February 2005 - cypherpunks-legacy

Fighting Net crime with code / Surge in phishing e-mails to take spotlight at cryptography conference
by R.A. Hettinga 14 Feb '05

14 Feb '05

<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/02/1…> www.sfgate.com Return to regular view Fighting Net crime with code Surge in phishing e-mails to take spotlight at cryptography conference - Carrie Kirby, Chronicle Staff Writer Monday, February 14, 2005 Every year, a bunch of cryptographers throw a big party, business mixer and study session in the Bay Area. In their effort to make the world love the science of code making and breaking as much as they do, they invoke dramatic historical uses of cryptography: the etchings of the ancient Maya, the Navajo code talkers of World War II. This time, the RSA Conference, opening today at Moscone Center in San Francisco, has crime as its theme. The 11,000 attendees will hear the tale of how federal agent Elizebeth Smith Friedman brought down a major ring of rum runners by cracking their sophisticated codes. The timing couldn't be more apt. More people than ever are not just shopping but conducting their finances online, with 45 percent of Americans paying bills over the Internet in 2004, according to research group Gartner. That's a 70 percent increase from 2003, a shift that is making the Internet more attractive than ever to criminals. "Crime on the Internet is probably the fastest-growing business there," said Ken Silva, vice president of networking and information security at VeriSign, the Mountain View company that secures Web sites and Internet transactions. Phishing e-mails -- those little fraudulent notes asking you to "confirm" your bank account number, credit card number, ATM password or locker combination -- have been growing by 38 percent a month on average, according to the industry's Anti-Phishing Working Group. Gartner warns that phishing will erode the growth of e-commerce if nothing is done. The folks gathering at the Moscone Center this week are the ones who do battle with all that, using -- you guessed it -- cryptography. They're software developers, marketers, academics, business leaders -- including conference speakers Bill Gates of Microsoft, John Chambers of Cisco, Symantec's John Thompson and VeriSign's Stratton Sclavos -- and a few current and former government officials, such as Amit Yoran, who resigned in October after one year as the nation's top cyber security official. Because phishing has shown the downside of using just a user name and password to access an online bank account, a panel featuring Yoran and other experts will look at safer ways for consumers to identify themselves on the Internet. Another panel will address businesses' fear that adding more security could make e-commerce and e-banking sites too cumbersome for consumers to use. Another topic will be whether software companies should be held liable when bugs in their products allow theft to happen and whether the government should regulate software safety as the Federal Aviation Administration regulates airline safety. Because most hackers and viruses get into computers through holes in Microsoft's nearly ubiquitous Windows software, Microsoft is always central in such discussions. But that is not a favorite topic for Microsoft leaders, and the preview blurb for Gates' speech, scheduled for Tuesday morning, makes no mention of that controversy. Instead, Gates is to discuss "his perspective on the state of security today, the importance of continued innovation, and advances in Microsoft's platform, products and technologies designed to better protect customers." The conference is run by Bedford, Mass., cryptography company RSA Security, which also has an office in San Mateo. E-mail Carrie Kirby at ckirby(a)sfchronicle.com. Page E - 2 URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/02/14/BU… )2005 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback | FAQ -- ----------------- 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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MPAA Developing Digital Fingerprinting Technology
by Eugen Leitl 14 Feb '05

14 Feb '05

>From the ha-ha-ha dept. Link: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/13/229229 Posted by: Zonk, on 2005-02-13 23:42:00 from the following-in-your-tracks dept. Danathar writes "The MPAA is looking to use [1]digital fingerprinting technologies that in conjunction with legislation will enable and force ISPs to look for network traffic that matches the signatures. " From the article: " Once completed, Philips' technology--along with related tools from other companies--could be a powerful weapon in Hollywood's increasingly aggressive attempts to choke off the flood of films being traded online." References 1. http://news.com.com/Movie+blackout+for+P2P+networks/2100-1025_3-5571057.htm… tag=nefd.lede ----- End forwarded message ----- -- 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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Despite Opposition, Might the Web Need New Government Jolt?
by R.A. Hettinga 13 Feb '05

13 Feb '05

"We're from the government, and we're here to..." Cheers, RAH ------- <http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB110833554526853450,00.html> The Wall Street Journal February 14, 2005 PORTALS By LEE GOMES Despite Opposition, Might the Web Need New Government Jolt? February 14, 2005 The birth of the Internet resulted from a famous example of government involvement in the economy a generation ago, when the Defense Department funded college researchers interested in computer networking. Since then, the Web has been an epic success, and the number of U.S. households connected to it continues to grow. But the speeds at which these houses can link up has plateaued at current DSL and cable rates, badly lagging behind the speeds available in many other countries, notably in Asia. Might it require another bit of government involvement to prod things along? That's one of the questions being raised in connection with the plans of a growing number of American cities to sponsor municipal wireless networks to provide Internet access to residents. Philadelphia, the biggest and best-known of these examples, is in the middle of unveiling such a plan; it hopes to blanket the metropolitan area with a wireless network that will provide speeds of at least one megabit for both uploading and downloading. That's not as fast as what residents of Hong Kong and South Korea enjoy, but it is faster than what many Americans have, especially for uploading data from PCs back to the Internet. Many home connections going in this direction are now just a tenth as fast. There is, however, much less consensus about these sorts of government projects today than there was during the heyday of federal support for high-technology research back in the 1970s and 1980s. The Philadelphia proposal, like other municipal plans, has become controversial -- in large part simply because of the considerable role being played by the city government. Last month, the latest in a series of harshly critical reports about these municipal network proposals was published by the New Millennium Research Council, a Washington, D.C., lobby and policy group. The council has ties to both local phone companies, which view these networks as competition and have lobbied in state legislatures to outlaw them, and conservative Washington think tanks, which tend to oppose activist-government initiatives. These sorts of ideological political tussles over the Web are increasingly common. For example, conservative groups, along with many members of Congress, are working hard to keep the Internet a tax-free zone, whether that involves taxation of Internet telephony or a sales tax for merchants like Amazon. On the opposite side of these disputes one usually finds state and county elected officials -- many of them Republican -- who are trying to provide traditional government services in a new era. When it comes to municipal networks, critics contend that cities will be using scarce tax money to build networks that compete with systems already offered by telephone and cable companies. What's more, they say, any network a city would build will quickly grow outdated because of rapidly changing technology. Philadelphia city officials respond that their network won't require taxpayer funds at all; instead, they say, it will be built and operated by for-profit private companies under a business plan developed by the city and its consultants. The goal, says Dianah Neff, the city's chief information officer, is to offer wireless-based connectivity throughout the city that will be free in some areas and cost roughly $20 a month in others. Ms. Neff says that her city would defer to private enterprise if it could, but that existing cable and phone providers either won't bring connectivity to the city's poorer neighbors at all, or won't do it for the city's $20 target price. The biggest contribution the city will make to the network will be in providing access to city infrastructure, such as utility poles, to house the wireless transmitters needed to bring the network to life. A private company will operate the network once it starts running, Ms. Neff says, and taxpayers won't be on the hook if business doesn't live up to expectations. As envisioned by city planners, the Philadelphia network won't have anything close to the blazing speeds common in Asia, where the Internet is so fast that residents can get their television signals through it. Its main goal, says Ms. Neff, is making a basic level of Web connectivity available to everyone. But because Philadelphia will be able to take advantage of new kinds of wireless technologies like WiMax, it may end up offering faster bandwidth than is enjoyed by many regular cable and DSL subscribers. Because of new technology, these networks can be installed with relatively small capital investments; the estimate for Philadelphia is roughly $10 million. Incumbent players don't usually have an incentive to build these faster new networks because they are tied to their wired networks, which also deliver telephone and television services. And that's one reason that networking speeds in the U.S. are stuck in the rut they are in. It's easy to bash city governments as being full of maladroit bureaucrats eager to manhandle a new technology, and even economists who support municipal networks say cities shouldn't rush into them. But well-thought-out city plans could help everyone by acting as a catalyst and shaking up the status quo. Some might even call that competition. -- ----------------- 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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TI Tackles Need for Secure Wireless Environment
by R.A. Hettinga 12 Feb '05

12 Feb '05

<http://i-newswire.com/goprint6541.html> I-Newswire TI Tackles Need for Secure Wireless Environment with Industry-Leading Security Solution (2005-02-13) Texas Instruments (TI) [NYSE:TXN] today announced it will be demonstrating with Orange and Trusted Logic a wireless security handset mechanism designed to eliminate unauthorized handset use and fraud. The demonstration also features a 128-bit secure contactless payment application and a customer loyalty application, powered by TI-RFidTM technology. As wireless evolves to 3G technology, the need for reliable security around applications handling sensitive high-value data becomes critical; in parallel, consumer demand for convenient transactions also becomes significant. With TI4s security technology at the core of TI4s OMAPTM processors, the solution provides one of the highest levels of handset security in the marketplace today. The first in the industry to provide a hardware-based system-level security solution three years ago, TI continues to address growing security concerns and needs by collaborating with industry leaders such as worldwide mobile operator Orange and Trusted Logic, a leading provider of secure software components for embedded systems. Together with Orange and Trusted Logic, TI will be demonstrating secure mobile payment and secure digital rights management (DRM) at 3GSM World Congress 2005 in Cannes, France, February 14-17. "Typically, mobile phones and user identities are secured by software cryptography. However, with mobile phone hacking and fraud on the rise, and as subscribers increasingly use their mobile phones to conduct wireless transactions and to download high-value multimedia, software security alone is insufficient to protect users and mobile data," said Edgar Auslander, TI general manager of worldwide strategy and corporate development, Wireless Terminals Business Unit. "TI provides a hardware-based security system designed to meet stringent security requirements set by mobile operators and financial services and content providers." "As new applications, business models and revenue opportunities arise in the mobile device market, so do the risks posed by hackers and malicious attacks to handsets to operator and third-party assets," said Laurent Coureau, strategic advisor, Orange. "TI's complete system-level security technology, combined with our standard based security middleware OVM, brings end-to-end security in an open and secure environment, leveraging trusted hardware and software components and building the foundation for new, value-added services based on enhanced customer trust." In the TI booth, Hall 2, Booth E19, TI will showcase consumer value-added secure services, enabled by TI's security technology in OMAP processors, Orange Operator Virtual Machine (OVM) and Trusted Logic Security Module, including contactless financial transactions and a contactless customer relationship management (CRM) application. The demo will use Orange OMA DRM v2.0 compliant secure multimedia contents downloads, rights management, decryption and play, as well as TI-RFid technology secured by 128-bit 3DES cryptography, as the air interface. "Users are growing more comfortable with carrying out transactions wirelessly, hence the need for a secure environment becomes even more critical," said Dominique Bolignano, Trusted Logic president and chief executive officer. "By leveraging each others' features, Trusted Logic's Security Module, which fully complies with the OVM specifications, and TI's security technology work synergistically to exponentially strengthen overall system security. This enables operators in providing consumers with a secure, trusted environment for financial services and protected mobile data." Together, Texas Instruments, Orange and Trusted Logic are working to reduce handset fraud while addressing new security services for the wireless environment, including DRM and verification; music, video, games and other application downloads; remote terminal management; m-commerce transactions; and over-the-air (OTA) provisioning of new services and "bug" fixes using the mobile phone. TI is committed to an open, non-proprietary approach to the wireless marketplace and actively works with technology, applications and security standards bodies to drive open standards and wireless innovation. -- ----------------- 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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Break-In At SAIC Risks ID Theft
by R.A. Hettinga 12 Feb '05

12 Feb '05

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A17506-2005Feb11?language=printer> The Washington Post washingtonpost.com Break-In At SAIC Risks ID Theft Computers Held Personal Data on Employee-Owners By Griff Witte Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, February 12, 2005; Page E01 Some of the nation's most influential former military and intelligence officials have been informed in recent days that they are at risk of identity theft after a break-in at a major government contractor netted computers containing the Social Security numbers and other personal information about tens of thousands of past and present company employees. The contractor, employee-owned Science Applications International Corp. of San Diego, handles sensitive government contracts, including many in information security. It has a reputation for hiring Washington's most powerful figures when they leave the government, and its payroll has been studded with former secretaries of defense, CIA directors and White House counterterrorism advisers. Those former officials -- along with the rest of a 45,000-person workforce in which a significant percentage of employees hold government security clearances -- were informed last week that their private information may have been breached and they need to take steps to protect themselves from fraud. David Kay, who was chief weapons inspector in Iraq after nearly a decade as an executive at SAIC, said he has devoted more than a dozen hours to shutting down accounts and safeguarding his finances. He said the successful theft of personal data, by thieves who smashed windows to gain access, does not speak well of a company that is devoted to keeping the government's secrets secure. "I just find it unexplainable how anyone could be so casual with such vital information. It's not like we're just now learning that identity theft is a problem," said Kay, who lives in Northern Virginia. About 16,000 SAIC employees work in the Washington area. Bobby Ray Inman, former deputy director of the CIA and a former director at SAIC, agreed. "It's worrisome," said Inman, who also received notification of the theft last week. "If the security is sloppy, it raises questions." Ben Haddad, an SAIC spokesman, said yesterday that the Jan. 25 theft, which the company announced last week, occurred in an administrative building where no sensitive contracting work is performed. Haddad said the company does not know whether the thieves targeted specific computers containing employee information or if they were simply after hardware to sell for cash. In either case, the company is taking no chances. "We're taking this extremely seriously," Haddad said. "It's certainly not something that would reflect well on any company, let alone a company that's involved in information security. But what can I say? We're doing everything we can to get to the bottom of it." Gary Hassen of the San Diego Police Department said there are, at the moment, "no leads." Haddad said surveillance cameras are in the building where the theft took place, but he did not know whether they caught the perpetrators on tape. He also did not know whether the information that was on the pilfered computers had been encrypted. The stolen information included names, Social Security numbers, addresses, telephone numbers and records of financial transactions. It was stored in a database of past and present SAIC stockholders. SAIC is one of the nation's largest employee-owned companies, with workers each receiving the option to buy SAIC stock through an internal brokerage division known as Bull Inc. Haddad said the company has been trying through letters and e-mails to get in touch with everyone who has held company stock within the past decade, though he acknowledged that hasn't been easy since many have since left the company. He said the company would take steps to ensure stockholder information is better protected in the future, but he declined to be specific. The theft comes at a time when the company, which depends on the federal government for more than 80 percent of its $7 billion annual revenue, is already under scrutiny for its handling of several contracts. Last week on Capitol Hill, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III testified that the company had botched an attempt to build software for the bureau's new Virtual Case File system. The $170 million upgrade was supposed to allow agents to sift through different cases electronically, but the FBI has said the new system is so outdated that it will probably be scrapped. In San Antonio, SAIC is fighting the government over charges that the company padded its cost estimates on a $24 million Air Force contract. The case prompted the Air Force to issue an unusual alert to its contracting officials late last year, warning them that "the Department of Justice believes that SAIC is continuing to submit defective cost or pricing data in support of its pricing proposals." SAIC has defended its work for the FBI and the Air Force. Haddad said that criticisms are inevitable for a such a large company and that there is no pattern of poor performance. "I know people will try to jump to that kind of conclusion, but it's not an accurate reflection of how well this company is doing," he said. "This company has always prided itself on strong ethics." The company's alumni list reads like a roll call of the nation's highest-profile former officials, including former defense secretaries William J. Perry and Melvin R. Laird and former CIA director John Deutch. Current directors of the company include former chief counterterrorism adviser Gen. Wayne A. Downing. Founded by a group of scientists in 1969, SAIC has been growing in recent years at a rapid clip, right along with the government's appetite for high-tech services in information technology and national defense. The company named a new chief executive, Kenneth C. Dahlberg, in 2003, and he has set a goal of doubling the company's value within three to five years, Haddad said. Philip Finnegan, director of corporate analysis with the Teal Group Corp., said SAIC is trying to push into the top tier of contractors -- a rarefied club that includes Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. -- and that there are bound to be bumps along the way. "It's inevitable that they'll face problems," he said. Others are less sure the company's recent difficulties don't add up to something more. "Is [the break-in] saying something about the quality of the company?" Kay said. "It's hard to say that. It's probably just random luck. But multiple occurrences of bad luck are often more than bad luck." -- ----------------- 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: [FoRK] Google (fwd from rst@ai.mit.edu)
by Eugen Leitl 12 Feb '05

12 Feb '05

----- Forwarded message from rst(a)ai.mit.edu -----

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Cypherpunk help with Hal Finney demo
by hal＠finney.org 11 Feb '05

11 Feb '05

Here's a semi-urgent request. I introduced the RPOW project last year on this list, rpow.net. It provides a sort of play-money form of digital cash, an implementation of Nick Szabo's concept of "bit gold". I am giving a talk at CodeCon, www.codecon.org, on this system, in about an hour(!) and I could use some help from you. One of the things I have done to demo a possible use is to make a patched version of BitTorrent, the widely used file sharing program, that exchanges RPOW data objects in order to reward people for uploading and seeding files. In exchange, people with RPOWs can get priority on future downloads, so by seeding today you can get a better download tomorrow. That's the concept, although at this point it is just an experiment. What I need is to have a dozen or so people doing regular BitTorrent downloads of a file I will offer during the demo, which will be at about 5:15 PM Pacific Standard Time, 8:15 PM EST, 1:15 AM GMT. That's 1 hour from now. You don't need to use any special RPOW software, just the regular BitTorrent client. If you have a BitTorrent client and know how to use it, could you start up and leave running a download of the following .torrent file: http://www.finney.org/~hal/ArkyMovie.mpg.torrent This is fully legal, it's just a home movie of my dog Arky playing on the beach with his brother. Nothing will happen with the download until I start the demo after 5. But if you could start up your BitTorrent client before then and just leave it running, it would be a big help for me. If you are able to do this, please send me an email when you start up your BT client, at hal(a)finney.org. If you've never used BT, don't bother to try downloading and figuring it out. I only really need a minimum of 4 or 5 people doing it, but as I said a dozen or more would be great. Sorry about the last minute notice; I know that most people won't see this until too late, but if anyone sees it now and you know how to use BT I'd appreciate your help. Thanks! Hal Finney

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[osint] Technology and Terror: The New Modus Operandi
by R.A. Hettinga 11 Feb '05

11 Feb '05

--- begin forwarded text To: "Bruce Tefft" <btefft(a)community-research.com> Thread-Index: AcUQiaDiEfkM6EBiRXa/4exIK6zyqQ== From: "Bruce Tefft" <btefft(a)community-research.com> Mailing-List: list osint(a)yahoogroups.com; contact osint-owner(a)yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list osint(a)yahoogroups.com Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2005 17:32:54 -0500 Subject: [osint] Technology and Terror: The New Modus Operandi Reply-To: osint(a)yahoogroups.com http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/front/special/tech.html Technology and Terror: The New Modus Operandi By Andrew Becker For all the fear that cyber terrorists will turn the Internet into a weapon of mass disruption, many intelligence experts contend the Web is most effective (or detrimental) as it was designed to be -- as a way to communicate and create community. This essay explores how jihadis are using the Web, plus some of the cyber "tricks" used by terrorists to avoid detection and how the authorities can respond. It was all laid out in a polished, 25-minute training video: how to make an explosive belt to blow yourself up and kill as many people as possible. This particular video, first posted on a jihadist message board in December 2004, presented the necessary explosives, shrapnel and vest for a suicide bomber. It demonstrated how to assemble the materials and wear the belt. And then the video showed a test of the explosive belt, with a simulated detonation aboard a crowded bus. As translated on a Web site <http://siteinstitute.org/bin/articles.cgi?ID=publications13804&Category=pub lications&Subcategory=0> that tracks Islamic terrorist organizations, the producers analyzed the bomb's impact on the mock victims: We notice that the following 2 seats were not directly hit. This is due to the fact that, when the person who will be wearing this explosive vest goes on the bus, and wants to blow himself up, he must be facing the front with his back towards the back. There is a possibility that the 2 seats on his right and his left might not be hit with the shrapnel, however, the explosion will surely kill the passengers in those seats. Such Web sites and training videos, which are often posted then quickly removed to avoid detection, have multiplied after Sept. 11. In doing so, they opened perhaps the widest front in the war on terror: cyberspace. In essence, the Internet is the perfect communication tool for terrorists, and it mirrors the framework of their operations: decentralized, anonymous, and offering fast communication to a potentially large audience. The Internet is used to plot and claim responsibility for terrorist acts, to address sympathizers and enemies alike, and to raise money and attract new recruits. It has created a virtual "umma" -- Arabic for the larger Muslim community as a whole -- and like the actual umma, the cyber umma encompasses both moderate Muslims and Islamic fundamentalists. For all the fear that cyber terrorists will turn the Internet into a weapon of mass disruption, many intelligence experts contend the Web is most effective (or detrimental) as it was designed to be -- as a way to communicate and to create community. In a keynote speech at a security conference for government agencies in Washington, retired CIA director George Tenet called for tightening security of the Internet, which he said was "a potential Achilles' heel." Tenet acknowledged that it would be "controversial in this age when we still think the Internet is a free and open society," but "ultimately the Wild West must give way to governance and control." But, as Gabriel Weimann writes in the United States Institute of Peace report "How <http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr116.html> Modern Terrorism Uses the Internet," the restriction of the Internet under the guise of counterterrorism measures, particularly by authoritarian governments, can infringe on privacy, limit freedom of speech, and impede the free flow of information, in turn placing restrictions on the open society that makes the Western world strong. "There's just no question that if the Internet wasn't there, the terrorists would have loved to invent it," says Jeffrey Simon, a former terrorism analyst for the RAND Corp., author of The Terrorist Trap and a consultant who has studied terrorism for 20 years. "It's always a technological battle with terrorists. The technology is always out there for everyone to take advantage of." + Hosting terror at home Although a number of extremist sites are located abroad, in many cases, terrorists take advantage of the technology inside the U.S. Recently, more jihadist Web sites in Europe have switched to U.S. computer servers -- mostly because they can, says Rita Katz, director of the Washington-based Search for International <http://www.siteinstitute.org/> Terrorist Entities (SITE) Institute. American Web hosting is cheap, easy to access and U.S. servers are technologically among the best in the world. To avoid detection, terrorists frequently change Web addresses and often squat undetected on other Web sites or Internet servers. Katz believes the most hard-core Al Qaeda and jihadist Web sites are hosted in the U.S. because of freedom of speech protections. Katz points to the August 2004 arrest of Babar Ahmad, a British citizen charged in the U.S. with providing material support to terrorists, conspiring to kill people in a foreign country, and money laundering, because Web sites that he ran from the U.K. were hosted by an Internet service provider in Connecticut. The indictment alleges that through the Web sites and other means, Ahmad provided "expert advice and assistance, communications equipment, military items, lodging, training, false documentation, transportation, funding, personnel and other support designed to assist the Chechen mujahideen, the Taliban and associated groups." "The Internet today is really 'command central' for all terrorist organizations," says Katz, who wrote a memoir The Terrorist Hunter and has tracked international terrorists since the 1990s. "You don't really need to be in Afghanistan anymore. It's all on the Internet." She keeps edited examples of terrorist training manuals, videos, newsletters and communiquis on the SITE Institute's subscriber-based Web site, including the suicide bomber instructional video. The information on these Web sites can vary from how to set up a safehouse to instructions for using rocket-propelled grenades. "If you know where to look, [they're] not difficult to find. Not for an Arabic speaker," she says. The Internet is "something we set up for our use to make our life better, but terrorists have hijacked the Internet literally." + Increasing sophistication In the summer of 2004, Lee S. Strickland, director of the Center for Information Policy at the University of Maryland and a career senior intelligence officer and computer specialist, oversaw a study that examined terrorists' use of the Internet. The study found that the terrorist sites tend to be as sophisticated and efficacious as many mainstream Western corporate sites. The researchers used 26 variables of highly effective Web sites including design, content and how often they are updated. "You're really seeing a growing sophistication of video and the Web," Strickland says. The study examined a number of terrorist linked sites, ranging from Al Qaeda and Hamas to the Tamil Tigers. When compared with Microsoft.com, Hamas' site, for instance, shared 23 of these 26 highly valuable design features, such as search engines, mission statements, a "what's new" section and a frequently asked questions page. There were even job boards, online applications for recruitment, testimonials, an online store and chat rooms. If the sites aren't directly recruiting, many solicit funds. Strickland says these sites employ an effective array of interactive games, cartoons, jokes, and even bedtime stories that appeal to children. They recruit young adults ages 14 to 24 with videos and music: For example, in early 2004, a Muslim rapper in Great Britain named Sheik Terra released a video for his song "Dirty Kuffar" (Infidel) in which he carries a copy of the Quran and a pistol and calls for the death of all non-Muslims. + Reconnaissance With the abundance of information available on the Internet, terrorists also use the Web for reconnaissance, especially with the availability of public information on things like electrical grids and other infrastructure -- a problem highlighted by George Tenet late last year. Terrorists regularly search the Internet for data mining purposes to facilitate financial transactions and crime, according to former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke. Clarke says the government should limit what information is available by first examining the content on government Web sites. If they don't, reconnaissance of potential targets by terrorists will continue. "The Pentagon has done this. It's generally a good idea for any company or government to do," he says. "There's way too much information available." An Al Qaeda training manual recovered in Afghanistan confirms that the group researched critical infrastructure online. The manual explained that at least 80 percent of the information gathered on the enemy was done through open and legal methods. Whether it's GIS mapping of the electrical and cyberoptic infrastructure of New York City or major dams, much of the information is still openly available, according to Strickland. "You can get information anonymously, store it in a database and apply data mining tools to it," he says. "And the tools to exploit are commercial tools!" + Avoiding detection For years intelligence experts and officials have suspected that some Al Qaeda operatives are technological whizzes who use espionage tools like encryption or the practice of hiding messages within other messages known as steganography. Encryption works by altering letters or numbers with software. It is illegal to export encryption software to certain countries overseas, but the programs can be easily downloaded. Arrests of Al Qaeda members and computers captured in U.S. raids have turned up evidence of encrypted e-mails dating to the 1990s, including the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa. Wadih <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/upclose/elhage.html> El Hage, an associate of Osama bin Laden who was convicted for his role in the 1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, encrypted e-mails while plotting the attacks. Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind behind the 1993 World Trade Center attack, used encryption from his base in the Philippines in the mid-1990s when he plotted to blow up 11 U.S. airplanes over the Pacific. More recently, U.S. officials believe the Al Qaeda Web site www.alneda.com used encrypted information to link Al Qaeda members to more secure sites, according to Weimann's report. Steganography dates to ancient Greece and was widely used by Allies and the Axis during World War II. Russ Rogers, a security researcher and CEO of security services company Security Horizon, Inc., says there are more than 100 tools readily available on the Web that can help hide information inside documents such as JPEG image files using algorithms to modify the pixels in a file without altering the visible image. There are even Web sites and programs that can transform a message to make it look like spam e-mail or a play script. + The virtual politics of violence The Web's use as a propaganda and political tool may be its biggest asset to terrorists. An intelligence aide to a U.S. senator, who spoke on condition of anonymity says, "The Internet is the poor man's television network. Buy a $300 video camera and a PC and you're in business. You can communicate in a very powerful medium almost instantaneously, almost undetectable and free." One of the more striking examples of terrorists' political use of the Internet involves a document that argued for an attack against Spanish forces months before March 11. Written in early December 2003, the document titled "Jihadi Iraq, Hopes and Dangers" called for attacks in order to influence the parliamentary elections. A few weeks after the document was published, Brynjar Lia, senior analyst at the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment, found the document on a jihadist Web site while making his usual rounds on the Internet. "It was interesting to me for two reasons -- the document's sophisticated strategic analysis and its specific recommendations," Lia says. "Many of the documents are religious and propagandist in tone and entirely devoted to providing justifications for jihad. If you've read one or two, you've read them all." But this document was different. It mentioned the Spanish elections, which were four months away, and recommended "painful strikes" in the run-up to the election in order to influence its outcome. The author lays out the argument as for why an attack against Spain would be most effective. There wasn't a specific call for an attack in Europe, Lia says, but rather the terms called for an attack against Spanish forces. As translated <http://www.mil.no/felles/ffi/start/article.jhtml?articleID=71589> by Lia and his colleague Thomas Hegghammer, the document contends: We think that the Spanish government could not tolerate more than two, maximum three blows, after which it will have to withdraw as a result of popular pressure. If its troops still remain in Iraq after these blows, then the victory of the Socialist Party is almost secured, and the withdrawal of the Spanish forces will be on its electoral programme. "Like everyone else, I assumed all the intelligence agencies in the world were monitoring these Web sites and checking them out," Lia says. "I didn't think to alert anyone. It seemed obvious. I thought they must have been read." + Monitoring Web sites The U.S. government doesn't actively monitor Web sites, according to Richard Clarke. Some ISPs and Web hosts might, although currently there is no legal obligation to do so. "You're treading on dangerous ground when you start limiting content, unless the site is clearly linked to a violation of the law," he says. But while First Amendment concerns exist, it is the sheer volume of Web sites and e-mail traffic that mostly hampers monitoring. "Unless there is a specific complaint, [Web hosting companies] don't have the wherewithal to monitor the content or the responsibility," says FBI agent Mike Rolince, of the Washington, D.C. field office. The same issue of resources prohibits the Department of Justice from monitoring Web sites says Department of Justice spokesman Bryan Sierra. "We don't have the manpower or the desire to sit around and monitor the Web 24-7," Sierra says. "We're not the guys out there trying to determine what is on the Internet. That's not our goal. Our goal is to determine what is illegal." California-based Yahoo! spokeswoman Mary Osako would not comment on how aggressively Yahoo! monitors the content of the Web sites it hosts, but the company investigates every complaint it receives. She says that the company has the "ability across languages" to scrutinize sites but for the most part Yahoo! relies on its members to report any inappropriate use. Osako would not disclose how many reports the company has received regarding terrorist-related material. In the end, taking down a Web site isn't going to solve the problem. "The opposition sees that as nothing more than a temporary inconvenience," according to Rolince. Going forward, Dale Watson, former special agent in charge of counter-terrorism in the Washington bureau of the FBI, expects the bureau to continue to use the e-mail equivalent of telephone wiretaps as a surveillance tool. Since March 2004, the European Union has discussed imposing requirements on Internet service providers (ISPs) and cell phone companies to keep permanent records accessible to law enforcement. The European Council will vote on the matter in June 2005. For the Department of Justice, the main obstacle and main challenge will be keeping up with the emerging technologies terrorists use, Sierra says. But the intelligence aide to the U.S. senator believes that the cyber age and "all the cool tools" shouldn't dazzle law enforcement. "There is an increasing need for old-fashioned, shoe-leather spying, human intelligence and agents who will tell us things about the bad guys," he says. "It's face-to-face where we can really make strides against terrorism." Andrew Becker is a student at the Graduate School of Journalism at University of California, Berkeley. His articles have appeared in the Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle, and FRONTLINE. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> DonorsChoose. A simple way to provide underprivileged children resources often lacking in public schools. Fund a student project in NYC/NC today! http://us.click.yahoo.com/EHLuJD/.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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Blinky, etc.: [osint] Terrorists' Tricks and Counter-Measures
by R.A. Hettinga 11 Feb '05

11 Feb '05

--- begin forwarded text To: "Bruce Tefft" <btefft(a)community-research.com> Thread-Index: AcUQicQJIaX+jMBUTx2fNeBGtdezfw== From: "Bruce Tefft" <btefft(a)community-research.com> Mailing-List: list osint(a)yahoogroups.com; contact osint-owner(a)yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list osint(a)yahoogroups.com Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2005 17:33:53 -0500 Subject: [osint] Terrorists' Tricks and Counter-Measures Reply-To: osint(a)yahoogroups.com http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/front/special/techsidebar.html The Terrorist's Tricks and Counter-Measures + Tricks + Two terrorists on opposite sides of the globe might agree to open 30 anonymous web-based e-mail accounts with 30 different passwords. On the first of the month the first account is used, on the second of the month the second account is used and so on, until each account is used once. "It's very difficult to catch, because there is no pattern of use," former U.S. counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke says. "One-time anonymous accounts are extremely difficult to monitor." + One terrorist drafts a Web-based e-mail and instead of sending it, saves it to the draft folder, accessible online from anywhere in the world. The other terrorist can open the same account, read the message, and delete it. The e-mail has never been sent, and cannot be tracked. + Many e-mails are sent on public computers, for example in libraries or cyber cafis, making them even more difficult to trace. + The language in the e-mails can also be cloaked, says Dale Watson, a 24-year veteran of the FBI who served as the first executive assistant director for counterterrorism. In preparing for the Sept. 11 attacks, suspected hijacker and pilot Mohamed Atta and alleged 9/11 conspirator Ramzi bin al-Shibh pretended to be students as they exchanged e-mails, talking about "architecture" (the World Trade Center), "arts" (the Pentagon), "law" (the Capitol) and "politics" (the White House). + Counter-Measures + If a jihadist site hosted in another country is not taken down by the government in that country, the U.S. needs to hack the site and bring it down, Clarke says. + The U.S. can use active and passive attacks to disrupt terrorists' electronic networks. Active attacks include using computer viruses to infect enemy computers. Passive attacks monitor e-mails and transferred data, and watch traffic patterns. + The viruses used in active attacks wouldn't do damage or send mass mailings, but rather selectively collect data and discreetly send the e-mail back to U.S. intelligence. That could include getting address books, or collecting the "cookies" written to the computer's hard drive when the terrorist visits certain Web sites. There are also ways to monitor keystrokes, even if a terrorist uses encryption. Counterfeit e-mails can also used to confuse or subvert communications. "They certainly can be very effective," the University of Maryland's Lee Strickland says of active attacks. "To escape, [terrorists] have to be lucky every day. We only have to be lucky once." + Passive attacks aim to monitor the terrorists' information network, not overtly disrupt it. That includes watching electronic banking transactions, for example, and following e-mail traffic patterns and other data exchanges. Doing so may arouse suspicion and force terrorists to use less efficient modes of communication. "The goal is not only to acquire information in the terrorists' possession, but also to force them to use other forms of communication -- perhaps slower and less effective, or perhaps someone that may be easier to intercept or that may provide more information upon intercept," Strickland wrote in a 2002 report called "Fighting Terrorism with Information." [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ 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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[osint] Arab Bank Announces Withdrawal from the U.S.
by R.A. Hettinga 11 Feb '05

11 Feb '05

--- begin forwarded text To: "Bruce Tefft" <btefft(a)community-research.com> Thread-Index: AcUQg90Ntm4eZXoQRjGRmZ+BhzYIgw== From: "Bruce Tefft" <btefft(a)community-research.com> Mailing-List: list osint(a)yahoogroups.com; contact osint-owner(a)yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list osint(a)yahoogroups.com Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2005 16:51:38 -0500 Subject: [osint] Arab Bank Announces Withdrawal from the U.S. Reply-To: osint(a)yahoogroups.com Arab Bank Announces Withdrawal from the U.S. Yesterday Arab Bank PLC, Jordan's largest bank, announced that it intends to withdraw from the United States. Arab Bank, which maintains a branch on Madison Avenue, is currently under federal regulatory investigation, reportedly for failing to abide by U.S. anti-money laundering laws. Arab Bank also faces a flurry of allegations from over 800 U.S. and Israeli victims of Palestinian terrorism who allege that the Arab Bank, including specifically the New York branch, facilitated systematic payments to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers and to HAMAS front organizations (see prior <http://counterterror.typepad.com/the_counterterrorism_blog/2005/01/arab_ban k_as_te.html> post here). For purposes of full disclosure, I am serving as Special Counsel to the largest such suit. In announcing the retreat, a statement from Jordan's Central Bank said: "The climate of operating in the United States at present is not expedient with the bank's strategy and vision." Unlike al Qaeda financing, the financing of the second intifada has been conducted openly and in plain sight. According to the suits, much of the money that moved through Arab Bank originated in Saudi Arabia, as part of an organized undertaking known as the Saudi Committee in Support of the Intifada Al Quds (later renamed the Saudi Committee for Relief of the Palestinian People). The Saudi Committee helpfully posts its records (updated through the Spring of 2002) on the web at www.alquds-saudi.org. The web site even makes clear that contributions to the Saudi Committee are sent via Arab Bank, and includes records of disbursements of approximately $5300 each made to the families of numerous known terrorist operatives, including, for example, suicide bombers responsible for the August 2001 attack on the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem and the June 2001 attack on the Dolphinarium disco in Tel Aviv. Those attacks killed or injured many innocent civilians, including scores of Americans. According to the suits, payments knowingly made by and through Arab Bank have provided an incentive for these and other acts of terrorism since September 2000. The payoffs are remarkable, as is the decision of the bank to withdraw from the United States in a clear attempt to avoid further scrutiny and possible massive liability. As Rep. Sue Kelly (R-NY), the Vice-Chair of the House Financial Services committee, stated: "Americans would be appalled by the notion that the families of Al-Qaeda murderers were being rewarded through a financial institution located in New York." Ron Motley and Gary Osen, lead attorneys for Israeli and American victims, respectively, yesterday said that they would take immediate steps to make sure that relevant documents and records remain in the United States as Arab Bank flees for safer jurisdictions. The U.S. government should also take immediate steps to assure moral and legal accountability for the financing of the second intifada as, we hope, prospects for peace in the Middle East continue to improve and the terror of the last four years recedes. http://counterterror.typepad.com/ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ 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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