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Actually, some people from kaos theory security research are developing a project called the AnonymOS which encrypts and anonymizes all traffic through tor along with using a very hardened bsd / linux system that drops all packets that aren't based on a connection that you have established. They did a presentation about this at interz0ne 4 http://interz0ne.com/ . The presentation is here http://theory.kaos.to/projects.html .

Honestly though, I could care less what 'could' be or has been done with anonymous access to the internet. I would rather have complete anonymity than have a bunch of governments attempting to regulate and track every individual.

This really isn't all that new. The U.S. Naval Postgraduate School has been
sending their Infosec students to play Capture the Flag at Defcon for the last couple years as well as
this year's Interz0ne conference. In
fact, there was only one team (Anomaly - and they won ironically) that didn't
have government personnel or contractors on their team.

Also, Immunix, a DARPA funded hardened Linux version has also
been put under fire during CTF for the last couple year. (Their team placed a
solid second both times).

The Feds have learned over the last couple years that they
are behind the ball in terms of normal unclassified security training for their
personnel. These conferences have been really good at given them some real
world training that they normally don't get.

It's nice to see my tax dollars being put to a good use for
a change. Plus it makes the "Spot
the Fed" game MUCH easier.

Bob

The people that reported the story did. Hell, the events in question, were attended mostly by people that read 2600 type zines, /., and memstreams.net.

I think that no matter how obvious the relationship is between Interz0ne, PhreakNIC, and se2600 sometimes people will still comment as if they were the first to figure something out. With that said, I am GLAD to see so many people interested in either the cause, the cons, or both. I am not trying to rant, but rather agree and share a bit more information.

Come out to PhreakNIC (the next se2600 con), or Interz0ne III next year... hopefully thinking about them won't be illegal (ref: partriot act II).

Iridium

Could you, in 24 hours or less, work out whether you (as conference chair) should go ahead with that seminar given that you probably don't know what the participants in question were doing?
What makes you think they did not know EXACTLY what they were going to do? What makes you think the almost 100 times Blackboard hit our website did not warn us? What makes you think that we were not prepared as hell?

With that said, I think it was still a shock, but we come prepared every year. We had well over 10 separate internet connections. If $#1t hit the fan we would have been streaming it live. If some other event "prevented" us from posting the data we would have gotten around that also. As it was, somewhere around 5 minutes after the rant/talk at the con started, we had relevant information sitting in about 5 continents, on at least 15 webservers I knew of. Not counting the untold numbers of relays the information recieved.

Looks like a cheap but effective maneuver to me.

It was very cheap on the lawyers' part. I think they doubted our resolve, our commitment, and our loyalty to our ideals. We had at least a few traitors in our midst, but the funny thing is they did us NO irreperable harm (*watches feds come in and raid me now*) thus far.

I think it was a bluff, but it may or may not remain that way. Keep in touch and stay updated.
support our troops!

It's a ceast and desist letter. Perhaps, it's just a bluff, or an opening move in a nasty legal fight. Note that the letter in question is dated April 11, 2003 the day before the seminar (at the Interz0ne conference) and is directed to the conference chair and not the participants in question. Could you, in 24 hours or less, work out whether you (as conference chair) should go ahead with that seminar given that you probably don't know what the participants in question were doing? Looks like a cheap but effective maneuver to me.