July 2018 - cypherpunks-legacy

FC: FBI is investigating an alleged "Black Bloc" threat sent to Politech
by Declan McCullagh 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

The FBI is investigating an alleged threat against the Cato Institute, the world's leading free-market think tank, sent to Politech. Chuck0 <chuck(a)tao.ca> sent a message to Politech that I forwarded -- as part of an ongoing discussion about privacy and globalization -- on Monday: http://www.politechbot.com/p-02214.html The message said: "Cato's little insult of the black bloc means that we'll be paying Cato HQ a visit this coming September. People who work in glass buildings shouldn't throw the first rhetorical stones." The Cato Institute was reportedly vandalized in January during the Bush inauguration protests. (http://www.mccullagh.org/theme/2001-bush-inauguration-highlights.html) It is a prominent building with a huge glass atrium at 10th and Mass. Ave. in downtown Washington. The insult directed at the Black Bloc appeared in an article written by Aaron Lukas, an analyst at the Cato Institute's Center for Trade Policy Studies. It was published in the National Review and I reposted it to Politech with Aaron's permission. Aaron wrote that "vandalism, violence, and harassment are acceptable behavior for the Black Blockheads and Ruckus-Societarians of the world." (http://www.politechbot.com/p-02210.html) The Black Bloc is difficult to define, but it has been described as a revolutionary anti-capitalist action group, and also as a collective of black-masked anarchists who are the "special forces" of the movement. A Washington, DC "Anarchist Neighborhood" site (http://www.infoshop.org/hood/dc.html) that lists Chuck0 as a contact says World Bank/IMF protests are scheduled for the city in September. FBI Agent Dave Dawson in the agency's headquarters is investigating Chuck0's message sent to Politech. Politech is a journalistic enterprise protected by the First Amendment, and I generally treat email sent to me in confidence, as a news organization would treat a confidential source. When someone sends me mail and indicates they would like it redistributed to the list -- typically done by emailing both declan(a)well.com and the politech(a)politechbot.com list address, as Chuck0 did -- the relationship is akin to someone writing a letter to the editor of a newspaper and asking that it be published. While I do not countenance attacks on property, responsible journalists don't like to chat with law enforcement about people who talk to them or send letters to the editor. It makes their readers less likely to trust their independence in the future. I have not yet spoken with Agent Dawson. If we speak, my response will be: 1. I will not reveal information about Politech subscribers. Politech's privacy policy (http://www.politechbot.com/info/privacy.html) says: "We do not sell or rent information you provide us. We intend to challenge any subpoena or other legal process seeking access to the limited information we do store." 2. I will not reveal any other information I may or may not possess (such as complete headers of email messages or other correspondence that may or may not exist between me and Chuck0 or anyone else on this topic). 3. I will describe in general terms, such as I would at a speaking engagement, in an article or in conversation with a colleague, what Politech is and how long I have been editing it. -Declan Editor, Politech This message will be archived at: http://www.politechbot.com/p-02218.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- End forwarded message -----

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Re: Tor a carrier for Botnet traffic?
by Scott Bennett 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

On Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:22:56 -0400 Ted Smith <teddks(a)gmail.com> wrote: >On Tue, 2009-09-01 at 16:20 +0200, Folkert van Heusden wrote: >> So; what should we do? Dis-allow hidden services in Tor? Or block Tor >> totally? >>=20 >Banning Tor will have no effect on botnets, as others on this list have >pointed out. We should ban Windows, instead. You raise a good point. Nevertheless, *we* aren't the ones doing the banning, rather the ISPs are (e.g., Comcast in the U.S.), and the ISPs are certainly not going to ban Windows. There's been quite a few times that, when I've called an ISP to try to get them to fix a problem on their end, I've been told that they don't support FreeBSD, which, of course, is irrelevant. I don't ask them for operating system support, just networking support on their end. Any *BSD, LINUX, Solaris, or other UNIX-like system provides far better tools for diagnosing networking problems than a typical Windows system provides. The ISPs, however, will not let customers talk with anyone at the ISP who actually administers the networking hardware or software. They only let customers talk with variously trained monkeys, none of whom have ever read any of, say, David Comer's books on TCP/IP networking, kernel design and implementation books, Cisco Systems manuals, RFCs, etc. The people customers are allowed to talk with have no clue how the Internet actually works. They have no background in it whatsoever and usually do not even have the vocabulary necessary to understand the evidence we present to them, much less follow the reasoning based upon the evidence that points to the problem. Those are the people making the decisions to threaten customers who know what they are doing and are running tor nodes, requiring those customers to stop running tor nodes. They can and do call customers who run tor nodes, claiming that the customer's computer is "infected with a virus or other malware" and/or that the customer's computer is "being used to contact botnets", and when challenged for evidence to support the claims, swear up and down that the evidence exists, but that no, they cannot give it to us and, in some cases, that they don't have access to it themselves, but that they've been sent a report by someone else (or some program) in the company that doesn't give any evidence or that the company has received complaints, of which they also cannot provide copies or other details. A rational, knowledgeable customer will get nowhere against the ignorance of ISP employees following irrational policies and procedures of their employers. The only thing I can think of that might help here is for the tor project and all tor node operators to stop refering to tor relays as "servers". The relay functions are *not* server functions any more than a Cisco router is a server. tor relays are *software routers*, not servers. I realize that a node that also has an open DirPort is providing directory services, but those services are intended for internal use by the software router network, not by humans directly. The fact that humans *can* use HTTP to query a directory server is irrelevant. The primary role of the directory servers is to serve the software routers, not humans, and therefore ought to be considered as the software router equivalent to routing table maintenance daemons. But at present, if an ISP contacts a tor node operator, claiming that the node operator is violating an acceptable use policy prohibiting "servers", a look at the tor project's web site merely convinces the ISP employee that a tor node *is* a server because that's what the web pages say it is. :-( Then they tell the node operator to shut it down or else they will disconnect the service. Scott Bennett, Comm. ASMELG, CFIAG ********************************************************************** * Internet: bennett at cs.niu.edu * *--------------------------------------------------------------------* * "A well regulated and disciplined militia, is at all times a good * * objection to the introduction of that bane of all free governments * * -- a standing army." * * -- Gov. John Hancock, New York Journal, 28 January 1790 * ********************************************************************** ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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Strangling the Internet with ID
by Lauren Weinstein 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Dave, This New York Times piece: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/nyregion/06myspace.html gives an excellent overview of efforts now in progress in various states to require verified ID before allowing anyone to sign-up for "social networking" sites like MySpace, and the impacts these could potentially have on all manner of Web sites. In particular, the article notes the view that such efforts would be impractical and could even do more damage by pushing children (the group these laws would ostensibly protect) toward other sites completely under the radar. The article also recognizes that requiring ID (most likely a credit card) would then provide networking sites (or their third-party subcontractors) with a direct linkage to all users' true identities that could be subject to later exploitation and abuse. While we all want to protect children, these ID-based models will not do so, and indeed will bring with them a whole host of other major risks. How long will it be before some bright boys inside the Beltway get the idea of requiring that *all* Internet usage be tied to verified IDs? This would fit in just dandy with the mandated data retention push, COPA, and the other efforts to turn the Internet into an ever more purpose-built computerized arm of law enforcement. Wanna use Google? Verify your ID first, please, so retained records can be retroactively tied to you at any point in the future by various agencies. Too dark a scenario? Couldn't happen? Do you really want to bet against me on this one given current trends? Of course, we can still turn the tide, working together as consumers and Internet service providers alike. We can tell the politicos that enough is enough. But will we? Or will it be business as usual? Place your bets. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein lauren(a)vortex.com or lauren(a)pfir.org Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 http://www.pfir.org/lauren Co-Founder, PFIR - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org Co-Founder, IOIC - International Open Internet Coalition - http://www.ioic.net Founder, CIFIP - California Initiative For Internet Privacy - http://www.cifip.org Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com DayThink: http://daythink.vortex.com ------------------------------------------- Archives: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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[IP] Strangling the Internet with ID
by David Farber 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Begin forwarded message:

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None
by Robert J. Berger 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

> Subject: Defunct Spy Satellite containing "hazardous materials" Falling From Orbit [Could the "hazardous materials" be plutonium? It has been used to power space devices in lieu of solar. - Rob] Defunct Spy Satellite Falling From Orbit By EILEEN SULLIVAN Associated Press Writer http://www.salon.com/wires/ap/2008/01/26/D8UDPIDG0_dead_satellite/index.html Jan 26th, 2008 | WASHINGTON -- A large U.S. spy satellite has lost power and propulsion and could hit the Earth in late February or March, government officials said Saturday. The satellite, which no longer can be controlled, could contain hazardous materials, and it is unknown where on the planet it might come down, they said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the information is classified as secret. "Appropriate government agencies are monitoring the situation," said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council. "Numerous satellites over the years have come out of orbit and fallen harmlessly. We are looking at potential options to mitigate any possible damage this satellite may cause." He would not comment on whether it is possible for the satellite to be perhaps shot down by a missile. He said it would be inappropriate to discuss any specifics at this time. A senior government official said that lawmakers and other nations are being kept apprised of the situation. ------------------------------------------- Archives: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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[IP] Defunct Spy Satellite containing "hazardous materials" Falling From Orbit
by David Farber 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Begin forwarded message:

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EDRI-gram newsletter - Number 6.12, 18 June 2008
by EDRI-gram newsletter 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

============================================================ EDRI-gram biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe Number 6.12, 18 June 2008 ============================================================ Contents ============================================================ 1. EU Competition Commissioner backs open standards in eGovernment 2. France obtained ISPs support in blocking pedopornographic sites 3. UK MPs report: A Surveillance Society? 4. Italian blog closed by Police 5. OOXML standard on hold by ISO 6. British ISPs warn Internet downloaders on the risk of being prosecuted 7. Recommended Action 8. Agenda 9. About ============================================================ 1. EU Competition Commissioner backs open standards in eGovernment ============================================================ The EU Competition Commissioner, Neelie Kroes, publicly supported the use of open source software in eGovernment, in a public speech at a seminar hosted by OpenForum Europe in Brussels on 10 June 2008. Kroes encouraged the public institutions to use open standards, underlining the positive example of Munich that have implemented open standards in their local eGovernment projects. She suggested a much more active role of the European Commission in promoting open standards in eGovernment applications, by adopting an internal policy not to buy proprietary software: "The Commission must do its part. It must not rely on one vendor, it must not accept closed standards and it must refuse to become locked into a particular technology." The EU Commissioner's speech shows an indirect support to the Open Parliament petition initiated in March 2008 by OpenForum Europe, The European Software Market Association and the Free Software Foundation Europe asking the European Parliament to change its ICT system in order to allow the adoption of open standards. Also Kroes praised the benefits of open standards: "No citizen or company should be forced or encouraged to choose a closed technology over an open one, through a government having made that choice first." She also encouraged the business customers to make a difference by promoting open standards: "I know a smart business decision when I see one. Choosing open standards is a very smart business decision indeed." Kroes mentioned a number of competition cases in ICT that are investigated by the Commission in relation with ICT standards, giving as examples Apple, the mobile phone company Qualcomm and chip maker Rambus. Also she clearly referred to Microsoft when she mentioned the problems with the well-known fines against the US software producer: "The Commission has never before had to issue two periodic penalty payments in a competition case." Some MEPs wanted to go further and asked the European Commission if Microsoft could not be banned from the European public procurements, since it has been fined by the Commission. Heide R|hle, internal market policy spokeswoman for the Greens in the European Parliament, explained that there were provisions of the public procurement EU Directive that allow the exclusion of applicants from public procurement procedures if "they have been convicted of an offence concerning their professional conduct by a judgement which has the force of res judicata or they have been guilty of grave professional misconduct proven by any means which the contracting authority can justify". But the European Commission rejected these arguments in its answer explaining that, according to the directiv, the exclusion was not obligatory. EC claimed that the fine did not count as an "criminal conviction of a criminal offence by a final judgement from a Court". Also the second provision should "require a case-by-case assessment which can only be done in the framework of an on-going procurement procedure." Kroes calls for open standards in eGovernment (10.06.2008) http://www.euractiv.com/en/infosociety/kroes-calls-open-standards-egovernme… EU's Kroes: open standards are smart business move (10.06.2008) http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSL0935274720080610 European Commission won't exclude Microsoft from procurement procedures (13.06.2008) http://www.heise-online.co.uk/news/European-Commission-won-t-exclude-Micros… Written Question: Microsoft - Implementation of Article 93 of the Financial Regulation (21.04.2008) http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+WQ+E-2008-… EDRi-gram: European Parliament criticized for not using open standards (12.03.2008) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number6.5/ep-open-standards ============================================================ 2. France obtained ISPs support in blocking illegal sites ============================================================ French Interior Minister Michel Alliot-Marie announced on 10 June 2008 that the French state had come to an agreement with the French ISPs to block sites carrying pedophilic content or content related to terrorism and racial hatred. "We can no longer tolerate the sexual exploitation of children in the form of cyber-pedophilia. We have come to an agreement: the access to child pornography sites will be blocked in France. Other democracies have done it. France could wait no longer" said the minister. The plan will be put into force in September by the creation of a blacklist on the basis of information received from Internet users on sites that carry offensive material. Internet users will be able, via a platform, to signal offensive content. A decision will then be taken on whether the respective sites should be included on the blacklist that will be sent to ISPs that will then block them. Sites found to contain illegal content will be referred to justice. According to Alliot-Marie, France will pass on, via Interpol or Europol, information regarding sites found offensive that are hosted in other countries. The minister said this plan was not intended as a Big Brother of the Internet stating she believed in the "fundamental liberty that is Internet access." She also expressed her hope that France's upcoming presidency of the European Union will be a chance to coordinate efforts between countries so as to avoid useless duplicated efforts in blocking offensive sites. In view of creating the platform for the signalling system, the French Family State Secretary Nadine Morano paid a study visit to Oslo, Norway where the police has had such a system since 2004. "The public forces are obliged to organize the security on the Internet. The Internet, is a fabulous as well as disastrous tool with which danger is in the house", was Morano's opinion. Among other countries having already implemented similar measures there are UK, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Canada and New Zealand and on 10 June, a similar deal with ISPs was also announced in the United States where three service providers Verizon, Sprint and TimeWarner Cable have agreed with New York state officials to block child pornography sites. French to block porn, terror, hate web sites (11.06.2008) http://news.smh.com.au/technology/french-to-block-porn-terror-hate-web-site… The ISPs will have to filter pedo-pornographic sites (only in French, 10.06.2008) http://www.zdnet.fr/actualites/internet/0,39020774,39381639,00.htm France has in view blocking access to pedophile sites before 2009 (only in French, 13.06.2008) http://www.lemonde.fr/web/depeches/0,14-0,39-35824819@7-37,0.html ============================================================ 3. UK MPs report: A Surveillance Society? ============================================================ A report of the Home Affairs Committee shows concerns that Britain might be in danger of becoming a Big Brother type of state and calls on the UK ministers to take the necessary measures to provide safeguards and minimize the amount of the citizen's information collected and stored in databases. The report shows concerns especially in relation to the ID card scheme that might be used to spy on people. "We are concerned about the potential for 'function creep' in terms of the surveillance potential of the national identity scheme. (...) Any ambiguity about the objectives of the scheme puts in jeopardy the public's trust in the scheme itself and in the government's ability to run it" says the Committee in its report. The Committee made some recommendations asking for further assurances that people would not find themselves subject to unnecessary intrusion from the authorities. "We recommend that the Home Office produce a report on the intended functions of the national identity scheme in relation to the fight against crime, containing an explicit statement that the administrative information collected and stored in connection with the national identity register will not be used as a matter of routine to monitor the activities of individuals." The report also recommends a data minimisation policy so that only what is essential should be collected and stored for as long as necessary. Although the Committee considers the new national DNA database as a "valuable investigative tool" for the police in solving crime, in the light of the recent data losses, warns the Government on the responsibility it bears towards the very sensitive data involved. The report asks for "greater assurances from ministers that the government will protect people's data after the recent loss of information, including two discs containing details of half the population. (...) Assurances that the government has learned lessons, though welcome, are not sufficient to reassure us or, we suspect, the public." What the committee also suggests is the creation of a major new database, the sharing of information, the use of increased surveillance only in circumstances when there is a proven need and the focus on security and privacy in any system. One of the problems observed was that of CCTV cameras. UK seems to have more cameras in public spaces than any other country in the world and the Government seems to have completely lost control over them. While the Police has recently accepted CCTV cameras are not very efficient in cutting down crime, their number has continuously increased. The committee calls for a greater transparency in the use of the cameras and wants assurances that "the techniques of intrusive and directed surveillance will not be applied to the general public". It also says the Government must not attach microphones to cameras. Moreover, the report sets ground rules for the Home Office that should raise awareness of how and why the surveillance techniques provided for by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) might be used. The Committee also recommended that the Information Commissioner should present an annual report on surveillance to the Parliament that should receive a response from the Government also presented in front of the Parliament. "The key issue is trust - the public don't have much choice over the data held on them by public bodies, so they must be confident about how it is being collected, stored and used - otherwise we are in danger of becoming a surveillance society" said Committee Chairman Rt. Hon. Keith Vaz. MPs must act now to set limits on snooping (9.06.2008) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/06/09/do090… ID cards could help turn Britain into a surveillance society, warn MPs (9.06.2008) http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jun/09/idcards.civilliberties/print MPs propose new safeguards for Government uses of personal data (9.06.2008) http://www.out-law.com//default.aspx?page=9173 A Surveillance Society? - House of Commons Home Affairs Committee 5th Report of Session 2007-08 Vol I http://www.statewatch.org/news/2008/jun/uk-hasc-surveillance-society-report… A Surveillance Society? - House of Commons Home Affairs Committee 5th Report of Session 2007-08 Vol II http://www.statewatch.org/news/2008/jun/uk-hasc-surveillance-society-report… ============================================================ 4. Italian blog closed by Police ============================================================ On 6 June 2008, the blog of the Italian journalist Antonino Monteleone was closed, without notification, by the Polizia Postale of Calabria under accusations of defamation, but the journalist claims that this action came after having posted uncomfortable information on political figures. The whole story started in 2006 after the elections, when the blogger posted extracts from a document containing CVs of candidates for the Italian Parliament. The document included information of certain names on the nomination list that had previous relations to cases of power abuse and manipulation of tenders or even with mafia activities. On 9 December 2006, Monteleone posted an article on Galati, member of UDP party then, undersecretary in the Ministry for productive activities during the period in office of the Berlusconi Government, showing he was a drug addict. Following a brief exchange of e-mails between Monteleone and Galati, the latter sued the former but the court dismissed the case making Galati pay for the costs. The closing of the website was made without notification and without any information to the blogger on the concrete accusations. Piero Ricca, a blogger who was in his turn investigated by the police for defamation considers the situation absurd and states that the "preventive seizure" for defamation is a debatable provision anyway. In any case, this action must be brought to the attention of the post author under accusation. This is not an isolate case in Italy and Ricca believes there are other bloggers whose blogs have been seized but did not make this public. It seems another Italian blogger, Carlo Ruta, was condemned by the Court of Modica for clandestine printing. Therefore, the blog was treated in this case by the Italian justice the same as a journal or newspaper. This is not a trend only in Italy. According to the annual report of the University of Washington, more and more people are arrested for having published on their blogs their opinions on political issues. A World Information Access report states that bloggers have been arrested for having exposed corruption in government, abuse of human rights or suppression of protests. The reports also predicts that 2008 will see a higher number of arrest cases for such kind of issues. Another Italian blog seized (only in Italian, 10.06.2008) http://punto-informatico.it/2314627/PI/News/Sequestrato-un-altro-blog-itali… Why was the blogger condemned? (only in Italian, 17.06.2008) http://punto-informatico.it/p.aspx?i=2322890 Blogger arrests hit record high (16.06.2008) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7456357.stm ============================================================ 5. OOXML standard on hold by ISO ============================================================ International Standards Organisation (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in Geneva have postponed the publication of the revised specification of Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) document format, following complaints filed by their member organizations representing these four countries: Brazil, India, South Africa and Venezuela. The planned standard ISO/IEC DIS 29500 cannot be published until the complaints are examined by ISO and IEC who will have to give responses and comments by the end of June 2008 The four national standardization organizations have shown concerns that no consensus has been reached on changes that must be made to the 6000-page specification, during the consultation period on the numerous comments submitted at the end of February. The complaints mainly address the fact that the concrete technical objections were not individually discussed. The concerns are summarized in an open letter of a member of the technical standardisation committee in India who stated that the standard had not been properly thought out and it was not even clear what standard would result from the proceedings. The adoption of the standard in the present state would not be an open process as it would be implemented only by Microsoft. Other protests have been filed to ISO by the Danish Open Source Business Association. They claim that "the procedures and the decision conflict with ISO's rules, and the process has caused considerable damage to the reputations of Danish Standards and ISO." The letter also explains why the case should be picked up by ISO: "The process has thus been formally annulled now for two months - since March 29, at which time the specifications should have been sent to the national standardization organizations. The prerequisites for the fast-track procedure no longer exist, and, therefore, I expect that ISO recommence the case." The European Commission is also investigating the case. Competition Commissioner Kroes explained in a recent conference why the European Commission is interested in this topic: "If voting in the standard-setting context is influenced less by the technical merits of the technology but rather by side agreements, inducements, package deals, reciprocal agreements or commercial pressure, then these risk falling foul of the competition rules." In the meantime, The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), has invited interested parties to create a new technical committee for the "implementation, interoperability, and conformity" of the next version of the Open Document Format (ODF) which has already been certified by the ISO. Open source supporters draw the attention on a possible new alliance with Microsoft which announced its intention to support ODF and to join the technical OASIS committee in its works on the open standard. The management boards of ISO and IEC will decide, after having examined the complaints against Microsoft standard, whether the appeals should be further processed and if they decide so, the chairmen of the two boards will establish a conciliation panel that will try to resolve the appeals. ISO puts standard for Microsoft's OOXML document formats on hold (10.06.2008) http://www.heise-online.co.uk/news/ISO-puts-standard-for-Microsoft-s-OOXML-… Four national standards bodies appeal against approval of ISO/IEC DIS 29500 (6.06.2008) http://www.iso.org/iso/pressrelease.htm?refid=Ref1136 Now an OOXML Protest from Denmark's OSL - Updated 3Xs: Official English Translation (31.05.2008) http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080531134006167 OASIS opens discussion list for ODF Implementation, Interoperability and Conformance (3.06.2008) http://opendocument.xml.org/news/oasis-opens-discussion-list-for-odf-implem… Microsoft will support Open Document Format (ODF) (22.05.2008) http://www.heise-online.co.uk/news/Microsoft-will-support-Open-Document-For… EDRi-gram: OOXML adopted as a new standard by ISO (9.04.2008) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number6.7/ooxml-adopted-iso ============================================================ 6. British ISPs warn Internet downloaders on the risk of being prosecuted ============================================================ As a continuation of the actions started in March 2008, and despite opinions that ISPs should not act as an Internet police, the major British record labels represented by British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and Virgin Media, UK's largest provider of home broadband, have joint forces in a campaign meant to fight illegal music downloads. Virgin Media has started warning Internet users illegally downloading music that they may be prosecuted, by sending letters to thousands of households where such activities have taken place. This appears to be the first step in the attempt of BPI to get ISPs to implement a "three strikes and out" rule, meaning warning and ultimately disconnecting the estimated 6.5 million customers whose accounts are used for illegal downloading activity. "Virgin Media is the first ISP to publicly address the problem. It is a socially responsible ISP and I think other ISPs will look at this and see progress. I am very encouraged they have engaged with us. They understand the rights of musicians" said Geoff Taylor, BPI's chief executive. BPI and Virgin have chosen to start with an educational phase before taking any legal action against Internet illegal downloaders. "Education is the absolute key to reducing the amount of illegal downloading ... new partnerships with ISPs can help build an internet in which music is properly valued" stated Taylor. The intention is first to educate customers during a 10-week trial campaign through "informative" letters they will send which will however be accompanied by a written warning from the BPI, threatening with disconnection and a court case for those who continue to download illegally. The first letters sent do not consist in threats of disconnection. The letter says: "We understand you may be concerned about this, and you might be unsure how it happened. One possible answer is that other people in your household have used your computer and/or internet connection, and they might have shared these files with others by using unauthorised 'peer-to-peer/P2P' filesharing networks like 'BitTorrent' or 'Limewire'. However, you need to make sure that these files aren't downloaded or shared from your Virgin Media internet connection in future." Virgin warns illegal downloaders: stop or face prosecution (7.06.2008) http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/virgin-warns-ill… British ISP, recording industry warn illegal downloaders (6.06.2008) http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9962404-7.html Virgin Media's downloading education campaign represents a turning point in digital music (13.06.2008) http://www.bpi.co.uk/index.asp?Page=news/bizinfo/news_content_file_846.shtml Virgin Media Sample Letter http://regmedia.co.uk/2008/06/06/vm_filesharing_letter.pdf EDRI-gram: UK: ISPs are not the Internet cops (9.04.2008) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number6.7/isp-cops-uk Virgin sends file-sharing warnings to customers (16.06.2008) http://www.out-law.com/page-9180 ============================================================ 7. Recommended Action ============================================================ On-line Consultation for the purposes of the review of the PSI Directive The purpose of this online consultation is to gather information from as many sources as possible, including public sector content holders and commercial and non-commercial re-users (universities, NGOs) on their views on different aspects related to the implementation, impact and scope of the PSI Directive. http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/psi/index_en.htm ============================================================ 8. Agenda ============================================================ 23 June 2008, Paris, France GigaNet is organizing an international academic workshop on "Global Internet Governance: An Interdisciplinary Research Field in Construction" http://tinyurl.com/2nww9t 26-27 June 2008, London, UK International Conference on Digital Evidence http://www.mistieurope.com/default.asp?Page=65&Return=70&ProductID=8914&LS=… 30 June-1 July 2008, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium First COMMUNIA Conference - Assessment of economic and social impact of digital public domain throughout Europe http://www.communia-project.eu/conf2008 7-8 July 2008, London, UK Developing New Models Of Content Delivery Online & Innovative Strategies For Effectively Tackling Copyright Infringement http://www.isp-content-regulation.com/conference.agenda.asp 7-9 July 2008, Cambridge, UK Privacy Laws & Business 21st Annual International Conference http://www.privacylaws.com/templates/AnnualConferences.aspx?id=641 19-20 July 2008, Stockholm, Sweden International Association for Media and Communication Research pre-conference - Civil Rights in Mediatized Societies: Which data privacy against whom and how ? http://www.iamcr.org/content/view/301/1/ 23-25 July 2008, Leuven, Belgium The 8th Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS 2008) http://petsymposium.org/2008/ 8-10 September 2008, Geneva, Switzerland The third annual Access to Knowledge Conference (A2K3) http://isp.law.yale.edu/ 22 September 2008, Istanbul, Turkey Workshop on Applications of Private and Anonymous Communications http://www.alpaca-workshop.org/ 24-28 September 2008, Athens, Greece World Summit on the Knowledge Society http://www.open-knowledge-society.org/summit.htm ============================================================ 9. About ============================================================ EDRI-gram is a biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe. Currently EDRI has 28 members based or with offices in 17 different countries in Europe. European Digital Rights takes an active interest in developments in the EU accession countries and wants to share knowledge and awareness through the EDRI-grams. All contributions, suggestions for content, corrections or agenda-tips are most welcome. Errors are corrected as soon as possible and visibly on the EDRI website. Except where otherwise noted, this newsletter is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License. See the full text at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Newsletter editor: Bogdan Manolea <edrigram(a)edri.org> Information about EDRI and its members: http://www.edri.org/ European Digital Rights needs your help in upholding digital rights in the EU. If you wish to help us promote digital rights, please consider making a private donation. http://www.edri.org/about/sponsoring - EDRI-gram subscription information subscribe by e-mail To: edri-news-request(a)edri.org Subject: subscribe You will receive an automated e-mail asking to confirm your request. unsubscribe by e-mail To: edri-news-request(a)edri.org Subject: unsubscribe - EDRI-gram in Macedonian EDRI-gram is also available partly in Macedonian, with delay. Translations are provided by Metamorphosis http://www.metamorphosis.org.mk/edrigram-mk.php - EDRI-gram in German EDRI-gram is also available in German, with delay. Translations are provided Andreas Krisch from the EDRI-member VIBE!AT - Austrian Association for Internet Users http://www.unwatched.org/ - Newsletter archive Back issues are available at: http://www.edri.org/edrigram - Help Please ask <edrigram(a)edri.org> if you have any problems with subscribing or unsubscribing ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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Re: Tor a carrier for Botnet traffic?
by Scott Bennett 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

On Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:22:56 -0400 Ted Smith <teddks(a)gmail.com> wrote: >On Tue, 2009-09-01 at 16:20 +0200, Folkert van Heusden wrote: >> So; what should we do? Dis-allow hidden services in Tor? Or block Tor >> totally? >>=20 >Banning Tor will have no effect on botnets, as others on this list have >pointed out. We should ban Windows, instead. You raise a good point. Nevertheless, *we* aren't the ones doing the banning, rather the ISPs are (e.g., Comcast in the U.S.), and the ISPs are certainly not going to ban Windows. There's been quite a few times that, when I've called an ISP to try to get them to fix a problem on their end, I've been told that they don't support FreeBSD, which, of course, is irrelevant. I don't ask them for operating system support, just networking support on their end. Any *BSD, LINUX, Solaris, or other UNIX-like system provides far better tools for diagnosing networking problems than a typical Windows system provides. The ISPs, however, will not let customers talk with anyone at the ISP who actually administers the networking hardware or software. They only let customers talk with variously trained monkeys, none of whom have ever read any of, say, David Comer's books on TCP/IP networking, kernel design and implementation books, Cisco Systems manuals, RFCs, etc. The people customers are allowed to talk with have no clue how the Internet actually works. They have no background in it whatsoever and usually do not even have the vocabulary necessary to understand the evidence we present to them, much less follow the reasoning based upon the evidence that points to the problem. Those are the people making the decisions to threaten customers who know what they are doing and are running tor nodes, requiring those customers to stop running tor nodes. They can and do call customers who run tor nodes, claiming that the customer's computer is "infected with a virus or other malware" and/or that the customer's computer is "being used to contact botnets", and when challenged for evidence to support the claims, swear up and down that the evidence exists, but that no, they cannot give it to us and, in some cases, that they don't have access to it themselves, but that they've been sent a report by someone else (or some program) in the company that doesn't give any evidence or that the company has received complaints, of which they also cannot provide copies or other details. A rational, knowledgeable customer will get nowhere against the ignorance of ISP employees following irrational policies and procedures of their employers. The only thing I can think of that might help here is for the tor project and all tor node operators to stop refering to tor relays as "servers". The relay functions are *not* server functions any more than a Cisco router is a server. tor relays are *software routers*, not servers. I realize that a node that also has an open DirPort is providing directory services, but those services are intended for internal use by the software router network, not by humans directly. The fact that humans *can* use HTTP to query a directory server is irrelevant. The primary role of the directory servers is to serve the software routers, not humans, and therefore ought to be considered as the software router equivalent to routing table maintenance daemons. But at present, if an ISP contacts a tor node operator, claiming that the node operator is violating an acceptable use policy prohibiting "servers", a look at the tor project's web site merely convinces the ISP employee that a tor node *is* a server because that's what the web pages say it is. :-( Then they tell the node operator to shut it down or else they will disconnect the service. Scott Bennett, Comm. ASMELG, CFIAG ********************************************************************** * Internet: bennett at cs.niu.edu * *--------------------------------------------------------------------* * "A well regulated and disciplined militia, is at all times a good * * objection to the introduction of that bane of all free governments * * -- a standing army." * * -- Gov. John Hancock, New York Journal, 28 January 1790 * ********************************************************************** ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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FC: FBI is investigating an alleged "Black Bloc" threat sent to Politech
by Declan McCullagh 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

The FBI is investigating an alleged threat against the Cato Institute, the world's leading free-market think tank, sent to Politech. Chuck0 <chuck(a)tao.ca> sent a message to Politech that I forwarded -- as part of an ongoing discussion about privacy and globalization -- on Monday: http://www.politechbot.com/p-02214.html The message said: "Cato's little insult of the black bloc means that we'll be paying Cato HQ a visit this coming September. People who work in glass buildings shouldn't throw the first rhetorical stones." The Cato Institute was reportedly vandalized in January during the Bush inauguration protests. (http://www.mccullagh.org/theme/2001-bush-inauguration-highlights.html) It is a prominent building with a huge glass atrium at 10th and Mass. Ave. in downtown Washington. The insult directed at the Black Bloc appeared in an article written by Aaron Lukas, an analyst at the Cato Institute's Center for Trade Policy Studies. It was published in the National Review and I reposted it to Politech with Aaron's permission. Aaron wrote that "vandalism, violence, and harassment are acceptable behavior for the Black Blockheads and Ruckus-Societarians of the world." (http://www.politechbot.com/p-02210.html) The Black Bloc is difficult to define, but it has been described as a revolutionary anti-capitalist action group, and also as a collective of black-masked anarchists who are the "special forces" of the movement. A Washington, DC "Anarchist Neighborhood" site (http://www.infoshop.org/hood/dc.html) that lists Chuck0 as a contact says World Bank/IMF protests are scheduled for the city in September. FBI Agent Dave Dawson in the agency's headquarters is investigating Chuck0's message sent to Politech. Politech is a journalistic enterprise protected by the First Amendment, and I generally treat email sent to me in confidence, as a news organization would treat a confidential source. When someone sends me mail and indicates they would like it redistributed to the list -- typically done by emailing both declan(a)well.com and the politech(a)politechbot.com list address, as Chuck0 did -- the relationship is akin to someone writing a letter to the editor of a newspaper and asking that it be published. While I do not countenance attacks on property, responsible journalists don't like to chat with law enforcement about people who talk to them or send letters to the editor. It makes their readers less likely to trust their independence in the future. I have not yet spoken with Agent Dawson. If we speak, my response will be: 1. I will not reveal information about Politech subscribers. Politech's privacy policy (http://www.politechbot.com/info/privacy.html) says: "We do not sell or rent information you provide us. We intend to challenge any subpoena or other legal process seeking access to the limited information we do store." 2. I will not reveal any other information I may or may not possess (such as complete headers of email messages or other correspondence that may or may not exist between me and Chuck0 or anyone else on this topic). 3. I will describe in general terms, such as I would at a speaking engagement, in an article or in conversation with a colleague, what Politech is and how long I have been editing it. -Declan Editor, Politech This message will be archived at: http://www.politechbot.com/p-02218.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- End forwarded message -----

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Strangling the Internet with ID
by Lauren Weinstein 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Dave, This New York Times piece: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/nyregion/06myspace.html gives an excellent overview of efforts now in progress in various states to require verified ID before allowing anyone to sign-up for "social networking" sites like MySpace, and the impacts these could potentially have on all manner of Web sites. In particular, the article notes the view that such efforts would be impractical and could even do more damage by pushing children (the group these laws would ostensibly protect) toward other sites completely under the radar. The article also recognizes that requiring ID (most likely a credit card) would then provide networking sites (or their third-party subcontractors) with a direct linkage to all users' true identities that could be subject to later exploitation and abuse. While we all want to protect children, these ID-based models will not do so, and indeed will bring with them a whole host of other major risks. How long will it be before some bright boys inside the Beltway get the idea of requiring that *all* Internet usage be tied to verified IDs? This would fit in just dandy with the mandated data retention push, COPA, and the other efforts to turn the Internet into an ever more purpose-built computerized arm of law enforcement. Wanna use Google? Verify your ID first, please, so retained records can be retroactively tied to you at any point in the future by various agencies. Too dark a scenario? Couldn't happen? Do you really want to bet against me on this one given current trends? Of course, we can still turn the tide, working together as consumers and Internet service providers alike. We can tell the politicos that enough is enough. But will we? Or will it be business as usual? Place your bets. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein lauren(a)vortex.com or lauren(a)pfir.org Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 http://www.pfir.org/lauren Co-Founder, PFIR - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org Co-Founder, IOIC - International Open Internet Coalition - http://www.ioic.net Founder, CIFIP - California Initiative For Internet Privacy - http://www.cifip.org Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com DayThink: http://daythink.vortex.com ------------------------------------------- Archives: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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