From: Michael Handler <grendel@netaxs.com>
Date: Tue, 12 Jul 94 18:31:42 PDT
To: Sandy Sandfort <sandfort@crl.com>
Subject: Re: NATIONAL SECURITY PORN RISK
In-Reply-To: <Pine.3.87.9407121754.A9926-0100000@crl5.crl.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9407122123.C5677-0100000@unix1.netaxs.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


On Tue, 12 Jul 1994, Sandy Sandfort wrote:

> Does anyone on the Cypherpunks Channel have any inside information about 
> the "computer porn ring" that was busted at Lawrence Livermore Labs?  Is 
> there a crypto tie-in?

From: paulp@nic.cerf.net (Paul Phillips)
Newsgroups: alt.current-events.net-abuse,alt.security,alt.news-media,news.admin.misc
Subject: LA Times Yellow Journalism
Date: 12 Jul 1994 18:43:23 GMT

This on page A1 of the July 12 1994 LA Times:

 "Computer at Nuclear Lab Used for Access to Porn"
[ snip ]
-- Excerpt --
One computer expert, who requested anonymity, said there might be more
to the incident than meets the eye.  The expert suggested that the hard-core
pornography may be a cover for an ultra-sophisticated espionage program,
in which a "sniffer" program combs through other Livermore computers,
encodes the passwords and accounts it finds, and then hides them within
the pornographic images, perhaps to be downloaded by foreign agents.
-- End excerpt --

	It's a Steganography reference. This sets off my warning bells -- 
why would they explicitly mention the Stego technique, unless possibly it 
was used in the porn ring there? Granted, Stego makes good journalism 
fodder ("Hide your encrypted nuclear bomb plans in porn GIFs from the 
Internet!"), but it's definitely not as sexy [sic] as "Taxpayer-funded 
computers used in secret porn ring!" Anybody know exactly what was going 
on at LLL? We can't get papers easily up here. :(

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Brandt Handler                                <grendel@netaxs.com> 
Philadelphia, PA                                    <mh7p+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Currently at CMU, Pittsburgh, PA            PGP v2.6 public key on request
Boycott Canter & Siegel                <<NSA>> 1984: We're Behind Schedule