December 2014 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

How Mt. Gox Debacle Won Over a Bitcoin Convert
by dan＠geer.org 02 Dec '14

02 Dec '14

http://online.wsj.com/articles/how-mt-gox-debacle-won-over-a-bitcoin-conver… How Mt. Gox Debacle Won Over a Bitcoin Convert SAN MATEO, Calif. -- One event that inspired venture capitalist Tim Draper to amass a huge stash of bitcoin was the same one that turned other investors away. The Silicon Valley veteran says that he was so heartened to see bitcoin withstand the failure of Japanese virtual-currency exchange Mt. Gox in February that he decided to bid for nearly 30,000 bitcoin that were auctioned by the U.S. government in June. Continued bitcoin use by merchants and others after investors lost money in Mt. Gox "made me realize that there is a need for this," Mr. Draper said in a recent interview. "It is so important to people that they were willing to put up with that." Mr. Draper won all the bitcoin, making the co-founder of venture-capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson one of the world's largest holders of bitcoin. Thursday, Mr. Draper will try to increase his pile by bidding in another government auction of 50,000 bitcoin. The 56-year-old Mr. Draper is one of bitcoin's biggest advocates even though the price is down about 60% in the past year amid concerns about the Mt. Gox collapse, looming regulation and the stigma that the virtual currency is a haven for illicit activity. This week, Mr. Draper's bitcoin pile was worth about $11 million, down from roughly $17 million in June, based on the CoinDesk price index. Like many bitcoin enthusiasts, Mr. Draper compares the current state of the fledgling industry with the early days of the Internet. At Draper, Fisher, Jurvetson, he backed Internet companies from Hotmail and Skype to Paperless Post, an online invitation company Mr. Draper is one of a number of well-known investors who are pouring money into bitcoin, which was originally dominated by technology geeks and libertarians. Other bitcoin investors include Internet pioneer Marc Andreessen ; Virgin Group founder Richard Branson ; and Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, twins who are best known for battling Mark Zuckerberg over ownership stakes of Facebook Inc. Launched in 2009, bitcoin is an online currency that isnt backed by a central bank or government. It is created on computers; bought, sold and traded on exchanges; and stored in virtual wallets. A growing number of merchants are accepting bitcoin for payment, in part because it helps them avoid fees and other costs associated with credit cards, debit cards, checks or cash. Bitcoin's increased awareness and popularity hasn't resolved price volatility that has roiled the virtual currency over the past year. The price of a bitcoin soared to more than $1,100 last year, but it has been sliding ever since. On Monday, bitcoin was trading at $377.90 on the CoinDesk price index of major exchanges. In an interview, Mr. Draper shrugs off the recent drop in bitcoin prices. He has recently predicted that the price will rise to $10,000 in three years. "I am looking at this as a great long-term opportunity," he says, adding that he checks the price only every two or three weeks. Mr. Draper, working through Bitcoin exchange startup Vaurum, was one of 45 bidders in the auction conducted by the U.S. Marshals Service auction in June. The government seized the bitcoin last year when it raided Silk Road, an online black market. Mr. Draper hasn't disclosed the price of his bid, made when the market price of the virtual currency was roughly $580. "When you win an auction, you have mixed feelings because you know that means you paid the most," he said with a chuckle. Still, he says he is confident with the purchase because he wouldn't have been able to amass such a stash in the open market, which is thinly traded and volatile. That thin market is one of the things that concerns Mark T. Williams, a Boston University finance professor who says the recent bitcoin forays made by big investors such as Mr. Draper aren't enough to make it thrive. "The probability of success is low, but if it does hit, the reward will be very large," he said. Mr. Draper says his interest in virtual currencies goes back 20 years, when a business associate described his sons fascination with an online game that allowed players to buy items for virtual characters with virtual cash. Outside of bitcoin, Mr. Draper has also plowed money into job-hunting startup Jobs Inc., Tesla Motors , and Xpert Financial, an online marketplace for pre-IPO companies. In 2012, Mr. Draper and other investors put a $500,000 investment into CoinLab, a bitcoin business incubator. He made his investment through Draper Associates, an entity that puts money into new ventures. He has also put money into a $6.6 million fund that was recently raised by his son, Adam, to support fledgling bitcoin entrepreneurs. Mr. Draper is particularly interested in using bitcoin to speed payments in less-developed countries. He also sees promise in using bitcoin's underlying technology to create financial contracts that can skirt the traditional fee structure of big banks. "Banks are afraid to embrace bitcoin, but I'm not sure they're as afraid as much as threatened," he says. Mr. Draper spends much of his time building Draper University, an eight-week entrepreneurship program that he launched last year. The school isn't accredited, but students can pay their $9,500 tuition with bitcoin.

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request for slides and transcript: "44Con 2014: GreedyBTS - Hacking Adventures in GSM"
by coderman 02 Dec '14

02 Dec '14

http://blog.mdsec.co.uk/2014/11/44con-2014-greedybts-hacking-adventures.html ''' ... GreedyBTS can be used to assist security researchers and analysts performing assessments of mobile connectivity in environments, as well as highlighting risks to organisations who may transfer potentially sensitive information over wireless devices. An increasing number of embedded systems have turned to GSM as a management channel, such as alarm panels, street lighting, safety systems and more, which could all be susceptible to man-in-the-middle and rogue BTS attacks. The current state of baseband security means that it is difficult to detect and determine if you or your devices are being targeted by malicious BTS environments. The tools that do exist are aimed at power users which makes wider adoption by business or consumers an increasingly difficult task. By sharing information that can assist security researchers we hope to increase the overall security of mobile devices and cause people to re-think how they handle sensitive information over GSM environments... '''

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VeraCrypt Trustworthiness?
by Fabio Pietrosanti (naif) - lists 01 Dec '14

01 Dec '14

Yo, a friendly human rights lawyer just asked me for an opinion on VeraCrypt's Trustworthiness. I never heard about such project: https://veracrypt.codeplex.com/ Does the community have some critics or favorable opinion about that, in place of truecrypt? -- Fabio Pietrosanti (naif) HERMES - Center for Transparency and Digital Human Rights http://logioshermes.org - https://globaleaks.org - https://tor2web.org - https://ahmia.fi

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