- cypherpunks-legacy - lists.cpunks.org

NSA vacuuming down Internet traffic
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Responding to msg by nobody(a)REPLAY.COM (Anonymous) on Fri, 19 Jan 10:23 AM >In the 1960's - 1970's when international cable traffic >was in its computer infancy, access was had to EVERY >CABLE MESSAGE passing through the message switches of >U.S. common carriers. > >If anyone else wishes to move this from the status of >urban legend to something more solid, all they have to >do is locate and ask people who worked in message >switch operations at RCA Global Communications, ITT >World Communications, or Western Union International, >the three common carriers of that time. > >We Jurgar Din Yes, indeed. James Bamford in "The Puzzle Palace" details the long-term TLA-access to international cable traffic -- via Operation Shamrock -- beginning in 1945 and ostensibly ending in 1975. See Chapter 6, "Targets." Aside, in this chapter Bamford writes that Louis Tordella, who died earlier this week, "The Agency's chief keeper of the secrets," was central to targeting of thousands of Americans. Bamford says of Tordella, "If NSA was the darkest part of the government, Tordella was the darkest part of the NSA." Tordella allegedly shielded various NSA heads by not telling them what was going on -- to their great relief. David Kahn in "The Codebreakers" more extensively examines the history of spying on citizens in the national interest. It will be interesting to read what he is currently researching at the more PR-oriented NSA -- and perhaps provide pointers to deep-blacker orgs that have supplanted it through non-FOIA arrangements like those of Shamrock.

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FAT_bet
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Saturday The Wash Post reported on the spies of many stripes invading Bosnia to strut stuff and ward off extinction. Today, TWP and NYT cover an IC briefing yesterday -- prompted by the Post story -- on the campaign of global spying cooperation to survive liposuction. FAT_bet (the 3 articles)

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Re: CryptoAPI and export question
by shamrock＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 18:07 1/17/96, Tom Johnston wrote: >Two points: the CSP development kit is export-controlled; and signing a >CSP developed by a foreign vendor is treated as a export -- so the signature >is export-controlled. > >We would ship a CSP development kit to a foreign vendor, and sign a CSP >developed by the foreign vendor, but only with the appropriate export licenses. So the main thing that the new MS CSP accomplishes is to establish a standard that will prevent foreigners at the OS level from using real crypto with popular applications. Way to go Microsoft. -- Lucky Green <mailto:shamrock@netcom.com> PGP encrypted mail preferred.

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Re: "cybertage"
by jwa＠nbs.nau.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Way back on Jan 19, 9:22am, "Vladimir Z. Nuri" wrote: > how about a new term for all the various enemies of cyberspatial > advancement? the censors, the luddites, the spooks, the politicians, > the demagogues, the rabid media (all of which there seems to be no > shortage of lately): > > "cyberteurs" engaging in "cybertage" Augh! No! No more "cyber" anything, please! Instead, how about a filter (implemented at some key top-level, NSA-funded routers, of course) that simply s/cyber//g ? - - - How "tight" is the encryption that ssh (secure shell) uses? I'm trying to push it for use across potentially insecure subnets at our University, and would like all the ammo I can get :) Has anyone tried to sniff & brute force a ssh-encrypted session? James -- James W. Abendschan Email: jwa(a)nbs.nau.edu UNIX Systems Programmer/Administrator Voice: (520) 556-7466 Colorado Plateau Research Station, Flagstaff, AZ FAX: (520) 556-7500

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Re: FW: CrytoAPI on Cypherpunks
by dlv＠bwalk.dm.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Tom Johnston <tomj(a)microsoft.com> writes: > >>> We won't charge high fees (right now, it's free!). Our policy is > >>> simple: we'll sign the CSP of anyone who follows the rules. Would you sign a foreign-developed CSP (which isn't subject to the rules)? --- Dr. Dimitri Vulis Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps

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"Noise Filter" : Cypherpunks Lite Reminder...
by Eric Blossom 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Just a friendly reminder to those of you overwhelmed by the noise... I provide a moderated version of the Cypherpunks list called "Cypherpunks Lite". A one year subscription costs US$20 and is payable by check or money order to "COMSEC Partners". Cypherpunks Lite is available in either individual messages or a more-or-less daily message digest. The content of both are the same. In either case, I forward approximately 5 - 10% of the total Cypherpunks feed. This works out to about 5 - 10 messages / day. To take a look at what you can expect there is an archive of the previous selections organized by month at ftp://ftp.crl.com/users/co/comsec/cp-lite. The files with the extension .gz are compressed using gzip. If you would like to subscribe, please send payment to: COMSEC Partners 1275 Fourth Street, Suite 194 Santa Rosa, CA 95404 USA Be sure to provide the email address you want us to use, as well as indicating your preference for individual messages or the digest. Thanks again, Eric Blossom

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Re: What's a good math text?
by Dana W. Albrecht 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> I'm not on the list just now, my work won't allow me the time to follow it. > I'm still just as interested in cryptography though, and would like > y'all to email me recommendations on good math books that will give me > the background to understand the papers in the field. I'm sure that will > include a good numbers theory text. If a beginner at number theory > would have a hard time understanding it, please recommend background > texts as well:) What else would I need? My computer science texts > explain complexity theory well, what would I need in information theory. > What would I have to read to understand factoring complexity? Are there > any new texts that cover the recent breakthroughs in factoring? An excellent introductory cryptography textbook that's oriented toward number theory is: A Course in Number Theory and Cryptography, 2nd ed. by Neal Koblitz Springer Verlag If you want a "classic" number theory text, I recommend: An Introduction to the Theory of Numbers, 5th ed. by G.H. Hardy and E.M. Wright Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press If you'd like a good introduction to factoring, try: Factorisation and Primality Testing by David Bressoud Springer Verlag Of course, it goes without saying that anyone studying cryptography ought to have a copy of: Applied Cryptography, 2nd ed. by Bruce Schneier John Wiley Hope that helps. Dana W. Albrecht dwa(a)corsair.com

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EE Times mentions c'punks scrutiny as helping Netscape
by John Gilmore 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Electronic Engineering Times, Jan 8, 1996, pg. 22 "Net battleground awaits Microsoft's salvo", by Larry Lange. [skip half a page]... Security stand-off The side skirmish over security protocols for credit-card payments over the Net is just beginning to heat up. The major combatants here are Netscape's Secure Socket Layer (SSL), Enterprise Integration Technologies' Secure Hypertext Protocol (S-HTTP) -- which may yet wind up under Netscape's wing -- and Microsoft's fairly recent stab at the issue in the form of its Secure Transaction Technology (STT). Netscape is way ahead of the game here, having successfully weathered the scrutiny of the ``cypherpunks'' -- above-board encryption hackers who look for security holes. ... John

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Re: Encryption and the 2nd Amendment
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

[A comment: I will _not_ be drawn into a general Second Amendment discussion here, for several reasons. This note is only to respond to the first comments I've seen on my post...if a lot more people get into the act, I'll just let others fight it out and ignore the thread. Crypto = Guns has been debated many times in many places. I won't debate gun control, which I'm against, nor will I get into debates about how a ban on biological warfare research would be unenforceable, would interfere with bread-making and wine-making research, blah blah. This is a kind of nit-picking that echoes the libertarian disease.] At 7:23 PM 1/20/96, Alan Horowitz wrote: >> After all, it is well-established--whether we like it or not--that the >> government can regulate and control access to [...] > > > I *think* the only thing that's been affirmed, is that the feds >can *tax* weapons transfers. I think the one particular case is >called "Rock Island" or something like that. The defendant was >*acquitted* of possessing an un-registered machine gun, because the >authority to tax transfers of newly-manufactured machine guns, no longer >exists. This is an over-simplifaction. Anyway, the point is, the >defendant was acquitted right there in district court. And what about the Assault Weapons laws? Bush signed one, limiting transfers of certain types of assault rifles, assault pistols, etc. (their choice of terms, not mine). Without getting into specifics of which models were banned for import and banned for transfer to private parties, this is a very real law. Taxes have almost nothing to do with it. That some defendants were acquitted in some jurisdictions on some charges says little about the more general laws. Likewise, there are specific laws on the books banning the private possession of chemical and biological warfare agents. (This was discussed on the list a couple of years ago--a specific law was passed outlawing private research into biological warfare agents unless authorized to do so by the governemnt.) Without spending a lot of time searching for the specific laws, I recall that the Atomic Energy Act placed stringent restrictions on the dissemination of nuclear materials. One can argue that these laws are not "weapons" laws per se, but the effect is the same. Anyone possessing a nuclear warhead in the U.S. would be subject to many laws, ranging from national security laws to public endangerment laws to hazardous materials laws. --Tim May Boycott espionage-enabled 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, Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Re: Netscape and NSA
by daw＠quito.CS.Berkeley.EDU 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- In article <199601191702.LAA12547(a)proust.suba.com>, Alex Strasheim <cp(a)proust.suba.com> wrote: > The Lotus approach is totally unacceptable. [...] > This is the first wave of guys hitting the beach. [...] > We don't have a lot of options in terms of strategy. Let's hack Lotus. Let's put out a binary patch which defeats Lotus's GAK. Let's look for weaknesses in their crypto implementation. Time for me to go looking for a Unix version of Lotus Notes 4. - --- [This message has been signed by an auto-signing service. A valid signature means only that it has been received at the address corresponding to the signature and forwarded.] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Gratis auto-signing service iQBFAwUBMQAbwyoZzwIn1bdtAQGliAF/bz+i9Uu6N1gK0g/2G7WfN3Wv7zQJVRFG csq1ROPrZE65kzRYa8uwo8xjVszSDbrf =0yvk -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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