KDM_tsu

[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

   Cypherpunks is featured in a story in The New Yorker of
   January 29 on the Mitnick/Shimomura books by Littman and
   Markoff.

   The writer, Robert Wright, terms cpunks "an amorphous group
   that gets its name from its militant devotion to the
   widesrpead use of encryption." He refers to the comments
   here about Mitnick/Shimomura.

   More generally, Wright compares the two books, muses on
   career-boosting and Big Brother purposes of the media's
   melodramatic build-up of Mitnick and Shimomura, and
   outlines what might be done about Internet insecurity:

   1. Police -- by legislation for officials to monitor
      cyberspace.

   2. Privatize -- by IPs policing their own turf.

   3. Encrypt -- like cypherpunks.

   He comments on PRZ's case, notes possible infowar-type
   threats and closes:

      Given that federal officials who would constrain
      encryption seem to be swimming against the nearly
      inexorable tide of technological history, these are the
      [cyber-terrorism] kinds of scenarios they have to
      conjure up to justify their efforts. And these scenarios
      aren't entirely implausible. As cyberspace expands, we
      may see reasons to try to give the government the sort
      of power it seeks here. But those reasons won't look
      much like Kevin Mitnick.


   KDM_tsu