On Tue, 15 Oct 1996, Timothy C. May wrote:
At 11:01 PM -0400 10/15/96, Rabid Wombat wrote:
Also - in order to communicate back to the perpetrator, the victim needs to communicate to the first step in the chain. The operator of that chain
BlackNet-type pools eliminate the chain. There is no "first step in the chain," only a message pool or Usenet group which is propagated to tens of thousands of sites around the world (and even available via one's satellite dish and local cable, a la DirectPC, @Home, etc.).
Yes, a large and widely distributed message pool would seem to be a way around this ...
and abetting a crime is another. What's to keep the authorities from following the trail of crubs back to the perpetrator, other than the usual threats of "don't call the cops" and "you have 24 hours to respond?" A few hops through some generally uncooperative jurisdictions might do, but perhaps El Dictator of Little Bannana Republic might just decide to hold the perpetrator's "payment" hostage ...
Remailers, message pools, and untraceable cash are much more robust against these sorts of attacks than you are portraying here.
Yes, I suppose the actual transmission would be robust, if no mistakes were made. As you pointed out - if you can make the first hop secure (or any hop, for that matter). The only problem is that you're the only one turning up w/ a sudden large ecash sumin the Cayman Islands (and that "clue" won't be there with wider use of ecash ...).
Sounds like the making of a good movie script. Can we get Tom Cruise and one of those Thinking Machines laptops?? ;)
Hollywood is too naive. I was interviewed by a screenwriter who came to a Cypherpunks meeting, circa early 1994. She took copious notes and seemed very interested in these sorts of things. From the plot she was tentatively working on, I think the eventual outcome was "The Net," but it's possible her script never got made, or was used for background, or whatever. In any case, "The Net" (and "Hackers") had essentially nothing very sophisticated in it.
Perhaps we should write our own script. Can we get Attila to play "El Dictator"? -r.w. :)