Reply-To: iwar@egroups.com
Subject: [iwar] Historical posting
FBI agent: I am Big Brother
Can effective law enforcement and personal privacy coexist? Law enforcement officials and privacy advocates faced off in a panel discussion Wednesday over the issue of the tradeoffs between security and privacy at the 10th annual Computer, Freedom and Privacy 2000 Conference in Toronto, Canada. "There are reasons law enforcement should and does have the power to arrest and to search," said Paul George, supervisory special agent for the Michigan bureau of the FBI. "There are worse things than having your privacy violated ... like murder." George debated fiercely, but politely, with privacy advocates on the need for privacy invasive investigative techniques -- such as wiretaps, searches and Internet tracking -- to fight crime. In fact, recognizing that many at the conference consider him to be "the enemy," George called himself "the Big Brother in Michigan." http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2522568,00.html
Thai Police Panel Formed To Tackle Cyber Crime
In Thailand, a body to investigate and help bring cyber criminals to their knees is being set up in response to the wave of publicity Internet misconduct has received of late. Police Col Yanaphon Youngyuen of the Police Information System Centre said that a Committee for the Suppression of Computer Crimes had been formed by the Police Department to tackle crimes conducted by way of technology, especially through the Internet. http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/146912.html
Open source fans break strong encryption
A group of French scientists joined forces with open source enthusiasts this week and claim to have broken a public encryption key of unprecedented strength (108-bit), snatching a world's first in code-breaking. It took 597 different computers, 6 months of number crunching to crack the encryption. http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/2000/13/ns-14622.html
Cyber terrorism - A ZDNN Special
February's Denial-of-Service attacks on Web sites underscored a sobering fact: We're vulnerable. The plan for protection is examined here. Now the US government is spearheading a plan to protect the nation's information infrastructure and head off potential e-terrorism. What's planned? Who's involved? What's at stake? We examine the issues. (Some of the articles are posted below) http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/2000/13/ns-14619.html
Is hacking healthy?
One of the biggest assets to the computer security industry is - surprise! - hackers. For the typical layperson, the word "hacker" evokes a very specific image: a mysterious, malicious, digital intruder -- the PC-age equivalent of a cat burglar, waltzing through networks, past locks and alarms, to steal data at will. If you look in the hacking community, however, you are unlikely to find anyone matching that description. http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/2000/13/ns-14623.html
Are they 'hackers'? Or 'crackers'?
According to the word police, there's a difference But after 15 years watching the computer elite trying unsuccessfully to enforce a distinction, Henry Kingman has a word of advice: Just give it a rest! Eric S. Raymond, lexicographer of the "New Hacker's Dictionary" -- it's really a repackaged, updated MIT jargon file -- doesn't want you to use "hacker" to refer to a computer criminal. A computer criminal is called a "cracker," he says. He says it loudly, he says it often -- seemingly every chance he gets. But it seems pretty clear that not even the guy who maintains the dictionary gets to choose how language is used. "Cracker" is about as likely to replace "hacker" in common parlance as "GNU/Linux" is to replace "Linux." http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/2000/13/ns-14629.html
Evolution of a hacker legend: The L0pht Hurrah
The only Canadian member of the Cult of the Dead Cow, the fabled collective of hackers that has had a huge impact on the evolution of the Internet, writes about how cDc began and the emergence of L0pht. The L0pht (pronounced loft) always looked like a set from the Terry Gilliam movie, Brazil. A chaotic assembly of monitors, exposed mother boards, the impossible logic of hybrid machines, inguinied cables, and my personal favourite, The Crapintosh [don't ask]. But now this legendary workspace looks like the I.R.A. just trashed it looking for the last bottle of whiskey in the world. The party's over. http://www.nationalpost.com/financialpost.asp?s2=3Deworld&f=3D000405/250955=.html
FC