- cypherpunks-legacy - lists.cpunks.org

Re: Message pools _are_ in use today!
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 08:28 PM 7/1/96 -0700, David Wagner wrote: >If folks have better ideas for how to achieve really good recipient >anonymity, I hope they'll speak up! Once they start offering Internet news/email/USENET feeds (one way) by DSS-type dish antenna from satellite, it'll be mighty hard to figure out who's receiving the data. They could probably easily provide 10 megabits per second, which I assume would be more than enough for what's needed. (BTW, for a few years a company called "Planet Connect" has been providing FIDOnet data feeds, although they use the older-style, large antenna systems, and their data rate is 19.2kbps, not even close to enough for Internet service.) Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

3 2

Re: But what about the poor?
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 06:37 AM 7/2/96 -0400, Duncan Frissell wrote: >At 11:25 PM 7/1/96 -0700, Bill Frantz wrote: > >>Current government "Key Escrow" systems cost $200/key/year. [Craig Mundie] >>These systems can best be described as key-rental systems. > >This is shocking, shocking. Oh, but what a business opportunity! I assume a floppy can hold 1000 keys. Even if I undercut the going rate of $200 per year by a factor of 10, that's a potential income of $20,000 per floppy per year. A box of 20 floppies on the shelf, and I'm set for life! >This argument against key escrow never made it onto that long list of >questions we made up in the Spring of '93 when Key Escrow was first proposed >by the Admin (it was probably Vince Foster's fault). We showed a lack of >imagination. There's no doubt that the government will want to bribe the escrow agents, first to tolerate the system at all, and second to foster enthusiastic cooperation later on, and possibly even ILLEGAL cooperation. Over-paying them is just one way to do it. One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how the government can continue to ignore the likelihood (hell, certainty!) that since "key escrow" will only be attractive to the extent it actually benefits the user, such users will be served by escrow agents who store only encrypted or anonymously-held keys. These are inherently protected against any kind of disclosure, yet provide all the claimed benefits of key escrow. Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

1 0

Re: hard drive encryption
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 07:53 AM 7/2/96 -0700, Cerridwyn Llewyellyn wrote: > >What is the best utility freely available for encrypting an entire drive >that won't be used for a length of time? ie: I'm going away for a period >of time and wish to encrypt the drive while I'm gone, but have no interest >in actually using it while it's encrypted. I also have no real preference >in what algorithm is used, as long as it's relatively secure. Speed is >also not a big consideration, as it will be used once when I leave to encrypt, >and once when i return to decrypt. >Thanks in advance for the help... You could just de-install and hide the drive. Replace it with some old cast-off drive. (The easiest way to get somebody to stop looking for something is to let him find it.) Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

1 0

Re: But what about the poor?
by frantz＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 6:37 AM 7/2/96 -0400, Duncan Frissell wrote: >"Gee Ossifer I'd love to let you read my files but I just couldn't afford >expensive socialistic key escrow so I bought cheap efficient private key >escrow instead." "Gee Orificer, I'd love to let you read my files, but I just couldn't afford any key escrow, so I went naked and didn't use it." :-) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bill Frantz | The Internet may fairly be | Periwinkle -- Consulting (408)356-8506 | regarded as a never-ending | 16345 Englewood Ave. frantz(a)netcom.com | worldwide conversation. | Los Gatos, CA 95032, USA

1 0

Re: SAFE Forum--some comments
by frantz＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 6:40 PM 7/2/96 -0700, Timothy C. May wrote: >... Phil Zimmermann, who told a humorous story of going >to Congressman Dana Rohrabacher's office, seeing the picture of Ollie North >on the wall (much laughter), but finding Rohrabacher's staffers aghast at >the crypto laws and ITARs. Someone pointed out that Phil and Ollie have something in common. They have both been accused of illegally exporting crypto. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bill Frantz | The Internet may fairly be | Periwinkle -- Consulting (408)356-8506 | regarded as a never-ending | 16345 Englewood Ave. frantz(a)netcom.com | worldwide conversation. | Los Gatos, CA 95032, USA

1 0

SAFE Archive
by Eric Davis 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

FYI: The complete SAFE Forum audio archive is online at: http://www.mediacast.com ----------------------------------------------------- Eric Davis ericd(a)internet.net Director of Information Systems 415-842-7400 (V) Internet Shopping Network 415-842-7415 (F) Visit our site at: http://www.isn.com/ Co-Founder MediaCast http://www.mediacast.com/ Personal contact: ericd(a)cyberfarm.com KD6HTO (R) ----------------------------------------------------- There are no law enforcers if law itself they ignore. -- Inka Inka -- Step Back -- Myth of the Machine --

1 0

RE: SAFE Forum (We sell decryption hardware)
by Jean-Paul Kroepfli 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Bill Frantz wrote >We sell RC4, 40 bit decryption hardware (based on AMD29000) for $16K. FPGA >devices for breaking DES in 7 days for $1M. [Eric Thompson, Access Data] What? Do you have some information about this ad (e. g. eMail)? I know some bank that would be very interested about this possibility (not for use it, but as an impulse to change their systems). Best regards, Jean-Paul ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Jean-Paul et Micheline Kroepfli (our son: Nicolas and daughter: Celine) eMail: JeanPaul.Kroepfli(a)utopia.fnet.fr Also Compuserve and MSNetwork Phone: +33 81 55 52 59 (F) PostMail: F-25640 Breconchaux (France) or: +41 21 843 27 36 (CH) or: CP 138, CH-1337 Vallorbe Fax: +33 81 55 52 62 (Switzerland) Zephyr(r) : InterNet Communication and Commerce, Security and Cryptography consulting PGP Fingerprint : 19 FB 67 EA 20 70 53 89 AF B2 5C 7F 02 1F CA 8F "The InterNet is the most open standard since air for breathing"

1 0

Re: SAFE Forum--some comments
by John Pettitt 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 06:40 PM 7/2/96 -0700, Timothy C. May wrote: > >I was at the "SAFE" forum yesterday. Too many things to report on, so I'll >just add comments here and there. > I thought it was interesting to not that a Republican Senator came to california to talk about this stuff and *neither* of the California Senators has got a clue yet. One questioner from the audience made an interesting point that given that most of american can't seta vcr clock crypto will be totally beyond them unless it becomes pervasive ("you can buy it at radio shack"). It was pretty clear from all the speaker that this is a libertarian/authoritarian issue and not a liberal/conservative one. John John Pettitt, jpp(a)software.net EVP, CyberSource Corporation, 415 473 3065 PGP Key available at: http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/htbin/pks-extract-key.pl?op=get&search=0xB7AA37…

1 0

SAFE Forum--some comments
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I was at the "SAFE" forum yesterday. Too many things to report on, so I'll just add comments here and there. And here I'll comment on Ken Bass's excellent comments (there were many excellent points). Bass is a D.C.-area lawyer with the prestigious Venable law firm (the venerable Venable firm?), and a former Reagan Administration official. He pointed out that the driving force for crypto policy is probably the _law enforcement_ camp, not the _intelligence agency_ camp. And that the NSA is regretting the ITAR stuff, as it has sparked an "arms race" to develop stronger crypto. Bass noted that people now equate permission to export with weakness, and that had the U.S. not restricted exports, users probably would've been "fat, dumb, and happy" to keep using breakable crypto. (Many interesting points to make. Bass is no supporter of Clipper and Escrow, and made many points about why the policy won't work. His later dialog with Michael Froomkin and Jerry Berman, about the constitutionality of crypto laws was a highpoint for me.) His comments fit in with the points made by Diffie that the 40 bit restriction is unlikely to satisfy either the user community or the surveillance community. 40 bits is too weak for a targetted attack, but too strong for "vacuum cleaner" intercepts such as NSA SIGINT uses. (Diffie also gave an excellent summary of cryptographic work factors, using 30 bits, 60 bits, 90 bits, and 120 bits as examples. For example, 30 bits needs about a billion operations to brute force, which any modern PC can do in several seconds. 60 bits is a billion times harder, which NSA machines can handle, and 90 bits is beyond current capabilities...) I said I wouldn't do a summary, but I'll make a few comments: -- Both Congresswimmin, Eshoo and Lofgren, seemed genuinely interested in the issues -- Senator Leahy, on t.v. from Vermont, emphasized _privacy_ and made the Cypherpunk/libertarian/ACLU point that he and his neighbors are not criminals and don't think the government has any right to demand that communications, computer files, diaries, and the like be "escrowed." -- Senator Conrad "I ain't no Democrat" Burns was there in person and was entertaining and strongly blasted key escrow and the ITAR restrictions. I found his comments refreshing. -- The whole affair was "preaching to the choir," as many speakers noted. That is, there was little controversy and little disagreement. This was a point made nicely by Phil Zimmermann, who told a humorous story of going to Congressman Dana Rohrabacher's office, seeing the picture of Ollie North on the wall (much laughter), but finding Rohrabacher's staffers aghast at the crypto laws and ITARs. Then, Phil took a hotel shuttle and ended up talking to the driver, who was also aghast. "Where else can you find this kind of consensus?" (A point many of us have made as well, that nearly everyone who has the issues explained to them comes down on the side that the government has no right to tell us we can't use codes and ciphers, that it's all similar to Big Brother demanding video cameras in our homes....) -- Craig Mundie, currently of Microsoft, made excellent points about the costs of a key escrow infrastructure. (By the way, those who read "The Soul of a New Machine" should be interested that Mundie was the leader of the North Carolina research facility of Data General that lost the "shootout at HoJos." If this means nothing to you, read the Kidder book--soon!) -- Michael Froomkin, a law professor (and member of our list of course), pointed out despite the various constitutional issues, the crypto laws are mostly having their desired effect, namely, slowing the deployment of crypto and creating confusion. (That Windows 95 has no crypto modules, and that most browsers and mail programs have nothing built in tells us that the FUD worked.) In summary, for me the SAFE forum was a success. Though it was periods of boring platitudes we all agreed with interspersed with good insights from the speakers and audience. Not much that was new to a Cypherpunk, of course. (In fact, the forum was almost a kind of Cypherpunks physical meeting, in terms of the topics, and in terms of who attended....it was even where we've been having recent physical meetings.) A day well spent. --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we 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, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

5 5

Re: PGP secret keys
by Deranged Mutant 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On 2 Jul 96 at 6:39, anonymous-remailer(a)shell.port wrote: > Could someone post a pointer to a FAQ that tells what to do if you loose > your secret key file? How can you regenerate your private key so that the > userid number still matches the public key that has been distributed?? You can't do anything. Yer screwed.

2 1