Uploaded By: THE GRIFFIN ************************************************** * ..... The Griffin ..... * * Presents: * * * * Freedom of Data Processing * * Part Two! * * * * by Michael E. Marotta * * (From Loompanics Unlimited 1987 Main Catalog) * ************************************************** Realize that given unlimited time and resources, any code or cipher can be broken. However, welfare department case workers & alcohol tax agents are government employees; their ability to follow obvious clues to a logical conclusion is limited. On the other hand, if the stakes are high enough the federal government will devote incredible resources in a brute force or "tempest" attack. The public key crypto-system developed at Stanford by Merkle, Hellman and Diffie was broken by Adi Shamir. Working at the Weizmann Institute in Israel,Shamir was continuing the investigations begun with Rivest and Adlemann at MIT on public key cryptosystems. At a cryptosystem conference held in Santa Barbara, California, Adlemann demon- strated Shamir's work using an Apple II computer. The Stanford public key system was broken by the brilliant mathematical insights of a single person. The Stanford people have in turn targetted the Data Encryption Algorythm devised for the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Stan- dards. The algorythm is supposed to be used by all banks and other federal institutions (for instance, it is used to transfer Air Force pay- checks). However, the U.S. Government does not allow the DEA to be used for even the lowest level of military security. The team at Stanford has set a price of $5 million to build a machine with enough parallel processors to take apart DEA transmissions in less than a day. Clearly, no cryptosystem is completely secure. However, it is possible to devise secure means for communication that are unambiguous, easy to use & difficult to break. The "dictionary code" meets these criteria.Those who would communicate securely decide upon one or more books which all own. The Christian Bible, the Oxford English Dictionary, or an encyclopedia are obvious choices. Obscure editions of fairy tales, nursery rhymes or geology texts could also serve as code dictionaries. Specific researchers who collaborate long dis- tance will be forced to rely on some standard (and well-known texts) since books like the bible don't have the word "microscope" and even the Encyclo- pedia Brittanica is woefully short on material about the behavior of the hydroxal ion's valance electron during cellular respiration. Nonetheless, a personal computer can be programmed to issue new dictionaries where the key words (for molecules, or stock market issues, or bullet calibers) are constant and the codes (number or letter groups) change frequently. Should anyone try to intercept or monitor these communications, it could take years, if not decades, to unscramble the encoded messages and it could run into millions of dollars. Consider that these are still battlefield cyphers from W.W.2 that have never been decrypted. It is no longer worth the effort. These cyphers succeeded in their purpose to hold secure a transmission. Realize that your right to process data means more than just encrypting your mailing lists.Since your tax money pays for the collection of govern- ment data, you have a right to that information.If you own stock in a corporation, you have a right to the information created or dicovered by that joint stock company. You have a right to any info which can adversely affect your life. It is a matter of self defense to know what chemicals are put into the water you drink and who puts them in there. Furthermore, you have a right to transmit what you know. Yet there are government prosecutors who chase "pornographers" and reporters from tele- vision stations by claiming that "freedom of the press" is limited to those who own photo-offset lithographic presses. The fact is that freedom of the press would be meaningless if it were limited to a narrow inter- pretation such as the State cannot seize a printing press without a court order. Tele- communications and desktop publishing are the active expressions of what Ben Franklin had in mind 200 years ago. What, after all, is a "newspaper?" Consider that the Wall Street Journal is typset electronically and broadcast via satellite to several printing plants around the world. How is this different from a homebrew bulletin board system? In Michigan's capital city, The Lansing State Journal gets its state gov't reporting from the Associated Press wire service. If they have a right to gather news electronically, then so do you. You have every reason to go beyond the narrow limits imposed by the powers that be. "Auto-Dialer" programs enable your computer to search for other data processing machines. The Computer Underground, written by M. Harry (Loompanics, 1986)has a listing for an auto-dialer program for Apple Computers. MegaSoft (PO Box 1080, Battle Ground, WA 98604) sells an "auto- dialer" for Commodore computers; the "War Games Auto-Dialer" costs about $30. In order to realize the fullest possible bene- fits from the computer revolution, it is necessary to adopt an attitude which is open and expansive in regard to data processing. A feudalists world of ultra-secure computers and data fortresses is contrary to the spirit of data processing. Every era has its ruling class, and the nature of the ruling class is determined by the technology of the era. Formerly, men on horses wearing armor ruled. Later it was people who could design and produce industrial goods. Today people who own or can use electronic data processing equipment are the new ruling class.Call them the "Datalords." In each age, the ruling class tailors the law to suit its own ends. During times of transition,the innovators must fight against an established order as they develop their own worldviews. The best example in Western Civilization is the existance of real estate laws. Land is called "real" estate because you can't put it on a horse and carry it out from under the control of the king. It is called real "estate" because title to it comes "ex-state," i.e., from the state. The king can grant titles; the king can revoke titles. The advent of capitalism brought about a legal system that recognized the ownership of a drop- forge without a deed certified by a govermental unit or a title search performed by a government licencee. The cybernetic revolution will require a legal system which supports the view that while a machine is still property in the capilist sense, the data in the machine is regulated by new laws that better suit its nature. Consider that silver and gold are "static" commodities. There is a fixed and known amount of each on Earth and the materials are universally useful to humans. Wheat and lumber are "dynamic" commodities. The amount of each is determined by the demand. The demand is universal and the supply is limited by economic factors which control the amount of land and human effort avaliable to produce wheat and lumber. No one will refuse a free loaf of bread. Data is a "fluid" commodity. It can be produced in super-abundance. It can be copied. Copying data does not destroy it. (There is no way to copy gold or wheat.) Moreover, unlike bread and gold, data is not universally useful. In the Christian Bible, there is a story about a shepard boy named David who defeats a giant named Goliath. At one point in the story, the King offers David his royal armor to wear into battle. The Bible tells of how the boy David trudges back and forth, trying the burdensome metal plate.David respectfully declines the offer, trusting in his god to protect him. Now you know this cute story. Can you use the data? On Thursday, October 9, 1986, Nissan Motors over-the-counter stock was bid at 7 1/8 while the asking price was 7 1/4. Can you use that info? Consider the E.F. Hutton economist who in late 1982 relied on his own Federal Reserve System computer password to discover money supply figures. The Fed announces these figures weekly and the amount of paper in circulation has a direct effect on interest rates. Knowing in advanced what the money supply would be announced to be, the man from E.F. Hutton was able to trade profitably on behalf of his employers. Time magazine for January 13, 1983, called this "Filching Figures." However, it is clear that nothing was "filched;" the figures still resided in the machines. What the government (and Time) objected to was the fact that this individual didn't wait for some lackey to read the data from a cue card at a press conference. In his book ELECTRONIC LIFE, author and screen- writer Michael Crichton states that it is inherent in the technology of both computing and video to copy and transfer information.Himself a big earner of copyright royalties, Crichton says that the present system is archaic. In his novel The Shockwave Rider, Brunner makes a case for opening all government data files. There is a real good reason why selling stock in a company is called "going public." Does your electric utility company have a right to privacy that prevents you from accessing and auditing its books? As a stockholder in a major corporation, don't you have a right to know about the company? Why doesn't your local manufacture release to you the info they have already provinded the U.S. Patent Office or OSHA? Similarly, your state's wildlife dept. has land- use data which can help you find a homestead or a campsite or a ski-slope. The dept. of transpor- tation computers can warn you in advance of where holiday traffic accidents have occured over the last 10 years. The state treasury can show you how much you, your employer or your neighbour has paid in taxes. Go out there and get that data!! The Liberaterian E-Mail Directory is avaliable from Dan Tobias, 4025 Golf Links Blvd Apt. 340, Shreveport, LA 71109, for $5.00. It contains the personal names and datapath names for about 40 libertarians using ARPA, CompuServe, Delphi, Internet, and other electronic mail systems. -= A FINAL NOTE =- In November of 1986, the Reagan administration launched a direct assault on your right to process data. Then-security advisor JoHn Poindexter said that the gov't was seeking ways to limit access to PRIVATE DATA BASE SERVICES. This was echoed by Diane Fountaine, a Dept. of Defense speaker at a convention of the Information Industry Association. Poindexter said that the feds want to stop access to info in the PUBLIC DOMAIN which they considered "sensitive but unclassified." He targetted data on hazardous materials, Federal Reserve policy, social security and the Securities Exchange Commission. Fountaine's goals involve restricting access to public database services like Nexis, Dialog and Delphi. The Dept. of Defense would have a law which requires database services to "red flag" individuals who ask too many questions about so- called high tech subjects like lasers; users who are "red flagged" would have their names turned over to the feds. <================================================> And so ends another doc by the world famous Griffin. I hope you enjoy this as more will be uploaded as soon as possible. Also, me and another Victoria Hacker/Phreaker are thinking of coming out with a newsletter every month. We haven't thought of a name as of yet but the newsletter (or magazine) will cover just about everything. If you are interested, leave me E-Mail on this system. Thanks. ..... The Griffin ..... <===============================================> New Docs by ..... The Griffin ..... : Management of Indoor Growing Operations <===============================================> X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 Rat Head Ratsnatcher 510-524-3649 Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 415-567-7043 Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, arcane knowledge, political extremism, diversive sexuality, insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X