- cypherpunks-legacy - lists.cpunks.org

Re: Re: CRACKIT.DAT increased to 50,000 bytes.
by DataETRsch＠aol.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi, In a message dated 97-05-28 04:39:24 EDT, you write: << Actions such as yours inspire trust in the cryptographic software that you write, if it passes the review. >> Thank-you very much. By the way, I realize that increasing the size of the encrypted file used for the contest is unnecessary and actually makes decryption easier in most cases. I'll let everyone @ toad.com know that the original encrypted message was "cut" and "pasted" over and over again to increase the final message to 50,000 bytes. So, there's is *decrypted* data repetition. (I know, it's was a stupid thing to do, but I believe in VSA2048's security, obviously.) However, as you probably have discovered, none of the *encrypted* data repeats or show any congruent/linear pattern. (In fact, there is no pattern whatsoever.) Also, along with the simple decryption tool, a simple flowchart of VSA2048 will be released that will show that VSA2048 is NOT is as simple as many seem to think. (No, it's not just a random XOR-er. Take a look at the VSACMProcessOperation and VSACMInternal functions. If it were simply a random XOR-er, the data could probably be decrypted in a few days, if even that long.) I truly hope that all of the cypherpunks out there are working on cracking the CRACKIT.DAT file used for the decryption contest or have worked on decrypting it but just gave up. (Contest details will be posted every now and then to cypherpunks(a)toad.com and other crypto-related mailing lists.) I realize that many of you out there live to take snake-oil crypto off the face of the planet. Not that it is snake-oil, but take a shot at hacking VSA2048. (Use your Crays, Delta, UNIXs, sync-ed Pentiums, mainframes, whatever. We don't care.) Regards, Jeremy Yu-Ramos DataET Research

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Re: OECD attacks one of the Four Horsemen
by nobody＠huge.cajones.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

TruthMonger wrote: >There will be a "War on Porn" on the internet that will mirror the >"War on Drugs" currently taking place. In financial, as well as freedoms, cost. >All that the government wants is their piece of the action. Like >drugs, the porn will always be available, but the price will >fluctuate according to the level of government control and/or >illegality. Yup. Like drugs, "intelligence" agencies will also get <ahem> intimately involved, and then deny it, in a romantic tradition dating back before language. >The "War on Porn" will turn into another essential national industry >which will become part of the GNP. A negative part. Tax-spend. Spend-tax. >The "winners" in this war will be the journalists who have covered >the "War on Drugs" as they will merely have to dust off old stories >and substitute "Porn" for "Drugs" wherever it occurs. The real winners will also be in a strange quarter. The Playboys and Penthouses of this world are concerned about profit, not morality, but they will be perfectly willing to surreptitiously line up with the Christian Coalition on this one. Strange bedfellows. >The "loser" will be the Hoover Vacume Cleaner Company, whose development >of Virtual Cathouse technology will fall victim to new legislation. Old Woody Allen movies, anyone? om

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Apology
by MoneyMan＠goplay.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

This is a formal apology for the Chain letter I sent you. I was not aware at the time that things such as these were illegal. Please be reassured that you will no longer be recieving any mail from me. I am once again sorry if I have caused you any problems. Eric

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The Bible Code
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Published today with great fanfare, "The Bible Code" describes the fruits of three Israeli mathematicians in decrypting hidden messages in the Bible by textual analysis algorithms. Blurbs claim that the work passed peer review for publication in a math journal a few years back, was confirmed by "a US Defense Department code-breaker" and predicted the assassinations of JFK, RFK, Sadat and Rabin. The NYT reported on the fanfare a few days ago and quoted some who claimed that the Israelis' claims were examined and faulted when first published, that the book's bunkum, and that if enough analysis is done on any text, any message can be found -- holy writs being perdurable candidates. Even so, are any here familiar with the Israelis' work? Better, is this book the first of many to come to celebrate the cook-ups of codes and cyphers and algorithmic chefs? Is a film in the works, or, best, a Seinfeld of 0s and 1s?

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GAK
by nobody＠huge.cajones.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

May Timothy Maypole's forgeries get stuck up his ass so he'll have to shit through his filthy mouth for the rest of its miserable life. .::7777::-. /:'////' `::>/|/ .', |||| `/( e\ Timothy Maypole -==~-'`-Xm````-mr' `-_\

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anonymous oddsman
by nobody＠cypherpunks.ca 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Ladbroke's (celebrating Halloween, probably) again offers 50:1 odds on Perot! Clinton and Browne are still not being offered. Recalling last Saturday's Dole odds; they were 7:1 at Ladbroke's, and 8:1 at William Hill. The betters at Ladbroke's (who get a somewhat worse deal, it seems) are bullish on Dole, while those at William Hill are now a bit more bearish on the old man, so the numbers diverge in the final stretch of the horserace. Prices @ 09:21 GMT Sat 2nd Nov 96 +---------+----------------+----------------+ | | Ladbroke's | William Hill | +---------+----------------+----------------+ | Clinton | Not currently offered by either | | Dole | 6:1 | 10:1 | | Perot | 50:1 (again) | 500:1 (!) | | Browne | Not currently offered by either | +---------+----------------+----------------+ | Phone | +44-800-524524 | +44-800-444040 | | Numbers:| | | +---------+----------------+----------------+ As for the animal suspected of *really* running the U.S.A, "Socks" appears to be successfully defending his territory against "Leader." Full of confidence, she is now running virtual tours of the White House, kids! http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/kids/html/home.html Meanwhile "Leader" whimpers at http://www.firstdog.com/ (Wow, his own domain!) Perot (obviously) needs no pet, and the oddsman is unaware of any public photos of Libertarian candidate Browne's cats, much less their names. A serious campaign. Our roving reporter in the UK also thinks that there *must* be significance in the fact that our Presidential election is being held on the anniversary of the day that Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up his Houses of Parliament, together with all the politicians within. He, as usual, will celebrate the event with bonfires and fireworks. Mailmasher.com appears to be down, apologies to any of you who wished to correspond personally with the oddsman there. Hopefully, oddsman(a)mailmasher.com will come back soon. anonymous oddsman "Demeaning the integrity of the U.S. Presidential election process for you on a regular basis, at no charge."

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There's something wrong...
by nobody＠huge.cajones.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Friday, May 30, 1997 - 21:07:32 MET > A major nail in the coffin of Justice for any accused in the U.S. > > was when the justice system promoted the concept of guilt by virtue > > of "circumstantial" evidence to the point where people can now be > > convicted as a result of speculation rather than evidence. Prosecutors > > now seem to need only to convince the sheeple that it was "possible" > > for the defendant to have commited the crime and that circumstantial > > evidence points *only* to the accused. Actually we are well passed that point. Jim Bell's arrest and pending prosecution amounts to thought crime. Its not "possible they commited a crime" now its possible that they "may" commit a crime. At Waco, dozens of innocents were killed, burned alive on national television in their home and church from an unwarranted, excessive use of force in order to serve a search warrant on David Koresh for what they "may" have been doing. No one was under indictment, under arrest or accused of an actual crime, yet through media manipulation that branded koresh and his followers Kooks, the nation watched another act of Statist-TV-Terrorism. The message through the medium this time?, "We don't need no stinking charges." Mandatory sentencing (a legislative and executive end run that usurps judiaciary power by eliminating judicial discretion) Terroristic Speech (a euphemism for 'thought crime' in many cases) are two examples of end runs around citizens contitutionaly protected rights that are being used daily to commit violent attacks on individual citizens civil rights.

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A New Law Could Take Care Of The Problem
by lucifer＠dhp.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

* In a September statement, Joseph Sniezek, an official of the Centers for Disease Control's National Center for Injury Prevention, lamented the serious injuries suffered by rodeo bull riders and suggested a solution might be to require helmets. ...and seat belts? (When the law is passed to require this, don't be surprised if they tack on requirements regarding the use of child-seats for those riders who take the children along. And of course, if they have a copy of PGP in their pocket when they ride without a helmet...}

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Summit on Cyber-Terrorism
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

May 31, 1997, Asahi Evening News Summit leaders to combat cyber-terrorism World leaders will agree to take measures against a new high-tech element of terrorism--attacks on host computers--at the June 20-22 Denver summit, officials involved in the preparations said Friday. As part of countermeasures against cyber-terrorism, further joint efforts to control the spread of computer encryption technologies will be reaffirmed, they said. Concerns over terrorist attacks on computers and the need for heightened international efforts will be added to the 25 specific counterterrorism recommendations that Japan, the United States, Britain, Germany, Canada, Italy, France and Russia adopted at a ministerial meeting in Paris last July. ----- For full, brief article: http://jya.com/denver.htm

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Remailer Follies
by nobody＠huge.cajones.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Jeff Burchell wrote: > > I have added your address to my block list, this remailer won't send > anything directly to you in the future. > -Jeff > Operator... Huge.cajones.com I have a friend who used to operate a remailer and he told me a story about receiving an abuse complaint and request for blocking from an acquaintance who was unaware that he was the operator of the remailer. The person making the complaint was also a user of the remailer. My friend composed a highly officious reply which indicated that he had logged and read the remailer messages of both parties and had reached the conclusion that the complaintant was indeed a fascist, asshole, etc. and thus did not have a valid complaint according to the policy of the remailer. He included enough personal details regarding the complaintant to indicate that he had actually been snooping through the messages. The complaintant was dumbfounded and responded with a message asking, "Are you crazy? Do you have any fucking idea what the concept of anonymity implies?", etc. He concluded by stating that in the future he would be using encryption in his remailer activity and send them via other remailers. My friend enlisted the aide of another remailer operator who was a close friend of the complaintant and was known by him to be the operator of the second remailer. The second fellow emailed his friend to announce that a group discussion between remailer operators had resulted in the decision that his friend would only be allowed to send plaintext messages through the remailers since it was standard policy to monitor the messages to and from "troublemakers" in order to protect the operators from unfounded accusations against them. At this point the complaintant was slightly suspicious of being the butt of a joke but he was still gullible enough that the two remailer operators had a bit more fun before copping to the fact that they were just yanking the complaintant's chain. They had the decency to promise not to use the complaintant's real name when telling the story of their prankery. > P.S. Besides... aren't ad hominum attacks on Tim May a Cypherpunks > tradition? A day without a Tim C. May attack is like a day without moonshine. MailMonger

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