remailer resistancs to attack (fwd)

[Jim Choate]

Forwarded message:

> Subject: Re: remailer resistancs to attack 
> Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 04:56:12 EST
> From: Ryan Lackey <rdl at mit.edu>

> Adam Back:
> > Public access servers aren't a good idea.  Really people should be
> > running local access servers only.  The index is local, cache is
> > local, and USENET is a distributed broadcast medium.
> 
> True.

Where do these private access servers get/send their traffic ultimately?

> By having anonymous remailers which are themselves anonymous -- running
> on discarded accounts, only known by a few other remailers,

So we have lots of little groups of remailers that are hidden from public
view by a 'ring' of public remailers (required if we want the general public
to access them)? By what mechanism do I as a 'secret' remailer let others
know about my existance and hence willingness to carry traffic? By what
mechanism is my trustworthyness to be judged for this secret duty?

> general public, perhaps by splitting up remailer addresses as a 
> shared secret, so one remailer knows there is a "foo remailer" it can
> use, and has 1 of 3 where 2 pieces are necessary to have the address. and
> sends it to another remailer which may have the other part of the address.

Doesn't the remailer have to know who to ask to have a reasonable shot at
getting the pieces? Isn't the list of sources going to have to be publicly
accessible? Doesn't this also increase the bandwidth problem? Considering
the scale required to impliment this, where is the monetary pay off for
these secret remailers?

> Providing a financial incentive for people to run remailers.  This requires
> digital cash.  I believe digital cash will soon exist, and thus this will
> soon be possible.

At least one current potential for income is the indipendant key server.
Charge some amount to keep the keys for a year and charge per access by
remailers since they would be commercial enterprises. If the cost were
pennies per access you could even access the casual individual user who
wants to pull a key (though I personaly would like to see this cost be born
by the key server operator).


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