Re: The House Rules At The Permanent Virtual Cypherpunks Party

[dlv@bwalk.dm.com (Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM)]

ichudov@algebra.com (Igor Chudov @ home) writes:
> Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM wrote:
> >
> > "Cypher punks" have degenerated into an inbred cybermob whose goal in life
> > is to "enforce" the "rules" that apply to "newbies" (more Cabal-speak) but
> > not to the "in-crowd".
> >
> > Paul Bradley, the vitriolic flamer, is a good example of a "cypher punk".
> > Paul doesn't know much about cryptography, but he's been harrassing Don Woo
> > because Don Wood dared propose a cryprosystem. I haven't examined Don's
> > proposal and don't know how good it is. Paul apparently FTP's Don's files
> > but lacked the technical knowledge to understand the proposal. Paul first
>
> Why don't you look at it. I am interested in your comments regarding
> possible attacks on Don Wood's system.

Igor,

If an entrepreneur wants to sell a new electrical gizmo and wants an
independent review of its safety, he pays $$$ for it. Apparently one of the
functions of the new brand of "cypher punks" is to provide a similar service
for free. Sorry, I'm not a part of it, and I'm not *that* interested in Don's
proposal. I have better use for my time.

(I suspect that you too have better use of your time, like shagging your
girlfriend and/or working on the robomoderated misc.jobs.* - nag, nag)

I also don't think that the ease of breaking the code should be the only
consideration in evaluating a low-end cryptographic product. I happen to
advocate widest possible availabily of crypto for the unwashed masses - again,
unlike today's "cypher punks" who think crypto is "kewl" stuff for the "3lit3
d00dz". This current pseudo-crypto crowd reminds me of a hobby I had when I
was very young and New York City had hundreds of dial-up BBS's. Most of them
were run by kids and their main function was the "elite" download section
featuring pirated copyrighted software. I figured out a technique to download
whatever I wanted from the "elite" sections without the BBS operator's knowing
who it was. (They normally "validated" only someone they knew and demanded
uploades for downloads. "Expropriate the expropriator", as Lenin taught us.)
After a while I got tired of it because invariably the commercial software I
downloaded was junk, not worth the downloading time and the disk space.

Back to crypto: If someone wants to market (and support) a crypto package for
the masses and gets the masses to deploy it, I take my hat off to them. It
doesn't matter if the code itself can be cracked as easily as the codes used
in PKZIP or MS Excel or MS Word (reportedly). If the users discover that the
code isn't strong enough for their needs, they'll upgrade to stronger codes.
The path from weak crypto to strong crypto is much shorter than the path from
no crypto to some crypto.

If the user interface and logical and transparent and provides hooks to
replace the weak (non-export-controlled) crypto being shipped with a stronger
one (say, by FTPing a DLL) then it's a Good Thing.

Don is doing a Good Thing and the "cypher punks" are doing an evil thing.

---

<a href="mailto:dlv@bwalk.dm.com">Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM</a>
Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps