December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Holiday Shopping Survey And Contest
by prize＠survey.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Dear Internet User, The holiday season will soon be upon us. Will you be making your list and checking it twice online? We're curious about what role, if any, the Internet will play in your holiday plans this year. Share your opinions with us and you could win a free Talking Tommy (from hit Rugrats' TV Show) or Talking Teletubby toy (from popular PBS show). To join in the holiday fun, go to the survey at: http://www.survey.com/holshopsur.html Be sure to include your email address at the end of the survey so we can enter your name in the drawing. It is not required that any information be provided other than your email address for you to be entered into the drawing. A complete list of contest rules is attached to the survey. We will be happy to let you know when the results are ready. Happy Holidays and good luck on the drawing! Greg Harmon Director of Research World Research

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My first order of Business (http://www.jesseventura.org/bbs/messages/3052.html) (fwd)
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1998 06:56:20 -0500 Reply-To: Law & Policy of Computer Communications <CYBERIA-L(a)LISTSERV.AOL.COM> Sender: Law & Policy of Computer Communications <CYBERIA-L(a)LISTSERV.AOL.COM> From: Robbin Stewart <rstewart(a)INDY.NET> Subject: My first order of Business (http://www.jesseventura.org/bbs/messages/3052.html) (fwd) Comments: To: robbin stewart <rstewart(a)indy3.indy.net> To: CYBERIA-L(a)LISTSERV.AOL.COM It appears that we've found a solution to spam. Somebody sent "make money fast" type post to Jesse's web-based bulliten board and got the following response. Forwarded message: > Subject: My first order of Business >(http://www.jesseventura.org/bbs/messages/3052.html) > > My first order of Business > > > [ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ jesseventura Message Board ] > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------= > ------- > > Posted by Jesse Ventura on November 06, 1998 at 02:03:38: > > In Reply to: $$ posted by $$ on November 06, 1998 at 01:05:44: > > Is to rid the internet of spammers like this JERK. By the way we have = > your IP and your interner provider will be contacted, enjoy your 6X9 = > cell.=20 > --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)philodox.com> Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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RSA Seeks Nominees for Awards & $10K Honors <FW>
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text X-Sender: vin(a)shell1.shore.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1998 01:27:20 -0500 To: "John Young" <jya(a)pop.pipeline.com>, "Dave Farber" <farber(a)cis.upenn.edu> From: Vin McLellan <vin(a)shore.net> Subject: RSA Seeks Nominees for Awards & $10K Honors <FW> Cc: cryptography(a)c2.net Sender: bounce-dcsb(a)ai.mit.edu Precedence: bulk Reply-To: Vin McLellan <vin(a)shore.net> <fyi> RSA Data Security <http:www.rsa.com> invites industry and political activists, netizens, and scholars to nominate individuals who should be honored for their "outstanding contributions" to the field of cryptography. RSADSI annually awards three US$10,000 prizes to innovators and leaders in the fields of Mathematics, Public Policy, and Industry. The final selection is by a panel of academic and industry experts, but the nomination process is open to all. Nominations for the 1999 Awards can be made directly at <http://www.rsa.com/rsaawards/> anytime before 12/4/98. "The RSA Award in Mathematics recognizes innovation and ongoing contributions to the field of cryptography. The Committee seeks to reward nominees who are pioneers in their field, and whose work has applied value." Nominees should be affiliated with universities or research labs. The 1998 winner of the RSA Math Award was Dr. Shafrira Goldwasser, who was also named to the RSA Professorship at MIT last year. Prof. Goldwasser's pioneering work in number theory, complexity, and cryptography has also won MIT's Grace Murray Hopper Award and the first Godel Prize. Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) -- primary sponsor of HR 696, the Security and Freedom Thru Encryption (SAFE) Act -- was the 1998 winner of the RSA Public Policy Award. This prize seeks to honor elected or appointed officials, or activists associated with public interest groups, who have made a "significant contribution" to the American policy debate about cryptography over the previous calendar year. The RSA Award for Industry seeks to honor individuals or organizations which have made outstanding contributions in commercial applications of crypto -- "particularly those that provide clear value to the end users" -- and demonstrated "ongoing innovation in their technology and products." The 1998 winner was Netscape, source of SSL and a steady steam of clever innovations for the denizens of the web. Taher ElGamal accepted for Netscape. The three winners for 1999 will be announced at the 1999 RSA Data Security Conference, which (having outgrown Nob Hill, to the regret of many) is being held in San Jose, January 17-21. See: <http://www.rsa.com/conf99> ----- Vin McLellan + The Privacy Guild + <vin(a)shore.net> 53 Nichols St., Chelsea, MA 02150 USA <617> 884-5548 -- <@><@> -- For help on using this list (especially unsubscribing), send a message to "dcsb-request(a)ai.mit.edu" with one line of text: "help". --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)philodox.com> Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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Nov. 8 column - stop and search
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text Resent-Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1998 00:44:48 -0700 Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1998 23:42:03 -0800 (PST) X-Sender: vin(a)dali.lvrj.com Mime-Version: 1.0 To: vinsends(a)ezlink.com From: Vin_Suprynowicz(a)lvrj.com (Vin Suprynowicz) Subject: Nov. 8 column - stop and search Resent-From: vinsends(a)ezlink.com X-Mailing-List: <vinsends(a)ezlink.com> archive/latest/585 X-Loop: vinsends(a)ezlink.com Precedence: list Resent-Sender: vinsends-request(a)ezlink.com FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED NOV. 8, 1998 THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz To enhance officer safety and convenience Fortunately, even the most traditionally "law-and-order" members of the U.S. Supreme Court seemed both surprised and skeptical Tuesday when confronted with the broad discretion which Iowa now grants its police to search drivers pulled over for routine traffic violations ... even without any "probable cause" to believe a further crime has been committed. Appellant Patrick Knowles was stopped for speeding on March 6, 1996, in Newton, Iowa. An officer gave Knowles a speeding ticket and then informed him he had a right to search Knowles and his cart, which the cop proceeded to do. The search turned up a pipe and a small quantity of marijuana, which Iowa courts allowed to be used as evidence. Knowles was convicted and sentenced to 90 days in jail, but is now appealing based on the Constitution's Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches. "If somebody jaywalks, the police could search them?" asked Justice John Paul Stevens. "Correct," explained Iowa Assistant Attorney General Bridget A. Chambers. Justice Antonin Scalia then asked Ms. Chambers whether an officer could stop someone, arrest and search them, and then drop the arrest. Yes, she said. "Wow," the justice responded. The record of the initial court case reveals that arresting Officer Ronald Cook was "disarmingly candid" on the subject of probable cause, in the phrase of long-term court watcher James J. Kilpatrick. "Anything you observed lead you to believe or give you probable cause to believe that he was involved in criminal activity?" the officer was asked. "Not on this date, no," he responded. "It was your understanding that simply because you had issued him a citation that that gave you the right to search him and his vehicle?" "Yes, ma'am." About 400,000 people are given traffic tickets each year in Iowa, Knowles' lawyer, Paul Rosenberg, told the high court Tuesday. But police invoke their authority to conduct searches only selectively, since if everyone given a traffic ticket were searched, "the people wouldn't stand for it." Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist reminded the parties that police already have authority to conduct a search following an arrest, to protect their own safety and to preserve evidence. But regarding a need to preserve evidence, the chief justice added, "When you have a traffic stop, you're not going to find any more evidence of speeding when you search a person's car." The Supreme Court's 1973 decision allows police to conduct a "search incident to arrest," noted Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. But "You want to turn it around and have an arrest incident to search. ... It seems to me that would be an abuse of authority." "It does seem an enormous amount of authority to put into the hands of the police," agreed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Regular observers of the court warn us not to draw too many conclusions from the jurists' questions alone -- the justices have been known to play devil's advocate, challenging the position of a party whose side they actually intend to favor, in order to better develop their own arguments. But this sounds like a case where the court's astonishment over Iowa's brazen defiance of the Constitutional ban on "unreasonable" and warrantless searches was no sham. The notion that we should not object to government agents stopping and frisking any passer-by since "It's for the protection of everyone" and "The innocent have nothing to fear," is the next-to-last stop on the one-way trainride to tyranny. Yes, such measures appear to make the policeman's lot a bit easier, in the short run. But once the populace begin to see these officers not as friendly keepers of the peace and protectors of our liberties, but rather as a hostile occupying army, patting us down and muscling through our belongings at will, that could quickly change. As the Hessians learned in 1776. The high court is expected to rule in the case of Mr. Knowles by July. Let us hope the Supremes set a firm high water mark for this particular tide of tyranny, and begin to roll it back. Cops deserve our praise and support when they undertake the dangerous job of chasing down violent thugs and felons -- but not when they turn to rummaging through our pockets, our glove compartments, and our sock drawers. Vin Suprynowicz is the assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Readers may contact him via e-mail at vin(a)lvrj.com. The web sites for the Suprynowicz column are at http://www.infomagic.com/liberty/vinyard.htm, and http://www.nguworld.com/vindex/. The column is syndicated in the United States and Canada via Mountain Media Syndications, P.O. Box 4422, Las Vegas Nev. 89127. *** Vin Suprynowicz, vin(a)lvrj.com The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it. -- John Hay, 1872 The most difficult struggle of all is the one within ourselves. Let us not get accustomed and adjusted to these conditions. The one who adjusts ceases to discriminate between good and evil. He becomes a slave in body and soul. Whatever may happen to you, remember always: Don't adjust! Revolt against the reality! -- Mordechai Anielewicz, Warsaw, 1943 * * * --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)philodox.com> Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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IP: ISPI Clips 6.16: Using Credit Reports Crooks Assume YourIdentity & Buy Luxury Cars
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text Delivered-To: ignition-point(a)majordomo.pobox.com From: "ama-gi ISPI" <offshore(a)email.msn.com> To: <Undisclosed.Recipients(a)majordomo.pobox.com> Subject: IP: ISPI Clips 6.16: Using Credit Reports Crooks Assume Your Identity & Buy Luxury Cars Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1998 00:26:20 -0800 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.3110.3 Sender: owner-ignition-point(a)majordomo.pobox.com Precedence: list Reply-To: "ama-gi ISPI" <offshore(a)email.msn.com> ISPI Clips 6.16: Using Credit Reports Crooks Assume Your Identity & Buy Luxury Cars News & Info from the Institute for the Study of Privacy Issues (ISPI) Friday November 6, 1998 ISPI4Privacy(a)ama-gi.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This From: The Las Angeles Times, Friday, October 23, 1998 http://www.latimes.com Grand Theft Auto Enters the Computer Age http://www.latimes.com/HOME/NEWS/LIFE/AUTO/AUTONEWS/t000096175.html Crime: Hackers are using cyberspace to obtain credit information and purchase luxury vehicles under assumed identities. By SCOTT GLOVER, Times Staff Writer In a new twist on an old crime, computer-savvy thieves have begun hacking into credit files and fabricating drivers' licenses, then walking into car dealerships and buying luxury cars under assumed identities, authorities said. After putting about $10,000 down for a new $120,000 Mercedes-Benz, authorities say, the thief then drives off the lot, leaving behind a commission-happy salesperson. Within a week, they say, the car will most likely be in a container bound for resale on foreign shores. "The problem is growing on a monthly basis," said John Bryan, a Los Angeles County sheriff's captain who runs a regional anti-car-theft unit. Bryan estimated that members of his Taskforce for Regional Autotheft Prevention, or TRAP, arrested about 60 people in 1997 who were running such scams. One of last year's victims was Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke and her husband, William. In her case, Burke said a con artist took her name from the newspaper and paid a Georgia jeweler to run a credit check on her to obtain more information. She said the man then obtained a driver's license in William Burke's name and went on a spending spree. Using the Burkes' credit information, the man bought four Yamaha WaveRunner personal water vehicles and a BMW and tried to purchase a Mercedes-Benz and Ford Thunderbird. "We were getting bills in the mail every day," Burke said. "It was driving me crazy." She said the man was finally caught when he brought the BMW back to the dealership to have a trailer hitch installed so he could pull the WaveRunner behind the car. In another case last year, authorities said a man established a dummy real estate company to obtain personal credit histories, then used the information to make more than $1 million in fraudulent purchases, including several cars. Bryan said another scam involved fraudulent applications for car purchases at a San Gabriel Valley dealership. In that case, investigators seized eight cars and believe as many as 40 more were purchased and illegally sold. The thieves generally don't shop for bargains either, Bryan said. "They go for Mercedeses, BMWs, Lexuses, you name it." Bryan said the thieves are typically well-dressed--sometimes even in suits--and have a calm demeanor as they "shop" for a car. "They walk in there looking like they can afford it," he said. "They know what they're doing." Bryan said the average price of a stolen car is about $60,000, and that most of those who have been arrested are suspected of stealing numerous cars. The thieves usually make tens of thousands of dollars' profit on a single sale. Because cases are time-consuming and difficult to prove, Bryan said, an offender is often charged with only one theft. The crimes could result in several charges, including grand theft auto and credit card fraud, punishable by a minimum of three years in prison, according to a spokesman for the district attorney's office. Popular markets for the stolen vehicles include China, numerous republics of the former Soviet Union and the United Arab Emirates, police said. People who have had their identities stolen and used to purchase the cars are not liable, Bryan said. Burke said, even though she was in a position to put pressure on authorities to solve the case, she spent months trying to clean up her credit. "It was a nightmare," she said. "And it could happen to anybody." Copyright 1998 Los Angeles Times. --------------------------------NOTICE:------------------------------ ISPI Clips are news & opinion articles on privacy issues from all points of view; they are clipped from local, national and international newspapers, journals and magazines, etc. Inclusion as an ISPI Clip does not necessarily reflect an endorsement of the content or opinion by ISPI. In compliance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed free without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ISPI Clips is a FREE e-mail service from the "Institute for the Study of Privacy Issues" (ISPI). To receive "ISPI Clips" on a regular bases (up to 3 - 8 clips per day) send the following message "Please enter [Your Name] into the ISPI Clips list: [Your e-mail address]" to: ISPIClips(a)ama-gi.com . The Institute for the Study of Privacy Issues (ISPI) is a small contributor-funded organization based in Victoria, British Columbia (Canada). ISPI operates on a not-for-profit basis, accepts no government funding and takes a global perspective. ISPI's mandate is to conduct & promote interdisciplinary research into electronic, personal and financial privacy with a view toward helping ordinary people understand the degree of privacy they have with respect to government, industry and each other and to likewise inform them about techniques to enhance their privacy. But, none of this can be accomplished without your kind and generous financial support. If you are concerned about the erosion of your privacy in general, won't you please help us continue this important work by becoming an "ISPI Supporter" or by taking out an institute Membership? We gratefully accept all contributions: Less than $60 ISPI Supporter $60 - $99 Primary ISPI Membership (1 year) $100 - $300 Senior ISPI Membership (2 years) More than $300 Executive Council Membership (life) Your ISPI "membership" contribution entitles you to receive "The ISPI Privacy Reporter" (our bi-monthly 12 page hard-copy newsletter in multi-contributor format) for the duration of your membership. For a contribution form with postal instructions please send the following message "ISPI Contribution Form" to ISPI4Privacy(a)ama-gi.com . We maintain a strict privacy policy. Any information you divulge to ISPI is kept in strict confidence. It will not be sold, lent or given away to any third party. **************************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address or (un)subscribe ignition-point-digest email@address **************************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **************************************************** --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)philodox.com> Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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ISPs now responsible for Pirated Material
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text X-Authentication-Warning: lpma.la-ma.org: majordom set sender to owner-general(a)la-ma.org using -f X-Sender: dkrick(a)pobox3.bbn.com Date: Fri, 06 Nov 1998 07:29:38 -0500 To: general(a)la-ma.org From: Doug Krick <dkrick(a)bbnplanet.com> Subject: ISPs now responsible for Pirated Material Mime-Version: 1.0 Sender: owner-general(a)la-ma.org Precedence: bulk http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,28357,00.html?st.ne.fd.mdh Summary: IF a local ISP doesn't register with the goverment, per a new law Clinton signed this week, the ISP can be held legally responsible for any pirated material that may be on their site. Doug --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)philodox.com> Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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Re: RE: Digicash bankruptcy
by Kawika Daguio 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Much of Digicash's problems came about as a result of its inventors worldview and dreams. These primary problems were caused by the same factors that created the impetus for their development. The business constraints that David Chaum attempted to impose on everyone interested in his technology included social theory driven restrictions. He really wanted to change not only how future payment systems worked but also wanted to change how current payment mechanisms and general social interaction and commerce worked in the future. I share some of his concerns, but do not find his solution satisfactory. I also remain unconvinced that point to point protection of sensitive information including credit cards numbers solves anything. Infosec as practiced in the WebWorld leaves much to be desired. Point to point encryption + weak and misleading naming (domain names) + near meaningless authentication + untrustworthy practices = slightly worse to slightly better than nothing at all. I am extremely patient (5-50 year time horizon) and remain hopeful that time, money, and proper attention by experienced risk and operations managers will resolve many of the weaknesses with current infrastructure and business models. Kawika >>> "Phillip Hallam-Baker" <hallam(a)ai.mit.edu> 11/05/98 09:07PM >>> Phil is right in much of what he says but in a couple of cases he is wrong. Regarding the 'vortex of buzz technologies', VRML, network computers and push are certainly not hot properties at the moment, neither is interactive TV - but the Web was designed as the antithesis of Interactive TV. The root failure of Interactive TV was the assumption that the world wanted to spend its time passively consuming the dross pumped out through a 1000 channel 120" TV which would dominate the home. I would also like to add Java onto the pile. Java today is simply what C++ should have been. It does not revolutionize the programming industry, it simply provides what some people think is an object oriented programming environment and removes some of the worst legacy clutter of C. Cryptographic payment systems are here - in the form of credit card transactions over SSL. The main problem with SET and its competitors is that SSL works a little too well. That is not to say that there is no future for SET. SSL and credit cards are unlikely to make the leap from the consumer market to the business to business market. SET provides an ideal platform to integrate the use of the credit card infrastructure for business payments. The other area where I would disagree is over protocols. HTTP is quite radically different to FTP in that it is a computer client to computer server protocol. The metaphor of FTP is rumaging through a filing cabinet. The HTTP and Web mechanism employs a locator. Admittedly there was nothing to stop a text mode Web being created in 1982 but nobody did so. What is true is that the time taken for Internet technologies to move to market is very slow. Much of the HTTP technology that just reached the market was proposed in '92 and '93. Finaly I have difficulty regarding Digicash as being all that socially responsible. Chaum's problems had a lot to do with the business terms he insisted on. What he had was a technology which allowed an improvement to a payment system. He imagined he had a monopoly on the only feasible solution. He was very baddly mistaken. The monopoly rents he demanded were more than the market was willing to pay for a working and deployed system - let alone for a patent license. Phill For help on using this list (especially unsubscribing), send a message to "dcsb-request(a)ai.mit.edu" with one line of text: "help".

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IP: New Law Requires ISPs to Register & Rat
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text Delivered-To: ignition-point(a)majordomo.pobox.com X-Sender: believer(a)telepath.com Date: Fri, 06 Nov 1998 08:11:11 -0600 To: believer(a)telepath.com From: believer(a)telepath.com Subject: IP: New Law Requires ISPs to Register & Rat Mime-Version: 1.0 Sender: owner-ignition-point(a)majordomo.pobox.com Precedence: list Reply-To: believer(a)telepath.com Source: http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,28357,00.html?st.ne.1.head Law enlists ISPs in piracy fight By John Borland Staff Writer, CNET News.com November 4, 1998, 5:30 p.m. PT A new set of federal regulations requires Internet service providers to register immediately with the U.S. government, lest they be held legally liable for pirated material that flows through their servers. The new rules, which went into effect yesterday, flow from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which was signed by President Clinton last week. The law shields ISPs from being sued for copyright infringement based on their subscribers' postings, so long as they register with the U.S. Copyright Office. The provision is the product of negotiations over the original copyright law, and was accepted reluctantly by service provider industry representatives. "This isn't what we would have wanted. It's a Washington approach to a simple kind of problem," said Dave McClure, executive director of the Association of Online Professionals, a trade group that represents ISPs. Copyright holders had complained that some ISPs were not responding to warnings about pirated material located on their servers, or were claiming ignorance even after being notified. "Copyright holders pushed for a requirement that a person actually be physically designated to receive information about infringement," McClure said. The new law fills a legal gap left by the passage of the Communications Decency Act in 1996. Under that law, ISPs cannot be held liable for slanderous or libelous material that is posted on their services. That provision, which has been tested several times in court already, specifically excludes copyright issues. The new regulations require each ISP to designate a point-person to receive complaints about copyright infringement, and to send that information to the federal copyright office along with a $20 filing fee. The person's name and contact information also must be displayed prominently on the ISP's Web site. The rules went into effect November 3. Any unregistered ISP can legally be held liable for pirated material on its site from now on. The Copyright Office rules are only an interim step in the new law's implementation. Regulators will draft permanent rules and host a public comment period later this year or early next year. ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- **************************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address or (un)subscribe ignition-point-digest email@address **************************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **************************************************** --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)philodox.com> Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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securities - PRIVATE PLACEMENT WSG TECH, INC.
by privateplacement＠royal.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Opportunities in manufacturing and marketing patented products. This announcement is neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation of an offer to buy these securities. Sales will be made only by a final Offering Memorandum and only in states where these securities may be offered in compliance with the securities laws of such states. The final Offering Memorandum will NOT be available to residents of the states of Hawaii, Washington, or Wisconsin. PRIVATE PLACEMENT MEMORANDUM REGULATION - RULE 504 UNDER THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933. 500,000 Shares of Common class non-voting stock. (Par Value $.001 Per Share) $2.00 Per Share with a 5,000 Share Minimum of WSG Tech, Inc. WSG Tech, Inc. (Company), a Nevada corporation was incorporated in Nevada in August 1998. The Company owns the manufacturing and distribution rights, or has the Options to the rights of several commercially viable patented products, and is negotiating for others. The firm also owns the option to purchase an established manufacturing firm with over twenty (20) years of continuous profitable performance. The completion of this purchase will give WSG Tech, Inc. complete control over the manufacturing, sales, distribution and fulfillment of its own products. It will also give the Company a core business of manufacturing for other clients as well as an experienced production and sales staff. The Company has recently concluded an Agreement with an International marketing firm, and is negotiating an agreement for the manufacture and distribution of its products in Europe and South America. The Company's corporate mailing address is P.O. Box 541732 Lake Worth, Florida 33454 USA The company is offering to the public an invitation to participate in the funding of the company. For a copy of the Offering Memorandum, you may contact the Company's investment consultant, e-mail us at privateopportunity(a)bigfoot.com Be sure to put "Send Me A Copy" in the Subject Line and include your name and address.

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Identification and Privacy are not Antinomies
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text Delivered-To: DIGSIG(a)LISTSERV.TEMPLE.EDU MIME-Version: 1.0 Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1998 12:39:53 -0200 Reply-To: Digital Signature discussion <DIGSIG(a)LISTSERV.TEMPLE.EDU> Sender: Digital Signature discussion <DIGSIG(a)LISTSERV.TEMPLE.EDU> From: Ed Gerck <egerck(a)LASER.CPS.SOFTEX.BR> Subject: Identification and Privacy are not Antinomies To: DIGSIG(a)LISTSERV.TEMPLE.EDU Identification and Privacy are not Antinomies This is a comment to the article "Not for Identification Purposes" by Richard Sobel, of 8/12/98, and a reply by Jorge Cortell-Albert, all referenced at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/filter/101598/letters.html >From the inherent conflict seen in these articles, it is quite apparent that one could profit from a new perspective when dealing with identification issues today. Not only because of historical examples of misuse or because the Clinton administration is proposing a national ID card that may compromise privacy, but because we need to harmonize needs with tools. Clearly, there is an escalating need to identify -- likewise, there is an increasingly easy access to information and massive cross-checking of data based on global indexes. Biometrics, contrary to expressed opinion such as Cortell-Albert's, is not self-secure and cannot protect what it forthrightly denies: privacy. One does not even have to recall the proverbial truck that hits the subject, in order to realize that biometrics is also perishable. In fact, biometrics just highlights the basic paradox of privacy versus security -- where one is asked to forfeit privacy in a rather permanent way in order to gain some transient level of security. Are identification and privacy antinomies, like freedom and slavery? Is there an unresolvable conflict between both security and privacy? Current expressed opinion, such as Sobel's and Cortell-Albert's, says "yes" to both questions. As we have no real solution within the current level of understanding, one needs a fresh look into identification and identity. To exercise the solution, Internet protocols can provide a good practical arena accessible to all and truly international -- thus, I will use it in this exposition as an example. However, it will be clear that I could likewise use anything else -- even the US Government's current proposal for a national ID card. Identification is often understood as an act of identifying, or of establishing an identity. Identity is usually defined as "the distinguishing character or personality of an individual" [1]. Of course, such definitions cannot be applied on the Internet. Any mention to "identity" or "identity authentication" on the Internet is a mere tag for something else, such as an individual's purported attribute. Certainly, without any physical contact with an individual or even without any way to directly verify it. It is simply not possible to speak of "identity" or "identification" as a dictionary defines it, over the Internet. All legal and technical studies that call for or depend on such equivalence are misleading. Any such "identity" or "identification" can be faked, repudiated or are specifically unwarranted (e.g. by commercial CAs) to relying-parties over the Internet. That the US INS accepts UK birth (naming) certificates in order to certify immigration status for its own policy of regulation, does not mean that the INS is acting to "confirm" the legitimacy of the name, or organise the UK namespace. So, the first conclusion is that acceptance of an identity by a recipient does not make that identification more veritable to others ... though it is often interpreted so, especially when a third document is issued by the recipient and publicly known. Sure, there is a bar on the standard of the {UK,...} authorities who the INS respects sufficiently for its own activities. But INS confirmation (or rather "use") confers no status on the original document unless the INS policy wished to make such representation explicit. Which would involve legal responsibilities that escalate like those that would derive from a blank signed cheque. Thus, this is also an unsolved problem in the 3D-world, outside the Internet. On 15th April 1997, The Daily Telegraph, a UK quality newspaper, reported on Alan Reeve [2] -- a convicted criminal and triple killer who was described as "friendly, caring, dependable and loving" by his fiancÈe when he was arrested under false identity in Ireland. Clearly, the indeterminacy of "identity" on the 3D-world is itself a reason to doubt any extension of such credentials to the Internet [3,4]. Which is made worse by the often neglected fact that the certificate user (e.g., "relying-party") is not privy to the contract between the CA and the certificate subscriber [3]. Further, CAs effectively contradict any possible public rights that relying-parties might claim, by declaring in the CA's CPS (the governing law) that a certificate has no warranted content to relying-parties [3]. Moreover, on the Internet, we also need to identify hosts, routing, software, etc. -- not just humans. Thus, the basic Net disconnect is that the Internet is essentially that wire that goes to your computer! Anything else that you imagine is just this -- you imagine. Even if you receive a message that looks like mine, from my address, should you believe 100% it is mine? "Doubt until you have proof". Of course, the degree of proof required depends on what is at stake and what is your cost -- however, the best proof is to be considered the one that leaves the concerned parties with no doubts [cf. 2]. Of course, the law may require a higher degree of proof (eg, when buying firearms you cannot just do it over e-mail -- you need to present a legal identity, a legal connection to yourself and perhaps also an address as a further legal connection). The same disconnect happens in the 3D world, because who is to affirm that the presented ID card is the "right one"? Or, that the person depicted in the card is the "right one"? Who is Alan Reeve? However, as given in [5,6], there is an answer to the privacy/security paradox. And, practical tools that may help the Clinton administration (or, any government, company or individual) to decrease costs without resorting to privacy burdens over the puported beneficiaries. The answer begins by a question: What is "to identify"? The study shows that "to identify" is to look for connections. Thus, in identification we look for logical or natural connections -- we look for coherence. The work shows that not identity but coherence is the general metric for identification and deduces more than 64 basic types of identification. More coherence and more identification types mean stronger identification, even if anonymous. Identification can thus be understood not only in the sense of an "identity" connection, but in the wider sense of "any" connection. Which one to use is just a matter of protocol expression, need, cost and (very importantly) privacy concerns. A further benefit is that it allows clear definitions for a large number of new anonymous identification types, sorely needed on the Internet, for e-commerce and to decrease costs inccurred with fraud, in general, but without compromising one's privacy just to tank the car or buy a lunch. I note that even though motivated by the Internet, as a practical arena, the concepts reported in [5,6] can be applied to improve any identification method -- including the present proposal by the US Government. Cheers, Ed Gerck ============================================ References: [1] Merriam-Webster Dictionary, http:www.m-w.com [2] http://www.mcg.org.br/auth_b1.htm [3] http://www.mcg.org.br/certover.pdf [4] http://www.mcg.org.br/cert.htm [5] http://www.mcg.org.br/coherence.txt [6] http://www.mcg.org.br/coherence2.txt ______________________________________________________________________ Dr.rer.nat. E. Gerck egerck(a)novaware.cps.softex.br http://novaware.cps.softex.br --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)philodox.com> Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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