- cypherpunks-legacy - lists.cpunks.org

Mad_Software_Disease
by anonymous-remailer＠shell.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Path: newsfeed.internetmci.com!howland.reston.ans.net!news-e2a.gnn.com!pop.gnn.com!JDonth From: JDonth(a)gnn.com (Joseph L. Donth) Newsgroups: comp.sources.testers Subject: Beta Testers Wanted Date: Tue, 26 Mar 1996 13:09:55 Organization: InfoBook Technology Lines: 251 Message-ID: <4j9fer$sr1(a)news-e2c.gnn.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: www-31-240.gnn.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-GNN-NewsServer-Posting-Date: 26 Mar 1996 19:10:19 GMT X-Mailer: GNNmessenger 1.2 InfoBook Technology is looking for Beta Testers for our latest product called ONE-PHONE-CALL. This post is in four parts: 1) What does a Beta tester do? 2) How Do I Sign-up? 3) How do I get chosen? 4) The product description The product description is quite lengthy. Feel free to bail on it when you have decided to be a tester or have decided not to be one. Note: Since the program includes encryption software, we are restricting our testing (and possible distribution of the commercial release) to people living in the USA. I will restrain from comment on governments, export licenses, the NSA and the like. If you decide not to be a tester, would you drop me a post and tell me why? This is our second posting of this request - our goal is to have at least one hundred testers - so far we have less than two dozen. If you have any thoughts on where else I might post this beta test request and meet with a favorable response please let me know that as well. Thanks and without further delay... ****************************************************************************** ** What Does a Beta Tester Do? Although we will not ask you to sign any agreements, we do ask that you honor the following conditions of our Beta Test Program: 1. The software being tested is not for commercial use. If you use it in a commercial fashion, you do so at your own risk. The software may have 'bugs' in it. The purpose of the beta test program is to identify those problems. 2. Don't give copies of the software (except when authorized) to other people. If you know of someone that you think might be a good beta tester, let us know and we will look at adding him or her to the beta list. 3. Please let us know when you have problems with the software. Don't assume that someone else has reported it. A written response sent to JDONTH(a)GNN.COM, is the requested communication method. 4. We also ask for comments on the whole package you received from us. Did it create a good first impression? Was it complete? Is the User's Guide clear? What would you change? Why? ****************************************************************************** ** How Do I Sign up? Please reply by EMail (JDonth(a)gnn.com) with the following information: 1. Full Name 2. Surface mail and preferred email address 3. City, State and Zip code 4. Attention Line 5. Telephone number 6. An "I agree to the terms of the Beta Test Program" statement 7. Computer system information 8. Computer expertise (optional) 9. Experience as a Beta Tester (no previous experience is required) 10. Why you want to test this product ****************************************************************************** ** How Do I Get Chosen? We will be choosing testers on a first-come, first-serve basis. You are not guaranteed a position as a tester of ONE-PHONE-CALL. If you are chosen you will receive an email confirmation, followed by the software, sent via fist class mail. The software will be a 30+ day version with all features and capabilities. You will be sent an email questionnaire about 30 days after shipment of the software. Your reply to the questionnaire will insure you a FREE copy of the software after it is released into retail sales. If you are not chosen you will be notified by email. If you have any questions, please contact me at JDonth(a)gnn.com or Joseph L. Donth InfoBook Technology 7660 Reed Rd. Azle, Texas 76020 ****************************************************************************** ** What is ONE-PHONE-CALL? ONE-PHONE-CALL is a PC-based software product that enables you to transfer electronic information such as a program, a scanned fax, a word-processing document or a spreadsheet to someone, in a secure environment, with just one telephone call. It features a simple installation, user-friendly interface, mouse support, a menu system, and easy-to-remember commands. First, Some Background More and more of our correspondence is electronic in nature. We use word processors to compose letters and reports. We use spreadsheets to do budgets and financial analysis and we use accounting programs to keep track of everything from the corporate books to our personal checking accounts. The power of these software tools is easily appreciated and the trend is to use our computers in meeting more and more of our daily needs. What is lacking, however, is a simple, easy-to-use method of sharing our electronic information with each other. Using the facilities of fax, EMail or floppy disks has problems. A fax can only transmit printed information, EMail is difficult to use and can be expensive, and mailing floppy disks is very slow. Also, none of these methods is very secure. The wrong people can read a fax, open business mail, or gain access to voice-mail or EMail accounts. Now with your modem equipped computer and ONE-PHONE-CALL you can addresses all of these issues. Let's illustrate with three examples: The first example demonstrates the simplest issue: sharing electronic information with someone else. You are working on a report at home and need to confer with a co-worker in the office. You place a telephone call to your co-worker and discuss the report. You decide he needs to see a copy of the report. Without ONE-PHONE-CALL it might go like this: To fax a copy of the report you might: ... Print out the report on your printer ... Dial his fax number ... Fax the report ... Call him back to tell him the fax has been sent ... Wait for him to get the fax and call you back! The result - at least three phone calls and who knows how much time wasted in printing, faxing, perhaps getting busy signals and so on. Or perhaps you decide to send him an electronic version of the report, via his EMail account. You might: ... Format the document properly for the EMail service to accept ... Dial the EMail service, connect, log-in, and all the rest ... Transmit the report ... Call him back to tell him the report is on the EMail service ... Your co-worker connects to the EMail service ... He downloads the report ... He calls you back. At least four phone calls! And who knows how much money and effort? Now with ONE-PHONE-CALL, you can accomplish the same task with your original phone call. You and your co-worker can stay on the phone and transfer the information back and forth as many times as necessary, without having to make another phone call! A second example demonstrates a more complex problem. The ability to transfer information when you don't know exactly what information needs to be transferred. You have just received a copy of a great new shareware game from the XYZ Software Company. Your brother shares your liking for this company's software and you have exchanged previous shareware games with him. It's a great game and you're pretty sure he'll want a copy too. Without ONE-PHONE-CALL, you have two obvious choices. First, you could upload all the software to his EMail account (see above!) and maybe call him to tell him it's there, or you could copy the software to a floppy disk and mail it to him. If you go the EMail route, you're out the upload time and several dollars. (So is he, on the other end.) If you go with the Postal Service, you're out a buck or so for a floppy and some postage and the software gets there days later. With ONE-PHONE-CALL, it's as simple as calling him, finding out if he wants the software, and sending it right then and there! ONE-PHONE-CALL will even figure out what software he needs (perhaps several of the files are the same as in previous games) and will only send the new files that he doesn't have, and update any files that are out-of-date. We can extend this example to many specific problem areas: You own a software company that operates a customer service line for help with your products. If your customer needs an updated version of the software, you can upload the new software to him immediately, sending him only what he needs, during the one phone call the customer has made to your company. Result! a happy customer. A friend is having a problem with his computer. You suspect he may have a problem with one of his configuration files such as CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT or one of his Windows INI files. Without using the capabilities of ONE-PHONE-CALL he is either reading you the text of the file over the phone (yea, right!) or he is printing it out to fax it or mail it to you. You get the listing (maybe days from now) and find the problem. You need him to edit his CONFIG.SYS file to fix the problem. "How do I do that?" he asks. You get the idea. With ONE-PHONE-CALL, he simply sends you the files, you edit them on your computer, and send them back, he reboots, and the problem is solved. All with ONE-PHONE-CALL. Our final example highlights the security aspects of electronic information transfer. Have you ever sent a fax and wondered if it went to the wrong machine? Did you dial that number correctly? Or did you wonder if it was "eaten" by the machine? or was read by the wrong people? or fell into the "black hole" of cyberspace? Have you ever wanted to send some confidential information but didn't "quite trust" your on-line service? Have you ever wanted to make sure the right person and ONLY that person sees your communication? Without ONE-PHONE-CALL, the electronic exchange of confidential information can be very difficult. With ONE-PHONE-CALL, your life just got much easier. Here's a hyperbolic example but it makes the point: You have been away at your summer retreat working on the company annual report and budget. It is FULL of confidential information. You need to send it to your CFO back at the office for review and the insertion of some background information that he has in his computer. How do you get it to him? With ONE-PHONE-CALL, you call his office, get him on the phone, and send the document! You KNOW you dialed the right number. You KNOW you have the right person on the line. And by using the encryption feature of the software, you can even deter access to your information in the event of a wiretap. How do you do that without ONE-PHONE-CALL? Minimum System Requirements ONE-PHONE-CALL runs under Windows 95, Windows 3.1 or MS-DOS. System Requirements: For operation under Windows 3.1 or higher: IBM-compatible PC (386 or higher) 4 mb of RAM memory, 8 mb recommended Mouse Hard drive with at least 1 MB of free space 1200, 2400, 9600, 14.4K, 28.8K modem For operation under MS-DOS 3.11 or higher IBM-compatible PC (8088 or higher, 80286 or higher recommended) 640 kb of RAM memory Mouse recommended Hard drive with at least 1 MB of free space 1200, 2400, 9600, 14.4K, 28.8K modem Best Regards, Joe JDonth(a)gnn.com

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Re[2]: Crypto CD UpDate
by Adam Pingitore 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Um, why am I getting mail from you people.

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CDT Policy Post 2.12 - Sen. Burns Announces New Bill To Lift Crypto ExportControls
by editor＠cdt.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

----------------------------------------------------------------------------- _____ _____ _______ / ____| __ \__ __| ____ ___ ____ __ | | | | | | | | / __ \____ / (_)______ __ / __ \____ _____/ /_ | | | | | | | | / /_/ / __ \/ / / ___/ / / / / /_/ / __ \/ ___/ __/ | |____| |__| | | | / ____/ /_/ / / / /__/ /_/ / / ____/ /_/ (__ ) /_ \_____|_____/ |_| /_/ \____/_/_/\___/\__, / /_/ \____/____/\__/ The Center for Democracy and Technology /____/ Volume 2, Number 12 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- A briefing on public policy issues affecting civil liberties online ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CDT POLICY POST Volume 2, Number 12 March 28, 1996 CONTENTS: (1) Sen. Burns Announces New Bill To Lift Crypto Export Controls (2) Subscription Information (3) About CDT, contacting us This document may be redistributed freely provided it remains in its entirety ** Excerpts may be re-posted by permission (editor(a)cdt.org) ** ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- (1) SENATOR BURNS ANNOUNCES BILL TO LIFT CRYPTO EXPORT CONTROLS The battle to roll back the Clinton Administration's encryption policy escalated on Thursday when Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) announced that he will introduce a new proposal to repeal restrictions on encryption exports and to encourage the growth of electronic commerce. Senator Burns announced the bill via a teleconference during a special session at the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference in Boston, MA. The bill, titled the "Promoting Commerce On-Line in the Digital Age Act" (PROCODE), joins two recent bills introduced earlier this month (S. 1587 and HR 3011) designed to encourage the development of strong, easy-to-use privacy and security products for the Internet. The Burns bill is different from the other proposals in several respects. Specifically, the latest bill does not contain any new criminal provisions or provisions imposing liability on third party key holders. In his presentation today at CFP, Sen. Burns outlined his new bill. Among other things, the "Promoting Commerce On-Line in the Digital Age Act" would: * Allow for the unrestricted export of "mass-market" or "public-domain" encryption programs, including such products as Pretty Good Privacy and popular World Wide Web software. Encryption software and hardware for sale in local software stores or widely available on the Internet would all be exportable under the proposed Act. * Require the Secretary of Commerce to allow the unrestricted export of other encryption technologies if products of similar strength are generally available outside the United States. * Prohibit the Federal Government from imposing mandatory key-escrow encryption policies on the domestic market. * Limit the authority of the Secretary of Commerce to set standards for encryption products. CDT applauds this effort by Senator Burns to put strong privacy and security technologies in the hands of individuals and businesses. CDT is also pleased that the Senator chose the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference as a forum to announce this proposal. The choice of CFP demonstrates that the Internet community is becoming an increasingly important political constituency. CDT looks forward to working with Senator Burns and other members of Congress interested in policies which encourage the development and widespread use of strong privacy protecting technologies for the Global Information Infrastructure. FOR MORE INFORMATION For more information on the cryptography policy debate, including the text of Senator Burns' proposal when available, visit CDT's Cryptography Issues Web Page: http://www.cdt.org/crypto/ Contacts: Center for Democracy and Technology +1.202.637.9800 Daniel Weitzner, Deputy Director, <djw(a)cdt.org> Alan Davidson, Staff Counsel, <abd(a)cdt.org> ------------------------------------------------------------------------- (2) SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION Be sure you are up to date on the latest public policy issues affecting civil liberties online and how they will affect you! Subscribe to the CDT Policy Post news distribution list. CDT Policy Posts, the regular news publication of the Center For Democracy and Technology, are received by more than 9,000 Internet users, industry leaders, policy makers and activists, and have become the leading source for information about critical free speech and privacy issues affecting the Internet and other interactive communications media. To subscribe to CDT's Policy Post list, send mail to policy-posts-request(a)cdt.org with a subject: subscribe policy-posts If you ever wish to remove yourself from the list, send mail to the above address with a subject of: unsubscribe policy-posts ----------------------------------------------------------------------- (3) ABOUT THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY/CONTACTING US The Center for Democracy and Technology is a non-profit public interest organization based in Washington, DC. The Center's mission is to develop and advocate public policies that advance democratic values and constitutional civil liberties in new computer and communications technologies. Contacting us: General information: info(a)cdt.org World Wide Web: URL:http://www.cdt.org/ FTP URL:ftp://ftp.cdt.org/pub/cdt/ Snail Mail: The Center for Democracy and Technology 1634 Eye Street NW * Suite 1100 * Washington, DC 20006 (v) +1.202.637.9800 * (f) +1.202.637.0968 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- End Policy Post 2.12 3/28/96 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: Crypto CD
by JR＠ns.cnb.uam.es 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 01:52 AM 3/24/96 -0500, Ben Holiday wrote: >I would plan to put unix/dos/mac all on one CD. I'm thinking that >realistically I can expect 50 megs or so. Possibly as much as 100 if I >find a TON of wonderful text. I burned one such CD this last fall. Oh, well, it wasn't for publishing, although I thought of that at the time. It was mainly to be able to move with me all my data when I switched positions. I included all the Cypherpunks archives, and several international FTP crypto sites in full (ya know, the italian, australian, english, pgp, etc... places). It was well over your "50 megs". And I would find that pretty more useful (if I hadn't it already). :-) Oh, I'm lying. I also did a "purged" version to remove duplicated packages first, when I didn't know if I would have enough sapce in the few CDs I had to burn in the few days I had left. I seem to remember that wasn't as big and maybe in the range that you mentioned. But it was compressed, and hence its usefulnes now is somewhat less since I have to expand everything if I want to get it. I was filling the CDs with other "important to me" stuff, and wanted to save space, but having the space available I don't see any reason not to expand the material. What I'd suggest is a compilation of all main archives, purged from duplications, rearranged rationally (I have it just in the original hierarchies) and all expanded for direct access. If you add to that executables for most packages compiled for a few popular platforms (Mac, PC, Linux and FreeBSD come to mind), I'd bet that you'd get a far greater amount of space. But that's a lot of additional work though. I know from experience. It might do for a very nice cypherpunk project. Although, there still remains the "trustfulness" of the product: how can the final user know that the sources, executables, key databases, etc... have not been tampered with? From the original archives one has the truth one poses on them, but from a copy, one needs to trust the copier. And if it became a multi-person project, all the people involved... But it's well worth a thought o two. If it helps you, my CDs are probing now invaluable to me. jr

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Updated list of crypto and security courses
by Avi Rubin 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Thanks to everyone for your great suggestions/additions/deletions. I added, changed or deleted over 25 courses this time around. Now back to my regularly scheduled life. The updated course list can be found at: http://www.cs.nyu.edu/~rubin/courses.html Avi ********************************************************************* Aviel D. Rubin rubin(a)research.att.com Secure Systems Research Dept. Adjunct Professor at NYU AT&T Labs - Research 180 Park Avenue http://www.research.att.com/~rubin/ Florham Park, NJ 07932-0971 Voice: +1 973 360-8356 USA FAX: +1 973 360-8809 --> Check out http://www.clark.net/pub/mjr/websec/ for a new book on web security (The Web Security Sourcebook). *********************************************************************

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Re: An Extension of My Encryption Algorithm WEAK3
by Mok-Kong Shen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

A reported trouble with the runtime libraries (dll) has be removed. Those who have downloaded the WEAK binaries before 29th September please do the downloading once again. M. K. Shen

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JT's Restarants - Excellent Undervauled Investment Opportunity
by jtsr-stock＠jtsr-stock.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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Re: WSJ on Big Java Flaw
by dmacfarlane＠zip.sbi.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

[snip] > > Mr. Felten said that unscrupulous people who discovered the > > flaw could boobytrap a Web page on the Internet, > > essentially seizing control of the browser software of any > > PC that tapped into that page. At that point, the hackers > > could read or delete an entire hard disk of data files. > > "The consequences of this flaw are as bad as they can be," > > he said.[..] > > The generalized halting problem comes to mind... > > Since it can be proved that there's no complete set of heuristics > to tell if a given program has a characteristic (such as "secureness") > then sooner or later someone will discover another security flaw. > > A question is whether a simple patch is made or if the set of heuristics > is widened (ie, learn from mistakes) so that similar flaws can be found > based on knowledge of that one flaw. Since this Java error is probably deep in the bytecode interpreter, the question is will Sun patch this *particular* problem, still allowing others, or will it have to rewrite the interpreter so that it enforces the language more rigorously? They are under pressure to make a "quick fix" (they've promised something in two days), but real security needs to be built in to a system from the ground up, with disciplline and thorough design. If they need to redesign their approach to implementing the bytecode interpreter, that could take weeks, months? BTW, its a testament to security through code review, as the Princeton team probably could not have discovered this deep flaw without looking through the code. David Macfarlane.

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NOISE: Scriveners Attack C-Punks
by Michael E. Carboy 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Watch out folks... the scriveners are after us! No doubt in cahoots with teh exonites! ---------- From: Nibiru[SMTP:nibiru@columbus.co.za] Sent: Monday, February 26, 1996 1:32 AM To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com Subject: unsubscrive unsubscrive cypherpunks ------------------------------------------------------------------- NIBIRU E-Mail : nibiru(a)columbus.co.za South-Africa --------------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: Why Americans feel no compulsion to learn foreign languages
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 11:31 PM 3/28/96, Alan Horowitz wrote: >Certainly, I believe TCM's proposition that there is no "economic need" >for an American to learn a second language. > >On the other hand, I haven't seen any demonstration of the "value" of >learning history. Yet, who would argue that ignorance of history is a >good policy to follow? Bad analogy. Studying a combination of world history and one's nation's history is an obvious thing to do. And good bang for the buck. Choosing a language is a much harder proposition. No single language stands out for most Westerners, at least not nearly as much as it once did. (Or one of several "top pick" languages, e.g., German, French, and Spanish.) My last word on this language topic will be this: far from being a closed, ignorant, immigrant-hating, shit-eating nation, as some of the usual America bashers have intimated, the decline of language skills reflects a decline in the "ethnocentrism" of the past. A few decades ago, one studied German to be a scientist, one studied French to be cultured, one studied Latin for unexplained reasons (just a joke), and one studied Spanish if not one of the others. As immigrant waves entered the U.S., and as the anti-Westernism meme spread amongst educators, Latin faded out, then German, then French. (All are still taught, but not in the numbers once seen.) Given the explosion of languages--Yoruba, Talegu, Tagalog, Russian, Korean, and on and on--the role of French, German, and to some extent Spanish is less clear than ever. (Spanish is admittedly a growing language, but not in technical fields...just a fact.) So, I am not surprised that American students have no desire to learn one of these languages. They'll have to search to find people to practice with, which they won't (on average, not at the 2-sigma point). While I don't deny the niceness of knowing Russian or Korean, the effort needed to achieve reasonable proficiency (beyond the simple words Bill Frantz was talking about....this thread is about actually learning a language, not a handful of phrases!) is not worth, in my opinion and that apparently of many others, the effort. --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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