January 2005 - cypherpunks-legacy

Carnivore redux
by R.A. Hettinga 31 Jan '05

31 Jan '05

<http://news.com.com/2102-1071_3-5555323.html?tag=st.util.print> CNET News Carnivore redux By Declan McCullagh Story last modified Mon Jan 31 04:00:00 PST 2005 Robert Corn-Revere clearly remembers the day he became the first person to tell the world about the FBI surveillance system once known as Carnivore. Corn-Revere, a partner at the Davis Wright Tremaine law firm, had been fighting on EarthLink's behalf to keep a government surveillance device off the company's network in late 1999. A short while later, though, a federal magistrate judge sided with the FBI against the Atlanta-based Internet provider. Worried about the privacy impact, Corn-Revere revealed the existence of Carnivore in testimony before a House of Representatives subcommittee on April 6, 2000. "They were using a technology called Etherpeek, which was off the shelf," Corn-Revere told me last Friday. "When we challenged it, they said, 'We're not using that. That would be wrong. We have our own software developed. It's called Carnivore.'" (Etherpeek is a Windows surveillance utility from WildPackets that can decode protocols used with e-mail, Web browsing and instant messaging.) Now history is repeating itself. A flurry of press reports this month noted that the FBI has ceased using Carnivore, which had been renamed DCS1000. But not all of them mentioned that the government is hardly calling a halt to Internet wiretaps--instead, it's simply buying its surveillance tools from private companies again. The total number of "electronic" wiretaps has stayed between 4 percent and 8 percent of all reported wiretaps each year. A review of the government's self-reported wiretap statistics from 2000 to 2003, the most recent data available, shows that the total number of "electronic" wiretaps has stayed between 4 percent and 8 percent of all reported wiretaps each year. (In 2003, for instance, there were 1,442 reported non-terrorism wiretaps in total that intercepted 4.3 million communications or conversations.) That figure, though, is an underestimate. First, it doesn't cover terrorism-related wiretaps, which spiked after Sept. 11, 2001, and last year surpassed the general category for the first time. Second, it doesn't count illegal wiretaps, such as the hundreds unlawfully performed by the Los Angeles Police Department starting in 1985. Third, those numbers don't include "pen register" and "trap and trace" devices, which tend to be about five to six times as popular as traditional wiretaps. Those awkward names, which hail from the days of analog phone taps, refer to capturing only the addresses of Web sites visited and IDs of e-mail and instant messaging correspondents rather than the complete content of the communication. Translated: The concept of Carnivore isn't going away. If anything, police surveillance of the Internet is increasing over time. The good ole days? Whatever its flaws, Carnivore offered one undeniable benefit: It had been the subject of intense scrutiny. Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, for instance, carefully monitored how the Justice Department was using it. "I respectfully ask that you consider the serious constitutional questions Carnivore has raised and respond with how you intend to address them," Armey wrote to Attorney General John Ashcroft in June 2001. "This is an issue of great importance to the online public." At one point, political pressure had grown so great that Attorney General Janet Reno reluctantly ordered an outside review of how Carnivore had been used. The review concluded that Carnivore didn't snatch more from networks than it should, but it had "no auditing" and "significant deficiencies in protection for the integrity of the information it collects." Whatever its flaws, Carnivore offered one undeniable benefit: It had been the subject of intense scrutiny. A group of well-known technologists, including Steven Bellovin of AT&T Labs and Peter Neumann of SRI International, reviewed that report, prepared by IIT Research Institute. Their own conclusions: "Serious technical questions remain about the ability of Carnivore to satisfy its requirements for security, safety and soundness." The public and the press also were more interested a few years ago. CNET News.com published dozens of articles. A Nexis search turned up 1,334 matches for FBI and Carnivore or DCS1000 between July 2000 and July 2001. But the same search for between July 2003 and July 2004 reported only 45 articles. Unfortunately, the public knows virtually nothing about how the FBI is conducting Internet eavesdropping today. We don't know the name of its interception technology. We don't know if it vacuums up far more conversations than it should when attached to a network. We don't know if it creates a security risk by permitting secure portions of an Internet provider's network to be accessed from afar. We don't know if it has benefited from any of the outside technical review that Carnivore did. "The need for oversight these days is much greater than when the FBI picked particularly bad names for its surveillance projects," said Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "There's a lot of money slushing around the federal government's dark budgets." He's right. Congress should demand more public accountability from the Bush administration. Otherwise, we might end up fondly reminiscing about the good ole days of Carnivore. -- ----------------- 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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Congress proposes tax on all Net, data connections
by R.A. Hettinga 31 Jan '05

31 Jan '05

<http://news.com.com/2102-1028_3-5555385.html?tag=st.util.print> CNET News Congress proposes tax on all Net, data connections By Declan McCullagh Story last modified Fri Jan 28 15:50:00 PST 2005 An influential congressional committee has dropped a political bombshell by suggesting that a tax originally created to pay for the Spanish American War could be extended to all Internet and data connections this year. The committee, deeply involved in writing U.S. tax laws, unexpectedly said in a report Thursday that the 3 percent telecommunications tax could be revised to cover "all data communications services to end users," including broadband; dial-up; fiber; cable modems; cellular; and DSL, or digital subscriber line, links. Currently, the 3 percent excise tax applies only to traditional telephone service. But because of technological convergence and the dropping popularity of landlines, the Joint Committee on Taxation concluded in its review of tax law reforms that it might make sense to extend the 100-year old levy to new technologies. The committee did not take a position on whether Congress should approve such an extension and simply listed it as an "option." "We need to avoid starting down a path of overtaxing nascent forms of communication." --Jonathan Zuck, president, Association for Competitive Technology "Cellular phones are being manufactured that may operate using VoIP through Wi-Fi access, as well as through more traditional means," the tax committee's report says. "As voice phone service migrates to using Internet Protocol, there may be no way to distinguish 'packets' of voice and 'packets' of data." VoIP refers to voice over Internet Protocol, or making telephone calls through a broadband connection. The congressional report comes not long after the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department said they were considering how the Spanish American War tax should be reinterpreted "to reflect changes in technology" used in "telephonic or telephonic quality communications." Tech companies including Microsoft, Intel and Skype slammed that idea in a September letter, asking the IRS to "refrain from any attempt to extend the excise tax to VoIP services." The discussion in the tax committee's report, however, ventures far beyond VoIP. "Extending the tax to all communications requires taxing Internet access, bandwidth capacity, and the transmission of cable and satellite television," it says. Technology trade associations were instantly critical. "We need to be careful in trying to stretch a taxation system this old to be a catchall for all modern technology," said Jonathan Zuck, president of the Association for Competitive Technology. "We need to avoid starting down a path of overtaxing nascent forms of communication." Congress enacted the so-called "luxury" excise tax at 1 cent a phone call to pay for the Spanish American War back in 1898, when only a few thousand phone lines existed in the country. It was repealed in 1902, but was reimposed at 1 cent a call in 1914 to pay for World War I and eventually became permanent at a rate of 3 percent in 1990. Thursday's report, titled "Options to Improve Tax Compliance and Reform Tax Expenditures," is a broad review of tax law and proposes a number of ways--such as reforming the taxation of overseas corporations--to boost the federal government's bottom line by up to about $400 billion over the next decade. It lists three different telecommunications tax options, one of which would cover all data communications. A second choice would extend the excise tax to cell phones and perhaps VoIP. The third would clearly levy the charge on VoIP, including Internet-only phone calls using services such as Skype that do not touch the public telephone network. "It is not necessary that the voice communications service provide" that capability, the report says. James Maule, who teaches tax law at Villanova University and edits a related blog, said the more extreme taxation option may be a way for committee members to make the others "look a bit more palatable. There's some psychology going on." "The odds of something happening in 2005 that amends the tax law is extremely high," Maule said, referring to President Bush's promise to revise the tax code. "I suspect that (one of these options) is going to be tacked on." A few years ago, the U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to repeal the excise tax, but the Senate never acted on the measure. Members of the Joint Committee on Taxation include Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa; Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; Max Baucus, D-Mont.; John Rockefeller, D-W.Va.; and representatives Bill Thomas, R-Calif.; and Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. -- ----------------- 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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I.D. Maryland Public Safety Initiative
by R.A. Hettinga 31 Jan '05

31 Jan '05

<http://www.governor.maryland.gov/pressreleases/2005/012405_idmaryland.html> Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. ~ 2005 Press Release ~ PRESS RELEASE Office of the Governor FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, January 24, 2005 Governor Ehrlich Launches "I.D. MARYLAND" Public Safety Initiative Smart Cars, DNA Database, Information Technology Top Priorities ANNAPOLIS - Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., today introduced a broad plan to strengthen Maryland's public safety and homeland security strategies to meet the new threats facing Maryland and its critical infrastructure. Governor Ehrlich's plan includes new technology investments in "Smart Cars" and information technology while expanding access to fingerprint identification and DNA databases. "We have no more fundamental obligation in government than to ensure the safety of our citizens," said Governor Ehrlich. "This multi-faceted new plan empowers law enforcement and criminal justice officials to keep our citizens safe with state-of-the-art technology and real time information sharing systems. This plan is also big step forward in our efforts to protect Maryland's roads, tunnels, airports and harbors from the threats of the 21st century." Governor Ehrlich's plan includes: Smart Car Project: Governor Ehrlich invests $7.5 million in the Maryland State Police "Smart Car" Project, giving troopers direct, real time access to criminal databases. Information Technology: The Governor will invest $20.6 million in a major public safety information technology initiative to better respond to requests for statewide criminal record checks for identifications, investigations, gun purchases and bail hearings. Fingerprint Systems: Governor Ehrlich invests $12.5 million to improve the State's fingerprint identification system by replacing obsolete equipment and expanding storage capacity. Additionally, the Governor has requested $1.6 million to upgrade arrest booking systems and extend the "Live Scan" electronic fingerprinting system throughout the State. Finally, Governor Ehrlich will recommend approval of the National Crime Prevention and Privacy Compact, allowing Maryland secure access to the National Fingerprint File. Governor Ehrlich will also propose two pieces of legislation: DNA Database: First, the Governor will propose a plan to expand the State's capability to collect DNA samples from convicted felons and enter those samples into the national DNA database. Law enforcement agencies must build capacity to collect and analyze DNA samples that can help close cold cases, convict the guilty and exonerate the innocent. Communications Systems: Second, he will submit legislation to reduce bureaucracy and improve information technology and communications systems planning between state and local agencies. This plan will improve communications between governments to immediately get accurate data to first responders. Additionally, The Governor's Office of Homeland Security, Maryland Military Department, and Maryland State Police, will work with the FBI, U.S. Attorney, and other public safety entities, to support to the Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center - the first joint federal, state and local intelligence and data collection/analysis center in the nation. View a PDF of the posters from today's press event. read more press releases -- ----------------- 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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Transaction law sound, says e-gold
by R.A. Hettinga 31 Jan '05

31 Jan '05

<http://australianit.news.com.au/common/print/0,7208,12106703%5E15343%5E%5En…> Australian IT Transaction law sound, says e-gold Simon Hayes FEBRUARY 01, 2005 INTERNET currencies are capable of catching money launderers and terrorist financiers without additional financial transactions reporting legislation, the backers of a major global payments system have argued. E-gold founder Douglas Jackson said his financial system, in which value is guaranteed by gold deposits, was "always getting beaten up" over money-laundering concerns. He was responding to moves by the federal Government to update the Financial Transactions Reports Act to include payment systems such as PayPal and e-gold, which escape regulation because they are not categorised as "cash dealers". The legislation, expected soon as an exposure Bill, is designed to plug holes identified last year during an inquiry by the joint committee of the Australian Crime Commission. Dr Jackson, who is chairman of e-gold's US owner Gold and Silver Reserve, said he did not oppose more regulation, but existing laws were adequate. "There are already all sorts of regs to cover people accepting money payments," he said. "It's hard to see what additional need there is." Gold and Silver Reserve does not transfer payments from cash or to cash. The only way to build a balance in an account is by "earning" it, for example by selling an item online. "If you try to be sneaky and provide incorrect contact information for your account, and you think you are anonymous, the moment you have value in your account it's discovered," Dr Jackson said. "We commonly receive court orders for someone who has done something that's naughty, and we are yet to find a case where the guys aren't nailed, and we love doing that." Dr Jackson, a radiation oncologist, left medicine to found Gold and Silver Reserve in 1996. His fellow director is Baltimore lawyer Barry Downey. "Our approach is radically different from PayPal," Dr Jackson said. "E-gold is organised more like a currency in its own right. What we're trying to achieve is freedom from default risk. "We're not opposed to regulation but often we're the round peg in the square hole. There's concern that internet payment systems can hide the proceeds of crime, but with gold it makes no sense." -- ----------------- 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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Digital evidence: Today's fingerprints
by R.A. Hettinga 31 Jan '05

31 Jan '05

<http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/01/28/digital.evidence/index.html> CNN Digital evidence: Today's fingerprints Electronic world increasingly being used to solve crimes By Michael Coren CNN Monday, January 31, 2005 Posted: 11:04 AM EST (1604 GMT) (CNN) -- Police and prosecutors are fashioning a new weapon in their arsenal against criminals: digital evidence. The sight of hard drives, Internet files and e-mails as courtroom evidence is increasingly common. "Digital evidence is becoming a feature of most criminal cases," said Susan Brenner, professor of law and technology at the University of Dayton School of Law, in an e-mail response for this article. "Everything is moving in this direction." Digital evidence may play a significant role in the trial of pop superstar Michael Jackson on charges of child molestation. Computers were among the items authorities in California seized during their search of Jackson's Neverland Ranch in November 2003. Once the territory of child pornography and computer fraud, digital evidence figures into every crime that can leave an electronic trail. The changing world of technology is challenging courts to keep pace with new laws addressing potential evidence and preserving privacy, legal analysts say. Police officials say that the U.S. war on terrorism may create a shortage of digital analysts at the local law enforcement level. In the wired world, almost every crime intersects with the digital realm at one time or another. "Digital evidence is simply a number of rows of ones and zeros ... whenever a computer is used to facilitate a crime," said Fred Demma, an expert on computer crime at the U.S. Air Force's computer research laboratory in Rome, New York. Laptops, digital cameras, phones and hard drives provide mountains of raw data for experts to sift through, part of the expanding field of computer forensics. A single file, credit card purchase or stray e-mail message can provide the proof that clinches a case. "It's incredibly important," said Jeffrey Toobin, senior legal analyst for CNN. "Data such as e-mail has become indispensable, particularly in the prosecution of white-collar crime." Digital search Law enforcement officials hope to become as technologically savvy as the criminals they pursue. "In modern day era of crime ... what you're going to find is a room full of computers, telephone lines and a network address and that's about it," Demma said. "In many cases, that's what you start with." That may be enough, some investigators say. The NYPD's computer crime squad, founded in 1995, has taken on a wide range of criminal activity -- from pedophilia to corporate espionage -- using a team of technicians and specially trained detectives. Every year, it has put more and more people behind bars, said John Otero, the squad's commanding officer. "If I were to tell you we are 100 percent caught up to the bad guys, I'd be lying," said. Otero. "We're always in a catch-up situation. The key is to be so close to their tail they don't have the chance to breathe ." One section of Otero's 32-member squad scours the Internet for potential child molesters, drug dealers and others who may engage in illegal activities. Another investigates suspicious activity by setting up electronic wiretaps and sifting through data logs that detectives can investigate within hours -- the shelf life for many electronic clues. In one recent case, the NYPD seized a computer of a child pornographer, assumed his identity and continued the ruse to launch 43 spinoff investigations and arrests across Europe and North America. "Ultimately, it's still an investigation and it comes down to good police work," Otero said. "All NYPD is using are the tools available to us to keep up with these guys." Legal strategy Law governing digital evidence still lags behind the reality of cyber-crime. There are few legal precedents to guide judges who often have little experience in the mercurial world of digital technology. "It makes life difficult ... because law changes very slowly," said the University of Dayton's Brenner. "We have judges who did not grow up with computers and so many do not understand the technology and issues it raises." There is also a bottleneck of highly trained personnel to comb through evidence. Police report an acute shortage of detectives and lawyers trained in electronic police work. "Part of the biggest obstacles we've had to overcome is having to get savvy lawyers and judges to understand what we do," Otero said. The fight against terrorism means people with these skills will remain at a premium, potentially depriving smaller police departments of such personnel. The demand is only likely to increase as the volume of cases with digital evidence increases, according to the Department of Justice. "Cyber-crime is obviously something that is a national priority," said Steve Bunnell, chief of the criminal division at the U.S. attorney's office in Washington, D.C., which recently established a cyber-crime division. "Computer crimes are something that crosses borders. ...There is really a premium on getting the right and left hand working together," Bunnell said. Courtrooms and universities are welcoming more lawyers specializing in electronic crime. They are setting the stage for the evolution of "cyber-law" as the debate over digital evidence -- and what limits may be put on it -- is raging among legal scholars and law enforcement, Brenner said. "Our search and seizure laws evolved in a bricks and mortar era and therefore are not well suited for a digital environment," she said. Police must now re-evaluate how they obtain evidence. Information obtained in an electronic search can be thrown out if it violates the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. But how far does protection extend on a computer hard drive? What about e-mails and files sent over the Internet? Some judges at the state and federal level have restricted the conduct of electronic searches by law enforcement, insisting officers follow certain procedures or methodologies. Police and prosecutors disagree, arguing that a judge can only issue warrants, not dictate its terms. "This is a new issue," Brenner said. "In the real world, police go execute a warrant to find stolen tires ... and bring them back, end of story. "In digital searches, police search for a computer, find the computer, bring it back and then subject the data on it to various kinds of searches." The thorny questions about privacy and the sanctity of personal data loom as digital technology is inextricably linked to our daily lives. Brenner predicts we will need to revisit the laws designed during an earlier, simpler age. "I'm not sure you can say we 'choose' to use technology today," she said. "And I think the situation will only become that much worse." -- ----------------- 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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[IP] more on Simson Garfinkel analyses Skype - Open Society Institute -- interesting set of comments djf (fwd from dave@farber.net)
by Eugen Leitl 31 Jan '05

31 Jan '05

----- Forwarded message from David Farber <dave(a)farber.net> -----

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Classified Dutch military documents found on Kazaa
by R.A. Hettinga 30 Jan '05

30 Jan '05

<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/30/dutch_classified_info_found_on_kaza…> The Register Biting the hand that feeds IT The Register ; Security ; Classified Dutch military documents found on Kazaa By Jan Libbenga (libbenga at yahoo.com) Published Sunday 30th January 2005 22:16 GMT At least 75 pages of highly classified information about human traffickers from the Dutch Royal Marechaussee - a service of the Dutch armed forces that is responsible for guarding the Dutch borders - have been leaked to the controversial weblog Geen Stijl (No Style). The documents, whicn contain phone numbers and tapped conversations, were found unencrypted on Kzaa, the public file sharing service. The likeliest explanation for their appearance is that a member Dutch Royal Marechaussee worked on the documents from home and unintentionally shared his entire hard drive with the rest of the world, through Kazaa. Initially, Geen Stijl (http://www.geenstijl.nl) wanted to reveal juicy details from the leaked documents, but backed off in the face of legal threats by the Public Prosecutor. The weblog says it will co-operate fully with investigators. The disclosure of the classified documents is yet another security lapse for the Dutch public prosecutor's office. In October last year, a leading Dutch prosecutor resigned after he throwing out his old PC with the rubbish. The hard disk contained hundreds of pages of confidential information about high profile crime cases, as well as his credit card number, social security number and personal tax files. -- ----------------- 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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[osint] UPI: Ridge backs nat'l standards for drivers' ID
by R.A. Hettinga 30 Jan '05

30 Jan '05

--- begin forwarded text Thread-Topic: UPI: Ridge backs nat'l standards for drivers' ID Thread-Index: AcUHIHXyaza+ayNNT0+A+C5wQDJ5cQ== To: "Shaun Waterman" <swaterman(a)upi.com> From: "Shaun Waterman" <swaterman(a)upi.com> Mailing-List: list osint(a)yahoogroups.com; contact osint-owner(a)yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list osint(a)yahoogroups.com Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2005 18:07:27 -0500 Subject: [osint] UPI: Ridge backs nat'l standards for drivers' ID Reply-To: osint(a)yahoogroups.com Please find below an example of UPI's continuing coverage of Homeland Security and related issues. A shorter version appeared on A2 of the Washington Times Sunday edition. I hope you find it interesting. You may link to it on the web here: http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20050130-010122-2442r If you have any comments or questions about this piece, need any more information about UPI products and services, or want to stop receiving these alerts, please get in touch. Thank you, Shaun Waterman UPI Homeland and National Security Editor E-mail: swaterman(a)upi.com Tel: 202 898 8081 Ridge backs nat'l standards for drivers' ID By Shaun Waterman UPI Homeland and National Security Editor WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- Outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge has come out in support of national standards for driver's licenses, as proposed in several bills being pushed by Republicans in Congress. He also promised to put in place some structural changes to his department that would leave it in better shape for his successor after he departs next week, but rejected other suggested reforms. Ridge said he supported proposals for "some internal changes that will make us more effective," including the establishment of an office charged with developing the department's strategic planning and policy. The driver's license is "the most standard form of ID" across the country, Ridge said, so it made sense to "ask the states to buy into a baseline set of national standards." "As a governor, I would not have felt put upon by that," Ridge, who was governor of Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2001, said in a conference call Friday. Two bills introduced in the House, and one planned for the Senate, address the issue, which was highlighted by the Sept. 11 commission in its report last year. At present, states, through legislation or policy, can authorize motor vehicle administrators to issue licenses to whomever they wish, verifying the applicant's identity with whatever documents they decide to require. The proposals before Congress wouldn't change that, but they would establish minimum standards that states would have to meet if their licenses were to be acceptable as identity documents to the federal government -- for instance to board airplanes or get access to court buildings. And the standards would include the controversial legal presence requirement -- those applying for a license would have to prove either they were citizens or that they were lawfully in the United States. For non-citizen holders of temporary visas, the license issued would expire on the same date the visa did. Legal presence requirements have been slowly spreading since Sept. 11, 2001. All 19 of the suicide hijackers who struck that day had been able to acquire some form of license or state identification, including those who had overstayed or otherwise violated the terms of their visas. All but 10 states have some form of the requirement, according to the Coalition for a Secure Driver's License, a New York-based advocacy group. But the bills promote uniform national standards, and the free exchange of information among state vehicle licensing databases and between them and the federal government. Opponents say that is the introduction of a national ID card. Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said his bill -- called the Real ID Act -- "does comport with the principles of federalism" and does not impinge on states' rights. Under his law, "The states are free to issue driver's licenses and ID cards to whomever they wish to issue them, but if they wish to use the ID for federal purposes, then it does have to meet certain standards, including the standard of legal presence in the United States," he told reporters on Capitol Hill last week. He said companion legislation would be introduced in the Senate by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz. Sensenbrenner's proposals proved controversial when they were introduced as part of the Sept. 11 intelligence reform bill last year. They aroused fierce opposition from a broad coalition stretching from immigrants' rights advocates to libertarian conservatives. Even those who issue licenses have said they are uneasy about a new role as gatekeepers to a national ID system for citizens and legal aliens only, especially given the complexities of immigration law. "Our initials are D-M-V, not I-N-S," American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators' spokesman Jason King told United Press International last year -- referring to the acronyms of the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which was absorbed into the Department of Homeland Security in 2003. "We are the experts in driver licensing, not immigration," King said. Moreover, immigrants' rights advocates argue that by excluding undocumented migrants from the vehicle and driver-licensing system, legal presence requirements make the roads less safe even as they make the identity system more secure. Tennessee has introduced legislation it believes squares that circle. Since last July 1 last, the state has issued so-called driver certificates to anyone unable to prove legal presence, provided they can show they live in the state and can pass the driving test. The documents resemble drivers' licenses but are stamped "Not for identification" at the top. "It says we know you can drive, but we can't guarantee we know exactly who you are," said Maj. Gen. Jerry Humble, homeland security adviser to Gov. Phil Bredesen. But the Sensenbrenner bill also contains a series of provisions aimed at tightening asylum laws and making it easier to deport people suspected of links to terrorism. These two sets of provisions proved also controversial when they were introduced last year. Eventually, all three sets of proposals were stripped out of the Sept. 11 bill before it was passed. Aware that controversy over the immigration and asylum elements of the Real ID bill might complicate its passage, Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., chairman of the House Government Reform Committee has introduced stand-alone legislation on drivers' licenses. "I think it's ... important for members to have the chance to cast separate votes on separate issues," said Davis introducing his bill last week. "It's a politically smart move," said a senior GOP congressional aide. "By separating out the issues you make it impossible for the Dems to hide behind the immigration stuff." Ridge said his successor would inherit a department that had made the United States "a lot stronger and better country," though he acknowledged that "there was much more work that needs to be done." He said that when the department was set up, "We tried to keep the staffing levels low at headquarters." As a result, there was no department-wide policy office under a senior official and a staff of about a half dozen in the secretary's office. "We dealt with (policy issues) on an ad hoc basis," said Ridge. But observers say that as a result of this Ridge became too taken up with the daily crises and threats -- "wrestling the alligators," as one state official put it -- and didn't spend enough time "looking down the river, to see what's coming next and get ready." In effect, say department officials, this has left much of the heavy lifting to the small policy office in the Border and Transportation Security directorate. With fewer than 30 staff members, that office has taken the lead in some of the most challenging issues the department has tackled, like the negotiations with the European Union over the availability of passenger data; and in some of the trickiest inter-agency tussles, such as the development of the biometric border system called US-VISIT. Despite these successes, the absence of a department-wide operation under a senior official was criticized by a series of experts at a Senate hearing last week. Department officials privately concede that there were areas of the department's activities -- particularly its relationship and work with U.S. intelligence agencies -- where almost no policy work has been done. They also note that in some areas, different points of view from with the department itself were hard to reconcile. "On a lot of immigration issues, for instance, you have different equities from the enforcement side and the (Citizenship and Immigration Services office) side," said one official. "There wasn't really a good process to resolve those kinds of disputes, except to take them to the secretary every time and obviously you can't do that." Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairwoman of the newly empowered oversight Committee for Homeland Security said the current set up had had left the department without an effective mechanism for developing either short or long term strategic policy. "I agree," Ridge said Friday. Department officials told UPI that the new office would be announced within a week or so, and would be headed by a senior official, possibly an undersecretary. One other person familiar with the administration's thinking on the issue said that Assistant Secretary Stewart Verdery, who runs the Border and Transportation Security directorate's policy office, would likely be promoted to run the new operation. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Give underprivileged students the materials they need to learn. Bring education to life by funding a specific classroom project. http://us.click.yahoo.com/FHLuJD/_WnJAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, discuss-osint(a)yahoogroups.com. -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor bisoldi(a)intellnet.org http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint(a)yahoogroups.com Subscribe: osint-subscribe(a)yahoogroups.com Unsubscribe: osint-unsubscribe(a)yahoogroups.com *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: osint-unsubscribe(a)yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ --- 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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Auto, Gas Security Chips Vulnerable, Study Finds
by R.A. Hettinga 30 Jan '05

30 Jan '05

<http://www.reuters.com/printerFriendlyPopup.jhtml?type=technologyNews&story…> Reuters Auto, Gas Security Chips Vulnerable, Study Finds Sat Jan 29, 2005 08:00 PM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tiny radio-transmitter chips that make possible high-security car keys and swipe-by gasoline passes can be cracked using cheap technology, U.S. computer experts said on Saturday. The radio-frequency ID, or RFID, system uses a relatively simple code that criminals can easily decipher, making it easier to steal a car or get a free tankful of gasoline, the team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and RSA Laboratories said. "We've found that the security measures built into these devices are inadequate," said Avi Rubin, technical director of the Johns Hopkins Information Security Institute. "Millions of tags that are currently in use by consumers have an encryption function that can be cracked without requiring direct contact. An attacker who cracks the secret key in an RFID tag can then bypass security measures and fool tag readers in cars or at gas stations," Rubin said in a statement. Made by Texas Instruments (TXN.N: Quote, Profile, Research) , the RFID system studied for the report uses a device that prevents a car from starting unless both the right key and the correctly coded RFID chip are used. "The devices have been credited with significant reductions in auto theft rates, as much as 90 percent," the researchers wrote. They cited Texas Instruments, which had been told about the problem, as saying the company had received no reports of thefts due to the vulnerability. The fuel-purchase system uses a reader inside the gas pump that recognizes a key-chain tag waved nearby and automatically charges a designated credit card. More than 150 million of the Texas Instruments transponders are embedded in keys for newer vehicles built by at least three leading makers, and in more than 6 million key-chain gas tags, the researchers said. The problem is that the mathematical key used to code the verification system is too short, they said. They bought a commercial microchip costing less than $200 and programmed it to find the key for a gasoline-purchase tag. They linked 16 such chips together and cracked the key in about 15 minutes. The researchers said a metal sheath could help prevent the problem. Texas Instruments representatives were unavailable for comment. The RFID system they used is called a Digital Signature Transponder, and is distinct from the Electronic Product Code used by retailers and pharmacies for inventory control. RSA Laboratories, based in Bedford, Massachusetts, is a division of RSA Security (RSAS.O: Quote, Profile, Research). -- ----------------- 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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The Doctrine That Never Died
by R.A. Hettinga 30 Jan '05

30 Jan '05

<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/30/opinion/30wolfe.html?th=&pagewanted=print…> The New York Times January 30, 2005 OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR The Doctrine That Never Died By TOM WOLFE SURELY some bright bulb from the Council on Foreign Relations in New York or the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton has already remarked that President Bush's inaugural address 10 days ago is the fourth corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. No? So many savants and not one peep out of the lot of them? Really? The president had barely warmed up: "There is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred and resentment, and expose the pretensions of tyrants ... and that is the force of human freedom.... The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. ... America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one..." when - bango! - I flashed back 100 years and 47 days on the dot to another president. George W. Bush was speaking, but the voice echoing inside my skull - a high-pitched voice, an odd voice, coming from such a great big hairy bear of a man - was that of the president who dusted off Monroe's idea and dragged it into the 20th century. "The steady aim of this nation, as of all enlightened nations," said the Echo, "should be to strive to bring ever nearer the day when there shall prevail throughout the world the peace of justice. ...Tyrants and oppressors have many times made a wilderness and called it peace. ...The peace of tyrannous terror, the peace of craven weakness, the peace of injustice, all these should be shunned as we shun unrighteous war. ... The right of freedom and the responsibility for the exercise of that right cannot be divorced." Theodore Roosevelt! - Dec. 4, 1904, announcing to Congress the first corollary to the Monroe Doctrine - an item I had deposited in the memory bank and hadn't touched since I said goodbye to graduate school in the mid-1950's! In each case what I was hearing was the usual rustle and flourish of the curtains opening upon a grandiloquent backdrop. But if there was one thing I learned before departing academe and heading off wayward into journalism, it was that these pretty preambles to major political messages, all this solemn rhetorical throat-clearing - the parts always omitted from the textbooks as superfluous - are inevitably what in fact gives the game away. Theodore Roosevelt's corollary to President James Monroe's famous doctrine of 1823 proclaimed that not only did America have the right, ` la Monroe, to block European attempts to re-colonize any of the Western Hemisphere, it also had the right to take over and shape up any nation in the hemisphere guilty of "chronic wrongdoing" or uncivilized behavior that left it "impotent," powerless to defend itself against aggressors from the Other Hemisphere, meaning mainly England, France, Spain, Germany and Italy. The immediate problem was that the Dominican Republic had just reneged on millions in European loans so flagrantly that an Italian warship had turned up just off the harbor of Santo Domingo. Roosevelt sent the Navy down to frighten off the Italians and all other snarling Europeans. Then the United States took over the Dominican customs operations and debt management and by and by the whole country, eventually sending in the military to run the place. We didn't hesitate to occupy Haiti and Nicaragua, either. Back in 1823, Europeans had ridiculed Monroe and his doctrine. Baron de Tuyll, the Russian minister to Washington, said Americans were too busy hard-grabbing and making money to ever stop long enough to fight, even if they had the power, which they didn't. But by the early 1900's it was a different story. First there was T.R. And then came Senator Henry Cabot Lodge. In 1912 Japanese businessmen appeared to be on the verge of buying vast areas of Mexico's Baja California bordering our Southern California. Lodge drew up, and the Senate ratified, what became known as the Lodge Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. The United States would allow no foreign interests, no Other Hemispheroids of any description, to give any foreign government "practical power of control" over territory in This Hemisphere. The Japanese government immediately denied having any connection with the tycoons, and the Baja deals, if any, evaporated. Then, in 1950, George Kennan, the diplomat who had developed the containment theory of dealing with the Soviet Union after the Second World War, toured Latin America and came away alarmed by Communist influence in the region. So he devised the third corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. The Kennan Corollary said that Communism was simply a tool of Soviet national power. The United States had no choice, under the mandates of the Monroe Doctrine, but to eradicate Communist activity wherever it turned up in Latin America ... by any means necessary, even if it meant averting one's eyes from dictatorial regimes whose police force did everything but wear badges saying Chronic Wrongdoing. The historian Gaddis Smith summarizes the Lodge and Kennan Corollaries elegantly and economically in "The Last Years of the Monroe Doctrine, 1945-1993." Now, Gaddis Smith was a graduate-schoolmate of mine and very much a star even then and has remained a star historian ever since. So do I dare suggest that in this one instance, in a brilliant career going on 50 years now, that Gaddis Smith might have been ...wrong? ... that 1945 to 1993 were not the last years of the Monroe Doctrine? ... that the doctrine was more buff and boisterous than it has ever been 10 days ago, Jan. 20, 2005? But before we go forward, let's take one more step back in time and recall the curious case of Antarctica. In 1939 Franklin Roosevelt authorized the first official United States exploration of the South Pole, led by Admiral Richard E. Byrd. The expedition was scientific - but also military. The Japanese and the Germans were known to be rooting about in the ice down there, as were the Russians, the British, the Chileans, the Argentines, all of them yapping and stepping on one another's heels. Gradually it dawned on the whole bunch of them: at the South Pole the hemispheres got ... awfully narrow. In fact, there was one point, smaller than a dime, if you could ever find it, where there were no more Hemispheres at all. Finally, everybody in essence just gave up and forgot about it. It was so cold down there, you couldn't shove a shell into the gullet of a piece of artillery ... or a missile into a silo. Ah, yes, a missile. On the day in November 1961, when the Air Force achieved the first successful silo launching of an intercontinental ballistic missile, the SM-80, the Western Hemisphere part of the Monroe Doctrine ceased to mean anything at all - while the ideas behind it began to mean everything in the world. At bottom, the notion of a sanctified Western Hemisphere depended upon its separation from the rest of the world by two vast oceans, making intrusions of any sort obvious. The ICBM's - soon the Soviet Union and other countries had theirs - shrank the world in a military sense. Then long-range jet aircraft, satellite telephones, television and the Internet all, in turn, did the job socially and commercially. By Mr. Bush's Inauguration Day, the Hemi in Hemisphere had long since vanished, leaving the Monroe Doctrine with - what? - nothing but a single sphere ... which is to say, the entire world. For the mission - the messianic mission! - has never shrunk in the slightest ... which brings us back to the pretty preambles and the solemn rhetorical throat-clearing ... the parts always omitted from the textbooks as superfluous. "America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one," President Bush said. He added, "From the day of our founding, we have proclaimed that every man and woman on this earth has rights, and dignity, and matchless value, because they bear the image of the maker of heaven and earth." David Gelernter, the scientist and writer, argues that "Americanism" is a fundamentally religious notion shared by an incredibly varied population from every part of the globe and every conceivable background, all of whom feel that they have arrived, as Ronald Reagan put it, at a "shining city upon a hill." God knows how many of them just might agree with President Bush - and Theodore Roosevelt - that it is America's destiny and duty to bring that salvation to all mankind. Tom Wolfe is the author, most recently, of "I Am Charlotte Simmons." -- ----------------- 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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