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PAPER CUTS: The Golden Fleece

http://www.mail-archive.com/license-discuss@openso urce.org/msg01433.html

http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interes ting-people/199901/msg00052.html

I have just removed all Network Associates products from my workstations and network servers, and will no longer recommend them to my clients or readers.

I have taken this position because Network Associates, by rigging its products not to detect tampering by specific parties of its choosing, has betrayed users' trust and started a descent down a perilous, slippery slope. Will the company next change its PGP ("Pretty Good Privacy") software so that it contains back doors as well? Will its "Sniffer" products be configured to ignore certain types of attacks and allow selected parties onto customers' networks undetected, possibly hiding illegal searches by freewheeling law enforcement personnel? Will its "Magic Solutions" products, which allow remote control and maintenance of user workstations, become a vector for the installation of spying software by government snoops?

Just as disturbing as the company's breach of trust with its customers is the prospect that others will exploit the back doors installed for the benefit of government agencies.

Network Associates has shown that it is willing to compromise its integrity by selling intentionally faulty products. For this reason, it is no longer appropriate or wise for those concerned about the security of their networks, systems, or confidential data to use them.

http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interes ting-people/200111/msg00319.html

I have just removed all Network Associates products from my workstations and network servers, and will no longer recommend them to my clients or readers.

I have taken this position because Network Associates, by rigging its products not to detect tampering by specific parties of its choosing, has betrayed users' trust and started a descent down a perilous, slippery slope. Will the company next change its PGP ("Pretty Good Privacy") software so that it contains back doors as well? Will its "Sniffer" products be configured to ignore certain types of attacks and allow selected parties onto customers' networks undetected, possibly hiding illegal searches by freewheeling law enforcement personnel? Will its "Magic Solutions" products, which allow remote control and maintenance of user workstations, become a vector for the installation of spying software by government snoops?

Just as disturbing as the company's breach of trust with its customers is the prospect that others will exploit the back doors installed for the benefit of government agencies.

Network Associates has shown that it is willing to compromise its integrity by selling intentionally faulty products. For this reason, it is no longer appropriate or wise for those concerned about the security of their networks, systems, or confidential data to use them.

http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interes ting-people/200111/msg00319.html

The story that Al Gore claimed to have invented the Internet has been thoroughly debunked by Phil Agre in http://commons.somewhere.com/rre/2000/RRE.Al.Gore. and.the.Inte.html and rebutted further later
That meme was a creation of Declan McCullagh, a "reporter" for Wired News who is politically a dogmatic Libertarian so extreme that he managed to get a book chapter using him as a poster-boy for Libertarian ideologues, and a different book chapter using him as Libertarian joke-fodder.
If you think this is flame-bait, the aspect of his fabricated story being a Liberatarian hit-piece on Al Gore was extensively discussed in a debunking by Salon

After Declan McCullagh was repeatedly taken to task for his hatchet-job, over more than year, by everyone who was there, from Dave Farberto Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf, Declan finally grudgingly retracted the "story"

But people still repeat it, because urban legends never die.

Sig: What Happened To The Censorware Project (censorware.org)

The story that Al Gore claimed to have invented the Internet has been thoroughly debunked by Phil Agre in http://commons.somewhere.com/rre/2000/RRE.Al.Gore. and.the.Inte.html and rebutted further later
That meme was a creation of Declan McCullagh, a "reporter" for Wired News who is politically a dogmatic Libertarian so extreme that he managed to get a book chapter using him as a poster-boy for Libertarian ideologues, and a different book chapter using him as Libertarian joke-fodder.
If you think this is flame-bait, the aspect of his fabricated story being a Liberatarian hit-piece on Al Gore was extensively discussed in a debunking by Salon

After Declan McCullagh was repeatedly taken to task for his hatchet-job, over more than year, by everyone who was there, from Dave Farberto Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf, Declan finally grudgingly retracted the "story"

But people still repeat it, because urban legends never die.

Sig: What Happened To The Censorware Project (censorware.org)

Note here

You have to put your laptop in a fine vendor bag I guess.

I agree with Brad Templeton's email essay on why this type of surveillance is dangerous:

"...Mr. Barrett is not alone in wondering why some people are so concerned about their privacy. While many are aware of the tremendous prices that some have paid in oppressive (and even non-oppresive) states due to lack of privacy and surveilance, most people pragmatically feel that these oppressive regimes are either in the past, or not an issue for those in the free world, not when compared to safety from crime.

"There is a great hidden cost to surveilance, however, and it is a cost paid by everyone. When we feel we are being watched we, feel less free. We censor ourselves, and refrain from otherwise perfectly legal activities, when we feel that our activities might be being watched, or worse, recorded either for the government or for the general public, or worst of all, our mothers.

"I include our mothers because I expect all of us understand the freedom one feels away from even our own families. Not that we're doing anything wrong. Just that when we're watched we want to meet other's expectations.

"In other words, we're all a bit shy.

"Cameras everywhere make us feel our public lives are being documented. We've never minded the random strangers who might see us on the urban street. We do mind the idea that goverments and companies and others might be making systematic recordings. When we are watched we are not free to be ourselves.

"That doesn't shut down what everybody approves of, but it does chill the counterculture, and those ready to explore. These explorers are vital to a healthy society.

"Oddly, this happens even if the cameras aren't on, or if what they see is only available to "trusted" officials.

Other reports I've read indicated that the poll asked very leading questions...

"Should individuals and businesses be allowed to use encryption to prevent penetration of their computers and communications by terrorists?"

The results of the poll would have been very different.

A word on the structure of the WTC towers:

The WTC towers had a distinctive structural system which utilized
the exterior wall framing for lateral bracing -- a so-called lattice
framework. This allowed minimization of internal lateral bracing
and opened up the floor plans. You can see the effect of that when
the buildings collapsed, with the lattice framework crumbling and
the interior imploding. The lattice works so long as it remains
intact as a system: if a part of it goes, then the whole system
goes.

The planes punched holes in the lattice, one tower punched
on two sides, maybe the other too. Portions of the lattice of
the second tower briefly remained standing after the collapse,
then fell.

The system was considered daring at the time of construction, for
it distributed loads more efficiently than legacy column-and-beam-
supported systems. Probably the legacy systems would not have
totally collapsed due to damage at upper floors, although floors
above the damage would have come down if columns were
weakened.

Been there, done that. The Cheese worm for Linux does basiclly the same sort of thing.

Still it's a bad idea. For legal reasons: unauthorized is unauthorized even with good intent. For complexity reasons: the worm/ virus may break something else or have unintended conquences like the Robert Moore Jr. worm in the 1980s. Common sense: Encouraging bad system admin habits, that is to be lazy, is a very bad idea. Think of a silly analogy: like breaking in to fix a faulty burgary alarm is a bad idea.

Been there, done that. The Cheese worm for Linux does basiclly the same sort of thing.

Still it's a bad idea. For legal reasons: unauthorized is unauthorized even with good intent. For complexity reasons: the worm/ virus may break something else or have unintended conquences like the Robert Moore Jr. worm in the 1980s. Common sense: Encouraging bad system admin habits, that is to be lazy, is a very bad idea. Think of a silly analogy: like breaking in to fix a faulty burgary alarm is a bad idea.

The mistake Jon Katz (and Salon, Suck, etc) makes is the thinking "new media" will look similar to old media. New media is different. Just as print media is different from broadcast media.

It is pretty ironic for this Jon Katz spiel to be posted to a true "New Media" site like Slashdot, which couldn't exist in traditional medias, yet seems to continue without too much worry AFAIK of running out of money.

It would silly to wonder why a radio station that only updated their news once a day, like newspapers did, why they would be driven out of business; they are working within a different system with different capabilities and their competitors will embrace those advantages.

Join the Cluetrain.

Actaully the Blue LED problem has been recently solved by a scientist in Japan. details are here and here. These are the same document, the second is just pre tagged text.

The story that Al Gore claimed to have invented the Internet has been thoroughly debunked by Phil Agre in http://commons.somewhere.com/rre/2000/RRE.Al.Gore. and.the.Inte.html and rebutted further later
That meme was a creation of Declan McCullagh, a "reporter" for Wired News who is a fanatical Libertarian so extreme that he managed to have a chapter of a book using him as a poster-boy for Libertarian ideologues If you think I'm just flaming, this aspect of his fabricated story being a Liberatarian hit-piece was extensively discussed in a debunking by Salon

After Declan McCullagh was repeatedly taken to task for his hatchet-job, over more than year, by everyone who was there, from Dave Farber to Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf he finally grudgingly retracted

But people still repeat it, because urban legends never die.

The story that Al Gore claimed to have invented the Internet has been thoroughly debunked by Phil Agre in http://commons.somewhere.com/rre/2000/RRE.Al.Gore. and.the.Inte.html and rebutted further later
That meme was a creation of Declan McCullagh, a "reporter" for Wired News who is a fanatical Libertarian so extreme that he managed to have a chapter of a book using him as a poster-boy for Libertarian ideologues If you think I'm just flaming, this aspect of his fabricated story being a Liberatarian hit-piece was extensively discussed in a debunking by Salon

After Declan McCullagh was repeatedly taken to task for his hatchet-job, over more than year, by everyone who was there, from Dave Farber to Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf he finally grudgingly retracted

But people still repeat it, because urban legends never die.

There is more about Dr. Hau's methods in an older article. A bit of the method as well, they are using Bose-Einstein condensate as the medium.

I credited and linked to interesting-people in my writeup, but apparently it didn't survive the editorial chopping block. IP is a sort of more intelligently editted/moderated Slashdot, but without the annoying high-churn discussions :)

There's a more detailed explanation of what this really means at http://www.interesting-people.org/200101/0015.html . (Stolen from the NANOG discussion today, the thread starts here: http://www.cctec.com/maillists/nanog/current/msg00 681.html).

FCC Makes Wiretapping Easier for Cops

FBI wants to wiretap phones without court order

ACLU & EPIC Challenge Wiretapping

There was a story last year about hundreds of convinctions in LA that need to be reviewed because defendants were never told that evidence came from illegal wiretaps. The latimes.com article has expired, but here's an archive from the IP list.

Not to mention the historic abuses of the FBI against people like Martin Luther King, Jr. King didn't do anything illegal, but the wiretaps did catch him having an affair. An anonymous FBI agent urged King to commit suicide to avoid exposure.

You can't say "it can't happen here". It *did* happen here. Just don't let it happen again.

(This was on Dave Farber's list.)

If the press release is to be believed, it's a patent on
using a wireless handset to deliver information that's
dependent on where you are, such as telling you the nearest MacDonald's.
- handset-based services granted now, network-based pending.
I'm not sure how broad their patent claims are,
as opposed to their marketing PR (:-), but it sounds like it's
way over-broad, steps on lots of things that should be obvious enough
to anyone skilled in the trade, and sounds like Yet Another
Stupid Patent Office Trick.

Their Press Release www.cell-loc.com

..."U.S. patent office has conditionally allowed Cell-Loc to claim the
delivery of handset-based wireless location content and services over
the Internet as its property, regardless of technological method employed."


Unfortunately, after downloading the half megabyte of animated Web Designer Candy
that serves as their main web page, it wasn't possible to get to any
real information, but YMMV... :-)

Perhaps I'm missing something here, but if you check out this article, you'll note that Bell Labs transmitted 3.28 terabit over 300 kilometres by multiplexing different wavelengths over a single fibre strand.

I just realized that there's an on-line archive of David Farber's Interesting People mailing list.

Can be found at:

The Colossus of Bletchley Park - The German Cipher System

Computer History (1940-1944)

The Turing Bombe Rebuild Project

Official Bletchley Park Website

The Colossus Rebuild Project

Mr. Flowers Death Announcement in 1998

working unknown to their employer for the NSA

www.aci.net/kalliste/speccoll.htm
http://www.interesting-p eople.org/archive/199610/0041.html

Of course, you backed up my statement for me. Note that I do not claim that there is an ongoing operation, I am just pointing out that it isn't exactly unheard of, and that with congress and the public being kept in the dark, we can't say it isn't happening.