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InfoWar 17 / TEXT
by TruthMonger 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The True Story of the InterNet Part III InfoWar Final Frontier of the Digital Revolution Behind the ElectroMagnetic Curtain by TruthMonger <tm(a)dev.null> Copyright 1997 Pearl Publishing ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- InfoWar Table of Contents * The Real Solution The Solution Within The Solution ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Real Solution ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Real Guy had another dream that morning. A dream which made sense of a lot of things which had seemed to be somewhat out of alignment with the perceptive parameters within which he usually viewed them. He had seen a large, powerful, feathered creature which ruled a huge nest with millions of eggs in it. The great creature worked its will with the eggs, moving them about, throwing some of them out of the nest, consuming others. Suddenly, the eggs began hatching, one by one, more and more rapidly, with a multitude of young fledglings scrambling about, trying to keep from getting crushed, eaten, or thrown out of the nest by the great feathered creature. A few of them pecked hopelessly at the great creature, in vain, but as the numbers of fledgling miscreants increased, the great creature began to wobble, at which time a great mass of the younger and weaker creatures rose up to overwhelm the great creature, sending it spinning out of the nest, and down into the bowels of the earth. Then the multitude of fledglings came together to form a great feathered creature, similar to the first, with each of them becoming a single feather of the new great creature. The creature of many feathers flapped its wings and flew around the huge nest, but never crossing over the outer boundaries of the nest. There remained but a single egg in the nest. The creature of feathers seemed afraid of the egg and would poke and claw at it, ferociously. Each time it did so, however, one of its feathers would turn into an egg and fall into the nest. At first, the creature of feathers would not seem to lose any feathers as the number of its feathers turning into eggs increased, but eventually there were signs that its plumage was deteriorating as it continued its attacks on the eggs, and it began having trouble flying around the nest. The creature began pecking at its own feathers, in a vain attempt to keep them from turning into eggs. The feathers now began turning into eggs en masse, as the great creature began clawing at the eggs and pecking at its feathers, until finally, it fell out of the nest and plunged into the bowels of the earth, screaming, "But who will take care of the orfins?" The Real Guy shook himself fully awake, now seeing visions of the past and the present instead of mere dreams. He saw a dictator falling from power on a small island, asking the impoverished children who were shooting at him, "But who will take care of the orfins?" He saw a General being driven from the compound that held the food donated to the starving people of his nation, the food that he had confiscated and was selling to neighboring counties, for his own profit. The General fled into the barren lands on the outskirts of the compound, shouting over his shoulder, "But who will take care of the orfins?" The Real Guy looked out of his window and saw a multitude of politicians and sheeple attacking passers-by at random, screaming a wide variety of slogans and sound-bytes about 'protecting/saving/taking-care-of' the 'orfins' and the 'children.' They were trampling the children of the future underfoot as they rushed to assault the motley crew of alleged pornographers, pedophiles, drug dealers and terrorists. The screams of the unborn were mixed with the screams of the children of the present when they failed to get out of the way of the attackers, and were knocked down in the rush to protect them. As each of the evil targets perished under the assault of the 'protectors' of the 'orfins' and 'children,' two of the children turned into pornographers, or pedophiles, or drug dealers, or terrorists. "How many of the citizens need to be eliminated or imprisoned in order to protect the children?" The plaintive voice seemed to emerge from within The Real Guy, himself, as did the answer, as he took on the dark visage of Gomez himself, and began to scream, "All of them! Aallll of thheeemmm!" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bubba Rom Dos shook himself awake, trembling. "A dream within a dream." he said, to no one in particular. Jonathan booted down the Trei Transponder, as each of those gathered looked Bubba over carefully, trying to divine whether their further use of the Transponder, after their recent adjustments, was really a wise idea. The remnants of the Magic Circle of the future gathered around the GraphiScreen on the antique oak table, waiting to see what The Real Guy would do with the InformEnergy they had transferred to The Real Guy's digital implant during the course of the wee hours of the morning. They were overjoyed as they saw him type on the screen of his laptop, over a century earlier in the flow of time: The Problem: Group mindthe tyranny of the masses. The Solution: Anarchy! There was a long pause, then The Real Guy continued: The problem within the problem: How to authorize myself to rise above my social self and stand master and captain over my decisions and my actions. The solution within the solution: "To him who does what within him lies" The tattered remnants of the Circle of Eunuchs sat silently, waiting for The Real Guy to continue. One by one, they realized, in their own way, that the question was one that each person would ultimately need to finish for themselves, according to the dictates of their own creed and conscience. Bubba stood and raised his shotglass, in preparation for a toast, and the others did likewise, waiting for him to speak. "Gurdjieff often claimed that the great evil that humankind must fight against was the descent into unconscious automatism. He maintained that man could not consciously do evilthat he or she could only do so by the process of forgetting the divine spark of humanity that lay within, becoming 'man the machine'; a small cog in an automatism which carried a voice of authority that was beyond his own conscious will to overcome, and rule by virtue of accepting the authority and responsibility for his own life, and actions." "To humans" Bubba threw back his shot of 'Bubba's Special Reserve' with a flourish. "ruling the machine." "And not vice-versa." the Cowboy added, as an afterthought, thinking about the battle over control of the InterNet that was shaping up, a century in their past. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Solution Within The Solution ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Real Guy awoke from his nap in the early afternoon. He had had another dream, but this time he recognized it as being one wholly his own, as a result of poring over a mountain of posts to the CypherPunks mailing list that morning. It was a short dream. Short and to the point: "Who will take care of the orfins?" ? the Platypus asked, over and over again. "I'll take care of the ones in DC!" shouted Tim May, pressing a large, red button, followed by a blinding flash and a deafening roar. "To him who does what within him lies" The Real Guy laughed to himself as he spoke these words. At least he hadn't lost his sick, twisted sense of humor. He thought about Tim May's comment on the rather loud and poignant statement made by 'his other brother, Tim' (McVeigh). "Broken eggs, and all that" If you want to make an omelet, you have to break a few eggs. When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. "When all you have is a bomb, everything looks like an egg." The Regular Guy thought about McVeigh-his motivations and intentions. In the end, it was nobody's business but McVeigh's. It was between him and his conscience, him and his God, or godsor him and the great Void. Who was to say, for another? Nevertheless, the great uproar that followed his bombing of the Federal building in Oklahoma City was the response of the huddled masses who had felt the sting of-and feared-anarchy. McVeigh had killed for them, as a soldier in their army. That wasn't scary. He had been part of a larger force of men and women who were killing for them all around the world. That wasn't scary. Now, he was killing for himself, on his own authorityand that terrified them. The government laid his actions at the feet of a recognizable enemy, wanting no more than the average citizen to face the truth of what had transpired on that fateful day when a hundred and sixty-nine (+ one leg) of their group had perished at the hands of a single member of their society. It was the paramilitary, the citizens' militia, bad people who thought that they had the right to defend themselves from the Great Evil, rather than counting on the benevolent state to do so. After spending the better part of a decade of learning how to kill in their government's armed forces, McVeigh had attended one meeting of the paramilitary, and now, his actions belonged solely to them. The press showed us who they were, where they lived, the threat they presented. And most of all, they assured us that we could identify them and eliminate them as a threat if it became necessary to do so. They were an identifiable group that could be murdered by those who were killing for us, if they rose up against us. The truth was too scary to face. The truth was that he was a single man, acting on the dictates of his own conscience, which deemed that those who lived by the sword, should die by the sword. Regardless of whether they hired others to do their killing for them. Regardless of whether they acted on the authority of the 'group.' Regardless of whether they only killed 'bad guys,' or by 'accident' or 'justifiably.' Regardless of whether they only put them in the oven, only turned on the gas, or merely signed the papers resulting in them being taken from their homes and relocated in a death camp. "When Hitler was Fuhrer, the trains ran on time." The Real Guy smiled wryly. The more things change, the more they remain the same. The Nazis confiscated guns from the citizens to protect them. So did the American Congress. The Nazis suspended the rights of the citizens in order to protect them from Communists and Jews and foreign agents. The American Congress suspended the rights of the citizens in order to protect them from Communists, and Arabs, and foreign terrorists. As well as from the drug dealers they, themselves, had created in reality, and the pornography they had created in their own minds. Tim McVeigh had done what within him lay The message he brought was one which was no stranger to the CypherPunks: "We have met the enemy, and he is us." - Alan 'Pogo' Olsen "Beware of Big Brother inside." -Tim C. May Subject: Re: News: Ross Anderson in article on US export vs Euro comsec From: "William H. Geiger III" <whgiii(a)invweb.net> To: Ernest Hua <hua(a)chromatic.com> CC: cypherpunks(a)Algebra.COM, hua(a)chromatic.com -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- In <199709181652.JAA26435(a)ohio.chromatic.com>, on 09/18/97 at 09:52 AM, Ernest Hua <hua(a)chromatic.com> said: > U.S. Crypto Laws Cripple Euros, Expert Says > (09/17/97; 5:00 p.m. EDT) > By Douglas Hayward, TechWire > CAMBRIDGE, England -- The U.S. government's strategy of monitoring the > computer networks of hostile governments is damaging the communications > infrastructure of its allies, a leading encryption expert said. Allies?? What Allies?!? It only has criminal coconspirators of other foreign governments. Hang 'em all, hang 'em high! --------------------------------------------------------------------- William H. Geiger III http://www.amaranth.com/~whgiii Geiger Consulting Cooking With Warp 4.0 Author of E-Secure - PGP Front End for MR/2 Ice PGP & MR/2 the only way for secure e-mail. OS/2 PGP 2.6.3a at: http://www.amaranth.com/~whgiii/pgpmr2.html - --------------------------------------------------------------- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3a Charset: cp850 Comment: Registered_User_E-Secure_v1.1b1_ES000000 iQCVAwUBNCFSno9Co1n+aLhhAQHNygQAxtjROzupWK7zMS04L7I8yex+Drpc6OqV xwxrp4G0m4yUkP42LuIRu3VsOyWDhn1duGqkuLjLj5Z12ZJ8QmI01zFWdhbmUBjd yr9/KffiYHVLEcwo3r9nV2ktKtE+mmjISwYpi0FRUqJQX3ZlKqdN0mqWUbFIYbQs ucJAzlJb/Ng= =knPF -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- "To him who does what within him lies" The enemy was not the 'paramilitary' Michigan Militia. The enemy was not the 'cult' of the Branch Davidians. The enemy was: William H. McVeigh III, CypherPunk Cult of One Alan McVeigh, CypherPunk Terrorist of One Timothy C. McVeigh, CypherPunk Paramilitary of One ? the Platypus, CypherPunk Army of Won Anonymous, CypherPunks Chief Spokesperson of One Nobody, CypherPunks Cult of None The Solution: Anarchy! The Solution Within the Solution: The individual. "I'm no leader. I do what I have to dosometimes, people come with me." -character in "Demolition Man" "Close ranksevery man for himself!" -the Unknown CypherPunk ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- "The Xenix Chainsaw Massacre" "WebWorld & the Mythical Circle of Eunuchs" "InfoWar (Part III of 'The True Story of the InterNet') ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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InfoWar 17 (Part III of 'The True Story of the InterNet')
by TruthMonger 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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InfoWar 15 / The GeigerBurg Text
by Bianca 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The True Story of the InterNet Part III InfoWar Final Frontier of the Digital Revolution Behind the ElectroMagnetic Curtain by TruthMonger <tm(a)dev.null> Copyright 1997 Pearl Publishing ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- InfoWar Table of Contents * The Real Problem The Problem Within The Problem ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Real Problem ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Re: Taxless society concerns From: ? the Platypus {AKA David Formosa} <dformosa(a)st.nepean.uws.edu.au> Reply-To: platypus(a)acmeonline.net To: snow <snow(a)smoke.suba.com> CC: Warpy <warpy(a)sekurity.org>, cypherpunks(a)toad.com x-url: http://www.st.nepean.uws.edu.au/~dformosa/Spelling.html -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- On Thu, 11 Sep 1997, snow wrote: [...] > > How is such care going to be payed for? > Well, if their family/children do it, they will pay necessary costs. > Otherwise I guess they will just have to save up for it. What about orfins? I dout thay would be able to save up money, what about thouse whos emplyers where not willing to pay them more then what is needed to live to the next week? * ~~ Please excuse my spelling as I suffer from agraphia see the url in my header. Never trust a country with more peaple then sheep. ex-net.scum and proud You Say To People "Throw Off Your Chains" And They Make New Chains For Themselves? --Terry Pratchett -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3i Charset: noconv iQCVAwUBNBjJU6QK0ynCmdStAQEtsQQA0+DExcYyjD9q92lzN25AN/LKkW/Ld9bn ti13g5eNDP3gO1yKD7bfm8dAgOq87GXtrzmursgIZNHwkvqU1O6mHMlG4HCS8WfI iV2sN745OVS2i0Guqs1fM+q0Tn56oRj4HEQBibQRuzNWW3VI7mBjZYUn0AtcM5Z2 F4xlC7L7PYE= =JI2t -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- The Real Guy didn't know why this particular post to the CypherPunks mailing list had caught his eye. It was a pretty basic example of some of the anarchist versus realist banter that was traded on the list from time to time. Perhaps what caught his eye was that this post was one of the dying remnants of a fading civilization, and it was interspersed among a number of posts aligning with a rapidly approaching future. This short, seemingly inconsequential post to the CypherPunks list somehow appeared in his mind to be representative of a problem that he had been working over in his mind lately, trying to get a handle on it-to define it. To define what he suspected was the real problem That's why he had changed his online persona from ? the Lunatic to "The Real Guy." To remind himself of his new direction. It was impossible, he knew, to define once and for all time, what the ever-present, nefarious "problem" was. It was like the Tao, always flowing, always changing. But he suspected that perhaps this, in itself, might actually be the real problem. Then again, perhaps notsince it didn't seem to be a problem for the CypherPunks' Philosopher King; the one he called the Grouchy Old CypherPunk. The King of Philosophical Grouchiness changed the signature-line in his email as the problems facing society and the weathervane CypherPunks changed. Lately, he had been changing it with increasing frequency, and this made The Real Guy very, very nervous. (He had watched a tornado forming one time, from its very center, and its chief creative feature seemed to be, not the particular direction the wind was changing to, but the increasing frequency of the change.) Perhaps The Real Guy was on the wrong track, here, giving so much thought to what seemed to be just an everyday, normal post to a mailing list which had no shortage of strange, lengthy rants about everything imaginable, no matter how weird or far-out it may have been. He suspected, however, that the real reason most people watched a television news program of the day, called '60 Minutes,' was because they were waiting to hear what the 'regular' guy had to say. The Real Guy thought of him as a 'regular' guy, not because he was on the show regularly, but because he was like real people; he was a 'real' guy, himself. The Regular Guy at the end of the program was always talking about real problems that regular, everyday people experienced every single day of their life. He was kind of like a Grouchy Old CypherPunk who dealt with everyday stuff instead of stuff that was going to change the world practically overnightmaybe. When The Real Guy read the post by snow and ? the Platypus, he couldn't help but envision them still discussing who was responsible for the orphans far into the future, right up to the point when the darkly clad, heavily armed Storm Troopers broke down their doors and burst into their houses. He could see them, in his mind's eye, and hear them, in his mind's ear, as they politely asked the armed intruders who they thought would "take care of the orfins" in an anarchist, taxless society. [Bang!] He could see them sink slowly to their knees, in pain, holding their stomachs, as their blood flowed rapidly out of their bodies, and they spoke the last words that would inevitably prove to be the last words of a multitude of CypherPunks spread across the face of the globe as the forces of fascist dictatorships hunted them down and deleted their signature files upon this celestial orb: "Then I guess that a blow-job is completely out of the question.aaarrrrggghhh!" <thud> The Real Guy shook himself out of his reverie and realized that Dimitri Vulis' evil influence on him had perhaps been more than he had previously thought. Turning back to the task at hand, he thought about the many definitions of the problem, (AKA the real problem) that he had come across, over the course of his lifetime, and how each of them may have been appropriate for the time and circumstances to which they were meant to apply. Perhaps the eternal problem had to do with addressing the latest, greatest version of the real problem, whatever that might be. There was no doubt that the Dark Forces had their minions creating new, improved problems at an increasingly fast rate as the end of the millennium approached. As well, their human compatriots had mastered the art of devising systems which ensured that by the time any specific 'problem' had traveled through the government and societal systems of laws, regulations and mores, that any 'solution' reached would be long outdated and meaningless. Subject: Re: politics aren't all or nothing (fwd) From: Jim Choate <ravage(a)ssz.com> To: cypherpunks(a)ssz.com (Cypherpunks Distributed Remailer) Tim May wrote: > Democracy is the problem, not the solution. A democracy which doesn't respect its limits of power is the problem. This has always been the problem with all forms of governments and will continue to be the problem with all forms of government (even anarchy). People are people, people are strange; it isn't a question of technology [1] or time. [1] Governments are a form of technology. The solution is people taking more direct and immediate action in the first person. Always has been, always will be. Irrespective of all the spin-doctor protestations to the contrary not withstanding. Governments are governed by the 3 laws of thermodynamics just like everything else: You can't get ahead You can't break even You can't quit the game The failing with the founding fathers is that there were not enough amendments in the Bill of Rights explicitly listing citizen rights and federal duties and limits in the first place. THAT is the problem with our government today: even the harshest critics of their day trusted a federal government too much. __________________________________________________ |_________________________________________________ | | The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there___| | be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves.___ | |_________________ -Alan Greenspan-__________________ | | ______The Armadillo Group__________________________| | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA_____________________________| | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http:// www.ssz.com/ ______________________| | .', |||| `/( e\__________________________________________| | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate___________________ | | ravage(a)ssz.com____________________________________| | 512-451-7087______________________________________| |__________________________________________________| The Real Guy thought about Choate's statement: "The solution is people taking more direct and immediate action in the first person." He had no doubt that Choate's definition of the real problem ("with our government today") was no more right nor wrong than many of the other definitions proffered on the CypherPunks list, as well as throughout history, but he sensed that perhaps Choate's stated 'solution' came startlingly close to what would ultimately prove to be the real solution to the troubles that were rapidly swamping the ship of freedom in this era of human and societal evolution. Which led to 'the problem within the problem.' And The Real Guy had no idea what that was ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Problem Within The Problem ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- "To him who does what within him lies, God will not deny his grace." - Saint Thomas Aquinas Bubba Rom Dos brought the quote to the screen, pleased with himself for having provided the solution to The Real Guy's question. "That is the 'problem within the problem?'" Alexis asked the grizzled sage, looking puzzled. "No, no. Of course not, my dear. "That," he said, pointing to the quote, "is the 'solution within the solution.'" The Cowboy laughed loudly at this statement, turning to Bubba and suggesting, "You've been watching the Steve Allen TV shows again, haven't you, Bubba?" He turned to the others, to explain his veiled reference. "Steve Allen was a kind of early TV Taoist who had a way of turning things on their ear, as the saying was back then. While some TV shows would give the answers to questions sent in by their viewers, he would have his viewers send him their answers, to which he would then provide the appropriate question." "Thirty-six, twenty-four, thirty six." Bubba called out his answer. "What were the ages of the Three Musketeers?" the Cowboy responded with the appropriate question. Priscilla, Alexis and Jonathan gave each other desperate looks, knowing that they were about to be subjected to the mad ramblings of a drunken tag-team of self-proclaimed world saviors, as they attempted to draw the others into yet another of their "insane, inane, falling mainly in the plain" bumbling and stumbling attacks on intellect, rationality and proper decorum. "OK, I'll bite." Jonathan was the first to speak. "But, since we already know that your solution is insane, why don't you give us the proof of its applicability to the 'problem within the problem' and let us" he motioned to himself and the ladies, "divine the real problem, and the 'problem within the problem?'" "Fair enough!" said the Cowboy, motioning for Bubba to begin. Bubba threw up a quote on the GraphiScreen from Julian Jaynes' "The Evolution of Consciousness in the Breakdown of Bicameral Mind." "Why is it that in our daily lives we cannot get up above ourselves to authorize ourselves into being what we really wish to be? "So that behavior flows from decisionso that whatever in us it is that refers to a 'will' stands master and captain over action?" The Cowboy grinned and turned to the three 'contestants' in this lighthearted parody of a variety of bad game shows of the era they were dealing with. "This is the question which indicates the results of the problem and the solution to the problem, but what is the problem?" He left the challenge of answering his question to the three participants, pushing his bottle of Jim Beam into the center of the table to indicate the reward for a proper reply. Without hesitating, Alexis scrolled through the work on the screen, knowing that, in all likelihood, Jaynes had addressed the problem in an adjoining passage. She reached for the bottle and poured herself, Priscilla and Jonathan a shot, as she highlighted: "We are learned in self-doubt, scholars of our very failures, geniuses at excuse and tomorrowing our resolves. We become practiced in powerless resolution until hope gets undone and dies in the unattempted. "And then to rise above this noise of knowledge and really change ourselves, we need an authorization that 'we' do not have." Bubba and the Cowboy had grinned from ear to ear when Priscilla had reached forward with the tip of her finger, to highlight the last of the sentence. "Precisely!" they agreed, in unison. "The problem," Jonathan posited, "was that, leading up to the end of the millennium, the advances in technology and education were designed by those behind the scenes to give the appearance of empowerment to the individuals within the authority of the group." Jonathan wasn't quite sure just what he was trying to get at, so he turned to the women for help. "Democracy, mass-production, elections, free schooling, public works" Priscilla was making a 'set' of somethingshe wasn't sure of what, however. Alexis thought for a moment, and jumped in, saying, "At the same time, the study of human psychology was entering an era where the existence and power of the subconscious was being recognized and exploited. "Hypnosis, brain-washing, advertising, spin doctoring" "Group mind!" all of those gathered around the table spoke as if in a single voice. "Little boxes on the hillside, and they're all made out of ticky-tacky. And they all look like boxes, little boxes just the same." Priscilla sang a lilting tune attributed to a singer named Joni Mitchell of that general era. "The tyranny of the masses!" Jonathan shouted out, excited at remembering this phrase from long childhood nights spent perusing posts to the original CypherPunks mailing list. "The printing press, factories, fashions, all moving society toward a world in which the yoke of serfdom was apparently being thrown off the necks of the peasants, as kings and rulers fell by the wayside in the name of democracy and freedom. "But the Iron Hand of the monarchy, the priest and the dictator was replaced by the Steel Jaws of social mores and public opinion." Alexis nodded, adding, "They overthrew a higher authority only to fall prey to becoming a cog in the creation and machinations of a group authority." She struggled to understand what it was she was trying to put her finger on, saying, "They merely replaced one authority with another which they perceived to be a lighter burden because it more closely fit their wants and needs at the time." "The problem," Jonathan interrupted, excitedly, "was that, rather than seizing the mantle of authority over themselves and accepting responsibility for the life and their actions, they merely moved it from the hands of a small few, into the hands of the group." "And the 'problem within the problem,'" Alexis continued, "was that right and wrong, good and evil, knowledge and wisdom, was still not by virtue of their own authority, any more than it was when they were ruled by kings and priests." Bubba and the Cowboy nodded at each other, agreeing that their challenge had been met in a remarkably astute manner. "So the problem was that they moved from monarchy and plutocracy to democracy and" the Cowboy left the question hanging in the air. Jonathan, for the first time in his life, felt like he finally understood why the CypherPunks stood at a nadir point in history during the early years of the creation and propagation of the CypherPunks mailing list. He slowly intoned, "and failed to move onwardto anarchy." Copyright "TruthMonger <bianca(a)dev.null> "And I can cook, too" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- "The Xenix Chainsaw Massacre" "WebWorld & the Mythical Circle of Eunuchs" "InfoWar (Part III of 'The True Story of the InterNet') Soviet Union Sickle of Eunuchs Secret WebSite ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Crowds now available on LINUX
by Mike Reiter 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Crowds, a system for increasing your anonymity while you browse the web, now runs on RedHat Linux 4.2, in addition to SunOS, Solaris, and Irix. The code can be requested from our web site: http://www.research.att.com/projects/crowds We would like our next target OS to be freeBSD, but unfortunately we don't have a machine running it. If anyone running a recent version of freeBSD on a machine with a direct internet connection (not behind a firewall, not over a modem) would be willing to donate a few minutes to helping us port it there, we would be grateful. Typically the port doesn't take long ... basically we just need to figure out what args to pass to some fcntl calls. Mike Reiter Avi Rubin

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by HotBabe69＠ameritech.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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6 USAF Crashes in 7 days = InfoWar?
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Just a thought...

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Guardian: Screw the Internet
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text X-Authentication-Warning: fma66.fma.com: majordomo set sender to owner-espam(a)lists.espace.net using -f X-Orig-From: rah-web <rah(a)shipwright.com> X-e$pam-source: Various X-Sender: rah(a)pop.sneaker.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Sat, 20 Sep 1997 14:15:00 -0400 To: espam(a)intertrader.com From: Robert Hettinga <rah(a)shipwright.com> Subject: Guardian: Screw the Internet Sender: owner-espam(a)lists.espace.net Precedence: bulk Reply-To: e$(a)thumper.vmeng.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- This mail is brought to you by the e$pam mailing list --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: rah-web <rah(a)shipwright.com> Reply-To: rah(a)shipwright.com MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Robert Hettinga <rah(a)shipwright.com> Subject: Guardian: Screw the Internet http://go2.guardian.co.uk:80/theweb/874505219-crypt.html Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; name="874505219-crypt.html" Content-Disposition: inline; filename="874505219-crypt.html" X-MIME-Autoconverted: from 8bit to quoted-printable by lbo.leftbank.com id LAA08197 [Image] Spooks on both sides of the Atlantic are intent on retaining their power to monitor the world's telecoms traffic, writes Duncan Campbell Screw the Internet INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES in the US have stepped up their campaign to control the flow of information over the Internet, counterattacking an unholy alliance of civil libertarians and business chiefs who back the introduction of secure encryption technologies to protect personal privacy and commercial data online. Last Thursday in Congress, lobbying by the FBI and the National Security Agency won amendments to a draft pro-encryption law known as Safe (Security and Freedom through Encryption). The House Intelligence Committee replaced rights to sell effective encryption systems to the world with regulations to ban even US citizens from using them. The agencies and their political backers are now demanding that any American whose electronic communications cannot immediately be read by US intelligence should, after January 2000, face up to five years imprisonment. Furthermore, they want the US to use its political and industrial power to force the rest of the world to follow suit. Battle resumes in Washington a week today, when the likely more sympathetic House Commerce Committee will provide its review of the Safe law for Congress to consider. That done, Congessional leaders and the White House will have to negotiate which version of the Safe bill is to be taken ahead. If the new version of the bill succeeds, it will be illegal in the US to make or sell encryption systems unless the government can break the code and have "immediate access" to the contents of messages or phone calls. In Britain, the new government has soon to decide what line to take in this little-understood war that has almost paralysed the development of electronic commerce. Under pressure to formulate standards, New Labour has to decide if it wants to face the economic penalties of giving in to the spooks. If the secret agencies win, the losers will also be ordinary users of electronic commerce or e-mail. Without encryption to scramble the contents of messages, reams of Internet traffic can be read easily, not just by intelligence agencies, but by miscreants with direct access to the Net through routers or local area networks. E-mail is less secure than an ordinary telephone call, since ordinary telephone calls are connected "point to point" by a precise route rather than being broadcast between routers and into networks. Without encryption, e-mail containing sensitive private information or financial details, such as credit card numbers, can be read at numerous points as messages pass through the Net. This complex but fundamental issue for everyone in the information society has been made politically more difficult by an initiative launched in the dying days of the last government. Just before the election was called, the Department of Trade and Industry unveiled its version of the US system for ensuring that the government could read everyone's private communications. The DTI's version is a network of licensed agencies that would provide (and keep copies of) everyone's encryption codes, or keys. If sent a warrant, these Trusted Third Parties, or TTPs, would hand over keys at one hour's notice - a less demanding requirement than the latest US plans, but no less absurd or impossible to engineer, say Internet specialists. Plans to hold everyone's keys in central registries have also been slammed for creating a huge security threat, because everyone would be at risk if crooks were able to get into the central database. DTI officials were unprepared for the torrent of protest, abuse and reasoned objection that has arrived on their desks since early this summer. The former government's proposals have, it is understood, attracted not a single unqualified supporter. They were condemned out of hand by industry leaders, academics and civil libertarians alike. David Svendsen, head of Microsoft in the UK, says that "the DTI's plans are unworkable, unwieldy and unacceptable. Setting up a bureaucratic structure to regulate encryption services will isolate the UK from global electronic commerce. It will force us all to look elsewhere for barrier-free encryption technology, while UK plc will foot the bill." The battle in the US Congress follows setbacks for the intelligence agencies, which have been fighting to stop effective encryption systems from being exported. Classifying encryption software as "munitions", the US government banned the export of systems with key lengths (see Cracking the code, opposite) long enough to make them uncrackable. Thus, while Americans who use Web software browsers to make "secure" credit card purchases benefit from built-in encryption with strong 128-bit keys, Europeans have until now been permitted to use only weakened and insecure 48-bit keys. In August, the US government gave in to commercial pressure to relax restrictions, and non-US users of software to browse the Internet are already being offered upgrades to provide full 128-bit security. The catch, which is not being advertised, is that the licencees must provide the US government with backdoor access to the new systems. The extent to which this area of information technology has been held back is already remarkable. It's now 20 years since fundamental advances in mathematics created unique but simple new ways of encoding messages, known as public key cryptography, that did away with the need to exchange keys or codebooks before encrypted messages could be sent. In 1977, long before the Net reached its modern form, three mathematicians - Rivest, Shamir and Adelman - showed how to implement this revolution. Their RSA algorithm allows users to create separate "public" and "private" keys. To use a public key crytopgraphy system to, say, send a private message to OnLine, you would first obtain OnLine's published key. Many Net users (but not yet OnLine) publish such keys on their Web sites or in directories. You then scramble the message using the public key, and send it. The message can be decoded using only a matching private key, which only Online would have. The RSA algorithm is available for use on the Net, or for file protection, using a program called Pretty Good Privacy, or PGP, whose inventor, Colorado computer consultant Phil Zimmermann, is a Net legend. His reward for inventing PGP was not scientific accolade, but arrest and prosecution by the FBI. For having created PGP, he was accused of exporting munitions. Charges against Zimmermann were dropped only last year. Recognising that there could never be uniform international agreement to lock away cryptography as nuclear weapons are locked away, governments and information acquisition agencies have tended instead to attempt covertly to regulate encryption. This has taken the form of patent secrecy orders, attacks on research funding, the undermining of the international standardisation of cryptography, the harassment of inventors and commercial organisations, and legislative campaigns to restrict their work. In the shadows behind these events hide communications intelligence agencies - the US National Security Agency and Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). For 50 years, they have harvested intelligence from monitoring the world's international communications network. This activity is threatened by large-scale encryption. Historically, huge codebreaking resources have been used to try to break the codes of hostile states. But to use the same methods and resources against the mass of ordinary international communications would be costly and futile. The scale of NSA operations is staggering. Tens of billions of messages are intercepted every year. All international communications by satellite or undersea cable, and many domestic communications can be collected by taps or via satellite interception stations. GCHQ's interception station at Morwenstow near Bude, Cornwall, was built almost 30 years ago to spy not on the Soviets but on the West's international communications satellites, Intelsat. NSA's and GCHQ's electronic tentacles still reach round the world, and into the heart of Western policy making. Within the DTI, the director of technology policy and innovation, David Hendon, makes no secret that a substantial input to his work comes from GCHQ. At the European Commission, a former official of GCHQ's Communications Electronic Security Group, David Herson, has been steering EU policy on information security. Critics such as Ross Anderson, the computer security specialist based at Cambridge university, have accused them of being stooges for NSA. The DTI has hired consultants to summarise the responses to their TTP proposals, and hope to publish a summary in the autumn, together with policy proposals. The risk is that officials are still locked into the same Neanderthal security agenda that once branded the Home Secretary a subversive threat to the nation. Advice to ministers trying to understand this most complex part of the IT brief will need to balance the UK's national economic interest against the concerns of security officials anxious to maintain the intelligence service's "special relationship" with the US. Until last week's events, US attempts to control strong encryption had faced setbacks. Three weeks ago, a federal judge in San Francisco ordered the US government not to take action against Chicago academic Daniel Bernstein if he published encryption software on the Net. Export restrictions, said Judge Marilyn Patel, violated Bernstein's constitutional right to free speech. And US attempts to lobby the European Union and the OECD into backing an international system of cryptographic controls have failed. Despite US support from Britain and France, both organisations have backed and encouraged open use of cryptography (albeit with qualifications). The continued campaign against effective cryptography is still being fuelled by the raising of alarms about the potentially antisocial use of the Net, including those which Net enthusiasts cynically dub the "Four Horsemen of the Infocalypse": terrorists, drug traffickers, paedophiles and organised crime. But the argument is specious. Forcing honest individuals and companies to turn over their keys or to use only licensed keys will not prevent criminals from using strong encryption outside of the mandatory system. Labour's policy, formulated before the election, had it right : "It is not necessary to criminalise a large section of the network-using public to control the activities of a very small minority of law-breakers." (http://www.labour.org.uk/views/info-highway/content.html) Last year, EU adviser and ex-GCHQ official David Herson was astonishingly candid about the real reason for playing on fears about the Net activities of terrorists and paedophiles. "Law enforcement is a protective shield for all the other governmental activities," he told two European journalists. "We're talking about foreign intelligence . . . that's what this is all about. Law enforcement is a smoke screen." If New Labour sticks to the policy adopted before the election, it should have little difficulty reaffirming its view that attempts to control the use of encryption technology are "wrong in principle, unworkable in practice, and damaging to the long-term economic value of the information networks". But if intelligence agency dinosaurs get their way, they will jeopardise not just personal privacy but the economic rewards of Net commerce. The winners will be those countries, such as Germany and many of those in Asia, that by rule of law or through commercial instinct stay resistant to NSA's and GCHQ's intelligence imperatives. [Duncan Campbell is a freelance writer and broadcaster, and not the Guardian's crime correspondent of the same name] 17 September 1997 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Where people, networks and money come together: Consult Hyperion http://www.hyperion.co.uk info(a)hyperion.co.uk --------------------------------------------------------------------- Like e$? Help pay for it! See <http://www.shipwright.com/beg.html> Or, for e$/e$pam sponsorship, <mailto:rah@shipwright.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------- --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) Philodox e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/

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US Crypto Laws cripple Euros
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text X-Authentication-Warning: fma66.fma.com: majordomo set sender to owner-espam(a)lists.espace.net using -f X-Orig-From: rah-web <rah(a)shipwright.com> X-e$pam-source: Various X-Sender: rah(a)pop.sneaker.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Sat, 20 Sep 1997 14:15:15 -0400 To: espam(a)intertrader.com From: Robert Hettinga <rah(a)shipwright.com> Subject: US Crypto Laws cripple Euros X-MIME-Autoconverted: from 8bit to quoted-printable by lbo.leftbank.com id OAA08597 Sender: owner-espam(a)lists.espace.net Precedence: bulk Reply-To: e$(a)thumper.vmeng.com X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by pop.sneaker.net id QAA18355 --------------------------------------------------------------------- This mail is brought to you by the e$pam mailing list --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: rah-web <rah(a)shipwright.com> Reply-To: rah(a)shipwright.com MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Robert Hettinga <rah(a)shipwright.com> Subject: US Crypto Laws cripple Euros http://www.techweb.com:80/wire/news/1997/09/0917crylaws.html Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; name="0917crylaws.html" Content-Disposition: inline; filename="0917crylaws.html" X-MIME-Autoconverted: from 8bit to quoted-printable by lbo.leftbank.com i d LAA08231 [Image] [Image][IBM VisualAge for Java. Voted Best of Show Select at Windows NT Intranet Solutions Conference.] [CMPnet] [Image] [Image] [Image] [TechWeb] Search Archives: Advanced Search Sections News Finance Tips & Tools Product Reviews ActiveX/Java Careers Events Directory Opinion Humor Support Encyclopedia Information Feedback E-mail Newsletters Sponsored by: Featured Sites Net Newsmakers NetGuide Shareware Games Horoscopes [CMPnet Resources] Home Site Map Search Ad Info Sponsor Index [Click here to visit Network Computing's Interactive Report Card] [Image] [Image] [Image] [TechWire] TechWire All Home Stories Features Internet VideosCommunicat ions TechInvestor Home Apple Hardware Software Chips Internati onal U.S. Crypto Laws Cripple Euros, Expert Says (09/17/97; 5:00 p.m. EDT) By Douglas Hayward, TechWire [Image] CAMBRIDGE, England -- The U.S. government's Related strategy of monitoring the computer networks Stories: of hostile governments is damaging the communications infrastructure of its allies, The a leading encryption expert said. Governmen t Eyes The American enthusiasm for using Encryptio n "information warfare" strategies has resulted in a weakening of the U.K. and European Capitol H ill civilian communications, said Ross Anderson, Girds For Key an academic at Cambridge University, at the Clashes O ver International Symposium on Economic Crime Encryptio n held in Cambridge, England, on Tuesday. Computer Information warfare -- the act of monitoring Industry or sabotaging an enemy's communications and Riled Up Over computing infrastructure -- gained widespread FBI Chief 's attention during the Gulf War when the U.S. Suggestio n military hacked its way into Iraqi communication networks. FBI Insis ts On Crypto Anderson was a co-author of a highly critical Access report published in May that attacked the Clinton administration's encryption export Criminal control policies. The report, written by a Informati on group of encryption experts, said an attempt On The Wi res to prevent users from getting access to uncontrolled encryption products would result [*] = L ink to in substantial sacrifices in security and cost. our tech The Clinton encyclope dia -------------------administration, advised for more "We have to by the U.S. National info. question the Security Agency (NSA), [Image] wisdom of wants to be able to introducing continue monitoring the weaknesses into communications of our national potentially hostile infrastructures." countries or groups. To -- Ross Anderson do this, it wants to Cambridge prevent these groups from University using unbreakable -------------------encryption programs. This policy, dubbed Offensive, means the U.S. government insists on maintaining strict controls over the export and use of encryption to ensure that hostile governments and groups don't get access to strong [[Image] encryption tools. But this NSA-backed policy on restricting the spread of strong encryption software has held back the development of secure commercial and governmental communications networks in Europe, Anderson said. Civilian communications networks whose security has been weakened as a result of U.S. policy include the Europewide Global System for Mobile Communications telephone networks, commercial banking networks, and television broadcasting. "We have to question the wisdom of introducing weaknesses into our national infrastructures," Anderson said. Europeans are going to have to take more control over industrial aspects of encryption, he said, and develop policies with less input from the people in the Pentagon. "In the long term, the United Kingdom and its European partners have to start thinking carefully about the defensive vs. offensive aspects of this business, Anderson said. "The time is right for a fundamental realignment of resources in this field." Restrictions on encryption use mean the British Patent Office has to use a weak form of encryption when communicating with its counterparts overseas, Anderson said. "They use the size of keys I give to my students to break as exercises," Anderson said. The result is that highly confidential information, including very valuable details of intellectual property, can be intercepted and decoded, he said. [TW] Search Archives [Image] C M P n e t S P E C I A L R E P O R T S · Upgrading your operating system is nerve-wracking, [Ima ge] but we all have to face the possibility sooner or later. · What are key Microsoft execs and product managers saying [Image] [about IE 4? · Keep your laptop safe with this state-of-the-art safety feature. · What's wrong with a Java network computer? Java. [Image] · There's more to remote access than modem banks. [CMPnet] [Image] [Click here to visit Seagate Software.] [Image] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Where people, networks and money come together: Consult Hyperion http://www.hyperion.co.uk info(a)hyperion.co.uk --------------------------------------------------------------------- Like e$? Help pay for it! See <http://www.shipwright.com/beg.html> Or, for e$/e$pam sponsorship, <mailto:rah@shipwright.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------- --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) Philodox e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/

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FIPS for KMI
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

It's worth looking closely at the Cryptography Key Recovery System (CKRS) documents published recently as part of the FIPS KMI program. A meeting is scheduled next month. See the listing of the August Meeting reports at: http://csrc.nist.gov/tacdfipsfkmi/ They show how far the key recovery program has advanced.

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San Diego CPunk Physical meet this Thursday
by Christian Claborne 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- This Wednesday!!! San Diego Area CPUNKS symposium Wednesday, Sep. 24, 1997. Topic: What action do we take if the situation get's out of hand (See message below from Mark H. below). It is my belief that any group, no matter how small, can accomplish great things if they apply themselves. Cypherpunks are not just "users", they poses several additional quanta of the stuff that enables creative thought, and skill. Don't forget to bring your public key fingerprint. If you can figure out how to get it on the back of a business card, that would be cool. If you want the suspicious crowd there to sign your key, bring two forms of ID. Place: The Mission Cafe & Coffee Shop 3795 Mission Bl in Mission Beach. 488-9060 Time:1800 Their Directions: 8 west to Mission Beach Ingram Exit Take west mission bay drive Go right on Mission Blvd. On the corner of San Jose and mission blvd. It is located between roller coaster and garnett. It's kind of 40s looking building... funky looking (their description, not mine) They serve stuff to eat, coffee stuff, and beer + wine stuff. See you there! New guy, bring your fingerprint. Drop me a note if you plan to attend... 2 -- C -- - ------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Sep 1997 16:04:22 -0700 (PDT) From: Mark Hedges <hedges(a)infonex.com> To: all-at-infonex(a)infonex.com Subject: federal cryptography legislation Sender: owner-all-at-infonex(a)infonex.com - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- A bill called "SAFE" (HR-695, "Security and Freedom with Encryption") in the U.S. House of Representatives would have allowed U.S. software companies to export strong cryptography, and would have promoted privacy in all U.S. communications. Cryptography is mathematical means of making a message secret. Now, this bill has been rewritten to introduce more restrictive cryptography legislation than ever before seen in the U.S. Public support for cryptography use and export is very strong, as evidenced by the California state legislature's unanimous vote 9/5/97, calling on Congress and the President to revise and relax export laws (SJR-29). Companies world-wide already produce strong cryptograpy software, and U.S. buisness is rapidly losing ground in the world-wide software and telecommunications market. The House National Security Committee this week voted to continue export restrictions in the SAFE bill and to install "key escrow" proposals of the defense and intelligence organizations. This would not only continue the status quo legislation, it would strictly regulate and restrict domestic use of cryptography, an unprecedented act. Key escrow legislation in SAFE would mandate government "back doors" in all communications software before the end of the millennia in the United States, imposing criminal penalties for use of secure cryptography. Effectively, every citizen would be required to give law enforcement involuntary and transparent access to all communications, including financial, business, and personal messages. Key escrow also exposes all U.S. communication to a single point of failure, which a hacker, spy, or corrupt official could exploit to gain access to all personal, industry, and financial information. More information is available in our most recent press release. Press releases can be viewed at http://www.anonymizer.com/press/. Please, call your congressional representatives and senators and encourage them to oppose restrictive legislation on cryptography and mandated government access to all communications. Names and phone numbers for your local legislators can be obtained from www.house.gov and www.senate.gov. Sincerely, Mark Hedges Anonymizer Inc. Infonex Internet Inc. - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBNBnJhBVo2SUWMp6NAQFyNQP/UuogfBfcjRw7q5rda8+1BrGkMEHpixau J7JfbhKyv5yWdPZsnh8F3m/kaUahLEaSdLCcmAJzbroKApGBjUtT6bRacOtVps3X TzZXLO2NZd4UBsksUC1f3WWnnRl8+03jiQMboSpBvUVmHqA1sFiz3OQpJVWv1yge jEEk7R2Maeg= =VrfI - -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP for Personal Privacy 5.0 Charset: noconv iQEVAwUBNCRRAIP1MBWQ+9udAQHNuAf/Wf/vf7O7A3iZhd9BjlzyI0FvcOTelUOs 5JhxXN0w86YWzoluZue8jY7uKmxGVuySdikQSw4OxLS5wZG05nByoIQlhlzLPYIl vrQuQZ0EeGIOycwS7IuNLFFyx+C1E7HxcdX0UR3qMDgEiiFb09DlcuDHeSp52RZW s6t7AFR7ZoVz28KanihgDRQdk9QTw0HuaZV3hHNl11610HaPURRe4SX7zgR1cHAf naoTZI70GqVoUVYVrm+oVHln7HsdFqnrO/1GAVpLzKpEnzfT9C0d0o7T4t/WX4CM yeeO2UZUwfg01VyCHORpFYbx1SrFlW4rZNZqOJMP2lA2cNDZBsLrhg== =/sWk -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ... __o .. -\<, Claborne(a)CYBERTHOUGHT.com ...(*)/(*)._ Providing thoughts on your computing needs. http://www.CYBERTHOUGHT.com/cyberthought/ PGP Pub Key fingerprint = 7E BF 38 3F 24 A7 D1 B0 54 44 96 AA 10 D0 5D 51 Avail on Pub Key server. PGP-encrypted e-mail welcome! Dreams. They are just a "screen saver" for the brain.

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