September 2004 - cypherpunks-legacy

Call for 'hackers' to try to access voting machines draws stern warning
by R. A. Hettinga 10 Sep '04

10 Sep '04

<http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/index.pl/article?id=7181775> The Virgin Islands Daily News - A Pulitzer Prize Winning Newspaper Call for 'hackers' to try to access voting machines draws stern warning By AESHA DUVAL Thursday, September 9th 2004 ST. CROIX - Law enforcement officials and the V.I. Board of Elections issued warnings Wednesday saying anyone who tampers with voting machines will face criminal prosecution. The warning came after Elections officials received a faxed document last week stating that a $10,000 cash award would be offered to anyone who can successfully "hack" into electronic voting machines to prove whether vote tallies can be changed. The flier lists on top in large bold letters, "Cash Payout" and further reads, "The first person to change vote tallies undetectably can claim $10,000!" Hope Gibson, a St. Croix resident and former senatorial candidate, said she sent the document to Elections offices and the media and insists she is not asking that anyone break the law. Gibson states in the document that she is calling the Joint Board of Elections to allow challengers the opportunity to access the voting machines and prove that the machines can or cannot be programmed to give false results. She said similar challenges are being offered on the mainland and that the accuracy of the same machines used in the territory - the 1242 ELECTronic voting machine which is manufactured by the Danaher Corp. - have come into question. Gibson said the $10,000 is being offered by Michael Shamos, a Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist. "I didn't do anything illegal," Gibson said Wednesday. U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman Azekah Jennings disagrees, saying the document can be misinterpreted as an open invitation for anyone to illegally tamper with voting machines and that by changing voting results, a cash award can be claimed. "It is unlawful for anyone to engage in any kind of voter fraud," Jennings said. "There are substantial criminal penalties for such violations. If such actions are taken, those individuals run the risk of being exposed to criminal prosecution." Jennings said tampering with voting machines is a federal offense and violators could face substantial fines and possibly imprisonment depending on the violation. He declined to say if criminal action would be taken. Elections board member Alicia Wells and other members were shocked and appalled by Gibson's challenge. "We want to make it clear that any tampering with voting machines will not be tolerated," Wells said. Gibson said although Supervisor of Elections John Abramson Jr. has said fail-safes are built into the machines to ensure accuracy, she believes the machines are unreliable and vulnerable. She said a paper ballot system is the only means for a voter to physically verify their vote before they cast it. "The point that is being made here is the only people who really know if your vote counts are the voting machine vendor, the local programmer and the potential hacker - not the voter," Gibson said. Abramson said Wednesday he forwarded the document to the FBI, U.S. Attorney's Office and V.I. Attorney General Iver Stridiron. "We are leaving this in the hands of law enforcement," Abramson said. [CLOSE WINDOW] -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.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: Perplexing proof
by Victor Duchovni 10 Sep '04

10 Sep '04

On Fri, Sep 10, 2004 at 08:23:06AM -0400, R. A. Hettinga wrote: > "[The suggested proof] is rather incomprehensible," professor Marcus du > Sautoy of Oxford University told The Guardian, adding that if correct it > could lead to the creation of a "prime spectrometer" that would bring "the > whole of e-commerce to its knees overnight". http://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/~dusautoy/flash/1hard/listpub.htm So at least now we have a named source, even one who works on generalized zeta functions. The out of the blue "prime spectrometer" claim is still rather puzzling... Does anyone know why Du Sautoy is making this claim (if it is indeed reported correctly). -- /"\ ASCII RIBBON NOTICE: If received in error, \ / CAMPAIGN Victor Duchovni please destroy and notify X AGAINST IT Security, sender. Sender does not waive / \ HTML MAIL Morgan Stanley confidentiality or privilege, and use is prohibited. --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.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: Perplexing proof
by Victor Duchovni 10 Sep '04

10 Sep '04

On Fri, Sep 10, 2004 at 08:23:06AM -0400, R. A. Hettinga wrote: > "[The suggested proof] is rather incomprehensible," professor Marcus du > Sautoy of Oxford University told The Guardian, adding that if correct it > could lead to the creation of a "prime spectrometer" that would bring "the > whole of e-commerce to its knees overnight". http://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/~dusautoy/flash/1hard/listpub.htm So at least now we have a named source, even one who works on generalized zeta functions. The out of the blue "prime spectrometer" claim is still rather puzzling... Does anyone know why Du Sautoy is making this claim (if it is indeed reported correctly). -- /"\ ASCII RIBBON NOTICE: If received in error, \ / CAMPAIGN Victor Duchovni please destroy and notify X AGAINST IT Security, sender. Sender does not waive / \ HTML MAIL Morgan Stanley confidentiality or privilege, and use is prohibited. --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.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: Perplexing proof
by R. A. Hettinga 10 Sep '04

10 Sep '04

--- begin forwarded text

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P2P company sues RIAA over patent
by R. A. Hettinga 10 Sep '04

10 Sep '04

<http://news.com.com/2102-1027_3-5357332.html?tag=st.util.print> CNET News P2P company sues RIAA over patent By John Borland Staff Writer, CNET News.com http://news.com.com/2100-1027-5357332.html Story last modified September 8, 2004, 5:45 PM PDT Altnet, a company that sells music and other digital goods through file-swapping services, sued the Recording Industry Association of America on Wednesday for alleged patent infringement. The company, a subsidiary of Brilliant Digital Entertainment, contends that the RIAA has been infringing on one of its patents in the course of copyright enforcement efforts inside peer-to-peer networks. Overpeer, a copyright company owned by Loudeye, and MediaDefender, also are named in the lawsuit. "We've exhausted every means of trying to work with these defendants and those they represent to patiently encourage and positively develop the P2P distribution channel," said Altnet Chief Executive Officer Kevin Bermeister in a statement. "We cannot stand by and allow them to erode our business opportunity by the wholesale infringement of our rights." The patent infringement suit comes as one of the sideshows in an ongoing legal battle over peer-to-peer networks that has led to piracy charges against technology companies and antitrust claims against record companies, and that now appears to be headed ultimately to Congress for resolution. Altnet and Brilliant Digital Entertainment are joint venture partners with Sharman Networks, the Australian company that owns the Kazaa software. The company has been trying for several years to persuade record labels and music studios to allow Altnet to sell authorized versions of their products through the Kazaa file-swapping network. The big entertainment companies have unanimously said no, however. They've lost recent court battles that aimed to put companies like Sharman out of business, but are now seeking legislation that would revive their claims against file-swapping ventures. Altnet has also been seeking other funding sources and ways to strike back at the record labels' efforts to undermine peer-to-peer networks. In the summer of 2003, it announced that it had purchased patent rights to the process of identifying files on a peer-to-peer network using a "hash," or digital fingerprint based on the contents of the file. Initially, Bermeister indicated the company would approach other file-swapping companies to sign them up for licenses. That proved controversial, but Altnet did send cease-and-desist letters last November to nine companies engaged in businesses related to peer-to-peer networks. Some of these, such as data collection company Big Champagne, said they weren't using any technology that would infringe on the Altnet patent. An attorney for Altnet said the disputes with most of the nine had been resolved. Altnet's lawsuit says that antipiracy companies Overpeer and MediaDefender are still on the hook, however. Overpeer is a "spoofing" company that posts millions of false or corrupted files on networks such as Kazaa, trying to make real files harder to find. Media Defender uses "interdiction" techniques, which essentially clog networks with requests that block real download efforts. Both of these services use unauthorized versions of Kazaa and the underlying FastTrack peer-to-peer technology, and so are using Altnet's patent without permission, the company contends. In its complaint, Altnet said that RIAA executives had been notified several times in 2003 about the patent, but that the trade group has continued to support Overpeer and to conduct its own enforcement efforts on the Kazaa network without permission. Overpeer said it did not believe it had infringed on Altnet's patents. "We vigorously deny these claims and find them to be completely baseless and without merit," said Marc Morgenstern, who heads Loudeye's Overpeer division, in a statement. Representatives from the RIAA could not immediately be reached for comment. Altnet and Brilliant Digital Entertainment have been skating on thin financial ice in recent years. In its last quarterly report to federal regulators, Brilliant said it had just $509,000 in cash on hand. An attorney representing Altnet said that financial considerations would not impede the company's attempt to enforce the patent, however. The lawsuit was filed in a Los Angeles federal court. -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.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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Man jailed for sending email threats
by R. A. Hettinga 10 Sep '04

10 Sep '04

<http://theage.com.au/cgi-bin/common/popupPrintArticle.pl?path=/articles/200…> Print this article | Close this window Man jailed for sending email threats Stuttgart, Germany September 9, 2004 - 10:10AM A German doctor's assistant has been jailed for 312 years for trying to extort money from banks, hotels and airports with email threats sent from internet cafes in Thailand. The court in this southern city ruled that the 44-year-old had sent dozens of emails threatening to kill people or blow up buildings if he was not paid because he needed money for a flight home from Asia. The man also said he was facing a heavy fine because he had overstayed his visa for Thailand after falling in love with a Thai woman, but that his girlfriend had left him when he ran out of money. Under the aliases Jonathan Drake and Vincent Baxter, he sent out 39 emails to German and Austrian institutions demanding between $5000 and $10,000 from the recipients and threatening to kill someone close to them if they failed to pay. He told airport authorities in the messages that he would detonate hidden bombs if he did not receive between $50,000 and $100,000. At Vienna's Schwechat airport, a security team was forced to hold a crisis meeting over the threats while security officials at Tegel airport in Berlin dispatched sniffer dogs to hunt for explosives. Most of the institutions targeted, however, ignored the threats on the advice of the police. Authorities were able to trace the emails back to Thailand and arrested the suspect when he flew back to Germany. The defendant, who had already run into trouble with the law in 1992 for threatening a German pop singer, told the court that he had found the email addresses for "the crazy idea of blackmail" on the internet. -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.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: BrinCity 2.0: Mayor outlines elaborate camera network for city
by Tyler Durden 10 Sep '04

10 Sep '04

>cameras will be linked -- and authorities will be alerted to crimes and >terrorist acts. Whew. I feel better already. If only we had had cameras rolling on 9/11/2001, none of that would have ever happened. -TD _________________________________________________________________ FREE pop-up blocking with the new MSN Toolbar get it now! http://toolbar.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200415ave/direct/01/

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Re: Flying with Libertarian Hawks
by Major Variola (ret) 10 Sep '04

10 Sep '04

At 07:53 AM 9/10/04 -0400, R. A. Hettinga wrote: ><http://www.techcentralstation.com/090904A.html> > >Is it possible for one to be libertarian about policies at home and >neo-conservative about policies abroad? After all, isn't the principle of >non-coercion incompatible with the interventionist policies of the current >Administration? Simply put: is there such an animal as a libertarian hawk >and if he exists, why do we so seldom hear from him? On the contrary, the Ayn Rand institute has been taken over by vocal Zionists. They would never bomb Dimona but if a non-israeli semite even thinks about uranium, its missiles away. Or if the South Koreans do a bit of clandestine enrichment, no big deal, they're "our" *friends*. ----- "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." UBL The only language the American people understand is dead Americans. -EC

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Re: BrinCity 2.0: Mayor outlines elaborate camera network for city
by John Kelsey 10 Sep '04

10 Sep '04

>From: "R. A. Hettinga" <rah(a)shipwright.com> >Sent: Sep 9, 2004 9:50 PM >To: cypherpunks(a)al-qaeda.net >Subject: BrinCity 2.0: Mayor outlines elaborate camera network for city ... > Some people are concerned about "Big Brother" invading their privacy but >Mayor Daley says the cameras will be located in public areas. Fortunately, all this is happening in a town noted for its trustworthy and honest government, and under a mayor with no tendency to use any excuse he can find to grab power, tear up airports he doesn't like in the middle of the night, etc. ... >R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> --John Kelsey

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Perplexing proof
by R. A. Hettinga 10 Sep '04

10 Sep '04

<http://www.vnunet.com/print/1157970> Perplexing proof E-commerce is only one mathematical breakthrough away from disaster Robert Valpuesta, IT Week 09 Sep 2004 The fact that even experts often do not fully understand how IT systems work was underlined by recent reports that the Riemann hypothesis, established in 1859, may finally have been proved. It seems the hypothesis would explain the apparently random pattern of prime numbers that form the basis for much internet cryptography, used for e-commerce and online banking to guard accounts and credit card details. Louis de Branges, a renowned mathematician at Purdue University in the US, has claimed he can prove the hypothesis. But the maths is so complicated that no one has yet been able to say whether his solution is right. "[The suggested proof] is rather incomprehensible," professor Marcus du Sautoy of Oxford University told The Guardian, adding that if correct it could lead to the creation of a "prime spectrometer" that would bring "the whole of e-commerce to its knees overnight". Unfortunately, most managers have no way of telling whether the proof is right or its implications are indeed as stated. This could be an embarrassment if they are asked to assess risks for corporate governance reports, since they clearly now have a duty to own up and admit that business could be threatened by a theoretical prime spectrometer. Alternatively they might accept that security is a matter of faith, declare that nothing can truly be "known", and add that the way of Zen shows that security is probably an illusion anyway. -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.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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