From: "L. Detweiler" <ld231782@longs.lance.colostate.edu>
Date: Thu, 23 Dec 93 22:46:10 PST
To: cypherwonks@lists.eunet.fi
Subject: Cyberparanoia
Message-ID: <199312240641.XAA00559@longs.lance.colostate.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


I thought I would share with you a message that shows the consequences
of pseudospoofing. The problem is that if *anyone* accuses *anyone*
of doing it, suddenly *all* email addresses are thrown into doubt. I 
think the Internet has long operated on the assumption that everyone
is honest, but that this assumption is breaking down in the face of
genuinely malicious individuals with a great deal of commitment to
deception.

This message appeared on a highly trusted list moderated by D.Farber,
the `interesting people' list. He compiles material from a wide
variety of sources and acts as a sort of cyberspatial newspaper
outlet. Unfortunately, we are all fallible, as he demonstrated
recently in passing through on the list a classic urban myth about
LSD tattoos absorbed through the skin. This myth has been debunked in
many places-- as I understand it, no case of a `LSD tattoo' has ever
been found, because it is physically impossible to absorb the drug in
this manner.

The person below was being facetious, but the paranoia over email
addresses and `cyberanarchists' shows through. I cannot escape
commenting on the symbolism of this message: the swing of the
pendulum has been arrested, and from henceforth on, the use of the
Internet for deception will be of the utmost concern of many
designers and will strongly influence many new technological
advancements in Cyberspace.


===cut=here===

From: rjs@farnsworth.mit.edu (Richard Jay Solomon)
Subject: Re:  Important Message to Parents
Cc: bjones@weber.ucsd.edu, moredohrs@farnsworth.mit.edu, tcfgie@weber.ucsd.edu

[LSD tattoos]

This is a marvelous, if scary, example of a serious issue of information
dissemination via the net. It's instantaneous, authoriative looking
(because it is in print, on a *computer*, yours!), yet appears to be a
personal letter often from someone who you think you know, and you have'nt
a clue of whether the content or the sender is for real.

And you still don't know if THIS message is a hoax, urban myth, or what.
Maybe it WAS a myth, but is no longer. Suppose farber's list was
penetrated, or Dave flipped his lid, or bjones@weber.ucsd.edu is some
maniac or a fictitious name, or rjs@farnsworth.mit.edu is a cyber-anarchist
or has been seized by one -- you simply do not know. But if you have kids,
you have a teensy-weensy suspicion that this might be true and you are
going to ask the first biochemist you know, aren't you -- with a smile on
your face, or on your email, just in case you look foolish. Right?