CyberPatrol sues cryptanalysts who revealed flaws in its software
Background: http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=cyberpatrol If you want to download the software before the injunction hits: http://hem.passagen.se/eddy1/reveng/cp4/cp4break.html If anyone sets up a mirror site, please let me know. -Declan >Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2000 21:11:27 -0500 >From: Ted Bridis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Cyber Patrol lawsuit >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Declan, > >Didn't know if you saw this yet. > >http://www.sjmercury.com/svtech/news/breaking/ap/docs/321750l.htm > >Software Co. sues hackers > >BY TED BRIDIS >AP Technology Writer > >WASHINGTON (AP) -- A company that makes popular software to block children >from pornographic Internet sites filed an unusual lawsuit late Wednesday >against two computer experts who developed a method for kids to deduce their >parents' password and access those Web sites. > >Microsystems Software Inc. of Framingham, Mass., which sells the widely used >Cyber Patrol, asked U.S. District Judge Edward F. Harrington for a temporary >restraining order requiring Eddy L. O. Jansson and Matthew Skala to stop >distributing their ``cphack'' program immediately. > >Skala, a Canadian graduate student in computer science, and Jansson, >believed to be living in Sweden, published over the weekend on the Internet >and in e-mail details about how to circumvent the filter technology in Cyber >Patrol, which sells for about $30 and is widely used in many of the nation's >elementary schools and libraries. > >They also offered a small ``cphack'' utility for ``people oppressed by Cyber >Patrol'' that, when run on a parent's computer, reveals the password that >blocks questionable Web sites -- and also discloses the product's entire >list of more than 100,000 Internet sites deemed unsuitable for children. > >``I oppose the use of Internet filtering software on philosophical >grounds,'' Skala said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. >``The issue here was to see what does Cyber Patrol actually block. Parents >have a right to know what they're getting and without our work they wouldn't >know.'' > >In its legal filings, Microsystems said it suffered ``irreparable harm'' >from the publication of the bypassing software, which it said sought to >destroy the market for its product by rendering it ineffective. > >``The practical effect is that ... children may bypass their parents efforts >to screen out inappropriate materials on the Internet,'' the lawsuit said. > >Skala, a cryptography buff who attends the University of Victoria in British >Columbia, said he spent about six weeks analyzing Cyber Patrol with >Jansson's help via e-mail from Sweden. > >``One could well question how much force of law (the legal filings) have in >Sweden or in Canada,'' Skala said. > >In an unusual legal strategy, Microsystems alleged that Skala and Jansson >violated U.S. copyright law when they reverse-engineered Cyber Patrol to >analyze it, which the company said is expressly prohibited in its license >agreements. > >Skala, who learned about the legal filings in Massachusetts from the AP, >said he planned to speak with a lawyer but suggested that his work may be >protected under a ``fair use'' clause of copyright law. > >Microsystems also asked the judge to order the Swedish Internet company >where the bypass utility is published to turn over records identifying >everyone who visited the Web site or downloaded the program. > >The company's lawyer, Irwin Schwartz, said damage to its product is ``at >least at a minimum'' now because relatively few people were believed to have >downloaded the bypass software. > >-- > >On the Net: http://www.cyberpatrol.com
Re: New York teen-ager win $100,000 with encryption research (3/14/2000)
On Tue, 14 Mar 2000, Bill Stewart wrote: > http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=00/03/14/1924204&cid=39 > > Here's the first paragraph, and some of the other respondents had > good commentary: > > > I don't know how much of this is the reporting, > > either by the judges or the press, vs. how much is the > > winner's understanding of the technology involved > > (it sounds like it's her mistake, and the judges didn't understand it.) > > The idea of stashing messages in DNA is cool, > > and doing the actual work to build it is definitely cool stuff > > for a high-school student. But the crypto isn't correct. No surprise there. The scientific merit of Westinghouse winners (I guess they're Intel winners now) has always been dubious at best, and major flaws in winning projects turn up all the time. The competition doesn't seem to care. It's run as a marketing show, and the ethics of promoting such an incredibly careless and political approach to science are no concern of theirs. -Bram Cohen
Re: Bill Joy suggests limits to freedom and research.
On Wed, 15 Mar 2000, Trei, Peter wrote: > http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy.html. > > Briefly, he argues that current advances in biotech, > computers and robotics are creating such powerful > instrumentalities that either we'll make machines smarter > than ourselves, which will take over, or some nut will unleash > a nanotech self-replicator or an engineered micro-organism > to doom the human race. It would have to compete with these already highly competitive nanotech self-replicators we call 'bacteria'. -Bram Cohen
Re: Bill Joy suggests limits to freedom and research.
Bill Joy certainly has reputation capital to burn, but it is in the domain of computer science (as he himself says) and not philosophical inquiry. This article contains opinions and book reviews, not deep thinking into the issues it merely suggests. It if *were* deep thinking, Wired would never publish it. The article is a swiftly moving river of name-dropping and a list of "books I have read." The books are invoked in serial fashion from popular Silicon Valley culture, but the critical implications and ideas are not integrated into a synthesis, that is, these ideas are not digested and integrated into a comprehensive insightful exploration. Yes, Bill Guy has done some great work, but his critical thinking could use an assist from other disciplines like the humanities with which he is not very familiar. One added quote from Nietzsche does not count. Why? Because an inquiry into what it means to be human requires an understanding of culture and how symbols define our identities and very selves, and a historical perspective that shows awareness of how identities have shifted in the past, how values and cultures function in the human equation, and how the older word for psyche - "soul" - can still play a part in illuminating the possibilities for being human. I do not mean that in any simplistic sense but as a distinction or domain that refers to a distinctly human field of subjectivity. Joy may have had a drink with John Searle (in one of the earlier meeting-dropping party-dropping name-dropping indulgences) but he does not seem to have understood his analysis of artificial intelligence. So I disagree with your assessment of this article. It is very shallow and continues the New Wired tradition of righteous Silicon Valley name-dropping a la People magazine as a substitute for deep thinking and clear exposition. Richard Thieme At 11:20 AM 03/15/2000 -0500, Trei, Peter wrote: >I'd like to suggest that people take a serious look at Bill Joy's >"Why the future doesn't need us", the cover article >in the current Wired magazine. It can be found online at >http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy.html. > >Bill (one of the Great Old Men of the Internet, with vi, BSD, >Java, and Jini to his credit) it not a nut. He has reputation >capital to burn. He's talking about the possible imminent end >of the human species. > >Briefly, he argues that current advances in biotech, >computers and robotics are creating such powerful >instrumentalities that either we'll make machines smarter >than ourselves, which will take over, or some nut will unleash >a nanotech self-replicator or an engineered micro-organism >to doom the human race. > >Bill suggests that perhaps we need to consider if there are >technological areas where we should not venture, because >of the potential danger of the knowledge. > >This article is important, not only for what it says, but also >how people are going to use it. It is manna from heaven to >those who would further centralize and tighten control over >people, and will undoubtedly be cited by those who would >restrict privacy and anonymity. > >This article is partially a dystopic response to Kurzweil's >"In the Age of Spiritual Machines", a book which I found >provocative, if flawed. > >Peter Trei > > > Richard Thieme ThiemeWorks ... professional speaking and business consulting: ThiemeWorks P. O. Box 170737the impact of computer technology Milwaukee Wisconsin on people in organizations: 53217-8061 helping people stay flexible voice: 414.351.2321 and effective fax: 414.351.5779 during times of accelerated change. cell: 414.704.4598 http://www.thiemeworks.com http://www.richardthieme.com - for information on Professional Speaking
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MG's Daily Security Brief
(MSNBC, 9 March) According to MSNBC, a group of Internet activists is set to release its own software tool designed to cripple Web sites. The distributed denial of service attack tool to be released by the "Electrohippies" group will allow thousands of protesters to aim their computers at a single Web site, effectively jamming a company's Internet presence. But the attacks will be fundamentally different from last month's crippling of Yahoo, eBay and other major sites. The victims will be warned before the attacks, according to the tool's authors. Described as a virtual sit-in, online protesters will gather via modems and work together to disrupt a company with policies they want to protest. The group reportedly has yet to decide on its exact victim, but the protest will be focused on genetic modification of food crops. Last November, the Electrohippies staged a protest of the World Trade Organization using this technique. (Boston Globe, 9 March) The Boston Globe is reporting that a hacker broke into an MIT computer system and altered the grades of 22 students in a biology class, institute officials said yesterday. The grades of 20 of 120 students in an undergraduate cell biology class were reportedly lowered, while two others were given higher marks. The professor and teaching assistants for the class declined to talk about the investigation, but an institute spokesman said officials have identified someone from outside the class as the culprit. The spokesman would not say whether the person was a student at MIT. (Internet News, 9 March) Curador, the cracker who has stolen credit cards from at least eight small e-commerce sites and then posted them online, is growing more brazen by the minute. In an interview with InternetNews Wednesday, Curador claimed he has hit five new Web firms and will soon publish hundreds more stolen credit card numbers at a new site, which he said he registered using one of the stolen cards. "Law enforcement couldn't hack their way out of a wet paper bag. They're people who get paid to do nothing. They never actually catch anybody," said Curador. After hitting his first on 31 January, Curador has so far eluded arrest. (CNET News, 9 March) Microsoft today confirmed a security hole in Windows 95 and Windows 98 that could result in problems for Web surfers or users of particular email programs. The hole could also potentially be used to create more significant system damage, experts say. The vulnerability, which was just discovered, works by forcing a computer to process a certain sequence of characters. A user could encounter this situation in several instances: when downloading a Web page that has been embedded with malicious code, when opening an email message on Hotmail or some other Web-based email service or simply by typing the code at a DOS prompt. When a computer encounters the sequence of characters and tries to process them, it crashes. Microsoft confirmed the vulnerability, which is a type of "Trojan horse," and said it is working on a patch. (Scripps Howard News Service, 9 March) June Neptune, a Florida businesswoman said that a computer hacker cost her business $500,000, eventually forcing her to shut down operations and lay off 100 employees. Neptune told the Senate Small Business Committee that "Technology is changing everyday and small businesses just cannot raise the money to install screening systems to keep out hackers ." Business groups testified that computer hacking incidents more than doubled in the last year and are "shaking the foundations" of young Internet firms. (Newsbytes, 10 March) A long-anticipated White House document that recommends broader powers for law enforcers in monitoring Internet traffic drew mixed responses, earning praise from some in the high-tech industry, while drawing sharp criticism from civil libertarians. "Anonymity on the Internet is not a thorny issue; it is a Constitutional right," the American Civil Liberties Union wrote in a letter to Attorney General Janet Reno today. The ACLU was responding to a report, unveiled earlier today, entitled "The Electronic Frontier: The Challenge of Unlawful Conduct Involving the Use of the Internet." The report - a product of the President's Working Group on Unlawful Conduct on the Internet - contends that law enforcers need new "tools" for combating the rising tide of electronic crime. (U) (Federal Computer Week, 9 March) The best way to secure the Internet is to make the Internet itself stronger, a member of the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee testified Wednesday before Congress. Many security problems faced by agencies and industry stem from administrators not paying close enough attention to their systems, Raj Reddy, co-chairman of the PITAC and a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, testified before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee's Communications Subcommittee. "Rather than leaving the Internet vulne
MG's Daily Security Brief
(03/09/00, 12:33 p.m. ET) By Reuters WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A top cyber security expert blasted software developers Thursday for marketing flawed products that he said boosted the Internet's vulnerability to high-tech hacker attacks. "There is little evidence of improvement in the security features of most products," said Rich Pethia, director of a federally funded computer emergency response operation at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. "Developers are not devoting sufficient effort to apply lessons learned about the sources of vulnerabilities." Pethia made his comments to a congressional panel looking into the denial of service attacks that disrupted access to popular websites last month for a few hours at a time. He said his organization, which responded to more than 8,000 computer security incidents last year, up from 132 in its first full year of operation 10 years earlier, had found the same types of security defects in newer versions of products as in earlier ones. FULL STORY: http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/reuters/REU2309S0005 * * * Chinese web site hit by hacker By James Kynge in Beijing - 10 Mar 2000 15:08GMT A computer hacker has inflicted China's first serious attack on a domestic website, in a development that is expected to fuel the debate on internet security and regulation. Chen Yongjian, chief executive of IT163.com, a large e-commerce website that sells goods from 50 of China's top stores, said his website had been inoperable since Thursday morning. "It is just like the recent hack attack that shut down Amazon.com and the other US sites. He bombarded the site with so many messages, the system could not cope," said Mr Chen. "The police have launched an investigation. They have found his IP (internet protocol) address but he seems to have been using some public computers and so it may not be easy to catch him," he added. FULL STORY: http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT32PMMUN5C &li ve=true&tagid=ZZZC00L1B0C&subheading=information%20technology * * * Credit-card numbers stolen via known security hole By Ann Harrison 03/10/2000 A 2-year-old security hole in Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Information Server (IIS) software let a computer cracker download thousands of credit-card numbers from e-commerce sites recently and post them on the Internet. A patch for that hole has been available for 18 months. But webmasters at small companies say they don't have the resources to keep up with all of the patches needed to keep out malicious hackers, also known as crackers. FULL STORY: http://www.idg.net/servlet/ContentServlet?global_doc_id=148407&page_id=7 12& content_source_id=5&return_spot=ts2&logger_loc=front_pages%2Fenglish * * * French Banks Hacked By Sylvia Dennis, Newsbytes March 11, 2000 An unknown hacker or group of hackers caused havoc in French banking circles late this week after the 96-digit encryption algorithm underlying the Cartes Bancaires system was posted on the Internet. Some sources suggest that the code was posted to several Usenet group conferences, with widespread pickups by the media and other interested parties in France. Cartes Bancaires (CB) has assured its customers - which include the majority of banks and their smart card bank card users in France - that the system is still safe. However, Newsbytes' sources suggest otherwise. The release of the encryption code effectively allows fraudsters to create dummy smart card bank cards that contain account details that match the checksum system applied to the interbank card system. FULL STORY: http://www.currents.net/newstoday/00/03/11/news4.html * * * For the Internet age, China builds 'Great Firewall' Censors block 'politically sensitive' Web sites: No New York Times, but porn is deemed okay MIRO CERNETIG China Bureau Saturday, March 11, 2000 Beijing -- Two thousand years ago, China's emperors built the Great Wall to keep out unwanted influences. In the age of the Internet, however, the Communists are constructing a different barrier: the Great Firewall, a top-secret censorship system that is an attempt to control what 1.3 billion
Re: "Structured Water"
Agreed. While water definitely has structure and the structure is altered by the presence of other substances it's pretty dynamic. The only persistent structure created by their "work" is the business structure and the cause is more one of profit margin and placebo effect than trained liquids. Mike
Sorry, my mistake.
To Wayne Rad: Sorry, man. My mistake. You've never made a fucking mistake before? To everyone on the list, please accept my apology for forwarding the spam message. It was not my intent to do so. On Tue, 14 Mar 2000 09:40:17 GMT Wayne Rad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Thanks for telling us all spammers must die AND REPEATING THE ENTIRE SPAM MESSAGE
Re: Bill Joy suggests limits to freedom and research.
At 11:20 AM 3/15/00 -0500, Trei, Peter wrote: >I'd like to suggest that people take a serious look at Bill Joy's >"Why the future doesn't need us", the cover article >in the current Wired magazine. It can be found online at >http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy.html. I printed it out and will be working my way through it. Sounds like 50's SF films vs. 50's written (US) SF. "There are some things man was not meant to know" vs. "men as gods". Traditional fight. As to future risks to freedom - we weren't thinking of asking permission in any case. DCF "They can attempt to outlaw weapons but they can't outlaw the Platonic Ideal of a weapon and modern technology makes it absolutely trivial to convert a Platonic Ideal of a weapon into an actual weapon whenever one desires."
"Structured Water"
Shame on Wired News, for confusing flim-flam and science. http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,33749,00.html "A new book offers proof that homeopathic treatment is effective, showing how its watered-down doses, which defy conventional medical wisdom, work on the body. By Andy Patrizio. "With a little help from a scientist looking for a way to clean car engines, a physician has been able to explain the confounding paradox behind why homeopathic medicine gets more potent as it's diluted. "Lo said every substance exerts its own unique influence on the water, so each cluster shape and configuration is unique to the substance added. With each dilution and shaking, the clusters grow bigger and stronger. This water, which homeopaths call "potentized," is considered "structured water," because the water molecules have taken on a shape influenced by the original substance. "The clusters start to assume a form that mimics the structure of the original substance itself. So even though the chemical can no longer be detected, its "image" is there, taken on by the water molecules." Yeah, right. Wired News. If it weren't free, I wouldn't read it. -- Eric Michael Cordian 0+ O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division "Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"
VMware for Linux License Key
** Please do not reply to this email ** Dear Joe Cypherpunk, Thank you for downloading VMware for Linux. Please find attached to this email message a file containing your license. If you own a 1.x license, you will already have a file named "license" in the .vmware directory. Be sure not to overwrite it with this new license file so you have the option of returning to using VMware 1.x for Linux. The new version of the product requires only that the name of the file begin with "license". You may, for example, save the 2.0 license as "license20". In case your email reader does not support MIME encoding, the file is included as text at the bottom of this message. Copy the text between the "Cut Here" lines and save it as the license file, as described above. As a reminder, you may report any problems, issues, or comments you may have in using the product to the VMware Technical Support team. To file an incident report, please go to http://www.vmware.com/forms/Incident_Login.cfm and complete the form provided. Thank you for your interest in VMware. We hope you have a successful experience in using our product. Best Regards, - The VMware Team --- Cut Here --- # VMware software license Fields = "Cpt, Name, Email, LicenseType, LicenseClass, LicenseFeature, Count, LicenseKey, ProductID, ProductType, Expiration" StartFields = "Cpt, Name, Email, LicenseType, Field2" Field2 = "LicenseClass, LicenseFeature, Count, Field3" Field3 = "LicenseKey, ProductID, ProductType, Expiration" Cpt = "COPYRIGHT (c) 1998-2000 VMware, Inc." Name = "Joe Cypherpunk" Email = "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" LicenseType = "User" LicenseClass = "Evaluation" LicenseFeature = "None" Count = "1 of 1" LicenseKey = "34752_000" ProductID = "VMware for Linux" ProductType = "2.0" Expiration = "2000-4-15" Hash = 2456f447-e0b807c5-613486d3-58354acc-e3687637 --- Cut Here --- license_34752_000
Tim May as Louis Farakkan
Orwellian.Org wrote:
#Tim May wrote:
##
##If one is more than 1/128th negro, one is "African-American." Though
##I've never understood why this is not just marked "niggah," as niggah
##is what the niggaz almost always refer to each other as.
#
#No, they don't.
#
#What an asshole.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
#
#Yes, they do. And Fuck Off.
It's unfortunate that Tim May's social interactions (read: working
in an office) were terminated by too much money, because he sorely
needs some real world experience to avoid going wacky.
I've worked with plenty of blacks, and I've never heard them call
each other "nigger", which Mr. May is apparently unable to spell.
Given May's aversion to minorities ("When I saw a sign in Spanish
I knew it was time to move"), it's unlikely he heard such himself
on the street. Occasionally it is heard during comedy shows (Richard
Pryor, Whoopi Goldberg).
Other than that, how does he come up with such a statement?
Answer: his use of language is similar to Louis Farakkan, who
said "Hitler was a great man". Bucannan sympathizes: after all,
they are "technically accurate" because they _meant to say_ that
the German people thought Hitler was a great man.
So, without actually stepping up to the plate and saying he
thinks blacks are disgusting creatures, one gets statements
like: ~"I've never understood why they're not called niggers".
Not only is there no crypto-relevance to this hateful crap,
it's hateful crap. The cypherpunks are saddled with this asshole.
This is the same rich weirdo (RHPS ;-) who thought civilization
might collapse at Y2K, and started burying gold in the ground.
What May is doing here with this crap is a puzzle.
Perhaps he just can't shut up about his hate for minorities.
VT
"Hitler was a great man" ---Charles Lindbergh
