Anon posts (was irritating posts...)
From owner-cypherpunks@toad.com Mon Jun 13 14:23 CDT 1994 X-Sender: ben@localhost Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Mon, 13 Jun 1994 12:17:00 -0700 To: cypherpunks@toad.com From: Ben.Goren@asu.edu Subject: Re: (None) Precedence: bulk
At 12:50 PM 6/13/94 -0500, Jeff Gostin wrote:
dfloyd@runner.utsa.edu (Douglas R. Floyd) writes:
How rude is it for people to post (or mail to a mailing list) anon messages encrypted with someone's PGP key? It makes it easy for the receiver to obtain it, but how irritating is it to people? Fairly. In fact, it's considered downright rude. It's like sitting around a table of, say, 3 people, and whispering with someone next to you. The first person is you -- you're sending the message. The second person is your friend -- he's recieving it. The third is me -- I'm just watching two people whispering. Further, newsgroups are a very inappropriate place to send private mail for propogation.
Might it be appropriate, though, to create an alt group for that purpose? Sort of the digital equivalent of putting "coded" messages in the personals section of your favorite newspaper's classified section. You know--"John, you have five days to pay up" means to meet at the Ritz for dinner next Thursday, and "I love you, Sally" means to run for the border.
But far, far more effective digitally.
Could be especailly useful for people "in the field," considering how many universities and other places permit Usenet posting without an account, so long as your IP is considered local--easier to get access.
--Jeff
b&
-- Ben.Goren@asu.edu, Arizona State University School of Music net.proselytizing (write for info): Protect your privacy; oppose Clipper. Voice concern over proposed Internet pricing schemes. Stamp out spamming. Finger ben@tux.music.asu.edu for PGP 2.3a public key.
That is a good idea, creating a special USENET group for coded messages. Alt.security.coded.messages would be a good moniker. Personally, I am not familar with gopherholes or message havens, so I do not know how good they are, and can log telnets in. It is harder to log nntp reads of alt.security.coded.messages or such. If an admin is very nosy, they could be snooping your terminal and packets as well, though... Another idea could be an anonymous FTP site, but someone can go and delete all the messages on there, and ftps are logged as well... Any better ideas on being able to anon-post and anon-read with as few ways for a third party to log as possible? (This is for my curiosity only, as I rarely have anything worth saying that needs this much protection.)
Douglas Floyd wrote:
That is a good idea, creating a special USENET group for coded messages. Alt.security.coded.messages would be a good moniker.
Cf. Miron Cuperman's "pool" system. Subscribers get _all_ messages in pools, decrypting only the ones they can. Others who also subscribe can only tell that all messages went to all subscribers...ironically, more "loggers" help increase the identity diffusity.
Personally, I am not familar with gopherholes or message havens, so I do not know how good they are, and can log telnets in. It is harder to log nntp reads of alt.security.coded.messages or such. If an admin is very nosy, they could be snooping your terminal and packets as well, though...
As above, it doesn't matter. End to end encryption makes such logging fruitless (unless the number of pool subscribers is very small, for obvious reasons).
Another idea could be an anonymous FTP site, but someone can go and delete all the messages on there, and ftps are logged as well...
A bad idea. Pools have major diffusivity advantages over any scheme involving requested access. (Unless requestor takes _all_ messages, in which case the ftp access is merely a wrinkle on how the pool is subscribed to.)
Any better ideas on being able to anon-post and anon-read with as few ways for a third party to log as possible?
Not an issue. Anon remailer chains make posting to a pool secure and untraceable (usual caveats). Likewise, subscription to all messages hides which are being decrypted. To see this, think of the Cypherpunks list as one large (by today's standards) message pool. (This is the proximate cause of this thread, as someone is complaining about this group being used as a pool to send anon messages to others.) --Tim May -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."
participants (2)
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dfloyd＠runner.utsa.edu -
tcmay＠netcom.com