July 2004 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: All your data belongs to Redmond
by Ken Hirsch 08 Jul '04

08 Jul '04

See http://www.windows-help.net/WindowsXP/tune-08.html and http://www.ciac.org/ciac/bulletins/m-005.shtml Major Variola wrote: >I am currently working as a security consultant at a major kiretsu >that makes printers/fax/copiers/scanners. Important eg in >a hospital where HIPAA requires that info not be leaked. >Eg the xerox-tech swaps a drive and gets to look >at the data on it. Or your accountant is using a wireless laptop >to print your bank numbers. > >A program I was working on crashed, and M$'s XP asked me if it >could tell M$ about the "bug". > >I looked at the info the "anonymous" message would contain. It >included the data I was testing with. > >Nice. > >I sent a note to my boss. > >Anyone know if this can be shut off? > >[Apologies if this is an old issue. As an aside, the 3Ghz work machine >with half a Gig of RAM runs no faster than the 333 Mhz 128Meg Win95 >PC this is composed on. When quantum computing chips come out, >if they run M$ OS, they won't run any faster, but the "assistants" will >be more annoying.] > >------- >"This is by-design behavior, not a security vulnerability. " >-- Scott Culp, Microsoft Security Response >Center, discussing the hole allowing ILOVEU to >propogate, 5/5/00.

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petabyte on a budget
by Eugen Leitl 08 Jul '04

08 Jul '04

Since we were talking about how much storage is available these days: http://www.archive.org/web/petabox.php For a backup just mirror to a number of similiar clusters offsite. Large Scale Data Repository: Petabox OVERVIEW The petabox by the Internet Archive is a machine designed to safely store and process one petabyte of information (a petabyte is a million gigabytes). The goals-- and current design points are: * Low power-- 6kWatts per rack, and 60kWatts for the whole system * High density-- 100 Terabytes per rack * Local computing to process the data-- 800 low-end PC's * Multi-OS possible, linux standard * Colocation friendly-- requires our own rack to get 100TB/rack, or 50TB in a * standard rack * Shipping container friendly-- Able to be run in a 20' by 8' by 8' shipping * container * Easy Maintenance-- one system administrator per petabyte * Software to automate mirroring with itself * Inexpensive design * Inexpensive storage PILOT STATUS 5/2004 * The first 100TB Rack is up and running! * The second 100TB Rack will be up by the end of May * Thermal Targets have been met * Systems Bootstrapped from USB Flash Device * Reiser FS running * PC-based Router running AVAILABILITY For more details, please contact: info(a)capricorn-tech.com -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07078, 11.61144 http://www.leitl.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE http://moleculardevices.org http://nanomachines.net [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature]

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Re: Final stage
by Major Variola (ret) 07 Jul '04

07 Jul '04

At 03:26 PM 7/7/04 -0400, Sunder wrote: >Here we go again. Get ready for more FUD from the LEO's, I can see Fox >news now. Perhaps, but some will tune in and learn a thing or two. (Albeit we'll suffer the "September" effect...) .... This one is for Eunice Stone, who "turned in" 3 medical students last year for looking muslim: I suggest learning to graffiti arabic in public places. Perhaps one of those hotel bibles containing the lord's prayer in all the cool fonts will suffice. (I use the Job chapter for rolling cigs.). Or copy something from an arabic web site. Hell, even hebrew would work with most yokels piggies or paranoid citizen-slaves. Or use ammonium fluoride pens on glass for a frosty effect. >Bah, some feeb had too one too many Crappachino's with lunch today and >pulled a Cornholio.... :( LOL I need the Bill of Rights for Ashcrufts bunghole..

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All your data belongs to Redmond
by Major Variola (ret) 07 Jul '04

07 Jul '04

I am currently working as a security consultant at a major kiretsu that makes printers/fax/copiers/scanners. Important eg in a hospital where HIPAA requires that info not be leaked. Eg the xerox-tech swaps a drive and gets to look at the data on it. Or your accountant is using a wireless laptop to print your bank numbers. A program I was working on crashed, and M$'s XP asked me if it could tell M$ about the "bug". I looked at the info the "anonymous" message would contain. It included the data I was testing with. Nice. I sent a note to my boss. Anyone know if this can be shut off? [Apologies if this is an old issue. As an aside, the 3Ghz work machine with half a Gig of RAM runs no faster than the 333 Mhz 128Meg Win95 PC this is composed on. When quantum computing chips come out, if they run M$ OS, they won't run any faster, but the "assistants" will be more annoying.] ------- "This is by-design behavior, not a security vulnerability. " -- Scott Culp, Microsoft Security Response Center, discussing the hole allowing ILOVEU to propogate, 5/5/00.

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Re: Email tapping by ISPs, forwarder addresses, and crypto proxies
by Anonymous via the Cypherpunks Tonga Remailer 07 Jul '04

07 Jul '04

>I can't imagine any intelligence professional wasting her time reading >the crap at times coming over this list. As of mid 2000 most of traffic is recorded. By this time 'most' is very close to 'all'. But if you e-mail someone with account on the same local ISP, using dial-in at the recipient is also using dial-in, and ISP didn't farm-out dial-in access, then your message may not be backed up forever.

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Privacy laws and social engineering
by Major Variola (ret) 07 Jul '04

07 Jul '04

A friend of mine botched a suicide attempt and in order to get any info I (we) pretended we were stepbrothers. It occurred to me a half hour later that we had the same first names. So it must have been confusing to our fictious stepmom :-) But if you play up a story about dysfunctional separated families, and adopting middle names as True Names, you can quickly get the questioner to feel uncomfortable enough to accept your ploy. Despite HIPAA. Welcome to the world of social engineering, Major. So, which is better, Schneier's books or Mitnick's? I suspect the former, but am curious what the community opinion is? Note that I am generally a guile-less person who does not weave arbitrarily complex webs of lies. In fact, brutally honest at times. But sometimes circumstances (like a brain damaged virtual brother) demand it. And I was bemused at my ability to maintain it. And multiple nurses/MDs to accept it. ------- While interviewing for a security job, I overheard the building-guards shout passwords for the building as I waited in the lobby. I thought it a test at first, but realized later it was reality, in all its glory. The passwords were regexps based on the company's name, of course. I mentioned this to my future quasiboss, who dug it. Which made me feel better about him. PS: Major kiratsu do not appreciate extreme programming (or keeping the building open past 8PM). Dinosaurs whose eggs were eaten by warm furry little mutants did not do so well. Though aligators eat a few kids a year in FLA, and an ostrich can kick your ass, I ask you: who rules, mammals or reptiles and birds? Still, its a job, and a job these days is a pearl, even if the tech is succeptible to reverse engineering, which you try to point out but are told its ok to be lame. Maybe they'll hire me after the contract and we can do some PK/cert work for real. Or maybe they'll move strong passphrases around with PGP email. One can hope, if only to keep one's upper lip stiff, one's faith in mankind nominally intact. Hard sometimes. PS: what is Michael Jackson's medical report worth in the free market?

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U.S. forms mid-east terror group!
by Justin 07 Jul '04

07 Jul '04

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/07/06/iraq.main/index.html BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A previously unknown militant group in Iraq is threatening to kill the most-wanted terror suspect in that country: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The Arabic-language TV network Al-Arabiya said it received a taped statement from an organization that calls itself the Rescue Group warning al-Zarqawi and his followers to leave Iraq or face the consequences. One masked militant read a statement denouncing the actions by al-Zarqawi and his followers as hurtful to Iraq, particularly the kidnapping of foreigners. ... -- "Once you knew, you'd claim her, and I didn't want that." "Not your decision to make." "Yes, but it's the right decision, and I made it for my daughter. She deserved to be born with a clean slate." - Beatrix; Bill; Kill Bill V.2

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Re: Email tapping by ISPs, forwarder addresses, and crypto proxies
by Major Variola (ret) 07 Jul '04

07 Jul '04

At 06:58 AM 7/7/04 +0200, Eugen Leitl wrote: >I can't imagine any intelligence professional wasting her time reading >the crap at times coming over this list. Frankly sir, that's because you have no idea of their budget, or their fascistic urges. Its not paranoia to think you're tapped, its rationality. ------- "Stop shedding our blood to save your own and the solution to this simple but complex equation is in your hands. You know matters will escalate the more you delay and then do not blame us but blame yourselves. Rational people do not risk their security, money and sons to appease the White House liar."

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Re: Privacy laws and social engineering
by Major Variola (ret) 07 Jul '04

07 Jul '04

At 08:10 AM 7/7/04 +0200, Thomas Shaddack wrote: >On Tue, 6 Jul 2004, Major Variola (ret) wrote: > >> So, which is better, Schneier's books or Mitnick's? I suspect >> the former, but am curious what the community opinion is? > >You may like one side of the coin more than the other one, but they still >belong to the same flat, dirty, formerly shiny and now dull and mildly >corroded disc of an alloy of not so noble metals. .... >I feel zen today. You have no idea how Zen I have felt recently. No idea. As BS says, you go after people, not tech, these days. I was merely asking where I should spend my $, whether Mitnick was worth it, as Schneier by default is. Or what the hell, maybe my contract will become a job, and I'll buy 'em all. Meanwhile, watch your ass, the marketroids are full of detritus. And if you take cyanide salts, you dont' tell anyone about it.

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Re: UBL is George Washington
by Tyler Durden 07 Jul '04

07 Jul '04

"And this was a prime target. Financial disruption from *just* the tower collapses was significant across the economy as a whole: lost records, insurance claims, lawsuits, etc., exacted a very substantial loss against their enemy." That was nothing compared to the real damage, which I've heard few people point out. There was a telecom CO in (I think) #4 World Trade Center, and falling debris took the giant Verizon CO across the street on West Street offline for almost a week. The result was that Wall Street was basically cut off for several days...the effect of that dwarfs all the other stuff. (Although I wonder...Pipar Jaffrey was pretty much wiped out. Even if the records survived, they lost so much manpower that might have actually had a small but worldwide impact.) Of course, I truly doubt OBL & his posse realized this when they targeted the WTC (and the fact that they continue to pretty much ignore relatively ungarded COs shows they still don't realize this). If they took out a few key COs downtown one morning the effect on the economy would be significant. >From: "J.A. Terranson" <measl(a)mfn.org> >To: Justin <justin-cypherpunks(a)soze.net> >CC: cypherpunks(a)minder.net >Subject: Re: UBL is George Washington >Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 18:59:22 -0500 (CDT) > > >On Tue, 6 Jul 2004, Justin wrote: > > > On 2004-07-06T11:28:41-0700, Eric Cordian wrote: > > > Sunder wrote: > > > > Right, WTC as a target doesn't make any strategic sense. > > > > > Doesn't hitting a world financial center impede the funding of >imperialism? > > > > Empirically, I don't think so. Since September 11th, funding to the > > military and security industries have increased substantially through > > DHS and military contracts. It may be that the only way out is through, > > and that the only way to be free from Western Imperialism is to cause it > > to strangle itself. > >Precisely. They are doing to us what we did to the soviets: they making >us spend ourselves right out of existence. > > > In the short term, however, terrorists have not > > succeeded in getting our imperialist policies changed. > > > > 9/11 with Dubya at the helm can have only one result. > >Dubya at the helm can have only 1 result. 9/11 was just his cover. > > > > > If you apply the same standards the US uses to classify dual use > > > infrastructure, and organizations "linked to" the enemy, I think the > > > WTC is pretty high on the target list. > > > > Yep. Even ignoring specific entities that officed in the WTC, it was an > > effective target. When a government is in debt 70%+ of the GDP (2002 - > > $10.4T), there's little distinction between private financial targets > > and government targets. > >And this was a prime target. Financial disruption from *just* the tower >collapses was significant across the economy as a whole: lost records, >insurance claims, lawsuits, etc., exacted a very substantial loss against >their enemy. > > > > > The US bombed water treatment plants, electrical facilities, and > > > bridges in Iraq. Certainly not military targets either. > > > > Each democratic government likes to flood the logos with the notion that > > it only attacks military targets; it convinces citizens that their > > government is humane, and helps to pacify the non-interventionists. > > > > In practice, intelligence is never accurate. Hitting only military > > targets, even if that were the goal which is clearly not the case -- is > > not possible. > >Nonetheless, the military *does* consider places like WTC to be legitimate >*military* targets. > >-- >Yours, > >J.A. Terranson >sysadmin(a)mfn.org > > "...justice is a duty towards those whom you love and those whom you do > not. And people's rights will not be harmed if the opponent speaks out > about them." > > Osama Bin Laden > > > _________________________________________________________________ Is your PC infected? Get a FREE online computer virus scan from McAfee. Security. http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963

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