From: Adam Shostack <adam@bwh.harvard.edu>
Date: Fri, 16 Sep 94 10:28:09 PDT
To: doug@OpenMind.com (Doug Cutrell)
Subject: Re: Virtual assasins and lethal remailers
In-Reply-To: <aa9f6e05000210037353@[198.232.141.2]>
Message-ID: <199409161729.NAA15167@hermes.bwh.harvard.edu>
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Doug Cutrell wrote:

| >Ah well, then the police just got to find the fingerprints and all the usual
| >things, right? What's cyberspace got to do with it?
| 
| The point, of course, is that there is no risk to the person *placing* the
| contract.  The assassin, as you say, has all the usual risks.

	That is not really correct.  The risk is reduced, not
minimalized.  Further, I will argue that the reduction is not even
very significant.  The usual suspects will be dragged out; family
members, insurance beneficiaries, business partners.  The tracing of
the money from payer to assassin might be difficult, but there will
probably be a large, unaccounted for withdrawal from some back
account.

	The police will be able to find a killer with a motive; very
few people would pay to have someone killed with whom they have only a
minimal connection.

	The anonymous nature of the funds & contract negotiation will
make finding this person more difficult, not impossible.


Adam