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Japan tightens crypto export restrictions, from The Netly News
by Declan McCullagh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The Netly News http://www.netlynews.com/ October 29, 1996 The Japan Factor By Declan McCullagh (declan(a)well.com) In a move designed to stem the global availability of products that use strong encryption technology, Japan last month succumbed to U.S. pressure and dramatically tightened its export restrictions, The Netly News has learned. The restrictions amount to a stranglehold. Officials from Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) characterize the shift as a very small change, but the new rules require businesses to seek prior government approval for any overseas crypto-order that totals more than 50,000 yen, or about $450. The previous limit was 10 million yen, around $91,000. "We made a very small change of the licensing exception of limited value," says Jun Takashina, the deputy director of the Security Export Control Division at MITI. Takashina denied that the U.S. pressured Japan. "It's our decision. We didn't have any pressure from the United States." Japan says its regulations are designed to codify the "Wassenaar Arrangement" on export controls for armaments and advanced technology, which was crafted over a two-year period to replace the Cold War-era COCOM treaty and was signed in July by over 30 countries. "In the Wassenaar Arrangement, we have consensus to cooperate -- not coordinate, but cooperate," Takashina said. "In this sense we influence each other. We cooperate in our regulations to achieve the same purpose." In implementing the agreement, Japan relaxed controls on many products -- and, tellingly, only tightened the regulation of encryption. However, other countries that signed the agreement have not done the same. Japan's move follows a hot summer of even hotter debate on Capitol Hill, where Justice Department officials claimed that criminals use PGP to scramble files and software company executives testified that current regs cost U.S. industry millions. Boosting the political temperature further was RSA Data Security's announcement in June that NTT and RSA's Japanese affiliate were ready to ship a triple-DES chip more secure than anything U.S. manufacturers are permitted to sell overseas. Privacy advocates quickly heralded it as exposing the fatal flaws in the Clinton administration's regulations. Phil Zimmermann, inventor of PGP, told me at the time that "the Japanese took over the American television manufacturing industry" and are poised to take over this one unless Congress approves the Pro-CODE bill. This widely-publicized announcement almost certainly prompted Japan's new crypto-muzzling decision. The company's president, Jim Bidzos, says that Tokyo has started to "look a little closer" at its encryption policies. "With all the press about NTT chips and whatnot in Japan, the U.S. government is going to try to stem the flow." (One White House scheme designed to do just that is the soon-to-be-announced creation of an ambassador-level position whose sole job will be to marshal international support for U.S. crypto policy.) Stewart Baker, former NSA general counsel, calls Japan's move a sign that the country's leaders are awakening to -- and are sensitive to -- the U.S. government's position. "This is a signal that they did not want to be at the center of the policy debate over export controls if they could avoid it," he says. "As [the policy] gets covered in the New York Times on the front page, the Japanese government focuses more attention.... This is a reflection of concern that that kind of story is not good for Japan," says Baker, who recently wrote about Japan's stance on encryption in Wired. The key question, though, is how strictly will Japan enforce the new regulations? The Wassenaar Arrangement is designed to keep arms and technology out of the hands of rogue countries, but companies in Silicon Valley already are complaining that Japanese shipments of data-scrambling hardware are being delayed. And the fine print of the new Japanese regs seems to require the end user's name and address -- which is impossible for U.S. distributors to provide. I think Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center and international crypto-watcher, has it right. Today he said to me that U.S. crypto isn't our biggest export in this area; instead, it's U.S. crypto policy. I agree -- and I say that's where we need more government intervention. Any government employee or erstwhile crypto-czar who wants to export a dumb crypto policy should be required to say why it should be allowed to infect other countries. I'm sure Japan won't mind. -- By Declan McCullagh (declan(a)well.com) with reporting by K. N. Cukier (100736.3602(a)compuserve.com) Wassenaar Arrangement: http://www.dfat.gov.au/dfat/dept/isd/peace_and_disarmament/pd_4_96/pd10.html RSA announces NTT chip: http://www.eff.org/pub/Publications/Declan_McCullagh/cwd.got.away.0696.arti… U.S. to create crypto-ambassador: http://www.netizen.com/netizen/96/43/index3a.html Stewart Baker on Japan's crypto-politics: http://www.hotwired.com/wired/4.09/es.crypto.html Marc Rotenberg on OECD crypto-politics: http://www2.eff.org/~declan/global/japan/rotenberg.reply.102896 ###

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Anyone going to "Computers & The Law III"?
by Alex Newman 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi all, I'm Alex Newman, on of the conference organizers for "Computers & The Law III", Dec 1-4, 1996 in San Jose, CA. The theme this year is "Assessing the Internet Threat". I was wondering if there was anyone in the San Francisco/Silicon Valley area who was going to be there who wanted to sit on a panel about the CDA. Drop me a line if your interested. If you just want more information about the conference, take a look at www.sug.org/CL3 or send mail to conference(a)sug.org --a Alexander Newman Sun User Group troll(a)sug.org 1330 Beacon St., Remember, to die with honor (617) 232-0514 voice Suite #344 ...you still have to die. (617) 232-1347 fax Brookline, MA 02146

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Rumours of NSA breakin
by hallam＠ai.mit.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi, I've been hearing rumours of an alledged compromise of the NSA Web server but no hard evidence. The claim made is that several Mb of files were downloaded from the server and posted to the "Internet". I can't see it in sci.crypt or alt.conspiracy though. I am more than a little skeptical of the claim, unless the files in question were not considered sensitive - and there is no reason to believe that the NSA would be keeing anything secret on their Web server. Banks do not keep money stuffed under mattresses and the NSA does not keep secrets on Internet servers. The origin of the rumour may be an "observation" that the DOJ hack was on the 19th August, the CIA one on the 19th of September. It is no secret that several sites were watching out for attacks on the 19th October. Has anyone heard anything more than a rumour of this alledged event? Phill

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**Call for Authors**
by Marcus.Goncalves＠mars.process.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Publisher is seeking authors in the areas of Internet, Web security, networking and emerging technologies. If you have a book idea, an outline and a conviction about it, please let me know. All submissions will be considered. Send e-mail to mg(a)manning.com or goncalvesv(a)aol.com. We'll reply quickly. _____________________________________________________ M. Goncalves, Editor - mg(a)manning.com Manning Publications Co., 3 Lewis Street, Greenwich, CT 06830 508-460-8084, fax 508-460-8085 http://www.browsebooks.com, http://www.spindoczine.com _____________________________________________________

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Fortezza web site in Huntsville
by John Gilmore 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Check out http://www.armadillo.huntsville.al.us. Bonus points for the first people to identify who actually runs the site. John

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Montgolfiering, the Hot Air Balloon of Cryptography
by nobody＠replay.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Fie on the small minds that cackle at my brilliance! As a Mensa member and founder of the Society for Superintelligent Former NSA Employees, I chortle at the baseness of callow criticisms by those doubters and dilletantous denigrators of virtual one-time pads and PRNGs (perfect random number generators). Montgolfiering. What is it, you ask? It is demonstrably a new paradigm in the evolution of homo sapiens (Parry Messger excepted) toward Shannon's dream of a one-time pad needing only a single, easily memorizable number as a seed. I have heard only silence when I challenged the so-called superbrains of this latargial list to try to determine which number I am using as the seed of my system. If you are such great smarty pants, far smarter than my colleagues at the NSA and at Mauchly-Wood, why can you not then determine this number? Could it be because I have outsmarted you? Could it be because I understand the Sufi secrets of picking random numbers truly randomly? I submit this to you: 8 31 26 3 19. Now, oh great ones, tell me, what is the next number in this sequence? Ha, you cannot predict this next number, can you, oh gibbering greatnesses? Ths proves that my perfect random number genarator (PRNG, for those of you too stupid to remember) cannot be broken. Q.E.D. I question the issue of Parry Messger's objectivity in assessing the brilliance of my importations and acidulous assertations. I question whether Parry may have a peculiarly pecuniary interest in these affairs? Does Parry have an insider, or other position, or interest in one or more of the RSA interest? If, this explains his fantastical faith in the core of this so-called "RSA" system, which I proved to my colleagues at NSA could not possibly be valid. Why, you ask? Because it contains no virtual seed, and that which has no seed cannot grow. Q.E.D.--it has been debunked. Entropy, you quibble? Ha! What is entropy but thermodynamics? And what is the topic of thermodynamics, you small-minded ensemble (Gibbs) people who never worked for the NSA may ask? Thermodynamics is about hot air. Hot air is in balloons. Balloons were pioneered by the Montgolfiers. Thus we come full circle (can you understand this, you mental midgets?). Q.E.D.--it has been demystified. Montgolfiering = a new virtual one time pad based on hot air. Eureka! I have found it. P Information = P * log_base_infinity P As my colleague Dr. Bronner told me on my last balloon trip to his institute in Escondido, "NATURAL! NATURAL! NATURAL! YOU AND THE PLANET - CLEAN AND HEALTHY! PURE AND NATURAL CRYPTO COMES FROM WITHIN THE AGENCY." I pity your eupatrid minds for not accepting the wisdom of the Virtual Montgolfiering System (which I have dubbed "VMS"). I guess unintelligent creatures such as petty selves are too much like Parry Messger! Your mendacious misrepresentations of my brilliance are wounding me deeply--NOT! Only Dr. Bronner and Dr. Vulis seem capable of understanding the immmense mental breakthrough my IQ measured at 207 has provided the world. I laugh at your sanctimonious snivelings, your bombastic bombardings, and your fatuous flatulations. Remember, they laughed at Galileo. They laughed at Bozo. They laughed at Von Daniken. They laughed at Ludwig Plutonium! All of those who leaped at the opportunity to take me apart before are now displaying contemptuous intellectual pap, that is pap not the other similar word though that also applies. Their misleading inculcations did not work so what are they trying now. Montgolfiering into the hot air, I am, --KVFP, Esquire, KOTM (Montgolfiering. Q.E.D.--"it has been deflated") -- --

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Sex, drugs, and libertarianism
by Steve Edwards 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

This isn't about crypto but since cypherpunks is the most interesting libertarian forum I know, I thought I'd throw it out. I live in a sort of urban pioneer zone, a historical district in Nashville wedged between low income housing projects. We have an interesting mix of people here, black, white, asian, redneck, yuppies, country star wannabes, drug addicts etc. I was walking back from the convenience store the other day, when I began talking to a young lady. She offered to give me a blow job for $2. I don't patronize prostitutes, less from moral concerns, than from concerns for my health and safety. Nonetheless, $2 for a blow job says to me that the market for sex acts has hit rock bottom. Forthrightly, she told me she wanted the money for crack, which has also become very cheap here. It has been said many times in this forum that prostitution and drugs are victimless crimes. Is this really so? Although I am generally in concert with libertarian views, I would say that the young lady I talked to was definitely a victim. Also, if we are a society, rather than fortress-like individuals, we should be concerned with the inevitable spread of disease and insanity that is the result of "victimless" crimes. On a similar note, I read an interesting article that connected the recent drop in the crime rate to the rather startling increase in drug use among young people. The claim that was made is that drugs have become so cheap that people don't have to steal as much to buy them. Based on the evidence of the $2 blow job, I'm inclined to believe it. SAlanEd(a)concentric.net, SAlanEd(a)aol.com, http://users.aol.com/salaned/cyberplace.html "Life, he himself said once, (his biografiend, in fact, kills him verysoon, if yet not, after) is a wake, livit or krikit, and on the bunk of our breadwinning, lies the cropse of our seedfather..."

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No Subject
by FWJZ05A＠prodigy.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I want to be a cypherpunk, E-mail me back i want to know

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Re: First Union Ahead of Curve with Sun's "JavaStation"
by Lawrence.Hughes＠Software.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 11:30 AM 10/28/96 -0800, you wrote: >When Sun Microsystems unveils today what it is touting as a radical advance >in business computing, First Union Corp. will be in the vanguard of those >adopting it. Dunno - sounds to me like an act of desperation that is at least 99.44% hype, from a company that has refused to acknowledge that the UNIX market is crashing even as we speak. While I was Intergraph HQ in 1989-1993, we saw projections of that coming demise from IDC, etc. Which had a lot to do with the big switch there to Intel/NT. Especially love the way they don't figure the price of any of those "fat $ervers" (from guess what California company) into the overall costs.... seems to be mostly a way to dupe folks into shifting funds from all those wonderful, independence granting PCs into paying for it-was-good-enough-for-my-dad-it's-good-enough-for-me big iron at the center, with dumb terminals (no matter what you call 'em) tethered to it. And $1500 is a lot for a dumb terminal. And that dazzling array of nearly 500 craplets.. I mean Java apps... that's sure a lot of eye candy, but I'd hate to try to run a business with them. Get real. No one, including a badly aging Sun, will ever put the distributed computing genie back in the "glass house" bottle that PC's allowed us to escape from DECADES ago. Lawrence E. Hughes Software.com, Inc. Principal Software Engineer 525 Anacapa Street Email: Lawrence.Hughes(a)Software.com Santa Barbara 93101 805-882-2470 x259 Fax: 805-882-2473 People's Republic of California www.software.com - purveyors of fine Internet Infrastructure to the trade "Those who would order the life of their nation must first set about ordering their home life" - Kung Fu Tse (Confucius), roughly 500 BC

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Re: FDA_dis
by Hallam-Baker 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Declan McCullagh wrote: > > I'll have to reread John's piece tomorrow (I'm on vacation right now), but > it doesn't surprise me. He and I have been arguing about this topic via > email for the last week or so. He takes the traditional liberal view of > government regulation of drugs is necessary; I take the more libertarian one. > > The Cato Institute, BTW, will be putting together a roundtable on this soon. > > -Declan Characterising this as the "traditional liberal view" is somewhat misleading, its not as if Bob Dole or Newt Gingrich would disagree much. The argument is more over which special interest group is to be advantaged by changes in regulation. If I was a citizen of a country where the government was elected by a billion dollars of corporate contributions I might be a libertarian. Its important to remember that its the World Wide Web and not simply limited to the US. As long as US companies set up subsidiaries in Europe they will be constrained by European law. In the net.age law is becomming a major export for many countries. Regulation is not necessarily anti-commerce. UK beef farmers would be better off today if there had been more regulation, a weak "free-market" attitude to public health has destroyed the entire industry. It is often in a companies commercial interest to voluntarily agree to be regulated. Microsoft recently signed an agreement to be bound by the European computer privacy regulations because by doing so they gained a business advantage - people would trust them with their data. Much of the advertising regulation being discussed is private, agreement on standard formats for image placements for example. There is existing government regulation of advertising in many countries however. In particular much stricter control over advertising of drugs, making misleading statements in advertising and so on.In the UK there is regulation of advertising through the advertising standards council which is a voluntary body in the sense that it has no statutory enforcement powers but has practical authority because the publishers will not publishe ads that fall foul of its decisions. A more serious problem however is likely to be dramatically different cultural norms. In the US people expect to be lied to in adverts. In countries where there is regulation of advertising there is a general expectation for comparisons to be fair and for ads to be truthful. I'm just waiting for a major corporation to create an Intel scale PR disaster by applying sleasly US style marketing techniques in markets where the downside is very large. One recent example is Hoover which had a $30 odd million debacle over a "free flights" giveaway that was based on sleasly US style marketing techniques. The company ended up having to live up to the spirit of its offer rather than the letter as it intended simply to preserve the value of the brand. If you don't believe in anti trust laws there is no basis on which you can object to the sort of regulation by cabal that the advertising standards council represents. Of course such cabals cannot exist in the libertarian belief system since their existence is denied a-priori by invoking the spirit of Milton Freedman. Milton Freedmen is of course a rightwing ecconomist whose theories are widely admired by free market ecconomists who admire Mitlon Freedman. Phill

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