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The new Wassenaar regulations; here they are
by Jan Garefelt 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Web version: http://www.fitug.de/news/wa/ Word- or RTF-version: http://www.wassenaar.org/List/ Cheers /Jan Garefelt

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strange posts
by Mok-Kong Shen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I obtained a bunch of totally EMPTY posts from owner-cypherpunks(a)Algebra.COM in intervals of about half an hour. Does anyone have the same experience and know what's the matter? (Further it appears that a couple of posts of mine have been delayed and have not yet appreared after the usual waiting time.) M. K. Shen

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MEDIA RELEASE: Data Fellows� F-Secure VPN+ demo; An easy way to test strong Internet encryption
by Marita N�sman-Repo 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Press Release For immediate release Data Fellows F-Secure VPN+ demo An easy way to test strong Internet encryption Espoo, Finland, December 11, 1998. - Data Fellows, one of the worlds leading developers of anti-virus and encryption software, has set up a demo of the commercial version of F-Secure VPN+, whereby companies can test an encrypted IPSec connection between their own machine and a VPN+ Server at the Data Fellows site. The supported platform is Windows NT 4.0 (Intel) with an Ethernet network adapter. The release works on both single and multi-processor machines. An encrypted IPSec connection can be set up by downloading and installing the F-Secure VPN+ Demo Client, available at the Data Fellows web site (http://www.DataFellows.com/f-secure/vpn-plus/demo/) and connecting through it to the F-Secure VPN+ server. This set-up in no way affects a companys other network traffic; all other hosts and network services may be accessed as usual. Unlike the commercial version of VPN+, it is not possible to create encrypted connections to hosts other than VPNPlus.DataFellows.com. This server cannot be contacted without the VPN+ demo client. The demo client has been configured to establish an IPSec encrypted (3des) connection to VPNPlus.DataFellows.com (IP:194.252.6.42). A random session key will be negotiated for each connection. Host authentication is performed using a shared secret 0x462D534543555245 (i.e. "F-SECURE" in hex). Access to all other networks (local/Internet) is provided without additional IPSec security. In the commercial version of F-Secure VPN+, the network administrator determines which connections are permitted and which connections need to be encrypted. The commercial version of the product features F-Secure Administrator for central management, network wide security policy distribution and F-Secure VPN+ Certificate Wizard for a complete VPN Certificate Authority service. In addition to F-Secure VPN+ Demo Client, a Lotus ScreenCam presentation of F-Secure Administrator can be downloaded, as well as the users manual of the commercial version. The presentation shows how easily the network administrator can create and maintain a security policy for the whole Virtual Private Network. End-user installation of the commercial version can be done using AUTOINST network-wide deployment tools and it provides a fully transparent network security solution to the user. No user-interfaces are left to the user to stumble with. About Data Fellows Data Fellows is one of the worlds leading developers of data security products. The Company develops, markets and supports anti-virus, data security and cryptography software products for corporate computer networks. It has principal offices in San Jose, California, and Espoo, Finland, with regional offices and corporate partners, VARs and other distributors in over 80 countries around the world. Data Fellows has customers in more than 100 countries, including many of the worlds largest industrial corporations and best-known telecommunications companies, major international airlines, European governments, post offices and defense forces, and several of the worlds largest banks. The Company was named one of the Top 100 Technology companies in the world by Red Herring magazine in its September 1998 issue. Other commendations include Hot Product of the Year 1997 (Data Communications Magazine); Best Anti-Virus product (SVM Magazine, May 1997); Editors Choice (SECURE Computing Magazine); and the 1996 European Information Technology Prize. About F-Secure products All F-Secure products are integrated into the F-Secure Framework management architecture, which provides a three-tier, scaleable, policy-based management infrastructure to minimize the costs of security management. F-Secure Workstation Suite consists of malicious code detection and removal as well as unobtrusive file and network encryption, all integrated into a policy-based management architecture. F-Secure Anti-Virus, with multiple scanning engines (including F-PROT and AVP), is the most comprehensive, real-time virus scanning and protection system for all Windows platforms. F-Secure VPN+ provides a software-based, IPSec-compliant Virtual Private Network solution for large corporate networks as well as remote and small office networks. F-Secure FileCrypto is the first and only product to integrate strong real-time encryption directly into the Windows file system. F-Secure SSH provides secure remote login, terminal, and other connections over unsecured networks. It is the most widely used secure remote administration tool. F-Secure NameSurfer is the solution for remote Internet and Intranet DNS administration. Its easy-to-use WWW user interface automates and simplifies DNS administration. For more information, please contact: USA: Data Fellows Inc. Mr. Pirkka Palomäki, Product Manager Tel. +1 408 938 6700, fax +1 408 938 6701 E-mail: Pirkka.Palomäki(a)DataFellows.com Europe: Data Fellows Oy Mr. Topi Hautanen, Product Manager PL 24 FIN-02231 ESPOO Tel. +358 9 859 900, fax. +358 9 8599 0599 E-mail: Topi.Hautanen(a)DataFellows.com or visit our web site at http://www.DataFellows.com -- Marita.Nasman-Repo(a)DataFellows.com, World-Wide Web http://www.DataFellows.com

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RE: Global Strike to protest Wassenaar
by Brown, R Ken 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Richard Bragg wrote: > Ever played Mornington Crescent? Try the same thing with > e-mail. The idea is that only those in the game know "the rules". > These rules can change at any time in any way and all > "real players" can tell about the new "rules" and adjust accordingly. showing of course that he either doesn't know the *real* rules of Mornington Crescent or else (more likely) doesn't want to reveal them! Oh, and this posting quite clearly wins this round - even with the new DLR extensions and the Elverson Road footbridge:-) Ken

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Test
by Mok-Kong Shen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

please ignore this.

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SSZ had ISDN problems this AM...
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi, Because of the weather change here there was an outage of ISDN connectivity at my ISP. It seems to be back now. No idea if it will return in the next day or so. ____________________________________________________________________ What raises the standard of living may well diminish the quality of life. The Club of Rome The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage(a)ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: alternative b-money creation
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Bill Stewart writes, regarding Wei Dai's b-money protocol: > It still doesn't solve the fundamental problem with the b-money idea, > which is that there's no reason anybody should want to accept it, > any more than they should want to accept dead-president fiat paper money. > It fixes some symptoms of fiat money, but not the fundamental problem, > because it's still fiat money, just with mathematically interesting > artwork printed on the front. B-money is not fiat money. It is better to think of it as commodity money. Unlike most commodity money, in this case the commodity is not intrinsically valuable. However it is scarce, and more can be created only at a considerable cost. An analogy might be money based on a rare earth element like Terbium (which, let's suppose, has no industrial uses). Terbium based money would be immune to inflation, like gold backed money, but the element is not valuable in itself; it is only valuable for its role as money. This leads to an important difference between b-money and fiat money. The value of b-money is not set by fiat. The value is determined automatically by the workings of the market and the workings of the protocol. There is no centralized agency to make b-money legal tender, or to set its value in terms of other currencies. Most importantly, there is no agency which can issue new b-money, inflating and devaluing the currency. Money is a store of value and a medium of exchange. B-money is admirably suited for these purposes, much better than fiat money. The quantity of b-money in a mature system is, roughly speaking, constant. (The quantity may grow, but it will do so slowly, based on the increased demand for b-money.) B-money is an investment which will hold its value. Because it can be exchanged electronically, it is much more flexible as a medium of exchange than existing forms of money. > One of the big problems with fiat money is that someone who > can get other people to trade it for real goods has an > incentive to print lots of it and acquire a very large share > of the real goods in the economy, leaving the rest of the people > with unredeemable artwork and only able to get their share > of goods by giving the fiatmeister labor or other real goods. > > Wei Dai's b-money proposals reduce the incentive to create > lots of b-money by requiring the creator to burn lots of > valuable CPU time to create the mathematical artwork on the notes, Think of this CPU-burning as the effort to mint or mine new b-money. Like other commodity based money, and unlike fiat money, b-money cannot be printed. New b-money can only be added to the money supply by virtue of expending work. This is what insures that there is no inflation. > In some ways, it's even _worse_ than traditional fiat money, > because creating it uses up CPU time that could otherwise be > calculating things that have value for the rest of the economy, > like optimizing airline routes or circuit-board designs, > or less valuable cool things like rendering bug pictures for movies > or calculating the next Mersenne prime or cracking MongoBank's keys, > or, well, drawing space-war pictures real fast on your Nintendo. You could say the same thing about gold mining, in the days when gold was money. Most gold went into circulation as coins, not adding beauty or value to the economy. Its only utility was as an increase in the money supply. But, of course, adding to the money supply is an important contribution. To have a stable commodity money, it must be costly to create more, and the cost must be "wasteful" in the sense that it is not compensated other than by the monetary value of the newly produced money. Otherwise you will get excessive inflation. It's ironic for people to complain that b-money is inferior, in a world in which fiat money is universal. Once the mathematics of b-money are better established and understood, and once the technical issues are clarified and problems solved, this appears to be a very attractive alternative to fiat money. Unlike commodities such as gold, it can be easily exchanged electronically. And unlike fiat money, it is immune to attempts to manipulate the money supply. B-money could easily attract investment as an inflation-proof store of value. This may be enough to initiate the bootstrapping process. People can buy b-money as a store of value, and once they hold it they will want to be able to spend it. This will lead to a demand for merchants to accept it, and the process has begun.

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angel 0.5 released
by Antonomasia 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

My website (software page) should have angel 0.5 on it at around midnight (GMT). This is a mail transfer agent intended to operate well with remailers. Progress since the last release is taking the DH key authentication to a different program so that the RSA secion when added will not be in the main server (angeld). RSA authentication of the DH key is still to be added. -- ############################################################## # Antonomasia ant(a)notatla.demon.co.uk # # See http://www.notatla.demon.co.uk/ # ##############################################################

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2nd reposting of a response to Jim Choate (on crypto archives)
by Mok-Kong Shen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Note: There was some technical problem since yesterday to cypherpunks postings, so that my posts to the list didn't result in copies back to me. This morning I reposted these, again without success. An hour ago Igor Chudov informed me that the problem was solved and I have just verified this with a test message. I am therefore reposting once again one of my posts of yesterday here. It is a response to Jim Choate. Please ignore it if you have already seen it. Jim Choate wrote: > > > From: Mok-Kong Shen <mok-kong.shen(a)stud.uni-muenchen.de> > > > We were talking about a site that has to be closed because of (new) > > crypto laws, not technically down which is seldom with modern hardware. > > And also you said that money is no problem! > > You need to go back and re-read what prompted this. Your responce is > completely out of context. > > > Why you care so much about people who voluteer to run sites? They > > certainly know what kind of risks that they probably face, financial > > or otherwise. Do you care your neighbour who opens up a new company > > and do you feel unconditionally have to give him advices?? Are you > > the one who is cleverer than all the others? > > It depends, do I shop there? > > I'm done with this discussion. You want to expect people to put their neck > on the line and you use their services while owning them nothing then wonder > why nobody does it, so be it. Let me ask you some clear questions and please give me also clear answers: If there is some person who is grown up and is not metally ill and who decides to volunteer to put up an archive site of crypto software for the benefit of those who need them, what do you have against that? Any reasonable person who plans to do some business (for profit) certainly well considers the possible risks he might have. For non-profit activities like what we are discussing it is clear that one is much more careful before launching the work. Why do you want to disuade him from doing that? If he fails, that's his fate but you don't loose a cent because of that. If he puts up a site and that has to be closed down after a couple of months because of unforeseen new crypto laws, you at least profit in that short time period of the possibility of downloading from his site and other people also profit from that. If his country has poor economy (inflation, unemployment etc. leading possibly to early depletion of his monetary resources) or bad infrastucture (total breakdown of telecommunication of his country, rendering his site no longer operable) or religion (because he is physically injured by religious fanatics and therefore unable to work), or whatever other reasons than these three that you mentioned, that's all HIS business not YOURS. He, being in his own country, should know all such risks much much better than you! Be happy that because of him you have one more possibilty of obtaining your desired software (during the time his site is operational)! If he ever gets into trouble, it will be fine of you if you will try to help him, through raising funds etc. But you are not obliged to do that. So I don't understand the motivation of your arguing up till now. I would be able to understand if you were working in an authority attempting to strengthen the effects of crypto laws, thus wishing to have as few archive sites in the world as possible, at best none. (Of course, I know absolutely nothing of you. Should I happen to have made here a wrong assumption about your occupation, then I like to offer my sincere apology.) M. K. Shen

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2nd reposting of a response to Enzo Michelangeli (on crypto archives)
by Mok-Kong Shen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Note: There was some technical problem since yesterday to cypherpunks postings, so that my posts to the list didn't result in copies back to me. This morning I reposted these, again without success. An hour ago Igor Chudov informed me that the problem was solved and I have just verified this with a test message. I am therefore reposting once again one of my posts of yesterday here (not exactly identical to the original, being reconstructed from memory). It is a response to Enzo Michelangeli. Please ignore it if you have already seen it. Enzo Michelangeli wrote: > It would be helpful if the list included the approximate size in Mb of each > archive. I'm making arrangements for some mirrors here in Hong Kong, and I > need an estimate of the space needed. I don't know. But a number of years ago I accessed some archive sites of software for processing of Asian languages. From that and the fact that modern disks have become much bigger in capacity and cheaper, I suppose that storage shouldn't be a bottleneck. I like to take the opportunity to mention a non-trivial issue that happens to have refreshed my attention by a reader's letter in a computer journal, namely that software at public archives could be infected by virus. I suppose one should give this potential risk some consideration, since in the present context there could be some third party particularly interested in disrupting the goals of crypto archives. Another point I like to raise is what to archive, i.e. whether only program texts (which are small) or also executable files, and how to let the archive contents be up-to-date. Related to this is whether the archive owner has to fetch everything himself or there is also a directory for uploading by contributors (this is the case with the archives I mentioned above and is sensible for new software and for updates.) M. K. Shen

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