-Caveat Lector- Bill Kingsbury <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > -Caveat Lector- > > From: Gary Chapman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Mon, 5 Jul 1999 > Subj: L.A. Times column, 7/5/99 > > Monday, July 5, 1999 > DIGITAL NATION > > Troubling Implications of Internet's Ubiquity > > By Gary Chapman > Copyright 1999, The Los Angeles Times > > Early last month, institutions around the world were crippled > for several days by a new computer virus called the > ExploreZip Trojan horse. A Trojan horse, in computer jargon, > is a nasty software program that hides inside a file a user > is likely to want to see or open. > <etc.> This, and the earlier post about the DIRT Trojan Horse, point up a couple of things about the Internet that we have to keep constantly reminding ourselves of. First, espionage is a two- (or more) way street. Sure the Chinese and everybody else are spying on us...but we're doing the same to them, and the odds are we're doing a much more sophisticated job of it. As I've said before, I strongly suspect that those supercomputers we sold recently to China are bugged...every keystroke, every transaction, every blip of electronic activity is recorded and transmitted to (probably) Fort Meade, where NSA analysts tear it apart for even a nanogram of information about what the Chinese are doing. There are no secrets today. Anyone who thinks there are is kidding himself. This brings me to the second point: this is precisely why strong encryption is vital for individual users of the Internet. A large enough key will be virtually impossible for even a network of Crays to break in less than, oh, ten thousand years. See Neal Stephenson's *Cryptonomicon* for an explanation of this and a description of just how large a key would be needed. If making effectively unbreakable encryption generally available means it gets into the hands of criminals and spies, well, tough shit...national intelligence services are virtually indistinguishable from organized crime today, anyway (see if you can find a CIA-backed guerrilla movement in the past fifty years that hasn't been involved in drug trafficking and you'll rapidly see what I mean). Of course, there is another approach, a little more risky but just as effective: don't use *any* encryption at all. Publish *everything*. This is what I call the Sears Roebuck Catalog approach--a variant of the old Purloined Letter: hide your secrets in the middle of the paperclips and toilet paper. The "bad guys" will spend so much time and energy trying to decide what's useful and what's not that they'll go bankrupt before they find anything that will hurt you. Bob ================================= Robert F. Tatman [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Remove "nospam" from the address to reply. NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml POSTING THIS MESSAGE TO THE INTERNET DOES NOT IMPLY PERMISSION TO SEND UNSOLICITED COMMERCIAL E-MAIL (SPAM) TO THIS OR ANY OTHER INTERNET ADDRESS. RECEIPT OF SPAM WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE NOTIFICATION OF THE SENDER'S ISP. ____________________________________________________________________ Get your own FREE, personal Netscape WebMail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
