home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
-
- Computer underground Digest Sun Aug 31, 1997 Volume 9 : Issue 65
- ISSN 1004-042X
-
- Editor: Jim Thomas (cudigest@sun.soci.niu.edu)
- News Editor: Gordon Meyer (gmeyer@sun.soci.niu.edu)
- Archivist: Brendan Kehoe
- Shadow Master: Stanton McCandlish
- Shadow-Archivists: Dan Carosone / Paul Southworth
- Ralph Sims / Jyrki Kuoppala
- Ian Dickinson
- Field Agent Extraordinaire: David Smith
- Cu Digest Homepage: http://www.soci.niu.edu/~cudigest
-
- CONTENTS, #9.65 (Sun, Aug 31, 1997)
-
- File 1--Islands in the Clickstream - Beyond the Edge
- File 2--crypto-logic US$1 million challenge
- File 3--CYPHERPUNKS PARTY -- invite to party in DC on September 6
- File 4--INET'98 Call for Papers (fwd)
- File 5--An "Underground" Book on Australian Hackers Burns the Mind
- File 6--Court docs in Salgado/"Smak" case
- File 7--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 7 May, 1997)
-
- CuD ADMINISTRATIVE, EDITORIAL, AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION APPEARS IN
- THE CONCLUDING FILE AT THE END OF EACH ISSUE.
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 29 Aug 1997 20:23:11
- From: Richard Thieme <rthieme@thiemeworks.com>
- Subject: File 1--Islands in the Clickstream - Beyond the Edge
-
- Islands in the Clickstream:
- Beyond the Edge
-
-
- There comes a point in our deepest thinking at which the
- framework of our thinking itself begins to wrinkle and slide into
- the dark. We see the edge of our thinking mind, an edge beyond
- which we can see ... something else ... a self-luminous "space"
- that constitutes the context of our thinking and our thinking
- selves.
- As a child I tried to imagine infinity. The best I could do
- was nearly empty space, a cold void defined by a few dim stars,
- my mind rushing toward them, then past them into the darkness.
- The same thing happens today when I think about energy and
- information and the fact that all organisms and organizations are
- systems of energy and information interacting in a single matrix.
- I try to imagine the form or structure of the system, but
- the structure itself is a system of energy and information. I try
- to imagine the structure of the structure ... and pretty soon the
- words or images are rushing into the darkness at warp speed and
- my mind is jumping into hyperspace.
-
- When we see our thinking from a point outside our thinking,
- we see that our ideas and beliefs are mental artifacts, as solid
- and as empty as all the things in the physical world -- things,
- we are told, that are really patterns of energy and information,
- that our fingertips or eyes or brains are structured to perceive
- as if they are objects -- out there -- external to ourselves.
- That is an illusion, of course. There is no "there" there.
- Makes a guy a little dizzy.
-
- At the recent Hacking in Progress Conference near Amsterdam
- (HIP97), there was a demonstration of van Eck monitoring. That
- means monitoring the radiation that leaks from your PC. Hackers
- do not have to break into your system if the system is leaking
- energy and information; they just have to capture and
- reconstitute it in useful forms.
- A participant at HIP said, "It was nice to see a real
- demonstration of analog van Eck monitoring of a standard PC,
- which meets all the normal shielding and emission control
- standards, via an aerial, via the power supply and via the
- surface waves induced in earthing cables, water pipes, etc. Even
- this simple equipment can distinguish individual machines of the
- same make and model in a typical office building from 50 to 150
- metres or more with extra signal amplification."
- He is saying that the radiation leaked from your PC monitor,
- even when it meets all the standards proscribed by law, can be
- reconstituted on a screen at a distance greater than the length
- of a football field, and everything you are seeing at this moment
- can be seen by that fellow in the van down the block as well.
- And he can get the radiation from the water pipes under your
- house.
- We are radiating everywhere and always the information and
- energy that constitutes the pattern of what we look at, what we
- know ... who and what we are.
-
- A side trip:
- All of the great spiritual traditions teach practices of
- meditation. They teach that those who enter deep states of
- meditation soon discover that paranormal experience is the norm
- at a particular depth of consciousness.
- At first this discovery is fascinating. It is like scuba
- diving for the first time. The beauty of the underwater world is
- so compelling, you can stop at twenty or thirty feet and just
- gaze in awe at the beauty of the fish. But if you do, you won't
- go deeper. You'll get stuck.
- So we are told simply to note that what is happening is
- real, then keep on moving.
- In those deeper states, we observe more and more clearly the
- thinking that we often mistake for our real selves. We see that
- we are usually "inside" our thinking, living as if our thoughts
- are reality itself. We see the edge of our thinking and then ...
- something else beyond the edge.
- We see that the structures of our thinking -- our culture --
- are mental artifacts.
- When we think that, and catch ourselves thinking about the
- illusion of thinking, we laugh.
- That's why laughter peals so often from the walls of
- Buddhist monasteries. Enlightenment is a comic moment.
- Enlightenment includes the experience of observing our minds in
- action and seeing that we are not our minds. Our minds may be as
- automatic as machines but we are not machinery. We are the ghosts
- in the machine.
- We see that in our essence we are more like stars in a
- spiralling galaxy. We are not just radiating energy and
- information always, we ARE radiant energy and information, a
- single matrix of light that is darkness visible.
-
- Back in my days of doing workshops and long weekends, we
- used to do an exercise of looking into each other's eyes until we
- were lost in a wordless communion. By playing games ("feel a
- feeling and communicate it without words, the other receive it
- and say what it is") we discovered that what we were feeling was
- always transmitted to anyone and everyone around us. All a person
- had to do was stop for a moment and pay attention and they would
- know who we were. Even when we thought we were providing high-
- level descriptions of ourselves that fooled everyone, we were
- leaking energy and information.
-
- It is dawning on us that privacy as we used to think of it
- is over, that the global village is a community in which the data
- of our lives is available to anyone who wants to gather or pay
- for it. It ought to be dawning on us as well that the ways we
- think we mask ourselves are as transparent as the shielding on a
- PC monitor.
- The initial distancing we experience when we first connect
- via computers is soon replaced with the realization that our
- willingness to be present -- to communicate via symbols like
- these -- means that we are transparent in our interaction, that
- the global network is a mediating structure through which
- information and energy is transmitted literally as well as in
- symbolic forms. WE show up in cyberspace, not just
- representations of ourselves. WE are here, alone together.
- The structures of energy and information in the universe are
- the universe.
-
- How can we speak of what we see beyond the edge of our
- collective selves? It seems to be a ground or matrix, a glowing
- self-luminous system of ... nothing ... there is no "there" there
- ... and we rush through the darkness toward the few stars
- defining the limits of our thought then past them.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 29 Aug 1997 22:27:40 +0800
- From: dragonXL <cbert@rocketmail.com>
- Subject: File 2--crypto-logic US$1 million challenge
-
- I got this from www.ultimateprivacy.com
-
- The Million Dollar Challenge
-
- Ultimate Privacy, the e-mail encryp- tion program combining ease
- of use with unbreakability.
-
- Ultimate Privacy is serious cryptography. On the Links page we
- have links to other Internet sites that discuss One-Time Pad
- cryptography and why it is unbreakable when properly
- implemented.
-
- Nevertheless, should you wish to try, the first person to be able
- to discern the original message within a year (following the
- simple requirements of the Challenge) will actually receive the
- million dollar prize as specified in the Rules page. The prize
- is backed by the full faith and credit of Crypto-Logic
- Corporation and its insurors.
-
- You might be interested in to know how the Challenge was done. We
- used a clean, non-network-connected computer. After installing
- Ultimate Privacy, one person alone entered the Challenge message
- and encrypted it. After making a copy of the encrypted message,
- we removed the hard disk from the computer nad it was
- immediately transported to a vault for a year.
-
- Therefore, the original message is not known by Crypto-Logic
- Corporation staff (other than the first few characters for
- screening purposes), nor are there any clues to the original
- message on any media in our offices.
-
-
- Next, the Rules.
-
- The next page contains the contest Rules, followed by the message
- itself.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 13:55:38 -0700 (PDT)
- From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
- Subject: File 3--CYPHERPUNKS PARTY -- invite to party in DC on September 6
-
- You are cordially invited to a DC cypherpunk working meeting and
- patent expiration party on September 6.
-
- On Saturday, September 6, the patent on the Diffie-Hellman public
- key cryptography system expires. Along with the Merkle-Hellman
- patent (which expires on October 6), this patent is key to the
- future of public key crypto. Now programmers can write strong
- encryption software without worrying about patent licensing.
-
- But the expiration of the patents doesn't guarantee the future of
- strong cryptography. Proposed laws could restrict its use. So the
- party has two portions:
-
- -- 5:30 pm: a DCCP working party and potluck supper. Topics include
- discussion of the patents and regulation of cryptography. Guest
- speakers will discuss legislation in Congress and the Bernstein case.
- A speaker from the administration will provide a regulator's
- perspective. (Please contribute to the potluck dinner!)
-
- -- 8:00 pm: a post-meeting party to celebrate the expiration of the
- patents. (Please bring snack foods and beverages/drinks...)
-
- To RSVP, and for directions and details, e-mail Declan at
- declan@well.com with DCCP-DH in your Subject line. The party will
- be held in Adams Morgan in Washington, DC.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 27 Aug 1997 14:42:57 -0400 (EDT)
- From: "noah@enabled.com" <noah@ENABLED.COM>
- Subject: File 4--INET'98 Call for Papers (fwd)
-
- ---------- Forwarded message ----------
- Date--Wed, 27 Aug 1997 13:31:01 -0400
- From--Internet Society <members@ISOC.ORG>
-
- ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
-
- FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS - INET'98
- Papers, Panels, Tutorials & Poster Sessions
- Deadline: 24 October 1997
-
- ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
-
- INET'98 ~~~
-
- THE INTERNET: ENTERING THE MAINSTREAM
-
- Internet Society's 8th Annual Networking Conference
- 21-24 July 1998
- Palexpo Conference Center
- Geneva, Switzerland
- http://www.isoc.org
-
-
- INET, the annual meeting of the Internet Society, is the premier
- international event for Internet and internetworking professionals.
- It is the crossroads at which the world's cyberspace pioneers meet
- to exchange experiences and plan their next steps. Each year, network
- technologists, industry and government representatives, and policy
- experts meet to share information and shape the future of the Internet
- and its related internetworking technologies.
-
-
- In 1998, INET will address both the traditional and evolving frontiers
- of the Internet as well as its significant impact on education, commerce,
- and societies throughout the world. Multiple conference tracks will
- address critical issues ranging from network engineering to user needs,
- from regulatory issues to the Internet's role as a conduit for social
- change, and from the transformation of education to the redefinition
- of commerce.
-
-
- The INET'98 Program Committee solicits abstracts of papers and
- suggestions for panels, tutorials and poster sessions which describe
- innovative developments, encourage vigorous discussion and further
- the understanding of the Internet's frontiers.
-
-
- CONFERENCE ~~~~~~~~~~
-
- INET'98: 21-24 July 1998
- Exhibition Hall Open: 22-24 July 1998
-
- PRE-CONFERENCE EVENTS ~~~~~~~~~~
- Network Training Workshop: 12-19 July 1998
- (France, Latin America and Switzerland)
-
- Technical Tutorials: 20-21 July 1998
-
- K-12 (Primary & Secondary) Workshop: 21 July 1998
- African Networking Symposium: 21 July 1998
-
- KEY SUBMISSION DATES ~~~~~~~~~~
-
- 24 October 1997
-
- ~~ Deadline to submit Abstract, Tutorial, Panel and Poster Session
- proposals for Program Committee review.
-
- 8 December 1997
-
- ~~ Authors notified of accepted Abstracts and invited to submit full Papers.
- ~~ Presenters notified of accepted Tutorials, Panels and Poster Sessions.
-
- 13 February 1998
-
- ~~ Deadline to submit full Papers for Program Committee review.
-
- 27 March 1998
-
- ~~ Authors notified of accepted Papers.
-
- 10 April 1998
-
- ~~ Deadline to submit final copy of Paper for inclusion in the INET'98
- Proceedings.
-
- 20-21 July 1998
-
- ~~ Technical Tutorials
-
- 21-24 July 1998
-
- ~~ INET'98 Conference
-
- TOPIC SCOPE ~~~~~~~~~~
-
- The following list is indicative of the scope of the conference. It should
- not be interpreted as limiting submissions:
-
- New Applications
-
- ~~Push Technologies
- ~~Caching and Replication
- ~~Digital Libraries
-
- Social, Legal and Regulatory Policies
-
- ~~Security and Cryptography
- ~~Regulation
- ~~Legal
- ~~Governance
-
- Commerce
-
- ~~New Industries and Services
- ~~Electronic Commerce
- ~~ISPs
- ~~Electronic Publishing
-
- Teaching and Learning
-
- ~~Curriculum Innovations
- ~~Network Learning
- ~~Collaboration
- ~~Teacher Empowerment
-
- Globalisation and Regional Implications
-
- ~~Internationalisation
- ~~Multilingual
- ~~Community Networking
- ~~Development
-
- Network Technology and Engineering
-
- ~~High Speed Networks / High Speed Applications
- ~~International Infrastructure
- ~~Wireless Technologies
- ~~Hardware and Software
- ~~Nomadic Computing
- ~~Collaboration
- ~~ATM
- ~~Satellite-Based Networking
-
- User-Centered Issues
-
- ~~Multimedia
- ~~Access
- ~~Disabilities
-
- TRACK DESCRIPTIONS ~~~~~~~~~~
-
- TRACK 1: New Applications
-
- The exponential growth of the Internet involves not only computers, domain
- names, addresses and packets, but also content and people. The Applications
- Technologies track focuses on innovation that taps this growing wealth of
- information and people, including mechanisms for finding and accessing
- information and collaborative environments. In addition, this track covers
- technologies just below the user interface that are equally important:
- caching and prefetch technologies to improve access to information, and
- security technologies to support interactions such as contract signing and
- Internet commerce.
-
-
- TRACK 2: Social, Legal, Governance, and Regulatory Policies
-
- As the Internet keeps evolving and covering new territory, new forms of
- communication emerge and new social groupings appear. Sometimes these
- changes reinforce the old, sometimes weaken it or even threaten it. Weaving
- new human communities is a tricky business. Cultures, legal systems and
- institutions must find new compromises and mesh in new ways. What are the
- possible long-run governance structures for the Internet, and what are the
- implications of adopting them?
-
- TRACK 3: Commerce
-
- The promises of commerce on the Internet have come nearly as fast as new
- commercial sites. Yet many organizations are struggling to come to grips
- with the realities of the Internet for their business. What are these
- realities? Share the experience of successful projects, see how traditional
- forms of electronic commerce are adapting to the Internet and listen to
- experts argue the benefits and pitfalls of commerce on the Net.
-
- TRACK 4: Teaching and Learning
-
- The Internet evolved from computer science research projects to connect
- disparate and decentralized computer systems. Is this the same technology
- that is the hottest thing to happen in education in years? Once the
- private laboratory of university and post-secondary education, the Internet
- is now firmly entrenched in primary and secondary schools around the world.
-
- This track will look at what is happening on the Net today in support of
- primary, secondary and post-secondary education. Papers will cover current
- research in educational technology, case studies from the classroom,
- examples of collaborative learning and thought-provoking discussions on
- what effect the Internet will have on how we teach and learn.
-
- TRACK 5: Globalisation and Regional Implications
-
- Every day, the Internet is expanding to new parts of the world, to new
- groups of population, and to new, sometimes unanticipated, areas of usage.
- How far has the Internet gone on the road to true globalisation? What
- obstacles remain to its expansion in developing countries and to less
- advanced regions of the globe? What challenges should be expected in the
- future by those who, like ISOC, want to "take the Internet where it has
- never been before"? This track will address these questions, looking at the
- political, legal, cultural and economic aspects of the issues raised, while
- giving a central importance to the respective experiences of users and
- promoters of the Internet in all regions of the world.
-
- TRACK 6: Network Technology and Engineering
-
- The physical and administrative infrastructures of the Internet are being
- subjected to many stresses created by the explosion in the number of users
- and the demands of many new and exciting applications being developed. New
- support technologies are required in many areas to counter these stresses.
- This track will present a range of developments designed to make the
- network more reliable, more predictable, more scaleable and more manageable
- in the immediate future.
-
- TRACK 7: User-Centered Issues
-
- Frontiers don't exist just at the cutting edge of technology or in the
- remote regions of the world. Today, nearly everyone is an Internet user and
- many are responding to the challenge in unique and valuable ways to put
- this new tool to use. This track will examine contributions from a range of
- users, what they are doing and the impact the Internet has had on their
- daily lives.
-
-
- SUBMISSION GUIDELINES AND PROCEDURES ~~~~~~~~~~
-
- Register your interest in contributing to the INET'98 program by
- subscribing to the INET'98 Authors and Presenters Contact List. Send the
- command "SUBSCRIBE INET98-PRESENTERS" in a one-line email message to:
-
- <<listserv@listserv.isoc.org>. You will receive an immediate
- acknowledgment of your subscription and periodic updates from the INET'98
-
- Program Committee.
-
-
- I. PAPERS AND PANEL SUBMISSIONS
-
- ~ To view a sample Abstract, visit the Web-site
-
- <<www.isoc.org/inet98/presenters>.
-
- ~ An Abstract should provide the following:
-
- a. Motivate/define the problem addressed (1-2 sentences)
- b. Outline the results obtained or expected (1-2 sentences)
- c. Explain why the work/results are significant (1-2 sentences)
- d. Describe the work sufficiently for the Program Committee reviewer to
- have confidence that it was done well and that the result will be of
- interest to conference attendees (half to one page)
-
- ~ The official language of the conference is English. All abstracts must
- be submitted in English.
-
- ~ Abstracts of papers and proposals for panels should be submitted in
- plain ASCII by
- 24 October 1997 to: inet-abstracts@isoc.org. (No attachments will be
- reviewed by the Program Committee).
-
- ~ The following must be at the beginning of every abstract or proposal:
-
- a) A title (paper) or topic (panel).
- b) First and surname/family name(s) of all authors/presenters.
- Note: Please CAPITALIZE each surname/family name.
-
- c) Organisational affiliation(s).
- d) Full mailing address(es), telephone and fax number(s) for each
- author/presenter.
-
- e) E-mail address(es) for each author/presenter. Note: All correspondence
- is via e-mail. It is imperative that e-mail addresses are viable and that
- ISOC be informed of any changes to e-mail addresses.
-
- f) Identify a single point of contact if more than one author is listed.
-
- ~ Each abstract or proposal should be between one and two pages long
- (approximately 250 words) and contain a list of key words or topics. An
- abstract should be a brief summary of a paper and should not be divided
- into subsections or include tables, footnotes, or reference lists.
- Submissions will be acknowledged within 72 hours. If acknowledgment is not
- received within this timeframe, contact ISOC immediately at
- inet-program-chair@isoc.org.
-
-
- ~ The Exhibition Hall will provide the exclusive medium for product
- advertising. Papers should be directed at substantive issues and not focus
- upon marketing or sales issues.
-
- ~ Each panel proposal should indicate and justify the theme of the
- proposed session and include the names (with full presenter information) of
- suggested panelists.
-
- ~ Accepted abstract submissions will be invited to contribute full papers.
- Final selection will be based on full papers.
-
- II. TECHNICAL TUTORIAL SUBMISSIONS
-
- The Internet Society is pleased to invite submissions for Technical
- Tutorials, which precede the INET'98 Conference, 20-21 July 1998.
-
- ~ Tutorials are three hours (1/2 day) or six hours (full-day) in length.
- ~ All tutorials must be presented in English.
- ~ Tutorial proposals should be submitted in plain ASCII by 24 October 1997
-
- to: inet-abstracts@isoc.org.
-
- ~ Each tutorial proposal must contain the following information:
-
- a) A topic or tutorial title.
- b) A 100-word description of the proposed tutorial, including three (3)
- learning objectives, three (3) learning outcomes, and a brief lesson plan.
- c) An indication that it is a tutorial proposal and the proposed length of
- the tutorial (1/2 day or full-day).
- d) Presentation titles, locations, and dates of previous
- seminars/tutorials/presentations the presenter/s have made on topics
- related to the proposed tutorial.
- e) First and surname/family name(s) of all presenters. Note: Please
- CAPITALIZE each surname/family name.
- f) Organisational affiliation(s).
- g) Full mailing address(es), telephone and fax number(s) of all presenters.
- h) E-mail address(es). Note: All correspondence is via e-mail. It is
- imperative that e-mail addresses are viable and that ISOC be informed of
- any changes to e-mail addresses.
- i) Identify a single point of contact if more than one presenter is listed.
-
- ~ Each tutorial proposal should be no more than two pages in length.
- Submissions will be acknowledged within 72 hours. If acknowledgment is not
- received within this timeframe, contact ISOC immediately at
- inet-program-chair@isoc.org.
-
- ~ The Exhibition Hall will provide the exclusive medium for product
- advertising. Tutorials should be directed at substantive issues and not
- focus upon marketing or sales issues.
-
- III. POSTER SESSIONS SUBMISSIONS
-
- The Internet Society is pleased to invite submissions for Poster Sessions,
- which will be held during the INET'98 Conference, 22-24 July 1998.
-
- ~ Posters will be on display throughout the conference, with a number of
- speaker opportunities for the poster session presenter.
-
- ~ Proposals should be submitted in plain ASCII by 24 October 1997 to:
- inet-abstracts@isoc.org.
-
- ~ Each poster session proposal must contain the following information:
-
- a) A topic or poster session title.
- b) A 50-word description of the proposed session, including two (2)
- learning objectives.
- c) An indication that it is a poster session proposal.
- d) First and surname/family name(s). Note: Please CAPITALIZE each
- surname/family name..
- e) Organisational affiliation.
- f) Full mailing address, telephone and fax number.
- g) E-mail address. Note: All correspondence is via e-mail. It is
- imperative that e-mail addresses are viable and that ISOC be informed of
- any changes to e-mail addresses.
-
- ~ Submissions will be acknowledged within 72 hours. If acknowledgment is
- not received within this timeframe, contact ISOC immediately at
- inet-program-chair@isoc.org.
-
- ~ The Exhibition Hall will provide the exclusive medium for product
- advertising. Poster Sessions should be directed at substantive issues and
- not focus upon marketing or sales issues.
-
- REGISTRATION FEES ~~~~~~~~~~
-
- Chosen presenters of papers, panels and poster sessions will be admitted
- into INET'98 at the ISOC member/early conference fee, although a limited
- amount of partial support may be available to assist presenters, generally
- from developing countries. Tutorials instructors will receive a stipend.
- Expenses such as travel, hotel, and meals are borne by presenters.
-
- GENERAL INFORMATION ~~~~~~~~~~
-
- INET'98
- The Internet Society
- 12020 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 210
- Reston, VA 20191-3429 USA
- Telephone: +1 703 648 9888
- Fax: +1 703 648 9887
- Email: inet98@isoc.org
- PROGRAM INFORMATION ~~~~~~~~~~
-
- Email: inet-program-chair@isoc.org
-
- We would appreciate if you would forward this announcement to your
- interested colleagues and within your own networks.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: 27 Aug 97 00:36:12 EDT
- From: "George Smith [CRYPTN]" <70743.1711@CompuServe.COM>
- Subject: File 5--An "Underground" Book on Australian Hackers Burns the Mind
-
- Source - CRYPT NEWSLETTER 44
-
- AN "UNDERGROUND" BOOK ON AUSTRALIAN HACKERS BURNS THE MIND
-
- Crypt News reads so many bad books, reports and news pieces on
- hacking and the computing underground that it's a real pleasure to
- find a writer who brings genuine perception to the subject.
- Suelette Dreyfus is such a writer, and "Underground," published by
- the Australian imprint, Mandarin, is such a book.
-
- The hacker stereotypes perpetrated by the mainstream media include
- descriptions which barely even fit any class of real homo sapiens
- Crypt News has met. The constant regurgitation of idiot slogans
- -- "Information wants to be free," "Hackers are just people who
- want to find out how things work" -- insults the intelligence.
- After all, have you ever met anyone who wouldn't want their access
- to information to be free or who didn't admit to some curiosity
- about how the world works? No -- of course not. Dreyfus'
- "Underground" is utterly devoid of this manner of patronizing
- garbage and the reader is the better for it.
-
- "Underground" is, however, quite a tale of human frailty. It's
- strength comes not from the feats of hacking it portrays --and
- there are plenty of them -- but in the emotional and physical cost
- to the players. It's painful to read about people like Anthrax, an
- Australian 17-year old trapped in a dysfunctional family.
- Anthrax's father is abusive and racist, so the son --paradoxically
- -- winds up being a little to much like him for comfort,
- delighting in victimizing complete strangers with mean jokes and
- absorbing the anti-Semitic tracts of Louis Farrakhan. For no
- discernible reason, the hacker repetitively baits an old man
- living in the United States with harassing telephone calls.
- Anthrax spends months of his time engaged in completely pointless,
- obsessed hacking of a sensitive U.S. military system. Inevitably,
- Anthrax becomes entangled in the Australian courts and his life
- collapses.
-
- Equally harrowing is the story of Electron whose hacking pales in
- comparison to his duel with mental illness. Crypt News challenges
- the readers of "Underground" not to squirm at the image of
- Electron, his face distorted into a fright mask of rolling eyes
- and open mouth due to tardive dyskinesia, a side-effect of being
- put on anti-schizophrenic medication.
-
- Dreyfus expends a great deal of effort exploring what happens when
- obsession becomes the only driving force behind her subjects'
- hacking. In some instances, "Underground's" characters degenerate
- into mental illness, others try to find solace in drugs. This is
- not a book in which the hackers declaim at any great length upon
- contorted philosophies in which the hacker positions himself as
- someone whose function is a betterment to society, a lubricant of
- information flow, or a noble scourge of bureaucrats and tyrants.
- Mostly, they hack because they're good at it, it affords a measure
- of recognition and respect -- and it develops a grip upon them
- which goes beyond anything definable by words.
-
- Since this is the case, "Underground" won't be popular with the
- goon squad contingent of the police corp and computer security
- industry. Dreyfus' subjects aren't the kind that come neatly
- packaged in the
- "throw-'em-in-jail-for-a-few-years-while-awaiting-trial"
- phenomenon that's associated with America's Kevin Mitnick-types.
- However, the state of these hackers -- sometimes destitute,
- unemployable or in therapy -- at the end of their travails is
- seemingly quite sufficient punishment.
-
- Some things, however, never change. Apparently, much of
- Australia's mainstream media is as dreadful at covering this type
- of story as America's. Throughout "Underground," Dreyfus includes
- clippings from Australian newspapers featuring fabrications and
- exaggeration that bare almost no relationship to reality. Indeed,
- in one prosecution conducted within the United Kingdom, the
- tabloid press whipped the populace into a blood frenzy by
- suggesting a hacker under trial could have affected the outcome of
- the Gulf War in his trips through U.S. computers.
-
- Those inclined to seek the unvarnished truth will find
- "Underground" an excellent read. Before each chapter, Dreyfus
- presents a snippet of lyric chosen from the music of Midnight Oil.
- It's an elegant touch, but I'll suggest a lyric from another
- Australian band, a bit more obscure, to describe the spirit of
- "Underground." From Radio Birdman's second album: "Burned my eye,
- burned my mind, I couldn't believe it . . . "
- +++++++++
-
- ["Underground: Tales of Hacking, Madness and Obsession on the
- Electronic Frontier" by Suelette Dreyfus with research by Julian
- Assange, Mandarin, 475 pp.]
-
- Excerpts and ordering information for "Underground" can be found
- on the Web at http://www.underground-book.com .
-
- George Smith, Ph.D., edits the Crypt Newsletter from Pasadena,
- CA.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 31 Aug 1997 16:08:40 -0700
- From: Greg Broiles <gbroiles@NETBOX.COM>
- Subject: File 6--Court docs in Salgado/"Smak" case
-
- I was over at the federal courthouse in SF on Friday, and copied
- documents from the court's file in _US v. Salgado_, the case
- which got national front-page coverage last week in which the
- defendant, a 30-something resident of Daly City, was able to gain
- access to many credit card numbers through security holes at some
- un-named ISP's.
-
- The documents (complaint + affidavit, indictment, pretrial
- release memo, and motion to seal record) are online at
- <http://www.parrhesia.com/smak/>, and also available at
- <http://jya.com/smak.htm>. The files were graciously and
- skillfully transferred from paper to digital/HTML format by John
- Young (thanks, John).
-
- I found this file interesting for two reasons:
-
- 1. Salgado used an unspecified crypto app/algorithm to encrypt
- his communications with his co-conspirator, an informant working
- for the FBI. (Details found in the affidavit accompanying the
- complaint). This case, a high-profile and high-value credit
- card/access fraud case, was brought quickly to a favorable
- conclusion for law enforcement, despite the use of crypto -
- there's no indication that crypto use hindered law enforcement at
- all.
-
- 2. The government has filed a motion to seal the transcripts of
- Salgado's guilty plea, because in the course of pleading guilty,
- he revealed the identity of some of his victims; the government
- would prefer that the public not learn which ISP's had security
- inadequate enough to protect their customers' and customers'
- customers credit cards. (Criminal defendants, as part of a guilty
- plea, are required to tell the court in their own words what it
- is that they did that constituted the crime - this is intended to
- help prevent defendants into being tricked/coerced into guilty
- pleas to crimes they don't understand.) The government's motion
- was filed on 8/25/97; no opposition was filed, and I don't
- believe it has been granted (yet).
-
- --
- Greg Broiles | US crypto export control policy in a nutshell:
- gbroiles@netbox.com |
- http://www.io.com/~gbroiles | Export jobs, not crypto.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 7 May 1997 22:51:01 CST
- From: CuD Moderators <cudigest@sun.soci.niu.edu>
- Subject: File 7--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 7 May, 1997)
-
- 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 post with this in the "Subject" line:
-
- SUBSCRIBE CU-DIGEST
- Send the message to: cu-digest-request@weber.ucsd.edu
-
- DO NOT SEND SUBSCRIPTIONS TO THE MODERATORS.
-
- The editors may be contacted by voice (815-753-6436), fax (815-753-6302)
- or U.S. mail at: Jim Thomas, Department of Sociology, NIU, DeKalb, IL
- 60115, USA.
-
- To UNSUB, send a one-line message: UNSUB CU-DIGEST
- Send it to CU-DIGEST-REQUEST@WEBER.UCSD.EDU
- (NOTE: The address you unsub must correspond to your From: line)
-
- 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);
- CuD is also available via Fidonet File Request from
- 1:11/70; unlisted nodes and points welcome.
-
- In ITALY: ZERO! BBS: +39-11-6507540
-
- UNITED STATES: ftp.etext.org (206.252.8.100) in /pub/CuD/CuD
- Web-accessible from: http://www.etext.org/CuD/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/
- wuarchive.wustl.edu in /doc/EFF/Publications/CuD/
- EUROPE: nic.funet.fi in pub/doc/CuD/CuD/ (Finland)
- ftp.warwick.ac.uk in pub/cud/ (United Kingdom)
-
-
- The most recent issues of CuD can be obtained from the
- Cu Digest WWW site at:
- URL: http://www.soci.niu.edu/~cudigest/
-
- 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 #9.65
- ************************************
-
-
-