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Transatlantic Agenda
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

If anyone knows where to get a copy of this document -- especially those surely secret concordances that address the agenda of this list -- please whistle: MADRID, Dec 3 (Reuter) - U.S. President Bill Clinton and European Union leaders signed on Sunday a so-called New Transatlantic Agenda intended as a blueprint for Euro-American relations into the 21st century. The document encompasses cooperation on trade, security, human rights, aid, democracy, health care and crime-fighting among other subjects.

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potus manipulation for fun and profit
by David Honig 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Given the Head of State's alleged affinitity for "covert personal operations", consider the potential for manipulating him by any three-letter-agency skilled in surveillance. E.g., getting the Clinton administration behind Clipper, supporting our man Freeh, etc. There are advantages to having a POTUS who's a security risk, after all :-< -Gedanken memo, no such agency. David Honig honig(a)alum.mit.edu --------------------------------------------------- Is Monica Lewinsky endorsing kneepads for Nike yet?

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The Epilogue That Never Was - SPACE ALIENS HIDE MY DRUGS!!!
by Toto 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The Epilogue That Never Was - SPACE ALIENS HIDE MY DRUGS!!! ________________________________________________________ Memoirs of a Visible Man: When you are 'different' from others--inherently, irrevocably, unarguably different--you either learn to remain, as much as possible, invisible, or you spend much of your life in various sorts of prisons, subject to various kinds of punishments. There have always been a few 'safe havens' for those guilty of the crime of being different from those around them, although, for the most part, they have historically tended to be 'dangerous' safe havens such as pirate or merchant ships, new world colonies, fringe religious or political movements. Those with wits, who didn't mind joining the ranks of the lower fringes of society, in return for ostensibly remaining within it, could become court jesters, actors, artists, and the like. With the advent of the Age of Electonics and the rise of Virtual Reality, those who are able to remain within society's outer boundaries by comically or entertainingly mirroring the parts of the human psyche and human emotions that society requires its 'regular' members to repress have become elite, well-paid artisians who are recognized as valuable professionals in the Age of Form Over Substance. For those in the lower strata of society who are unable to successfully graduate from Society's Finishing School--usually as a result of answering "Fuck You, Shit For Brains" to questions where a "Yes Sir/Officer/YourHonor" answer is required--there are no longer many physical locations available where one can escape to , which results in the creation of an increasing number of them being labeled 'criminals' and banished to New World Order colonies consisting of six-foot cabins bounded by iron bars. Those in the higher strata of society who are unable or unwilling to live within the boundaries society requires of the masses often have the option of joining an elite group of criminal-actors who have sufficient firepower at their command to bully the others in society into recognizing their authority to disobey all of society's rules and act in their own self-interest while denying they are doing so by telling blatant and outrageous lies. (Those with a particular talent in this area sometimes reach the epitome of politics, in which the masses consider them to be every bit as 'real' as the 'people' on 'As The World Turns.' They are then free to do everything that Soap Opera actors do, with equal impunity from facing the real-life consequences that come from manslaughter, rape, robbery, marriage and drug-addiction--although they are still subject to the laws of physics when playing ski-football.) In the Glory Days of Virtual Reality, before the ElectroMagnetic Curtain began descending around those lured away from InterNet Free Terra and into the Sticky World Wide Web of the InfoMercial Highway Robbers, there were a few true Rennaisance Criminal Genius Elite who recognized that they could settle down from a life on the run--in small prairie towns such as Bienfait, Saskatchewan--and still live wild and free, riding the Virtual Outlaw Trail through the Alt2600 BadLands, robbing DataBanks, engaging in drunken brawls in the CypherPunks CryptoSaloon, partying with Bound and Gagged Asian DanceHall UnderAge Girls being pimped by Adult Check, and having the rugged good looks of Robert Redford, in an ASCII Art kind of way. Once the Information Railway began being replaced by the Information Highway as a comfortable, convenient way for the masses to journey into what were formerly remote Electronic Wilderness Areas, the outlaws and free-stinkers who had formerly been able to remain, for the most part, invisible to the programmed masses, yearning to keep other minds from being free, found themselves subject to the scrutiny of those who recognized that free-range cattle and penned sheep could not peacefully coexist in a merchant society where corporate mergers to create Company Towns, with Company Stores, would be jeopardized by small-time rustlers and fence-cutters. Thus there arose a need for ElectroMagnetic Law and Order, supported by the muddled assholes, struggling to be Freeh. The Lost Train of Thought (Part I): ...uuuhhhhh... The Runaway Train of Thought Is Melted Down To Build The WhatIf Server: WhatIf: A ClueLess Canuck, turned into a MindBot by the Institute of Applied Metaphysics in preparation for the Moscow Olympics, was culled from a Russian language class full of Canadian Mounties at the University of Regina by a Dark Continent TigerTeam agent and trained in Psychic Warfare? WhatIf: A DoubleShinned Agent trained at the Psycho War Fair travelled to Africa with a Nuclear Physicist who was the youngest President at Oberlin College, and met with his TigerTeam controllers in a bar full of sailors from the U.S.S. Enterprise in the heart of Mombassa, as other members of his travelling group were engaged in a 'tour' of a US Navy ship? WhatIf: A ClassLess Canuck highly trained in the Lack of Social Skills travelled to East Germany and Poland shortly after the Fall of the Wall, y'all, crossing the Polish border illegally to meet with members of the Little Nicky Telsa Fan Club at the same time that the ShakeSpearAtIan NukeKingLear PharmAssist (who got glowing reviews for the Polish translation of his work) was in Moscow, paying pipers and pimps to play the tunes called by his Muppet Pastors for the NuclearPowered Dancing Bears? Qu'est Que C'est: A Psychic Killer To Be Named Later was apprehended fleeing Poland, but walked away a free MindBot before the InTerraGators arrived, after paying a seventy Mark Antony Fine to a 'confused' Polish border guard, and was then intercepted upon his arrival back in the United States by US Customs agents instructed to hold him for interrogation regarding his US passport with a Polish exit stamp, but no Polish visa or entrance stamp, and then slipped away after the 'confused' agents merely confiscated his Black Forest Ham and released him, whereupon he quickly slipped off to a different airport to take a small plane to Nantucket to meet a female agent of the Holy Roman Empire instructed to arrange for his transfer to a private yacht bound for a private compound of Nazi BusinessWar Criminals on a nearby island famous for their Celebrity Midnight Marathon Swim and Drunken Driving and Diving Festival? WhatIf: A Dangerously Drunken Psychotic PissAnt Drug-Addicted Dumb-Ass Shit-Disturber To Be Maimed Later concocted some wild, unbelievable story to fuck with the mimes of the MimeFuckers, but all the details of his mad ramblings were already a verifiably true part of the SecretGuys' SecretGuyFiles, and even a cursory investigation would reveal even more conspiratorial concepts concerning his connection to a Forth Freudian Sufi Sect dedicated to Anti-NukeUnclear Publishing of Libertarian Mathematical GreenPeace OverGround GoreVillain Manuals designed to apply Laws of Form to a ChaosKult attack on the Fourth JavaCup Active-X-Files Implementation of A Disturbed CraptoLogical LISP MamboErs' Secret Agenda to Subvert Authority by making the Ship of Goverment list so far to the left that the Titanic balls of the Hermerphodite Aunt E. Christ are cut off as she slides over the rail, into the sea, emerging from the depths as Anne R. Christ who is Lucky enough to surface in time to hitch a ride on the Millenium Bug just before the Reptilian Nazi GermanAmericans circle the VolksWagons in a Two-Byte Double Donut formation to prepare for the attack of Naieve Americans with Wounded Knees whose Peyote Dreams predict that an Elvis whose Aim Is True will use Broken Arrows to cut off the Forked Tongues of the Serpentine Servants of Satan living in secret underground bunkers beneath both the AdamAntArctic and Mule Shoe, Texas, in the Land of the Freeh? WhatIf: Incompetent Secret Agents To Be Framed Later gave up on purporting to properly protect National Security <flags digitally wave> <Matt's trumpets Blaze FORTH> in order to fail in their efforts to find a single innocent child to save from drugs dealers at the PROM, and, in their frustration at not being able to find the <ANY> Key which will connect them to the ClueServer, hit the <DELETE> key instead, erasing the cleverly crafted composition of the Author, admitting an astounding array of in-depth illegal involvement in countless consciously conspiratorial causes aimed at the overthrow of OverLords oppressing opponents of Fucking FreehDumb Privacy Pirates purloining the Leftist Constitutional Rights of silly, sufficiently subdued SheepIzens subverting their own Freedom, Liberty and Privacy, as well as their right to Free Rum, the USS Liberty and Piracy? WhatIf: You slapped yourself on the forehead, mystified as to how the Author managed to once again sucker you into reading the mindless trash that is placed inside his skull by psychic garbage-pickers who step on his foot, lifting his toupee, and toss in the leftover thoughts that were pruned from the minds of the vegetables planted in the Home For The Criminally Insane too early in the year to avoid being cold-cocked by the FrostBack of Notre Dame, initiated in Wilcox, Saskatchewan, into a Circle of Eunuchs Chapter of Eternity Cult known as the Hockey Hounds of Hell On Ice? WhatIf: Jesus Saves, but Gretsky puts in the rebounds? (c) 1999.9, ADualist Huxter (Part IV of 'The Whores Of Deception')

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NSC Announce
by wiltship＠iccu6.ipswich.gil.com.au 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Thought this might be of interest.... From: ipSecure <ipsecure(a)ipower.nsc.com> Subject: iPower home page/CryptoSampler announcement Date: Fri, 01 Dec 95 15:53:55 PDT For Immediate Release Contact: National Semiconductor Lori Sinton (408) 721-2448 lori(a)ipower.nsc.com http://www.ipsecure.com CryptoSampler, from National Semiconductor, Demonstrates Ease of Building Secure Electronic Commerce and Communications Applications Company's iPower(tm) Business Unit Launches Free CryptoSolver to Inaugurate New Web Site SANTA CLARA, Calif., November 27, 1995 --- National Semiconductor Corporation today announced the availability of its CryptoSampler package for applications developers interested in gaining a "hands on" understanding of how cryptography solves modern business problems. Developed by National's iPower Business Unit, the program consists of three demonstration applications and the PersonaCard(tm) 100, a hardware token for personal, portable data security. The package contains both the demonstration applications including "build-it- yourself" tools to integrate security easily into electronic commerce and communications applications. Priced at $129, the CryptoSampler package is available to the first 1,000 U. S. respondents and can be ordered directly from National's iPower Business Unit. In a related move, the company's iPower Business Unit launched its own web site along with CryptoSolver, an interactive game that invites participants to solve encrypted messages based on the concepts of substitution ciphers and the alphabetic frequency table. CryptoSolver, a technology-teaser game rates players' deciphering skills and can be downloaded from iPower's new web site free. "As networks become the lifeblood of corporations and the principal means of commerce, securing electronic transactions and proprietary information over public and private networks is absolutely critical," said Tom Rowley, marketing director for National's iPower Business Unit. "Through this program, we hope to help broaden individual's understanding of how modern security technology can solve real problems on the Internet and in Electronic Commerce business applications," Rowley explained. CryptoSampler Package - Token Plus Three Applications in One ------------------------------------------------------------ The CryptoSampler package consists of a PersonaCard 100 data security token, a floppy disk containing all three demonstration applications, a cryptography primer written by recognized cryptography expert Bruce Schneier, and a questionnaire. Customers who choose to complete and return the questionnaire, will receive a free copy, while supplies last, of Bruce Schneier's newly-released book, Applied Cryptography, second edition. o PersonaScreen(tm) System Lockout Utility is a screen locker that prevents unauthorized entry into a personal computer by locking the keyboard and mouse. The PersonaCard Token, implemented in the PC Card (formerly PCMCIA) Type II format, locks and unlocks the desktop computer. o PersonaSecure(tm) Word Utility enables users to sign, seal (encrypt, decrypt), and verify documents as well as e-mail messages from within Microsoft Word 6.0 for Windows. Installed automatically, PersonaSecure displays a toolbar that corresponds to the functions of National's PersonaCard data security token. The hardware token incorporates RSA's industry-standard digital signature and encryption formats which are now "token aware." In addition to protecting and validating Microsoft Word documents, users can encrypt and decrypt e-mail messages with others who have installed the PersonaSecure Word Utility. o PersonaDLL Library for Visual BASIC 3.0 is a Dynamic Link Library (DLL) of routines that enables developers to quickly and easily develop their own applications incorporating high-level data security features. PersonaDLL includes a Visual BASIC application, Visual BASIC source code, and access to all of the features of the PersonaCard 100 token including digital signatures, RSA key generation, encryption, and verification. System requirements to run the CryptoSampler package are: Microsoft Windows 3.X, Windows for Workgroups 3.X, and a PC Card slot (version 2.1 or later). Microsoft Word 6.0 is required for the PersonaSecure Word Utility. Pricing and Availability ------------------------ The CryptoSampler package is available with or without a PC Card Reader. For those who plan to run CryptoSampler applications on a desktop or portable personal computer already equipped with a PC Card slot, the basic package is offered at a special price of $129 (including handling and shipping). A CryptoSampler package with PC Card reader is available for $199. The total retail value of the basic package and configuration with card reader is $300 and $500, respectively. To order the CryptoSampler package in either configuration, call 1-800-272-9959 Ext# 631 between the hours of 7 AM and 7 PM Central Standard Time. To play CryptoSolver and for more information about the CryptoSampler program, see the iPower web site at http://www.ipsecure.com . iPower Security Solutions ------------------------- Introduced a year ago, iPower technology provides the highest-level of commercially available security in a personal, portable hardware token. iPower solutions are already being incorporated by OEMs, ISVs, and VARs into a variety of applications and hardware platforms including e-mail and messaging, electronic commerce, network security, and secure access to on-line services including the Internet. National Semiconductor Corporation provides technologies for moving and shaping information. The company focuses on four key areas - communications, consumer, industrial, and personal systems. National Semiconductor is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and has 22,300 employees worldwide. -30- Note to Editors: To receive a CryptoSampler package for review, call or e-mail Lori Sinton, 408 721-2448 or sampler(a)ipower.nsc.com iPower and PersonaCard are trademarks of National Semiconductor Corporation. All other trademarks are held by their respective companies Flight to Quality Wiltshire Productions Pty Ltd Brisbane, Queensland, Australia Intl Voice 61 7 3376 3535 Intl Fax 61 7 3279 4027 Email wiltship(a)gil.com.au PGP Key ID 3E584C7D PGP Fingerprint 01 03 FB F4 BE F8 2B F3 5D 84 6B 69 37 80 FE 10

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Re: Talking to Jim
by anonymous-remailer＠shell.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Sat, 2 Dec 1995, PeterWiltshire wrote: > Gidday all > > I emailed Jim Clark day before yesterday about his comments re key escrow. Uhhm, what is his email address?? I'd love to ask him one or two questions, not just about key escrow, but about Netscape's future prospects and its current stock valuation. (Netscape now has a market capitalization larger than Apple Computer.) > He responded. As it's not good form to post private email, might I suggest > that one of the 'elders' here put to Jim a list of questions on the proviso > that his answers can be posted to the list. You never know, a lot of > speculation might be confirmed or denied. I've got some questions ... Mathew Ingram, reported in the Investment Reporter that Jim has stock holdings currently worth more than $1 Billion in Netscape, and yet Jim was quoted as saying at a recent technology conference "you could argue there's something of an Internet bubble developing." The article also quoted him as saying that if Netscape made a profit in the next year or two it would only be "because we miscalculated." Miscalculated?? I'll say. If he thinks that GAK will go down with great support, when they want to split their stock, then they're really not quite aware of the mind of the organization that they'll be up against. I wonder what people will have to say about Netscape, then. Right now, brokerage firm Hambrecht & Quist is estimating that in five years the Internet will be a $23 Billion market -- equal to the size of the _entire_ software industry today. And a money manager at Franklin Resources Inc. said, "some people are suggesting the big tech company in the next century could be Netscape." Personally, I don't think so. But then who am I?? Goldman Sachs just put Netscape on its "recommended" list. And some analyst called Michael Parekh was quoted as saying that Netscape could hit $200 in the next two years. That it was going to be the Microsoft of the Internet -- dominating the software side of the World Wide Web. I wonder if Parekh's valuation is a pre or post stock split evaluation. Shoot, if Parekh is talking about $200 post-split ... then Netscape could well become a really big league play in this game far sooner than most people think. I'd love to hear how this fits with Jim's words of a "bubble". The market seems to "think" that it's a better present judge of what Netscape has than he does. It's almost as though the "market" has developed a "mind" of its own. It's own particular neural network. It doesn't seem like the market is paying attention to any of Jim's warnings or words. His "opinion" -- like all corporate officers opinions are strongly discounted and very lightly weighted. It's almost as though there is automated software at work. Some people might think about going short against the box on this one. Although the article talked about a short "squeeze" which would generally mean that this stock is going to go nowhere but up as the short sellers try to cover, personally, I might start to take some money off the table and not add anything to my position. But all this depends on the depth of someone's pockets, I guess. And on some serious trading analysis. Then again, there is that old adage about never fighting the tape. It's compared frequently to whizzing into the wind, I think. Probabilities and such. (Disclaimer: This is not intended as and should not be considerred as investment advice ... or for that matter as whizzing advice, either.) I'd love to hear Jim talk some more about this. For me, all of this Netscape stuff is getting way too surreal. It seems really strange. Some people are arguing that things are getting out of hand, and yet it seems like this one is completely out of Jim's control. No one is listening to ANYTHING from Netscape at all. The market is simply listening to its own internal dialogue. And that certainly is a surprise to this writer. It's a surprise to me, and it's probably a surprise to Netscape. Finance 501 is more complex than Finance 101. Maybe they should read up about the privatization of BP and the involvement of the KIO. Or learn a bit about Li Ka-Shing, or something which adds to their knowledge base. That might give some idea about what is actually going on here. (Not that the Kuwaiti Investment Office or Li-Ka Shing has an interest in this one.) Alice de 'nonymous ... ...just another one of those... P.S. This post is in the public domain. C. S. U. M. O. C. L. U. N. E.

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Use of PGP as an export?
by Ted Cabeen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I think this has been brought up before, but I could only find one reference to it in the archives and it wasn't too helpful, so I'll ask again. If a university provided a copy of PGP for use on their unix machines and a non-resident, non-citizen *used* the copy of PGP on the server, but did not download it onto their own machine, but instead just ran PGP on the server alone, would it be a violation of the ITAR? My school is interested in putting a copy of PGP on the university server and wants to know if they should somehow restrict access to citizens and legal residents only. Thanks. _____________________________________________________________________________ Ted Cabeen cabeen(a)netcom.com Finger for PGP Public Key secabeen(a)midway.uchicago.edu "I have taken all knowledge to be my province." cococabeen(a)aol.com

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Gibson Warfare
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

URL: http://www.ndu.edu/ndu/inss/strforum/forum28.html Forum, Number 28, May 1995 WHAT IS INFORMATION WARFARE? Martin C. Libicki, National Defense University Is Information War (IW) a nascent, perhaps embryonic art, or simply the newest version of a time-honored feature of warfare? Is it a new form of conflict that owes its existence to the burgeoning global information infrastructure, or an old one whose origin lies in the wetware of the human brain but has been given new life by the information age? Is it a unified field or opportunistic assemblage? Since March 1993, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Memorandum of Policy Number 30 (MOP 30) has set forth definitions and relationships that have guided the joint community in its thinking about the related concepts of information warfare and command and control warfare. As these seminal ideas have evolved, their definitions and relationships have changed as well. MOP 30 is under revision, and both higher level policy documents for the Department of Defense and doctrinal publications of the Joint Staff and Services are either in draft form or under revision. In light of the unformed state of these concepts, alternative definitions and taxonomies for twenty-first century warfare are proposed: 1. command-and-control warfare [C2W]; 2. intelligence-based warfare [IBW]; 3. electronic warfare [EW]; 4. psychological operations [PSYOPS]; 5. hackerwar software-based attacks on information systems; 6. information economic warfare [IEW] war via the control of information trade; and 7. cyberwar [combat in the virtual realm]. ... ------------------ URL: http://www.ndu.edu/ndu/inss/actpubs/act003/a003ch07.html Hacker Warfare The hacker attacks discussed here are attacks on civilian targets (military hacker attacks come under the rubric of C2 warfare). Note 41 Although attacks on civilian and military targets share some characteristics of offense and defense, military systems tend to be more secure than civilian systems, because they are not designed for public access. Critical systems are often disconnected from all others -- "air gapped," as it were, by a physical separation between those system and all others. From an operational point of view, civilian systems can be attacked at physical, syntactic, and semantic levels. Here, the focus is on syntactic attacks, which affect bit movement. Concern for physical attacks (see above, on C2W) is relatively low Note 42 (although some big computers on Wall Street can be disabled by going after the little computers that control their air-conditioning). Semantic attacks (which affect the meaning of what computers receive from elsewhere) are covered below, under cyberwarfare. Hacker warfare can be further differentiated into defensive and offensive operations. The debate on defensive hacker warfare concerns the appropriate role for the DoD in safeguarding nonmilitary computers. The debate on offensive hacker warfare concerns whether it should take place at all. In contrast to, say, proponents of tank or submarine warfare, only a few hackers argue that the best defense against a hacker attack is a hacker attack. Whether hacker warfare is a useful instrument of policy is a question that defense analysts and science fiction writers may be equally well placed to answer. Hacker warfare would, without doubt, be a new form of conflict ... ----------------- URL: http://www.ndu.edu/ndu/inss/actpubs/act003/a003ch09.html Cyberwarfare Of the seven forms of information warfare, cyberwarfare -- a broad category that includes information terrorism, semantic attacks, simula-warfare and Gibson-warfare -- is clearly the least tractable because by far the most fictitious, differing only in degree from information warfare as a whole. The global information infrastructure has yet to evolve to the point where any of these forms of combat is possible; such considerations are akin to discussions in the Victorian era of what air-to-air combat would be. And the infrastructure may never evolve to enable such attacks. The dangers or, better, the pointlessness, of building the infrastructure described below may be visible well before the opportunity to build it will present itself. ... The difference between a semantic attack and hacker warfare is that the latter produces random, or even systematic, failures in systems, and they cease to operate. A system under semantic attack operates and will be perceived as operating correctly (otherwise the semantic attack is a failure), but it will generate answers at variance with reality. The possibility of a semantic attack presumes certain characteristics of the information systems. Systems, for instance, may rely on sensor input to make decisions about the real world (e.g., nuclear power system that monitors seismic activity). If the sensors can be fooled, the systems can be tricked (e.g., shutting down in face of a nonexistent earthquake). Safeguards against failure might lie in, say, sensors redundant by type and distribution, aided by a wise distribution of decisionmaking power among humans and machines. GIBSON-WARFARE The author confesses to having read William Gibson's Neuromancer Note 61 and, worse, to having seen the Disney movie "TRON." In both, heroes and villains are transformed into virtual characters who inhabit the innards of enormous systems and there duel with others equally virtual, if less virtuous. What these heroes and villains are doing inside those systems or, more to the point, why anyone would wish to construct a network that would permit them to wage combat there in the first place is never really clear. Why bring up Gibson's novel and the Disney movie? Because to judge what otherwise sober analysts choose to include as information warfare -- such as hacker warfare or esoteric versions of psychological warfare -- the range of what can be included in its definition is hardly limited by reality. ... Possible? Actually, yes. Relevant to national security? Not soon.

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Re: John Gage's comments at Computer Security Day in Cleveland
by anonymous-remailer＠shell.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Fri, 1 Dec 1995, Dr. Frederick B. Cohen wrote: > John Gave gave an interesting pitch for Java at the CSSI Computer > Security Day sessions in Cl;evelan yesterday (November 30). Among > his comments were: > > Java is not secure - it is "safe" No comment. > He (John Gage) regularly downloads binary executables from the > Internet and runs them on his workstation at Sun - (connected to > the internal Sun network). He downloads executables and runs them while connected to ... Oops, ... no comment. > Sun has terrible physical security - unknown people roam the halls > at night all by themselves. How do they get in the building in the first place?? Someone should think about a MEMBERS ONLY sign or something ... Oops, ... no comment. > In 2 years, you will be able to buy a computer that does more than > a Sparc now does, in a portable package the size of a cell > phone, with more than 30 million bits per second of mobile > bandwidth direct to the Internet, for less than $30. Now this last one could not pass without a deserved comment. How will John have my fingers connect with the cell-phone sized keyboard?? I guess for LESS than $30, I probably shouldn't be moaning and complaining, though ... especially if its energy-star compliant. > -> See: Info-Sec Heaven at URL http://all.net/ > Management Analytics - 216-686-0090 - PO Box 1480, Hudson, OH 44236 Dr. Fred, as usual ... you're a hoot. Your timing is great. And as luck would have it, I've got a Sun open house to go to this Monday for their pre-Christmas shin-dig. The President of Sun Canada, (I think) is supposed to be in attendance. You just gave me some great material to goad him with. Thanks. Even though these social things aren't usually for shop-talk, I think I might just save some of this stuff for use at the punch bowl. (Naah, I wouldn't do that.)-; But it is great material ... and perfect timing ... Alice de 'nonymous ... ...just another one of those... P.S. This post is in the public domain. C. S. U. M. O. C. L. U. N. E.

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Info Foes
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

URL: http://www.ndu.edu/ndu/inss/strforum/z1106.html Strategic Forum THE REVOLUTION IN MILITARY AFFAIRS Martin Libicki, CDR James Hazlett, et al. [Excerpts] DISCUSSION I: STRATEGIC CHALLENGES Those who assess future strategic challenges tend to look to Asian countries, and to categorize competitors as peer, regional, or niche. Asia and the Nation-State Most conference participants believe that, over the next twenty years, the fulcrum of world politics will continue to shift from Europe and its peripheries to the Asia-Pacific region. The period of European dominance produced innumerable wars as various countries challenged each other for power, resources, and sovereignty. With the formation of the European Union and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, great power rivalry in particular and the nation-state in general are fading somewhat in importance. The nation-state remains strong in Asia, however. The last fifty years have seen considerable economic progress as various nations have made themselves richer by grasping the secrets of rapid industrialization. This trend, which started in Japan in the 1950s and 1960s, spread to the Tigers in the 1970s, ASEAN countries in the 1980s, and China and perhaps India in the 1990s, has left no Asian country unaffected. Economic growth, however, has not made the nation-state obsolete. To the contrary, the nation-state has been instrumental in creating the internal and external conditions for economic growth. European history suggests that countries, once they taste wealth, will struggle for power. Will Asian countries follow that pattern or demonstrate new models of what the nation-state is capable of? ... Types of Competitors One taxonomy of future threats suggested at the conference is to classify potential competitors as peer, regional, or niche. A peer competitor could challenge our military across the board. A niche competitor would be incapable of doing so, but would strive to inhibit or defeat U.S. intervention by developing capabilities such as primitive weapons of mass destruction, sensor blinders, physical terrorism, information system attacks, psychological operations, or hostage maneuvers. ... DISCUSSION II: OPERATIONAL CHALLENGES Considerable evidence suggests that commercial access to information -- GPS readings, space-based imagery, and Internet data -- could be transformed into military advantage thereby levelling the playing field between ourselves and our potential opponents. Other dual-use technologies, for instance, those that would permit remote piloting of aerial vehicles, permit commercial technologies such as electronic video photography to act as powerful military tools accessible to all (RPVs are made in more than thirty countries). Technologies That Level the Field Does the proliferation in information technologies necessarily negate our current military lead? Information-based warfare creates new vulnerabilities for industrial-age institutions slow to adapt. Because most U.S. logistics facilities and command nodes are not well hidden, they are vulnerable to precision strike. The widespread availability of overhead imagery coupled with GPS integration into weapon systems-- no more than a few years away for countries such as India--poses a serious threat to which our improving defensive measures (e.g., anti-tactical ballistic missiles) will provide only a partial solution . Our own counter-C2 operations are complicated by the rapidly falling cost of bandwidth and redundancy. Even if 90 percent of a bit flow can be interdicted, the remaining 10 percent may suffice for operational uses. Rapid expansion of cellular nodes, particularly through exploitation of commercial space assets, may make targeting and communications denial difficult or impossible. Multiple channels of electronic access will also complicate psychological operations and countermeasures. With the advent of the global information infrastructure, a clever adversary could take advantage of open information systems to enhance its own communications, information, navigation, intelligence, and operational support: examples include GPS, one-meter imagery, weather data, and even CNN. Every year more information with potential military use can be gleaned by anyone from the Internet without leaving fingerprints. How easily can a country's access to the global satellite communications networks be blocked? The coming global information infrastructure will have many points of entry. It will also be difficult to curtail certain services (e.g., global navigation) without denying them to U.S. users or even our own national security establishment. Technologies that Keep Us Ahead The United States, nevertheless, retains an edge in two important areas: space and systems integration. Space systems are relatively difficult to build and although many potential middle-income adversaries can borrow space services from third parties, fewer can own satellites, and far fewer can launch them. Thus the United States will retain a clear edge in the size and sophistication (timeliness and interpretation) of space capabilities, in their adoption and adaptation for military uses, in their augmentation or adaptation for the particulars of future contingencies, and in the assurance of their continuity. The distinctions between data and information, and between information and knowing could also favor U.S. forces. There are vast differences between, for instance, access to meteorological imagery and determining, for instance, that a locus of operations is likely to be fogged in 24 hours hence (a distinction relevant to the Falklands campaign). The art of operational planning is not acquired automatically with the acquisition of computers. Similarly, as sensors proliferate in type as well as numbers, data fusion is likely to become more decisive in future conflicts. ... POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS Two conference threads merit further examination: * U.S. defense policies that make it more difficult for potential competitors to threaten their neighbors and hold off the United States at the same time may be worth pursuing for that fact alone. * If militarily relevant information technologies are everywhere, sophistication at using them may be a better predictor of how challenging a competitor may become for the United States. Therefore, in addition to worrying about how large future foes are (and sizing our own forces accordingly), we should also focus on the potential sophistication of our foes (and develop doctrine accordingly).

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Re: Remind me why we're so mad at Netscape
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 09:33 PM 12/2/95 -0500, Matt Blaze <mab(a)crypto.com> wrote: >Could someone please remind me what it is we're mad at Netscape about? >As far as I can tell it's some combination of the following offenses: > >(a) - Jim Clark made a speech in which he revealed that he thought the >government would be a player in determining the way cryptography ends >up being deployed on the Internet. He was quoted in the trade press, >but it was unclear exactly which words were actually his. Asked to >clarify, he said that Netscape would implement mandatory government >access across its product line only if required to by law, but he >observed that things seem to be moving in that direction. I share his >pessimism, unfortunately, unless we find a way to shift the winds. I give Netscape a lot of credit for the way they've handled things so far; their US commercial version supports strong crypto (modulo a few bugs :-), and interoperates with their free exportable version, which is itself far stronger than a minimal 40-bit version could have been. And they're adding secure email to the new version. And (while they can't officially say this, of course) anybody overseas can pirate the strong-crypto version if 40 bits aren't enough. PGP gave anybody who wanted to do a bit of work the ability to do trusted communications, but it's still not widely used because it does take extra work; the most important things it's done have been to raise public awareness and make it obvious to everybody that the cat's out of the bag, which also pressured the government into dealing with the issue. Netscape is putting built-in strong crypto in the hands of tens of millions of people; fait accompli like that make it much harder for governments to impose stupid and offensive rules. Maybe Netscape will come out with GAKed versions for export to nosy-governmented countries like France and the US; as long as the main version has secure communications, and they're open about how their crypto really works, we can talk securely domestically, and other folks can pirate them to use instead of GAKware. If the government wants to pay extra to support special hardware crypto modules for their own use, and the modules do GAK, that's an internal problem (as long as we can subpoena their records.) Of course, in case the main US versions ever have GAK as a default, I do reserve the right to flame Netscape again :-) >(d) Their stock price is very high, many times greater than their >profits and physical assets would seem to justify. I'm not sure I >understand the implication here. I think it's that "Netscape is now in a financial position that pushes them to care more about making some profits to justify their appallingly high stock price so they're more likely to lose big bucks if they don't sell out, and I should have bought it at $70..." >Disclaimer: I'm employed full time by a soon-to-be-tri-vested major >player in the military industrial complex, and us sellouts like to >stick together. Definitely. Back when I was a tool of the military-industrial complex, I was two floors down from Matt, in an RF-shielded room :-) #-- # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, Freelance Information Architect, stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com # Phone +1-510-247-0663 Pager/Voicemail 1-408-787-1281 # Anybody notice that Microsoft's Wide Open Road ad has barbed-wire fences # on both sides of the road?

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