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The Seattle Times: Nation - Pentagon: China planning on military showdown with Taiwan (fwd)
by Jim Choate 31 Jul '03

31 Jul '03

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001334071_missiles31.html -- ____________________________________________________________________ We are all interested in the future for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. Criswell, "Plan 9 from Outer Space" ravage(a)ssz.com jchoate(a)open-forge.org www.ssz.com www.open-forge.org --------------------------------------------------------------------

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Grist | Books | Cod is dead | 24 Jul 2003 (fwd)
by Jim Choate 31 Jul '03

31 Jul '03

http://www.gristmagazine.com/books/books072403.asp -- ____________________________________________________________________ We are all interested in the future for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. Criswell, "Plan 9 from Outer Space" ravage(a)ssz.com jchoate(a)open-forge.org www.ssz.com www.open-forge.org --------------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: Pentagon discovers Assasination Politics, deadpools
by Tim May 31 Jul '03

31 Jul '03

On Thursday, July 31, 2003, at 07:34 AM, Sunder wrote: > Yes, but he's retired, so why would he be displeased. :) > > He's been called back to active duty by various militaries... --Tim May

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Japan making RFID-trackable cash
by Bill Stewart 30 Jul '03

30 Jul '03

http://theregister.com/content/55/32061.html Japan's starting to add RFIDs to their 10000-yen (~$100) bills. Notes will come with Hitachi's 0.3mm "mew-chip" which responds to radio signals by sending out a 128-bit number. Each chip costs about 50 yen. The article says that each number _could_ be a serial number, but doesn't say that they know it is; the alternative would be something that indicated the production batch or whatever. The Reg's report sounds like it's based on what someone saw on a TV show, but also indicates they're starting production.

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Re: Secure IDE?
by Jim Choate 30 Jul '03

30 Jul '03

On Wed, 30 Jul 2003, Trei, Peter wrote: > No, I have no idea what this actually means either. > I'm trying to find out. It means it pre-encrypts your data before it's actually put on the drive. In addtion the key is kept in a removable dongle of some sort so you can take it with you. In other words the only bytes on your physical drive are encypted. If the part in possession of the drive doesn't have the key then they can't decrypt it (at least in their theory) without brute force. -- ____________________________________________________________________ We are all interested in the future for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. Criswell, "Plan 9 from Outer Space" ravage(a)ssz.com jchoate(a)open-forge.org www.ssz.com www.open-forge.org --------------------------------------------------------------------

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arXiv: Implementing An Agent Trade Server (fwd)
by Jim Choate 30 Jul '03

30 Jul '03

http://arxiv.org/pdf/cs.CE/0307064 -- ____________________________________________________________________ We are all interested in the future for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. Criswell, "Plan 9 from Outer Space" ravage(a)ssz.com jchoate(a)open-forge.org www.ssz.com www.open-forge.org --------------------------------------------------------------------

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Big Brother is watching you - and documenting
by Steve Schear 30 Jul '03

30 Jul '03

eBay, ever anxious to up profits, bends over backward to provide data to law enforcement officials "I don't know another Web site that has a privacy policy as flexible as eBay's," says Joseph Sullivan. A little bit later, Sullivan explains what he means by the term "flexible." Sullivan is director of the "law enforcement and compliance" department at eBay.com, the largest retailer in the world. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=264863&contrassID=2&s… Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purpose is beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding. -Louis Dembitz Brandeis, lawyer, judge, and writer (1856-1941)

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Re: Secure IDE?
by Ralf-P. Weinmann 30 Jul '03

30 Jul '03

On Wed, Jul 30, 2003 at 04:20:37PM -0400, Trei, Peter wrote: > ABIT has come out with a new motherboard, the > "IC7-MAX3" featuring something called 'Secure > IDE', which seems to involve HW crypto in the > onboard IDE controller: > > >From the marketing fluff at > http://www.abit.com.tw/abitweb/webjsp/english/news1.jsp?pDOCNO=en_0307251 > > "For MAX3, the ABIT Engineers listened > to users who were asking for information > security. SecureIDE connects to your IDE > hard disk and has a special decoder; > without a special key, your hard disk cannot > be opened by anyone. Thus hackers and > would be information thieves cannot access > your hard disk, even if they remove it from your > PC. Protect your privacy and keep anyone > from snooping into your information. Lock > down your hard disk, not with a password, > but with encryption. A password can be > cracked by software in a few hours. ABIT's > SecureIDE will keep government > supercomputers busy for weeks and will > keep the RIAA away from your Kazaa files." > > No, I have no idea what this actually means either. > I'm trying to find out. > > Peter Trei 40-bit DES in ECB mode sounds even more great. It's them Enovatech guys again. See here: http://archives.abditum.com/cypherpunks/C-punks20030519/0079.html Cheers, Ralf -- Ralf-P. Weinmann <rpw(a)uni.de> PGP fingerprint: 2048/46C772078ACB58DEF6EBF8030CBF1724

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Re: Secure IDE?
by Ralf-P. Weinmann 30 Jul '03

30 Jul '03

On Wed, Jul 30, 2003 at 04:20:37PM -0400, Trei, Peter wrote: > ABIT has come out with a new motherboard, the > "IC7-MAX3" featuring something called 'Secure > IDE', which seems to involve HW crypto in the > onboard IDE controller: > > >From the marketing fluff at > http://www.abit.com.tw/abitweb/webjsp/english/news1.jsp?pDOCNO=en_0307251 > > "For MAX3, the ABIT Engineers listened > to users who were asking for information > security. SecureIDE connects to your IDE > hard disk and has a special decoder; > without a special key, your hard disk cannot > be opened by anyone. Thus hackers and > would be information thieves cannot access > your hard disk, even if they remove it from your > PC. Protect your privacy and keep anyone > from snooping into your information. Lock > down your hard disk, not with a password, > but with encryption. A password can be > cracked by software in a few hours. ABIT's > SecureIDE will keep government > supercomputers busy for weeks and will > keep the RIAA away from your Kazaa files." > > No, I have no idea what this actually means either. > I'm trying to find out. > > Peter Trei Yeah, that announcement just ran over the slashdot ticker. Someone posted the following insightful link subsequently: ftp://ftp.abit.com.tw/pub/download/fae/secureide_eng_v100.pdf Looks like that sucker only does key-truncated version of DES called DES-40. Right... did they say weeks? I'd say minutes, unless ABIT means [insert some impoverished 3rd world country] government supercomputers. It's snakeoil, move on, nothing to see here. Cheers, Ralf -- Ralf-P. Weinmann <rpw(a)uni.de> PGP fingerprint: 2048/46C772078ACB58DEF6EBF8030CBF1724

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RE: Secure IDE?
by Trei, Peter 30 Jul '03

30 Jul '03

> Trei, Peter > > ABIT has come out with a new motherboard, the > "IC7-MAX3" featuring something called 'Secure > IDE', which seems to involve HW crypto in the > onboard IDE controller: > > From the marketing fluff at > http://www.abit.com.tw/abitweb/webjsp/english/news1.jsp?pDOCNO=en_0307251 > > "For MAX3, the ABIT Engineers listened > to users who were asking for information > security. SecureIDE connects to your IDE > hard disk and has a special decoder; > without a special key, your hard disk cannot > be opened by anyone. Thus hackers and > would be information thieves cannot access > your hard disk, even if they remove it from your > PC. Protect your privacy and keep anyone > from snooping into your information. Lock > down your hard disk, not with a password, > but with encryption. A password can be > cracked by software in a few hours. ABIT's > SecureIDE will keep government > supercomputers busy for weeks and will > keep the RIAA away from your Kazaa files." > > No, I have no idea what this actually means either. > I'm trying to find out. > > Peter Trei > Yeah, I know it's tacky to followup ones own messages, but I found a little more: http://www.abit.com.tw/abitweb/webjsp/english/SecureIDE.htm "SecureIDE is a encryption device that uses the eNOVA X-Wall chipset that ensures confidentiality and privacy of your data through disk encryption. When booting up your system, go to DOS and implement the FDISK instruction. This instruction will make a partition to format the Hard Disk to accept the secure IDE key. After this procedure, there are no more extra steps to perform besides using the key to "open" the hard disk each time you boot up your system." The accompanying diagram shows a daughterboard sitting between the HD and the system, with a USB dongle coming off the side. eNova has more info at: http://www.enovatech.com/w/html/about.htm The USB dongle apparently acts only as a key store, for a DES or 3DES key. It needs to be present at boot time. It appears that the key is put on the device by the manufacturer !!!! though they promise "Enova Technology does not maintain a database of X-Wall Secure Keys". On the good side, it seems to encrypt the whole disk, including the boot sector and swap. No info on chaining modes, if any, nor of IV handling. There is no mention of a PIN or other 'something you know' required to use the USB key. I can't tell if pulling the dongle shuts down the system. Might be neat, but as yet, insufficient information. Peter

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