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Directory of 'punks
by Jim Sewell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

As another thought, would there be interest in compiling a list of cypherpunks who agreed to be included, their occupations, and any notable experiences such as "Served for 3 years on the Foreign Affairs Committee" or whatever. With tools like a "press kit" and a directory of members we will become viewed as a cross-section of America, citizens with a point of view shared by many, contributors to the general welfare of society rather than a bunch of fanatical computer geeks that haven't given anything to society. (well, maybe...it's a tough battle.) Jim -- Tantalus Inc. Jim Sewell Amateur Radio: KD4CKQ P.O. Box 2310 Programmer Internet: jims(a)mpgn.com Key West, FL 33045 C-Unix-PC Compu$erve: 71061,1027 (305)293-8100 PGP via email on request. 1K-bit Fingerprint: 8E 14 68 90 37 87 EF B3 C4 CF CD 9A 3E F9 4A 73

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Re: CIA & FBI, a marriage made in ___?
by Blanc Weber 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: Black Unicorn (from an earlier post) In so far as the law is a matter of perspective, I think everyone should try to embrace the concepts of the law, and in particular, the constitution. (from the above named post) Yes, I'm tired of the issue [of the political aspects of crypto] being framed as a crime problem that needs political attention through law enforcement when in actuality it is a question of regulation and domestic policy. ...................................................... I'm not seeing the consistency in embracing the concepts of the law, while questioning the regulation of crypto through law enforcement. It all rather looks the same to me: political attention-> law enforcement-> regulation-> domestic policy. ?? Blanc

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Re: Paranoia
by Phil G. Fraering 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>I personally can't think of any reason for an elite fighting force to >be stationed in an area of urban sprawl. Uh, last time I checked, the most recent two conflicts the U.S. may be getting involved in or got involved in were in Mogudishu and in urban areas in the former Yugoslavia. Not to mention the urban environment of Seoul. Whether you're a hawk or a dove, the fact is, the US has been, might be, or just plain is (if there's a war in Korea) committed to conflicts where there's going to be combat in an urban or "suburban" area. You might debate the wisdom of our overseas commitments, etc., but if you think we should have an army that should have as its hope of survival the idea that the enemy will always be fighting in rural areas, you're foolish in the extreme, and if you implement those ideas you will kill a great many of your own army. Phil

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Re: spooks on cypherpunks
by rustman＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> From: nobody(a)jarthur.cs.hmc.edu > Date: Thu Apr 28 00:36:57 PDT 1994 > > NetSurfer <jdwilson(a)gold.chem.hawaii.edu> > Robert Mathews <mathews(a)gold.chem.hawaii.edu> > > be aware You know, spooks need strong Crypto, too. I think you're making the assumption that the only reason a spook is here is to infiltrate us and do us harm. I bet it is quite the opposite. What is the best way to stay hidden and secure? Use strong crypto that can be found almost anywhere (like PGP). Strong crypto that doesn't scream goverment or worse. Blend in with the rest fo the crypto traffic. Spooks get *caught* by doing things that are out of the ordinary. Spooks stay in business by not standing out and disappearing in the crowds. It probably sounds silly, but there are probably more or at least as many spooks who *like* what we're doing than those who oppose it. Rusty Hodge, Cyberbeticist, Resident Futurist. <rustman(a)netcom.com>

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Re: spooks on cypherpunks
by joshua geller 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>It probably sounds silly, but there are probably more or at least as many >spooks who *like* what we're doing than those who oppose it. I have a childhood friend who grew up to be a new york city cop. we used to smoke mega drugs together. I met him at my brothers wedding and asked him about his vocational choice, it seemed strange. he said 'there are 20,000 new york city cops. every kind of person you can imagine is a new york city cop'. all generalizations are false. josh

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Random #'s via CD-ROM?
by grendel＠netaxs.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hello cypherpunks (first post): In the hopes of starting an cryptograpy-related thread... I have been reading the section in _Applied Cryptography_ about random number generators, and some proposed hardware random number generators. It seems to me that with the CD-ROM drive becoming increasingly common these days, this could be exploited as a source of randomness. For example: [1] Read a pseudo-random section from the CD-ROM. Unless you catch the blank end of a sector, you should obtain random data (this is one obvious problem with this method). [2] Read a pseudo-random section from the CD-ROM, and use this data to select another chunk of data from the CD-ROM (more random, yet we still have a problem if we read the blank end of a sector...). The two above ideas are okay, but they both suffer from the same problem, namely if you read the unused portions of the cluster you will get a random sample of all 0's. Not good. The idea that really interests me is this: Place an *audio* CD in the CD-ROM drive. Most CD-ROM drives know about audio discs now, and I believe they can be made to read the binary waveform data even if they don't understand the Red Book audio format. If you have something really random/discordant (Ministry / NIN / Curve / Sonic Youth / Pain Teens / Diamanda Galas / Coil / etc) and you take samples of the waveform and play with them as described in _AC_, you could get some pretty random samples. Of course, care must be taken to only read within the portions of the CD/CD-ROM that have actually been encoded.... What do you all think? I have code to work with CD-ROM drives, works on my system and a friend's CD-ROM drive as well (for DOS machines). I don't know about Mac / UNIX CD-ROM drive programming, sorry. =( I welcome all comments, criticisms, flames, love letters, etc. Post if there's wide enough appeal, or just email me. [ I am also taking suggestions for random / discordant / loud music to use with this method. Please email me, don't post, as I'm sure the rest of the list would dislike us discussing that in public ] -- ========================================================================== | Michael Brandt Handler | <grendel(a)netaxs.com> | Philadelphia, PA | ==========================================================================

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Elliptic Curve response
by Matt Thomlinson 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

After seeing the post about elliptic curve encrytion (mentioning neal koblitz as an authority) I took the liberty of forwarding it to him and asking for his response as well as a good reference. Here's the response. (I'd never heard of elliptic curve crypto. I have now.) ---- Date: Thu, 28 Apr 94 16:10:39 -0700 From: Neal Koblitz To: phantom(a)u.washington.edu Subject: reply Matt, Thanks for the message. The guy is basically correct in what he says (except for minor inaccuracies in terminology and so on). The best source on this subject is the recent book: ``Elliptic Curve Public Key Cryptosystems'' by Alfred Menezes, Kluwer Acad. Pub., 1993. Regards, Neal ------ Matt Thomlinson University of Washington, Seattle, Washington. phone: (206) 548-9804 Check my home page -- ftp://ftp.u.washington.edu/public/phantom/home.html PGP 2.2 key available via email, or finger phantom(a)hardy.u.washington.edu

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WSJ editorial email or fax address?
by Phil Karn 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Anybody know if the WSJ accepts letters to the editor by fax or email? I've drafted the following letter to the editor, but I couldn't find anything but a snail mail address in today's paper. I *did* send a copy to Mr. Bulkeley's MCI mail address, so please do NOT forward it to him again...Phil 7431 Teasdale Ave San Diego, CA 92122 karn(a)unix.ka9q.ampr.org April 28, 1994 Editor Wall Street Journal Re: "Cipher Probe: Popularity Overseas of Encryption Code Has the US Worried", WSJ 4/28/94, Page 1. Sirs: The Zimmermann case is as much about the First Amendment as it is about privacy and irrational US export controls on encryption. Recently I obtained a formal ruling from the US State Department that a new textbook, "Applied Cryptography" by Bruce Schneier, could be freely exported anywhere in the world -- even though it prints actual source code from Pretty Good Privacy (PGP). The State Department applied a "public domain" exemption to my request. Indeed, the First Amendment demands such an exemption. Dozens of other books and journals on cryptography, many with similar source code listings, enjoy the same protection. However, the State Department has so far refused to approve my request to export a floppy disk containing the same exact source code that appears in Schneier's book. And they still insist that "publishing" cryptographic software on the Internet is illegal. Why the distinction? Do they seriously believe that only Americans can program a computer, much less type? No, not even the government is THAT stupid. They're using fear and intimidation in a desperate attempt to delay the inevitable, no matter what the consequences. Philip R. Karn

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Re: Gee...
by snyderra＠dunx1.ocs.drexel.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 8:08 AM 4/28/94 -0700, Sandy Sandfort wrote: >Do you think your fastidious compliance with the law will keep them from >branding you a criminal, anyway? Wake up. Errr, no, but they'd still need to prove it. Generally, it is easier to get a guilty verdict when you have committed a crime than when you have not. >The whole purpose of wide-spread availability and use of strong crypto is >to what "others" say or think, irrelevant. Strong crypto means never >having to say you're sorry. I'm not arguing this point. I agree. I just think that people should work to change the current government policy through legal means before resorting to illegal measures. I think we are seeing some sucess in this area, with the hearings on Clipper and the push by at least one legislator to ease the cryptography export restrictions. We are getting reasonable press coverage, which is growing. Just like you only heard a bit about the Internet a few years ago, but now you can't pick up a newspaper or magazine without some mention of the Internet, you are starting to see articles about Cryptography (like the WSJ article, or NPR's piece). Bob -- Bob Snyder N2KGO MIME, RIPEM mail accepted snyderra(a)dunx1.ocs.drexel.edu finger for RIPEM public key When cryptography is outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl.

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No Subject
by NetSurfer 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The following anon msg sent to the cpunks list contained your account (ebrandt(a)jarthur.cs.hmc.edu) as the reply to: ============================================================ Date: Thu Apr 28 00:36:57 PDT 1994 From: nobody(a)jarthur.cs.hmc.edu Reply to: ebrandt(a)jarthur.cs.hmc.edu To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com Subject: spooks on cypherpunks NetSurfer <jdwilson(a)gold.chem.hawaii.edu> Robert Mathews <mathews(a)gold.chem.hawaii.edu> be aware ============================================================ Are you the sender? Do you know who the sender is? Why exactly is this person defaming my name with this outrageous accusation? The only recent contact I know of was that Robert Mathews sent a message to soda.berkeley.edu where (for whatever his reason was) he was warning against Sameer's 14.4 link. I personally do NOT know why he (Mathews) felt it necessary to send that message on like he did. The only reason I sent it to him was as part of a discussion of bandwidth/services for a network we are working on which will support multiple users and multiple connect types. But in either case, if this was the source of the msg from nobody(a)jarthur.cs.hmc.edu, it was way off base. -Jim -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.4 mQBNAi2Ig+EAAAECALImsR18LE9I6NKICf8TVhbV6yJgF95ynGHnWnNo1ERfdqzk Zl3Icl2N5klNM3KQ9zM3uN/z55smi2QOiD3hL80ABRO0L0phbWVzIEQuIFdpbHNv biA8amR3aWxzb25AZ29sZC5jaGVtLmhhd2FpaS5lZHU+ =JTj1 -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- ................................ . == = = James D. Wilson. . " " " P. O. Box 15432............................. . " " /\ " Honolulu, HI 96830-5432......Fr. Excelsior........ . \" "/ \" jdwilson(a)gold.chem.hawaii.edu.FRC/FAM/AASR/GWB/OTO. ...................................................................

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