Re: NATIONAL SECURITY PORN RISK

[tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)]

> C'punks,
> 
> 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?
> 
> 
>  S a n d y

I've read the "Mercury News" front-page article...does that count?
(It's in today's paper--Tuesday, 1994-07-12.)

The issue, for those who haven't read the article, is that LLL
computers and disks were used (apparently) for storage of GIFs and the
like, for anonymous ftp access. Apparently this site was not
advertised...it was not "ftp.porn.bomb-labs.gov" or anything else.

The crypto tie-in is interesting: steganography. Apparently the
investigators have read about steganography--perhaps in "Wired"?--and
are worried that password sniffers, and the like, are collecting
secrets and then packing them into the porno images.

Very implausible, that someone would go to this trouble. Too many
other ways. No doubt the images are just the usual two-bit use of
someone else's facilities.

My joke, "Debbie Does Fort Meade," turns out be more prophetic than I
thought.

--Tim May



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