I thought I would share with you a message that shows the consequences of pseudospoofing. The problem is that if *anyone* accuses *anyone* of doing it, suddenly *all* email addresses are thrown into doubt. I think the Internet has long operated on the assumption that everyone is honest, but that this assumption is breaking down in the face of genuinely malicious individuals with a great deal of commitment to deception. This message appeared on a highly trusted list moderated by D.Farber, the `interesting people' list. He compiles material from a wide variety of sources and acts as a sort of cyberspatial newspaper outlet. Unfortunately, we are all fallible, as he demonstrated recently in passing through on the list a classic urban myth about LSD tattoos absorbed through the skin. This myth has been debunked in many places-- as I understand it, no case of a `LSD tattoo' has ever been found, because it is physically impossible to absorb the drug in this manner. The person below was being facetious, but the paranoia over email addresses and `cyberanarchists' shows through. I cannot escape commenting on the symbolism of this message: the swing of the pendulum has been arrested, and from henceforth on, the use of the Internet for deception will be of the utmost concern of many designers and will strongly influence many new technological advancements in Cyberspace. ===cut=here=== From: rjs@farnsworth.mit.edu (Richard Jay Solomon) Subject: Re: Important Message to Parents Cc: bjones@weber.ucsd.edu, moredohrs@farnsworth.mit.edu, tcfgie@weber.ucsd.edu [LSD tattoos] This is a marvelous, if scary, example of a serious issue of information dissemination via the net. It's instantaneous, authoriative looking (because it is in print, on a *computer*, yours!), yet appears to be a personal letter often from someone who you think you know, and you have'nt a clue of whether the content or the sender is for real. And you still don't know if THIS message is a hoax, urban myth, or what. Maybe it WAS a myth, but is no longer. Suppose farber's list was penetrated, or Dave flipped his lid, or bjones@weber.ucsd.edu is some maniac or a fictitious name, or rjs@farnsworth.mit.edu is a cyber-anarchist or has been seized by one -- you simply do not know. But if you have kids, you have a teensy-weensy suspicion that this might be true and you are going to ask the first biochemist you know, aren't you -- with a smile on your face, or on your email, just in case you look foolish. Right?