- cypherpunks-legacy - lists.cpunks.org

A daily warning regarding Timothy C. May
by nobody＠replay.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Timothy C. May is a lying sack of shit.

4 3

[NEWS] Crypto-relevant wire clippings
by dlv＠bwalk.dm.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

AP Online: Sunday, September 15, 1996 Card Raises Privacy Issues By PATRICIA LAMIELL Big Brother is not watching. Or is he? Fears resembling those of the omniscient machine that spies on people in their homes in George Orwell's novel, ''1984,'' have found their way into a new technology entering the marketplace -- smart cards. These credit cards embedded with computer chips can store information from shoe size to credit history. But critics claim these cards will be used to compile dossiers on the people who use them. And now it's up to the Smart Card Forum, a family of companies driving development of smart card technology, to convince the public that Big Brother isn't watching, for smart cards are protected and confidential. ''There's a huge amount of misunderstanding, and that creates a huge amount of fear, about whether these products are going to decrease people's privacy or otherwise leave them unprotected,'' said John Burke, the forum's attorney and a partner at the law firm of Foley, Hoag & Eliot in Washington, D.C. Starting Monday in San Francisco, members of the Smart Card Forum will meet to discuss the latest technology and marketing programs necessary to put a smart card in every household. In many ways, smart cards resemble credit and debit cards that the market has grown accustomed to using. With a simple swipe, they too can substitute cash when buying everything from subway tokens to clothing and the purchase price is electronically deducted from the card using a special machine. But the smart card takes the technology further, embedding a computer chip into the card. that gives it much more memory and enables it to do simple math and process information, like keeping a bank balance or tracking frequent flier miles. The huge potential scope of the smart card has prompted some concerns about the privacy rights of users. By tracking small purchases, telephone and transportation records, they can document a person's everyday movements. That information could be useful to everyone from employers and family members to law enforcement officials and banks. Marketers might be very interested in records of purchases made with smart cards. But privacy experts question whether third parties should gain access to see such information. The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey is fighting a state proposal to encode fingerprints on smart card drivers licenses on the premise that it would treat as criminals people who are not suspected of a crime. ''We also oppose the requirement that other data be included'' on New Jersey drivers licenses, said David Rocah, an ACLU staff attorney in Newark, ''unless precautions are made to insure that third parties will not have access to that data.'' Others, however, counter the questions of privacy, claiming that owners can control what information goes onto them and with whom it is shared. They also point out that the information is electronically scrambled, or ''encrypted, '' making it very difficult to steal. The Smart Card Forum is working to create privacy guidelines that can keep pace with the fast-developing industry. Federal regulators, such as the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., are all considering whether and how to regulate smart cards. Smart cards are a huge business for companies like Texas Instruments Inc. and Motorola Inc., which make the chip. They could also be a boon for banks and other financial institutions that issue the cards for a fee, and for payments-systems networks like Visa and MasterCard, which earn a percentage of each transaction. ''This is a huge, huge market,'' said Peter Hill, executive vice president for technology at Visa International, one of the 225 corporate members of the forum. ''Cash transactions world-wide total about $8 trillion a year, of which 80 percent are for $10 or less.'' A number of big banks have run pilot programs to test consumers' acceptance of the cards. Some have teamed up with Visa and MasterCard to do market tests in Swindon, England, Canberra, Australia, and at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. A test is planned by MasterCard, Visa, Chase Manhattan Corp. and Citicorp, in New York's Upper West Side later this year. So far the pilot projects, which have put about 50,000 smart cards in circulation worldwide, have had mixed results. Many worry consumers will not incorporate the cards into purchases they now make with cash, and that has left merchants wary about the cards also. To move beyond the arena of small purchases, members of the Smart Card Forum are developing technology to allow people to use home computers to pay for Internet purchases with these cards, and to download cash onto a smart card. Personal-computer makers have begun including chip readers in PCs for these purposes. Also in development are scores of non-financial applications, such as keeping drivers license and medical information, transferring government welfare or medical benefits, and making airline and hotel reservations. To Diane Wetherington, MasterCard's senior vice president for smart cards, the Forum's biggest task is not the social and legal issues surrounding the smart card, but getting consumers to use it for any and all financial transactions down to the 10-year-old's weekly allowance and merchants to accept it. ''The technology works, the product works,'' she said. ''Now it is up to the marketing associations and companies to really try to create global products from these.'' American Banker: Monday, September 16, 1996 FUTUREBANKING SET a Big Win for the Card Associations By JEFFREY KUTLER Whether for superstitious reasons or just to avoid the inevitable groans, experts in data security were long reluctant to use a certain, pertinent pun. But now it can be officially uttered: SET is set. Secure Electronic Transactions, the Internet payment protocol hashed out by MasterCard, Visa, and a sometimes unruly bunch of technology providers, went up on the card associations' Web sites in June in what was labeled as its final form. In other words, the standard was ready for prime time. Software developers could begin incorporating it in systems being designed for electronic transactions. And thus began something of a race to make SET-- secured card payments a reality, at least in a test mode, by yearend. The principals were too busy and running too fast to celebrate their hard-won accomplishment. There was far more work to be done, and in their haste to get to it they may never have adequately explained the document's true significance. The SET advocates met their objective. Getting past their internal divisions, they wrote specifications for on-line credit card transactions and were unanimous in their endorsement. Relying on data encryption and digital certification of buyers, sellers, and bank processors, they erected several barriers to electronic thievery. They did not make the Net safe for all commercial and monetary activity. Nor did they silence a number of critics who still raise warning-flags about the Internet's inherent vulnerabilities, even those addressed by SET. The development of the protocol was well-chronicled. Probably too well from the standpoint of MasterCard and Visa, which had hoped that their mid- 1995 move to cooperate -- on the assumption that payment security should not be a competitive venue -- would lead to a rapid conclusion of amicable, low-profile deliberations. The diplomatic initiative derailed in the fall of 1995 when Microsoft Corp., sitting on Visa's side of the table, failed to reconcile with the opposing camp that included two of Microsoft's market adversaries, International Business Machines Corp. and Netscape Communications Corp. After a couple of months of fence-mending, the negotiations were declared back on track Feb. 1. Within a month the working draft of SET was completed, supposedly drawing the best features from the initially separate MasterCard and Microsoft-Visa proposals. As the June deadline approached, most of the organizations directly involved in SET -- they included GTE Corp., Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), and companies associated with the data encryption leader RSA Data Security Inc. -- announced they would provide products and services implementing the protocol. Verifone Inc. hit the ground running June 18 with a comprehensive electronic commerce package that it said would be the "first implementation" of SET, supported by numerous strategic allies from the SET circle and beyond. Said Verifone's Internet commerce division chief Roger B. Bertman, "This will help the industry benefit more quickly from increased Internet transaction volumes and allow us all to begin learning by doing." Verifone had reportedly pressed to join the SET team, only to run up against the members' desire to stay small. But Verifone was very plugged in, and Mr. Bertman's "learning by doing" could have been their motto. By implication, publication of SET was just one more beginning. At the heart of SET is data encryption technology, specifically that provided and championed by RSA of Redwood City, Calif. In the encryption field, science meets commerce. The plodding of the scientific method tempers businesses' drive to get products to the market. Further complicating any venture into encryption -- the mathematical technique for scrambling messages to prevent unauthorized reading -- is the overhang of public policy. RSA and its progeny have chafed at federally imposed limits on cryptographic systems, particularly on the length of the code-defining keys they can export. While most financial activities are not hindered by the government's concern about "strong encryption," any banking or payment-related activity is surely to be scrutinized by that industry's regulatory establishment. It is only 20 years since the advent of public key cryptography. Improvements have been continuous, at least theoretically enabling the guardians of secure data to stay a step ahead of criminal pursuers. That SET could come together in a few months of concentrated effort is testimony to the strength and durability of the concept. As in academic tradition, what is tested and proven wins out. MasterCard's and Visa's pre-SET attempts, Secure Electronic Payment Protocol and Secure Transaction Technology, "didn't incorporate enough of preexisting security standards," said Allan M. Schiffman, chief technology officer of Terisa Systems Inc., a Los Altos, Calif., company formed in 1995 by RSA and several other investors to develop secure systems for Internet commerce. "In dealing with crypto, it's nice for stuff to be out and analysts to take a shot at it," said Mr. Schiffman, whose company was intimately involved in SET and said back in April that it would build the protocol into its client and server toolkits. "Older standards that aren't broken are what crypto-developers want." SET's reliance on the proven didn't stop the sniping. Lee H. Stein, chairman of First Virtual Holdings Inc. in San Diego, designed his Internet commerce system such that payment data flow via a private communications channel rather than the World Wide Web. First Virtual is not yet ready to bank on encryption. SET may be a step in the right direction, but it didn't sway Mr. Stein. "Sensitive financial information is never to be on the Internet," Mr. Stein said at the Cyberpayments '96 conference in Dallas in June. "Has anyone here yet seen a hierarchical, encryption-based certification authority working at the consumer level?" Jerome Svigals, a California-based consultant and long-time advocate of smart cards, criticized the lack of portability of the customer certificates required for an SET transaction. Designed to be embedded in a personal computer, the certificates, or digital signatures, might better comport with the credit card transaction model by being stored on smart cards. Aharon Friedman, chairman and chief product developer of Digital Secured Networks Technology Inc. in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., has expressed concern about the software-only nature of SET. He said it requires a hardware component to be fully secure. Mr. Friedman, a one-time SAIC research physicist who founded his network security company last year, also said too much of an SET message is in clear text or subjected to "hash functions" that do not provide the high security levels of encryption. "Unlike hardware, software can be bypassed using a computer," Mr. Friedman said. He has suggested that a hardware-based approach be incorporated into SET at "a more elementary level" so that all the text can be encrypted. "He put it aggressively," Mr. Schiffman said of Mr. Friedman. "What he says is not wrong, but it was not unaccounted for" in SET revisions. Other SET defenders have pointed out that the three aforementioned critics have vested interests in, respectively, off-Internet payments, smart cards, and hardware. Mr. Friedman said he is a few months away from a hardware-software solution that would be economical for PCs and even laptop computers, but he was not ready to talk about specific pricing. More fundamentally, the SET group had to grapple with classic questions of appropriateness. The security measures had to fit the potential crimes, at a reasonable cost. As new electronic payment media develop, "people are going to realize that they can't guarantee 100% security," Geoffrey Baehr, a top network technology official at Sun Microsystems Inc., said at a banking conference earlier this year. "Instead, they will aim their development work at 100% acceptance of risk, and assume there is always some amount of fraud. "It happens, and there isn't much you can do about it other than best efforts." Focusing on the framework for card payments, the SET group put its best efforts toward standards for transaction software and the ever-critical authentication of cardholders, merchants, and banks, based on the digital certificates issued and maintained by "trusted parties." A big selling point is that merchants don't see buyers' credit card numbers; the system transparently validates them. RSA Data Security has a central, commercial interest in how SET develops and has taken on an associated, almost public-service responsibility for coordination. "SET is definitely the way to go to secure bank card transactions," said Kurt Stammberger, RSA's director of technology marketing. "We believe it will be huge. Otherwise we wouldn't have built a toolkit around it." Indeed, the "RSA Encryption Engine" brand will be on Verifone's software products -- vGate, vPOS, and vWallet -- the first of what should be many SET-related licenses. Because there will be a proliferation of on-line products, especially the virtual wallets at the consumer level, Mr. Stammberger said "RSA's role will be to make sure all the wallet implementations talk to all the merchant implementations and the banks." "Building cryptography is not trivial, but getting all the right people talking to each other can be even more of a challenge," Mr. Stammberger said. Meanwhile, Verisign Inc., spun off by RSA 17 months ago, is going after the certification piece of the business. In July it announced it was chosen by Visa International to provide Internet authentication through the member banks. Building a global infrastructure for the encryption-based certification product it calls Digital ID, Verisign views the Visa deal as a big mass-market opening for digital signatures. "The financial services industry is leading the charge in bringing Internet commerce to the consumer," said Verisign president and chief executive officer Stratton Sclavos, who has also signed breakthrough licensing pacts with Microsoft and Netscape. He expects market availability of his "high-volume, scalable-to-the-millions" product "as soon as SET is ready," by early next year. MasterCard designated the CyberTrust unit of GTE Corp., one of its partners in the SET project, as its private-label certificate provider. The announcement, within days of Visa-Verisign in late July, prompted some one- upmanship. MasterCard senior vice president Steve Mott predicted GTE would be "bigger, better, and faster" in the market. Visa U.S.A. president Carl Pascarella wanted to underscore that the Verisign-GTE face off means healthy competition, not a return to the earlier SET dissension. He said the card associations rejected the idea of a single certification authority because it could have been monopolistic. And while Visa members can now choose Verisign, and MasterCard members GTE, they could also be their own "CA" or pick from other suppliers. "Visa and MasterCard agreed to pursue different certification options," he said. "The technology will be more robust, and it will minimize the impact on issuers and acquirers. "Things are changing so fast, we don't want to be in the position of driving stakes into the ground. Our concern right now is to protect the banks, and SET does that." The Miami Herald: Monday, September 16, 1996 Firm Hopes Facial "Signature" to be Foolproof Don't look for twenty-something computer nerds at Identification Technologies International in Coral Gables. ITI, a high-tech firm founded in 1993, is run by David Bendel Hertz, an energetic septuagenarian. Hertz has held executive engineering positions at RCA and Celanese, has been a partner at the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. in New York and has taught business and law at the University of Miami. His latest venture focuses on a facial recognition system, with applications from building access to internet banking. "We are a start-up business, a research and development company," says Hertz, 77. "And now we're becoming an operative company." Hertz saw an opportunity in 1994. Conventional facial recognitions systems "were too slow and took too much computer memory," he says. And stored on a hard drive, the data were vulnerable to hackers. Hertz calls his solution One-to-One. It uses a camera to take a person's photo and compares it to a facial "pixel signature." The signature uses only 96 bytes of memory -- as opposed to 500 to 2,000 bytes in conventional systems -- and can be easily stored on a smart card. Hertz insists that even the most intelligent hacker won't be able to break into the system because the data is not available on a central computer system and a stolen smart card will not match the thief's facial characteristics. Hertz allows that ITI has spent more than $1 million so far, half from him and half from Peipers, a New York investment company. ITI offers its system in the form of a small black box, containing the camera and connected to a computer. One-to-One uses little memory because it focuses on specific characteristics, such as the position of the eyes and the form of the mouth, while older systems store a photo-like image of the face. "When we started," Hertz says from a University of Miami test lab, "the first thing we did was ask a plastic surgeon if there are sufficient differences between faces. "'Every face is different,' he answered. But what about identical twins, we wanted to know. "The surgeon said there are enough differences in their faces that some people -- like their mother -- always can recognize them." Using biometrics, the branch of biology that deals with data statistically and by mathematical analysis, One-to-One can recognize these differences as well as a mother. A niggling problem, however, is that the system may not recognize a characteristic that is not part of your signature, such as a new haircut or even a smile. So far, ITI has made 50 units, mostly for testing and evaluation. Priced at $2,000-$3,000, two of the units have been sold to Westinghouse Security Electronics, which does not manufacture facial recognition systems. Jorge Sousa, director of product development at Westinghouse's systems division, based in Santa Clara, Calif., says he is "convinced that biometrics has a future," and that his company is keenly interested in ITI's product. Citicorp is currently testing Hertz's system on its ATMs, and AktivNet, a Miami company, has agreed to try out 400 units in 1997 on its communications kiosks in airports and hotels geared to business travelers. Hertz has also presented One-to-One to the National Security Agency, which he says "exhibited high-level interest." ITI is being marketed in Europe, South Africa and the Middle East by a Dutch company, Digistration. Hertz sees customers ranging from airports to welfare agencies to sports arenas. "The market is large and growing every day," he says. David Leibowitz, managing director and analyst at Burnham Securities in New York, also sees a rising interest in sophisticated security systems. "There is every likelihood that more creative devices will be needed," said Leibowitz, who added that with the rise in crime and theft, "The security market is growing at a dramatic pace." Leibowitz points out that the security market can include everything from barbed-wire fences to combination locks to the high-tech devices manufactured by such companies as Sensormatic, Checkpoint and Knogo . "Should ITI's product prove itself in tests and go on to succeed in real-world applications," he said, "there is a good chance there would be a market for it." But he cautioned that between now and then, competitors may have developed similar or more innovative systems that affect ITI's potential to market its product. Hertz plans to hire 10 additional employees to market and distribute ITI products. They will join the 12 people currently on staff, an international group including a computer programmer, biomedical scientist and mathematical analyst. Their work has far-reaching implications: Hertz envisions a day when ITI develops systems and products that, for example, has the capability to "detect people in a crowd," to catch fugitives or help find missing persons. Retail Banker International: August 22, 1996 Chase Builds "Best Biometric" CHASE MANHATTAN is currently testing biometric voice printing for retail banking applications in two pilots in the New York area. The bank said these tests will be concluded before year-end, and could lead to the introduction of biometric voice printing in several retail channels as early as 1997. The two pilots now in progress are testing voice printing at branch offices, the most challenging environment for voice printing, due to ambient noise and distortion. Branch customers pick up a phone on the teller line and verify their identities instantly, saving the teller the time needed to check the validity of each customer's bank card. But the system's most dynamic application will be in remote delivery, and especially in phone banking, where customers' identities can be automatically verified as soon as they speak, allowing phone reps to call up all account data instantaneously. The bank expects to roll out voice printing first in high-risk wholesale operations, like funds transfer and treasury services, before introducing it to the retail side of the bank. "Voice is the best biometric," said Elizabeth Boyle, Chase VP for strategic implementation in New York. First, voice printing offers security in all channels, an advantage that techniques like fingerprinting and dynamic signature analysis do not enjoy. This means that customers can use the system for remote transactions and can open accounts without visiting a branch, for example. Second, customers are most comfortable with voice printing, which is considered far less intrusive that fingerprinting, for instance, and is completely invisible over the phone. Lastly, voice printing is the most effective security system, yielding the lowest percentage of false positives, and just as important, the lowest rate of false negatives. "We do not want to be in the position of telling customers that they are not who they are," Boyle explained. Chase's voice printing pilots use technology developed by Votan of Pleasantville, California, a firm currently under registration for an initial public offering valued at $30 million. Direct mutual funds provider Fidelity Investments is also working on the implementation of voice printing technology, and Citibank is currently running voice pilots by four separate vendors. Boyle said that twelve months ago, Chase decided against multiple- vendor pilots, believing the technology was changing too rapidly to make this approach economical. New York Times: Monday, September 16, 1996 Testing Whether Internet Readers Will Pay By MIKE ALLEN After extending its grace periods four times, The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition says it will bar freeloaders from its World Wide Web site beginning Saturday. The results are being watched as a bellwether for prospects of charging for access to Web sites. Because of The Journal's fame and its high proportion of business users, founders of other sites figure that if The Journal does not succeed, they may have no chance of charging in the foreseeable future. Today's Web is a money pit, with sites getting some revenue from advertisers but virtually none from users. Nick Donatiello, a market researcher who surveys consumer attitudes about new technologies, said subscription fees might work in a special case like The Journal, but would remain rare. ``Consumers can surf the whole Web for less than $20 a month, so it's hard to convince them that they should pay for one little slice out of this enormous pie,'' said Donatiello, the president of Odyssey LP, a research firm in San Francisco. ``Paying for content is going to be dwarfed by having advertisers pay, not because the Web has a culture of free content, but because television has a culture of advertising-supported content.'' A message on the Journal's site (http://www.wsj.com) says, ``Avoid the rush and convert now to a paid subscription.'' The interactive Journal is charging $49 a year, or $29 to those who take the print Journal, which runs $164 a year. Neil F. Budde, the editor of the interactive edition, said many people were philosophically opposed to paying for information on the Web. But he said others would subscribe because of the site's features like Briefing Book, which offers news about a company, charts of stock performance and five years of financial data. ``These are not the people who have been on the Internet since Day One,'' he said. ``These are newer people, people who are in business, who say it's worth it not to have to look four different places on the Internet'' to find information that the Journal site pulls together. About 650,000 people registered during the interactive Journal's trial period. Thomas Baker, the business director of the interactive edition, said surveys of those users indicated 10 to 30 percent were willing to pay. ``If, at the end of the year, we had 20,000 to 25,000, that would be good,'' Baker said. ``We're realists. Our expectations are fairly modest. We look at this as a magazine start-up, and even successful magazines take a while to ramp up.'' Baker said only 20 to 25 percent of those surveyed subscribed to the print Journal. ``That helped allay people's fear of the cannibalization of the print readership,'' he said. When the site opened in April, it offered free access through July 31. That was extended to Aug. 31, then Sept. 21. The deadline to register was May 31, then June 30, then Aug. 1. There is still a loophole: Access to the on-line Journal is free through Dec. 31 to those who download the Microsoft Corp.'s Web browser, Internet Explorer. Also free: two-week trials of the Journal site. Barron's, a weekly that like the Journal is published by Dow Jones & Co., thought big when it announced its Web site in May, saying it planned to charge $99 a year for basic access, and even more for premium areas like an Investors Workstation. That would have made it the most expensive mass-market site on the Web. The plan has been rethought. Barron's Online (http://www.barrons.com) has remained free, and a spokesman said the future subscription price had not been determined. The Web site of The New York Times requires users to register but does not charge. About 600,000 have signed up since the site (http://www.nytimes.com) opened in January. ``Our view is that market share is a more important criterion for success than whether you can get a few people to pay for the service,'' said Martin A. Nisenholtz, the president of The New York Times Electronic Media Co. ``But we continue to evaluate our users' willingness to pay for information on line.'' The other best-known news sites, including those from CNN, USA Today, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times, are open to all. ESPN's site (http://espnet.sportszone.com) charges $39.95 a year for access to premium areas, including columnists. But that service, too, is free until the end of the year through Microsoft Explorer. Microsoft, meanwhile, has found an old-fashioned way to get some income from its on-line magazine, Slate: sell paper copies. Slate on Paper went on sale this month in many Starbucks coffee boutiques, and mail subscriptions are available. The 62-page digest of the on-line version is produced in Microsoft's print shop. The paper Slate is $29.95 a year. That's $10 more than the on-line version will be when it starts charging for access on Nov. 1. The site (http://www.slate.com) was started in June with great fanfare from traditional media, but it continues to be skewered in the on-line world. The September issue of Wired magazine inaugurated the Kinsley Deathwatch, a pool to predict when Michael Kinsley, Slate's editor, will return from Redmond, Wash., to the other Washington. Slate on Paper, which includes about one-third of the Web version, includes an editors' note heralding ``the transmutation of all-digital Slate to the fusty comfort of analog paper and ink.'' ``To the best of our knowledge, Slate on Paper is the first Webzine to reverse the process,'' the note says. ``Some say it is fitting for two companies so closely associated with the image of Seattle - Microsoft and Starbucks - to be be joining forces. Others say it is beyond parody.'' A parody site, Stale (http://www.stale.com) pretends to offer a printed version, ``thereby defeating the purpose of being on the Web.'' Rogers Weed, Slate's publisher, said the print edition was ``a bridge to the people that aren't on the Internet today.'' But how many Starbucks customers want Chechnya with their frappuccino? Even some of the chain's employees are puzzled. ``This is Starbucks coffee,'' said Carol Hensler, who worked at a store in Richmond, Va. ``We only have coffee and coffee products.'' --- Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps

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A Bizarre Increase in the Ad Hominems Here
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Must be the Ides of September, but there are several bizarre new attacks lately on this list, none of them to the point, just odd ad hominems: * Detweiler (vznuri(a)netcom.com) writes: "timmy waxes a widdle on AP" * Millie (pstira(a)escape.com) writes: "Timmy boy, I yelled at someone for this last week. And you supported my view. Never read Ayn Rand, eh?" (Sadly, a large fraction of the women who have posted on our list have written in this same kind of incoherent, rambling, makes-no-sense kind of style. I have no idea why the percentage of such events is so high.) * And of course Vulis has been posting his "farting" messages far and wide. Those who legitimately disagree with my arguments should of course continue to speak up. But those who confuse calling me "Timmy" with making substantive arguments need to go back to school. We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I 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: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

7 7

[NEWS] Crypto-relavant wire clippings
by dlv＠bwalk.dm.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Financial Times: Thursday, September 5, 1996 Banking on the Internet: Any Time, Anywhere By George Cole When Claus Nehmzow wants to check his bank statements or pay a bill, he simply switches on a personal computer. He can also transfer money between accounts and make electronic payments from almost anywhere in the world because his bank is on the Internet, the worldwide network of computers. Nehmzow, a principal with the management and technology consultancy firm Booz-Allen & Hamilton, says: "I live in England but my account is in the US. If I can find a computer that's linked to the Internet, I can access my account any time and anywhere." About 50m people have access to the Internet but this number is expected to reach 200m within two years. This huge audience, the ability to offer a 24-hour service across borders and the potentially enormous savings in operational costs, have prompted many banks and financial institutions to consider hooking up to the Internet. But while the Internet offers many advantages, one issue makes many banks nervous -- security. The potential of millions of people gaining unauthorised access to sensitive financial information on the Internet, and then using it to commit fraud is so great that few banks are prepared to offer online services. A survey by Booz-Allen found that more than 600 banks had sites on the Internet's World Wide Web. However, almost three-quarters of the banks simply used their sites as "electronic brochures" to promote their services. Only 2 per cent of European banks and 1 per cent of US banks offered full banking services on the Internet. "Security is holding back many banks, but the sheer economics of the Internet will see many of them offering services on it," says Michael McConnell, vice-president of Booz-Allen. "The cost of an Internet banking transaction can be measured in cents, while the same transaction at a bank branch costs dollars. You can't ignore these kind of savings." Piero Verdiani, vice-president of Olivetti Systems and Services' professional services division, says the Internet offers an average saving of $1.20 per transaction when compared with using a traditional bank branch. "For a customer who makes five transactions a week this works out at $300 a year. A bank with 100,000 customers could potentially save $30m a year," he says. Nehmzow believes that many of the concerns about security are more an issue of perception than of real obstacles: "People hear about hacking and get worried. Yet many people will happily give their credit card numbers over the phone, knowing that if anything should go wrong, their credit-card company will accept most of the liability. The same could happen with electronic banking." Some banks have opted for privately-owned online services rather than the Internet. The UK-based TSB bank, for example, offers its customers an electronic-banking facility called PC Banking, through the CompuServe online service. "It's a step-up from the Internet in terms of security, but in the long term, the Internet will be an important agent for financial services," says Bill Goodland, product manager for CompuServe's financial services division. Barclays is piloting a similar PC-based banking service for personal customers. The system, launched in February and developed with Visa Interactive, runs from Barclays software on a Windows-compatible PC and modem from customers' homes or offices. The attraction of the Internet is that users do not need to access proprietary PC banking software or special online services to carry out banking transactions. Nehmzow's electronic bank is the Security First Network Bank, based in Atlanta, Georgia. SFNB, which claims to be the first Internet bank, opened for service in October 1995. It has more than 2,000 customers, mostly professionals aged between 26 and 55. The SFNB uses a number of security features, which include issuing each customer with a personal identification number (Pin) and encrypting or scrambling any data that is sent over the Internet. The bank's internal computer network is protected by a "firewall" which filters all electronic traffic. This month, the US bank First City Bank and Trust plans to launch an Internet banking service using similar security facilities. In the UK, Midland Bank is working with Microsoft in order to offer Internet banking. Olivetti, and Sparekassernes Data Center, a consortium of 80 Danish savings banks, have formed a joint venture called FIT (Financial Internet Technology). FIT has developed E-Bank (Electronic Bank), a system which uses the Internet for banking from home, and offers various levels of security, including passwords, PIN codes and encryption. Some believe that Internet banking will take off when there is widespread use of a technology known as public-key cryptology. A key is a complex mathematical number that may be many hundreds of digits in length, creating hundreds of billions of potential combinations. The key is divided into a public key and a private key. The public key is available to anyone, and may be printed in a directory or even posted on to the Internet. The private key is kept secret by the owner. A message is sent to the owner by encrypting it with his or her public key. Only the correct private key can decrypt it. The public-key system also makes it possible to produce a "digital" signature. "This is important, because a bank will need to be confident that it is communicating with the genuine customer, and the customer needs to be certain that he's dealing with his bank," says McConnell. "It also provides proof that the customer authorised a particular transaction." A digital signature is created by the sender, who encrypts part of the message with his or her private key. The recipient of the message uses the sender's public key to decrypt the segment and thus confirm the identity of the sender. The system will automatically operate whenever a message is being sent or received over the Internet. Public-key systems will also be used for credit-card transactions. Visa International and Mastercard International have joined forces with a number of companies including GTE, IBM, Microsoft and Netscape to develop SET (Secure Electronic Transactions) which will allow users to make secure credit-card payments over the Internet: "It will mean that someone making a $ 10 transaction won't get billed for $10m," says Bernard Ovink, senior manager of Visa's electronic commerce division. SET is due to come into operation in late 1997. There are many encryption systems available, including several developed by RSA Data Security, based in Redwood California. RSA is providing the encryption technology for SET. The power of a key is measured in bits - an eight-bit key offers 256 possible combinations, while a 40-bit key has more than 1,000bn combinations. Some 40-bit keys have been cracked by cryptology enthusiasts, causing some to question the security of public-key systems. But McConnell says this fear is misplaced: "It took months to crack each key and a tremendous amount of computing power. But the question is: was it worth all the effort? It's like spending $100 to counterfeit a $ 20 bill." McConnell foresees a time when many people will have their own public and private keys: "I think you'll get an agency such as the Post Office distributing the keys to the public, and then financial organisations will use them to create online banking and other services. This is going to happen sooner than some people think." . American Banker: Thursday, September 5, 1996 OCC Allows Internet Access Plan, Eyeing Competitive Edge for Banks By OLAF de SENERPONT DOMIS A small bank in Pennsylvania has won the first regulatory approval to sell Internet access to the public, which could attract customers to on-line banking and other electronic services. The decision, released Tuesday by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, could help national banks compete with nonbank providers of on-line financial services, experts said. "The OCC is aggressively pushing the envelope with this decision, because it's allowing a service not directly related to banking," said Charles M. Horn, a partner at Mayer, Brown & Platt, a Washington law firm. "It is part of a natural progression toward letting banks expand the way they provide financial services." "The comptroller has recognized the critical importance of technology to the future of the banking industry," agreed Robert G. Ballen, a partner at the Washington law firm Schwartz & Ballen. "This is consistent with the comptroller's concern that banks be able to effectively compete with nonbanks." In an Aug. 19 letter to Apollo Trust Co. in Apollo, Pa., the OCC told the $105 million-asset bank it could sell general Internet access to anyone in its western Pennsylvania service area. The bank also was given permission to give free Internet access to schools, government offices, libraries, churches, and various nonprofit organizations. "We have a long-standing precedent of allowing banks to use the excess capacity of their physical facilities, and this ruling translates those old precedents into the technology world," Comptroller Eugene A. Ludwig said in an interview Wednesday. "Making sure that banks use things as efficiently as possible is a win-win for everybody - the bank, its customers, and the community. "This is very symbolic of how the use of the electronic media can help banks of all sizes provide products and services to customers." Viveca Ware, director of payment systems at the Independent Bankers Association of America, said, "Not only does this open the door for banks to compete with nonbank Internet service providers, it opens up a whole new realm for banks to offer new services to their communities." Separately, the OCC approved a request by Huntington National Bank in Columbus, Ohio, to enter into a joint smart card venture with the Student Loan Marketing Association and Battelle Memorial Institute, a Columbus, Ohio-based technology research organization. Huntington has said the venture, to be based in Columbus and named Cybermark, will develop, market, and maintain stored-value card systems for self-contained communities such as universities, hospitals, theme parks, and military installations. Apollo already allows its customers to transfer funds, apply for loans, and view account balances via the Internet. Apollo purchased powerful computer equipment to provide these services and has the excess capacity to provide a gateway to the Internet. Ray Muth, the bank's executive vice president, said Apollo plans to entice new customers to its computer banking products by offering Internet access. "This is an absolutely golden opportunity for us," Mr. Muth said in an interview. "We'll increase our profitability by developing new customer relationships." The OCC concluded that offering Internet access to the public is part of the business of banking because it satisfies three criteria. First, it allows banks to provide more convenient service to customers. Second, the OCC argued that full Internet access is needed to let banks market their electronic banking services. Third, the OCC said that because the computer hardware Apollo purchased had extra capacity, the bank ought to be able to use it profitably. In the interview, however, Mr. Ludwig said banks cannot purchase computer equipment solely to offer customers Internet access. News Release(Online Resources): Wednesday, September 4, 1996 Online Resources to Provide Transaction Link to AOL Online Resources & Communication Corporation, one of the leading providers of interactive financial services, announced today that it has entered into an agreement with America Online Inc., the world's largest consumer online service, to provide financial transaction capabilities to America Online's more than six million members. This agreement coincides with the launch of the AOL Banking Center, a focal point that gives AOL members access to financial institutions who participate in the AOL Banking Center. AOL members may visit their financial institution's virtual branch that resides within the AOL Banking Center. Online Resources will have a direct link to AOL, enabling clients who participate in the AOL Banking Center to offer real-time banking, bill payment and other transaction services to AOL members. "The power of transaction processing cannot be understated," said Online Resources CEO Matthew P. Lawlor. "The AOL members will return to their virtual branch again and again if it is their site for moving money, paying bills and getting current personal financial information. The cross selling opportunities for participating financial institution are enormous." Ted Leonis, president of the AOL Service Company, said, "Online Resources is one of the leading interactive financial services providers in the industry. Its focus on financial institutions and their transaction capabilities nicely complement our focus on consumers and their desire for value-added services." Online Resources provides consumer access to its financial institution customers through the PC via its PC Windows-based software or the World Wide Web, and through its ScreenPhone and touch tone telephones. AOL members requesting transactions or personal financial information from their virtual branch will seamlessly link-up to their financial institution through Online's Web site and return to the virtual branch in the AOL Banking Center when they have finished. America Online Inc., (NASDAQ Symbol: AMER), based in Dulles, Virginia, is the largest consumer online service in the world, with more than 6.2 million members worldwide. Through its services, AOL offers its subscribers a wide variety of services including electronic mail, conferencing, software, computing support, interactive magazines and newspapers, and online classes, as well as easy and affordable access to services on the Internet. Founded in 1985, AOL today has a global work force consisting of more than 5,000 people. Personal computer owners can obtain America Online software at major retailers and bookstores or by calling 800/827-6364. McLean, Va.-based Online Resources & Communications Corp. is a privately held company founded in 1989. It specializes in providing home banking, bill paying, investment and other financial services to financial institutions for resale under their own brand to consumers and small businesses. Online's clients include banks, brokerages, credit unions, ATM networks and other financial service providers. Currently, Online has 40 institutional clients. Online provides financial institutions with extensive support services, such as consumer marketing, call center bill paying software or service, security and communications network management. Users of Online's services may access their financial institution through a variety of devices, including the PC, conventional telephones or the company's low-cost ScreenPhone. Easy, low-cost access to a variety of interactive financial services is supported through either private commercial networks or through the Internet. Online's Web site is www.orcc.com. News Release (Sanwa Bank): Wednesday, September 4, 1996 Sanwa Among First In U.S. to Offer AOL Subscribers Intuit Software Sanwa Bank California today became one of the first banks in the United States to offer online banking and bill payment to the more than 6 million subscribers of America Online (AOL) through a new computer program developed by the nation's leading maker of personal financial software. Developed by Intuit Inc., which also makes Quicken(R), the nation's most popular personal finance software, the new service has been dubbed BankNOW(TM) and is available to current Sanwa Bank customers who are subscribers to America Online, as well as to new customers who sign-up with America Online and Sanwa Bank. In conjunction with the introduction of BankNOW, Sanwa Bank has established a site on America Online to give current and prospective customers product and service information, as well as a point-and-click option for opening a new account. The BankNOW software can be downloaded from Sanwa's site on AOL free of charge. Sanwa helped pioneer PC banking a year ago when it teamed with both Intuit and Microsoft Corp. to offer customers a PC home banking option. At the same time, it launched its site on the World Wide Web(http://www.sanwabank.com), one of the first to offer consumers the option of applying for loans, credit cards and other services through the Internet. "BankNOW is online banking software created expressly for convenience- oriented PC users who want a fast, simple and hassle-free way to conduct online banking and payment transactions," said Kathleen Graham, vice president for retail banking at Sanwa. "It is a natural outgrowth of our already state-of-the-art electronic banking capability." Sanwa customers who sign-up to use BankNOW will have the following options available: -- Access to accounts day or night. -- Reconcilement of accounts automatically. -- Review of account balances. -- Online transfers between linked accounts. -- Write checks and pay bills to anyone or any creditor in the U.S. -- Send e-mail to communicate with Sanwa. As an additional inducement to sign-up, and in conjunction with its One Market Value account, Sanwa is offering a package of incentives, including fee-free ATM withdrawals at all STAR(R) and CIRRUS(R) locations, fee-free online banking and bill payment for 12 months, free checking for a year, no-annual-fee credit cards and no-annual-fee overdraft protection. On the business side, Sanwa's small business customers also will benefit if they sign-up for the BankNOW feature. Current and new customers, who have standard small business accounts, will receive 12 months of free online banking through BankNOW. Among other available options to small business customers are a direct e-mail link to the Sanwa branch manager assigned to their account and online banking at the special reduced rate of $7.95 for the first 12 months. This special reduced price includes eight online banking sessions and 20 bill payments per month. "We believe this alliance will bring user-friendly electronic banking to millions of consumers -- both personal and small business -- who might not otherwise have ever considered it," said Doug Stewart, first executive vice president. "It is another step toward reinforcing our campaign to remain one of the leaders in electronic banking throughout the U.S." American Banker: Thursday, September 5, 1996 On-Line Banking: Comerica Worker Moonlights in Cyberspace By JENNIFER KINGSON BLOOM By day, Frank De Armas is a foot soldier in Comerica Inc.'s information systems department. By night, he sheds his pinstripes, grabs his mouse, and becomes host and editor-in-chief of The Internet Banker, an on-line magazine, bulletin board, and resource center for people interested in what banks are doing in cyberspace. "It's like a clearing house for information on banking," Mr. De Armas said. "It started out as a little, tiny, part-time thing, but it just keeps growing." So much so that Mr. De Armas, a senior applications engineer for Detroit-based Comerica, now spends four hours a night at his home computer maintaining the Internet Banker site. He said it takes an hour to check all his links to other bank-related sites and to make sure that all the banks clamoring to be connected are added to the growing list. The other three hours are spent compiling a daily on-line banking newsletter, assembling a quarterly journal, and responding to questions that readers tack onto the site's bulletin boards. "If I know the answer, I post it," he said. The site grew out of Mr. De Armas' development last year of Comerica's Web site. He wanted to keep track of what other financial institutions were doing on the Internet, adding bank- and financial-related sites as he came across them. Then other people discovered his site and started using it. What began as a research tool "has taken on a life of its own." Bankers use the bulletin boards for global shop talk. In a recent posting, a Missouri banking regulator wrote to ask about the delivery of electronic banking services to rural areas. An Israeli economics student asked if people think the Internet will make "normal banks as we know them today disappear." A New Zealand banker named Lew solicited tips on boosting staff morale during a merger. A banker from Connecticut named Tom responded that "communication" and dress-down days had helped morale during his bank's merger. Then Mr. De Armas weighed in. "Tom has a good point," he wrote. "Anything you can do to make the employees feel more at ease will help. Stress is a natural byproduct of mergers." Trading insights has been the hobby's greatest pleasure for Mr. De Armas, an affable 35-year-old who taught himself to program computers in the Basic language while on injury leave from the Army. Mr. De Armas now knows several programming languages, and is an on-line veteran. "I was probably one of the only ones who used to get on chat lines on Prodigy at 1,200 baud," he recalled. His Web site radiates enthusiasm for the medium. In a page of tips about how to design a good site, he offers suggestions on how to link an electronic-mail address to a Web page, deftly suggesting: "The HTML code for this is easy." (HTML, or hypertext markup language, is the design language for Web sites.) For the less computer literate, Mr. De Armas' site offers a readable electronic magazine -- which he writes and edits -- on Internet-related banking issues. A recent issue included a question-and-answer session with one of the designers of BankAmerica Corp.'s Web site and a review of the site -- both presented in Mr. De Armas' effusive style. "You can't help but be impressed with BofA's site," he wrote in his review. "I tested the response time of the site at 9,600, 14,400, 28,800, and of course our leased line. ... My congratulations to the staff of BofA for a fine site." Stephen Hugley, senior vice president and manager of information services at Comerica, calls Mr. De Armas "one of our more literate client/server technicians. "He was instrumental in putting together our Web site, and he is also instrumental in helping other areas of the bank when they have Internet- type questions or issues," Mr. Hugley said. "It's a joy to work with somebody like Frank because he really has a good vision of where the Internet is going and what it's value will be." The Internet Banker site (www.ddsi.com/banking/) which now fields more than 20,000 hits a week, has won two awards and garnered several speaking invitations for its creator. Mr. De Armas' wife, Janice, runs a companion Web site called Metro Online, which contains information and listings about Detroit-area happenings. "You meet all kinds of people on the Web - it's amazing," Mr. De Armas said. "Just think of it as a big neighborhood." Among his electronic acquaintances is Tony Plath, director of the University of North Carolina's Center for Banking Studies. Mr. Plath's banking students use the Internet Banker site to collaborate on projects. "The real value in Frank's Web board is that a lot of bankers are point- and-click type Web users - they don't know how to post their own home page in HTML, and they don't have time for it," Mr. Plath said. "This allows you to post messages that people can read and to maintain threads of discussion." Bradley Streeter, a community reinvestment and development specialist with the Kansas City, Mo., outpost of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, views the Internet Banker site as a "wonderful research tool." "I was interested in how banks are using the electronic forum to reach low and moderate-income people," he said. "It helped inform me on what other people are thinking about the issue." Bill Burnham, a banking consultant at Booz-Allen & Hamilton, uses the site regularly. "I check it because they catalogue the top 100 banks on the Internet," he said. "I refer people to it as well." Most of the site's content is free, but Mr. De Armas does charge for his daily newsletter. Colleagues at Comerica receive complimentary subscriptions. And he has been attracting sponsors to his banking site. One advertiser, the principal of a Detroit-based brokerage firm, said the response has exceeded newspaper ads. "I was amazed," said the principal, Michael H. DeLap. "I thought I would put something out there in cyberspace and never hear anything about it again." Mr. De Armas is not the first person whose professional interests led him to develop his own cottage industry. Comic strip fans can look to Scott Adams, the creator of "Dilbert," as someone who created an unlikely career out of a straitlaced corporate job - at Pacific Bell. Mr. De Armas said he is content to stay in banking and enjoy the kudos on his Web site. "They love it here at Comerica," he said. "My management is really happy. It showed a little initiative." --- Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps

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Re: 56 kbps modems
by Adamsc＠io-online.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Mon, 16 Sep 1996 12:16:08 +0200, Gary Howland wrote: >craigw(a)dg.ce.com.au wrote: >> well here in Australia Telstra our national carrier only "garantees" >> 2400 baud to work. >As I am sure has been discussed at length before, baud does not equal >bps. AFAIK, V32bis is only 2400baud. This is correct. The difference is in the number of values for each of the 2400 signals sent per second. # Chris Adams <adamsc(a)io-online.com> | http://www.io-online.com/adamsc/adamsc.htp # cadams(a)acucobol.com | V.M. (619)515-4894 "I have never been able to figure out why anyone would want to play games on a computer in any case when the whole system is a game. Word processing, spreadsheets, telecoms -- it's all a game. And they pay you to play it." -- Duncan Frissell

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WARNING: Major Net-Abuse
by Z.B. 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I don't know the full details about this, so I'll try to give as good an explanation as I can. Since sometime yesterday, someone has been posting huge binaries all over Usenet, usually to at least 20 groups at a time. The files are usually several thousand parts big at the least, and are posted to either groups in which people are likely to respond with emailbombs, or test groups that send you a reply if the message appears on them. What some $#&!@-heads are doing is changing the Reply-To headers to the addresses of people who they dislike or want to harass. See where I'm going now? 10000 posts to a test group with your address on it = 10000 emails in your inbox. I posted this because there are some people on both of these lists who might be the target of one of these spams, and you might want to get your killfiles ready, just in case. Thanks for your time, and sorry if I annoyed anyone with the off-topic post. --- Zach Babayco zachb(a)netcom.com <----- finger for PGP public key http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Park/4127

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Re: The GAK Momentum is Building...
by azur＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>On Tue, 17 Sep 1996 21:02:03 -0700, Lucky Green wrote: >>On Tue, 17 Sep 1996, Timothy C. May wrote: >> However, making the government a _required_ part of such plans implies a >> motive that is not at all the same as what companies wish (mostly, disaster >> recovery). > >The required part will come later. Meanwhile, many big players in the >industry are volunteering to include GAK for you. It seems that in order for this to work Net consumers must be convinced/coerced into accepting the GAK security features. What if, due to a grassroots uprising, Neters refuse to use products which require GAK or Net services which will only operate via GAK? Isn't there an great opportunity being created for S/Wan, Apache and its ilk and third-party (especially off-shore, non-COCOM, produced) security plug-ins? > >When I asked the fellow from HP that proposed the CommerceNet position >paper how the "voluntary key recovery" he was proposing on his slides >could possibly aid law enforcement against criminals who obviously >wouldn't "escrow" their keys, he said, and I am not kidding: > >"There are many possible interpretations of the words voluntary and >mandatory." I was the *only* person in a room full of people working in the >industry that seemed bothered by this. > >> Furthermore, the main worry (for me, at least) is that the government hopes >> to get its Clipper IV scheme accepted (by means of export laws) at some >> large fraction of important corporate accounts, not the least of which will >> be Netscape, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, Qualcomm, and suchlike major players >> in the "infrastructure" business. Once most of these have "bought off" on >> GAK, pressure will be intense to universalize the process, to make it a >> felony _not_ to use a "Key Authority." > >That's exactly how it will be. Enacting laws which make criminals out otherwise upstanding citizens is the surest path to civil disobedience/unrest, disrespect for duly constituted government and more serious criminal behavior. I guess I and many friends will be on posters in the Post Office. -- Steve PGP Fingerprint: FE 90 1A 95 9D EA 8D 61 81 2E CC A9 A4 4A FB A9 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Snoop Daty Data | Internet: azur(a)netcom.com Grinder | Voice: 1-702-655-2877 Sacred Cow Meat Co. | Fax: 1-702-658-2673 7075 W. Gowan Road, #2148 | Las Vegas, NV 89129 | --------------------------------------------------------------------- Just say NO to perscription DRUGS.

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Re: Workers Paradise. /Political rant
by Llywarch Hen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

"In July, Mr Lee [Kuan Yew, senior minister of Singapore] described an insight that came to him watching a sheepdog show in Australia. You start off with a group of young puppies, and 'weed out those who are not going to be successful . . . You either have those qualities or you don't.' It was, said Mr Lee, 'the simplest of all the lessons in life.' From _The Economist_, September 14th 1996. -- Llywarch Hen

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Re: PGP in the workplace
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 3:20 AM 9/18/96, Rick Osborne wrote: >Upon explaining to them that I was simply trying to make sure of my own >security, I was told that I was to just assume that I was secure, and that >*any* 'poking around' was found to be "highly aggravating" and could only >only "exascerbate the situation further." > >Luckily, I had to get to class, so I cut the conversation before it could >get any more out of control. > >Now, seeing as I'm fairly new to the Corporate world, but is this something >common? I know when I was at college, poking around was expected and >encouraged, as it helped find and plug holes in the system. But this is >almost like some kind of protection racket here! Sadly, this is common. Anybody taking undo interest in security "must have something to hide." Be aware that the effects can be a lot worse than just "being noticed," or even of being dismissed. Companies have been known to call in the police. (And since you are posting with a "Grumman" account, this could trigger visits by the DIA and other such agencies.) This happened in a well-publicized case up north, and I am convinced (from reading some of the details) that the programmer was not doing anything criminal. Even many who worked with him have expressed the same views, that he was just an unusually curious and attentive security expert. Some of them tell me they--and their employer!--were surprised the case actually went to trial. But the DA decided, for whatever reason, to prosecute on felony charges. I can only speculate about the pressures, the desire for publicity in a trendy new area ("computer crime"), and about the relative importance of this employer to the local economy. So, don't get too curious. Don't change your passwords more than your neighbors do (or at least not more than 2.13 standard deviations more often than is the statistical average of all employee-units within 7 cubicles of you in all directions). And whatever you do, never, never, never point out security flaws. This is a sure sign of your guilt. Or your smarty-pants attitude, which is actually worse. (Never cast perls before swine.) (All of this is explained daily in "Dilbert," of course.) --Tim May We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I 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: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Codex Sample
by SpyKing 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Attached... This communication is copyrighted by the author. 1996, All Rights Reserved. Interception, forwarding, posting/re-posting of all /or any part of of this message is a violation of U.S. Copyright laws and may result in civil or criminal action against violators. The Codex Surveillance & Privacy Newsletter - http://www.thecodex.com

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