From: Six <ualdv8@sk.sympatico.ca>
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 1997 16:04:15 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: I Broke PGP!!!
In-Reply-To: <345316D6.2F73@pgp.com>
Message-ID: <34543357.2971@sk.sympatico.ca>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Jon Callas, on behalf of the Electronic Forgery Foundation, wrote:
> 
> Sorry...

ROTFLMAO!
(Don't worry, Jon, I think it can be fixed.)

Philip R. Zimmermann, on behalf of the Electronic Forgery Foundation
and the Circle of Eunuchs, wrote:
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>                           InfoWar Table of Contents
>    * Epilogue
>    * I Broke PGP!
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>                                 I Broke PGP!
>                                    by RTFM
...
>                                Vulnerabilities
>                                ===============

I have known TruthMonger #1's nephew for a number of years, and have
played no small hand in teaching him to intercept his uncle's email
and add his own small touches to the messages contained therein. So
it came as no surprise to me to see a message which contained a
prophecy of a chapter of 'InfoWar' titled, "I Broke PGP!" and a
ludicrous claim that the 'writer' would kiss everyone's dirty,
hairy, ass if he could not back up that claim.
To tell the truth, I thought that Human Gus-Peter had finally used 
his uncle's mouth to write a check his uncle's ass couldn't cash.

After reading 'InfoWar Epilogue 7' I thought that #1 had indeed 
cashed the promised check, but had perhaps done so in the manner of
a 'trickster'. However, after reading Jon Callas' 'apology' for
'breaking' PGP, I realized that TruthMonger had perhaps made a more
succinct statement regarding the recent developments in PGP/CMR
than many of the more lengthy missives recently written and/or
ranted on the Cypherpunks mailing list.
~~~~~~~~~~
Disclaimer: I am writing this on Toto's laptop, under the influence
~~~~~~~~~~ of half a bottle of his finest Scotch.

In short, I have come to the conclusion (_remembered_ would be a
more appropriate word, actually) that it is not up to Philip R.
Zimmermann or Jon Callas to protect and defend my privacy.
It is up to _me_ to protect and defend my privacy. Always has 
been, always will be.

It has long been a tradition for CofE members who have not seen
each other for a long time to get together for a drink and read
PRZ's PGP documentation, once again, before continuing on to 
discuss our current adventures in the time-space continuum.
If you will sit and read it, now, I believe you will perhaps
'remember' that PRZ has never, from the beginning, pretended to
have written anything other than a program which will give you
and I 'Pretty Good Privacy'.

The cold, hard fact of the matter is, no matter how grand or secure
the design of PGP, or any other security product, there are going
to be a mountain of users, from the secretary to the head of system
security, who are going to write their triple-secret password on
a piece of tape on the underside of their keyboard.
Although it is important to discuss (even to rant and rave over)
the issues surrounding the design, development and implementation
of products such as PGP, there is something, in the end, that is
even more important to discuss than the security or lack thereof
of encryption systems and products: Vulnerability.

Bonus Question: "Who is TruthMonger #1?"
Bonus Answer: "He's Randall Farmer's best friend."

Love,
 Tokyo Rose
 ~~~~~~~~~~
"Loose lips...pink slips."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Re: PRZ Announcement
Randall Farmer (rfarmer@HiWAAY.net)
Fri, 24 Oct 1997 16:37:28 -0500 (CDT) 

 Damn, that's annyoing. I don't have a PGP key, and never sign my
messages. Note
that my real message trailer has a line of dashes before it. I'm putting
something confirming that the other message was a forgery (and
confirming that
I don't have a PGP key) on my web page -- http://hiwaay.net/~rfarmer
(even the
forger agrees that's my page). 

I'll also (possibly) create a key and post the real fingerprint/ID on my
page
if this becomes a problem. (Actually, probably not...can only run 2.6.2)

Note that the keyserver probably has this as my key...I'll use a
different name
for my real key.

Some lame forger pretended Randall Farmer wrote:

> Some lame forger pretended Randall Farmer wrote:
> 
> > On Thu, 23 Oct 1997, there's no way in nine hells that Phillip R. Zimmermann
> > could have wrote:
> > ...
> > > However, I have reassessed my views of who truly has a right
> > > to control access to privacy and have come to the conclusion
> > > that privacy is too important an issue to be left in the hands
> > > of the individual, with the obvious potential for misuse.
> > 
> > Hmm...I haven't checked any signatures or headers yet, but something tells me
> > that this ain't PRZ. For example, the Organization: header refers to Orwell's
> > 1984 as a "blueprint"...forget the signatures (just got a message saying they
> > match -- either that person's lying, "they" cracked his key, or it's some
> > detail that has the program using a different key/ignoring some text), it is
> > psychologically impossible for someone to go from privacy advocate to
> > 1984-as-a-blueprint that quick.
> > 
> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> The above is a lame forgery by some troublemaker, and only 
> serves to underscore PRZ's new position, namely, that access
> to privacy should be supervised by people who have shown that
> they have the maturity to act responsibly, as evidenced by
> their success in a corporate atmosphere.
> 
> I am PGP signing this post so that there can be no doubt as
> to its source and authenticity.
> Cypherpunks list subscribers should be more careful about
> checking signatures before believing everything they read.
> 
> Randall Farmer
> rfarmer@hiwaay.net
> http://hiwaay.net/~rfarmer
> 
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> Version: PGP for Personal Privacy 5.0
> Charset: noconv
> 
> iQA/AwUBNFAK/BpRm26Z4YsSEQIA0wCeJZ7R9w/XfDuE0HMo+eP/0ihYOykAoNef
> Gt1hIbRHpYtJ1jp/79hWZl0G
> =E9PX
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
> 
> 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Randall Farmer
rfarmer@hiwaay.net
http://hiwaay.net/~rfarmer