home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
-
- Computer underground Digest Wed Jan 26, 1995 Volume 7 : Issue 06
- ISSN 1004-042X
-
- Editors: Jim Thomas and Gordon Meyer (TK0JUT2@NIU.BITNET)
- Archivist: Brendan Kehoe
- Retiring Shadow Archivist: Stanton McCandlish
- Shadow-Archivists: Dan Carosone / Paul Southworth
- Ralph Sims / Jyrki Kuoppala
- Ian Dickinson
- He's baaaack: E. T. Shrdlu
-
- CONTENTS, #7.06 (Wed, Jan 26, 1995)
-
- File 1--ACM Computers Seized by IIT (fwd)
- File 2--www.CliffordChance.com
- File 3--GovAccess.088: CapWeb, Civicnetters, disabled, etc
- File 4--EFF Open Letter to Church of Scientology
- File 5--Writer Seeks On-Line Crime Info (fwd)
- File 6--Comment on "NII/Preservation of Information"
- File 7--(fwd) Summary of NYC Clipper Seminar 19 JAN 95 (fwd)
- File 8--E-Mail Security - New book by Bruce Schneier
- File 9--Cu Digest Header Information (unchanged since 25 Nov 1994)
-
- CuD ADMINISTRATIVE, EDITORIAL, AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION APPEARS IN
- THE CONCLUDING FILE AT THE END OF EACH ISSUE.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 00:13:29 -0600 (CST)
- From: David Smith <bladex@BGA.COM>
- Subject: File 1--ACM Computers Seized by IIT (fwd)
-
- ---------- Forwarded message ----------
-
- ACM Computers Seized By Illinois Institute of Technology
-
- "And let it be known throughout the world what was done this day..."
-
- Dateline January 17, 1995
-
- Today sometime before noon today, the Illinois Institute of Technology
- seized the computer systems of the Association for Computing Machinery
- student chapter at IIT.
-
- 700 Student and Faculty users are not happy.
-
- And are now without their Email and other private files. The locations
- of the ACM systems is currently unknown, and the security of the
- system and the accounts on it is highly questionable, as it was quite
- literally riped out of the wall. ( a piece of the modem was found
- lying on the table ).
-
- The reasons given by IIT where that members of ACM are suspected of
- hacking into the computer of another IIT student group, and pulling
- several pranks. The memo sent to the Dean of Students details the
- hacking attempt, but no evidence points to ACM's systems or to any of
- their users, but the memo does make several unbacked accusations. And
- at this time, we can see no reason ACM would even be tied to the
- events. However because ACM members are suspect, the systems where
- unlawfully seized by IIT.
-
- IIT has no legal right to seize ACM's systems, nor anyone else, as
- they contain private accounts, files, and Email. Such rights are
- protected under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA),
- which extended most of the protections of the federal Wiretap Act
- ("Title III") to electronic mail. Precidence established in the case
- Secret Service vs. Steve Jackson Games decided March 12, 1993
-
- Needless to say, ACM members are not too happy about all of this. And
- the other 700 people don't seem happy either.
-
- ---------------------------------------------
-
- Dateline January 18, 1995
-
- o Members realize that along with Troll, which is physicaly
- considered IIT's property even tho it was purchased with student
- funds, property of ACM members was also seized includind a
- network card, SIMM modules, and the modem that was broken by IIT
- during the seizure.
-
- o ACM recieves writen copy of allegations and supposed proof that
- ACM systems where used in the attempt. However the evidence
- clearly shows that other IIT owned systems where used and NOT
- ACM's systems.
-
- o Electronic Frontier Foundation is called and informed of the
- situation, and begins investigating the situation.
-
- o ACM HEARS THAT THE COMPUTER SYSTEM IS IN THE PROCESS OF BEING
- SEARCHED BY IIT STAFF, AND ACM MEMBERS NOW CONSIDER THE SYSTEM
- COMPROMISED. STILL NO EVIDENCE SHOWING ACM INVOLVEMENT.
-
- o Word continues to spread amung the IIT community, many more
- students and faculty are outraged about the seizure of their
- accounts and files.
-
- o Continued stress to students due to the lack of access to their
- Email, addressbooks, and other files. Email is now being lost in
- mass due to the
-
- o ACM systems removal, much of which is considered critical by many
- people. ACM members miss the Chicago ACM meeting due to the fact
- that all the info concerning time/location was stored on the
- seized systems.
-
- o ACM members miss the Chicago ACM meeting due to the fact that all
- the info concerning time/location was stored on the seized
- systems.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 20 Jan 95 16:24:54
- From: "Carolina, Robert" <Robert.Carolina@CLIFFORDCHANCE.COM>
- Subject: File 2--www.CliffordChance.com
-
- Greetings!
-
- Below please find a press release we issued today concerning our
- firm's new Web Server. It contains a few articles which may be of
- interest to you.
-
- Regards,
-
- /s/Rob
- --
- Robert Carolina, Clifford Chance, 200 Aldersgate Street, London,
- EC1A 4JJ, United Kingdom, Tel: +44 171 600 1000, Fax: +44 171 600 5555,
- Internet: Robert.Carolina@CliffordChance.com
- X.400: G=Robert/S=Carolina/O=Clifford Chance/ADMD=CWMAIL/PRMD=LEGIS/C=GB
-
- ==============
-
- CLIFFORD CHANCE PRESS RELEASE
-
-
- 20 January 1995
-
- CLIFFORD CHANCE LAUNCHES INTO CYBERSPACE
-
- International law firm Clifford Chance today announced that it
- has established an Internet-based information server on the World
- Wide Web. The Internet presence is believed to be a first for
- a major international law firm. In establishing a Web server,
- the firm joins a growing list of major companies and government
- organisations around the world with similar servers.
-
- "It is a natural step for us to take", said Keith Clark, the
- firm's Senior Partner. "We need to keep abreast of developing
- technology and use it to provide a better service to our
- clients."
-
- Currently, the Web server contains the full text of articles
- written by lawyers within the firm, as well as a list of the
- firm's publications and information about the firm's offices and
- practice areas. The server is accessible from any Internet
- connection in the world. Viewers have the option to send
- electronic mail to the firm via the Internet with follow-up
- requests.
-
- Christopher Millard, a partner in the firm's Media, Computer and
- Communications Group stated, "The Internet is rapidly becoming
- a vital medium for the global distribution of information. As
- an international firm we believe it makes business sense to
- establish ourselves in the growing cyberspace community."
-
- - ends -
-
- ABOUT CLIFFORD CHANCE
-
- Clifford Chance is one of the world's largest law firms, with
- over 1350 lawyers and a total staff of over 2750 located in 21
- jurisdictions around the world. It provides comprehensive legal
- advice to a broad range of clients.
-
- NOTES TO EDITORS:
-
- 1 The Clifford Chance Home Page is located on the World Wide Web
- at "http://www.CliffordChance.com" (spelling and punctuation are
- critical). It may be accessed using Web browsing software (such
- as NCSA Mosaic, or Netscape Navigator) from any computer in the
- world which is directly connected to the Internet.
-
- 2 The Internet is the world's largest network of computer
- networks, and there are estimated to be more than 40 million
- people with some type of access to the network. The Internet is
- not owned by any individual, and a number of different service
- providers are able to sell access. Service providers in the UK
- include Pipex, EuNet, and Demon Internet Systems.
-
- 3 The World Wide Web (also known as "WWW") is the name given to
- a certain standard for the retrieval of multimedia information
- via the Internet. WWW "home pages" can contain text, graphics,
- sound files, and motion pictures. The Clifford Chance Home Page
- currently contains mostly text with a few graphic files.
-
- 4 Prior to establishing a Home Page on the Internet, Clifford
- Chance has for some time been using the Internet as a research
- resource and as one of a number of gateways for electronic mail.
-
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 14:26:38 -0800
- From: Jim Warren <jwarren@WELL.SF.CA.US>
- Subject: File 3--GovAccess.088: CapWeb, Civicnetters, disabled, etc
-
- Seek Occasional Poli-Sci Aid - Professorial Type or Reference Librarian (?)
-
- Having pursued my education in classic nerd style, I carefully avoided
- learning much in the few civics courses I was forced to take in high school
- and college.
-
- Now that I have finally learned that politics *will* be inflicted on
- me and all of us - whether we learn about it or simply suffer the
- consequences - and have become involved in it, I have occasional
- naive/stupid questions.
-
- It would be *very* helpful if I could find a knowledgable,
- reliable=accurate source of basic civics and political-science
- information, willing to consider my occasional questions - *before* I
- publish or circulate erroneous comments.
-
- E.g., is it accurate to say that the "federal deficit" is how much
- more that authorizes to spend in a given year than the feds take in,
- whereas the "national debt" is the sum of those un-repaid deficits,
- over the years? (See? I said they were naive questions. But I won't
- ask you about object-oriented programming or vector algebra. :-)
-
- If yer willin' and competent to help, please send a coupla lines
- indicating your expertise. Many thanks. --jim-the-nerd
-
-
- &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
-
-
- CapWeb: A Guide to Congress on the WWW
-
- Thu, 12 Jan 95 09:16:45 EST
- >From Chris_Casey@kennedy.senate.gov
-
- CapWeb is an "unauthorized" hypertext guide to Congress on the World
- Wide Web. Committee assignments, contact information including phone
- numbers, fax, e-mail addresses, state delegation lists, and party
- rosters are among the information that is available for every member
- of the Senate and House of Representatives.
-
- CapWeb will collect and maintain links to information being provided
- by individual members of Congress on the Internet; the Library of
- Congress and other Congressional agencies; state governments;
- political parties and other related resources.
-
- CapWeb is part of Policy.Net, a service of Issue Dynamics, Inc. and
- can be found at: http://policy.net
-
- kennedy.senate.gov /''''\
- http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/casey/casey.html /______\
- |@@@@@@@@|
- 202/224-3570 ||0||0||0|
- Office of Senator Kennedy _____/\________ " " " " "_______/\_____
- Washington, DC 20510 {|| || || || || ____/\_____|| || || || ||}
- ______________________________{||_||_||_||_||____/__\____||_||_||_||_||}__
-
-
- [I wouldn't normally include such an baroque "sig-file," but this is so novel
- that I tho't I'd inflict it on yer email. --jim]
-
-
- &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
-
-
- Invitation to Join Civic-Networking Collegium (at a fee)
-
- >From d.wiesner@genie.geis.com
- >From MUNI-TELECOM-APPROVAL@CIVICNET.ORG
- >From The Center for Civic Networking
- Fri, 13 Jan 95 06:08:00 UTC
-
- Over the past two years we've helped to develop the Cambridge Civic
- Forum - a public dialogue program in Cambridge, MA. Along the way, we've
- come across similar efforts focusing on citizen planning, neighborhood
- action, and citizen-government collaboration at the local level. A member
- of the CCN team (Ken Thomson) co-authored a book, The Rebirth of Urban
- Democracy, that looked in depth at a number of these programs, including
- those in St. Paul, Portland, Dayton, Birmingham, and San Antonio.
-
- One thing we've realized is that there doesn't appear to be a special forum
- for those of us in the trenches to compare notes with each other. Ken
- convened several conferences from 1978 to 1992 for a broad range of
- community-based organizations, and invariably participants urged development
- of such a forum on an ongoing basis. There are a number of national-level
- and collaborative efforts working to promote civic renewal in one form
- another (e.g. Healthy Cities, National Issues Forum, Alliance for National
- Renewal, American Civic Forum), but as yet, no ongoing, day-to-day linkage.
-
- Since we'd like to participate in such a forum, and can't find one, the
- obvious thing to do is start one! We'd like to create a forum that brings
- together grass roots practitioners, who are currently working on (or
- have worked on) locally evolved programs, with the specific goals of:
-
- - providing a vehicle for us to compare notes and otherwise
- provide mutual support and assistance
-
- - engaging in serious examination of issues that we all face
-
- - developing ways to disseminate what we've learned in order to
- help other communities develop their own programs
-
- - providing a vehicle for collaboration on joint projects - such
- as regional forums and joint fund-raising
-
- We'd like to start by recruiting 100-150 participants in an ongoing
- "electronic collegium" - essentially a focused electronic mail list open
- to anyone with practical experience in community organizing, citizen
- participation, and/or civic dialogue activities.
-
- We'd like to assemble an initial group during January, then use February
- to exchange introductions, describe the activities each participant is
- engaged in, and identify specific topics that we'd all like to explore in
- more depth. Over the rest of the year we'll explore one topic per month
- in depth (possibly with one or two academic or other experts invited to
- participate in each topic discussion). Some obvious issues are lessons
- learned in how to get started, engaging broad-based participation,
- organization and staffing, financial support, the possible role of
- technology (a favorite topic of ours), policy impacts, and program models.
- We'll provide moderation and facilitation to keep the discussions on
- track. Of course, on an ongoing basis, we also see this collegium as a
- vehicle for each participant to solicit input and assistance from other
- members of the collegium.
-
- By keeping this as a limited admission, focused forum, we hope to create
- high value for all participants.
-
- As we develop useful results, we hope to disseminate them via our
- respective participation on other Internet lists, by publishing summaries
- (electronically and otherwise), by organizing "electronic seminars" for
- people getting started in organizing new local efforts, and through all
- the normal channels of speaking, writing, teaching, etc.
-
- We would like to ask a modest financial contribution to help support the
- effort - $35 for the first 6 months, and $15 per quarter thereafter
- (around the price of a limited circulation academic journal). This will
- go to setting up a full set of network capabilities (mailing list,
- archive, WAIS server to allow searching the archive, gopher server
- containing supporting documents, mail-responder to allow email only
- participants to access the archives and documents), to partial support of
- staff time for facilitating on-line dialogue and editing transcripts into
- distributable summaries (e.g. a periodic report to more public lists), to
- partial support of staff time for technical administration of the list and
- servers, and possibly to honoraria for invited expert participants. Of
- course, collegium participants will get copies of any edited summaries we
- put together.
-
- If you're interested, please send email to CCN@civicnet.org - with a brief
- description of:
-
- 1. who you are
-
- 2. what program(s) you're involved in
-
- 3. specific areas of interest you'd like the collegium to focus on
-
- If we have sufficient initial interest - say 40 or more people -
- we'll come back to you with the details of getting started.
-
- Regards,
-
- John Altobello
- Richard Civille
- Miles Fidelman
- Ken Thomson
-
- for the Center for Civic Networking
-
- The Center for Civic Networking is a non-profit organization dedicated to
- applying information infrastructure to the broad public good. We work to
- as informed citizens,
- and provide "electronic town halls" which can broaden citizen
- participation in governance at every level.
-
-
- &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
-
-
- L.A. Conf on Technology and Persons with Disabilities, March 14-18, 1995
-
- The Center on Disabilities at Cal State University - Northridge (18111
- Nordhoff St, Northridge CA 91330-8340, 818-885-2578/voice/TDD/msg, 818-885-
- 4929/fax, ltm@csun.edu) has announced the above-titled conference. Fees range
- from $150 to $295 by March 1st, and $200 to $345 thereafter.
-
-
- &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
-
-
- San Jose Mercury News Publishes 5-Part "Legislature for Sale" Series
-
- If you're interested in - or infuriated by - California government, check out
- this series! It ran the week of January 8th. (For those on AOL, it should
- be in their Mercury Center.)
-
-
- &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
-
-
- Rhode Island: RI Secretary of State James Langevin Pursuing Online Access
-
- This summarizes msgs of the last few days from Nelson Perras
- (ad795@osfn.rhilinet.gov), Coordinator of the Office of Public Information
- for Rhode Island Secretary of State James Langevin
- (secstate@osfn.rhilinet.gov).
-
- Currently, they are examining ways to put RI govt info on-line as
- inexpensively as possible. There are two avenues they think may be
- productive.
-
- The first is to use what already exists - the Ocean State Freenet to which
- theoretically every RI'er has access thru libraries or at home - and provide
- as much govt info as possible. The second is to enter into a public/private
- partrnership to provide some info that RI normally could not financially
- afford to do, to the public.
-
- Perras' laudible current view is that the private sector would want to make
- use of such information commercially, but considering it is public info
- already, they could do that anyway. So long as the people maintain ownership
- of the work product, he's inclined to allow the free market to do what it
- does best - innovate and provide services and products from existing
- resources.
-
- He also expressed concern for assuring that there be no monitoring of who
- accesses which documents - that the privacy of those seeking information
- about their government be fully protected.
-
- Perras is actively soliciting input (ad795@osfn.rhilinet.gov). --jim
-
-
- &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
-
-
- Does Newt *Really* Want to Open Congress to Public Access? By Phone?
-
- Thu, 12 Jan 1995 13:54:45 -0800
- >From Eric.Silber@Eng.Sun.COM (Eric Silber)
-
- > From jwarren@well.sf.ca.us Wed Jan 11 23:52 PST 1995
- > Date: Wed, 11 Jan 1995 18:00:39 -0800
- > To learn the e-mail addresses of your Senators you will need to contact
- > them directly at 202-224-3121.
- ^^^^^^^^^^^^
- Last year, I couldn't get through to 224-3121, so I called 1-202-555-1212
- They say they can't give out Cong. office phone numbers because, 'They
- don't have them' !, 'Congress doesn't supply them to Atlantic Bell' !!!!
- Why the h*$$ doesn't Congress supply its office phone numbers to Atlantic
- Bell for listng with 'information' ?
-
-
- &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
-
-
- "Every advance in civilization has been denounced while it was still recent."
- - Bertrand Russell (via mech@eff.org)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: Stanton McCandlish <mech@EFF.ORG>
- Subject: File 4--EFF Open Letter to Church of Scientology
- Date: Mon, 23 Jan 1995 18:25:35 -0500 (EST)
-
- *****POST FREELY AS APPROPRIATE*****
-
- An Open Letter to the Church of Scientology (CoS) and the Net
- from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
-
- Over the past several days, the Electronic Frontier Foundation
- has received several reports from system administrators and
- others about threats of lawsuits they have received from
- attorneys for the Church of Scientology and the closely
- associated Religious Technology Center and Bridge Publications,
- Inc. These threats apparently are designed to convince sysadmins
- to discontinue the carriage of certain newsgroups that involve
- discussions of the Church of Scientology and its teachings, solely
- on the ground that some of the messages sent through these
- newsgroups allegedly involve infringements of CoS copyrights or
- other intellectual property rights.
-
- EFF has also received a letter from CoS stating that it would
- not use the threat of lawsuits against sysadmins if there were
- any other way to deal with allegedly wrongful messages.
-
- EFF believes there is a better way to deal with allegations of
- wrongful messages -- and that using the threat of litigation to
- shut down entire newsgroups, or to persuade sysadmins who
- have not originated any allegedly wrongful messages to shut down
- newsgroups, is itself highly inappropriate.
-
- Electronic communications are in their infancy, and most of the
- providers are not big corporations with substantial funds to
- spend on expensive litigation, but rather small operators who
- cannot afford protracted litigation, even if they are in the
- right. The mere threat of a lawsuit could result in some sysadmins
- refusing to carry all sorts of contentious newsgroups simply because
- they could not afford to put on a case to show that they should not
- be held responsible for another party's alleged wrong.
-
- Rather than attempting through threats of lawsuits to induce
- innocent sysadmins to censor speech, Church members are
- encouraged to participate in Usenet discussions to make their views
- known and refute erroneous posts -- in other words, to answer
- allegedly wrongful postings with more speech. As U.S. Supreme Court
- Justice Louis Brandeis articulated in 1927: "If there be time to
- expose through discussion the falsehood and the fallacies, to avert
- the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is
- more speech, not enforced silence." If CoS claims that a
- copyright violation or other wrong not remediable by speech has
- been perpetrated by a particular person, then it should confine
- its legal threats to that person -- not direct them at an innocent
- sysadmin who did no more than forward a message, and certainly
- not at the innocent participants of a newsgroup seeking to exchange
- views through the newsgroup channel. Even if CoS cannot determine
- the identity of the person perpetrating an alleged wrong against it,
- that provides no excuse for cutting off the free flow of information
- over the net.
-
- Events like these show us how important it is to search for new
- paradigms for handling disputes that arise from time to time.
- We think the better way to handle this dispute would be to
- submit the claims and counterclaims to arbitration or
- mediation, perhaps in a proceeding conducted over the net
- among the parties to the newsgroup discussion. EFF offers its
- services to help find an appropriate mediator or arbitrator
- who would be available online for this purpose. Any party to
- this dispute that refused to participate in such a forum would,
- of course, have to explain why it had done so if a case were
- brought in a more traditional court.
-
- Meanwhile, we urge CoS to leave the innocent sysadmins out of
- their fight. We urge CoS not to take actions designed to cut off
- the free flow of information through the net. Where there are
- legitimate disputes about particular messages or the wrongful
- actions of particular individuals, those can and should be
- addressed -- perhaps most efficiently through the new
- communications medium itself.
-
-
- The Electronic Frontier Foundation
- 1667 K St. NW, Suite 801
- Washington DC 20006-1605 USA
- +1 202 861 7700 (voice)
- +1 202 861 1258 (fax)
- +1 202 861 1223 (BBS - 16.8k ZyXEL)
- +1 202 861 1224 (BBS - 14.4k V.32bis)
- Internet: ask@eff.org
- Internet fax gate: remote-printer.EFF@8.5.2.1.1.6.8.2.0.2.1.tpc.int
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 22 Jan 1995 23:14:15 -0600 (CST)
- From: David Smith <bladex@BGA.COM>
- Subject: File 5--Writer Seeks On-Line Crime Info (fwd)
-
- ---------- Forwarded message ----------
- From--FMGG44A@prodigy.com (Jerome Haden)
- Subject--Writer Seeks On-Line Crime Info
- Date--22 Jan 1995 23:27:25 GMT
-
- REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
-
- I am currently writing a book length manuscript entitled :
-
- "Crash and Burn:
- A Parents Guide To The Dangers On The Information SuperHighway."
-
- I am seeking real events that are "public record" either newspaper
- articles or court documents which involve the following criminal
- activity:
-
- 1.) Sexual predators who have commited sex crimes on minors
- with a connection to a local computer bulletin board or a
-
- national on-line service such as Prodigy, Compuserve, or
- America On Line.
-
- 2.) Teenage computer hackers who have been charged with
- any type of telephone fraud, unauthorized access to another
- computer, or similar crimes.
-
- 3.) Any teenagers involved in making explosives with information
- obtained from a computer bulletin board.
-
- 4.) Any selling of illegal drugs involving minors on a computer
- bulletin board.
-
- 5.) Any other crimes invloving teenagers as either victims or
- perpetrators with the use of modems or any manner in
- "cyberspace".
-
- Any information must be a public record that can be verified by
- my literary agency and my publisher.
-
- Also would be interested in hearing from victims or perpetrators willing
-
- to be interviewed "off the record", and/or willing to appear on national
- talk shows.
-
- If you have any such information please contact me as follows:
-
- Jerome Haden
- E-Mail: FMGG44A@prodigy.com
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 20 Jan 95 08:08:21 EST
- From: Frank Tirado <SYSADMIN@ERS.BITNET>
- Subject: File 6--Comment on "NII/Preservation of Information"
-
- I would like to add a "tidbit" to Karen Coyle's article on the NII, in
- the area of Preservation of information.
-
- One of the primary reason we have so much information about the past
- is that, until now, it has been preserved on paper. Granted, accurate
- glimpses of the more distant past have been preserved on media such as
- vellum, papyrus and hardened clay. A much more detailed and complete
- view, however, is available to all interested parties when it has been
- recorded on paper.
-
- For example, core samples from landfills have brought up still
- legible pieces of newsprint dating back more than 40 years - the paper
- on which it was printed was hardly yellowed. The Declaration of
- Independence has survived its authors by several of their lifetimes.
-
- What I'm leading up to is that preserving data will be crucial in the
- Electronic Age. We have developed ingenious techniques to
- manipulate, collate, store and present information, yet the electronic
- media on which it is stored will not meet the test of time. It is
- possible to store the contents of the Bible on a group of diskettes,
- whose usable lifetime is about 10 years. Compare that to the fact
- that some Gutenberg Bibles, printed on paper, have survived
- centuries. Even CDROMs have an estimated lifetime of roughly 35
- years.
-
- Unless we see some major advances in electronic storage media,
- there's a good chance that our children's children will know less
- about us than of our forebears.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 22 Jan 1995 11:34:41 -0600 (CST)
- From: David Smith <bladex@BGA.COM>
- Subject: File 7--(fwd) Summary of NYC Clipper Seminar 19 JAN 95 (fwd)
-
- ---------- Forwarded message ----------
-
- Last Thursday, January 19, 1995, the Science and Law Committee
- and the Computer Law Committee of the Association of the Bar
- of the City of New York jointly sponsered a panel discussion
- entitled, "THE CLIPPER CHIP: Should the Government Control the
- Master Keys to Electronic Commerce?"
-
- The panel included:
-
- Moderator: Albert L. Wells, Debevoise & Plimpton
-
- Speakers:
- Stewart A. Baker, Steptoe & Johnson, former General Counsel, NSA
-
- Michael R. Nelson, Special Assistant for Information Technology,
- White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
-
- James V. Kallstrom, Special Agent in charge of the Special
- Operations division of the New York office of the FBI
-
- Daniel Weitzner, Center for Democracy and Technology, formerly
- Deputy Policy Director, Electronic Frontier Foundation
-
- William Whitehurst, Director, Data Security Systems, IBM Corporation
-
- The discussion was open the public. My rough guess is that 120 people were
- there, probably 2/3 members of the Association.
-
- For those familiar with this subject, what was most interesting was to be
- found not in what was said, but in the differences from what has been said
- before. In particular, Stewart Baker didn't mention child pornography
- even once. Actually, Mr. Baker said remarkably little. Remember, this is
- the man who went on record in "Wired" only last year, while still on the
- government payroll as the NSA's top lawyer, with his droll comparison of
- those opposing Clipper to would-be revolutionaries in bandoliers and
- pocket protectors. He's told that joke so many times and to so many
- audiences, it was conspicuous by its absence. (Indeed, Baker even spoke
- of himself as, "one who has been accused of lowering the tone of the
- debate.")
-
- Of more substance, Baker (and one must at least be curious what Steptoe &
- Johnson find in their corporate interest in having him continue to be a
- spokesman for the government's policy on this issue) continued to defend
- the escrowed-key plan, stating that those opposed should exhibit more
- faith in our democratic institutions than such opposition suggests.
-
- Daniel Weitzner's unequivocal position was that "Clipper is dead." He
- showed more concern over the general issue of trade regulation and how
- limitations on exports of crypto technology are affecting commercial
- interests. Nonetheless, he did criticize the administration's dogged
- persistence, to the extent that they are not yet abandoning the core of
- the Clipper initiative, which is to enforce use of a crypto system that
- has a built-in backdoor for wiretapping purposes. To this, Weitzner
- simply pointed out that, as there have been "mob lawyers," it is no
- stretch to imagine "mob cryptographers." (Personal note: Weitzner is
- right. I have, myself, been approached by persons connected to organized
- crime who expressed an interest in just such a thing. Interestingly, my
- "client" was more concerned about internal security than protection from
- government eavesdropping.)
-
- Both Baker and Michael Nelson stated that the Clipper initiative was an
- attempt to find a balance amongst the conflicting interests of privacy,
- scientific inquiry, commerce, and "the ability of law enforcement to do
- its job." My notes, however, do not reflect any remark to the effect
- that "the ability of law enforcement to do its job" has been allowed to
- suffer by the Clipper compromise. In fact, Matt Blaise (forgive a
- misspelling, if there is one) was present in the audience and asked
- Nelson for some indication of what it would take for the administration
- to compromise against the interests of law enforcement. Nelson spoke at
- some length in response, but if he actually answered, I missed it.
-
- IBM's William Whitehurst presented the business view: this whole affair
- is costing American companies sales. The prospects for selling crypto
- to foreign governments when American intelligence can listen in are not
- very good. (An interesting legal point that was only obliquely addressed
- is that the Fourth Amendment would not be much protection in another
- country; a wiretap warrant wouldn't be needed for American snooping.)
- The administration's view on this was revealed for the head-in-the-sand
- policy it is, when Perry Metzger asked Nelson if he really felt that
- the Libyan government couldn't just download PGP and start defeating
- the value of the Clipper chip right now (Nelson had mentioned Libya
- earlier, as an example of a foreign power that could use crypto to the
- disadvantage of the United States). Nelson stated, "they'd still have
- to implement it." Metzger pointed out that this would about as hard as
- entering "pgp -f filename," on an IBM PC, but Nelson just ignored him.
-
- James Kallstrom of the FBI was a surprise guest. It fell to him to
- carry the weight of reminding us all that law enforcement is opposed to
- things like kidnapping, bombing the World Trade Center, and child
- pornography (this litany generated open laughter from the audience).
- However strained the connection is between kidnapping and crypto, I
- did find Kallstrom refreshingly direct about what he thinks the issue
- really is: good versus evil. Kallstrom feels it would be no more
- sensible to unleash strong crypto into a world full of terrorists and
- crooks than it would be to buy a house and not have a spare set of
- keys; once you're locked out, you can never get back in. I asked him
- if it wasn't my right to decide who gets the key to my house, but he
- didn't understand my question. To Special Agent Kallstrom, we are all
- living in one house, and it is our good faith in each other (and in
- the FBI, apparently) that will keep the forces of evil locked out. I
- don't agree, but you can't fault him for his clarity of purpose.
-
- No votes were taken, but I did not feel there was much support among
- the audience for whatever remains of the Clipper initiative. But,
- Mike Nelson stated without reservation that the initiative would
- continue to exist in whatever form best serves the compromise he had
- discussed, while continuing to preserve "the ability of law enforcement
- to do its job," for as long as the current administration remains in
- power.
-
- To which an audience member replied, "two more years!"
- --
- Stevens R. Miller
- Attorney at Law
- (212)227-1594
- http://www.interport.net/~lex/
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 22 Jan 1995 23:34:32 -0600 (CST)
- From: David Smith <bladex@BGA.COM>
- Subject: File 8--E-Mail Security - New book by Bruce Schneier
-
- E-MAIL SECURITY WITH PGP AND PEM:
- HOW TO KEEP YOUR ELECTRONIC MESSAGES PRIVATE
-
- ...a new book by Bruce Schneier
-
- John Wiley & Sons, 1995
- ISBN 0-471-05318-X
- $24.95
-
- The world of e-mail is the world of postcards. Between you and
- your correspondents may lurk a foreign government, a business
- competitor, an overzealous law enforcement agency, or even just a
- nosy neighbor. The problem is, all of these potential
- eavesdroppers, given fairly simple access tools, can read your
- messages as easy as a postal worker can read your postcards.
-
- E-MAIL SECURITY is about protecting electronic mail fm spies,
- interlopers, and spoofs--people who may want to destroy, alter,
- or just look at your private communications. The book shows how
- you can protect the financial information, contract negotiations,
- or personal correspondence you entrust to public or private
- networks--and it shows how this protection is available right
- now, with free or inexpensive software.
-
- The book discusses PGP and PEM: how they work, how they are
- different, and how to choose which one is right for you.
-
-
- TABLE OF CONTENTS:
-
- Part I: Privacy and Electronic Mail
- Chapter 1: The Problem
- Chapter 2: Encryption
- Chapter 3: Key Management
- Chapter 4: Authentication
- Chapter 5: Certificates
- Chapter 6: Keeping Your Private Key Private
- Chapter 7: Odds and Ends
- Chapter 8: Patents, Governments, and Export Laws
-
- Part II: Achieving Electronic-Mail Privacy
- Chapter 9: Requirements and Features
- Chapter 10: Privacy Enhanced Mail (PEM)
- Chapter 11: Pretty Good Privacy (PGP)
- Chapter 12: Comparing PGP and PEM
- Chapter 13: Attacks Against PGP and PEM
-
- Appendix A: Pretty Good Privacy
-
- Appendix B: Privacy Enhanced Mail
-
- *****************************************************************
-
- If you are interested in a copy of E-MAIL SECURITY, please send a
- check for $25 + $5 postage (ask for rates abroad) to:
-
- Bruce Schneier
- 730 Fair Oaks Ave
- Oak Park, IL 60302
-
- The book won't be available until at least the end of the month,
- so please be patient.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1994 22:51:01 CDT
- From: CuD Moderators <tk0jut2@mvs.cso.niu.edu>
- Subject: File 9--Cu Digest Header Information (unchanged since 25 Nov 1994)
-
- Cu-Digest is a weekly electronic journal/newsletter. Subscriptions are
- available at no cost electronically.
-
- CuD is available as a Usenet newsgroup: comp.society.cu-digest
-
- Or, to subscribe, send a one-line message: SUB CUDIGEST your name
- Send it to LISTSERV@UIUCVMD.BITNET or LISTSERV@VMD.CSO.UIUC.EDU
- The editors may be contacted by voice (815-753-0303), fax (815-753-6302)
- or U.S. mail at: Jim Thomas, Department of Sociology, NIU, DeKalb, IL
- 60115, USA.
-
- Issues of CuD can also be found in the Usenet comp.society.cu-digest
- news group; on CompuServe in DL0 and DL4 of the IBMBBS SIG, DL1 of
- LAWSIG, and DL1 of TELECOM; on GEnie in the PF*NPC RT
- libraries and in the VIRUS/SECURITY library; from America Online in
- the PC Telecom forum under "computing newsletters;"
- On Delphi in the General Discussion database of the Internet SIG;
- on RIPCO BBS (312) 528-5020 (and via Ripco on internet);
- and on Rune Stone BBS (IIRGWHQ) (203) 832-8441.
- CuD is also available via Fidonet File Request from
- 1:11/70; unlisted nodes and points welcome.
-
- EUROPE: In BELGIUM: Virtual Access BBS: +32-69-844-019 (ringdown)
- In ITALY: Bits against the Empire BBS: +39-461-980493
- In LUXEMBOURG: ComNet BBS: +352-466893
-
- UNITED STATES: etext.archive.umich.edu (192.131.22.8) in /pub/CuD/
- ftp.eff.org (192.88.144.4) in /pub/Publications/CuD/
- aql.gatech.edu (128.61.10.53) in /pub/eff/cud/
- world.std.com in /src/wuarchive/doc/EFF/Publications/CuD/
- uceng.uc.edu in /pub/wuarchive/doc/EFF/Publications/CuD/
- wuarchive.wustl.edu in /doc/EFF/Publications/CuD/
- EUROPE: nic.funet.fi in pub/doc/cud/ (Finland)
- ftp.warwick.ac.uk in pub/cud/ (United Kingdom)
-
- JAPAN: ftp.glocom.ac.jp /mirror/ftp.eff.org/Publications/CuD
- ftp://www.rcac.tdi.co.jp/pub/mirror/CuD
-
- The most recent issues of CuD can be obtained from the NIU
- Sociology gopher at:
- URL: gopher://corn.cso.niu.edu:70/00/acad_dept/col_of_las/dept_soci
-
- COMPUTER UNDERGROUND DIGEST is an open forum dedicated to sharing
- information among computerists and to the presentation and debate of
- diverse views. CuD material may be reprinted for non-profit as long
- as the source is cited. Authors hold a presumptive copyright, and
- they should be contacted for reprint permission. It is assumed that
- non-personal mail to the moderators may be reprinted unless otherwise
- specified. Readers are encouraged to submit reasoned articles
- relating to computer culture and communication. Articles are
- preferred to short responses. Please avoid quoting previous posts
- unless absolutely necessary.
-
- DISCLAIMER: The views represented herein do not necessarily represent
- the views of the moderators. Digest contributors assume all
- responsibility for ensuring that articles submitted do not
- violate copyright protections.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of Computer Underground Digest #7.06
- ************************************
-
-