- cypherpunks-legacy - lists.cpunks.org

Re: Terrorism is a NON-THREAT (fwd)
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

snow wrote: > > > People kill for religion, politics, insanity, and fun. > > Nope. Economics, survival, revenge, and insanity. Nope. Voices inside my head.

1 0

Re: Why porn must be stopped at all costs, by Jodi Hoffman
by Abstruse 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> Someone on this list, I forget who, has made numerous attempts at > convincing us that pornography 'does no harm' to children. It is > exactly at this point that I must draw a line. Studies have shown that > an event which lasts even so much as three-tenths of a second, within > five to ten minutes has produced a structural change in the brain. > Exposure to porn causes actual brain damage, especially in a child. let me guess . . . scientology? it sounds to me as if you just despise porn so much that you're seeing red, and hence . . . not seeing the facts straight (or believing whatever you [want to] hear).

1 0

Financial Cryptography '98 Final Call for Papers
by Ray Hirschfeld 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Financial Cryptography '98 Second International Conference February 23-26, 1998, Anguilla, BWI FINAL CALL FOR PAPERS General Information: Financial Cryptography '98 (FC98) is a conference on the security of digital financial transactions. Meetings alternate between the island of Anguilla in the British West Indies and other locations. This second meeting will be held in Anguilla on February 23-26, 1998. FC98 aims to bring together persons involved in both the financial and data security fields to foster cooperation and exchange of ideas. Original papers are solicited on all aspects of financial data security and digital commerce in general, including Anonymous Payments Fungibility Authentication Home Banking Communication Security Identification Conditional Access Implementations Copyright Protection Loss Tolerance Credit/Debit Cards Loyalty Mechanisms Currency Exchange Legal Aspects Digital Cash Micropayments Digital Receipts Network Payments Digital Signatures Privacy Issues Economic Implications Regulatory Issues Electronic Funds Transfer Smart Cards Electronic Purses Standards Electronic Voting Tamper Resistance Electronic Wallets Transferability Instructions for Authors: Send a cover letter and 12 copies of an extended abstract to be received by November 17, 1997 (or postmarked by November 7, 1997 and sent via airmail) to the Program Chair at the address given below. The extended abstract (a short draft of the full paper, typically 10 pages in length) should start with the title, the names of the authors, and an abstract followed by a succinct statement appropriate for a non-specialist reader specifying the subject addressed, its background, the main achievements, and their significance to financial data security. Submissions are limited to 15 single-spaced pages of 12pt type. Notification of acceptance or rejection will be sent to authors no later than January 12, 1998. Authors of accepted papers must guarantee that their paper will be presented at the conference. Proceedings: Proceedings of the conference will be published by Springer Verlag in their Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series. Preproceedings will be available at the conference, but final versions will not be due until afterwards, giving authors the opportunity to revise their papers based on presentations and discussions at the meeting. Instructions and deadlines for submission of final papers will be sent later to authors of accepted papers. Rump Session: In addition to the regular conference program, a rump session will be held to provide an opportunity for less formal presentations. Although the rump session will be organized during the conference itself, any advance proposals may be sent to the Program Co-Chair at the email address given below. Rump session contributions will not appear in the conference proceedings. Stipends: A very limited number of stipends may be available to those unable to obtain funding to attend the conference. Students whose papers are accepted and who will present the paper themselves are encouraged to apply if such assistance is needed. Requests for stipends should be addressed to one of the General Chairs. Registration: Information about conference registration and on travel, hotels, and Anguilla itself will follow in a separate general announcement. There are special reduced registration rates for full-time academics and students. Further information about registration is available online via the URL listed below. Workshop: A workshop, intended for anyone with commercial software development experience who wants hands-on familiarity with the issues and technology of financial cryptography, is planned in conjunction with FC98, to be held during the week following the conference. Further information about the workshop is available online via the URL listed below. For information about workshop registration, please contact one of the General Chairs. Special Attraction: On Thursday, February 26, 1998, there will be a total eclipse of the sun. The narrow zone of 100% totality will pass just south of Anguilla, and there should be an excellent view of the eclipse from the conference site. Send Submissions to: Rafael Hirschfeld FC98 Program Chair CWI Kruislaan 413 1098 SJ Amsterdam The Netherlands email: ray(a)cwi.nl phone: +31 20 592 4169 fax: +31 20 592 4199 Send Rump Session Contributions to: Matthew Franklin FC98 Program Co-Chair email: franklin(a)research.att.com Program Committee: Matt Blaze, AT&T Laboratories--Research, Florham Park, NJ, USA Antoon Bosselaers, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium Yves Carlier, Bank for International Settlements, Basel, Switzerland Walter Effross, Washington College of Law, American U., Washington DC, USA Matthew Franklin, AT&T Laboratories--Research, Florham Park, NJ, USA Michael Froomkin, U. Miami School of Law, Coral Gables, FL, USA Rafael Hirschfeld, CWI, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Alain Mayer, Bell Laboratories/Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, NJ, USA Moni Naor, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel Frank Trotter, Mark Twain Ecash/Mercantile Bank, St. Louis, MO, USA Doug Tygar, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA Moti Yung, CertCo LLC (formerly: Bankers Trust E-Commerce), New York, NY, USA General Chairs: Robert Hettinga, Shipwright, Boston, MA, USA email: rah(a)shipwright.com Vincent Cate, Offshore Information Services, Anguilla, BWI email: vince(a)offshore.com.ai Exhibits and Sponsorship Manager: Julie Rackliffe, Boston, MA, USA email: julie(a)sneaker.net Workshop Leader: Ian Goldberg, Berkeley, CA, USA email: iang(a)cs.berkeley.edu Financial Cryptography '98 is held in cooperation with the International Association for Cryptologic Research. FC98 is sponsored by: RSA Data Security Inc. <http://www.rsa.com> C2NET, Inc. <http://www.c2.net> Hansa Bank & Trust Company Limited, Anguilla <http://www.hansa.net/> Offshore Information Services <http://www.offshore.com.ai/> e$ <http://www.shipwright.com> Those interested in becoming a sponsor of FC98 or in purchasing exhibit space, please contact the Exhibits and Sponsorship Manager. A copy of this call for papers as well as other information about the conference will be available at URL http://www.cwi.nl/conferences/FC98.

1 0

Funding Cypherpunks Action Projects
by bureau42 Anonymous Remailer 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I have worked out a plan whereby we can auction off the role of Cypherpunks Chief Spokesperson in order to fund CAP's. The idea for a Spokesperson pyramid scheme came to me after realizing that the list has not only a variety of individuals competing as the chief list 'Fed baiters', but also quite a number of people who enjoy 'Christian baiting', as well: TruthMonger, playing with his private parts, wrote: > Why does it not come as a surprise that this Dumb Cunt Nazi Christian > Bitch (TM) is hiding behind 'the children,' hoping that it will prevent > her from being a target of reprisal for the bullshit she is flinging > at others? > Why doesn't someone shoot this Dumb Cunt Nazi Christian Bitch? > If it saves the life of just one child... Eric Cordian spit out: > "Puritanism" might be defined as the fear that someone, somewhere, is > having a porn-induced orgasm. Stable people tend to worry about their > own orgasms, and not their neighbors. Perhaps if you had a few > orgasms yourself, you might lose interest in the orgasms of others. > [Nonsense Deleted] > Please bite my enormous throbbing love sausage with an ice cube in your > mouth. Jesus Christ wrote: > If you will check the Biblical Archives, I think you will find > that Peter never really fooled anyone, either. > {Speaking of which, do you also plan to censor the parts of the > Bible which quote my use of the word, "cock?"} There is no telling how much money we could raise by appealing to the macho male egos on the list who lock horns in CypherPissing cock-size wars, if we were to take bids on the honor of being the Cypherpunks' authorized 'Fed-baiter' or 'Christian-pisser', etc. Given the wide variety of individuals, groups, organizations, corporations, government agencies, etc., which have been the target of vicious attacks on this list, there is no end of the number of CypherPisser Ambassadorships we could invent to fill the Cypherpunks Action Projects coffers. Cypherpunks Chief MLM Spokesman

1 0

Re: www.cypherpunks.to
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Lucky Green wrote: > > What happened to www.cypherpunks.to? It appears to have disappeared. > > The server works fine and I can reach it from the US. I tried www.cypherpunks.to and couldn't get connected. I dropped the www and got sent to the www site. And the root password there is...

2 1

Pet Bog Crypto Ban
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

As a strategic bank shot for banning domestic use of encryption the US FBI and Fish and Wildlife Service have declared the pet Bog Snatch Algorithm a terrorist threat: http://jya.com/fws110497.txt (134K) B. Overutilization for Commercial, Recreational, Scientific, or Educational Purposes The bog turtle is a target for pet collectors due to its rarity in the wild, distinctive coloration, and small size. Take (primarily illegal) both for the national and international commercial pet trade industry has occurred for many years. Collecting is a significant factor in the species decline and is an ongoing threat to its continued existence in the wild (Anon. 1991; Earley 1993; David Flemming, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in litt. 1991; Herman 1990; Klemens in press; Stearns et al. 1990; Tryon 1990; Tryon and Herman 1990). During the last 5 to 10 years, an increasing number of bog turtles have been advertised for sale, and prices have increased substantially. The increase in price most likely reflects the increase in demand for the turtles; the increase in demand increases the threats to the wild populations (Tryon and Herman 1990). Atlanta Zoo personnel reported that from 1989 to early 1991, over 1000 bog turtles were exported to Japan. These figures differ significantly from CITES data and represent a significant amount of unreported illegal trade (Anon. 1991). The World Wildlife Fund recently listed bog turtles as among the world's top 10 ``most wanted'' endangered species (Earley 1993). According to Alan Salzburg, President of the American Turtle and Tortoise Society, the bog turtle is considered the most prized turtle in the United States, and when bog turtle locations become publicly known, they are exploited by collectors within 1 year (Laura Hood, Defenders of Wildlife, in litt. 1997). Due to the threats facing bog turtle populations, the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles adopted a resolution calling for the prohibition of collection from wild populations (Stearns et al. 1990). Due to the small size of existing populations, and the low reproductive and recruitment potential of this species, the removal of even a few breeding adults can do irrevocable damage to a population (Tryon 1990). Collecting has been a factor in the reduction or extirpation of several bog turtle populations in Delaware (Anon. 1991), Maryland (Anon. 1991; Smith, in litt. 1994), Massachusetts (Anon. 1991), New Jersey (Farrell and Zappalorti 1989; Zappalorti, pers. comm. 1994; Zappalorti, in litt. 1997), New York (Breisch, in litt. 1993; Breisch et al., in litt. 1994; Collins 1990; Behler, in litt. 1997), and Pennsylvania (Ralph Pisapia, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in litt. 1992; Zappalorti, in litt. 1997). Many sites in these States have suitable habitat, but have much-reduced bog turtle populations, probably due to collecting. Throughout the bog turtle's entire range, States regulate take through classification of the species as endangered (in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia) or threatened (in Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee), yet trade continues. Illegal trade is difficult to detect due to the questionable origin of turtles being offered for sale. Bog turtles are often ``laundered'' through States which either do not have native populations (e.g., West Virginia, Florida, California), or through States which have inadequate protection of their own bog turtle populations (Charles Bepler, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in litt. 1993; Breisch, in litt. 1993; Michael Klemens, in litt. 1990). For example, in recent years dealers have claimed West Virginia as the State of origin for bog turtles; however, there is no evidence to support the contention that the bog turtle occurs in that State (Dennis Herman, Project Bog Turtle Coordinator, in litt. 1997; Tom Thorp, North Carolina Herpetological Society, in litt. 1997). Hatchling and juvenile turtles marketed as ``captive-born'' are usually offspring from gravid adult females illegally brought into captivity and held until they deposit eggs. The eggs are then hatched in captivity, and the captive-born (but not captive-bred) offspring are then marketed or retained (Bepler, in litt. 1993). A few specific instances of illegal bog turtle collecting and trade are reported below: (1) An undercover officer purchased eight bog turtles from a person who had collected them near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Also, two additional bog turtles were recovered from persons who had gotten them from friends allegedly in the New York area (Bepler, in litt. 1993); (2) An individual from New Jersey was arrested for bringing bog turtles from New Jersey to Florida and selling them as captive-born. It is suspected that he collected about six turtles per year over a period of several years (Bepler, in litt. 1993); (3) A reliable source in New York reported that over 2000 wild- caught bog turtles were shipped to Japan in a 2-year period (Murdock, in litt. 1990); (4) Researchers found several turtle traps and a much-diminished bog turtle population at an important bog turtle site in Pennsylvania (Pisapia, in litt. 1992); (5) In 1993, a New Jersey resident purchased 47 bog turtles in Florida, and since 1984 had also bought 20 additional bog turtles. This individual supposedly has an active breeding program for bog turtles (Terry Tarr, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in litt. 1993); (6) When confronted in a New York wetland, an individual claiming to be a birdwatcher revealed the contents of the cloth bag he was carrying--a bog turtle and spotted turtle (Paul Novak, New York Natural Heritage Program, in litt. 1990); (7) A reliable source reported seeing approximately 60 bog turtles at the Ohio residence of a person who frequents reptile shows. Based on the physical appearance of the bog turtles, they were not captive-bred (Scott Smith, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, in litt. 1996); (8) Bog turtles have been available at the major Herpetological Expo in Orlando, Florida for the last 2 years (Herman, in litt. 1997; Thorp, in litt. 1997); and (9) Bog turtles were observed in several Florida dealerships in 1996, although they have not been openly advertised for sale (Herman, in litt. 1997). The general consensus among bog turtle researchers, nongame biologists, and law enforcement officials is that illegal collecting is occurring at a much greater rate than detected or reported (Anon. 1991; Breisch, in litt. 1993; Flemming, in litt. 1991). Bog turtles are already extremely low in numbers throughout much of their range, and any additional take could eliminate marginal populations and hamper survival and recovery efforts. Protecting existing sites for bog turtles can pose a threat when these specific sites are revealed and publicized. In addition to the threat of collection for the pet trade industry, collection of bog turtles for exhibition at nature centers is also a threat (Anon. 1991).

1 0

Porn gave me brain damage!!
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I have been reading this list for some time now but have only posted a few messages, you might recall them, they were about the government using perceived threats to convince the public that they needed legislation to protect them from harmful elements on the Internet. I am not posting now about any sort of government conspiracy or mind control tactics used to convince people they need to give up rights in order to be safe, I am posting to tell you all how very wrong I was. I have just come from the neurologist where I was diagnosed with dementia pornographia, a syndrome caused by exposure to pornography. I have been afflicted with an obsession with pornography since I first realized I was attracted to women. I remember looking at them and imagining them with no clothes on. I know now that this is when the damage was begun, and there is nothing I can do now to reverse it. My first taste of pornography was in junior high school. We had a sex ed class and the textbook was full of crudely drawn genetalia. I looked at these pictures frequently while studying, little did I know what was being done to me, the pictures were causing chemical changes in my brain, stimulating synapses and causing neurons to fire. At first I was like any normal kid, very loving and close to my family. As I got drawn deeper and deeper into pornography I changed, first I started hanging around with other boys interested in female genetalia. Then I started searching through my parents belongings and stealing whatever I could to support my habits. Newspapers, catalogs, books, national geographic, anything with pictures of women in it would do. My parents didn't understand what I was going through they just assumed that I was going through a phase, they didn't know that my little "phase" caused new hormones to be released into my brain changing it for good. Through most of my high school and college years I was a dedicated porn user. I always surrounded myself with people that thought porn was "cool" or that it was "no big deal". I became increasingly estranged from my family and even went so far as to move away from home for my freshman year in college. I was 18 now and could legally buy dangerous pornographic material. Once I was living away from home I started experimenting with pre-marital sex. At first I knew it was wrong, but all my friends were doing it so I did it to fit in. Soon I became to desire it, even need it. If I went for a while without it I would do just about anything to "get laid". When A friend of mine introduced me to the Internet all my prayers had been answered, all the porn I could ever need and people werejust giving it away. I was chipping away at my brain bit by bit, every site, every newsgroup, every picture, every chatroom, was drawing me deeper into the world of porn. Then I read Jodi Hoffmam's post and I knew that I needed help. I hope that this can help people, I am to far gone to be helped now. I hope people can learn from the mistakes I made. I hope something can be done to stop the rampant proliferation of porn from hurting other innocent children, too young to know better, but having lost their innocence and having experienced more than any child should. It is the children that are losing in the war against pornography. --Bucky

1 0

Re: Why porn must be stopped at all costs.....
by mark＠unicorn.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Jodi Hoffman <jlhoffm(a)ibm.net> wrote: >Try as I might, I cannot forget standing on the steps of the Supreme >Court building with my husband and 10 year old daughter in the freezing >drizzle. I'm sure that your daughter can't forget such an obvious example of child abuse either. Perhaps someone should inform the BATF? >Don't >you realize that YOU are a major reason for the downward spiral of >society? Don't tell them or they'll all want one... >Studies have shown that >an event which lasts even so much as three-tenths of a second, within >five to ten minutes has produced a structural change in the brain. Studies have shown that anti-porn rhetoric kills babies and causes cancer in lab rats. Which studies? The ones I just made up... of course your comment isn't a total lie, it's just a blatant and, frankly, inept attempt to twist reality to support your cause. The human brain is a neural network; any data entering into it changes its structure. Which leads to the inevitable conclusion that: Exposure to anti-porn rhetoric causes actual brain damage, especially in a child. >So, keep protecting your porn-induced orgasms. That's exactly what >happened with the Hitler youth, etc... I think you'll find that the Hitler Youth were too busy burning 'pornography' to read it, though I guess burning books may have given them orgasms. Many people seem to have the hots for it, after all. >RULE FOR REVOLUTION #1: CORRUPT THE NATION'S YOUTH [Rest deleted; I'm glad to see that the revolution is proceeding as planned. I'll mention you at the next Illuminati Grand Council.] >RULE FOR REVOLUTION #2: CONTROL THE MASS MEDIA Ah, this is where I come in; I have, sadly, been neglecting my cypherpunk duties lately because I've been spending too much time on film-making. You see, I have this dream; I want to make a movie of the entire Bible, and not the old Charlton Heston version, but totally unexpurgated, keeping entirely to the text, including all those embarassing bits about Lot's daughters screwing their father while he slept in order to have his children ('No, no your honor, it wasn't me, they did it to me in my sleep'), men who are hung like stallions, and babies having their brains bashed out of their skulls. Why? Because I want to see the religious censors squirm... I do so enjoy their anti-porn and anti-violence rants when they're pushing one of the most violent and pornographic novels ever written. >Jodi Hoffman R.A.M.P. http://www.gocin.com/ramp >Victimization of Children/Research & Education Council of America Excuse me? You're part of the 'Victimization of Children Council'? You mean child victimizers have their own lobby group these days? Boy, ain't America wonderful? Mark

1 0

Interpol on Computer Crime / Cryptography
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text To: Digital Commerce Society of Boston <dcsb(a)ai.mit.edu> From: oldbear(a)arctos.com (The Old Bear) Subject: Interpol on Computer Crime / Cryptography Date: Sun, 2 Nov 1997 14:50:39 -0500 Sender: bounce-dcsb(a)ai.mit.edu Precedence: bulk Reply-To: oldbear(a)arctos.com (The Old Bear) Status: U --- Forwarded message follows --- Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 05:09:25 +-5-30 From: Rishab Aiyer Ghosh <rishab(a)dxm.org> Subject: Interpol on Computer Crime Telecom-Digest: Volume 17, Issue 299 Lines: 135 In the context of FBI Director Louis Freeh's statements on computer crime, here's the Interpol take. -rishab [from American Reporter, the Internet's only daily newspaper, www.american-reporter.com] EXCLUSIVE: INTERPOL'S TOP INTERNET CRIMEFIGHTER SPEAKS OUT Rishab Aiyer Ghosh American Reporter Correspondent New Delhi, India NEW DELHI -- The impact of the Internet on crime-fighting may not be as great as some hope, Interpol's top expert on networked computer crimes has told the American Reporter. Hiroaki Takizawa says old-fashioned methods of seeking evidence and gathering information may remain the staple of crimefighters for a long time to come. Takizawa talked to the American Reporter at the 66th annual General Assembly of the worldwide crime-fighting organization Interpol <http://www.interpol-pr.com> in New Delhi last week, where one of the key topics of the conference was the impact of the Internet on global crime and enforcement. In an interview, the top Interpol expert on Internet and computer crimes, Hiroaki Takizawa, said despite the serious problems being posed by the Internet to police everywhere, traditional, off-line evidence gathering and investigation will remain the primary tools of law enforcement. Takizawa admitted that strong cryptography and anonymous email make illicit transactions difficult to monitor or trace through the Internet. Interpol, he said, is concerned at the spread of cryptography, but does not advocate legislation banning it. "What we concentrate on is the implementation of legislation, rather than legislation itself," said Takizawa, when asked if he favored a crypto ban. "Police need human and financial resources" to investigate crime using the Internet, feels Takizawa, more than unenforceable legislative bans. Do police make use of intercepted messages much, on a global scale? "Yes, I think so, yeah," said Takizawa. However, "we don't, we haven't had many cases" that relied on undecipherable messages as evidence. "I don't think the Interpol plays an important role so far as [legislation on] cryptography is concerned," says Takizawa. The Interpol cannot make binding treaties affecting national law -- "it is not really a policy developing organization," he said. Instead, it makes resolutions "from the police point of view" -- and its members then go home to lobby with their governments. It does not intend to make any resolutions on cryptography, though. Instead "[Interpol] will focus on training and coordination" so that police forces around the world "can develop practical solutions." As for changing the law, "the OECD<http://www.oecd.org> has started discussion" on cryptography -- and has come to the conclusion <http://www.oecd.org/dsti/iccp/crypto_e.html> that crypto bans are not a good approach. Interpol finds that an increasing amount of its work involves the Net or computers in one way or another, and has set up a team to figure out where police -- and the Interpol -- can have an effective role. Interpol divides digital crime into three areas: computer crime, which includes piracy, data-theft and time-theft (computer break-ins); computer-related crime, which is mainly bank fraud -- "what was a crime earlier with paper, but is now done with a computer," as Takizawa says, and pornography. The third, most recent area that "everyone's talking about now," Takizawa said, is what Interpol calls "network crime": the use of the Internet for transactions that are already illegal -- child pornography -- or aid illegal activity -- often involving the drug trade, customs evasion and money laundering. Takizawa finds that of these network crimes, child pornography and the use of the Internet as an accessory to child sex abuse -- on-line advertisements for Asian "sex tours" targeted at Westerners, for example -- is the easiest to tackle. Stopping the distribution of pornography itself is harder, though, thanks to the Internet -- "normally [pornography] was checked at the airport and confiscated by customs, now you just download it by computer" -- so Interpol doesn't even try, he says. "Interception [is] impossible," said Takizawa bluntly. Instead, Interpol uses the easily searched structure of the Net to trace material back to its off-line origins. Police aided by Interpol's global network locate brochures for sex tourism on the Net much more easily than if they were in print, and follow up with off-line investigations and arrests, he said. The cross-jurisdictional nature of the Net -- and the fact that countries disagree on precisely what activities are criminal -- is less of a problem for child pornography than money-laundering. Takizawa describes a recent case involving Germany and Japan: "from Germany we received information [on child pornography found online] pointing to Japan. Through Interpol we [passed] it on to Japan," where authorities traced the originators and made arrests. And what about money laundering? Doesn't the prospect of untraceable, anonymous global electronic commerce on the Internet scare Interpol? "Well, my counter-question is, have there been so many cases of ... [monetary] transactions using [the] Internet?" asks Takizawa. Perhaps not -- yet. But once you have some form of the digital currency required for any large-scale electronic commerce, what will Interpol do about money laundering? "We don't know," he admits. When cyberpayments are common, Takizawa adds, "we cannot tell you what's going to happen. Everybody wants to know that. If you can predict it perhaps you [will] get the Nobel prize!" For an organization sometimes represented as a global police force -- which Interpol is not -- being a coordinating body for 178 national law enforcement agencies worldwide -- Takizawa's depiction of its Internet policy is surprisingly tame. His view well may stem from a basic understanding of the nature of crime, which doesn't occur on the Internet so much as pass through it. However much criminals use the Net, says Takizawa, police will always "need more evidence outside the network." ---------------- Rishab Aiyer Ghosh <rishab(a)dxm.org> is Editor of the New Delhi-based Indian Techonomist, a popular technology journal. For help on using this list (especially unsubscribing), send a message to "dcsb-request(a)ai.mit.edu" with one line of text: "help". --- 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/ Ask me about FC98 in Anguilla!: <http://www.fc98.ai/>

1 0

Profiling/pc security at Ben-Gurion Airport, Tel Aviv, Israel
by kraiwut＠samart.co.th 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Profiling/personal computer security at Ben Gurion Airport, Tel Aviv I just had a rather unholy experience in Israel. Maybe someone with expertise can email me a few suggestions with regards to securing a PC at start up. On Nov. 2nd I arrived three hours early to Ben Gurion Airport for my flight to Bangkok(via Amman, Jordan). While standing in line before the check-in counters I listened to Shin Bet representatives interrogating passengers. When my turn came the friendly skies turned dark. Apparently my responses to the standardized questions became an unwelcome indictment. I believe a few things contributed to my being selected: 1) jobless but carrying a generous roll of C notes and a stack of trav. checks 2) purchased a one-way the day before from an Arab travel agent(with credit card, not cash) 3) declined an Israeli stamp in my passport(*red flag*) 4) numerous stamps from Arab countries; travelled overland from Sinai 5) I rented a car from an Arab agency located in East Jerusalem These characteristics qualified me for a trip to the back room where they opened my bag and discovered a computer. "Why didn't you tell me you had a computer?" the Shin Bet trainee demanded in a somewhat agitated tone. "Because you didn't ask", I replied. A few moments later someone emerged from yet another back room and asked me something stupid about the computer's battery. I removed the battery as requested. He then asked to see the computer ostensibly to send it through a machine to determine if it was actually a well-disguised bomb. That was his pretense as the computer disappeared for more than 45 minutes. About 5 minutes after he left with the computer someone else walked into the room and gave me the floppy that I always leave in that drive. I assume that this means that they began working on the machine as soon as they left the room with it. Later someone else from another building came to look at the computer so I guess this means that they have a few guys who swing between the four departure terminals checking on progress or doing whatever. When the guy returned my computer there was a half inch crack on the side of my Toshiba that hadn't been there when he left with it. Perhaps they took a hammer and chisel to my hardware. I started it up and found that the Windows 95 password was compromised(no flames, please). I know that you can by-pass the Win95 password by going to the DOS mode, then tweaking something. However, I don't think that was done as the network configuration was altered and some sort of recent Win95 utility was installed( and it wasn't mine). I say recent because I have a newer version Win95 on my desktop so the slight differences are easily apparent to me. The shut down option has a different("shut down and allow user to log on") something or other than was there before. Now the password feature is fucked and the battery management feature isn't working either. I have PGP5.0 installed and a few other easy-to-use crypto and stego programs but nothing was said about those. I have three documents encrypted with PGP but I seriously doubt that they were found. They opened four documents in WordPerfect but nothing in those documents is in the least bit interesting. They easily could have copied the entire C drive and given the machine back to me. Or they could snatch an identity or two and use them for their own corrupt pursuits. What can I do to make the computer fucking impenetrable at start up? --- to the point that they have to ask me for the password or nothing moves. The whole episode was unfucking believable and that wasn't all. I had a $50 bill stashed in a small space in my backpack. While in the terminal waiting to board I discovered it missing. One of the urchins who was protecting the Jewish state from terrorism burned me. The adapter for my Canon printer is missing as well. In short, the Israelis are unscrupulous bastards who deserve a suitcase nuke. I am convinced of this after having visited the tragedy known as the Occupied Territories--- but that is another matter. I wrote down most of the questions used for their profiling scheme. If anyone is interested I will send them if requested. If anyone is interested in creating a page dedicated to these profiling schemes(American, Israeli, anyone) I would be happy to contribute. send security suggestions to: hico(a)hotmail.com

4 3