- cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

Someone forgot ten pounds of C-4 in New York
by Ryan Carboni 19 Dec '19

19 Dec '19

https://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/emailid/1327639 New York police discovered a trash bag containing around 4.5 kilograms (10 pounds) of what has been described as C-4 explosive in a Manhattan cemetery the morning of Oct. 11. The material did not present an immediate threat, as it was not primed with a blasting cap - a component required to successfully detonate the explosives - or a firing train for initiating a blasting cap. The New York Police Department's bomb squad has reportedly secured the material, but the area around Marble Cemetery in East Greenwich Village on 2nd Street between 1st and 2nd avenues remains closed to traffic. It is difficult to imagine an innocent explanation for how six to eight blocks of apparent plastic explosive (likely comprising about 3 to 4.5 kilograms) came to be abandoned in the cemetery. Since the material was not primed, it does not appear to have been in the final phase of deployment for an attack. While information is still preliminary, there are a number of potential reasons for the material's presence in the cemetery. It is possible that the explosives were left there as a dead drop, to be passed to someone with bombmaking experience to construct an explosive device. It is also possible that it was simply abandoned there by someone who wanted to dispose of it. Since C-4 is a military-grade explosive, it is likely that the material can be traced back to establish where it was made, who bought it and when, which would provide clues as to how it ended up Manhattan. A number of nations manufacture C-4 and military-grade plastic explosives similar to C-4, such as PE-4A. The New York Police Department and its U.S. federal law enforcement partners in the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will certainly be working overtime to attempt to determine the provenance of these explosives in order to discover who placed them there and why, in addition to testing the material to verify that it is in fact explosive and not a hoax. If the recovered explosives were still in their wrappers with lot numbers affixed, the job of tracing them will be easier. However, if they were U.S.-manufactured explosives that had been stolen or captured in a war zone, the trail may be hard to trace. If the explosive blocks did not have wrappers with lot numbers, a chemical analysis of the explosives should help the authorities narrow down the possibilities. New York remains one of the highest-profile targets for terrorist attacks in the United States, and plots to detonate explosives there are regularly investigated and disrupted. The last such plot was the failed May 1 attempt to detonate a car packed with a poorly constructed explosive device in Times Square. Indeed, many of these failed plots, like those involving Najibullah Zazi and Faisal Shahzad, failed for want of real explosives. This amount of plastic explosive would be enough to construct a relatively small improvised explosive device if it wound up in the hands of someone who wanted to use it violently, possessed a detonator or two and had some basic explosives training, but it would not be enough to create any large-scale damage by itself.

4 3

Tor Stinks re Traffic Analysis and Sybil (as do other networks)
by grarpamp 19 Dec '19

19 Dec '19

> recommend utilizing Tor to combat government surveillance If users adversaries operate under whichever governments classification levels such as TOP SECRET FVEY, and especially if the users are doing something that such govts would take personal affront to, such users need to do some serious thinking. > low-latency This phrase is misused by many as if it were some kind of litmus test for determining TA resistance... it is not. It's likely possible to create a LL network that traffic analysis cannot penetrate even with every single link tapped. Latency, purely by itself, does not define whether or not a network is secure against traffic analysis. Latency (whatever level therein) really refers to the useability different categories of apps would have at such level... the user experience. > "All ... systems as currently designed and deployed are essentially > broken against The Man" Surely generally true by now. Tor's nearly 25 year old design since inception is nothing more than a bunch of free proxies that users chain through (same as VPN's). Perhaps a bit better than VPN by maybe weighting traffic towards busy, plus an assortment of other things, and some more worse than VPN due to obvious simplicity of infesting the network with a nasty case of Sybil to the tune of 100+ nodes a month in some months. Luckily the dumb ones are caught, but it's not those that users should worry about. Like VPN, Tor is good at giving users a different IP that the everyday world of civilian / commercial endpoints has a hard time tracing. But hardly so good at resisting what Govt's and GigaCorps can now analyze and attack. Even independant smalltime researchers are confirming TA and Sybil methods against Tor and many other overlay networks. As to the *PA's listed before, they've had the thought, vantage, access, coordination, tech, money, etc to TA, and certainly to Sybil, just about any overlay network since about the time such networks came into being. 1995 2000 2005 and if by 2010 and Snowden people weren't assessing that capability exists, even based only on opensource research, well pity the fool. TA, Sybil, *PA's, GT-1's etc are no longer just some sidebar caveats in highbrow whitepapers to be dismissed and buried. There needs to be new networks deployed that take those as their top design considerations over all others. > https://www.schneier.com/blog/ Schneier seems much more a friend of govcorp (ie Counterpane), and a generic blogwonk, than any sort of genuine users activist taking any sort of strongly voiced principled stand on anything that matters. As Chiefs on Tor Board one might look for Schneier and Blaze to be publicly saying and doing some project, Tor or other, regarding TA, Sybil, or even disproving them if they weren't real threats, or at least something... instead Tor and other nets are often crickets on that. (Old congressional testimonies are also oldsauce, stir up some new hot chili.) Note also that Tor doesn't need to actually care about its users security to play whatever legal test and game in the courts that it and it's lawyers are lined up waiting to play (remember Tor was tied with EFF for many years for various reasons). How are users to be indemnified by anyone, if not first by themselves using the security of a network itself, and if the network is not capable, then what. Regardless of whether Tor etc is good or bad or none of the above, holding a near monopoly in the space on cashflow, legal, steering tech, discourse, twatterverse populism, etc... for ~10-15 years... is not good situation. Competition is healthy. And while the design of today's networks is largely unchangeable by nature of being deployed, their adversaries are adapting to leverage clearly whitepapered weaknesses in those designs since years. New networks... from internet overlay, fiber, radio, carrier pigeon, dropgangs... need to be researched, coded, and deployed by new players. Anyway, have some traffic noise generators... http://trackmenot.io/ https://adnauseam.io/

12 44

Anti-Prude Feminism
by Ryan Carboni 19 Dec '19

19 Dec '19

Recently discovered Pando closed. Personally have no idea if I'll have a negative surface altitude of six feet, but before then I hope I'll be involved with people who agree that firing a person with cause would restrict their golden parachute to only compensation for legal fees relating to their employment. None of modern feminism has resulted in any real gains for women's rights. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/business/google-ceo-vows-to-do-better-af… Google's top executive said Thursday he is "committed to doing better" as his workforce staged a global protest over reports that Android co-founder Andy Rubin received a $90 million severance package after his termination following sexual misconduct claims by a coworker. https://pando.com/2019/10/23/we-sold-pando/ And of course I’m not the only one, and my experience was far from the worst: In the last few years I have been overwhelmed by stories of sexual assault and harassment told by so many incredibley women in the Valley, holding back so much talent and driving so much talent out of the industry.

1 0

Cryptocurrency: Music
by grarpamp 19 Dec '19

19 Dec '19

1 0

Horowitz Examining Past FISA Applications to Determine if FBI's 'Basic Errors' are Systemic | National Review
by jim bell 19 Dec '19

19 Dec '19

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/horowitz-examining-past-fisa-applicatio…

1 0

speaking of Americ_n_s - a citizen's duty of care - karma - prep Now - [PEACE]
by Zenaan Harkness 19 Dec '19

19 Dec '19

Those who hail democracy (fewer these days) yet e.g. voted for Hillary "Benghazi Butcher" Clinton, failed a fundamental spiritual test: You don't like pussy grabbin? OK, sure, some folks don't... Don't like a father dating anyone as old as his 16 year old daughter? Sure, you'll likely find others who agree with you... Really opposed to tax cuts for the rich? Well, you're entitled to your Socialist dogma... But voting for Hillary Clinton? THAT is unforgivable! Ms Clinton has a sordid, war mongering, murdering, and "rape hoax" hoaxing past. And millions of American's either failed to at least check out Clinton's actual basic facts/history, and/or overlooked all her evils, and, it appears, millions still would do so today. When your corporations (Google) and military continues to drone Arab weddings, helicopter gunship random reporters and children in vans "into their place", and fuels, funds and provides weapons to known jihadi suicide bombers and your MSM proclaims them "moderate jihadis", and you STILL vote for those calling for more of this evil... ...you are collectively, tacitly, and arguably actively, supporting the evil of your own government. In today's connected world we cannot claim "insufficient access to the needed information". On a collective view of the North American citizenry, y'all got a debt to pay. This debt gonna paid by the collapse of the USA empire. This is inevitable to those who do even a little research, yet is ignored by the majority. So, now is the time to stock up or start your guns and ammo collection, now is the time to establish any prepper plans you have left idling on your bucket list, no is the time to hoard a few handfuls of silver coins so you have at least -something- to trade with when the $$ crash and re$et arrives - even if this lasts only a few weeks, and not years as in the last great depression, those few weeks, or months, might just be a critical and Soul searching time for you and those whom you love. Get your "house" in order. Now is the time, muffas!

1 0

Cryptocurrency: Freedom Documentary 2011
by grarpamp 19 Dec '19

19 Dec '19

Amir Taaki - EPCA Conference 2011 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0m2UN3nT0c Amazing early talk, not just Taaki, look at the audience... totally riveted... freedom... a few thinking against it, but most of them... they want in!!! All these fakeass coins tokens and shills in todays cryptocurrency space claiming crypto was never about anarchism freedom humanity, shopping themselves around cozying up with with govts taxes corporations centralization... fuck that. Go back to school.

1 0

Someone forgot ten pounds of C-4 in New York
by Ryan Carboni 19 Dec '19

19 Dec '19

It is the same with any group of people. If they are told that it is insignificant, they will do nothing. If they are told it is significant, they will do what they are told to do. If they are told it is dangerous and there is nothing they can do about it, they will leave. If they are told it is dangerous, but there is an important task at hand, they will obey.

1 0

Moses may have been the first Mossad agent. Probably utilized some sort of cloaking device.
by Ryan Carboni 19 Dec '19

19 Dec '19

https://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/emailid/1959583 Moses may have been the first Mossad agent. Probably utilized some sort of cloaking device.

1 0

Brown huh. So this might be linked to the Black Panthers....
by Ryan Carboni 19 Dec '19

19 Dec '19

https://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/emailid/376802 Brown huh. So this might be linked to the Black Panthers....

1 0