From: nobody@shell.portal.com
Date: Sat, 20 Nov 93 09:14:50 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: "IDENTITY CHALLENGE!"
Message-ID: <9311201712.AA22293@jobe.shell.portal.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


            jrk@sys.uea.ac.uk (Richard Kennaway) says:

+ Anonymity brings a new class of useless message, of which the
+ following from Black Unicorn <unicorn@net.digex.access> is a recent
+ example.  I quote it in its entirety:
+
+     Having worked in Liechtenstein banks, I can assure you numbered
+     accounts exist.
+
+ "Black Unicorn" is an obvious pseudonym, and I'm assuming that it is
+ not one with an established reputation.  (For all I know, "Black
+ Unicorn" might be as famous as the Legion of Doom, but for the sake of
+ argument I'll assume that it isn't.)
+
+ What is the use of an unsubstantiated assertion, from an unreputed[*]
+ source, with no means of verification?  Having read Black Unicorn's
+ bald asertion, I am as ignorant as before of whether numbered accounts
+ exist, in Liechtenstein or elsewhere.
 
Well, that's as may be, but I would suggest to you that "actual
identities" are unreliable.  I believe that many here could trivially
spoof almost any identity and that in any case, you would personally
be unable to either verify the identity of your correspondent or hold
him accountable for his output.

A couple of recent examples:
                               *

A "Rikiya Asano" <ra01+@andrew.cmu.edu>, apparently a severely
disturbed Japanese student at Carnegie-Mellon University, has been
filling several newsgroups with a remarkable torrent of cross-posted
flamebait for several weeks, including racist insults against whites and
Chinese, physical threats and various assaults on American institutions.
These rants are composed in hilariously fractured English and gain
oceans of angry responses which disrupt the normal progress of the
newsgroups to which they are posted.

Today, I read a post by someone who makes a convincing case that Asano
isn't Japanese and that the whole thing is a spoof.  Maybe "Asano"
exists and maybe he doesn't, but there seems to be no way of either
verifying his true identity or making him stop disrupting these
newsgroups.
                                *

On the other coast, "Andy Freeman" <andy@cs.stanford.edu> authored a
particularly nasty piece of netmail forwarded on to me by its original
recipient.  In it, "Andy Freeman" attacks the practice of anonymity on
Internet and claims to be in the government employ, implicitly in law
enforcement, surveying Internet for illegal activity.  He avers that all
of those who post anonymously have been investigated and identified by
their true names and are on a government hitlist, presumably thanks to
his participation.

Maybe "Andy Freeman" really is an unhinged cop involved in an illegal
investigation of remailers or maybe he is just one of those sick fucks
who like to impersonate policemen and bully people.

                                 *

I personally challenge you, or anyone else on the net, to establish who
these creatures actually are and whether they are what they claim.  I've
given you their "real" names and "real" addresses.  In that both are
bona fide assholes in any case, there's no need to be concerned with
injuring or harassing them - they've got it coming.