THE JOURNAL OF AMERICAN UNDERGROUND COMPUTING / Published Periodically ====================================================================== ISSN 1074-3111 Volume One, Issue Four June 7, 1994 ====================================================================== Editor-in-Chief: Scott Davis (dfox@fennec.com) Technology Editor: Max Mednick (kahuna@fennec.com) Consipracy Editor: Gordon Fagan (flyer@fennec.com) Network Security: George Phillips (ice9@fennec.com) ** ftp site: etext.archive.umich.edu /pub/Zines/JAUC U.S. Mail: The Journal Of American Underground Computing 10111 N. Lamar #25 Austin, Texas 78753-3601 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% IMPORTANT ADDRESSES - ============================================================================ To Subscribe to "TJOAUC", send mail to: sub@fennec.com All questions/comments about this publication to: comments@fennec.com Send all articles/info that you want published to: submit@fennec.com Commercial Registration for Profitable Media: form1@fennec.com ============================================================================ "The underground press serves as the only effective counter to a growing power, and more sophisticated techniques used by establishment mass media to falsify, misrepresent, misquote, rule out of consideration as a priori ridiculous, or simply ignore and blot out of existence: data, books, discoveries that they consider prejudicial to establishment interest..." (William S. Burroughs and Daniel Odier, "The Job", Viking, New York, 1989) %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Contents Copyright (C) 1994 The Journal Of American Underground Computing and/or the author of the articles presented herein. All rights reserved. Nothing may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission of the Editor-In-Chief and/or the author of the article. This publication is made available periodically to the amateur computer hobbyist free of charge. Any commercial usage (electronic or otherwise) is strictly prohibited without prior consent of the Editor, and is in violation of applicable US Copyright laws. To subscribe, send email to sub@fennec.com %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% DISCLAIMER AND NOTICE TO DISTRIBUTORS - NOTE: This electronic publication is to be distributed free of charge without modifications to anyone who wishes to have a copy. Under NO circumstances is any issue of this publication, in part or in whole, to be sold for money or services, nor is it to be packaged with other computer software, including, but not limited to CD Rom disks, without the express written or verbal consent of the author and/or editor. To obtain permission to distribute this publication under any of the certain circumstances stated above, please contact the editor at one of the addresses above. If you have intentions of publishing this journal in any of the ways described above, or you are in doubt about whether or not your intentions conflict with the restrictions, please contact the editor. FOR A COPY OF THE REGISTRATION FORM, MAIL - form1@fennec.com This publication is provided without charge to anyone who wants it. This includes, but is not limited to lawyers, government officials, cops, feds, hackers, social deviants, and computer hobbyists. If anyone asks for a copy, please provide them with one, or mail the subscription list so that you may be added. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% THE JOURNAL OF AMERICAN UNDERGROUND COMPUTING - Volume 1, Issue 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1) We've tried To Be Nice... Carl Guderian 2) Defcon Convention Update Dark Tangent 3) Obituary / Mimsey Unknown 4) Call For Papers / Neural Networks Readers 5) Press Release: Spyglass/NCSA Agreement Readers 5) The Real Story Carl Guderian 6) Legion Of Doom T-Shirt Ad Chris Goggans 7) Libertarian Party / Opposition To DTA Libertarian Pty 8) Unabom - 1 Million $ Reward William Tafoya 9) The Massachusetts Encryption Bill Unknown 10) Book Review: Information Warfare Scott Davis 11) Whisper Who, A Unix Tool (Source Code) Editors 12) Hacker Barbie Readers 13) The Well: A Small Town... Cliff Figillo 14) The Feminization Of Cyberspace Doctress Neutopia 15) Response To The Feminization Of Cyberspace Jason Webb 16) Easy-to-Use Kennedy Conspiracy Chart Gordon Fagan 17) Meeks Defense Fund MDF 18) HOPE - Hackers On Planet Earth Emmanual Goldstein 19) TV & Movie Mania Radio Show Lauren Weinstein %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Special thanks to the anonymous reader who sent the software to my US Mail address...it was very cool. -Scott %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% The Journal Of American Underground Computing supports DEFCON II in Vegas!! We will be there, and we encourage you to do the same. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% We've Tried to Be Nice: Other Ways to Fight Clipper by Carl Guderian (bjacques@cypher.com) (You've read about Clipper ad nauseam elsewhere, so refer to other sources if you still don't know about Clipper, the Digital Telephony Act, and everything else that will be lumped together here under the rubric of "Clipper." Start with John Perry Barlow's excellent "Jackboots on the Infobahn" in issue 2.04 of Wired Magazine. If you want balance, ask the NSA for its opinion and weigh it against our position that Clipper obviously blows. Onward.) The Situation, Spring 1994 The Clinton White House is apparently steaming ahead on Clipper despite our perfectly reasonable arguments and well-mannered campaign against it. To John Perry Barlow (see intro) it plays like Invasion of the Body Snatchers II: The White House Years--formerly sensible folks replaced by pod people blandly assuring us that if "I could tell you what I know, you'd agree with me." No help there. Various industry consortia were ready to sell us down the slippery slope until the feds double-crossed them at the last minute by rescinding the offer to lift export controls on encryption in exchange for support for Clipper. An attempt to make RSA/PGP encryption a politico-economic fait accompli by sheer numbers of users is moving slowly, if at all (PGP really requires direct internet access, it's hard to use, and RSA's suing Phil Zimmerman so nobody else is going to dress it up for the market). The White House spooks may make a bigger splash in the market by ordering their 50,000 electronic keyholes than we can by passing out copies of PGP for free. We're fighting the enemy on its own turf and terms and we could lose. It's time to fight dirty. Below are a couple of suggestions. Mutt and Jeff Just as for every civil rights Freedom Rider there was a Black Panther, for every Pat Schroeder there's a Riot Grrl, and for every polished Dixiecrat Senator there was a KKK Nightrider, so must we field media streetfighters to complement our sincere and polite public spokesmen. The history of social progress (and, unfortunately, reaction) is that of good cop and bad cop. Opponents of Clipper must employ these Siamese twins of persuasion in order to get anywhere. If you've never been interrogated by police, customs officials, school principals, or corporate investigators, a little explanation of good cop/bad cop may help. In interrogations conducted in civilized countries, the object is to crack the interviewee without resorting to physical torture. The most effective method is good cop/bad cop. The bad cop, sent in first, acts enraged and threatens to beat the truth out of the suspect. He gleefully enumerates all the terrible things that can happen to an uncooperative suspect. Sometimes this alone works. If the prisoner stands firm (or is frozen with fear), the good cop comes to the rescue, radiating sympathy and bonhomie. He offers a cigarette, a friendly ear, and assurances that, he and the suspect are really on the same side. The good cop plays on the suspect's pride, suspicions, or other psychological weaknesses in order to get a voluntary confession. The good cop's presence carries the implied threat of the return of the bad cop if no confession is forthcoming. To accuse the good cop of waging psychological warfare is to miss the point. Psychological warfare is waged by adept deployment of both good and bad cops in order to break the prisoner. It's very effective against folks who don't know any better, especially young hackers, schoolkids, and Seattle scenesters en route to Vancouver. The Occult Technology of Power The point of the above digression is that a tool well-known to the authoritaries can be, and has been, used against them as well. As gays have learned, neither the noisy AIDS Die-ins by ACT-UP nor lobbying by advocacy groups is alone sufficient to win public support. Together the tactics work because they offer different levels on which the public can deal with issues (and people) that clearly won't go away. Clipper advocates already know the weakness of their position, so arguments are useless. They repeat the same arguments in hopes the public will get tired of hearing about it and simply sign the blank check. We must pre-empt the argument with bite-sized zingers. In the economy of attention, the market goes to the side with the pithiest arguments. When they say "law and order" we respond with "ATF." Such sound bites are Patriot Missiles that shoot down the other side's forensic Scuds. Channel the spirits of Dorothy Parker and Oscar Wilde. Give their straw man a hotfoot; they summon up nuclear terrorism, we resurrect the Branch Davidians. The issue doesn't lend itself to riotous demonstrations, but with a really good negative media campaign we can whip up a good hate frenzy against Clipper. We already do this somewhat, but we need to go further, with high concept slogans and catch phrases. "Clinton chip," like "Hooverville," has a dry, sharp ring to it, commanding attention like the snap of a bone. Plus, it yokes the President personally to the issue. If that sounds lame, try something else. The ancient techniques of propaganda apply here, wedded to the black art of meme/ information virus theory. It's a media war, so we'll use a little McLuhan. (If you've read his stuff, you know his writing style was really disjointed, but sounded great! Which may be the point.) Slick attack ads, sound bites, rants to the editor, whisper campaigns, and other forms of media manipulation are in order. Anything short of gross distortion or outright lies is acceptable. The truth is scary enough and can be made to sound positively Lovecraftian, if we succeed in seizing the metaphors. Detourned ads such as "big brother inside" are a good start. The opportunities for satire are boundless, especially given the history of government projects. Emphasize how much more a Clippered future will play like "Brazil" than "1984." Why assume things will always work out for the Bad Guys Conspiracy? Want to bet that when the government buys Clipper chips the Secret Service, FBI, CIA, NSA, and State Department will probably spy on each other (since no one else will use it)? Or that when Clipper charges out the fortress gate its broken carcass will likely be flung back over the wall (i.e., it will be cracked and posted to the net)? How will they know I haven't sold my Clippered cellular phone at a garage sale? And so on. Negative campaigns don't by themselves win support, but reasonable words don't win much attention either. Both tricks must be played in their turn. Not good cop or bad cop, but good cop AND bad cop. A diverse battle plan gives sympathizers more options for action. Some folks like to lobby and others like to sling mud. Hey, we're a big tent. And the streetfighters can keep the lobbyists honest. Useful Idiots In order for an issue to get attention it should demonstrably arouse the ire of a number of large and unrelated groups. Right wing fundamentalist screwheads as well as flaming liberals stand to lose if Clipper becomes the law, so we put a bug in their respective ears in hopes of getting a response. Support for one's position comes from surprising places. Cyberpagans, for example, will be shocked to learn that Phyllis "Church Lady" Schlafly denounced Clipper in a syndicated column a couple of months back (she got a few details wrong, but you have to expect that). Equally shocking (at least to this writer) is Rush Limbaugh, avid computer user, so far passing up an opportunity to savage Clinton on Clipper. Liberal groups can be persuaded that a conservative Republican administration armed with Clipper would make J. Edgar Hoover look like Norbert the Narc. This strategy is aimed primarily at right wing groups for a number of reasons. They already hate the present Democratic administration. They're best at marshalling money and "good-ole-boy" clout. Right-wing paranoia is more entertaining than the left-wing variety, so it is more likely to be heard. To the Christian Right, for instance, Clipper carries the musky scent of the Beast 666, and they expect Clinton to spend a second term stamping our hands at the door of the Hellfire Club. And did you ever notice how many cypherpunks own guns? Play up the gun analogy. This avenue to political action is time-critical. If 1997 sees a Republican administration in place, right-wing groups will lose interest in attacking it. And since it was the Bush White House (or spooks within it) that proposed Clipper, you can bet the rent that President Dole, Quayle (!), or whoever will make it a fact of life quicker than you can say "national security." So much for looking to the Republicans for relief from Clipper. The Golden Apple of Discord Thank the Deist god of the Founding Fathers that our government is not a monolithic entity possessed of a single will. Battles are already underway over which agency gets the secret skeleton key to the Clipper escrow vault to bypass the official safeguards that won't work anyway. Getting the Crips and Bloods to make peace was a cakewalk compared to Clinton's efforts to get the Three Letter Agencies to talk to each other. As long as they must compete for funding it will be so. Not quite the end With a bit of work we can play up Clipper so that it attracts as much attention as the abortion, gun control, or gay rights issues have. Getting the cover of Newsweek was good; mainstream coverage in a proposal normally of interest only to propeller heads and conspiracy buffs is gratifying. Remember the fallout after the Hacker Crackdown of 1990? But sustained pressure is needed. Clinton's people need their noses rubbed in the sheer breadth of opposition to Clipper. If a White House aide hears "Clinton Chip" or something similar on the street, the President will hear of it and realize we're serious. Really the end According to a recent issue of Federal Computer Week, the NSA is adopting as it's mascot the armadillo. Maybe we can thank Bobby Ray Inman for this one. FCW recently ran a contest to name the "dillo." Entrants were asked to consider the NSA's reputation for prurience and the animal's best known habitat (the freeway center stripe). The contest is probably over by now, but "Roadkill" seemed to be the winner paws down. "Road rash," "Winston [Smith]," and "Harry Buttle" (the poor sap whose erroneous arrest and subsequent death under torture--er, information retrieval--trigger the events of "Brazil") were this author's favorites. Credits Many thanks go posthumously to Marshall McLuhan for his theory of perception, which states that most people see either the figure or the background (a vase or two faces?) but that true perception is seeing both figure and background. This seemed pretty wacky a year ago, but it makes a lot more sense now. Backhanded thanks go to a trio of Canadian customs guards at the Peace Bridge connecting Buffalo, NY to Ft. Erie, Ontario for personal instruction in the tactics of "good cop/bad cop". Thanks also to ReSearch (for PRANKS!), the Situationist International (including King Mob), Richard Dawkins (meme theory) and the late Count Alfred Korzybski (general semantics), for inspiration. Please wash your hands before leaving the 20th century. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% DEFCON UPDATE by Dtangent (dtangent@defcon.org) XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XX DEF CON II Convention Update Announcement XXXXXXXxxxxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XX DEF CON II Convention Update Announcement XXXXXXxxxxxxXXXXXX X X DEF CON II Convention Update Announcement XXXXXxxxxxxxxXXXXXXX X DEF CON II Convention Update Announcement XXXXxxxxxxxxxxXXXX XXXXXXXXX DEF CON II Convention Update Announcement XXXxxxxxxxxxxxxXXXXXXXXXX X DEF CON II Convention Update Announcement XXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxXXXXXX XX X DEF CON II Convention Update Announcement XXXxxxxxxxxxxxxXXXXXXXX DEF CON II Convention Update Announcement XXXXxxxxxxxxxxXXXXXXXX X XX DEF CON II Convention Update Announcement XXXXXxxxxxxxxXXXXXXXXXX XX X DEF CON II Convention Update Announcement XXXXXXxxxxxxXXXXXXXXX X DEF CON II Convention Update Announcement XXXXXXXxxxxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX DEF CON II Convention Update Announcement XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX DEF CON II Convention Update Announcement READ & DISTRIBUTE & READ & DISTRIBUTE & READ & DISTRIBUTE & READ & DISTRIBUTE DISTRUBUTE & READ & DISTRIBUTE & READ & DISTRIBUTE & READ & DISTRIBUTE & READ ============================================================================ What's this? This is an updated announcement and invitation to DEF CON II, a convention for the "underground" elements of the computer culture. We try to target the (Fill in your favorite word here): Hackers, Phreaks, Hammies, Virii Coders, Programmers, Crackers, Cyberpunk Wannabees, Civil Liberties Groups, CypherPunks, Futurists, Artists, Etc.. WHO: You know who you are, you shady characters. WHAT: A convention for you to meet, party, and listen to some speeches that you would normally never hear. WHEN: July 22, 23, 24 - 1994 (Speaking on the 23rd and 24th) WHERE: Las Vegas, Nevada @ The Sahara Hotel So you heard about DEF CON I, and want to hit part II? You heard about the parties, the info discussed, the bizarre atmosphere of Las Vegas and want to check it out in person? Load up your laptop muffy, we're heading to Vegas! Here is what Three out of Three people said about last years convention: "DEF CON I, last week in Las Vegas, was both the strangest and the best computer event I have attended in years." -- Robert X. Cringely, Info World "Toto, I don't think we're at COMDEX anymore." -- CodeRipper, Gray Areas "Soon we were at the hotel going through the spoils: fax sheets, catalogs, bits of torn paper, a few McDonald's Dino-Meals and lots of coffee grounds. The documents disappeared in seconds." -- Gillian Newson, New Media Magazine DESCRIPTION: Last year we held DEF CON I, which went over great, and this year we are planning on being bigger and better. We have expanded the number of speakers to included midnight tech talks and additional speaking on Sunday. We attempt to bring the underground into contact with "legitimate" speakers. Sure it's great to meet and party with fellow hackers, but besides that we try to provide information and speakers in a forum that can't be found at other conferences. While there is an initial concern that this is just another excuse for the evil hackers to party and wreak havok, it's just not the case. People come to DEF CON for information and for making contacts. We strive to distinguish this convention from others in that respect. WHAT'S NEW THIS YEAR: This year will be much larger and more organized (hopefully) than last year. We have a much larger meeting area, and have better name recognition. Because of this we will have more speakers on broader topics. Expect speaking to run Saturday and Sunday, ending around 5 p.m. Some of the new things expected include: o An Internet connection with sixteen ports will be there, _BUT_ will only provide serial connections because terminals are too hard to ship. So bring a laptop with communications software if you want to connect to the network. Thanks to cyberlink communications for the connection. o There will be door prizes, and someone has already donated a Cell Phone and a few "Forbidden Subjects" cd ROMs to give away, thanks to Dead Addict. o Dr. Ludwig will present his virus creation awards on Sunday. o A bigger and better "Spot The Fed" contest, which means more shirts to give away. o More room, we should have tables set up for information distribution. If you have anything you want distributed, feel free to leave it on the designated tables. Yes, this year there will be a true 24 hour convention space. o A 24 hour movie / video suite where we will be playing all type of stuff. VHS Format. Mail me with suggested titles to show, or bring your own. We'll use a wall projector when not in use by speakers. o Midnight Tech Talks on Friday and Saturday night to cover the more technical topics and leave the days free for more general discussions. WHO IS SPEAKING:========================================================== This list represents almost all of the speakers verified to date. Some people do not want to be announced until the event for various reasons, or are waiting for approval from employers. A speaking schedule will go out in the next announcement. Phillip Zimmerman, Notorious Cryptographer & author of PGP. Dr. Ludwig, Author of "The Little Black Book of Computer Viruses," and "Computer Viruses, Artificial Life and Evolution" Loyd Blankenship (The Mentor), Net Running in the 90's and RPG. Padgett Peterson, Computer Enthusiest, Anti-Virus Programmer. The Jackal, A Radio Communications Overview, Digital Radio and the Hack Angle. Judi Clark, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility. Gail Thackery, (Of Operation Sun Devil Fame), Topic to be Announced. To be Announced, The Software Publishers Association, Topic to be Announced. Toni Aimes, Ex U.S. West Cellular Fraud, Cellular Fraud Topics. Mark Lotter, Cellular Enthusiest, Hacking Cell Phones. Lorax, The Lighter Side of VMBs. Peter Shipley, Unix Stud, Q&A on Unix Security. George Smith, Crypt Newsletter, Virus Topic to be Announced. Cathy Compton, Attorney, Q&A Surrounding Seisure Issues, Etc. John Littman, Reporter and Author, Kevin Poulson, Mitnick, and Agent Steal. Red Five & Hellbender, Madmen With a Camcorder, Who Knows? Chris Goggans (Erik Bloodaxe), Wierd Wireless Psycho Shit.. Stay Tuned.. There should be a few round table discussions on Virus, Cellular, Unix and something else surrounding the industry. I'll name the rest of the the speakers as they confirm. I'm still working on a few (Two?) people and groups, so hopefully things will work out and I can pass the good news on in the next announcement, or over our List Server. ============================================================================ WHERE THIS THING IS: It's in Las Vegas, the town that never sleeps. Really. There are no clocks anywhere in an attempt to lull you into believing the day never ends. Talk about virtual reality, this place fits the bill with no clunky hardware. If you have a buzz you may never know the difference. It will be at the Sahara Hotel. Intel is as follows: The Sahara Hotel: 1.800.634.6078 Room Rates: Single/Double $55, Tripple $65, Suite $120 (Usually $200) + 8% tax Transportation: Shuttles from the airport for cheap. NOTE: Please make it clear you are registering for the DEF CON II convention to get the room rates. Our convention space price is based on how many people register. Register under a false name if it makes you feel better, 'cuz the more that register the better for my pocket book. No one under 21 can rent a room by themselves, so get your buddy who is 21 to rent for you and crash out. Try to contact people on the Interactive Mailing List (More on that below) and hook up with people. Don't let the hotel people get their hands on your baggage, or there is a mandatory $3 group baggage fee. Vegas has killer unions. OTHER STUFF: I'll whip up a list of stuff that's cool to check out in town there so if for some reason you leave the awesome conference you can take in some unreal sites in the city of true capitalism. If anyone lives in Las Vegas, I would appreciate it if you could send a list of some cool places to check out or where to go to see the best shows and I'll post it in the next announcement or in the program -o I am asking for people to submit to me any artwork, pictures, drawings, logos, etc. that they want me to try and include in this years program. I am tring to not violate any copywrite laws, but wat cool shit. Send me your art or whatever and I'll try and use it in the program, giving you credit for the work, of course. Please send it in .TIF format if it has more than eight bit color. The program will be eight bit black and white. -o in case you want to make adjustments on your side. *** NEW MAILING LIST SERVER *** We've finally gotten Major Dommo List Serv software working (Kinda) and it is now ready for testing. MTV spent alot of time hacking this thing to work with BSDi, and I would like to thank him. The purpose of the list is to allow people interested in DEF CON II to chat with one another. It would be very sueful for people over 21 who want to rent hotel space, but split costs with others. Just mention you have room for 'x' number of people, and I'm sure you'll get a response from somone wanting to split costs. Someone also suggested that people could organize a massive car caravan from Southern Ca. to the Con. My attitude is that the list is what you make of it. Here are the specifics: Umm.. I TAKE THAT BACK!! The mailing list is _NOT_ ready yet. Due to technical problems, etc. I'll do another mass mailing to everyone letting them know that the list is up and how to access it. Sorry for the delay! MEDIA: Some of the places you can look for information from last year include: New Media Magazine, September 1993 InfoWorld, 7-12-1993 and also 7-19-1993 by Robert X. Cringely Gray Areas Magazine, Vol 2, #3 (Fall 1993) Unix World, ???, Phrack #44 COST: Cost is whatever you pay for a hotel room split however many ways, plus $15 if you preregister, or $30 at the door. This gets you a nifty 24 bit color name tag (We're gonna make it niftier this year) and your foot in the door. There are fast food places all over, and there is alcohol all over the place but the trick is to get it during a happy hour for maximum cheapness. ========================================================================== I wanted to thank whoever sent in the anonymous fax to Wired that was printed in issue 1.5 Cool deal! =========================================================================== FOR MORE INFORMATION: For InterNet users, there is a DEF CON anonymous ftp site at cyberspace.com in /pub/defcon. There are digitized pictures, digitized speeches and text files with the latest up to date info available. For email users, you can email dtangent@defcon.org for more information. For non-net people call: For Snail Mail send to: DEF CON, 2709 E. Madison Street Suite #102, Seattle, WA, 98112 For Voice Mail and maybe a human (me), 0-700-TANGENT on an AT&T phone. A DEF CON Mailing list is maintained, and the latest announcements are mailed automatically to you. If you wish to be added to the list just send email to dtangent@defcon.org. We also maintain a chat mailing list where people can talk to one another and plan rides, talk, whatever. If you request to be on this list your email address will be shown to everyone, just so you are aware. STUFF TO SPEND YOUR MONEY ON: o Tapes of last years speakers (four 90 minute tapes) are available for $20 o DEF CON I tee-shirts (white, large only) with large color logo on the front, and on the back the Fourth Amendment, past and present. This is shirt v 1.1 with no type-o's. These are $20, and sweatshirts are $25. o DEF CON II tee-shirts will be made in various colors this year, including a few long sleeve shirts. Sizes will be in large only again, with a few white mediums made. Shirts will be $15, Long Sleve $17, Sweat shirts will be $20. o We will have a few (ten maybe?) embroidered hats with this years logo. Not shure how much they will be.. like $10 maybe. o Full sized 4 color DEF CON II wall posters will be for sale for about $5. o Pre-Register for next year in advance for $15 and save half. o Make all checks/money orders/etc. out to DEF CON, and mail to the address above. Way above. If you have any confidential info to send, use this PGP key to encrypt: -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.3 mQCrAiyI6OcAAAEE8Mh1YApQOOfCZ8YGQ9BxrRNMbK8rP8xpFCm4W7S6Nqu4Uhpo dLfIfb/kEWDyLreM6ers4eEP6odZALTRvFdsoBGeAx0LUrbFhImxqtRsejMufWNf uZ9PtGD1yEtxwqh4CxxC8glNA9AFXBpjgAZ7eFvtOREYjYO6TH9sOdZSa8ahW7YQ hXatVxhlQqve99fY2J83D5z35rGddDV5azd9AAUTtCZUaGUgRGFyayBUYW5nZW50 IDxkdGFuZ2VudEBkZWZjb24ub3JnPg== =ko7s -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- - The Dark Tangent %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% TO: EDITORS@FENNEC.COM Subject: OBITUARY - VAX 8600, aka Mimsy, dead at age 8 An era of computing in the University of Maryland Computer Science Department came to an end Sunday, March 20th, when the Department's last VAX, an 8600, peacefully died in its sleep. After a power-down, the VAX, which had been off maintenance since July, 1993, was not able to boot as a result of a disk/controller that finally went bad. The 8600 had arrived in 1986 as the Department's most powerful machine and had been named "Brillig"; in November 1990, when the Department's VAX 11/785 was retired, the 8600 assumed the name and duties of "Mimsy" and had served in that capacity until its semi-retirement in July, 1994. At that time, the 8600 was renamed "Imladris" and the "Mimsy" moniker was bestowed upon a Sun SPARC 10/30. Along with being the last VAX, the 8600 was also the last UMD machine running the mutoid 4.3/4.3tahoe/4.3reno/Net-2 conglomeration (4.3BSD Torix, as it was called here) that emerged over the span of a decade of working with Unix. Although it is now gone, the hacks it helped inspire live on in locally-changed versions of the SunOS, Ultrix, OSF/1 and BSDI offerings in hundreds of other systems here. It is somewhat ironic that the VAX ended the way it did. Its demise was originally scheduled for earlier that week, when the 8600, after a short ceremony, was to have committed suicide. The machine would have, under its own free will and volition, executed (through the "cron" facility) a shell script prepared by Dr. Vax Kevorkian which would have issued an "rm -rf /" command. Onlookers were to have watched the process until the machine seized up, and would have then powered the machine down and gone to dinner. However, an earlier problem with the building Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) necessitated a load test for the 20th, and as a large consumer of power, it was decided the 8600 would remain on for this one last task. As a result of a short power-down during the UPS load test, the machine's mighty heart (ummm, disk) gave out. Funeral arrangements are not yet complete, but tentative plans call for shipping the remains to Chris Torek's apartment in Berkeley, as a token of the staff's appreciation. The staff has requested that all gifts of condolence be made to the University of Maryland's Dinner-for-Wayword- Hackers Fund; checks may be made payable to Pete Cottrell. MIMSY IS DEAD! LONG LIVE MIMSY! %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% CALL FOR PAPERS: Neural Networks for Automatic Target Recognition By Dept of Cognitive and Neural Systems (announce@retina.bu.edu) ATR is a many-faceted problem of tremendous importance in industrial and defense applications. Biological systems excel at these tasks, and neural networks may provide a robust, real-time, and compact means for achieving solutions to ATR problems. ATR systems utilize a host of sensing modalities (visible, multispectral, IR, SAR, and ISAR imagery; radar, sonar, and acoustic time series; and fusion of multiple sensing modalities) in order to detect and track targets in clutter, and classify them. This Special Issue will bring together a broad range of invited and contributed articles that explore a variety of software and hardware modules and systems, and biological inspirations, focused on solving ATR problems. We particularly welcome articles involving applications to real data, though the journal cannot publish classified material. It will be the responsibility of the submitting authors to insure that all submissions are of an unclassified nature. Co-Editors: ----------- Professor Stephen Grossberg, Boston University Dr. Harold Hawkins, Office of Naval Research Dr. Allen Waxman, MIT Lincoln Laboratory Submission: ----------- Deadline for submission: October 31, 1994 Notification of acceptance: January 15, 1995 Format: as for normal papers in the journal (APA format) and no longer than 10,000 words Address for Papers: ------------------- Professor Stephen Grossberg Editor, Neural Networks Boston University Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems 111 Cummington Street Room 244 Boston, MA 02215 USA %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% PRESS RELEASE: SPYGLASS/NCSA AGREEMENT From: Eric W. Sink (eric@spyglass.com) The following press release announces our new relationship with NCSA and Mosaic. I would like to prepend a clarification or two: Initially, Spyglass will sell Mosaic to volume users requiring a minimum of 5000 licenses per year. It is our intention to let the needs of smaller volume customers, including end-users, be met thru other channels. Also, remember that NCSA Mosaic, for Windows, Mac, and UNIX will continue to be freely available from NCSA. Development of the free versions will continue at NCSA, and Spyglass will be in collaboration with the NCSA development team. At Internet World Booth #609: For Immediate Release Spyglass Signs Agreement with NCSA to Enhance and Broadly Relicense Mosaic Graphical Browser for the Internet (C)1994 Internet World Commercial Windows and Macintosh Versions Available in June; X Windows Version to Follow in July INTERNET WORLD, SAN JOSE, Calif., June 1 -- Spyglass, Inc. and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois/Urbana-Champaign have entered into an agreement that will get Mosaic, NCSA's graphical browser for the Internet, to the desktops of millions of people. The agreement gives Spyglass full rights to enhance, commercialize and broadly relicense Mosaic. Spyglass is making a multimillion-dollar commitment to NCSA and will focus initially on developing a commercially enhanced version of Mosaic that other companies will incorporate with their products for distribution to their customers. The announcement was made today in San Jose, on the opening day of exhibits at the Spring '94 Internet World conference. Developed by NCSA, Mosaic gives users point-and-click access to the World Wide Web (WWW), an information retrieval system on the Internet with more than 2,300 graphical, multimedia databases of "hyperlinked" documents. The Internet is a vast "supernetwork" of public and private networks connecting thousands of organizations and an estimated 20 million individual users. New users are joining the Internet at the rate of 2 million each month, and hundreds of new WWW servers are coming online every month. Because of the reach of the Internet, it offers an attractive vehicle for electronic publishing and for conducting business globally. "Mosaic and World Wide Web are two key ingredients for successful electronic publishing and commerce on the Internet. But, to date, businesses have tapped only a fraction of the Internet's potential because these tools haven't been commercially available. Working with NCSA, we're going to change this," said Douglas Colbeth, president of Spyglass, which was formed in 1990 and has commercialized other NCSA technologies. "We're committed to evolving Mosaic so it becomes a robust, commercial tool with complete documentation, technical support and advanced features," explained Tim Krauskopf, co-founder of Spyglass and developer of NCSA Telnet. "We'll be collaborating with NCSA and other key partners to create new tools and establish standards that will help organizations build robust World Wide Web information servers quickly and inexpensively." "It has been thrilling to see the universal acceptance of NCSA Mosaic as an interactive window into cyberspace," said Larry Smarr, director of the NCSA. "I am very pleased to see Spyglass making such a financial commitment to the commercialization of Mosaic, which frees NCSA up to develop the next level of functionality for the public domain. Spyglass has been a terrific technology partner for us in the past and we look forward to an even closer working relationship in the future." "We welcome Spyglass as our partner in this effort because of the company's track record in commercializing other NCSA technologies and our rapidly developing close working relationship with the people at Spyglass," said Joseph Hardin, associate director of NCSA's software program. "Spyglass gives us the cross-platform development, global distribution and ongoing financial resources we need to take the Mosaic environment to the next level. With this commercialization arrangement with Spyglass in place, NCSA is freed to continue to develop core technologies for Mosaic as well as new technologies that leverage the Internet. We encourage companies to take advantage of this new relationship with Spyglass and contact them about volume licensing arrangements for Mosaic technology." Mosaic has been called the "killer application" for the Internet because it lets users navigate the Internet by browsing through a series of graphical, multimedia documents. The WWW was developed several years ago by CERN, a European consortium of scientists based in Switzerland, to keep track of researchers' information and to provide an easy method of sharing data. Subsequently, WWW has grown into one of the world's most open and widely used environments for information publishing, browsing and retrieval. WWW servers contain eye-catching documents with built-in links to other documents, allowing the user to move easily and naturally around the Internet. With Mosaic, users can browse through page after page of menus, hyperlinked to data dispersed all over the world, without having to know the location or network address of the information they are seeking. Spyglass has re-architected Mosaic so it will be a more robust and full-featured tool. Enhancements available in Enhanced NCSA Mosaic from Spyglass include improved installation, better memory management, increased performance, new forms capabilities, online hypertext-based help, support for a proxy gateway and user interface improvements such as support for multiple windows. Future versions will include enhanced security and authentication, which will enable credit-card and other business transactions to take place on the Internet; filters that will enable documents from popular document readers to be read seamlessly by Mosaic; and integration with emerging editing and document management tools. A number of businesses are already using Mosaic and WWW to publish magazines, deliver goods and services, provide technical support to customers and conduct other forms of business electronically. For example, Mosaic and WWW are part of the recently announced $12 million CommerceNet project, a public- and private-sector-backed initiative exploring various ways to conduct commerce over the Internet and other data networks. NCSA will continue to maintain a public-with-copyright version of Mosaic, which Internet users can download for free from the Internet. NCSA, which began distributing Mosaic in the late fall, estimates that more than one million people use Mosaic and that more than 30,000 copies are being downloaded each month. Spyglass will be targeting the following types of customers as initial prospects for large-scale Mosaic client licensing agreements: computer systems and communications vendors, publishers and content providers, and online information service providers. For example, a publisher might want to include Mosaic with a subscription to an online magazine or a computer vendor might want to include Mosaic with each system sold. By building WWW servers themselves and distributing Mosaic clients to their customers, businesses can easily use this system for communicating with customers, providing technical support, distributing product and marketing information and other kinds of commerce. Enhanced NCSA Mosaic from Spyglass will be available for Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh desktop computers this month and for X Windows computers in July. To navigate the Internet, Mosaic users require a direct connection to the Internet or a PPP or SLIP connection. Enhanced NCSA Mosaic from Spyglass will be priced aggressively for high-volume distribution, enabling licensees to incorporate Mosaic into their products and services for a modest cost. For more information about Enhanced NCSA Mosaic from Spyglass, contact Spyglass directly at (217) 355-6000, mosaic@spyglass.com or http://www.spyglass.com/. The National Center for Supercomputing Applications, based at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, other federal agencies, the State of Illinois, the University of Illinois and corporate partners. Founded in 1990, Spyglass, Inc. is the leading developer of visual data analysis tools for the engineering and scientific marketplace, which support Windows, Macintosh and UNIX platforms. The company's venture-capital partners include Greylock Management of Boston, Mass. and Venrock Associates of New York City. Spyglass is a registered trademark of Spyglass, Inc. All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% THE REAL STORY By Carl Guderian (bjacques@cypher.com) The Real Story (The following report is a compilation of printed materials and transcripts of personal interviews conducted by the author(s). In the course of this exhaustive research we have come to feel that, given the controversial nature of the subject matter, it is best that the authors as well as their primary sources be kept confidential. Perhaps it is just as well, as the events depicted in the report are years or decades in the past. Many of the principals are retired or dead and, therefore, beyond any earthly reward or revenge. The author(s) may be dead, too. In this line of journalism, that is very likely. 1994, Leopold & Loeb, Media Consultants) Employee Motivation Seminars Employee motivational seminars are a modern management tool, predicated on the assumption that external motivation, whether carrot or stick or combination thereof, is insufficient to move employees to give 110% to the job; rather, internal motivation must be cultivated in the employees somehow. Motivational seminars, usually conducted by outside consulting firms, employ a variety of techniques, from survey questionnaires to group exercises to meditation. These seminars have become enormously popular since their introduction in the 1950s (mostly in sales-related fields then), as they present a real advance over basic reward/punishment systems (-Theories X and Y+) or even Frederick W. Taylor's scientific methods. More importantly, they have actually worked. Workplace productivity has markedly increased since the introduction of motivational seminars. However, no innovation is universally welcomed. Recently, deeply religious employees have begun to level serious accusations against motivational seminars, declaring the programs promote a socialistic or New Age ethic. A socialistic attitude, they argue, will lead otherwise sensible people to embrace a world government under the Anti-Christ, as predicted in the Book of Revelation in the Christian Bible (as interpreted by fundamentalist Christians). A related and more serious charge is that the meditation techniques (such as those used in the Krone program) open employees to possession by demons. The latter charge is the focus of this report. The diabolical connection is real. Employee motivational seminars did indeed spring from an arrangement between American industry and the Prince of Darkness. Satan respects Americans like he respects no other people because it was an American, Daniel Webster, who defeated him in court, using his wits. Others have beaten the Devil, but only through invoking the powers of Heaven, a tactic akin to bringing in grownups to restrain a schoolyard bully. American corporate executives cut a deal with the Devil to deliver the souls of underlings in exchange for the usual favors. Though the souls of corporate employees are industrial grade, and therefore not worth as much as the souls of the elite, an executive must deliver a number of them in exchange for infernal favors. Paradoxically, the worth of elite American souls has risen in direct proportion to the degradation in the worth of those of followers. The perfect mechanism for delivering B-grade souls by the bushel is, of course, an employee motivational seminar, in which large numbers of workers are possessed at once (By the way, television evangelists work the same way; their mass public healings are actually mass possessions). This cozy arrangement between American leaders and Satan has served both sides well. Demons consider possession of Americans to be a kind of working vacation, a welcome relief from tormenting the damned souls toiling eternally in the flaming dung-pits of Hell. Not that this isn't enjoyable work, but even a demon likes a change of scenery. Satan and his lieutenants can dole out plum earthside assignments for demonic devotion, thus reinforcing the infernal hierarchy. American leaders, of course, get the usual rewards of power, sexual potency (or firm breasts and derriere), and that Christmas bonus for boosting corporate productivity while laying off excess workers. Lately, however, the system's inherent problems have begun to manifest themselves. As motivational seminars have gained in popularity, they have increased the demand for demons. As the innovation has become more widespread, it has ceased to be a competitive advantage. In Hell, too, the system's success has presented similar problems, and Satan is now seems ready to pull out of the deal. The shortage of demons is a Hellish fact. Present-day demons, of course, are the same ones who participated in the original rebellion of Lucifer (now Satan). All the angels were created at once, and no new ones have been made since. The pool of demons, then, is a subset of that group. Occasionally a truly wicked soul is promoted to demon status, but equally often a demon is devoured by an angry superior (a la C. S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters). On the whole, the supply of demons should be considered to be fixed. In the early years of the program, American executives were pleased to see their employees possessed by only the most hard-working demons. Today, however, all the good ones are taken. Latter-day possessions by demons of procurement fraud, office-supply theft, and general loafing on the job have taken their toll on the system. Worse, even the best and brightest demons seem to have gone native or become Americanized, becoming easily distracted by the attractions of our post-industrial society or falling dangerously into sympathy with the modern worker. One formerly trustworthy (!) demon was even caught committing workplace sabotage in solidarity with his co-workers! An embarrassed Satan had to deal personally with the matter. All in all, the phrase working like a demon has begun to lose its cachet. As more corporations jumped on the infernal bandwagon, they found that the employees of their competitors were performing equally well (or recently, equally poorly). Worse, as the quality of the everyday American soul has declined, many hapless executives have found themselves caught short. In one company, the worth of the workers' souls had fallen drastically between the signing of the contract and the possession of the workers. The contracting executive killed a fellow executive (who was his wife - also on the infernal take) over the shrinking soul pie at their company in order to hold up his end of the bargain, lest he be forced to hand over his own soul. It didn't help. The wife caught up with him in Hell. Meanwhile, in Hell the situation has also deteriorated. Eventually all demons have been recruited earthside, so the dream ticket has ceased to be a credible reward for exemplary effort. Furthermore, production in the Satanic Mills is down. Temporarily out of sight of their demon overseers, damned souls have begun shirking on the eternal job. By piecing together accounts channeled through trance mediums (leaks are now worse than ever!), the authors have been able to determine that Satan has begun revoking all contracts dealing with motivational seminars, releasing the possessed workers and taking back favors bestowed on contractees. This may partly explain the recent decline of the old industrial corporations in favor of information technology firms, in which traditional religious values are relatively absent. Thus, the era of employee motivation seminars seems to be drawing to a close. The heyday of private economic deals with the Devil seems to be over as well. Overheard executive conversatons reveal that Satan is simply not interested in any more such contracts. Though some may be tempted to see the above episode as another case of the power elite enlisting the powers of Hell to fuck over the little guy, they should look at the larger picture and realize the system seems to have taken care of itself according to the laws of the Free Market. The Invisible Hand really does seem to work. Postscript It now appears that Satan plans to compete in the world labor market after having seen the prevailing trend toward cheaper labor. He has an advantage over the Chinese, who lead the market using convict/slave labor. Political prisoners have to be fed bread and water and must be allowed 3 or 4 hours of sleep a day. The damned souls of Hell, of course, eat nothing and work tirelessly twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The Devil now knows quite a bit about management theory (in relation to his demonic supervisors) and wants to recall them to Hell to oversee the re-engineering of Hell's production lines. Modern world leaders thinking to hold off this development are doomed to failure. Hell has on its side such notables as Albert Speer, Josef Stalin, Adolf Eichmann, and Roy Cohn (to handle the legal work) and will soon have Henry Kissinger to handle international relations. Given a team like that, it's only a matter of time. Post-postscript The original (now void) contracts are sought-after collectors items, not the least for their blackmail value. Even when the signatories are beyond blackmail, as in the case of the aforementioned executive and his wife, their contracts are worth a lot simply as works of art. The Devil is a traditionalist at heart, and insists that contracts be handwritten by demons noted for their calligraphic skill and that the documents bear his seal and those of major demons acting as witnesses. The early contracts (pre-1983) are worth the most, as they are the most visually stunning and bear the names of America's best and brightest of the time, as well as the seals of Hell's best known demons and devils. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% LEGION OF DOOM T-SHIRTS!! Get 'em By Chris Goggans After a complete sellout at HoHo Con 1993 in Austin, TX this past December, the official Legion of Doom t-shirts are available once again. Join the net luminaries world-wide in owning one of these amazing shirts. Impress members of the opposite sex, increase your IQ, annoy system administrators, get raided by the government and lose your wardrobe! Can a t-shirt really do all this? Of course it can! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "THE HACKER WAR -- LOD vs MOD" This t-shirt chronicles the infamous "Hacker War" between rival groups The Legion of Doom and The Masters of Destruction. The front of the shirt displays a flight map of the various battle-sites hit by MOD and tracked by LOD. The back of the shirt has a detailed timeline of the key dates in the conflict, and a rather ironic quote from an MOD member. (For a limited time, the original is back!) "LEGION OF DOOM -- INTERNET WORLD TOUR" The front of this classic shirt displays "Legion of Doom Internet World Tour" as well as a sword and telephone intersecting the planet earth, skull-and-crossbones style. The back displays the words "Hacking for Jesus" as well as a substantial list of "tour-stops" (internet sites) and a quote from Aleister Crowley. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- All t-shirts are sized XL, and are 100% cotton. Cost is $15.00 (US) per shirt. International orders add $5.00 per shirt for postage. Send checks or money orders. Please, no credit cards, even if it's really your card. Name: __________________________________________________ Address: __________________________________________________ City, State, Zip: __________________________________________ I want ____ "Hacker War" shirt(s) I want ____ "Internet World Tour" shirt(s) Enclosed is $______ for the total cost. Mail to: Chris Goggans 603 W. 13th #1A-278 Austin, TX 78701 These T-shirts are sold only as a novelty items, and are in no way attempting to glorify computer crime. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% LIBERTARIAN PARTY ANNOUNCES OPPOSITION TO DIGITAL TELEPHONY ACT NEWS FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY 1528 Pennsylvania Avenue SE Washington DC 20003 For additional information: Bill Winter, Director of Communications (202) 543-1988 Calling it a "serious infringement of civil liberties and a gross violation of property rights," the Libertarian Party National Committee unanimously voted to oppose the Digital Telephony and Communications Act of 1994. At their quarterly meeting in Kansas City, Missouri, the governing body of America's third-largest political party charged that "the Digital Telephony Act would make furnishing the FBI with easy wiretapping capability the overriding priority for designers of telephone equipment and related software." "It is a lie to call this legislation a 'Privacy Improvement Act,'" said Bill Evers, the National Committee member from California who sponsored the resolution. The Digital Telephony Act, noted the resolution, "requires telephone, cable television, and computer network companies to ensure that the government can conduct surveillance while private communication is going on. It requires the installation of surveillance-facilitating software in telephone switching equipment to expose personal information -- such as telephone-calling patterns, credit card purchases, banking records, and medical records -- to the view of the government." "Such personal information should be the private property of either the company that assembles it or the individual to whom it pertains," said Evers. Libertarians also oppose the Digital Telephony Act because it "would require a fundamental re-engineering of the communications infrastructure at great expense to American taxpayers, and to the owners of private communications systems," said Evers. The Libertarian National Committee also unanimously voted to oppose the National Security Agency's Escrowed Encryption Standard - the so-called Clipper Chip system - or any "government policies promoting or requiring specific encryption methods for civilian use." The party also urged the "repeal of the U.S. ban on export abroad of Clipper-free encryption devices produced by American companies." "Government-mandated encryption standards will foster indiscriminate surveillance of private communications by the government," charged Evers. The resolution said "the Clinton Administration plans to induce American manufacturers to install government-readable encryption devices in every telephone, fax machine, and computer modem made in the United States." "The Clinton Administration is explicitly denying that the American people have the right to communicate in private," said Evers. By contrast, he said, "The Libertarian Party has long upheld the civil liberties of the American citizen." Approximately 120 Libertarians serve in elected and appointed office around the country, including four State Representatives in New Hampshire and two mayors in California. The Libertarian Party platform calls for vigorous defense of the Bill of Rights, free enterprise, civil liberties, free trade, and private charity. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% UNABOM $1,000,000 Reward SERIES OF 14 UNSOLVED BOMBINGS William L. Tafoya, Ph.D. Special Agent, FBI UNABOM Task Force, San Francisco, CA (btafoya@orion.arc.nasa.gov) Beginning in May, 1978, a series of 14 bombing incidents have occurred across the United States for which there is no apparent explanation or motive. No person or group has been identified as the perpetrator(s) of these incidents. The explosions have taken place in seven states from Connecticut to California. As a result of these bombings, one person has been killed and 23 others injured, some grievously. There had been no incidents identified with this series of bombings since 1987. However that changed in late June, 1993, when a well known geneticist residing in Tiburon, California, and a renown computer scientist from Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, opened packages which had been mailed to them and both were severely injured when these packages exploded. In the past, targets of the bomber have been associated with the computer industry, the aircraft and airline industry and universities. Seven of these devices have been mailed to specific individuals and the other seven have been placed in locations which suggest there was no specific intended victim. All but two of the explosive devices functioned as designed and exploded. All 14 crimes, dubbed "UNABOM", have had common effects: all have caused terror, grief, and fear. On September 11, 1985, Hugh Scrutton, the owner of the Rentech Computer Company, in Sacramento, California, was killed by one of these diabolic devices. The two most recent victims narrowly escaped death. In response to the June, 1993, events, the Attorney General directed that a task force of federal law enforcement agencies be reestablished to urgently investigate and solve these crimes. The UNABOM Task Force, consisting of investigators from the FBI, ATF, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, has been operational in San Francisco and Sacramento, California, since July 12, 1993, and is dedicated exclusively to the investigation of these crimes. Among the clues in the case are the following words in what appears to be a note possibly written by the bomber as a reminder to make a telephone call: "call Nathan R--Wed 7PM." The UNABOM Task Force believes that "Nathan R" may be associated, perhaps innocently, with the bomber and that "Nathan R" may have received a telephone call from the bomber on a Wednesday prior to the June, 1993 bombings. The two most recent tragic bombings illustrate the senseless and tragic consequences of these crimes and demonstrate the urgent necessity of solving this case. This serial bomber will strike again. We do not know who the next victim will be. We do believe that there is someone out there who can provide the identity of the person or persons responsible for these crimes. This person may be a friend, a neighbor, or even a relative of the bomber(s). UNABOM's chronology is as follows: 1) Northwestern University Evanston, Illinois May 25, 1978 A package was found in the Engineering Department parking lot at the Chicago Circle Campus of the University of Illinois. The package was addressed to an Engineering Professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. The package had a return address of a Professor at Northwestern's Technological Institute. The package was returned to the addressor who turned it over to the Northwestern University Police Department because he had not sent the package. On May 26, 1978 the parcel was opened by a police officer who suffered minor injuries when the bomb detonated. 2) Northwestern University Evanston, Illinois May 9, 1979 A disguised explosive device which had been left in a common area in the University's Technological Institute, slightly injured a graduate student on May 9, 1979, when he attempted to open the box and it exploded. 3) Chicago, Illinois November 15, 1979 An explosive device disguised as a parcel was mailed from Chicago for delivery to an unknown location. The bomb detonated in the cargo compartment of an airplane, forcing it to make an emergency landing at Dulles Airport. Twelve individuals were treated for smoke inhalation. The explosion destroyed the wrapping to such an extent that the addressee could not be determined. 4) Chicago, Illinois June 10, 1980 A bomb disguised as a parcel postmarked June 8, 1980 was mailed to an airline executive at his home in Lake Forest, Illinois. The airline executive was injured in the explosion. 5) University of Utah Salt Lake City, Utah October 8, 1981 An explosive device was found in the hall of a classroom building and rendered safe by bomb squad personnel. 6) Vanderbilt University Nashville, Tennessee May 5, 1982 A wooden box containing a pipe bomb detonated on May 5, 1982, when opened by a secretary in the Computer Science Department. The secretary suffered minor injuries. The package was initially mailed from Provo, Utah on April 23, 1982, to Pennsylvania State University and then forwarded to Vanderbilt. 7) University of California Berkeley, California July 2, 1982 A small metal pipe bomb was placed in a coffee break room of Cory Hall at the University's Berkeley Campus. A Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science was injured when he picked up the device. 8) Auburn, Washington May 8, 1985 A parcel bomb was mailed on May 8, 1985, to the Boeing Company, Fabrication Division. On June 13, 1985, the explosive device was discovered when employees opened it. The device was rendered safe by bomb squad personnel without injury. 9) University of California Berkeley, California May 15, 1985 A bomb detonated in a computer room at Cory Hall on the Berkeley Campus. A graduate student in Electrical Engineering lost partial vision in his left eye and four fingers from his right hand. The device was believed to have been placed in the room several days prior to detonation. 10) Ann Arbor, Michigan November 15, 1985 A textbook size package was mailed to the home of a University of Michigan Professor in Ann Arbor, Michigan from Salt Lake City. On November 15, 1985, a Research Assistant suffered injuries when he opened the package. The Professor was a few feet away but was not injured. 11) Sacramento, California December 11, 1985 Mr. Hugh Scrutton was killed outside his computer rental store when he picked up a device disguised as a road hazard left near the rear entrance to the building. Metal shrapnel from the blast ripped through Scrutton's chest and penetrated his heart. 12) Salt Lake City, Utah February 20, 1987 On February 20, 1987, an explosive device disguised as a road hazard was left at the rear entrance to CAAMs, Inc. (computer store). The bomb exploded and injured the owner when he attempted to pick up the device. 13) Tiburon, California June 22, 1993 On June 22, 1993, a well known geneticist received a parcel postmarked June 18, 1993, at his residence. The doctor attempted to open the package at which time it exploded severely injuring him. It has been determined that this parcel was mailed from Sacramento, California. 14) Yale University New Haven, Connecticut June 24, 1993 On June 24, 1993, a Professor/Computer Scientist at Yale University attempted to open a parcel which he had received at his office. This parcel exploded severely injuring him. It has been determined that this parcel was mailed from Sacramento, California on June 18, 1993. At this time, the UNABOM Task Force would appeal to the public for assistance. For this purpose, a one million dollar reward is being offered for information which results in the identification, arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible. Contact the UNABOM Task Force at 1-(800) 701- 2662. William L. Tafoya, Ph.D. Special Agent, FBI UNABOM Task Force San Francisco, CA btafoya@orion.arc.nasa.gov %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% MASSACHUSETTS ENCRYPTION BILL THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS MASSACHUSETTS 179TH GENERAL COURT -- 1994 REGULAR SESSION HOUSE NO. 4491 BY MR. COHEN OF NEWTON, PETITION OF DAVID B. COHEN AND ANOTHER RELATIVE TO ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PRIVACY OF PERSONAL RECORDS LAW AND REGULATING THE TECHNOLOGY OF DATA ENCRYPTION. THE JUDICIARY. February 25, 1994 AN ACT RELATIVE TO THE TECHNOLOGY OF DATA ENCRYPTION. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: SECTION 1. The General Laws are hereby amended by inserting after chapter sixty-six A the following chapter: CHAPTER 66B. MASSACHUSETTS PRIVACY OF PERSONAL RECORDS ACT. Section 1. For the purposes of this chapter the following terms shall have the following meanings: "Personal data files", any machine readable information or information in a state of electronic, optic, or other computer based transmission which is capable of being read, stored, copied, transmitted, changed, or deleted by or through computer or telecommunications devices and which relates to or describes any person, including a corporation, partnership or sole proprietorship, or such person's real or personal property. It shall include, but not be limited to, magnetic tapes, disks, cartridges, floppy disks, CD-ROM's, optical cubes or other optical storage devices, documents printed in magnetic ink or OCR symbol sets, and any other medium capable of being read or stored at high speed, in large volume, or without substantial human intervention. The term denotes the substance of the information as distinguished from the incidental medium of its storage or transmission. " Encrypted" , changed in form by programmed routines or algorithms so as to be unintelligible to any person without employing a suitable decryption routine or algorithm. "Decryption", the reverse process of encryption, so as to restore any data so encrypted to its original, human readable form. "Routine or algorithm", any series of discrete steps in a computer, microprocessor, or calculator native machine language which is performed as a unit to encrypt or decrypt data, or to present such decrypted data on an end user display medium; provided, however, that it shall not include source code written in any human readable language. "End user display medium", a video display terminal or paper. "Source code", any programming language used to produce the native machine language described in the definition of "routine or algorithm". "Authorized end user", any person, including a corporation, partnership, sole proprietorship, or governmental body for whose specific use the data in question is produced. If shall specifically exclude any person, including a corporation, partnership, sole proprietorship, or governmental body into or through whose possession said data may pass before reaching said authorized end user. "Numeric data", symbols representing exclusively quantities. It shall specifically exclude expressions containing number which represent nonnumeric entities including, but not limited to, social security numbers, license numbers, bank account numbers, street addresses, and the like. "Custodian", a person, including a corporation, partnership, sole proprietorship, or governmental body, that has access of any kind whatsoever to personal data files. "Live data", any personal data which currently represents or at any time in the past had represented any actual person, including a corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship or such person's property. SECTION 2. Personal data files within the commonwealth shall be encrypted. SECTION 3. Decryption of encrypted data may be accomplished only by, for, or on behalf of the authorized end user of such data, and only to render such data into human readable form for the use of such authorized end user or an end user display medium. Any intermediate storage or transmission of decrypted data in machine readable form shall be a violation of this chapter. SECTION 4. Machine executable routines or algorithms used to decrypt encrypted data shall reside only in those routines or algorithms which present the data to authorized end users upon end user media. Source code for such routines or algorithms shall reside only at the situs of the authorized end user or at the situs of a party engaged in the development or maintenance of said source code. No party so engaged may use live data for any purpose whatsoever except as provided in this chapter. SECTION 5. Any copy, excerpt, summary, extension, transmission, or other transfer of any personal data, whether or not originally encrypted, shall be encrypted during such transfer until it reaches the authorized end user. SECTION 6. Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, numeric data may be stored in decrypted form during testing of summary or other numeric routines or algorithms in connection with development or maintenance of software whose purpose is the processing or display of such data for the use of the authorized end user, where such testing would be rendered impossible or unreasonably burdensome using encrypted data. For the purposes of this section, amounts used to calculate simple algebraic sums shall not qualify for decrypted storage under this section. SECTION 7. Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, any personal data which is stored and maintained exclusively or generally for the purpose of providing access to such data by the public shall be exempted for the encryption requirements this chapter. The exemption provided hereby shall extend to excerpts, and compilations of such data, however and by whomever used. Any and all other data from other sources which are not specifically exempted under this section or under sections nine or ten shall be encrypted, whether or not merged, appended, inserted, or otherwise attached to exempted data, and are subject to all of the provisions of this chapter in the same manner as if such exempted data did not exist. SECTION 8. Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, any routines or algorithms used for the decryption of encrypted data may be provided to the appropriate law enforcement agencies for the purpose of assuring compliance with various national, state, and local laws. For the purposes of this section, such law enforcement agencies shall be considered authorized end users. SECTION 9. Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, any person may waive the protections afforded by this chapter. Evidence of such waiver must be given in writing by such person to each custodian of data pertaining to said person. When more than one person is entitled to protection under this chapter, by virtue of joint ownership or other such relationship, no waiver shall be effective unless signed by all parties so involved. Such waiver shall be construed to waive protection only with respect to the specific kinds or elements of information enumerated on its face, and shall operate to exclude only encryption of said data by the particular custodian of such data as is named in said waiver and in whose possession to waiver is kept. The waiver may operate in perpetuity or be limited to a particular time. Any ambiguities in any waiver given under this section shall be resolved in favor of encryption of the most data colorable under its terms. SECTION 10. Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, decrypted data may be stored in a secure location apart from the situs of any user of such data, provided that the sole purpose to which such data shall be put shall be to restore data which has been lost or corrupted. Any routines or algorithms used to restore used files using said decrypted data shall employ encryption rountines or algorithms as required by this chapter. For the purposes of this section, decryption routines or algorithms may be considered lost or corrupted if a reasonable belief exists that security employed in the custody of such routines or algorithms has been breached. SECTION 11. Reasonable security shall be employed by persons in the management of the routines and algorithms used for the encryption and decryption of data, as required by this chapter. Such secuirty shall consist as a minimum in the storage of such routines and algorithms at one situs and the nature and location of its associated data at another. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% BOOK REVIEW: INFORMATION WARFARE CHAOS ON THE ELECTRONIC SUPERHIGHWAY By Winn Schwartau INFORMATION WARFARE - CHAOS ON THE ELECTRONIC SUPERHIGHWAY By Winn Schwartau. (C)opyright 1994 by the author Thundermouth Press, 632 Broadway / 7th floor / New York, NY 10012 ISBN 1-56025-080-1 - Price $22.95 Distributed by Publishers Group West, 4065 Hollis St. / Emeryville, CA 94608 (800) 788-3123 Review by Scott Davis (dfox@fennec.com) If you only buy one book this year, make sure it is INFORMATION WARFARE! In my 10+ years of existing in cyberspace and seeing people and organizatons debate, argue and contemplate security issues, laws, personal privacy, and solutions to all of these issues...and more, never have I seen a more definitive publication. In INFORMATION WARFARE, Winn Schwartau simply draws the line on the debating. The information in this book is hard-core, factual documentation that leaves no doubt in this reader's mind that the world is in for a long, hard ride in regards to computer security. The United States is open to the world's electronic terrorists. When you finish reading this book, you will find out just how open we are. Mr. Schwartau talks about industrial espionage, hacking, viruses, eavesdropping, code-breaking, personal privacy, HERF guns, EMP/T bombs, magnetic weaponry, and the newest phrase of our generation... "Binary Schizophrenia". He exposes these topics from all angles. If you spend any amount of time in Cyberspace, this book is for you. How much do you depend on technology? ATM machines, credit cards, toasters, VCR's, televisions, computers, telephones, modems...the list goes on. You use technology and computers and don't even know it! But the point is...just how safe are you from invasion? How safe is our country's secrets? The fact is - they are NOT SAFE! How easy is it for someone you don't know to track your every move on a daily basis? VERY EASY! Are you a potential victim to fraud, breech of privacy, or general infractions against the way you carry on your daily activities? YES! ...and you'd never guess how vulnerable we all are! This book will take you deep into places the government refuses to acknowledge. You should know about INFORMATION WARFARE. Order your copy today, or pick it up at your favorite book store. You will not regret it. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% WHISPER WHO: A Unix tool Here is a handy little tool for you to use on your Unix machine. Follow the instructions provided! -------cut here-------------------cut here---------------cut here------------ /***************************************************************************** * This program can be changed without too much trouble to a program * * that logs everybody in and out of a system. Need to add * * signal(SIGHUP,SIG_IGN) to it though, so it continues after you are gone. * * This program whispers to you when somebody logs on or off, and is pretty * * hard to kill. ( you have to send SIGKILL to kill this one.) * * As is right now, it will not stay active after you logoff. To prevent * * annoying anyone, just put it in your .profile. * * * * CUT THIS PART OUT OF THIS FILE AND NAME THE TEXT: wwho_1.c * * * * To compile: cc -o wwho wwho_1.c * * or gcc -o wwho wwho_1.c * *****************************************************************************/ #include #include #include #include #include #include #define MAXPROCESSES 40 struct utmp who[MAXPROCESSES]; /* list of all rembered users on-line */ struct utmp u[MAXPROCESSES]; /* list of all users in the utmp file */ int counter = 0; /* number of users in memory */ void sig_hand(int sig) { register int x; x=0; switch(sig) { case 15: signal(SIGTERM,sig_hand); case 3: signal(SIGINT,sig_hand); for(x=0; x=2) prio = atoi(argv[1]); /* if arg, then new prio = arg */ if(argc < 2) prio = 20; /* if no arg, then prio = 20 */ pid = fork(); /* create new process */ if(pid==-1) { /* Cannot create new process error */ printf(": cannot create process\n"); exit(-1); } if(pid > 0 ) { /* if initial program then print intro and exit */ printf(": Wisper Who is now in effect.\n"); printf(": Created process id %i\n",pid); exit(0); /* exit copy of program that YOU ran */ } nice(prio); /* make low priority, be nice */ signal(SIGQUIT,SIG_IGN); /* Ignore QUIT signal */ signal(SIGINT,sig_hand); /* ignore INTERRUPT signal */ signal(SIGTERM,sig_hand); /* Ignore TERMINATE signal */ while(1) { /* Main part of program. Never ends */ int x; register int y; if((u_handle = open("/etc/utmp",O_RDONLY))==-1) { /* open utmp for reading */ printf(": Cannot Open /etc/utmp\n"); /* error in opening */ exit(0); } x = 0; /* reset thr number of utmp entries to 0 */ while(read(u_handle,&u[x],sizeof(u[x])) != 0) { /* Read utmp file * until EOF */ if(u[x].ut_type == USER_PROCESS) { /* if not an user, then read next entry */ z = new_user(x); /* check to see if new */ if(z==1) warn_em(x,0,0); /* if new, then warn */ } x++; if(x>=MAXPROCESSES) { /* TOO many process logged in. */ printf(": Error -- More process are running than there are spaces\n"); printf(": Error -- allocated for.\n"); printf(": Error -- change 'MAXPROCESSES xx' to 'MAXPROCESSES %i'.\n",x+10); exit(-1); /* Quit */ } } close(u_handle); /* close utmp */ for(z=0; zWhen the conversation began to become controversial and conflicting ideas >were pecking, the boys and the girls who think like boys, would >type in an /ignore all neutopia messages so that I was blocked from >the public dialogue. >It is time that women be acknowledged as the natural sovereigns of the >species so that we will be in a position to use our knowledge and >wisdom we have in creating a world where all our benevolent dreams >find a way to self-actualize. Girls who think like boys? Natural soverigns of the species? It seems hypocritical that the author complains of experiencing ostracism for voicing her feminist beliefs and then goes on to make such exclusionary statements herself. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% THE EASY-TO-USE SOLVE THE KENNEDY ASSASSINATION THEORY CHART By Gordon Fagan (flyer@fennec.com) Instructions: Write down the total # of persons involved. Then write down the approximate frame number of the Zapruder film that matches where you believe each shot occurred. Then it's a simple matter of going through the list and putting an X under each shot number and beside each item that applies to that particular shot. If it doesn't apply, mark nothing. If the item applies but not to any particular shot number, then use the 0 shot#. Mark it with an X for "conspiracy to kill" or an "O" for involved in the coverup (:It also comes in handy for the "a tiger got him" crowd.:) I've tried to be as thorough as possible, but to make sure everything was covered, I did leave an "others" category with a fill-in-the-blank at the end of each section. As for the exactness of your answers, use as close of approximations as you feel comfortable with. Include all overlap, ie: if you believe Oswald fired shot #4 but was under the command/control of Naval Intelligence - mark Oswald and Naval Intelligence for shot #4. For simultaneous shots, give them both the same frame number. It's pretty much self-explanatory once you get into it. Enjoy. The JFK Conspiracy Theory Outline Form ---------------------------------------------------------------------------| Total number of persons involved ---------------------------------------------------------------------------| Conspiracy to Assassinate: __________ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------| Conspiracy to Coverup: __________ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------| ||||Shot# Reference line|||||||| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| Approx. Zapruder frame of shot#| | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| -------(:note: if you believe in more than 8 shots, see your doctor:)-------| shot# fired from: (0 means spotter/involved non-shooter) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| TSBD-6th floor - east end | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| TSBD-6th floor-other | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| TSBD-roof | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| TSBD-other | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| GK-black dog man position | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| GK-badgeman position | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| GK-other | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| Dal-Tex | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| Dal. County Records Bldg | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| Dallas County Court Bldg | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| storm drain | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| umbrella man | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| other:_______________________ | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| other:_______________________ | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| shot# Fired by: (Include all overlap) (0 means involved in/knew about but fired no shots) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| Lee Harvey Oswald | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| Cuban (anti-Castro) | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| Cuban (pro-Castro) | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| Russian (anti-communist) | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| Russian (KGB/Pro-communist) | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| Marseille professional | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| other professional | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| Mafia | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| CIA | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| FBI | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| Naval Intelligence | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| Lyndon Johnson | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| Clay Shaw | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| David Ferrie | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| Roscoe White | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| J.D Tippit | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| Jack Ruby | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| umbrella man | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| George Hickey (S.S) - AR-15 | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| William Greer (S.S) - driver | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| nazis | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| UFO's/MJ-12,etc. | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| government conspiracy/coverup | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| non-govt. conspiracy/coverup | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| other:_______________________ | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| other:_______________________ | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| shot# to hit: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| John Kennedy | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| John Connally | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| James Tague | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| grass | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| sidewalk/road | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| limousine | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| street sign | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| targetting "rice" bag | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| other:_______________________ | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| other:_______________________ | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------| %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% The original Hacker Crackdown text file, hacker.crackdown, has been expanded and worked upon, and is now available in many formats, including ASCII (as before), TeX DVI, PostScript, etc. Look in: ftp://ftp.eff.org/pub/Publications/Bruce_Sterling/Hacker_Crackdown/ gopher://gopher.eff.org/00/Publications/Bruce_Sterling/Hacker_Crackdown/ http://www.eff.org/pub/Publications/Bruce_Sterling/Hacker_Crackdown/ %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% MEEKS DEFENSE FUND From Meeks Defense Fund Subject: Details on Brock Meeks Case Dear Net Citizen: The recent Internet posting launching a fund raising drive in order to help Brock Meeks defray the legal expenses of a lawsuit brought against his news wire, CyberWire Dispatch, has drawn several inquiries for a summary of the issues involved in this case. In response, we have put together the following summary. (Please note, too, that the case was featured in the April 22 (Fri.) issue of the Wall St. Journal (page B1)) Sometime during February of this year, an electronic solicitation began appearing on the Internet from a company identified only as the "Electronic Postal Service" (EPS). The solicitation from EPS said the service, "will pay you money to receive commercial e-mail. EPS estimates you will be paid an average of 6.5 cents per commercial e-mail message. It is estimated that the average commercial e-mail receiver can make $200.00 to $500.00 a year and likely more. There is absolutely no charge, periodic charge, hourly charge or phone charge to receive or review EPS commercial e-mail. The sender bears all of the cost. You are provided with a free EPS mailbox and you may access this EPS mailbox through a toll free phone number so there are no phone line charges... In addition... EPS offers you... full Internet access including network Internet e-mail remote log-in, file transfer capability and much more." To sign up you were required to call an 800 number or send for information to the EPS Internet account (eps@world.std.com). You had to include your name and address. Brock called and asked for the EPS information. It never came. Instead, he received an unwanted and unsolicited direct mailing from a company called Suarez Corporation Industries (SCI). The mailing came in the form of a 6 page letter signed by Benjamin Suarez. That mailing claimed that for a price of $159, Suarez would send you a book and software that could help you create a "net profit generation system" capable of earning anywhere from $30,000 to $1 million per year. Brock began investigating why he received the SCI mailing and soon found out that Suarez had obtained his name from the request for EPS information. More investigation found that the EPS account was registered to Suarez Corporation Industries. Brock then looked into the background of this company. During his investigation into SCI, Brock discovered that state and federal enforcement agencies had brought actions against SCI result of their direct mailing practices. In his article, Brock expressed his personal disapproval of the SCI business activities. SCI objected to the article and has filed a defamation lawsuit claiming Brock made defamatory remarks and sought to disparage his products "and otherwise tortiously (sic) interfere with the plaintiff's ability to develop" EPS. Suarez claims the Dispatch article lost him business and he is seeking compensatory and punitive damages and demanding an injunction to block Brock from writing further about SCI or its founder, Benjamin Suarez. The April 22 (page B1) issue of the Wall St. Journal says lawsuit "is one of the first U.S. libel cases to arise out of the free-for-all on the Internet... If it succeeds, some legal experts say it could spawn other complaints." For those who don't know Brock, he has a long history as a journalist writing in the on-line field, having written for Byte, Wired and other journals over the years. He lives and works today in the Washington, D.C. area writing during the day for a communications trade journal. Cyberwire Dispatch is his own creation. The suit against him was filed in Ohio. Without the generous offer of legal support from his current lawyers, who have offices in Ohio, Brock's situation would be even more dire. The Meeks case raises legal issues that may have far-reaching implications for freedom of speech and free expression on the internet. If journalists are unable to pursue important investigative issues without fear of reprisal, then all of us will suffer. This is exactly the type of chilling effect hat the First Amendment was intended to avoid and the reason we need your support. Of course defamation laws are to be applied to the Net, but how they are applied -- and this case will be an important first step in that process -- could determine just how open and free people will feel to speak their minds. This is NOT a case in which a writer on the Internet has, in fact, libeled someone else. Brock absolutely denies the charges against him. And every lawyer that Brock has consulted and looked at the text Brock wrote, and the charges against him, believe that he ha not written anything that can fairly be characterized as libelous. The Legal Defense Fund is formed to assure that Brock is well defended. As a reminder, contributions can be made in two ways, either tax-deductible or non-deductible. A special thanks goes to the Point Foundation for agreeing early on in the process to assist in organizing and serving as a collection agent for the Fund. If you have any questions, you can contact the Fund at Fund@idi.net. For tax-deductible contributions send those checks to: Meeks Defense Fund c/o Point Foundation 27 Gate Five Road Sausalito, CA 94965 For those who don't care about the tax deductible status, send contributions to: Meeks Defense Fund c/o IDI 901 15th St. NW Suite 230 Washington, DC 20005 THE BROCK MEEKS DEFENSE FUND COMMITTEE Samuel A. Simon President, Issue Dynamics, Inc.* ssimon@idi.net John Sumser Editor/Executive Director Whole Earth Review/ Point Foundation jrsumser@well.sf.ca.us Mitch Kapor Chair, Electronic Frontier Foundation* mkapor@eff.org David Farber The Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of Telecommunications Systems University of Pennsylvania* farber@central.cis.upenn.edu Philip Elmer-DeWitt Senior Writer TIME Magazine* ped@panix.com Marc Rotenberg Electronic Privacy Information Center* Rotenberg@epic.org Nicholas Johnson Former FCC Commissioner* 1035393@mcimail.com Jerry Berman Electronic Frontier Foundation* jberman@eff.org Mike Godwin Electronic Frontier Foundation* #################################################################### # Meeks Defense Fund | Internet: fund@idi.net # # ---------------------------------------------------------------- # # c/o IDI c/o Point Foundation # # 901 15th St. NW 27 Gate Five Road # # Suite 230 Sausalito, CA 9465 # # Washington, DC 20005 # #################################################################### %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% HACKERS ON PLANET EARTH From: Emmanuel Goldstein (emmanuel@well.sf.ca.us) To: Editors@fennec.com HACKERS ON PLANET EARTH The First U.S. Hacker Congress Yes, it's finally happening. A hacker party unlike anything ever seen before in this country. Come help us celebrate ten years of existence and meet some really interesting and unusual people in the process. We've rented out the entire top floor of a midtown New York hotel, consisting of several gigantic ballrooms. The conference will run around the clock all weekend long. SPEAKERS AND SEMINARS: Will there be famous people and celebrity hackers? Of course, but the real stars of this convention will be the hundreds of hackers and technologically inclined people journeying from around the globe to share information and get new ideas. That is the real reason to show up. Seminars include: social engineering, cellular phone cloning, cable TV security, stealth technology and surveillance, lockpicking, boxing of all sorts, legal issues, credit cards, encryption, the history of 2600, password sniffing, viruses, scanner tricks, and many more in the planning stages. Meet people from the Chaos Computer Club, Hack-Tic, Phrack, and all sorts of other k-rad groups. THE NETWORK: Bring a computer with you and you can tie into the huge Ethernet we'll be running around the clock. Show off your system and explore someone else's (with their permission, of course). We will have a reliable link to the Internet in addition. Finally, everyone attending will get an account on our hope.net machine. We encourage you to try and hack root. We will be giving away some valuable prizes to the successful penetrators, including the keys to a 1994 Corvette. (We have no idea where the car is, but the keys are a real conversation piece.) Remember, this is only what is currently planned. Every week, something new is being added so don't be surprised to find even more hacker toys on display. We will have guarded storage areas if you don't want to leave your equipment unattended. VIDEOS: We will have a brand new film on hackers called "Unauthorized Access", a documentary that tells the story from our side and captures the hacker world from Hamburg to Los Angeles and virtually everywhere in between. In addition, we'll have numerous foreign and domestic hacker bits, documentaries, news stories, amateur videos, and security propaganda. There has been a lot of footage captured over the years - this will be a great opportunity to see it all. We will also have one hell of an audio collection, including prank calls that put The Jerky Boys to shame, voice mail hacks, and even confessions by federal informants! It's not too late to contribute material! WHERE/WHEN: It all happens Saturday, August 13th and Sunday, August 14th at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City (Seventh Avenue, between 32nd and 33rd Streets, right across the street from Penn Station). If you intend to be part of the network, you can start setting up Friday night. The conference officially begins at noon on Saturday and will run well into Sunday night. ACCOMMODATIONS: New York City has numerous cheap places to stay. Check the update sites below for more details as they come in. If you decide to stay in the hotel, there is a special discounted rate if you mention the HOPE Conference. $99 is their base rate (four can fit in one of these rooms, especially if sleeping bags are involved), significantly larger rooms are only about $10 more. Mini-suites are great for between six and ten people - total cost for HOPE people is $160. If you work with others, you can easily get a room in the hotel for between $16 and $50. The Hotel Pennsylvania can be reached at (212) PEnnsylvania 6-5000 (neat, huh?). Rooms must be registered by 7/23/94 to get the special rate. TRAVEL: There are many cheap ways to get to New York City in August but you may want to start looking now, especially if you're coming from overseas. Travel agencies will help you for free. Also look in various magazines like Time Out, the Village Voice, local alternative weeklies, and travel sections of newspapers. Buses, trains, and carpools are great alternatives to domestic flights. Keep in touch with the update sites for more information as it comes in. WANTED: Uncommon people, good music (CD's or cassettes), creative technology. To leave us information or to volunteer to help out, call us at (516) 751-2600 or send us email on the Internet at: 2600@hope.net. VOICE BBS: (516) 473-2626 INTERNET: info@hope.net - for the latest conference information travel@hope.net - cheap fares and advisories tech@hope.net - technical questions and suggestions speakers@hope.net - for anyone interested in speaking at the conference vol@hope.net - for people who want to volunteer USENET NEWSGROUPS: alt.2600 - general hacker discussion alt.2600.hope.announce - the latest announcements alt.2600.hope.d - discussion on the conference alt.2600.hope.tech - technical setup discussion REGISTRATION: Admission to the conference is $20 for the entire weekend if you preregister, $25 at the door, regardless of whether you stay for two days or five minutes. To preregister, fill out this form, enclose $20, and mail to: 2600 HOPE Conference, PO Box 848, Middle Island, NY 11953. Preregistration must be postmarked by 7/31/94. This information is only for the purposes of preregistration and will be kept confidential. Once you arrive, you can select any name or handle you want for your badge. NAME: _______________________________________________________________ ADDRESS: ____________________________________________________________ CITY, STATE, ZIP, COUNTRY: __________________________________________ PHONE (optional): ____________ email (optional): ____________________ IMPORTANT: If you're interested in participating in other ways or volunteering assistance, please give details on the reverse side. So we can have a better idea of how big the network will be, please let us know what, if any, computer equipment you plan on bringing and whether or not you'll need an Ethernet card. Use the space on the back and attach additional sheets if necessary. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% TV & MOVIE MANIA RADIO SHOW HITS THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY By Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com) LOS ANGELES -- In a first for an entertainment-oriented show, a version of the popular "Professor Neon's TV & Movie Mania" radio program begins worldwide distribution directly to listeners this week via the Internet (or as it is becoming popularly known, the "Information Superhighway"). "The Internet now includes over 20 million users in more than 30 countries, and is growing at an enormous rate," pointed out the show's producer, Lauren Weinstein of Vortex Technology. "Professor Neon's TV & Movie Mania has also broadcast via over-the-air stations, but it's apparent that the time has finally arrived when the global facilities of the Internet can bring this audio show to an even wider audience. Nobody has ever used the Internet to transmit a show like this before," he added. "Professor Neon's TV & Movie Mania" is a unique show which features a look at a broad universe ranging from classic to current television, films, and videos, with a special emphasis on the unusual, odd, silly, strange, bizarre, cult, surreal, and weird. The shows include reviews, interviews, and a wide range of special audio clips, trailers, and many other features. The interview guest for the debut Internet version of the show is Robert Justman, a man whose work has greatly influenced classic television programs ranging from "The Outer Limits" (on which he was assistant director) to both the original "Star Trek" and "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (on which he was associate producer and co-producer, respectively). Many of the most familiar aspects of these programs were the result of his ideas, and he speaks candidly with the show's enigmatic host, Professor Neon, about the production of these programs in this fascinating interview. Professor Neon has featured programs focusing on topics ranging from "Plan 9 From Outer Space" (with guest "Vampira" who starred in the classic cult film), to Forrest J. Ackerman (publisher of "Famous Monsters" magazine), to shows focused on topics from "The Twilight Zone" to "The Three Stooges". The half hour Internet version of the program is being distributed biweekly on the Internet via the Internet Multicasting Service in Washington D.C., on the "Internet Town Hall" channel, and is also available as a file for retrieval by any Internet user from the many Internet Multicasting / Internet Talk Radio archive sites around the world. Users retrieving the audio files can then play them on virtually any workstation, PC, Mac, or other computer with even simple audio facilities. The most recent show, as well as other information regarding the program, can also be heard by calling Professor Neon's TV & Movie Mania Machine" on (310) 455-1212. The Internet version of the show is freely distributable via computer networks and BBS systems. Use by over-the-air broadcasters requires the permission of Vortex Technology. For more information regarding accessing the show via the Internet, please use the contact below. Inquiries regarding other access and versions of the show for broadcast use are also invited. CONTACT: Lauren Weinstein at Vortex Technology, Woodland Hills, CA. (818) 225-2800 (9:30-5:30 PDT) lauren@vortex.com Notes to Internet folks: Information regarding the show, including current guest schedule, etc. is also available via FTP from site "ftp.vortex.com" (in the "tv-film-video" subdirectory) or via gopher from site "gopher.vortex.com" (under the "TV/Film/Video" menu item). For a list of Internet Multicasting Service / Internet Talk Radio archive sites to obtain (via FTP) the audio file for playback, send a message (content is not important) to: sites@radio.com The debut of the Internet version of the show will run via Internet Multicast from Interop on Thursday, May 5. FTP to site "ftp.media.org" or "www.media.org" for schedule information. The audio file of the show should become available in the archive sites for retrieval within a few days, though exact timing is variable. The filenames will probably be "mania1.au" for the audio and "mania1.txt" for the accompanying descriptive text file, though the archive maintainers may change the names at some point to fit their overall naming system. If you have trouble locating the files after a few days, please let us know. If you have any other questions regarding the program, feel free to email or call. In two weeks, our interview guest for the next show will be Joel Engel, the author of the definitive Rod Serling biography: "The Dreams and Nightmares of Life in the Twilight Zone," and of the newly released and highly controversial new book, "Gene Roddenberry: The Myth and the Man Behind Star Trek." If you have any questions for Mr. Engel please email them to: neon@vortex.com as soon as possible. Thanks much! %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% .