- cypherpunks-legacy - lists.cpunks.org

CYBERSPACE IS BY NAT
by bmorris＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com RR> > skinheads were jailed for conspiracy to bomb an synagogue, however RR> > synagogue had not actually been bombed. They went to prison. RR> For a group to comit conspiracy they have to actually do something ot RR> just talk about it. Ah, thanks for the clarification. The skinheads had amassed guns and bombs and were clearly past the just-speculating stage. RR> It is my understanding that conspiracy is a felony even if the crime RR> is a misdemeanor... Something which is as legalistically demented as ITAR not allowing the PGP EXE to be exported but which does allow the source and detailed file format changes to be exported! * RM 1.4 B0037 *

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No Subject
by nobody＠shell.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

What sort of encryption is used for the Global Positioning System (GPS), operating in the Precise Positioning Service (PPS) mode? Is it one of the military "KY-xx/KG-xx" modes, or "something else"? =====

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Regulatory Arbitrage
by hughes＠ah.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Here a quotation from a book I've been reading: "The eurocurrency markets represent a type of regulatory arbitrage. Eurobanking is a managed financial package that combines the currency of one country (one regulatory environment) with the banking regulations and competitive efficiencies of another country. This repackaging was made possible by improvements in worldwide communications links and information technology. If the regulatory burden becomes too high in one area of the world, the bundle of eurobanking services can be reassembled in another. Hence, national regulators must compete to maintain their respective shares of the eurocurrency business. Competition with respect to lending quotas, reserve requirements, capital requirements, deposit insurance, the taxing and reporting of interest payments, and the taxing of profits, dividends, and capital gains, all measured against any perceived positive benefits of local regulation, governs the geographical distribution of eurocurrency market shares." >From _International Financial Markets_, by J. Orlin Grabbe, formerly of the Wharton School. Regulatory arbitrage is an Important concept, as well as a great phrase. The writer is square in the middle of the mainstream in the business world, and note how effortlessly he speaks of avoiding governments and playing them off against each other. There is a lesson to be learned here--that speaking of internationalization as if it were somehow disapproved of, as if it were not absolutely matter-of-fact, is a mistake. If I refer to the internationalization of retail funds transfer systems, for example, as if someone might not like that, I also ask the hearer an implicit question: "Might you also disapprove?" In a similar vein, exhibiting, with repsect to cryptography, the analogue of teenaged glee in smashing mailboxes, somehow thinking that you've also struck a blow against authority, is another mistake. We need not show up the NSA, we simply want them to lose. Regarding the subject of the quotation, it is vitally important that the residents of the USA who are on this list remember that the key to strategic victory in cryptography lies internationally, not only for the USA, but for every other country as well. If remailers are outlawed or supressed out of one country, the same functionality can be made in another. And so forth. Arbitrage is smuggling, or rather, the transport of one good or service purchased cheap in one place and sold dear in another. Arbitrage always has one of two effects, either a transfer of real wealth to the place more advantageous the buyer (as well as enriching the middleman), or an equalization of advantage. For financial markets, the equalization always happens sooner or later, and the price may either rise or fall in either the source or destination. Arbitrage of regulation almost always leads to equalization, although the time scales are much longer. When equalization happens, it's almost never that the advantage decreases for the destination buyer. Rather, because there are many more than two markets available, any tighter regulation invariably puts those two markets on an even footing in disadvantage with respect to the rest of the world. So the arbitrage of regulation usually leads to a relaxtion of regulation. We need to remember to make it possible for regulatory arbitrage to occur. If it can happen, it likely will, but only if the choice is available. Eric

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cripple quest
by nobody＠shell.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

re cripple; i was told that if law enforcement cannot determine which key will unlock the message prior to the message actually being sent over the net, the message will not be decodable is there any truth to this?

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Re: cripple quest
by Patrick Juola 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Nobody asks : re cripple; i was told that if law enforcement cannot determine which key will unlock the message prior to the message actually being sent over the net, the message will not be decodable is there any truth to this? I don't think so. I can certainly download a message onto my disk and decypher it at my leisure, by brute force if necessary. Patrick

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Re: Regarding my 500/1 Lurk/Post ratio
by jamiel＠sybase.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> funny think about garcia, his first time ever post on c'punx was about > larry too...... strange times indeed when a newbie bursts on the scene > knowing all about us My question is why it even matters. Does anyone out there really think this is some sort of safe space? I know _I'd_ never post anything I didn't want to see in WiReD magazine a few months down the road... -j

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NIST to propose cryptographic APIs
by paul＠hawksbill.sprintmrn.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

extracted from: Network World volume 11, number 23 June 6, 1994 page 3 NIST to propose cryptographic APIs by Ellen Messmer Washington, D.C. -- The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will soon issue a set of application program interfaces (API) that would enable vendors to integrate their products with the cryptography systems used by the federal government. Federal security managers are supporting the idea because it will simplify purchasing and bring some interoperability to cryptography products. But the move will mean more work for vendors. Once the APIs are approved as a federal mandatory purchasing standard, software and hardware vendors that want to sell to the government would have to modify any products they sell with cryptographic functions to support the government-required APIs. Several vendors, including Apple Computer, Inc., Lotus Development Corp., Novell, Inc. and WordPerfect Corp., have already integrated functions for digital signatures, encryption and decryption into the latest versions of their products. They have licensed cryptography technology from RSA Data Security, Inc., and the APIs used in their products are based on an open specification called the Public Key Cryptography Standard. In spite of the work on these industry-standard APIs, vendors may have to revamp their products to suit the government. NIST said it will detail how the government wants vendors to change their products to support a high-level API in all products sold to federal agencies. "There would be an advantage to having a common set of services calls," said Miles Smid, manager of the security technology group at NIST. "You wouldn't be locked into a single vendor. In the future, if you added more equipment or changed it, the software would still be compatible." Smid said the API service calls will include commands to sign or verify a message electronically, and encrypt or decrypt it. The calls would invoke the functions from a PCMCIA card, a smart card, software or other means. With the APIs, the user's application could make use of any cryptographic algorithm, regardless or whether it's Digital Encryption Standard, Skipjack or RSA, Smid said. "It's a great idea," said Jim Robinette, security manager at the Internal Revenue Service, which makes considerable use of both private- and public-key technology. "It's a necessity for us. From the user's perspective, it would make life very simple." A high-level API would still allow vendors free rein in how they implement their systems at a lower level, Robinette said. But he added that it may not necessarily be easy for vendors to implement the APIs. RSA President James Bidzos criticized the cryptography API plan as another swipe at his firm, which has been battling the government on patent rights issues for years. "They're not trying to work with industry on this," he said. NIST plans to unveil the APIs in about a month.

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Re: Regulatory Arbitrage
by rah＠shipwright.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Excuse me while gush... As usual, Eric is right. [great discussion about how regulation only creates markets elsewhere...] Arguably (only arguably...) some economic regulation is good for us: like a *few* pharmaceutical and food regulations, maybe. Eric points out that internet commerce and e-money, e$ for short, reminds one of something that has been going on for a long time with another E$, this time Eurodollars. (Kind of like AOL, eh?) Eurodollars were invented to get around American tax and currency regulations, and those of other countries. You had all these American corporations funding themselves through subsidiaries in Carribbean countries like the Netherlands Antilles. (Any time you see "Companyname, N.V.", the "NV" is Dutch for "we funded this with offshore dollars" ;-). George Soros, who founded Quantum Fund, N.V., is evidently happy with the results of this knowlege. He recently made the fastest billion dollars in history pointing out the folly of the European currency exchange rate mechanism, much to the chagrin of the Bank of England and other central banks whose money he pocketed. I remember a Milton Friedman quote, something to the effect that regulations only benefit a market's producers, not its consumers. Current day Japan, states with barber and bartender "licences", and Smoot/Hawley America in the 1930's might be good examples of that. If there's a market for those goods/services elsewhere, people *will* buy there. With internet commerce and e$ ,"elsewhere" is everywhere... But we know that already, don't we? I can't wait until the rest of the information, or the software, or the intellectual services buying public figure that out. The only way to prevent that is to regulate economic commerce on the internet, which makes me shudder to think about. Although, if the paradigm holds, it won't make much difference. It'll be like stopping capitalism itself. Cheers, Bob Hettinga ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) "There is no difference between someone Shipwright Development Corporation who eats too little and sees Heaven and 44 Farquhar Street someone who drinks too much and sees Boston, MA 02331 USA snakes." -- Bertrand Russell (617) 323-7923

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I will be in Detroit/Cleveland/Akron area this weekend
by collins＠newton.apple.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

...and cities between. I could also stop in Ann Arbor. Any cypherpunks in these towns who want to sign keys, etc, email asap; I might not be able to retrieve it after I depart. Be seeing you, Scott Collins | "That's not fair!" -- Sarah | "You say that so often. I wonder what your basis 408.862.0540 | for comparison is." -- Goblin King ................|.................................................... BUSINESS. fax:974.6094 R254(IL5-2N) collins(a)newton.apple.com Apple Computer, Inc. 5 Infinite Loop, MS 305-2D Cupertino, CA 95014 ..................................................................... PERSONAL. 408.257.1746 1024:669687 catalyst(a)netcom.com

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Remailer Chaining Security?
by nobody＠shell.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

What level of security is achieved by the practice of "chaining" messages through various "anonymous remailers"? Do these servers not keeps logs by which a post could be traced back through the chain to the source? If there is a REAL level of security afforded, then the question arises "how much is enough"? =======

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