July 2018 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: [liberationtech] Quantum computation & communication
by Jacob Appelbaum 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Gregory Foster: > After reading Assange, et. al.'s "Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of > the Internet", wherein classical encryption is presented as a panacea > for ensuring privacy in an age of mass surveillance, I found the > following article succinct in questioning the long-term viability of > that narrative (or at least insisting on some qualifications). Quantum > computation and communication is still a long distance away, but this > article provides the outlines of how that technology will be used (and > abused) by the institutions that will be able to afford it. > We didn't state that "classical encryption" is a "panacea." Frankly, we didn't event present crypto in general as a panacea - rather, we presented it as a tactical solution that buys time for the social issues that crop up with a surveillance society, amongst other points. We discussed strong cryptography but we were hardly limiting it to RSA or DSA. In any case, most block ciphers aren't thought to be impacted by quantum computers. DJB (Bernstein_-_Post_Quantum_Cryptography.pdf) has a great book on the topic. We tried to state the importance of understanding the threats, the reality and the world wide market for such technology. Obviously, a lack of crypto is itself a threat when spying is essentially free. And while I generally agree that "classical" crypto is only buying time from specific attackers in the long run, we argued that part of attacking is targeting - so to blend in with lots of other ciphertext makes the attacker's job much harder to locate a person. If you have a specific passage where you feel that we state that classical encryption is a panacea to the problem of mass surveillance, I'd hope it is considered in the context of all the social discussion that has almost nothing to do with cryptography per se. (In any case, thanks for reading the book, I hope you enjoyed it!) All the best, Jacob > Aerospace & Defense News (Dec 19) - "Army Researchers Seek Secure > Quantum Communications": > http://www.asdnews.com/news-46753/Army_Researchers_Seek_Secure_Quantum_Comm… > > >> For the U.S. Army, a secure quantum communications network is a >> technology investment worth making. Meyers said physicists around the >> world are pursuing quantum teleportation research. >> >> "One day we will have communication over worldwide distances with >> quantum repeaters as mediators at nodes in between," Meyers said. >> "We'll be able to teleport information globally. What we'll have is >> tamper-resistant security." >> >> Cyber-security is a major concern for military and civilian sectors. >> >> "This is important," he said. "The greatest potential that a quantum >> communications network holds for the Army is secure communications." >> >> As quantum computing takes hold in the coming decades, the potential >> for hacking exponentially increases. >> >> "Quantum computers will be able to easily decrypt communications that >> are currently secure," Meyers said. "We're talking decryption in >> seconds instead of years. That's one reason why it's vital for us to >> explore quantum encryption." > > > To understand the assertion that a sufficiently large quantum computer > can (hypothetically) decrypt classically encrypted communications---from > any time---see: > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shor's_algorithm > > Will the economic effects of Moore's Law apply to quantum computers, > facilitating the mass distribution and use of this technology for > popular quantum cryptography? Probably not for some period of time, a > time which may recapitulate the big iron power dynamics of the mainframe > priesthood. It is that interim time period when there is likely to be a > disparity in access to quantum computation that gives me pause. > > However, in researching this post I was happy to learn that this threat > is understood and research is underway into post-Quantum cryptography, > which looks like it can be implemented on classical computers. So > predictable future problems may be mitigated by avoiding reliance on > particular cryptographic techniques that are known to be breakable by > quantum computers, such as the RSA algorithm used by many contemporary > public-key cryptography systems: > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-quantum_cryptography > > I'll readily admit that I am about out of my depth here and welcome > corrections and clarifications. If we see this probability emerging, > then it seems like liberationtechnicians should be advocating review and > redesign of the algorithms used in popular public-key cryptosystems. > > HT @ASDNewsCom via @MrKoot: > http://twitter.com/ASDNewscom/status/281018815276539904 > > gf > -- 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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MORNING OF HORROR
by L. Neil Smith 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

MORNING OF HORROR By L. Neil Smith <mailto:lneil@ezlink.com> Special to _The Libertarian Enterpise_ <http://www.webleyweb.com/lneil> First of all, expect never to learn the truth about what happened at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and elsewhere this morning of September 11, 2001, any more than we did with regard to the murders of Jack and Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, at Ruby Ridge, Waco, or Oklahoma City. Ambiguity and uncertainty serve far too many political interests. Another certainty is that, although I'm told 50,000 people worked in the World Trade Center, more innocent individuals will die as a result of what the Old Media are lovingly referring to as a "lockdown" of Manhattan and other places, than any acts of terrorism that may have occurred. The military has just said they'll shoot down any plane they see flying. Only one civilian plane is in the air this morning, Air Force One; that's as grim a warning of things to come as I can think of. "Collateral" deaths won't just happen as a consequence, say, of somebody with a heart attack being unable to get to a hospital, but whenever and wherever some dumb kid in an army uniform gets startled by a car backfiring and starts spraying everybody and his pet poodle with automatic rifle fire. Or to whomever the martial lawyers decide it's safe to liquidate using this foul mess as a cover. Or, vastly more ominously, to people in the not-so-distant future who decide they must resist the police state that will inevitably result from these events. It's extremely difficult to think coherently about long term effects, let alone to get it all down in writing, when you learn that, not only were hijacked commercial aircraft used to commit these unspeakably evil acts, but that 90 passengers died helplessly in the first plane, and others yet unnumbered may have died in subsequent attacks. _Somebody_ has to think about it, though, or this situation will be used to turn the Bill of Rights off forever. Depending on the planning behind it, or who did the planning, it may already be too late. All airports have been shut down today, and I shudder to think about what flying will be like from now on. The Clintons, Schumers, and Waxmans will try to shut down the Internet, calling it a breeding ground for terrorism. The Bushes and Cheneys will "reluctantly" go along. Rush Limbaugh will cheer them on. What should those who value their freedom do? Every chance you have, from this moment on, whether it's on talk radio, or on the letters to the editor page, on the Internet while it's still possible, or in communication with everyone you know -- it's time for even the most apolitical to write to senators and congressmen -- emphasize two points: First, inform them that closing down the First or Second or any other Amendment is not an appropriate response to what's happened, and that any politician or bureaucrat in office who attempts to capitalize on today's horrors is committing the same sort of blatantly criminal act I've always insisted must be punished under Bill of Rights enforcement. Second, these things happen to nations with imperial ambitions. There has never been a major act of terrorism I know of that hasn't resulted from an act of government that violated somebody's rights. The way to keep this sort of thing from happening again is to stop those violations. Hideously enough, my new novel _The American Zone_, scheduled to be published next November by Tor Books, begins with an act very similar to this one, carried out to force the creation of a strong central government in the governmentless "North American Confederacy" that figures in so many of my books. As anybody who knows my work can safely predict, the evil scheme doesn't work and the villains are defeated. Life isn't as predictably pleasant as fiction. Happy endings are few and far between. But it's important to act swiftly if we're to preserve anything resembling the freedom that made this civilization great. Pass the word. ************************************************************************** Subscribe to Freematt's Alerts: Pro-Individual Rights Issues Send a blank message to: freematt(a)coil.com with the words subscribe FA on the subject line. List is private and moderated (7-30 messages per week) Matthew Gaylor, (614) 313-5722 ICQ: 106212065 Archived at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fa/ **************************************************************************

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More fuel for the fire for RFID privacy concerns...
by Valdis.Kletnieks＠vt.edu 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Well, so much for the "they can only be read at very short distance" defense... (And one has to wonder how a system like this qualifies as: Classification Code: 70 -- General purpose information technology equipment General purpose???) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 21, 2006 HOMELAND SECURITY RFI HEIGHTENS PUBLIC CONCERNS OVER RFID DHS Wants to Track Spychips in Moving Cars Going 55 MPH "Call it Big Brother on steroids," say privacy advocates Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre, co-authors of "Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID." The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is looking for beefed up RFID technology that can read government-issued documents from up to 25 feet away, pinpoint pedestrians on street corners, and glean the identity of people whizzing by in cars at 55 miles per hour. Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) is a controversial technology that uses tiny microchips to track items from a distance. These RFID microchips have earned the nickname "spychips" because each contains a unique identification number, like a Social Security number for things, that can be read silently and invisibly by radio waves. Privacy and civil liberties advocates are opposed to the use of the technology on consumer items and government documents because it can be used to track people without their knowledge or consent. ... A copy of the RFI is posted at the authors' website: http://www.spychips.com/DHS-RFID.pdf ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as eugen(a)leitl.org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/ ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com 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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[IP] More fuel for the fire for RFID privacy concerns...
by David Farber 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Begin forwarded message:

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MORNING OF HORROR
by L. Neil Smith 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

MORNING OF HORROR By L. Neil Smith <mailto:lneil@ezlink.com> Special to _The Libertarian Enterpise_ <http://www.webleyweb.com/lneil> First of all, expect never to learn the truth about what happened at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and elsewhere this morning of September 11, 2001, any more than we did with regard to the murders of Jack and Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, at Ruby Ridge, Waco, or Oklahoma City. Ambiguity and uncertainty serve far too many political interests. Another certainty is that, although I'm told 50,000 people worked in the World Trade Center, more innocent individuals will die as a result of what the Old Media are lovingly referring to as a "lockdown" of Manhattan and other places, than any acts of terrorism that may have occurred. The military has just said they'll shoot down any plane they see flying. Only one civilian plane is in the air this morning, Air Force One; that's as grim a warning of things to come as I can think of. "Collateral" deaths won't just happen as a consequence, say, of somebody with a heart attack being unable to get to a hospital, but whenever and wherever some dumb kid in an army uniform gets startled by a car backfiring and starts spraying everybody and his pet poodle with automatic rifle fire. Or to whomever the martial lawyers decide it's safe to liquidate using this foul mess as a cover. Or, vastly more ominously, to people in the not-so-distant future who decide they must resist the police state that will inevitably result from these events. It's extremely difficult to think coherently about long term effects, let alone to get it all down in writing, when you learn that, not only were hijacked commercial aircraft used to commit these unspeakably evil acts, but that 90 passengers died helplessly in the first plane, and others yet unnumbered may have died in subsequent attacks. _Somebody_ has to think about it, though, or this situation will be used to turn the Bill of Rights off forever. Depending on the planning behind it, or who did the planning, it may already be too late. All airports have been shut down today, and I shudder to think about what flying will be like from now on. The Clintons, Schumers, and Waxmans will try to shut down the Internet, calling it a breeding ground for terrorism. The Bushes and Cheneys will "reluctantly" go along. Rush Limbaugh will cheer them on. What should those who value their freedom do? Every chance you have, from this moment on, whether it's on talk radio, or on the letters to the editor page, on the Internet while it's still possible, or in communication with everyone you know -- it's time for even the most apolitical to write to senators and congressmen -- emphasize two points: First, inform them that closing down the First or Second or any other Amendment is not an appropriate response to what's happened, and that any politician or bureaucrat in office who attempts to capitalize on today's horrors is committing the same sort of blatantly criminal act I've always insisted must be punished under Bill of Rights enforcement. Second, these things happen to nations with imperial ambitions. There has never been a major act of terrorism I know of that hasn't resulted from an act of government that violated somebody's rights. The way to keep this sort of thing from happening again is to stop those violations. Hideously enough, my new novel _The American Zone_, scheduled to be published next November by Tor Books, begins with an act very similar to this one, carried out to force the creation of a strong central government in the governmentless "North American Confederacy" that figures in so many of my books. As anybody who knows my work can safely predict, the evil scheme doesn't work and the villains are defeated. Life isn't as predictably pleasant as fiction. Happy endings are few and far between. But it's important to act swiftly if we're to preserve anything resembling the freedom that made this civilization great. Pass the word. ************************************************************************** Subscribe to Freematt's Alerts: Pro-Individual Rights Issues Send a blank message to: freematt(a)coil.com with the words subscribe FA on the subject line. List is private and moderated (7-30 messages per week) Matthew Gaylor, (614) 313-5722 ICQ: 106212065 Archived at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fa/ **************************************************************************

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More fuel for the fire for RFID privacy concerns...
by Valdis.Kletnieks＠vt.edu 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Well, so much for the "they can only be read at very short distance" defense... (And one has to wonder how a system like this qualifies as: Classification Code: 70 -- General purpose information technology equipment General purpose???) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 21, 2006 HOMELAND SECURITY RFI HEIGHTENS PUBLIC CONCERNS OVER RFID DHS Wants to Track Spychips in Moving Cars Going 55 MPH "Call it Big Brother on steroids," say privacy advocates Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre, co-authors of "Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID." The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is looking for beefed up RFID technology that can read government-issued documents from up to 25 feet away, pinpoint pedestrians on street corners, and glean the identity of people whizzing by in cars at 55 miles per hour. Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) is a controversial technology that uses tiny microchips to track items from a distance. These RFID microchips have earned the nickname "spychips" because each contains a unique identification number, like a Social Security number for things, that can be read silently and invisibly by radio waves. Privacy and civil liberties advocates are opposed to the use of the technology on consumer items and government documents because it can be used to track people without their knowledge or consent. ... A copy of the RFI is posted at the authors' website: http://www.spychips.com/DHS-RFID.pdf ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as eugen(a)leitl.org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/ ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com 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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[IP] More fuel for the fire for RFID privacy concerns...
by David Farber 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Begin forwarded message:

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Re: [liberationtech] iPhones/iPads secretly track 'scary amount' of your movements
by Nathan Freitas 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

On 04/20/2011 03:55 PM, Frank Corrigan wrote: > More reasons for activists/protesters in hostile (ordinary) environments > not to bring along their mobile phone, latest cell connected gizmo. ... and return to megaphones, flags, smoke signals, carrier pigeons and frantic arm waving instead? If our ordinary environments are truly hostile, then either we give up ever using a mobile phone, or we find some way to address the problem. Don't get me wrong, this latest revelation on mobile privacy is indeed scary, and Apple better fess up. I just think we can fix these issues, instead of allowing them to be disempowering. In this case at least, turning your phone into "airplane mode" would have stopped the phone from broadcasting its availability to and registering with mobile towers. This would stop the active triangulation of your location from being logged into the local iOS database. I have an "airplane mode" icon on my Android phone home screen. Anytime I am not expecting an important call, or am reachable by another means (email, IM, irc), I generally activate it. Not only does it reduce my location footprint data trail, but it also saves quite a bit of battery life! I also like Google's Latitude Dashboard which encourages user to really "own it" when it comes to mobile location data tracking. They have a really pretty UI, charts, etc, that can show you how many minutes a day you spend at home, the gym, work or your local pub. Their point is that if government and mobile phone operators already have this data, why shouldn't you (the user and human being tracked) also benefit from it? https://www.google.com/latitude/history/dashboard All in all, we shouldn't cede the advantage technology can bring to the movements and causes we care about because developers at Apple and Skype (see their recent issue with Android app data permissions) are clearly make very bad decisions about how they implement their closed-source software. Best, Nathan _______________________________________________ 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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Re: [liberationtech] iPhones/iPads secretly track 'scary amount' of your movements
by Nathan Freitas 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

On 04/20/2011 03:55 PM, Frank Corrigan wrote: > More reasons for activists/protesters in hostile (ordinary) environments > not to bring along their mobile phone, latest cell connected gizmo. ... and return to megaphones, flags, smoke signals, carrier pigeons and frantic arm waving instead? If our ordinary environments are truly hostile, then either we give up ever using a mobile phone, or we find some way to address the problem. Don't get me wrong, this latest revelation on mobile privacy is indeed scary, and Apple better fess up. I just think we can fix these issues, instead of allowing them to be disempowering. In this case at least, turning your phone into "airplane mode" would have stopped the phone from broadcasting its availability to and registering with mobile towers. This would stop the active triangulation of your location from being logged into the local iOS database. I have an "airplane mode" icon on my Android phone home screen. Anytime I am not expecting an important call, or am reachable by another means (email, IM, irc), I generally activate it. Not only does it reduce my location footprint data trail, but it also saves quite a bit of battery life! I also like Google's Latitude Dashboard which encourages user to really "own it" when it comes to mobile location data tracking. They have a really pretty UI, charts, etc, that can show you how many minutes a day you spend at home, the gym, work or your local pub. Their point is that if government and mobile phone operators already have this data, why shouldn't you (the user and human being tracked) also benefit from it? https://www.google.com/latitude/history/dashboard All in all, we shouldn't cede the advantage technology can bring to the movements and causes we care about because developers at Apple and Skype (see their recent issue with Android app data permissions) are clearly make very bad decisions about how they implement their closed-source software. Best, Nathan _______________________________________________ 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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<nettime> Homeland Security Request to Take Down MafiaaFire Add-on
by nettime's avid reader 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

http://lockshot.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/homeland-security-request-to-take- down-mafiaafire-add-on/ >From time to time, we [the mozilla foundation] receive government requests for information, usually market information and occasionally subpoenas. Recently the US Department of Homeland Security contacted Mozilla and requested that we remove the MafiaaFire add-on. The ICE Homeland Security Investigations unit alleged that the add-on circumvented a seizure order DHS had obtained against a number of domain names. Mafiaafire, like several other similar add-ons already available through AMO, redirects the user from one domain name to another similar to a mail forwarding service. In this case, Mafiaafire redirects traffic from seized domains to other domains. Here the seized domain names allegedly were used to stream content protected by copyrights of professional sports franchises and other media concerns. Our approach is to comply with valid court orders, warrants, and legal mandates, but in this case there was no such court order. Thus, to evaluate Homeland Securitybs request, we asked them several questions similar to those below to understand the legal justification: - Have any courts determined that the Mafiaafire add-on is unlawful or illegal in any way? If so, on what basis? (Please provide any relevant rulings) - Is Mozilla legally obligated to disable the add-on or is this request based on other reasons? If other reasons, can you please specify. - Can you please provide a copy of the relevant seizure order upon which your request to Mozilla to take down the Mafiaafire add-on is based? To date webve received no response from Homeland Security nor any court order. One of the fundamental issues here is under what conditions do intermediaries accede to government requests that have a censorship effect and which may threaten the open Internet. Others have commented on these practices already. In this case, the underlying justification arises from content holders legitimate desire to combat piracy. The problem stems from the use of these government powers in service of private content holders when it can have unintended and harmful consequences. Longterm, the challenge is to find better mechanisms that provide both real due process and transparency without infringing upon developer and user freedoms traditionally associated with the Internet. More to come. # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime(a)kein.org ----- 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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