Re: Gubmint Tests Passport RFID...

2005-08-19 Thread J.A. Terranson

On Wed, 17 Aug 2005, Tyler Durden wrote:

 Gee whiz I'm scared. Look, since you're angling for some stats, come on over
 to New York. I'll meet you on the corner of 135th Street and St Nicholas
 Avenue (we call that neighborhood Harlem).

Actually, isn't that technically Spanish harlem?


 Look for me: 6'1, 220 lbs and
 looking EXACTLY like someone would look after 7 years of GoJu training...I'm
 the guy even the locals won't fuck with.

I know many of those locals, and 7 years of GoJu aint gonna do shit for a
1200fps projectile.

 -Tyler Durden

Remember, L-IIIa is your friend. :-)

-- 
Yours,

J.A. Terranson
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
0xBD4A95BF


I like the idea of belief in drug-prohibition as a religion in that it is
a strongly held belief based on grossly insufficient evidence and
bolstered by faith born of intuitions flowing from the very beliefs they
are intended to support.

don zweig, M.D.



Re: Gubmint Tests Passport RFID...

2005-08-19 Thread Tyler Durden

Actually, isn't that technically Spanish harlem?


Nope.


 Look for me: 6'1, 220 lbs and
 looking EXACTLY like someone would look after 7 years of GoJu 
training...I'm

 the guy even the locals won't fuck with.

I know many of those locals, and 7 years of GoJu aint gonna do shit for a
1200fps projectile.


Apparently you don't. You don't fuck with others they won't fuck with you, 
because someone you don't know could always be packin.


Actually, that corner would make a pretty nice kill zone as it's next to a 
big park with lots of bushes and few witnesses. Think about it, 
motherfucker.




 -Tyler Durden

Remember, L-IIIa is your friend. :-)


And SG IIIb yours.

-TD






--
Yours,

J.A. Terranson
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
0xBD4A95BF


I like the idea of belief in drug-prohibition as a religion in that it is
a strongly held belief based on grossly insufficient evidence and
bolstered by faith born of intuitions flowing from the very beliefs they
are intended to support.

don zweig, M.D.






Re: Gubmint Tests Passport RFID...

2005-08-19 Thread Tyler Durden

Sorry. Got you mixed up with the other dude.

You seem willing to back up any slams with facts  quotes, so all respect is 
given. A good fight strengthens us, a sniper smells of MwGs.


Sorry again.

-TD



From: J.A. Terranson [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: Tyler Durden [EMAIL PROTECTED]
CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Gubmint Tests Passport RFID...
Date: Thu, 18 Aug 2005 23:51:10 -0500 (CDT)

On Wed, 17 Aug 2005, Tyler Durden wrote:

 Gee whiz I'm scared. Look, since you're angling for some stats, come on 
over

 to New York. I'll meet you on the corner of 135th Street and St Nicholas
 Avenue (we call that neighborhood Harlem).

Actually, isn't that technically Spanish harlem?


 Look for me: 6'1, 220 lbs and
 looking EXACTLY like someone would look after 7 years of GoJu 
training...I'm

 the guy even the locals won't fuck with.

I know many of those locals, and 7 years of GoJu aint gonna do shit for a
1200fps projectile.

 -Tyler Durden

Remember, L-IIIa is your friend. :-)

--
Yours,

J.A. Terranson
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
0xBD4A95BF


I like the idea of belief in drug-prohibition as a religion in that it is
a strongly held belief based on grossly insufficient evidence and
bolstered by faith born of intuitions flowing from the very beliefs they
are intended to support.

don zweig, M.D.





Re: Gubmint Tests Passport RFID...

2005-08-17 Thread Tyler Durden
Gee whiz I'm scared. Look, since you're angling for some stats, come on over 
to New York. I'll meet you on the corner of 135th Street and St Nicholas 
Avenue (we call that neighborhood Harlem). Look for me: 6'1, 220 lbs and 
looking EXACTLY like someone would look after 7 years of GoJu training...I'm 
the guy even the locals won't fuck with.


-Tyler Durden



From: Steve Thompson [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: Tyler Durden [EMAIL PROTECTED]
CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Gubmint Tests Passport RFID...
Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2005 15:20:54 -0400 (EDT)

--- Tyler Durden [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Whaddya know. Thompson said something that didn't make me want to beat
 him to death...

Too bad for you that I cannot say the same about what you write.

  I have a different threat model.

 I've reached more or less the same conclusion. Or at least, incompetence
 may
 not be deliberate per se, but the byproduct of a system that needs to
 appear
 to care but is otherwise silently incented not to. Checking bags in the
 NYC
 transit system is the ultimate example of this: Completely, absolutely
 pointless in the face of a determined foe. (Meanwhile, of course,
 there's
 all sorts of state shennanegins that are possible through such an
 arrangement.)

No fucking shit.  Thanks for pointing this out to me.

 The obvious question is how much 9/11/01 is an example of this. For me,
 the
 conspiracy theories just don't quite add up (close though) but a
 moderately
 sharpened Occam's razor leads one to believe that some 'deliberate'
 holes
 were left open, which bin Laden, et al exploited. (I actually still
 believe
 that Bush didn't expect that level of damage, however.)

I don't know Bush, personally, and so I feel that it would be improper to
suggest that his unspoken cost-benefit analysis resulted in a particular
set of actions.

 As for the integrity of the money supply, I must succumb to temptation
 and
 question whether the Stalinst model of a demand economy (servicing an
 endless war on terror) hasn't been looked at by folks such as Wolfowitz,
 Cheney and so on.

Suckkumb all you want.


Regards,

Steve







__
Find your next car at http://autos.yahoo.ca





Re: Gubmint Tests Passport RFID...

2005-08-15 Thread Steve Thompson

--- Tyler Durden [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Whaddya know. Thompson said something that didn't make me want to beat
 him to death...

Too bad for you that I cannot say the same about what you write.
 
  I have a different threat model.

 I've reached more or less the same conclusion. Or at least, incompetence
 may 
 not be deliberate per se, but the byproduct of a system that needs to
 appear 
 to care but is otherwise silently incented not to. Checking bags in the
 NYC 
 transit system is the ultimate example of this: Completely, absolutely 
 pointless in the face of a determined foe. (Meanwhile, of course,
 there's 
 all sorts of state shennanegins that are possible through such an 
 arrangement.)

No fucking shit.  Thanks for pointing this out to me.
 
 The obvious question is how much 9/11/01 is an example of this. For me,
 the 
 conspiracy theories just don't quite add up (close though) but a
 moderately 
 sharpened Occam's razor leads one to believe that some 'deliberate'
 holes 
 were left open, which bin Laden, et al exploited. (I actually still
 believe 
 that Bush didn't expect that level of damage, however.)

I don't know Bush, personally, and so I feel that it would be improper to
suggest that his unspoken cost-benefit analysis resulted in a particular
set of actions.
 
 As for the integrity of the money supply, I must succumb to temptation
 and 
 question whether the Stalinst model of a demand economy (servicing an 
 endless war on terror) hasn't been looked at by folks such as Wolfowitz,
 Cheney and so on.

Suckkumb all you want.


Regards,

Steve







__ 
Find your next car at http://autos.yahoo.ca



Re: Gubmint Tests Passport RFID...

2005-08-09 Thread Roy M. Silvernail
Quoting Tyler Durden [EMAIL PROTECTED]:

 And since one's passport essentially boils down to a chip, why not implant
 it under the skin?

You say that as though it hasn't been considered.

 As for the encryption issue, can someone explain to me why it even matters?

It doesn't, actually.  There is no clear and compelling reason to make a
passport remotely readable, considering that a Customs agent still has to
visually review the document.  And if the agent has to look at it, s/he can
certainly run it through a contact-based reader in much the same way the
current design's submerged magnetic strip is read.

 It would seem to me that any on-demand access to one's chip-stored info is
 only as secure as the encryption codes, which would have to be stored and
 which will eventually become public, no matter how much the government
 says, Trust us...the access codes are secure.

http://wired-vig.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,67333,00.html?tw=wn_story_related

This story says the data will be encrypted, but the key will be printed on the
passport itself in a machine-readable format.  Once again, this requires manual
handling of the passport, so there's *still* no advantage to RFID in the
official use case.

 (ie, they want to be able to read your RFID wihtout you having to perform
 any additional actions to release the information.)

Yup. Bruce Schneier nailed the real motivation almost a year ago:

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2004/10/rfid_passports.html

Interestingly, even the on-document keying scheme doesn't address the
fundamental problem. Nowhere is it said that the whole of the remotely readable
data will be encrypted. If a GUID is left in the clear, the passport is readily
usable as a taggant by anyone privy to the GUID-meatspace map.  Without access
to the map, the tag still identifies its carrier as a U.S passport holder. 
Integrating this aspect into munitions is left as an exercise for the reader.

 The only way I see it making a difference is perhaps in the physical
 layer...encryption + shielding is probably a lot more secure than encryption
 without shielding, given an ID phisher wandering around an airport with a
 special purpose briefcase.

This isn't about phishing. That's just a bonus.
-- 
Roy M. Silvernail is [EMAIL PROTECTED], and you're not
It's just this little chromium switch, here. - TFT
SpamAssassin-procmail-/dev/null-bliss
http://www.rant-central.com



Re: Gubmint Tests Passport RFID...

2005-08-09 Thread Tyler Durden
Whaddya know. Thompson said something that didn't make me want to beat him 
to death...



I have a different threat model.  I suggest that incompetence is _often_
deliberate and, at least to those who orchestrate such things, is designed
to leave or provide cracks in arbitrary systesm that will be expoited.
This may be defensible in cases where someone wants to encourage child
molesters to expose their operations to sophisticated intelligence and
surveillance activities, but is harder to defend when such policies affect
the integrity of the money supply, or the transportation infrastructure,
or 


I've reached more or less the same conclusion. Or at least, incompetence may 
not be deliberate per se, but the byproduct of a system that needs to appear 
to care but is otherwise silently incented not to. Checking bags in the NYC 
transit system is the ultimate example of this: Completely, absolutely 
pointless in the face of a determined foe. (Meanwhile, of course, there's 
all sorts of state shennanegins that are possible through such an 
arrangement.)


The obvious question is how much 9/11/01 is an example of this. For me, the 
conspiracy theories just don't quite add up (close though) but a moderately 
sharpened Occam's razor leads one to believe that some 'deliberate' holes 
were left open, which bin Laden, et al exploited. (I actually still believe 
that Bush didn't expect that level of damage, however.)


As for the integrity of the money supply, I must succumb to temptation and 
question whether the Stalinst model of a demand economy (servicing an 
endless war on terror) hasn't been looked at by folks such as Wolfowitz, 
Cheney and so on.


-TD




Re: Gubmint Tests Passport RFID...

2005-08-09 Thread Steve Thompson

--- Roy M. Silvernail [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Quoting Tyler Durden [EMAIL PROTECTED]:
 
  And since one's passport essentially boils down to a chip, why not
 implant
  it under the skin?
 
 You say that as though it hasn't been considered.

Good point.  As many of us know, there are groups of well-educated people
who spend all their time on the analysis of technology: think tanks.  Who
can possibly say what sorts of universal, 'machine-readable'
identification systems are considered, and which modes of use they
imagine?  Many of the studies that are conducted under the umbrella of
think tank resarch is, of course, proprietary and restricted in
distribution.  Knowledgable individuals can do only so much (in their
spare time, for instance) towards doing their own analysis of leading-edge
technology use and misuse, and most people know this.  So, why is it that
there seem to be no open source groups who, like people in the free
software movement might write software, produce non-trivial papers on the
results of their brainstorming sessions?

If we can agree that the research of closed NSA think-tank groups might be
of immense interest to people with a vested interest in the use or misuse
of emerging technologies, then it follows that open source intelligence
analysis of technology is a field that is both very much wide-open for
exploration, and also quite critical.  People like Bruce Schneier do a
good job more or less on their own in their respective fields, but it
seems that there is likely a significant quality gap in what can be done
by individual experts, and what might be accomplished by groups of savvy
intellectuals.  

However, the playing field is such in the public realm most discussion and
analysis of these kinds of issue are relegated to science fiction,
academic journals, mailing lists, and of course blogs.  There seems to be
a reluctance on the part of a great many people to bring a more rigorous
and wide ranging type of analysis to such fields, and I am not quite sure
why.

Nevertheless, for those who are at all aware of the kind of product
produced by conventional think-tank groups, it is evident that there are
large gaps in the areas of consideration and fields of study covered by
the open-source analysis field.  This obviously affects the quality of
debate in the public sphere.

  As for the encryption issue, can someone explain to me why it even
 matters?
 
 It doesn't, actually.  There is no clear and compelling reason to make a
 passport remotely readable, considering that a Customs agent still has
 to
 visually review the document.  And if the agent has to look at it, s/he
 can
 certainly run it through a contact-based reader in much the same way the
 current design's submerged magnetic strip is read.
 
  It would seem to me that any on-demand access to one's chip-stored
 info is
  only as secure as the encryption codes, which would have to be stored
 and
  which will eventually become public, no matter how much the
 government
  says, Trust us...the access codes are secure.


http://wired-vig.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,67333,00.html?tw=wn_story_related
 
 This story says the data will be encrypted, but the key will be printed
 on the
 passport itself in a machine-readable format.  Once again, this requires
 manual
 handling of the passport, so there's *still* no advantage to RFID in the
 official use case.


 
  (ie, they want to be able to read your RFID wihtout you having to
 perform
  any additional actions to release the information.)
 
 Yup. Bruce Schneier nailed the real motivation almost a year ago:
 
 http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2004/10/rfid_passports.html

Normally I am very careful before I ascribe such sinister motives to a
government agency. Incompetence is the norm, and malevolence is much
rarer. But this seems like a clear case of the Bush administration putting
its own interests above the security and privacy of its citizens, and then
lying about it.

I have a different threat model.  I suggest that incompetence is _often_
deliberate and, at least to those who orchestrate such things, is designed
to leave or provide cracks in arbitrary systesm that will be expoited. 
This may be defensible in cases where someone wants to encourage child
molesters to expose their operations to sophisticated intelligence and
surveillance activities, but is harder to defend when such policies affect
the integrity of the money supply, or the transportation infrastructure,
or 
 
 Interestingly, even the on-document keying scheme doesn't address the
 fundamental problem. Nowhere is it said that the whole of the remotely
 readable
 data will be encrypted. If a GUID is left in the clear, the passport is
 readily
 usable as a taggant by anyone privy to the GUID-meatspace map.  Without
 access
 to the map, the tag still identifies its carrier as a U.S passport
 holder. 
 Integrating this aspect into munitions is left as an exercise for the
 reader.
 
  The only way I see it