prior to H-hour. Special KGB sabotage teams would have > been infiltrated over a longer period of time by clandestine methods > to include the use of international commercial travel. These sabotage > teams could be prepared to begin their operations well before the > enemy's rear area security apparatus can be fully alerted. In the > pre-war period, some KGB personnel will seek to undermine national > resistance through political measures. > > "Sabotage teams will begin isolated acts of sabotage such as > destroying a key bridge. In addition, KGB teams will attempt to create > chaos at major ports and distrupt communications. > > "Shortly before D-day, additional sabotage teams will be inserted and > the majority of `sleeper agents' activated. > > "Sabotage equipment can be smuggled into a country by any number of > secret methods and stored in hidden, but easily accessible, caches. > Smuggling techniques may include the offshore dropping of waterproof > containers from ships and submarines. In accordance with the > prearranged signals, they will be recovered and stored by clandestine > support personnel. > > "Sensitive or fragil equipment (electronics material, detonators, and > communication devices) can be brought into the country by diplomatic > pouch and made available to the teams through established procedures. > > "Teams will attempt tp place their explosives and incendiary devices > on the targets and set them to detonate at H-hour. All efforts will be > made to prevent association of these acts with the USSR in order to > maintain the element of surprise for the main attack. Immediately > prior to H-hour, the UW teams will prepare to: > * Locate and destroy nuclear capable weaponry. > * Jam radar installations. > * Kidnap or assassinate key political-military leadership. > * Seize or destroy radio and TV broadcasting facilities. > > "At H-hour a wide spectrum of sabotage actions will be initiated." > > > http://www.icom.net/~tachyon/military/spetsnaz.html > Soldier of Fortune > January 1988 > > SOF SOVIET SPECIAL OPS > SPETSNAZ INVADES AMERICA > USG Ignores Soviet Special Troops Inside Our Borders

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If there's a trial will some of us be witnesses?
by Tim May 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

If Carl Johnson comes to trial, presumably both sides will call expert witnesses. So, who will these witnesses be? Ironically, we are almost certainly the most qualified witnesses on the planet in these issues. However, I expect we are too disreputable, to either side, to be called. Instead, they'll likely call on peripheral players like Dorothy Denning to explain to the jury what AP is. Or perhaps the "Science Applications Inc." lightweight who attempted to analyze anonymity and remailers for a conference paper a year or two ago. Food for thought. I'm not sure how I'd react if either side called on me to act as witness. And if they subpoenaed me, I suppose I'd have to spend a few kilobucks to hire some lawyer to explain to me how and when I could take the Fifth. (That's what it's come to, with lawyers needed at every stage.) --Tim May "The tree of liberty must be watered periodically with the blood of tyrants...." ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments.

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Re: Carl Johnson Warrant and Complaint
by Information Security 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> From: Tim May <tcmay(a)got.net> > > As I'd been deleting nearly all of Toto's stuff unread, I missed all the > stuff about (allegedly) threatening to bomb the RCMP. That's probably true for most of us...it was an unbelievable volume of crap he sent the list. (as opposed to my crap ;-) > Best to leave rants at the general, protected speech level, and to not get > into specifics of names and working habits of agents. For example: # Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1998 22:39:01 -0700 # To: cypherpunks(a)cyberpass.net # From: Tim May <tcmay(a)got.net> # Subject: Tax silliness # # Fox News is reporting that the IRS has said it may seek to # assess "gift taxes" if the guy who recovered Mark McGwire's 61st home # baseball gives the ball back to Mark McGwire. # # Those fuckers in D. C. need to be put out of our misery. Yeah, much better, Tim. ;-) But don't start holding rallies and saying it in public in NYC, or Rudolph Giuliani might have you arrested. ---- http://jya.com/usa-v-cej-wc.htm > 8. On December 9, 1997, an anonymous message was posted to the > Cypherpunks Internet mail group with the subject listed as "Encrypted > InterNet DEATH THREAT!!! / ATTN: Ninth District Judges / PASSWORD: > sog"[.] The body of the message was encrypted with the publicly > available encryption software PGP, and was initially unreadable. Using > PGP software and the password shown in the subject line of the > message, I was able to decrypt the message, which contained a > rambling, five-page statement, including the following: That would appear to be this post: http://www.inet-one.com/cypherpunks/dir.97.12.04-97.12.10/msg00356.html Entirely unexplained is how one goes from passphrase "sog" (Shit on government?) to decrypting the PGP message. What public or private key was used? > 9. I noted that this message contained a PGP digital signature. From > my training and experience, I am aware that this digital signature is > used as a way to authenticate digital documents to make sure that they > are authored by the purported author and that no one has tampered with > them. When I checked the signature using only PGP software, the PGP > program was unable to identify it. What key...? > Only July 1, 1998, Royal Canadian > Mounted Police (RCMP) Investigator Steve Foster provided me with a PGP > "Secret Key Ring" which he stated he had obtained from a computer > which Canadian Customs authorities had seized from an individual by > the name of CARL EDWARD JOHNSON. [A "secret key ring" is a > user-generated code which allows for the encryption (and later > authentication) of computer-generated documents.] When I checked the > digital signature on the Internet death threat using the PGP software > and JOHNSON'S secret key ring, the computer identified the signature > as one of the signature keys stored in JOHNSON'S computer. Because > both the "private" and "public" portions of the "key" were stored on > JOHNSON'S computer, the message can be authenticated as having been > generated by the person who possessed this "secret key" and knew the > correct password. In other words, only the person possessing the > secret key found on JOHNSON'S computer could have generated the "death > threat" message. Sparky got it wrong. Many people could have the same public/secret key pairs, all they have to do is give them out. And you don't authenticate messages with the "secret key" in standard use. This person seems to have no clue, after months of tracking, how basic public key encryption software works. In fact, the key ring could be edited to have a fake secret key and the public key that works as the digital signature for the posted message. More questions: did they get the passphrase for his computer's PGP secret key? How? And why did RCMP customs seize his computer? ---guy

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PGP5.5.5 Problem
by Jim Van Over 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I am seeking assistance with a PGP 5.5.5 system and noting your comments on the net I thought it might be possible for you to help me with a solution. I have been using PGP5.5.5, successfully, for the past four months. However, beginning three days ago I began experiencing a problem. I am using Netscape Navigator and the Netscape Message Center. The problem: When I receive a PGP message I copy it to the clipboard, but, when I depress the "decrypt and verify" line on the PGP tool bar the screen for the "pass phrase" flashes briefly on the screen and disappears. The same thing happens when I use the PGP tools. The PGP tool bar first referred to is the lock icon at the bottom of the screen. I have compared my public key with the key from which I receive messages and they are identical. I am able to encrypt a message to myself and then decrypt it without any problem. It is only when I receive a message from my other computer does the problem exist. I would very much appreciate any ideas you may have as how to correct this problem. Please make your solution as basic as possible as I am not as "computer literate" as I need to be in order to understand most explanations. Thank You Jim Van Over

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The full Monica: Novel new 'service'/Collectors' issue - New interface tomorrow
by STUFFED NEWS DAILY 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Today is the last day using the current interface. After much research we designed a new front end along the lines of what many of you had been asking for. And it's turned out to be super-fast too. That's tomorrow's issue. But for today, here's what you also get! + 30+ FREE HI-RES JPEGS + PAGE 2 'SPREAD': A GORGEOUS GAL + RAUNCHY RECIPE: CRAFTY COOK + LA WINDSKY: AMAZING MODEL + KEEP IT IN THE FAMILY: STRANGE ENCOUNTER + CLINTON CONDOMS: YES IT'S TRUE + ASS-PIRIN: SEX AND DRUGS + WILD THUMBNAILS: 10 FREE PICS + SEXY STORY: "THE GROUPIE" + THE VERY BEST OF EUREKA! - YOUR FAVORITE SITES + SEXY SURPRISE THUMBS: 10 MORE FREE PICS + FOOD FOR SEX: FASCINATING FEATURE + MEGA THUMBNAIL ORGY: ANOTHER 10 FREE PICS + ULTRA HI-RES POSTER PIC: SAVE IT, PRINT IT + LOADS AND LOADS MORE STUFF: CHECK IT OUT! - Have fun! ----> http://stuffed.net/98/9/9/ <---- Welcome to today's issue of Stuffed. To read it you should click on the URL above. If it is not made clickable by your email program you will need to use your mouse to highlight the URL, copy it and then paste it into your browser (then press Return). This email is never sent unsolicited. Stuffed is the supplement for the Eureka newsletter you subscribed to. Full instructions on unsubscribing are in every issue of Eureka! ----> http://stuffed.net/98/9/9/ <----

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Re: Any good hacking sites?
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

M I T wrote: > ... > also, any1 here into AOL hacking??? > Oh, this is almost _too_ easy... Yeah, we know about AOL hacking... First, you get a couple of million clueless fucktards like yourself together and give all of them the same 800-number to dial in... Watch what follows: <closeup of two fuckholes; if breathing weren't an autonomic response, they'd both be dead> bzzzt... bzzzt... bzzzt... <fx: busy signal> Lamer #1: "Hey, d00d, whatcha doin?" bzzzt... bzzzt... bzzzt... Lamer #2: "I'm hacking AOL, man." bzzzt... bzzzt... bzzzt... Lamer #1: "Whoa! C00l, d00d! Can I like, watch?" bzzzt... bzzzt... bzzzt... Lamer #2: "Sure, man." <cut to screen showing WinBlows "Starfield Simulation" screensaver> ... Any questions?

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