- cypherpunks-legacy - lists.cpunks.org

Envelopes speak - tracking information flow
by rishab＠dxm.ernet.in 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Re traffic analysis, cpunk remailers, DC-nets. Electric Dreams Weekly column for The Asian Age by Rishab Aiyer Ghosh #41, 19/December/1994: Envelopes speak - tracking information flow Digital communication is extremely vulnerable to interception, sorting and archival. Current electronic mail systems offer less privacy than open messages on postcards - at least it's impractical to keep copies of enormous quantities of paper mail. Encryption, which is slowly gaining popularity as a means of ensuring a degree of privacy of e-mail and eventually voice communication, is analogous to letters in sealed envelopes. This protects against one invasion of privacy - of communication content, or what you write and read. However there is at present little protection against a possibly more serious invasion of privacy, that of communication context, or to whom you send and from whom you receive messages. As such messages can include anything from New Year greetings to a friend to contract negotiations to CD purchases, there is a lot that can be known about you from addressing details on the most secure, encrypted mail - the tale the envelopes tell. Currently, whether you make a phone call or send an e- mail, your communication is routed through a host of different sites - telephone exchanges or computers around the world. It may not be technically possible for these sites to extract the content of your message because of encryption. It is not feasible, and usually illegal, for them to archive traffic. But it is very easy to archive routing information, and such logs are routinely kept by computers on the e-mail network as well as telephone exchanges. The legal process of getting access to addressing information is much simpler than for intercepting communication content itself, because it is often assumed that such information is, on its own, useless. Actually it is probably more useful than interception. Such traffic analysis helped track Iranian assassins in France earlier this year, using records of 20,000 phone calls from public booths. It could also be used for intrusive monitoring of your income or hospital visits, or for that matter to crack down on Tibetan human rights activists. Cypherpunks - the assorted citizens of cyberspace who try to protect privacy through the use of technology - may have a solution. Elated by the success of anonymous remailers - special e-mail addresses that repost messages after removing any traces of the original sender, especially favoured in discussion forums for victims of sexual abuse - they are now working on methods to reduce, if not eliminate altogether, the menace of traffic analysis. Without these, it would be possible to associate anonymous messages with their original senders by carefully matching arrival times in various system logs. Remailers and their users resort to several countermeasures. They collect incoming mail and repost anonymized versions in batches of random sizes, to avoid a correlation between mail arrival times. They route mail through random groups of remailers, often in different countries, to make tracing posts back to the source harder. And of course, they encrypt as much traffic as possible. Although remailers prevent reverse traffic analysis - tracking mail from the recipient to the sender - they don't protect against traffic analysis from source - tracking the output of a specific site or individual. Dining Cryptographer networks, or DC-Nets were developed almost a decade ago as a networking protocol allowing a group of people to broadcast messages, while making it impossible to identify the specific source from within the group. Unfortunately DC-Nets have not yet gone beyond the early experiments; but there is hope that they will soon silence the electronic envelopes of traffic analysis. Privacy and freedom of expression are basic human rights. Where laws and international treaties have failed to protect them, it looks increasingly likely that in a borderless world of digital signals, technology will. Rishab Aiyer Ghosh is a freelance technology consultant and writer. You can reach him through voice mail (+91 11 3760335) or e-mail (rishab(a)dxm.ernet.in) --====(C) Copyright 1994 Rishab Aiyer Ghosh. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED====-- This article may be redistributed in electronic form only, PROVIDED THAT THE ARTICLE AND THIS NOTICE REMAIN INTACT. This article MAY NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES be redistributed in any non-electronic form, or redistributed in any form for compensation of any kind, WITHOUT PRIOR WRITTEN PERMISSION from Rishab Aiyer Ghosh (rishab(a)dxm.ernet.in) --==================================================================--

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The Economist follows my Electric Dreams!
by rishab＠dxm.ernet.in 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The December 12th episode of my column, Electric Dreams #40, discussed the relative success in text processing using statistical methods over conventional natural language processing. The latest issue of The Economist (Dec 17-24th) has this as its lead science story. I congratulate myself on having one over my favourite periodical! Of course my article was 500 words, so the larger Economist story was more detailed. While I mentioned technology developed by the US National Security Agency and Architext, The Economist referred to research undertaken at BT (formerly British Telecom) and Cornell University, especially the work on automated text-summarization programs. If you'd like a copy of my original article, please send a blank message to rishab(a)arbornet.org with "get dreams-40" (without the quotes) as the Subject: field. For an index, send "get index"; to automatically receive future episodes of this 5kbyte/week column, send "subscribe". Happy Christmas and New Year! Rishab ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rishab Aiyer Ghosh "In between the breaths is rishab(a)dxm.ernet.in the space where we live" rishab(a)arbornet.org - Lawrence Durrell Voice/Fax/Data +91 11 6853410 Voicemail +91 11 3760335 H 34C Saket, New Delhi 110017, INDIA

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Re: Pgp in Europe
by L. McCarthy 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Karl Lundkvist writes: > Does anyone know a way to get Pgp 2.6.2 by ftp, mail or something in > Europe? All I can find that I'm allowed to download from the net is > 2.3... The U.S. govt. doesn't want you to get PGP from the U.S., but you are (presumably) not a U.S. resident or citizen, so U.S. laws don't apply to you. As long as _Swedish_ law doesn't bar you from importing strong cryptography into Sweden, you can grab PGP from wherever you like. -L. Futplex McCarthy - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.1 iQCVAwUBLvXyIWf7YYibNzjpAQGY+gP/ZxIH2glPB4RVz+kDjQj4FvxLGxTd3qMk mMbaFyMS5sfDV8tcmkSK4Ll5FWZwT2jede4JYXov/nbr8gIAjcTAvD0ejtJzyYxK FQx+nf9JUr2wViLU+6gm86ea1y7sH/wHjMNhnfwLxh50G9KenZZW+Od5Jzw/t8tR +qcaUwNGDfg= =OUBK - -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- - --- [This message has been signed by an auto-signing service. A valid signature means only that it has been received at the address corresponding to the signature and forwarded.] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Gratis auto-signing service iQBFAwUBLvXzayoZzwIn1bdtAQGDZQGAlQQ3P9X513paHxgmDwh84u1KmNJR9aUZ 3XMHg0Jl08FELed6hI8XJUUXep1y4DK8 =MATE -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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test1
by Harry S. Hawk 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Test.. Please ignore.. /hawk -- Harry S. Hawk habs(a)panix.com Product Marketing Manager PowerMail, Inc. Producers of MailWeir(tm) & PowerServ(tm)

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test2
by habs＠cmyk.warwick.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Test. Please ignore

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freedom+diversity=noise
by mkj＠october.ducktown.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- This list appears to be going through some sort of crisis. Tim May has quit, others are threatening to quit, and the messages criticizing the list itself threaten to outnumber those on all other topics! Frankly, I don't get it. What's everybody so upset about? A few arguments, some bad manners? Can we afford to be so sensitive? Now, I admit I don't read every message posted here (who has the time?), but I read a fair sampling, and I haven't seen anything half as bad as what I face every day on the subway. At least on this list, nobody has ever pulled a weapon on me! Personally I don't understand why some people are so bothered by the noise here and elsewhere on the nets. Sticks and stones and all that, you know? But a number of people here have even suggested that the Cypherpunks list, at least in its present form, is near the end of its useful life. I would like to go on record as strongly DISagreeing with that suggestion. Sure, I wish we were making more progress faster, but I think we are doing better than many of us realize. The job is not an easy one, and in my experience, I have found that difficult jobs demand perseverance above all other virtues. However, it seems that every time a forum, list, newsgroup or whatever becomes too popular, it reaches a "critical mass" at which people start complaining that everything is ruined, and soon thereafter the forum splinters and/or switches to a moderated format. Thinking about the phenomenon, I came up with the following brilliant (ahem) generalization, which I humbly dub "mkj's law": FREEDOM + DIVERSITY = NOISE Where "noise" is defined as any behavior(s) which a significant portion of the group finds undesirable. The above law appears to apply not only to network forums, but equally well to other types of social groups. (Note for example that mkj's law is inextricably linked with the old amateur-radio principle, "One Man's Signal is Another Man's Noise".) Mkj's law has disturbing implications, in that "noise" (which is normally considered a Bad Thing) is shown to be an inevitable consequence of the combination of freedom and diversity (which are normally considered Good Things). Mkj's law also states that there are only two ways to reduce the noise in any group: (1) Crack down on freedom (impose controls on behavior, the job of police in the physical realm or moderators/censors in the informational realm); or (2) Crack down on diversity (usually by restricting group membership, or perhaps by other means such as strong charismatic leadership). Note that this "mkj's law" stuff is a first-draft, brand-new idea for me; I'm not taking a firm position, just soliciting comments. ObCrypto-Philosophy: Clearly, at the root of the Cypherpunks agenda -- or any pro-privacy agenda -- lies a presumption that freedom and diversity are Good Things, whereas "noise reducers" like censorship, prejudice, and intrusive law-enforcement are Bad Things. I share this presumption. But it might be an interesting exercise to ask: If we can't accept with good grace the current noise on the Cypherpunks list, how are we going to like real life in a global society where freedom and diversity have been greatly increased by "crypto-anarchy"? Will the "global village" fragment into isolationist cliques? Even sooner, will the Cypherpunks? --- mkj P.S. Since I don't recall posting my public key to this list before: - -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.6 mQCNAi3q+mcAAAEEAOKHMopu6yj57rtwamGwh79bpxAzcbysIJ17PNc/D902WEHG m81FyrcjZaWgj2jX+JYPKqPrOmy72arHJjP5wkAFd2VG5p+WdQjkwXtObOoJ5qfd l+twaRqZVvl4gDiBoFrdrwVSGxXGqAMLOP3VvcQk3uH4y6GmdF11Wd4tm8clAAUR tC5NYWhhdG1hIEthbmUtSmVldmVzIDxta2pAb2N0b2Jlci5kdWNrdG93bi5vcmc+ =Eb3a - -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBLvYFdl11Wd4tm8clAQH20AP9ESKpTtl3C926QDOzUZXISQLWDWY6hsxd 1i3g29cePDDfb29D4LweXp5GTJTpGwHE5saXpPuveFrsWUN8KUOBlJRG0g+Sj1JP ZR3QAb/hRlEJBoi7bgpZJQOijXdJIV2oevO5Q9CinRP56CEudCnAhi3xqX5dfMeL ikAwokXsB44= =Nl3X -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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c'punks top 5
by Andrew Lowenstern 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

What, IMHO, are the top 5 most important things the cypherpunks should be concentrating on? No doubt everyone else has their own ideas of what the "cypherpunks top 5" (or top 10) is, so please tell us your suggestions. 1. anonymous http proxy servers ("re-webbers") 2. PGP compatible crypto library 3. reply-able remailers that are secure and easier for the recipient 4. better remailer security (dc-nets) 5. socket-based keyserver interface for real-time automagic key fetches andrew <btw, this is a top 5 rather than a top 10 because I couldn't think of 10 good things to concentrate on when I wrote this>

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Re: McCoy is Right! New Mail Format to Start Now.
by wcs＠anchor.ho.att.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Oh, get real, Lucky! My mail reader here is neither inadequate nor (particularly) buggy - it's good old "Mail", and when somebody posts MIME mail, it quite accurately shows me the real ASCII the mail is made of - I wish my other mail reader would do that. (It's Microsoft Mail, a closed, buggy, really appalling system that chokes on messages with more than 64K of non-attachment message body, and chokes badly on >132K.) If there were a convenient MIME viewer to pop in as my PAGER, I might have mail use it rather than less -sc, my current preference. But meanwhile, a MIME is a terrible thing to waste.....

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Re: Pgp in Europe
by danisch＠ira.uka.de 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> As long as _Swedish_ law doesn't bar you from importing strong cryptography > into Sweden, you can grab PGP from wherever you like. But after access to a ftp-server inside of the states he never should go to America personally, I guess... Hadmut

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Re: IPSP
by norm＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 11:51 AM 12/19/94, Perry E. Metzger wrote: .... >I'll send sections of my draft if anyone wants to hear more on the >topic. .... I would very much like to see the IPSP stuff. I have searched several MB of new and old mail and found no references to a source. Thanks

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