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True Names and nyms
by hfinney＠shell.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Some people have argued that there is no way to prevent the use of multiple pseudonyms on the net, that it is possible today and that the new crypto technologies will provide even easier techniques tomorrow. This is an oversimplification, as Tim pointed out. "Is-a-person" credentials can be used to determine whether someone is a "True Name" or not, which is really what Larry wanted to know. Here is one way they might work. (To make this clearer, it is best to think in terms of the equation, pseudonym == public key. A pseudonym is a public key. We think of pseudonyms as being names, like "wonderer" or "sam hill", or perhaps as email addresses, like "hacker(a)univ.edu". But from the point of view of cryptography, these are just frills. The important thing is the key. With a public key, a pseudonym can sign his messages, so that nobody else can successfully pretend to be him. He can read messages sent to him, messages which no one else can read. If he has to switch email addresses he can do so and still maintain his identity by continuing to use the same key. It is his key which is his real identity on the net. OK, back to the is-a-person credential:) An is-a-person credential could be structured identically to the digital coins used in Chaum's simple digital cash proposal. You would go to the credentialling agency and provide some unique form of identification, something that no one else could forge. Today this might be a thumbprint, or in the future it could perhaps be a DNA scan. However, you do not have to identify yourself by name. They don't need to know who you are; they only know that you are a living, breathing human being, one whom they have not seen before. (There could be more than one credentialling agency, but they would all share a database of thumbprints or whatever.) You choose a special public key which you will use for all of your True Name activities on the net. This public key will be used to sign messages which you want to prove are from a real person. Any message sent with that signature is known to be from a True Name and not from a nym. Only one True Name exists per person. Note that this True Name doesn't have to be your real name. If you want to always post under John Q. Public and use this special key for that purposes, you can do so. But you won't be able to post under any other name, including your own, as a True Name, not unless you use that same key. And of course if you do, people will be able to know that you are the same as John Q. Public since you are using the same signature key. The way this is established is that you take your True Name key, which we'll call TN, and do as was done for Chaum's cash: pass it through a one-way function f, and blind with a random number r^3: f(TN)*r^3. You give this to the credentiallying agency when you come in with your thumbprint, and they sign it by taking the cube root. This is f(TN)^(1/3) * r. Back home, you divide by r, getting f(TN)^(1/3). This is your True Name certificate. You can submit it to a public key registry along with TN; anyone can calculate f(TN) and verify the credentialling agency's signature. People will therefore know that this key is the only one belonging to some real person which is signed in this way. Only one such key can exist for each person. So, if people claim to be posting under True Names, they can prove it very easily, by using their True Name key, signed by a credentialling agency. People can still post under as many nyms as they want, but only one gets to call itself True. Note that this solution doesn't reveal very much about the person. Because the certificates are blinded by r^3 when they are signed, even the credentialling agency has no way of knowing which thumbprints are associated with which True Name. (So, actually, it wouldn't be a problem if the agency got your name and address when you came in - this still couldn't be linked with your postings if you didn't want it to be.) Nobody is forced to even use a True Name when they post; they could use nothing but nyms. On the other hand, if people want to reserve certain conferences for True Names only, they can. There is tremendous flexibility to have as much or as little use of nyms as people want. So, people should not be so quick to claim that crypto can only be used to increase anonymity. It is a powerful technology that can be used to increase our control over information in many ways. Chaum's papers continue to amaze me with what is possible. Hal Finney hfinney(a)shell.portal.com -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLM3dJ6gTA69YIUw3AQFmfAP/byAqRUt/R3tQBH5Zg+JYV4u6z2CeJ0eM YOrsvXAptTFjS4TpS177spfoDfGm9gtoL1wyEhwD6gsZ2JhssRXT/7w8MEEzPE2U 9CIOXeBZiL8lSPWBxHBr95jlkJjIZe+v5BWPsWdwmSInk0/vbTaQm4emjNNS9WgG H1jPeYECsjA= =sd2V -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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shut up, assmunch
by nobody＠cicada.berkeley.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

don't make me slap you again, detwiler.

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ADMIN: toad.com's mail hicups Tuesday morning...
by hugh＠ecotone.toad.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The list mailhost, toad.com, had massive problems today with sendmail queues, resulting in load averages over 90 (on a machine where 6 is high) and other unfun problems for me to chase. To my knowledge no mail was droped on the floor, but some mail did come out of the machine with headders missing. I have no idea what the mail software thought it was doing by droping headers, but I think we will live even so. I am looking at installing some newer software to deal with the problems of today, though the root causes are solved for now, better software (sendmail) is called for. On the other hand better software is ALLWAYS called for... Guess I had better get back to doing that sort of work... ||ugh Daniel Sysadmin of the month hugh(a)toad.com

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DC-nets, up from the basic concept
by pierre＠shell.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

A few pseudonymous questions went astray and landed in my mail box among a few others (without much of a return address too... the problems of anonymity) So I'll volunteer some possible answers, and while doing so will generate more questions :-). Others feel free to elaborate (especially thoses who HAVE read the papers) Still, no mention of detweil(er)ing will be made :-) although I will mention spoofing... 1) "PHYSICAL LAYER" =================== Q: How do you implement the idea that I can see my coin and the coin on the left, but no others? A: You use public key cryptography. You join a "table" by contacting one of the persons already at the "table". He hands you address and public key of (say) his right neighbor, and you hand him your address and your public key. Each time you "toss a coin" you encrypt it and send it to his ex right neighbor (now your right neighbor). You use the same public key protocols to send out to everybody your "different/same" vote, and collect and count everybody elses. It's easy to add and remove individuals, and you can be part of as many "tables" as you want. 2) MORE SPOOFING ================ New question: how do you make sure you are not spoofed to death, and (mis)led to join a "table" of, say, 126 personae of the same three letter entity, and Yourself. In which case, your messages are not very untraceable anymore? Not very satisfying answer: you meet in person your left AND right neighbor at least once to exchange address and keys... Any better answer? 3) GROUP RESPONSIBILITY AND HIGHER LAYERS ========================================= Q: couldn't every member of the group be implicated because they must all participate to produce the bit of information? A: No, when a "table" is established, what you have is a CSMA/CD network in the classical sense (CSMA/CD = Carrier Sense Multiple Access/ Collision Detection) just like Ethernet is one. Your "DC-net physical layer" is now very complicated, and multi-layered itself, but that only affects speed, not much else. You could (maaaybe :-( establish the layering: Coaxial - Ethernet - IP - TCP / Telnet - RFC822 email - PEM - DC-net - IP - TCP / Telnet - RFC822 email - PEM Except that now, your second layer of TCP/IP is untraceable. By the same token (sorry :-), once you have these protocols established for one "table", you can internetwork many "tables" at will. Poof! Inter-DC-net! But, boy, would the above implementations be slow :-) In any case, even though the participants of any network must cooperate for any message to go through (especially true in the case of Usenet, or FIDO, for example), it is hard to hold all the participants responsible for every message just for being part of the infrastructure. It would be different (even with todays networks), if a large proportion of the messages were CLEARLY illegal. Still, even now, it is impossible to tell whether an encrypted message's content is illegal or not (see the previous netnews discussion with respect to FIDO, mail privacy and encryption), and peeking in un-encrypted email is illegal, depending on caller contract. So I would, until contradicted by the legal types among us, consider a DC-net or Inter-DC-net no different legally, than any other cooperative network out there (Usenet, FIDO, internet...), until specifically regulated. Disclaimer: Of course, this is only a technical opinion, legal decisions may or may not consider the technical precedents :-) Reasonable technical arguments have as much weight legally as unreasonable ones (or so it seems at times) (meaning: of course, I'm not a lawuer) Pierre. pierre(a)shell.portal.com

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I need exportable crypto revisited.
by Darrell Perko 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Greetings; Thank you all for your amazingly quick responses! However, I should have noted in my original message that this encryption is to meet a contractual point for a commercial product to be delivered soon. The product can have one and one only version to be boxed and shipped and will be sold internationally. The encryption portion will be dynamically linked, so real encryption will be available on the net just not in the box. Thanks, Darrell Perko dperko(a)efn.org

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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

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Re: a desperate plea
by lefty＠apple.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Ray faovrs us with > >J. Michael Diehl writes: >> According to rjc(a)gnu.ai.mit.edu: >> > I'm coming to kill your family tommorow with a rusty razor. >> >> This is a bit tasteless, don't you think. Come on, grow up. > > That was sort of an inside joke directed at Perry. (it's the motd >of the Extropian's mail server) However, if it sapped any of LD's bodily >fluids, I'm happy. I'd have to be, since I'm an evil, treasonous >Benedict Arnold of cypherpunks who should be hung by the neck or deported >off the net. No, in point of fact, you're a poorly adjusted infant who finds it amusing to stand at a safe distance and clog up the net with threats which he surely would never dare to make face-to-face. Ray, before you recommend psychological evaluation for others, it might be worth considering looking into some for yourself. You might also want to give Jacoby and Meyers a call and ask them for a quick rundown on the prevailing assault statutes. Please take your cowardly bravado to private email. You're about as impressive as a third-grader sticking out his tongue at the playground bully from behind the safety of his mother's skirt, a situation with which I can't help but feel you have some personal familiarity. -- Lefty (lefty(a)apple.com) C:.M:.C:., D:.O:.D:.

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CPSR Crypto Resolution
by Dave Banisar 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

CPSR Crypto Resolution CPSR Cryptography Resolution Adopted by the CPSR Board of Directors, San Francisco, CA October 18, 1993 WHEREAS, Digital communications technology is becoming an increasingly significant component of our lives, affecting our educational, financial, political and social interaction; and The National Information Infrastructure requires high assurances of privacy to be useful; and Encryption technology provides the most effective technical means of ensuring the privacy and security of digital communications; and Restrictions on cryptography are likely to impose significant costs on scientific freedom, government accountability, and economic development; and The right of individuals to freely use encryption technology is consistent with the principles embodied in the Constitution of the United States; and The privacy and security of digital communications is essential to the preservation of a democratic society in our information age; and CPSR has played a leading role in many efforts to promote privacy protection for new communications technologies: BE IT RESOLVED THAT Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility supports the right of all individuals to design, distribute, obtain and use encryption technology and opposes any government attempt to interfere with the exercise of that right; and CPSR opposes the development of classified technical standards for the National Information Infrastructure.

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[NOISE]More meaty CDA material
by stevenw＠best.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded: The article starts with "SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- You motherfuckers in Congress have dropped over the edge of the earth this time." and gets better. >The American Reporter, working in conjunction with other groups opposed >to the CDA, commissioned a writer to produce a special article to >celebrate Clinton's signing of the new the law. > >Steve Russell, the author, retired after 16 years as a trial judge >in Texas and is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at the >University of Texas at San Antonio. > >This article was specifically and carefully designed to be completely >and utterly in breach of the CDA. If you are opposed to the CDA and >you are not offended by the "seven bad words", you'll probably find >it highly entertaining and insightful. > >OTOH, if you are easily offended and don't like bad language, JUST >DON'T READ IT. > >If you are easily offended and like to be offended and then like to >file Police Reports, please go ahead. After all it was written to >help ensure that the CDA gets challenged in the courts as soon as >possible. > >Here's the URL and don't tell me I didn't warn you: > >http://www.newshare.com/Reporter/today.html > > >-- >|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| >| Malcolm Hoar "The more I practice, the luckier I get". | >| malch(a)malch.com Gary Player. | >| http://www.malch.com/ Shpx gur PQN. | >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steven Weller | "The Internet, of course, is more | than just a place to find pictures | of people having sex with dogs." stevenw(a)best.com | -- Time Magazine, 3 July 1995

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CONFERENCE: European Computers, Freedom & Privacy (ECFP)
by 1＠eternity.demon.co.uk 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- ECFP '93: The First European Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy The New Cavendish Club London, England 20th November 1993 Organised by ECFP Ventures Limited Co-operating organisations : The Libertarian Alliance Privacy International, UK UK Cryptoprivacy Association SCOPE - ---------------------------------- The widespread use of computers and communication systems has brought considerable benefits to our business and personal lives and will continue to change and shape the way in which we live. However, with those benefits come unprecedented threats to our personal privacy and potential for abuse. A variety of different models for protection of individual privacy in the electronic age have been suggested, ranging from state regulation to individual action through the use of strong cryptography. However, these solutions bring with them their own class of problems, including excessive state involvement in private matters and the frustration of law enforcement and national security objectives. The First European Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy will both provide an introduction to these issues and the technological developments that drive them, and examine different ways in which individual rights can be guaranteed. These questions are central to the preservation of a free society in the Information Age. John M. Brimacombe Conference Chair KEYNOTE SPEAKER - ---------------------------------- John Gilmore Email: gnu(a)cygnus.com JOHN GILMORE is Chairman of the Board of Cygnus Support, who provide commercial support for free software. As founder and board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Cypherpunks, he has campaigned extensively for electronic privacy. John will speak on building a society in which personal privacy is guaranteed through the use of strong cryptography. OTHER SPEAKERS - ---------------------------------- John Brimacombe (Chairman) Email: john(a)mantis.co.uk JOHN BRIMACOMBE is the Managing Director of Jobstream Group plc, developers of business software. A graduate in both law and computer science, he was an advisor to CFP '93 in San Francisco. John will serve as conference moderator. Simon Davies Email: davies(a)privint.demon.co.uk SIMON DAVIES is Director General of Privacy International and a member of the School of Law at the University of New South Wales. He will be looking at new developments in surveillance and ways of combating them. Tom Burroughes Email: tom(a)reptile.demon.co.uk (after 10 October 1993) TOM BURROUGHES is Deputy Chief Reporter with the East Anglian Daily Times in Ipswich, England. He will be giving a journalist's point of view on privacy issues, including recent incidents involving eavesdropping on cellular telephones, and the roles of various corporate and government bodies in the recent adoption of cellphone signal encryption standards in the UK. David Chaum Email: chaum(a)digicash.nl DAVID CHAUM is head of the Cryptography Group at the Center for Mathematics and Computer Science (CWI) in Amsterdam, and founder of DigiCash, which develops electronic payments systems. Dr. Chaum received his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1982, and joined CWI in 1984. He helped to found the International Association for Cryptologic Research and remains active on its board. David also consults internationally on cryptology. Duncan Frissell Email: frissell(a)panix.com DUNCAN FRISSELL is an attorney, technical author and consultant on matters of personal and financial privacy. Duncan will speak on "Traditional Privacy in the Electronic Age". Elaine Fletcher ELAINE FLETCHER is Assistant Solicitor for Eric James Howe, Data Protection Registrar (UK). Elaine will speak on issues arising from the Data Protection regime established under the 1984 Data Protection Act. Chris Tame CHRIS TAME is the Director of the Libertarian Alliance and Director of the smokers rights group FOREST, as well as UK representative of the Libertarian International. He has written extensively for such academic journals as /Science and Public Policy/, /Economic Affairs/, and /The Jewish Journal of Sociology/, and such books as *The Case For Private Enterprise* and *The Politics of Crime Control*. He appears regularly on radio and television in the UK. Chris will speak on the libertarian views of data protection and privacy. Russell Whitaker Email: whitaker(a)eternity.demon.co.uk RUSSELL WHITAKER, conference co-organiser, is a consultant on electronic communications, a director of ECFP Ventures Ltd and communications editor of Extropy magazine. Russell will speak on the composition of, and influences upon, the electronic community in Britain today, and how public policy affects those on computer bulletin boards and online services. PROGRAMME - --------------------------------- Registration 9.30 - 10.00 am First session 10.00 - 11.30 am BREAK 11.30 - 11.50 am Second session 11.50 am - 1.20 pm BREAK 1.20 - 2.20 pm Third session 2.20 - 3.50 pm BREAK 3.50 - 4.10 pm Fourth session 4.10 - 5.40 pm PANEL SESSION 5.40 - 6.20 pm Closing remarks 6.20 - 6.30 pm Lunchtime is the break after the second session, and lunch itself is not included in the price of the conference. There are pubs and restaurants in the immediate vicinity. Coffee, tea and biscuits will be on sale through the day, however. Registration form: - --------------------------------- NAME _____________________________________ JOB TITLE _____________________________________ ORGANISATION/AFFILIATION _________________________ ___________________________________________ MAILING ADDRESS _____________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ TELEPHONE ___________________________________________ FAX ___________________________________________ E-MAIL ___________________________________________ IMPORTANT NOTE: only *fully* completed forms with full telephonic details will be accepted, to be used in the event of any emergency changes, such as change of venue. This is not optional. CLASS OF REGISTRATION : [Prices are Pounds Sterling] Student 10.00 ($16.00 U.S.) Normal 17.50 ($28.00 U.S.) Normal before 1 Nov 93: 15.00 ($24.00 U.S.) Press (Contact for arrangements) MEANS OF PAYMENT: - U.S. cheques/cash - U.K. cheques/cash - EuroCheques (tm) Unfortunately, due to bank conversion charges, we are unable to accept cheques drawn on other overseas accounts, for payment of this year's attendance fees. PROCEEDINGS AND AUDIO/VIDEOGRAPHY - ------------------------------------------- You may pre-order copies of transcripts of the proceedings, which will be shipped within 90 days after the conference: "Please send me ____ copies of the conference proceedings at 20 pounds each." Video and audio recordings will be made of the conference, in its entirety. No pre-sales will be made; tapes go on sale in December 93/January 94. Cheques, made payable to "ECFP Ventures Limited", should be sent with this form to : 16 Circus Road MM Box 8593 London NW8 6PG England Please direct any further enquiries to the above address, or: ecfp-1st(a)eternity.demon.co.uk (Email) +44 81-812-2661 (Manned message service; quick response) HOW TO FIND THE NEW CAVENDISH CLUB : - ---------------------------------------------- The New Cavendish Club is 2 minutes walk from Marble Arch Underground station. Immediately turn right as you exit from the station onto Oxford Street. Then take the first turning on the right, i.e. Great Cumberland Street. The New Cavendish Club is 3 blocks north on the northeast corner of the intersection of Great Cumberland Street with Upper Berkeley Street. Address: New Cavendish Club 44 Great Cumberland Place London W1H 8BS - ----- Text ends --------- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3 iQCVAgUBLKjhjYTj7/vxxWtPAQGjQAP+NW1LOc806i0c3MmA2RiluzWmDKvFEPPm ibtU3tbqqF93fb0lqJ/z1q8DEtWeiG6LnLQ41IasIHDL6o7EmZEWXN6G17CDFLSk cQHCGaIpC9BkBI8VwnsPZIlItL5T+TkcOwLjdqp7x24tQ9uAm3BhpFLGMfLJAnwB xI/ZG0zMEIs= =QElR -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Russell Earl Whitaker whitaker(a)eternity.demon.co.uk Communications Editor AMiX: RWhitaker EXTROPY: The Journal of Transhumanist Thought Board member, Extropy Institute (ExI) Co-organizer, 1st European Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy, London, 20 November 1993

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