- cypherpunks-legacy - lists.cpunks.org

Re: Paint Your Own Scarlet Letter (Was: Edited Edupage, 29 Feb 1996)
by frantz＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>From EduPage via E. ALLEN SMITH: >SELF-PATROLLING THE WEB >The World Wide Web Consortium is pushing the Web page rating system that it >developed in cooperation with the Platform for Internet Content Selection, a >group of 22 online firms. >From SafeSurf Rating Page via lmccarth(a)cs.umass.edu wrote: >Thank you for making the Internet a safer place without censorship. >Until later, SafeSurfing to you! Remember, my goal is to convince the congress, president, courts, and Americans in general that the government should not be in the censorship business, not to have a system that actually works. I really hope this self rating system works in practice because (1) it is in line with current Internet practice, and (2) having it work makes a one hell of a fine argument. For many years people on the Internet have been encouraged to provide warnings on things they think others may find offensive. The the use of rot13 "encryption" is one example, another is the practice of putting warning labels (advertisements?) on material. Killfiles (in their most general sense) are analogous to the censoring browsers in this system. (I know it doesn't work for ftp/gopher/email/usenet newsgroups. I hope that the censors think that the web is the net.) (I think I want to start a web search engine looking for pages rated SS~~002 9, SS~~004 9, SS~~005 <5, and all the others don't care.) Regards - Bill ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bill Frantz | The CDA means | Periwinkle -- Computer Consulting (408)356-8506 | lost jobs and | 16345 Englewood Ave. frantz(a)netcom.com | dead teenagers | Los Gatos, CA 95032, USA

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Anyone else getting duplicate ACKs sending alpha.c2.org messages?
by platypus＠alpha.c2.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I just started a couple days ago, so it's entirely possible that I'm doing something wrong, but I seem to be getting two acknowledgement messages, about 5 minutes apart, for the last four messages (which happen to be my first four messages) sent through alias(a)alpha.c2.org. The recipient only seems to be getting one copy of the message. I happen to be using Private Idaho (thanks Joel!), but I don't think it should matter. Just wanted to check whether this was a common experience before troubleshooting more or bugging Sameer (yeah, so I go and bug EVERYBODY instead). I was going to figure it out myself, but since I'm bugging you anyway, is there a decent newbie guide on the web for using the mail-news gateways that parse the Newsgroups: header? I gather you just add the header after a ::, but do you just add headers, or repeat them all? I am mostly just educating myself and playing around with this stuff at the moment, so don't waste your time giving me a detailed reply on the assumption that I'm an Australian political dissident or anything. -- platypus(a)alpha.c2.org

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RE: Nortel "Entrust"
by Stephen A. Gutknecht 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I too would like to see an open discussion on this. Microsoft uses this for their new Exchange Server client/server email product.... ---------- From: Jonathon Fletcher[SMTP:jonathon@japan.sbi.com] Sent: Friday, March 01, 1996 10:17 AM To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com Subject: Nortel "Entrust" Can anyone tell me anything about a product called "Entrust", by Nortel (Northern Telecom). The notes talk about the software using DES ("which employs a 56-bit key") so I guess it's single DES, not triple DES. It also mentions a proprietary algorithm called CAST. Is this worthy of further investigation, or is it suspect ? What is CAST, and would it be classed as snake oil ?

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Anonymous Web Browsing
by dwhite＠pris.bc.ca 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi guys..... I'm new here and I don't have the same technical expertise as I am witnessing with most of the other posters here. I do have a question and I hope that it is not too technically naive. I have followed the ongoing discussion on PGP security, remailers and the like. I am wondering if the current trend with interactive Web browsing, Java, etc, is not going to create a privacy problem every bit as significant as insecure e-mail. As these "applets" become more sophisticated are we not going to have to face up to the issue of dynamic links to web sites that gather a lot of info from your computer as you interact with it? The recent controversy at Microsoft indicates to me that interactive Web applets could easily be programmed with hidden "siphon hoses" that are quitely sucking data from you while you look at the latest Baywatch poses. I am not a programer so I don't know how it would work. It just seems to me that it would not be that tall an order to accomplish. Correct me if I am wrong. My question is this: Would it be possible to create a web site that would function along the same lines as remailers do? Something that would allow a person to browse anonymously. So lets say I surfed into a Interactive Web site that has some kind of Java applet for......say portfolio projections..... Any personal financial info I dumped into it for analysis sake could be collected by the server for some kind of customer profile. Lets say that I didn't want sensitive financial info exposed to someone else without my knowledge. So then I would log into a "Re-Webber" that would allow me to continue on to the subject site with any electronic signature following back to the anonymous Web, not back to me. Another example that this would be a concern would be in the coming explosion of Bank oriented services that are coming available. A "Re-Web" would let you use applets on a Bank server without the concern that the Bank is gathering MORE sensitive info on you. Forgive me if this technically naive. I admit I don't know what I am talking about. It was something that piqued my curiosity as I was reading various posts about e-mail security. Doug dwhite(a)pris.bc.ca

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Re: Problems with certificates.
by jamesd＠echeque.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

jamesd(a)echeque.com writes: >> If if we colonized every planet in the galaxy, and every planet had a >> trillion people, and every single person on every planet generated a billion >> keys a second for a billion billion years, not one pair would match, assuming >> they were generated from truly random seeds. At 03:19 AM 3/2/96 -0500, Perry E. Metzger wrote: >Well, lets see. For a 1024 bit key, a birthday match is a 1 in 2^512 >proposition, assuming that a key could be any random 1024 bit number. >Assuming 100 million planets: > >100000000*(10^12)*(10^9)*60*60*24*365*(10^9)*(10^9)= > 3153600000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 >2^512= > 134078079299425970995740249982058461274793658205923933777235614437217\ > 640300735469768018742981669034276900318581864860508537538828119465699\ > 46433649006084096 > >However, the density of prime numbers isn't so high as to make the >probability truly 1/2^512 -- indeed, I would guess it is much >lower. However, you may indeed be right. The number of prime numbers less than n is n/ln(n). Presumably the number of valid PGP keys is somewhat larger. Assume 768 bit PGP keys: The number of randomly selected 768 bit primes that you would need for a reasonable chance of a birthday collision is 1.708E104 Which is 170 800 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 A number substantially larger than 3 153 600 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 --------------------------------------------------------------------- | We have the right to defend ourselves | http://www.jim.com/jamesd/ and our property, because of the kind | of animals that we are. True law | James A. Donald derives from this right, not from the | arbitrary power of the state. | jamesd(a)echeque.com

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Re: Percy the Python loves IPG
by geeman＠best.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 12:44 AM 2/29/96 -0800, you wrote: >At 10:41 PM 2/25/96 -0500, ab411(a)detroit.freenet.org (David R. Conrad) wrote: >>I think the IPG system is great! Percy, my pet python, has never been >>slicker or better lubricated! >:-) > >>IPG Sales <ipgsales(a)cyberstation.net> wrote: >>>Perhaps so, but our system does employ a true hardware generated OTP, and >>>operates similiar to what you describe - however, the important >>>differernce is that we use a small OTP to generate a larger OTP, like >>>stringing the cable across the Golden Gate narrows. > ..removed.. >So please email me the keys to your company; I'll donate 10% of the value >to David's python Percy for extra snake oil. Send me some money to me too, and I'll send you back 10,000 disks with Certified Random Data on them. Getcher One Time Pads here, folks!

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PARTY PICTURES!
by Sandy Sandfort 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SANDY SANDFORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C'punks, At long last pictures from my costume party are available on the Web. The URL is: http://www.c2.org/party/masquerade/ Special thanks are in order to Sameer for donating the Web page and loading it up with all the pictures. See Sameer for all your Internet privacy needs. Bart Nagel spent several hours scanning, cropping, digitally editing and sweetening the original pictures I took. Bart (and I) want you to contact him for all your *expensive* image editing needs. He can be reached at egon(a)aol.com or barticus(a)well.com. Thanks to Gracie and Zarkov for the use of their lovely homes. And a big thank you to all the attendees who made the party a might to remember. S a n d y ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Is there any work on entropy-lowering schemes?
by Mutant Rob 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- I'm wondering if anyone has done any work on schemes to lower the entropy of a given stream. Why? Save you've got message M encrypted with a good cipher, but you're worried that it can be detected because even with stego, the entropy is a lot higher than normal 'random' data flowing through a network. So it seems possible to create a scheme that given a key will take a block of n bits and expand it to 1.5n or 2n bits, recoding it in such a way that determining the key is difficult even if one suspects such a scheme has been used... but that using the scheme will make the data look more like the MSBs of graphical data rather than encrypted data. Rob - --- [This message has been signed by an auto-signing service. A valid signature means only that it has been received at the address corresponding to the signature and forwarded.] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Gratis auto-signing service iQBFAwUBMTeaeioZzwIn1bdtAQGNagF/cmAH45G1v1Yt1Bg+7qgZVVnIYdj9EfzV rqzPx7MRyGbVW4HtNWkYjiPxgn2iUQaH =t114 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Learning about Cryptography
by eggplant＠inlink.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I am interested in learning more about cryptography. Where could I obtain some good, recent books on cryptography for the beginner. -- "... In Germany they first came for the Communists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me-and by that time no one was left to speak up..." Pastor Martin Niemoller ************************************************ * * * Matthew Murphy ------------ eggplant(a)inlink.com * * * ************************************************

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Netcom and Credit Cards
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 5:32 PM 3/2/96, Dr. Dimitri Vulis wrote: ... >(I'd never deal with an ISP who doesn't accept checks or money orders. >And I mean checks, not automatic withdrawals from a checking account.) For the record, Netcom has always accepted personal checks mailed in to them. The credit card debit was offered as a convenience to those who wanted it; it was and remains optional. The "credit card numbers were stolen" point, that I believe Ed Carp was referring to, had to do with the Mitnick affair, and is very old news. I no longer use Netcom as my primary account, but thought some misconceptions needed correcting. I don't plan to debate the merits of Netcom, Mitnick, etc., and will post no more on this topic. --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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