July 2018 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: [roy@rant-central.com: Re: [arma@mit.edu: Re: Wikipedia & Tor]]
by Jimmy Wales 05 Jul '18

05 Jul '18

Nick Mathewson wrote: > But these aren't your goals, if I understand correctly. Wikipedia > doesn't ultimately care how Tor is implemented, or what it contains, > so long as it is significantly less effective as a tool for Wikipedia > abuse. Yes? That's right. I'm not an expert in Tor-ish matters, and so despite my strident manner at times, I am very happy to learn more and understand why some initial suggestion I might have has already been considered and rejected with good cause. And as an ongoing gesture of goodwill, let me explain _why_ I want Tor to be significantly less effective as a tool for Wikipedia abuse. It isn't because Tor is a threat to our work. One of the nice things about how Tor is implemented is that we can easily get a list of the exit servers and block them. Problem solved. No, the reason I am interested in exploring possibilities for reducing the abuse is not to protect wikipedia, but to make it possible for Tor's goals to be achieved more effectively. > {1} To be clear, I think that it's more accurate to talk about changes > to the User/Tor/Wikipedia interaction, and to suggest a need for > action by the Tor project and its supporters, than to talk about a > need for changes in Tor's architecture, and a need for action by > Tor. Yes. The one thing I should caution against, though, is assuming that the right solution to the problem should involve anything complicated on the part of Wikipedia. We're willing to do whatever, but I'm also interested in how this problem can be solved more generally. In this way, tor servers can be allowed to post anonymously and in a hit-and-run fashion to blogs, for example. --Jimbo ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.leitl.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature which had a name of signature.asc]

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Re: [tor-talk] blocked exit node IP because of spam
by Gregory Maxwell 05 Jul '18

05 Jul '18

On Sun, Jul 1, 2012 at 11:48 PM, grarpamp <grarpamp(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Do NOT penalize those who need multiple random unlinked accounts > by blocking ip's, making up nym systems, etc. Penalize the accounts > that act up. They are the bad ones, not the former. It's this kind of thinking that will result in the web continuing to be largely read-only for Tor users. People running services that block Tor aren't blocking Tor because they Hate Freedomb", or because they can't help but staying up at night trying to come up with ways of screwing people over. Blocking tor isn't trivial, especially to do it well... and many of the people who have been involved with blocking tor at major sites are themselves Tor supporters and bridge/relay operators and only block tor when it is clear that they must. They block write access from Tor because when an abusive user is blocked their inevitable recourse to evade the block is Tor (if not their first choice). After the umpteenth occurrence of whatever antisocial jerkwad assaulting the site via tor it simply has to go. Arguing that a problem doesn't exist is unconvincing to people who are dealing with it, arguing that blocking tor is ineffective or involves unacceptable tradeoffs is unpersuasive to people who have made the changes and measured the results. One of the great forces which makes online communities viable and not all trivially destroyed by a few byzantine troublemakers is that the cost of excluding people is low, but when tor makes the cost of evading the exclusion nearly zerob the balance is upset. Even captchas are a pretty weak tool: Commercial services will solve them for pennies each, and targeted trouble makers aren't deterred by them at all. Perhaps most importantly, b this has been the ongoing approach used by the Tor community and it is demonstratively ineffective: Write access via tor is frequently inhibited. And yes, sure, there are cases where nym use doesn't solve things. But there are a great many where it does. > I would actually donate much more to Tor/EFF project if I could > earmark it for a formal emissary to talk with some of the sites > I've seen implementing bad policy. And hopefully report back to me > with the positive results ... The Tor project absolutely has done this in the past. Though as far as I can tell it has not hat much success except in areas where the Tor prohibitions are sloppy (blocking read access, blocking relays instead of just the relevant exits). > Exactly! And when I can't use these sites in perfectly good, > responsible, creative and nice ways... because they have implemented > crap blocking policies... it pisses me the fuck off. > > Anonymous != evil. > That is what we need to be teaching. You're making a grave error to characterize the people who've made different calls than you have as foolish or insensitive. I'm sure it's true in some cases, but even the well informed frequently make the dispassionate, considered, and rational decision to block write access from Tor. _______________________________________________ tor-talk mailing list tor-talk(a)lists.torproject.org https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-talk ----- 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: [roy@rant-central.com: Re: [arma@mit.edu: Re: Wikipedia & Tor]]
by Jimmy Wales 05 Jul '18

05 Jul '18

Nick Mathewson wrote: > But these aren't your goals, if I understand correctly. Wikipedia > doesn't ultimately care how Tor is implemented, or what it contains, > so long as it is significantly less effective as a tool for Wikipedia > abuse. Yes? That's right. I'm not an expert in Tor-ish matters, and so despite my strident manner at times, I am very happy to learn more and understand why some initial suggestion I might have has already been considered and rejected with good cause. And as an ongoing gesture of goodwill, let me explain _why_ I want Tor to be significantly less effective as a tool for Wikipedia abuse. It isn't because Tor is a threat to our work. One of the nice things about how Tor is implemented is that we can easily get a list of the exit servers and block them. Problem solved. No, the reason I am interested in exploring possibilities for reducing the abuse is not to protect wikipedia, but to make it possible for Tor's goals to be achieved more effectively. > {1} To be clear, I think that it's more accurate to talk about changes > to the User/Tor/Wikipedia interaction, and to suggest a need for > action by the Tor project and its supporters, than to talk about a > need for changes in Tor's architecture, and a need for action by > Tor. Yes. The one thing I should caution against, though, is assuming that the right solution to the problem should involve anything complicated on the part of Wikipedia. We're willing to do whatever, but I'm also interested in how this problem can be solved more generally. In this way, tor servers can be allowed to post anonymously and in a hit-and-run fashion to blogs, for example. --Jimbo ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.leitl.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature which had a name of signature.asc]

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Re: [tor-talk] blocked exit node IP because of spam
by Gregory Maxwell 05 Jul '18

05 Jul '18

On Sun, Jul 1, 2012 at 11:48 PM, grarpamp <grarpamp(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Do NOT penalize those who need multiple random unlinked accounts > by blocking ip's, making up nym systems, etc. Penalize the accounts > that act up. They are the bad ones, not the former. It's this kind of thinking that will result in the web continuing to be largely read-only for Tor users. People running services that block Tor aren't blocking Tor because they Hate Freedomb", or because they can't help but staying up at night trying to come up with ways of screwing people over. Blocking tor isn't trivial, especially to do it well... and many of the people who have been involved with blocking tor at major sites are themselves Tor supporters and bridge/relay operators and only block tor when it is clear that they must. They block write access from Tor because when an abusive user is blocked their inevitable recourse to evade the block is Tor (if not their first choice). After the umpteenth occurrence of whatever antisocial jerkwad assaulting the site via tor it simply has to go. Arguing that a problem doesn't exist is unconvincing to people who are dealing with it, arguing that blocking tor is ineffective or involves unacceptable tradeoffs is unpersuasive to people who have made the changes and measured the results. One of the great forces which makes online communities viable and not all trivially destroyed by a few byzantine troublemakers is that the cost of excluding people is low, but when tor makes the cost of evading the exclusion nearly zerob the balance is upset. Even captchas are a pretty weak tool: Commercial services will solve them for pennies each, and targeted trouble makers aren't deterred by them at all. Perhaps most importantly, b this has been the ongoing approach used by the Tor community and it is demonstratively ineffective: Write access via tor is frequently inhibited. And yes, sure, there are cases where nym use doesn't solve things. But there are a great many where it does. > I would actually donate much more to Tor/EFF project if I could > earmark it for a formal emissary to talk with some of the sites > I've seen implementing bad policy. And hopefully report back to me > with the positive results ... The Tor project absolutely has done this in the past. Though as far as I can tell it has not hat much success except in areas where the Tor prohibitions are sloppy (blocking read access, blocking relays instead of just the relevant exits). > Exactly! And when I can't use these sites in perfectly good, > responsible, creative and nice ways... because they have implemented > crap blocking policies... it pisses me the fuck off. > > Anonymous != evil. > That is what we need to be teaching. You're making a grave error to characterize the people who've made different calls than you have as foolish or insensitive. I'm sure it's true in some cases, but even the well informed frequently make the dispassionate, considered, and rational decision to block write access from Tor. _______________________________________________ tor-talk mailing list tor-talk(a)lists.torproject.org https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-talk ----- 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: [liberationtech] Cryptography super-group creates unbreakable encryption
by Andy Isaacson 05 Jul '18

05 Jul '18

On Thu, Feb 07, 2013 at 02:11:22AM -0700, Christopher Soghoian wrote: > It is clear that you seem to have developed a foaming-in-the-mouth, > irrational hate of Silent Circle. As such, anyone who fails to denounce > Phil Zimmermann as the great Satan is, in your eyes, some kind of corrupt > shill. Silent Circle has some significant credibility gaps. They repeatedly claimed, and AFAIK continue to claim, to be "open source", but the source isn't even available for inspection under restrictive license, much less actually open source per OSI or DFSG or common sense guidelines. They haven't justified or explained this gap in any of their statements I've seen. They're trading very heavily on the excellent pedigrees of their principals, while making outlandish and unsupported claims to credulous mainstream journalists. Your participation in their marketing interviews makes you complicit in this problematic enterprise, Chris. I think it's incredibly unfair of you to attack Nadim for pointing out the flaws in this system without addressing your role in those flaws. We all want privacy and security for users. Silent Circle's misappropriation of the "open source" label and hagiographic mainstream press treatment in advance of actual public review, abetted by a wide variety of experts and public voices, is deeply problematic for the liberation technology community's role in civil society. Silent Circle may be an excellent privacy app. It might not have any significant security problems. It might even do a good job of mitigating important platform-based attacks and supporting important new use cases (the "burn after reading" feature). When it's actually open source I'll take a look and if it is good, I'll recommend it to users. Until that open review happens, I think it's inappropriate for voices in our community to commend or recommend such a proprietary system. Each person makes their own choices, of course, and nobody should base their actions solely on what *I* think is right, but I hope you can hear my concerns and consider the outcomes of your actions. -andy -- Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password at: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech ----- 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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[drone-list] Semi-Autonomous Military Weapons
by Al Mac Wow 05 Jul '18

05 Jul '18

Here is news of another advancement in drone military technology. Lockheed is now marketing a semi-autonomous stealthy unmanned system http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/products/uclass.html http://aviationintel.com/2013/04/12/lockheed-unveils-their-unclass-concept-s entinel-prime/ Note this is not fully-autonomous. In case you are not fully familiar with the implications of autonomous drones, here is clarification from my Drone Terms: http://www.scribd.com/doc/105029922/Drone-Terms-by-Al-Mac * Autonomous Drone = Concept of a Drone which does not require human involvement to pilot it, decide where it is to go, decide who it is to shoot at, refuel it, maintain it, update its programming.[1] There have been stories alleging that some drones are in testing which go part way towards these goals, not yet achieve all of them in one craft. * See: AHAR; AUSV; AWS; SAWS. * AHAR = Autonomous High Altitude Refueling[2] Basically, drones will need the same kinds of services as manned flight. * AUSV = Autonomous Unmanned Surface Vehicle. * AWS = Autonomous Weapon Systems. * QUOTING International Committee for Robot Arms Control (IRAC):[3] * Department of Defense Directive 3000.09 <http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/300009p.pdf> [4] "for the development and use of autonomous and semi-autonomous functions in weapon systems" defining an AWS as "A weapon system that, once activated, can select and engage targets without further intervention by a human operator." The ability of the system to select and engage targets autonomously makes it an AWS even if it is human-supervised with a possible human override; thus "human on the loop" is assigned the same status as "human out of the loop," a conservative (good) policy. * UNQUOTE * SAWS = Semi-autonomous weapon system * The International Committee for Robot Arms Control (IRAC)[5] says the DoD defines SAWS, as QUOTE: * "A weapon system that, once activated, is intended to only engage individual targets or specific target groups that have been selected by a human operator." The category includes systems that automatically acquire, track, identify and prioritize potential targets or cue humans to their presence, "provided that human control is retained over the decision to select individual targets and specific target groups for engagement." It also includes weapons with terminal homing guidance, and "fire and forget" weapons where the target has been human-selected. * UNQUOTE * See: Autonomous Drone; AWS; DoD. * In Drone Robots, see SAWS, where I express misgivings about "fire and forget" implications. As usual, in case my footnotes don't come thru, ask me if you wish to see the citations involved. My Drone Robots covers the implications of autonomous drones in more detail, including specific examples of autonomous weapon systems already being used. http://www.scribd.com/doc/115182066/Drone-Robots-Al-Mac Al Mac = Alister William Macintyre _____ [1] Autonomous Drones http://blogs.cfr.org/zenko/2012/09/04/the-coming-future-of-autonomous-drones / http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports/AutonomyReport.pdf 2012 Nov 28 I started a Drone Robots doc, on Autonomous Killer Robot Drones, what I have on it, in time may diverge from references in Drone Terms. [2] http://aviationintel.com/2012/10/10/unmanned-game-changer-autonomous-aerial- refueling-is-a-reality/ [3] http://icrac.net/2012/11/dod-directive-on-autonomy-in-weapon-systems/ [4] I have downloaded this, naming it DOD Autonomous Weapon Policies 2012 Nov. [5] http://icrac.net/2012/11/dod-directive-on-autonomy-in-weapon-systems/ -- Want to unsubscribe? Want to receive a weekly digest instead of daily emails? Change your preferences: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/drone-list or email companys(a)stanford.edu ----- 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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Humorless FBI agents interrogate publisher of Columbine satire
by Declan McCullagh 05 Jul '18

05 Jul '18

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,43175,00.html FBI Crashes Parody Party By Declan McCullagh (declan(a)wired.com) 12:21 p.m. Apr. 19, 2001 PDT Depending on who you ask, Karl August Mueller is either one of the Web's funniest satirists, or a malevolent threat to society. From his side-splitting letters to Virginia newspapers purporting to be a right-of-Rush conservative to his fictitious Lobster Liberation Front that encourages readers to free tank-trapped crustaceans, Mueller has made an art of encouraging visitors to think twice about whether what they're reading is real. But the Feds don't appreciate his humor. Mueller, a 33-year-old Web programmer in Los Angeles who goes by the online name of "Gus, said two FBI agents paid him a surprise visit at 7:30 a.m. PDT Thursday. "I was in the shower and, knock, knock, knock, my housemate's knocking on my shower telling me there are two FBI agents on the door," Mueller says. "They wanted to talk to me about this website. They were like "We're having trouble with shootings and schools throughout the country and you're promoting this, you know." The portion of his website Mueller is talking about is the "Trench Coat Mafia" page -- a parody he placed online soon after news broke about the Columbine massacre. It says: "Hello and Heil Hitler! My name is Eric and this is my Web page! I hate jocks, Jews and jiggaboos. I loathe wops, spics and blood-engorged ticks." It pretends to be written by a white supremacist Goth geek obsessed with two things: Pipe bombs and getting even with the "jocks" in his high school. "Our master plan is to kill at least 500 people at our high school, besiege the local neighborhood, seize the airport, and then crash a plane full of jocks and cheerleaders into the Pentagon," the page says. [...] ----- End forwarded message -----

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[cryptography] Military chip crypto cracked with power-analysis probe
by Jeffrey Walton 05 Jul '18

05 Jul '18

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/07/27/chip_crypto_cracked/ _______________________________________________ cryptography mailing list cryptography(a)randombit.net http://lists.randombit.net/mailman/listinfo/cryptography ----- 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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[liberationtech] REVIEWERS NEEDED - Safer satellite phone guide nearing completion
by Brian Conley 05 Jul '18

05 Jul '18

Hi all, You may recall before the holidays I posted some questions about research around the use of satellite phones, best security practices, etc. I have been working on a guide providing an overview about what steps users can take to provide a modicum of protection when using satellite phones. I would greatly appreciate it if a few of you would offer to review the draft, I hope to have it together by midday tomorrow, and get feedback before the end of the week. Do let me know if you can assist, when the final is published on our site I'll be sure to let everyone know here. -- Brian Conley Director, Small World News http://smallworldnews.tv m: 646.285.2046 Skype: brianjoelconley public key: http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0xE827FACCB139C9F0 _______________________________________________ liberationtech mailing list liberationtech(a)lists.stanford.edu Should you need to change your subscription options, please go to: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech If you would like to receive a daily digest, click "yes" (once you click above) next to "would you like to receive list mail batched in a daily digest?" You will need the user name and password you receive from the list moderator in monthly reminders. Should you need immediate assistance, please contact the list moderator. Please don't forget to follow us on http://twitter.com/#!/Liberationtech ----- 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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Humorless FBI agents interrogate publisher of Columbine satire
by Declan McCullagh 05 Jul '18

05 Jul '18

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,43175,00.html FBI Crashes Parody Party By Declan McCullagh (declan(a)wired.com) 12:21 p.m. Apr. 19, 2001 PDT Depending on who you ask, Karl August Mueller is either one of the Web's funniest satirists, or a malevolent threat to society. From his side-splitting letters to Virginia newspapers purporting to be a right-of-Rush conservative to his fictitious Lobster Liberation Front that encourages readers to free tank-trapped crustaceans, Mueller has made an art of encouraging visitors to think twice about whether what they're reading is real. But the Feds don't appreciate his humor. Mueller, a 33-year-old Web programmer in Los Angeles who goes by the online name of "Gus, said two FBI agents paid him a surprise visit at 7:30 a.m. PDT Thursday. "I was in the shower and, knock, knock, knock, my housemate's knocking on my shower telling me there are two FBI agents on the door," Mueller says. "They wanted to talk to me about this website. They were like "We're having trouble with shootings and schools throughout the country and you're promoting this, you know." The portion of his website Mueller is talking about is the "Trench Coat Mafia" page -- a parody he placed online soon after news broke about the Columbine massacre. It says: "Hello and Heil Hitler! My name is Eric and this is my Web page! I hate jocks, Jews and jiggaboos. I loathe wops, spics and blood-engorged ticks." It pretends to be written by a white supremacist Goth geek obsessed with two things: Pipe bombs and getting even with the "jocks" in his high school. "Our master plan is to kill at least 500 people at our high school, besiege the local neighborhood, seize the airport, and then crash a plane full of jocks and cheerleaders into the Pentagon," the page says. [...] ----- End forwarded message -----

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