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Human Rights Program Rescues Computer Data [crypto, distributed storage]
by Major Variola (ret) 03 Jun '03

03 Jun '03

Human Rights Program Rescues Computer Data On April 7, thieves broke into the offices of Guatemala's human rights ombudsman, in a town about 150 miles from Guatemala City; several hours later, the home of a human rights advocate in the capital was also burglarized. The crimes, which were reported by the Associated Press (AP) the next day, did not surprise Gustavo Meono, director of a group founded by Nobel Peace Laureate Rigoberta Menchu. He told the AP (New York Times, 8 April 2003) that thieves often target the offices and homes of human rights activists. They "come for information and take files and computer hard drives." What the thieves may not yet know, however, is that AAAS's human rights staff has devised a way of protecting the data that have become so precious to both sides in the effort to demonstrate who did what to whom during the country's civil war from 1960 to 1996. Some of the information collected in the stolen computers represented science-based evidence for prosecuting people accused of killings and torture, rapes and kidnappings, according to Alvaro Caballeros, an archivist at the Association for the Advancement of the Social Sciences in Guatemala (AVANCSO). "The need for AAAS's help was related to security," Caballeros said. "Our archives are very important to our work collecting information and interviews regarding what happened during the war." AAAS's data-protection project was carried out with funding from The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which recently provided $700,000 to allow the Association's human rights program to continue providing technical assistance and quantitative analyses for large-scale human rights data projects in Africa, Asia, South America, and Eastern Europe. AAAS computer engineer Miguel Cruz flew to Guatemala in November, carrying a "giant black duffel bag, full of tools and computer networking equipmentcables, routers, hubs..." His job was to set up a system that would allow Guatemala's human rights groups to encrypt the information they generated and to have it automatically copied onto network servers managed from safe locations in other countries. "We determined that the only really safe place to keep the data was out of the country," Cruz said. Word of his work spread among the human rights organizations, and volunteers began showing up to help Cruz install the basic infrastructure that was missing in most of the buildings. "I initially trained about half a dozen people in the basics of network wiring, and they all pitched in, putting their jobs on hold to work late into the evening wielding crimpers, digital cable testers, screwdrivers, and hammers," Cruz recounted. "In an incidental way, of course, the project has provided some good old-fashioned direct development assistance, by providing hands-on learning about cutting-edge technology. It wasn't the goal, but it's a nice side-effect, especially considering that all the assistance actually made the project faster and cheaper." http://www.aaas.org/news/newsandnotes/inside96.shtml

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Typical PGP user mistakes
by Major Variola (ret.) 02 Jun '03

02 Jun '03

I recall reading at least one study of learning PGP and its UI. I have had the chance to observe half a dozen (albeit, smarter than normal) others' (mostly engineers) learning curves. All are using PGP 7.03 and Eudora 3.05. We are not using public key servers. Mistakes include: * neglecting to encrypt to an intended recipient's key * encrypting to self (only) * not encrypting to self, requiring a recipient to send it back to you * accidentally multiply encrypting a message (ie, you encrypt the encrypted ASCII) Problems also include not being able to rename the email address associated with a key, leading to some recipients being recognized and encrypted to, others not. Also errors if there are spaces added to the PGP ASCII block. Yes, there are checkbox-features and PGP Groups and sufficient GUI feedback such that these mistakes are "not the tool's fault". And I/we appreciate these features and overall excellent design. Yet there are also people who enjoy studying UI design, cognition, learning, etc. and perhaps these anecdotal observations would be useful. After all, Enigma was broken by exploiting the man-machine interface. No one new to any tool should be using it for life-critical apps before competent. The above mistakes more self-inflicted denial of service problems than tool weaknesses. In fact, one group member accidentally sent email to a random user in the sender's ISP (because of the sender's Eudora-alias not matching the alias he typed in the To: field). This didn't matter because the content was encrypted. You often put locks on things (cars, homes, throwaway email accounts) to protect against benign, accidental intrusions, even if the lock is easily defeated/circumvented. We just happened to be using a strong lock, endorsed by the Red Brigade :-) ------- Pierre Curie didn't die from radiation poisoning, he was hit by a horse drawn cart

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Re: Maybe It's Snake Oil All the Way Down
by Tyler Durden 02 Jun '03

02 Jun '03

"Scott Guthery" <sguthery(a)mobile-mind.com> writes: > > When I drill down on the many pontifications made by computer > > security and cryptography experts all I find is given wisdom. Maybe > > the reason that folks roll their own is because as far as they can see > > that's what everyone does. Roll your own then whip out your dick and > > start swinging around just like the experts. > > > > Perhaps I'm not looking in the right places. I wade through papers from > > the various academic cryptography groups, I hit the bibliographies > > regularly, I watch the newgroups, and I follow the patent literature. >After > > you blow the smoke away, there's always an "assume a can opener" > > assumption. The only thing that really differentiates the experts from >the > > naifs is the amount of smoke. This kind of thinking is similar to the difference between and engineer's persepective and that of a mathematician or "pure" scientist. Basically, it might not be bad to consider all crypto systems 'insecure' to some extent. However, for well-designed cryptosystems the cost of breaking can be made to scale with the level of security needed. -TD _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus

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Patriot Act humor
by Steve Schear 02 Jun '03

02 Jun '03

Attorney General John Ashcroft is visiting an elementary school. After the typical civics presentation to the class, he announces, "All right boys and girls, you can ask me questions now." A young boy named Bobby raises his hand and says, I have three questions, Mr. Ashcroft: 1. How did Bush win the election with fewer votes than Gore? 2. Why are you using the USA Patriot Act to limit Americans civil liberties? 3. Why hasn't the U.S. caught Osama bin Laden? Just then, the bell sounds and all the kids run out to the playground. Fifteen minutes later the kids return to class, and Ashcroft says, "I'm sorry, we were interrupted by the bell. Now, who has a question to ask me?" A young girl named Suzy raises her hand and says: I have five questions, Mr. Ashcroft: 1. How did Bush win the election with fewer votes than Gore? 2. Why are you using the USA Patriot Act to limit Americans civil liberties? 3. Why hasn't the U.S. caught Osama bin Laden? 4. Why did the bell go off 20 minutes early? 5. Where's Bobby? "A Jobless Recovery is like a Breadless Sandwich." -- Steve Schear

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Kazaa, Brilliant move will spanner MPAA, RIAA (fwd)
by Jim Choate 02 Jun '03

02 Jun '03

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=9801 -- ____________________________________________________________________ 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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BIS Disk Full
by Anonymous 02 Jun '03

02 Jun '03

I tried to notify the BIS that I was posting some code and I got this error back: > <web_site(a)bis.doc.gov>: > 170.110.31.61 failed after I sent the message. > Remote host said: Can't create transcript file ./xfh4VJhUa02511: No space left on device > > <crypt(a)bis.doc.gov>: > 170.110.31.61 failed after I sent the message. > Remote host said: Can't create transcript file ./xfh4VJhVC02512: No space left on device Are our rights suspended until they get their system fixed? :-)

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Cypherpunks List Info
by cpunk＠lne.com 01 Jun '03

01 Jun '03

Cypherpunks Mailing List Information Last updated: Sep 12, 2002 This message is also available at http://www.lne.com/cpunk Instructions on unsubscribing from the list can be found below. 0. Introduction The Cypherpunks mailing list is a mailing list for discussing cryptography and its effect on society. It is not a moderated list (but see exceptions below) and the list operators are not responsible for the list content. Cypherpunks is a distributed mailing list. A subscriber can subscribe to one node of the list and thereby participate on the full list. Each node (called a "Cypherpunks Distributed Remailer", although they are not related to anonymous remailers) exchanges messages with the other nodes in addition to sending messages to its subscribers. A message posted to one node will be received by the list subscribers on the other nodes, and vice-versa. 1. Filtering The various CDRs follow different policies on filtering spam and to a lesser extent on modifying messages that go to/from their subscribers. Filtering is done, on nodes that do it, to reduce the huge amount of spam that the cypherpunks list is subjected to. There are three basic flavors of filtering CDRs: "raw", which send all messages to their subscribers. "cooked" CDRs try to eliminate the spam on that's on the regular list by automatically sending only messages that are from cypherpunks list subscribers (on any CDR) or people who are replying to list messages. Finally there are moderated lists, where a human moderator decides which messages from the raw list to pass on to subscribers. 2. Message Modification Message modification policy indicates what modifications, if any, beyond what is needed to operate the CDR are done (most CDRs add a tracking X-loop header on mail posted to their subscribers to prevent mail loops). Message modification usually happens on mail going in or out to each CDR's subscribers. CDRs should not modify mail that they pass from one CDR to the next, but some of them do, and others undo those modifications. 3. Privacy Privacy policy indicates if the list will allow anyone ("open"), or only list members, or no one ("private") , to retrieve the subscribers list. Note that if you post, being on a "private" list doesn't mean much, since your address is now out there. It's really only useful for keeping spammers from harvesting addresses from the list software. Digest mode indicates that the CDR supports digest mode, which is where the posts are batched up into a few large emails. Nodes that support only digest mode are noted. 4. Anonymous posting Cypherpunks encourages anonymous posting. You can use an anonymous remailer: http://www.andrebacard.com/remail.html http://anon.efga.org/Remailers http://www.gilc.org/speech/anonymous/remailer.html or you can send posts to the list via cpunks_anon(a)einstein.ssz.com and your mail's headers will be stripped before posting. Note that this doesn't provide complete anonymity since the receiving site will still have log file entries showing the source of the mail (or you have to trust that they delete them). You also will be 'sharing' a reputation with the other entities that post through this alias, and some of them are spammers, so some subscribers will have this alias filtered. 5. Unsubscribing Unsubscribing from the cypherpunks list: Since the list is run from a number of different CDRs, you have to figure out which CDR you are subscribed to. If you don't remember and can't figure it out from the mail headers (hint: the top Received: line should tell you), the easiest way to unsubscribe is to send unsubscribe messages to all the CDRs listed below. How to figure out which CDR you are subscribed to: Get your mail client to show all the headers (Microsoft calls this "internet headers"). Look for the Sender or X-loop headers. The Sender will say something like "Sender: owner-cypherpunks(a)lne.com". The X-loop line will say something like "X-Loop: cypherpunks(a)lne.com". Both of these inticate that you are subscribed to the lne.com CDR. If you were subscribed to the algebra CDR, they would have algebra.com in them. Once you have figured out which CDR you're subscribed to, look in the table below to find that CDRs unsubscribe instructions. 6. Lunatics, spammers and nut-cases "I'm subscribed to a filtering CDR yet I still see lots of junk postings". At this writing there are a few sociopaths on the cypherpunks list who are abusing the lists openness by dumping reams of propaganda on the list. The distinction between a spammer and a subscriber is nearly always very clear, but the dictinction between a subscriber who is abusing the list by posting reams of propaganda and a subscriber who is making lots of controversial posts is not clear. Therefore, we tolerate the crap. Subscribers with a low crap tolerance should check out mail filters. Procmail is a good one, although it works on Unix and Unix-like systems only. Eudora also has a capacity for filtering mail, as do many other mail readers. An example procmail recipie is below, you will of course want to make your own decisions on which (ab)users to filter. # mailing lists: # filter all cypherpunks mail into its own cypherspool folder, discarding # mail from loons. All CDRs set their From: line to 'owner-cypherpunks'. # /dev/null is unix for the trash can. :0 * ^From.*owner-cypherpunks@.* { :0: * (^From:.*ravage@ssz\.com.*|\ ^From:.*jchoate@dev.tivoli.com.*|\ ^From:.*mattd@useoz.com|\ ^From:.*proffr11@bigpond.com|\ ^From:.*jei@cc.hut.fi) /dev/null :0: cypherspool } 7. List of current CDRs All commands are sent in the body of mail unless otherwise noted. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Algebra: Operator: Subscription: "subscribe cypherpunks" to majordomo(a)algebra.com Unsubscription: "unsubscribe cypherpunks" to majordomo(a)algebra.com Help: "help cypherpunks" to majordomo(a)algebra.com Posting address: cypherpunks(a)algebra.com Filtering policy: raw Message Modification policy: no modification Privacy policy: ??? 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All posts from other CDRs are forwarded to other CDRs unmodified. Message Modification policy: 1. messages are demimed (MIME attachments removed) when posted through lne or received by lne CDR subscribers 2. leading "CDR:" in subject line removed 3. "Reply-to:" removed Privacy policy: private Info: http://www.lne.com/cpunk; "info cypherpunks" to majordomo(a)lne.com Archive: http://archives.abditum.com/cypherpunks/index.html (thanks to Steve Furlong and Len Sassaman) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Minder: Subscription: "subscribe cypherpunks" to majordomo(a)minder.net Unsubscription: "unsubscribe cypherpunks" to majordomo(a)minder.net Help: "help" to majordomo(a)minder.net Posting address: cypherpunks(a)minder.net Filtering policy: raw Message Modification policy: no modification Privacy policy: private Info: send mail to cypherpunks-info(a)minder.net --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Openpgp: [openpgp seems to have dropped off the end of the world-- it doesn't return anything from sending help queries. 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Re: Nullsoft's WASTE communication system
by Major Variola (ret) 01 Jun '03

01 Jun '03

At 01:09 PM 5/30/03 -0400, John Brothers wrote: > >> Any license that you may >> believe you acquired with the Software is void, revoked and terminated. > >Can you void and/or revoke the GPL? Who cares? There is *no* obligation that you check back with Nullsoft to re-read their terms. They can whine about licenses all they want, but no downloader has any need to check back, or change their behavior. E.g., Realmedia may have pulled an early Free version their .ram generator, but its out there. I think people have not quite gotten their hands around the speed at which information can be disseminated online. -Monica Lewinsky, LATimes 9 may 01

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Re: "PGP Encryption Proves Powerful"
by Major Variola (ret) 01 Jun '03

01 Jun '03

At 11:18 AM 6/1/03 -0400, Ian Grigg wrote: >There is a reason that the AK47 is the weapon of >choice: it is an extraordinarily simple weapon. >Training is probably about half the requirements >of say the M16. That makes a difference, much >more so than, say, the increased accuracy of the >M16! Got evidence? The benefits of the AK involve the *weapon's* robustness, not its user interface. Also, a 7.62 beats a 5+change mm any day. >Phsycologically, it makes us unhappy to realise >that the 911 attackers were actually quite simple, >so we don't. We build up Osama bin Laden to be >a mastermind, a sort of James Bond-qualified evil >guy who constructs plans of insidious cunning. OBL is at least 2 standard deviations smarter than Bush, and probably one more than Rummy too. Thinking otherwise is buying into the "madman" propoganda. >All this is a long winded way of saying your >average terrorist is much more like your grandma >when it comes to tech. Highly competant in the >kitchen, but can't send an email to save herself. Except that post sat-phone, the Base has plenty of motivation to train well in opsec. Or catch a tomahawk. You working for Fox News these days? Or just wishful thinking?

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RE: Maybe It's Snake Oil All the Way Down
by Scott Guthery 01 Jun '03

01 Jun '03

Suppose. Just suppose. That you figured out a factoring algorithm that was polynomial. What would you do? Would you post it immediately to cypherpunks? Well, OK, maybe you would but not everyone would. In fact some might even imagine they could turn a sou or two. And you can bet the buyer wouldn't be doing any posting. With apologies to Bon Ami, "Hasn't cracked yet" is not a compelling security story. Cheers, Scott -----Original Message----- From: Rich Salz [mailto:rsalz@datapower.com] Sent: Sun 6/1/2003 6:16 PM To: Eric Rescorla Cc: Scott Guthery; cypherpunks; cryptography(a)metzdowd.com Subject: Re: Maybe It's Snake Oil All the Way Down > There are a number of standard building blocks (3DES, AES, RSA, HMAC, > SSL, S/MIME, etc.). While none of these building blocks are known > to be secure .. So for the well-meaning naif, a literature search should result in "no news is good news." Put more plainly, if you looked up hash and didn't find news of a SHA break, then you should know to use SHA. That assumes you've heard of SHA in the first place. Perhaps a few "best practices" papers are in order. They might help the secure (distributed) computing field a great deal. /r$ -- Rich Salz Chief Security Architect DataPower Technology http://www.datapower.com XS40 XML Security Gateway http://www.datapower.com/products/xs40.html

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