From: Tim May <tcmay@got.net>
Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 02:01:57 +0800
To: "Sidney R. Phillips" <cypherpunks@algebra.com
Subject: Re: Printers are munitions?
In-Reply-To: <3378A3E5.41C6@hsct22.ca.boeing.com>
Message-ID: <v03007800af9e675d4ff2@[207.167.93.63]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 9:24 AM -0800 5/13/97, Sidney R. Phillips wrote:
>Last Sunday on The Learning Channel there was a somewhat silly program
>on information
>warfare.  One thing which caught my attention however, was a claim by
>Win Schwartau
>(of inforwar fame) that NSA had placed narrow band transmitters in
>printers which
>wound up in air defense sites in Iraq.  Subsequently the transmissions
>were used
>for targeting durring the gulf war.  Has anyone heard of a separate
>source for this?

I don't know the context of these precise points, but the "printers sent to
Iraq had viruses in them" story was widely reported several years ago.

Except it turns out the stories all were rip-offs and repetitions, from all
appearances, of a story which ran in "Infoworld."

And except that the story in "Infoworld" was the April 1st edition. That so
many journalists repeated this as the "opening shot in I-War" says a lot
about the state of cyber-journalism.

As for transmitters in printers, this sounds like a variant. Plus, I
wouldn't think there was enough time between the start of the buildup of
the U.S. response and the air attacks for the plan to be hatched, for the
Iraqis to place and receive orders, etc. And the chance of some random
printer ending up in an air defense station seems unlikely. And so on.

--Tim May



There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws.
Only one response to the key grabbers is warranted: "Death to Tyrants!"
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^1398269     | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."