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Re: PANIX.COM down: denial of service attack
by Duncan Frissell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 09:09 AM 9/12/96 -0700, #6 wrote: >WSJ 9/12/96 > >Paraphrasing: > >Panix has been under attack for the last week by someone flooding >their server with bogus "requests for information" [see below] ... Even though service has suffered, Panix is still useable. Until I read the MOTDs on Tuesday, I thought it was just normal flakiness. DCF

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Fear of Flying -- from HotWired
by declan＠well.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

http://www.hotwired.com/netizen/96/37/special3a.html 12 September 96 HotWired, The Netizen Fear of Flying by Declan McCullagh (declan(a)well.com) Washington, DC, 11 September John Gilmore, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, knows firsthand how drastically airports in the United States are altering their policies in response to the nation's perceived vulnerability to terrorists. When Gilmore opened his laptop for inspection by airport personnel at San Francisco International last month - as requested - but refused to turn the machine on, the cops were called. When he then refused to show identification to airport police, "they put the handcuffs on me and hauled me off," he told The Netizen. The cops took Gilmore to a back-room office. "They tried to ask me questions. I said I wanted to speak to my lawyer. They kept asking me questions anyway," he says. Airport police arrested Gilmore even though, according to the FAA, "there is currently no prohibition against allowing someone on an aircraft" without identification. Gilmore's arrest came after President Clinton tightened airport security in response to the TWA Flight 800 disaster and the Atlanta Olympic Games bombing. Now the anti-terrorism drumbeat in the nation's capital is starting again, and it's louder and more ominous than ever. It reached a fevered pitch Monday, when Clinton called for an increase of more than one billion dollars to be spent on anti-terrorism measures, especially airport security. Clinton based his request on the unsurprising recommendations of a commission created by executive order in August, staffed by spooks and headed by Vice President Gore. The group's proposal includes a plan allowing the CIA and FBI to "develop a system" to screen passengers who fit certain profiles as potential terrorists. David Sobel, a lawyer with the Electronic Privacy Information Center, called the White House proposal "a realization of Big Brother concerns people have about computer technology." The proposal would allow the FBI and CIA to couple their databases with those of the airlines. "There are going to be massive databases that will track our actions and activities. If you think of increased capabilities to collect information, it's even scarier," Sobel said. A former US senator agrees. At a Cato Institute terrorism conference yesterday, Malcolm Wallop said: "In the year and a half since the terrorism debate began, all the legislation considered would do little or nothing to stop or deter terrorism. These measures do more to crack down on Americans than terrorists. "A bloody nose does not warrant an exponential expansion of federal government authority," argued Wallop, now the chairman of the Frontiers of Freedom Institute. Over lunch at the conference yesterday afternoon, former CIA director James Woolsey responded with some seemingly gratuitous anti-Net rhetoric. Terrorists may use biological weapons like anthrax, he said. "Anthrax is colorless, odorless, and has a 90 percent lethality. One gram has 100 million lethal doses." Then Woolsey delivered the zinger: "The knowledge of how to make anthrax is widely available, including on the Internet." Not content to let bad enough alone, Woolsey added that the government can't allow netizens to use data-scrambling software like Pretty Good Privacy that the spooks can't break. He said the threat of terrorism will "require us to have a key escrow system" where keys "for complex algorithms [will] be placed in such a way that the government" will have access to them. "You can accommodate industry a lot, but the principle is: you got to get to the key," Woolsey said. (FBI director Louis Freeh made similar, though less straightforward, comments during Senate hearings in July.) Before Congress adjourns for the fall recess, the House must decide whether to approve a "digital telephony" domestic wiretapping slush fund into which the NSA and CIA can pour cash. Senators will then likely add provisions for warrantless wiretaps to the anti-terrorism bill that the House sent to them in August. The fundamental problem here is, of course, the politics of terrorism. Legislators routinely grandstand atop national tragedies, using victims and their families as backdrops. Justice Department lobbyists then swarm onto Capitol Hill and demand reduced civil liberties in the name of fighting terrorism. Societies can, and should, safeguard against systematic threats. Random acts of violence, on the other hand, are trickier to forestall - and terrorist acts are anything but predictable. Luckily for the EFF's Gilmore, he was cited only for the crime of "delaying/obstructing a peace officer" and was released after being handcuffed to a bench and then dumped in a holding cell for a few hours. He got off easy. But if Congress decides to sacrifice freedom for security, the country will ultimately enjoy neither. ###

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(Correction) Child Porn as Thoughtcrime
by Rick Smith 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I wrote: : I've read in several places that the Jock Sturges case was thrown out : Nobody has dragged me away in shackles for : owning "Radiant Images." Correction -- That's "Radiant Identities." Rick.

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Re: PANIX.COM down: denial of service attack
by Duncan Frissell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Here are the gory details from the first MOTD last Saturday: The attacker is forging random source addresses on his packets, so there is no way to find his/her location. There is also no way to screen out those packets with a simple router filter. This is probably the most deadly type of denial-of-service attack possible. There is no easy or quick way of dealing with it. If it continues into Saturday we will start working on kernel modifications to try to absorb the damage (since there's absolutely no way to avoid it). This however will not be an easy job and it could take days to get done (and get done right). For those who are IP hackers, the problem is that we're being flooded with SYNs from random IP addresses on our smtp ports. We are getting on average 150 packets per second (50 per host). We are not the only site being attacked in this way. I know of one other site that is being attacked in an identical manner right now, and I know of three others that have been attacked in the last two weeks. I hope that this means that the attacker is merely playing malicious games, and will soon tire of molesting our site. If that is the case, mail will come back up as soon as the attack ends. But if the attacker is really interested in damaging Panix specifically, the attack may *never* stop and service won't be restored until we can write kernel modifications. Since then the packet streams have hit almost all the ports for news, www, telnet, etc. DCF

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[BOOK] "Competitive Intelligence" corrected
by Brian D Williams 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Sorry, forgot the Author... Brian "Car Bombs- The poor mans cruise missle." Competitive Intelligence Larry Kahaner "From Black Ops to Boardrooms- How Businesses Gather, Analyze, and use Information to Succeed in the Global Marketplace." ISBN 0-684-81074-3 Simon and Schuster ($24.00) Preface: Being a Hero and not a Bum Part One: What is Competitive Intelligence? 1.) The Rise of Competitive Intelligence 2.) What Competitive Intelligence can do for your company: Information vs Intelligence 3.) Why most managers are still stuck in the information age Part Two: Real-World Competitive Intelligence 4.) The Intelligence Cycle 5.) Planning and Direction 6.) Collection 7.) Analysis 8.) Dissemination 9.) Mergers and Acquistions 10.) Benchmarking and Competitive Intelligence 11.) How the Japanese Perform Competitive Intelligence 12.) Competitive Intelligence in other Countries 13.) Building a Competitive Intelligence System Part Three: Issues, Opportunities, and the Future 14.) Justifying the cost of Competitive Intelligence 15.) Using Competitive Intelligence in the European Union 16.) Ethics 17.) The New Gatekeepers 18.) Why the U.S. Government must get involved in Competitive Intelligence 19.) Competitive Intelligence-The Next Generation Glossary of Competitive Intelligence

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Re: ... subversive leftists
by paul＠fatmans.demon.co.uk 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> tcmay(a)got.net (Timothy C. May) writes: > > As to "tasteless and insulting," a matter of personal perspective. I find > > it helpful to call a spade a spade, and others apparently do as well. > > > > Of course, Tim gets very uncomfortable when others call a spade a spade. This constant character assasination of Tim is getting rather boring, as far as I can see, and I read all of the posts on the list, he has done nothing more than ignore posts from these idiots, that is his choice and nothing to do with anyone else. This whole thread is taking up too much space and is just totally pointless. lets call it a day and just agree to differ eh? Datacomms Technologies web authoring and data security Paul Bradley, Paul(a)fatmans.demon.co.uk Http://www.fatmans.demon.co.uk/crypt/ "Don`t forget to mount a scratch monkey" -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.6 mQCNAjH9j+cAAAEEAMBvREiQR0ot9dFCO0TiSCSunAYLv2g1Bc6I3bz8FzKXNH53 6mieJf/W4rD+CxJpT0q9RQaaoRtkHJLwbjfK2il3D7mEahMAyqvF/xRJNqkXfhM3 sRJM0Jh43l+W0M5vwokbEbk25/bxWWGspTsLD3YHbzKnG6pOcL5OPIRbv66xAAUR tCdQYXVsIEJyYWRsZXkgPHBhdWxAZmF0bWFucy5kZW1vbi5jby51az4= =riHc -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

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Re: Fear of Flying -- from HotWired
by frantz＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 1:16 PM 9/12/96 -0500, Declan McCullagh quoted: >... former CIA director James Woolsey: responded with some seemingly > gratuitous anti-Net > rhetoric. Terrorists may use biological weapons like anthrax, he said. > "Anthrax is colorless, odorless, and has a 90 percent lethality. One > gram has 100 million lethal doses." Then Woolsey delivered the zinger: > "The knowledge of how to make anthrax is widely available, including > on the Internet." Gee, biotech has come a long way. Now I can download the Anthrax DNA sequence from the net and insert it in some carrier bacteria and start making Anthrax bacteria. Neat! Or did he mean I can chemically synthesize Anthrax toxin? Or did he mean I can get information on culturing bacteria on the net, but must obtain a sample of the bacteria from other sources? BTW - My dictionary says that Anthrax is primarily an animal disease which only occasionally infects humans. It sounds like a poor choice for bio-war terror. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bill Frantz | "Lone Star" - My personal | Periwinkle -- Consulting (408)356-8506 | choice for best movie of | 16345 Englewood Ave. frantz(a)netcom.com | 1996 | Los Gatos, CA 95032, USA

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Re: Excite Live!
by E. Allen Smith 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: IN%"live(a)excite.com" 11-SEP-1996 22:14:03.06 >A request was made for the location of your Excite Live! page >Found your Excite Live at URL >http://live.excite.com/?uid=CEC8C99632372D6E Hi. As you can see from the above, I've set up an Excite Live! page up with the email address of cypherpunks(a)toad.com. It has top priority on things related to cypherpunks, including technology news, political news, international news, etcetera, plus some build-in links and searches to appropriate places. I'd advise using the anonymizer to access the above link (http://www.anonymizer.com:8080/http://live.excite.com/?uid=) -Allen

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ALERT: S.1726 vote postponed; keep calling! Offices are swamped! (9/11/96)
by Voters Telecommunications Watch 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

======================================================================== SENATE COMMERCE COMMITTEE VOTE POSTPONED SENATOR BURNS ENCLOSES LETTER OF COMMITTMENT TO CRYPTO WE CONTINUE TO RECEIVE REPORTS OF "HEAVY CALLS" TO OFFICES. KEEP THE PRESSURE UP! WE'RE HOLDING OUR OWN! September 12, 1996 Please widely redistribute this document with this banner intact until September 30, 1996 ________________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS The Latest News What You Can Do Now Background / What To Expect This Week Description of S.1726, Pro-CODE Bill Chronology of Pro-Crypto Legislation For More Information / Supporting Organizations ________________________________________________________________________ THE LATEST NEWS The Senate Commerce Committee vote on S.1726 (Pro-CODE) originally set for today (Thursday 9/12) has been postponed. We have been told that the change was largely due to committee scheduling issues, and the Committee staff and have indicated that they are still committeed to marking up S. 1726 within the next. More information should be available shortly. Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT), co-author of S. 1726, asked us to forward the following note to the net.community: X-POP3-Rcpt: jseiger@mailserver From: Conrad_Burns(a)burns.senate.gov Date: Thu, 12 Sep 96 09:55:35 EST To: jseiger(a)cdt.org Subject: Open Letter to the Internet from Senator Burns The Commerce Committee markup on Pro-CODE, S. 1726, that we had expected to have held on Thursday, September 12 has been postponed. I am fully committed to taking Pro-CODE to markup, out of committee and onto the floor of the Senate in this Congress. I believe that this legislation is vital to ensuring the continued strength of America's high-tech community and the privacy of its citizens. I would like to thank the many thousands of Netizens who have expressed their support for Pro-CODE. Sincerely, U.S. Senator Conrad Burns It is critical to keep your phone calls and faxes coming into the offices of the Committee members listed below. Based on the feedback we are receiving from callers and conversations with Capitol Hill staff, the response from the Net has been strong and continuous. Thank you to all who have taken the time to call Congress to voice your support for encryption policy reform. If you have not yet done so, please take a moment to call the committee members below. If you have a little extra time on your hands, between now and the middle of next week please make an effort to call all the Senators on the list below. Your help and support is critical to the future of privacy and security on the Internet. Finally, please don't forget to sign the petition in support of Encryption Policy Reform -- http://www.crypto.com/petition/. More than 4000 Netizens have already signed, including encryption experts Phil Zimmermann, Matt Blaze, Phil Karn, and others. ________________________________________________________________________ WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW It's crucial that you call the Commerce committee members below and urge them to pass S.1726 out of committee without amendments. (This is also known as a "clean" bill.) Any opportunity for amendments (even if they are good) opens us up to the possibility of hostile amendments that could restrict the use of encryption even further than today's abysmal state. It could even prohibit the use of encryption without Clipper Chip-like key 'escrow' technology, which includes built-in surveillance and monitoring functionality. 1. Call/Fax the members of the Senate Commerce committee and urge them to pass S.1726 out of committee "cleanly". Do not use email, as it is not likely to be looked at in time to make a difference. Use the sample communique and directory listing below to make it a simple TWO MINUTE task. 2. Sign the petition to support strong encryption at http://www.crypto.com/petition/ ! Join other cyber-heroes as Phil Zimmermann, Matt Blaze, Bruce Schneier, Vince Cate, Phil Karn, and others who have also signed. 3. Over the next 7 days, it is crucial that you call all these members of the Senate Commerce Committee. P ST Name and Address Phone Fax = == ======================== ============== ============== D SC Hollings, Ernest F. 1-202-224-6121 1-202-224-4293 D MA Kerry, John F. 1-202-224-2742 1-202-224-8525 D HI Inouye, Daniel K. 1-202-224-3934 1-202-224-6747 D KY Ford, Wendell H. 1-202-224-4343 1-202-224-0046 D WV Rockefeller, John D. 1-202-224-6472 1-202-224-7665 D LA Breaux, John B. 1-202-224-4623 1-202-228-2577 D NV Bryan, Richard H. 1-202-224-6244 1-202-224-1867 D ND Dorgan, Byron L. 1-202-224-2551 1-202-224-1193 D NE Exon, J. J. 1-202-224-4224 1-202-224-5213 D OR Wyden, Ron* 1-202-224-5244 1-202-228-2717 R SD Pressler, Larry* 1-202-224-5842 1-202-224-1259 R MT Burns, Conrad R.(*sponsor) 1-202-224-2644 1-202-224-8594 R AK Stevens, Ted 1-202-224-3004 1-202-224-2354 R AZ McCain, John* 1-202-224-2235 1-202-228-2862 R WA Gorton, Slade 1-202-224-3441 1-202-224-9393 R MS Lott, Trent* 1-202-224-6253 1-202-224-2262 R TX Hutchison, Kay Bailey 1-202-224-5922 1-202-224-0776 R ME Snowe, Olympia 1-202-224-5344 1-202-224-1946 R MO Ashcroft, John* 1-202-224-6154 1-202-228-0998 R TN Frist, Bill 1-202-224-3344 1-202-228-1264 R MI Abraham, Spencer 1-202-224-4822 1-202-224-8834 * supporter or cosponsor. The bill also enjoys broad bi-partisan support from members not on the committee including Senators Leahy (D-VT) and Murray (D-WA). 4. Here is a sample conversation: SAMPLE PHONE CALL You:<ring ring> Sen:Hello, Senator Mojo's office! You: SAY I'm calling to urge the Senator to pass S.1726, the Burns, Leahy, THIS-> Pressler bill at the upcoming Commerce Committee Markup. The bill is critical to the future of privacy, security, and electronic commerce on the internet. Sen:Ok, thanks!<click> IF THEY SAY "The Senator has concerns about the bill", please answer, "Please try to work these issues out as it moves to the Senate floor, but passage out of committee will send an important signal to the Administration." 5. To help us measure the effectiveness of the campaign, WE NEED TO HEAR FROM YOU. Please tell us who you called, and how they sounded. We'll be passing this information to folks in D.C. who can help apply pressure where needed. $ Mail vtw(a)vtw.org Subject: I called so-and-so Hey, I called Sen. Mojo. He sounded iffy, call in the reinforcements. ^D 6. Forward this to your friends and colleagues in appropriate forums until the date of expiration at the top. Forward a copy of this to your Internet Service Provider as well, and ask them to put the following text in their message of the day (motd), or on their WWW page: ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT The U.S. Senate will be voting on a proposal to encourage better security on the Internet soon. Your help is needed to call Congress. See http://www.crypto.com/ for more details. ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ________________________________________________________________________ BACKGROUND / WHAT TO EXPECT THIS WEEK For the past 3 years, Cyber-Rights Activists, citizens, and industry leaders have been working hard to reform US encryption policy. Support has been building behind several legislative proposals this year because they send a clear signal to the Administration about the need for security and privacy in the Information Age. The digital revolution is currently being held hostage by the White House's Cold War restrictions on privacy-enhancing encryption technology. Now, with Congress less than a month away from adjournment, everyone who supports encryption and privacy is working to see this bill leave committee in order to send a clear message to the White House that they are on the wrong side of the encryption issue. Although this bill may not become law this year, its passage out of committee will be a landmark event that will clearly tell the White House that the Congress, the public, and the computer industry care about security and privacy, and need strong, reliable encryption technology in order to make the Internet a viable platform for commerce, education, and democracy. Success for our side is not certain, and the next week is not without risks. On September 12th (or sometime soon after), the Senate Commerce committee is expected to hold a "markup", where the bill is examined, voted on, and if there are enough votes, passed out of committee. Two things could happen: -the committee could pass the bill as written, -the committee could pass the bill with amendments. Any amendments are not likely to be friendly, and in particular, quiet sources have told privacy activists that the Clinton Administration has been readying a legislative assault on your right to use encryption for several weeks now. A Clipper-like amendment could be attached to the bill if our side does not have enough votes to block all amendments. It is crucial that all netizens who consider privacy and security important take a moment to call members of the Commerce Committee right now and urge them to vote S.1726 out of committee without amendments. ________________________________________________________________________ DESCRIPTION OF S.1726, PRO-CODE BILL Privacy-enhancing encryption technology is currently under heavy restrictions kept in place by the White House. Encryption that is currently allowed to be exported is not sufficient to protect confidential information. This policy acquires an "Alice-in-Wonderland" quality when one realizes that strong encryption products are available abroad both for sale and for free download off the Internet. The Pro-CODE Act resolves to: 1. Allow for the *unrestricted* export of "mass-market" or "public-domain" encryption programs, including such products as Pretty Good Privacy and popular World Wide Web browsers. 2. Requires the Secretary of Commerce to allow the less restricted export of other encryption technologies if products of similar strength are generally available outside the United States, roughly up to DES strength. 3. Prohibits the federal government from imposing mandatory key-escrow encryption policies on the domestic market and limiting the authority of the Secretary of Commerce to set standards for encryption products. ________________________________________________________________________ CHRONOLOGY OF PRO-CRYPTO LEGISLATION 9/12/96 (scheduled) Senate Commerce committee will hold markup of S.1726 and hopefully pass it out of committee with no amendments. 7/25/96: Full Senate Commerce committee holds positive hearings on S.1726. FBI Director Louis Freeh testifies along with many cyber-luminaries. Hearings are cybercast Internet Cyber-Rights activists with HotWired and WWW.Crypto.Com. You can see the photos, read the testimony, and listen to the audio transcript at http://www.crypto.com/events/072596/ 6/26/96: Senate subcommittee holds positive hearings on S.1726. Hearings are cybercast Internet Cyber-Rights activists with HotWired and WWW.Crypto.Com. You can see the photos, read the testimony, and listen to the audio transcript at http://www.crypto.com/events/062696/ 5/2/96: Bi-partisan group of Senators introduce Pro-CODE Act, which would free public-domain encryption software (such as PGP) for export, free much commercial encryption for export, and reduce the government's ability to push Clipper proposals down the throats of an unwilling public. Original sponsors include: Senators Burns (R-MT), Dole (R-KS), Faircloth (R-NC), Leahy (D-VT), Murray (D-WA), Pressler (R-SD), and Wyden (D-OR). 3/5/96: Sen. Leahy (D-VT) and Rep. Goodlatte (R-VA) announce encryption bills (S.1587/H.R.3011) that significantly relax export restrictions on products with encryption functionality in them, as well as free public domain software such as PGP (Pretty Good Privacy). ________________________________________________________________________ FOR MORE INFORMATION / SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONS There are many excellent resources online to get up to speed on crypto including the following WWW sites: http://www.crypto.com http://www.privacy.org http://www.eff.org http://www.cdt.org http://www.epic.org http://www.vtw.org Please visit them often. The following organizations have signed onto this alert: American Civil Liberties Union Center for Democracy and Technology Electronic Frontier Foundation Electronic Privacy Information Center Voters Telecommunications Watch ________________________________________________________________________ End alert ========================================================================

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Re: mailing lists
by HipCrime 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>i don't see you sticking your neck out to deal with assholes who think >freedom of speech is secondary to their right not to ever see mail >they don't want. Like hell we're not. What are you guys mad at us for? Thinking that FREEDOM of SPEECH is much, much more important that whining computer nerds who can't push a DELETE button. >i did competitive public speaking from 7th grade until my junior year >of high school where i was also on the debate team for two years. In that case, maybe you should learn to use the SHIFT key. Or didn't debaters in your school take typing and/or learn about punctuation, capitalization, and the other niceties of English communication? >now i make a living as a biochemistry grad student (only a year left >until you get to call me Dr.) where logic is paramount and feelings >are irrelevant. Well, "doctor" why can't you see (with your logic) that junk Email (or "spam") would save many, many forests if it REPLACED junk SnailMail. Isn't it just that your "irrelevant feelings" have been hurt, because someone used your remailer-baby in a way you hadn't planned for ?!? Why not put your money where your mouth is, and bet me (any amount), that spam WILL be socially acceptable by the year 2000. Particularly, when the green-folks discover how many trees will be saved. It'll be a social-mandate, NOT just a suggestion. Want to bet? -- HTTP://www.HIPCRIME.com

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