Computer underground Digest Sun Feb 6, 1994 Volume 6 : Issue 13 ISSN 1004-042X Editors: Jim Thomas and Gordon Meyer (TK0JUT2@NIU.BITNET) Archivist: Brendan Kehoe (Improving each day) Acting Archivist: Stanton McCandlish Shadow-Archivists: Dan Carosone / Paul Southworth Ralph Sims / Jyrki Kuoppala Ian Dickinson Coppice Editor: P. Bunyan CONTENTS, #6.13 (Feb 6, 1994) File 1--Proposed Computer Crime Amendment (HR 3355) File 2--"DIGITAL WOES" by Wiener (Book Review) File 3--Review: "Computer Viruses, Artificial Life & Evolution" File 4--A Guide to Technological Disasters to Come File 5--New AIDS BBS File 6--1994-01-26 Notice of NII Advisory Council Open Meeting File 7--Anti-Clipper Petition from CPSRClipper Petition Cu-Digest is a weekly electronic journal/newsletter. Subscriptions are available at no cost electronically. 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EUROPE: from the ComNet in LUXEMBOURG BBS (++352) 466893; In ITALY: Bits against the Empire BBS: +39-461-980493 ANONYMOUS FTP SITES: AUSTRALIA: ftp.ee.mu.oz.au (128.250.77.2) in /pub/text/CuD. EUROPE: ftp.funet.fi in pub/doc/cud. (Finland) UNITED STATES: aql.gatech.edu (128.61.10.53) in /pub/eff/cud etext.archive.umich.edu (141.211.164.18) in /pub/CuD/cud ftp.eff.org (192.88.144.4) in /pub/Publications/CuD halcyon.com( 202.135.191.2) in mirror2/cud ftp.warwick.ac.uk in pub/cud (United Kingdom) KOREA: ftp: cair.kaist.ac.kr in /doc/eff/cud COMPUTER UNDERGROUND DIGEST is an open forum dedicated to sharing information among computerists and to the presentation and debate of diverse views. CuD material may be reprinted for non-profit as long as the source is cited. Authors hold a presumptive copyright, and they should be contacted for reprint permission. It is assumed that non-personal mail to the moderators may be reprinted unless otherwise specified. Readers are encouraged to submit reasoned articles relating to computer culture and communication. Articles are preferred to short responses. Please avoid quoting previous posts unless absolutely necessary. DISCLAIMER: The views represented herein do not necessarily represent the views of the moderators. Digest contributors assume all responsibility for ensuring that articles submitted do not violate copyright protections. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 4 Feb, 1994 22:12:32 EST From: CuD Moderators Subject: File 1--Proposed Computer Crime Amendment (HR 3355) ((MODERATORS' NOTE: We're periodically asked about "that new law that makes virus writing illegal." We know of no such piece of specific legislation, although malicious destruction of systems by viruses and other means are currently covered in most state and federal computer crime statutes. We assume the question refers to the computer crime section of the proposed federal "Crime Bill" (Formerly HR 3355, now S-1607). Following is the text of the amendment)). TITLE XXVI--COMPUTER CRIME Sec 26.01. COMPUTER ABUSE AMENDMENTS ACT OF 1993 (a) SHORT TITLE.--This title may be cited as the "Computer Abuse Amendments Act of 1993." (b) PROHIBITION.--Section 1030(a)(5) of title 18, United States Code, is amended to read as follows: "(5)(A) through means of a computer used in interstate commerce or communications, knowingly causes the transmission of a program, information, code, or command to a computer or computer system if-- "(i) the person causing the transmission intends that such transmission will-- "I) damage, or cause damage to, a computer, computer system, network, information, data, or program; or "(II) withhold or deny, or cause the withholding or denial, of the use of a computer, computer services, system or network, information, data or program; and "(ii) the transmission of the harmful component of the program, information, code, or command-- (491) "(I) occurred without the knowledge and authorization of the persons or entities who own or are responsible for the computer system receiving the program, information, code, or command; and "(II)(aa) causes loss or damage to one or more other persons of value aggregating $1,000 or more during any1-year period; or "(bb) modifies or impairs, or potentially modifies or impairs, the medical examination, medical diagnosis, medical treatment, or medical care of one or more individuals; or "(B) through means of a computer used in interstate commerce or communication, knowingly causes the transmission of a program, information, code, or command to a computer or computer system-- "(i) with reckless disregard of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the transmission will-- "(I) damage, or cause damage to, a computer, computer system, network, information, data or program; or (492) "(II) withhold or deny or cause the withholding or denial of the use of a computer, computer services, system, network, information, data or program and "(ii) if the transmission of the harmful component of the program, information, code, or command-- "(I) occurred without the knowledge and authorization of the persons or entities who own or are responsible for the computer system receiving the program, information, code, or command; and "(II)(aa) causes loss or damage to one or more other persons of a value aggregating $1,000 or more during any 1-year period; or "(bb) modifies or impairs, or potentially modifies or impairs, the medical examination, medical diagnosis, medical treatment, or medical care of one or more individuals;". (c) PENALTY.--Section 1030(c) of title 18, United States Code is amended-- (1) in paragraph (2)(B) by striking "and" after the semicolon; (493) (2) in paragraph (3)(A) by inserting "(A)" after "(a)(5); and (3) in paragraph (3)(B) by striking the period at the end thereof and inserting "; and"; and (4) by adding at the end thereof the following: "(4) a fine under this title or imprisonment for not more than 1 year, or both, in the case of an offense under subsection (a)(5)(B). (d) CIVIL ACTION.--Section 1030 of Title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection: "(g) Any person who suffers damage or loss by reason of a violation of the section, other than a violation of subsection (a)(5)(B), may maintain a civil action against the violator to obtain compensatory damages and injunctive relief or other equitable relief. Damages for violations of any subsection other than subsection (a)(5)(A)(ii)(II)(bb) or (a)(5)(B)(ii)(II)(bb) are limited to economic damages. No action may be brought under this subsection unless such action is begun within 2 years of the date of the act complained of or the date of the discovery of the damage.". (e) REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.--Section 1030 of title 18 United States Code, is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection: (494) "(h) The Attorney General and the Secretary of the Treasury shall report to the Congress annually, during the first 3 years following the date of the enactment of this subsection, concerning investigations and prosecutions under section 1030(aa)(5)of title 18, United States Code". (f) PROHIBITION.--Section 1030(a)(3) of title 18 United States Code, is amended by inserting "adversely" before "affects the use of the Government's operation of such computer." ------------------------------ Date: 31 Jan 1994 16:26:51 -0600 From: ROBERTS@DECUS.CA(Rob Slade, Ed. DECrypt & ComNet, VARUG rep, Subject: File 2--"DIGITAL WOES" by Wiener (Book Review) BKDGTLWO.RVW 931223 Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. Heather Rignanesi, Marketing, x340, 73171.657@Compuserve.com P.O. Box 520 26 Prince Andrew Place Don Mills, Ontario M3C 2T8 416-447-5101 fax: 416-443-0948 or Tiffany Moore, Publicity tiffanym@aw.com Bob Donegon bobd@aw.com John Wait, Editor, Corporate and Professional Publishing johnw@aw.com Tom Stone, Editor, Higher Education Division tomsto@aw.com 1 Jacob Way Reading, MA 01867-9984 800-822-6339 617-944-3700 Fax: (617) 944-7273 5851 Guion Road Indianapolis, IN 46254 800-447-2226 "Digital Woes", Wiener, 1993, 0-201-62609-8, U$22.95/C$29.95 lauren@reed.edu When reviewing books on technical topics, one quickly learns to dread the work of those who do not actually practice in the field. (Yes, we are told that Wiener is a technical writer. They may very well be professionals, but the overwhelming majority are not technical professionals.) With this prejudice firmly in place, it came as a delightful surprise to find that "Digital Woes" is an accurate, well-researched, and thoroughly engaging treatment of the subject of software risks. Chapter one is a list of specific examples of software failures, large and small. The stories are thoroughly documented and well told. The choice of examples is careful, and useful as well, covering a variety of problems. One could, of course, add to the list. In the virus field programs are extremely limited in function and rarely exceed 3000 bytes in length, yet almost every viral strain shows some programming pathology; most of the damage seems to be done by mistake. The user interfaces of antivirals are subject to hot debate, perhaps more importantly than in other systems because of the risks involved in misunderstanding. In regard to decision support, I recall the assumption, on the part of Excel, that everyone wants to use linear forecasting. Everyone involved in technical fields will be able to add other specific examples. For those uninvolved, Wiener's work is quite sufficient and convincing. Chapter two is an explanation of why software contains bugs, and why software errors are so deadly. Techies will feel somewhat uncomfortable with the lack of jargon, but persevere. Initially, I thought she had missed the point of the difference between analogue and digital systems--until I realized I was in the middle of a complete and clear explanation that never had to use the word "analog". (Technopeasants will, of course, appreciate the lack of jargon. Rest assured that the same ease of reading and clarity of language holds throughout the book.) Chapter three examines the various means used to try to ensure the reliability of software--usually with a depressing lack of success. As with all who have worked in the field, I can relate to the comments regarding the difficulty of testing. At one point I uncovered a bug in the third minor variant of the fourth major release of the fifth generation of a communications program. Apparently I was the first person on staff who had ever wanted to keep a running log between sessions--and the functions I used combined to completely lock up the computer. Most RISKS-FORUM readers will by now be nodding and muttering, "So what else is new". However, Wiener here proves herself capable of some valuable and original contributions beyond the pronouncements of those working in the field. Noting that she is familiar with programmers who have never, in twenty years of work, had their code incorporated into a delivered product, she raises the issue of what this type of work environment does to the psyche of the worker. My grandfather carved the wooden decorations in our church, and, fifty years after his death, I can still point that out. However, in a career of analysis, training and support, I can point to little beyond an amount of Internet bandwidth consumed. (Many would say "wasted".) To the ephemeral nature of the craft, though, one must add the legacy of constant failure. Martin Seligman's "Learned Helplessness" points out the danger quite clearly. A similar thought was voiced some years ago over the impact on developing youth of the then new video games, and the fact that you could advance through levels but never, ultimately, win. These children are grown now. You may know them as "Generation X". Chapter four deals with means to prevent failure. Actually most of the material discusses recovery--assuming that the system will eventually fail, how to ensure that the failure causes the least damage. Chapter five is entitled "Big Plans" and looks at various proposed new technologies and the risks inherent in them. In this discussion Wiener warns against those who are overly thrilled with the promises of the new technology. I agree, but I would caution that public debate is also dominated by those strident with fear. The arguments of both sides tend to entrench to defeat the opposition, while the public, itself, sits bemused in the middle without knowing whom to believe. It is a major strength of Wiener's work that the field is explored thoroughly and in an unbiased manner. Many books which try to present an objective view of a controversial problem tend to trail off into meaningless weasel-words, but the final chapter here concerns "The Wise Use of Smart Stuff." Wiener lists a good set of criteria to use in evaluating a proposed system. The one item I would recommend be toned down is the axiom that personal care be excluded. I keep an old Berke Breathed "Bloom County" cartoon in my office wherein Opus, the Penguin, berates a computer for depriving him of his humanity until the bemused machine attempts to confirm that Opus is human. The perceived coldness of our institutions is often illusory. I once worked in a geriatric hospital and thought it a shame that our culture did not keep aging parents at home. Until, that is, I lived in a culture that did, and found that the "technology" of our hospitals provided more human contact to the old folks than did the "organic" home care. I also note that the belittled ELIZA is the only program to have passed the Turing test so far. A limited, unexpected, and hilarious pass, perhaps, but a pass nonetheless. I note, as I am reviewing this book, a press release by a headhunting agency that half of all executives are computer illiterate. The survey method is extremely suspect, and I assume these figures are so kind as to be ridiculous. I would heartily recommend this work to technical and non-technical workers alike. Particularly, though, I recommend it to those executives who are the ones to make the ultimate decisions on major projects. Please re-read it after the next vendor demo you attend. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKDGTLWO.RVW 931223 Postscriptum - my wife agrees with Peter Denning that I tend to editorialize in my reviews. This is likely true. "Digital Woes", however, deals with a topic which has prompted many editorials--and deals with it well. Permission granted to distribute with unedited copies of the Digest ====================== DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 DECUS Symposium '94, Vancouver, BC, Mar 1-3, 1994, contact: rulag@decus.ca ------------------------------ Date: 31 Jan 94 15:24:24 EST From: Urnst Kouch/Crypt Newsletter <70743.1711@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: File 3--Review: "Computer Viruses, Artificial Life & Evolution" Just after Christmas, on December 27th, Addison-Wesley France was served with a temporary legal notice prohibiting the distribution of its recently published French language edition of Mark Ludwig's "Little Black Book of Computer Viruses, Volume 1." Entitled "Naissance d'un Virus," or "Birth of a Virus," the French edition was selling for about $50 cash money. The company is also distributing a disk containing copies of Ludwig's TIMID, INTRUDER, KILROY and STEALTH viruses separately for a few dollars more. However, before the ink was dry on the paper a French judge dismissed the complaint, said Ludwig between laughs during a recent interview. Addison-Wesely France, he said, subsequently worked the fuss into good publicity, enhancing demand for "Naissance d'un Virus." Almost simultaneously, Ludwig has published through his American Eagle corporation, its follow-up: "Computer Viruses, Artificial Life and Evolution," which will come as a great surprise to anyone expecting "The Little Black Book of Computer Viruses, Part II." For those absent for the history, "The Little Black Book of Computer Viruses," upon publication, was almost uniformly denounced - by the orthodox computer press - as the work of someone who must surely be a dangerous sociopath. Most magazines refused to review or mention it, under the working assumption that to even speak about viruses for an extended length - without selling anti-virus software - only hastens the digital disintegration of the world. Ludwig found himself engaged in a continued battle for advertising for his book, losing contracts without notice while the same publications continued to stuff their pages with spreads for cosmological volumes of pornography. This has always been a curious, but consistent, hypocrisy. The real truth, for the entirety of the mainstream computer press, is that it has _always_ been OK for anyone among the citizenry - including children - to potentially rot their minds with various digital pictographic perversions; it is not OK for the same audience to have the potential to electronically rot their computers' files with Ludwig's simple viruses, none of which are in the wild over a year after publication of the book. Another consideration the mainstream journals must deal with is that if they were to suddenly and unilaterally control pornographic advertising, the loss in revenue would cause some of them to fail. In the end, it's always been a money thing. Pornographers have it. Mark Ludwig is only one account. [This has gotten more interesting since one of the larger computer porn advertisers, the manufacturer of the CD-ROM "For Adults Only (FAO) Gold" collection, has also entered the virus business, selling issues of the virus-programming journal 40HEX on its "Forbidden Secrets" CD-ROM. The "Forbidden Secrets" disk has been advertised in the same full-page ads as the "FAO Gold" collections.] Not surprisingly, the controversy has kept sales of "The Little Black Book" brisk since its initial printing and financed the expansion of American Eagle. Which brings us, finally, to "Computer Viruses, Artificial Life and Evolution," a book which takes a hard scientific look at life and the theory of evolution, and only incidentally contains working viruses. To grapple with the underlying philosophy behind "CVAL&E," its helpful to know Ludwig was a physics major at Caltech in Pasadena, CA, at a time when Nobel-laureate theoretical physicists Richard Feynman and Murray Gell-Mann were in residence. The ruthlessness with which these scientists dealt with softer disciplines not up to the task of thorough theoretical analysis coupled with the academic meat-grinder that is Caltech's reputation, casts its shadow on "CVAL&E." Ludwig writes in the introduction: ". . . Once I was a scientist of scientists. Born in the age of Sputnik, and raised in the home of a chemist, I was enthralled with science as a child. If I wasn't dissolving pennies in acid, I was winding an electromagnet, or playing with a power transistor, or . . . freezing ants with liquid propane. When I went to MIT for college I finally got my chance to totally immerse myself in my first love. I did rather well at it too, finishing my undergraduate work in two years and going on to study elementary particle physics under Nobel laureates at Caltech. Yet by the time I got my doctorate the spell was forever broken . . . I saw less and less of the noble scientist and more and more of the self-satisfied expert." And this sets the tenor for the rest of the book, as Ludwig analyzes Darwinian evolution and, by the standards of intellectual rigor imposed by post-War theoretical physics, declares it even more squishy than theories of quantum gravity and black holes; the answer as to how present day life came from the primordial soup of biopolymers is always skittering away out of reach in an impenetrable fog of hypothetical bullshit. It's not clear at all how a mixture of even the most complex biomacromolecules resulted in predecessors of _E. coli_, the simplest algae or any precursors of the archaebacteria, without resorting to creationism or spontaneous generation. Ludwig - using some heavy math - chews the probabilities up and spits them out as miraculous, not very helpful when you're wearing the traditional scientist's hat. Then he does the same for the simplest of computer viruses - using as examples a disk copying program which, if altered in one line of instructions, can be made into a primitive boot sector virus. To understand the material fully is a tough job; if you don't have some experience with statistical thermodynamics, probabilistic studies and differential equations, frankly, it will take you a while to get up to the speed where the lion's share of "CVA&E" doesn't lose you. Ludwig's science is good, his understanding of basic biochmemistry and microbiology solid enough to support any arguments made as he works his way through the inadequacies of evolution. Unlike Steven Levy's "Artificial Life," Ludwig makes no chirpy assertions that such as the Brain virus are a mere step away from animation. Instead, in "CVA&E" he asks the reader to concede that Darwinian theory doesn't seen likely to explain anything about genesis satisfying to pure determinists. And, outside of whole-heartedly buying into astronomer Fred Hoyle's ideas about freeze-dried virus and bacterial suspensions frozen in cometary ice and dropped into the atmosphere as seed from the depths of space, research into the dawn of life of Earth is going nowhere fast. So Ludwig asks us not to discard computer viruses and computerized artificial life as potential tools to look at the problem. By the finish Ludwig, of course, hasn't come up with the answer either. And, he admits, you have to fudge a bit - maybe a lot - to swallow the contemporary ideas about artificial life. And then he takes another risk by asking readers to entertain the fancy that if we don't get a handle on some fresh ideas about evolution and the origins of life, sooner or later something will show up in our backyard and get a handle on us. It's a wild ride, but an enjoyable one. "CVAL&E" also includes some interesting programs, most notably SLIP-Scan, a variably encrypting virus which uses the Trident Polymorphic Encryptor and a code construct Ludwig calls the Darwinian Genetic Mutation Engine. This engine, which Ludwig has written to mimic a simple gene, encodes constantly changing information within the virus that is used to modulate the operation of the Trident encryptor, thus confering on the virus a directed evolution in successive generations sensitive to the presence of anti-virus software elimination of replicants in large numbers of infections. SLIP-Scan replicates and places a segment of information produced by the Darwinian Engine in an unused portion of computer memory, where it is read by a different member of the SLIP-Scan population and used to hybridize the data carried in the subsequent progeny. Ludwig has made this a computerized mimic of one of the simplest ways in which bacteria exchange genetic information, via small connecting tubes through the medium called pili. In SLIP-Scan's case, computer RAM is the bridge through the environment along which the "genetic" material is transferred between virus offspring. The result of this is that polymorphic progeny of SLIP-Scan not caught by anti-virus software slowly are selected in a Darwinian manner for offspring which cannot be detected. While this might sound threatening, the population of viruses required to demonstrate the effect is such that it is unlikely it would be a factor on real world computers, even i the virus were in the wild. The winning program in Ludwig's First International Virus Writing Contest is also in "CVAL&E." Written by a virus programmer known as Stormbringer, the Companion-101 virus is used by the author to work out the probability of viruses evolving into different variations through faults in computer memory and translation. "Computer Viruses, Artificial Life and Evolution" is an intriguing, thorough read. If you go looking for it, be prepared to spend some time. [American Eagle, POB 41401, Tucson, AZ 85717] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Feb 94 20:18 EST From: ktark%src4src@IMAGEEK.YORK.CUNY.EDU(Karl Tarhk) Subject: File 4--A Guide to Technological Disasters to Come A GUIDE TO TECHNOLOGICAL DISASTERS TO COME. by Kohntark (ktark@src4src.linet.org) Technical Editor of CRYPT magazine. There are millions of words wasted in endless discussion about what a wonderful world this will be once the technological marvels to come take over, about how interconnected humanity will become once the Data Highway is in place and we have all the gizmos brought to you by the world's leading companies and most brilliant minds, about how we will have endless sources of information at our fingertips, about how easy and enjoyable life will be..in other words nothing short of the second coming of Jesus (or your favourite messiah for all of you non-Catholic types). I see the AT&T advertisements asking things like "Have you ever sent someone a fax from the beach?", "Have you ever borrowed a book from thousands of miles away?" "Have you ever paid a toll without slowing down?", "Have you ever tucked your kid in from a phone booth?" (!!!) and stating assuredly: "YOU WILL" These advertisements promise interactive marvels that will allow you to see where the hell you are when you are driving your car, to send faxes while you are on the beach or to pick your seats for a concert interactively, all this with astounding 3d-views and graphics than not even the most expensive PC computers can produce, and yes, AT&T promises this will happen (they do not dare say how soon!); while more than half of the world's population lives in increasing poverty levels and can barely afford a TV set! Every month I see the new Multimedia products and promises about real time video and other 'it-looks-great-in-reviews products', while some of us still wait for a decent computer operating system and the commercial acceptance of a computer programming language not created by idiots. I see news about revolutionary interactive TV and other wonders like 500 television channels and digital radio cable stations filled with everything for everyone. Yet most of the 30+ TV channels and endless radio stations are filled with garbage and infomercials now! But why not review a few facts relevant to the up and coming techno-revolution-in-the-making? -Most of America sits home and rots in front of an analog TV an average of five hours a day watching programs of high educational content like 'Geraldo,' 'Current Affair' or 'Hard Copy' while the FCC is still deciding the successor of our millenarian TV technology. -Most people still cannot even program a VCR, and according to a survey done by Dell: A majority of Americans are technologically disabled (read: _techno-wimps_). -America spends more money on its educational system than any other nation in the world yet most young Americans are functionally illiterate. -Most of the PhD's graduated by our universities are not American but of foreign origin: (Read: American students don't take advantage of their educational facilities) -Public Radio and Public Television, agencies which offer undoubtably the best variety and quality of educational and entertainment programs are far from striving, in fact they could be considered as dieing ideas in the face of technological marvels to come. -Recently, the National Science Foundation's ban on the commercial use of the Internet was over. To predict the future of the much-hyped techno-revolution all we have to do is to look back a few decades ago and see the changes that one technological landmark, television, has wrought. Has television, a possible source of endless educational materials, and tool to advance us in the right direction, brought all benefits to everyone? Hardly. Instead of a wonderful tool, it became another method for the corporate world to sell its products and agendas, another way for the government to spoon-feed its citizens with mindless, easy entertainment, while filtering out "dangerous" ideas and information while embedding hate for liberals and foreign ideas. History will repeat itself: The corporate world will rule the new "revolution." The usual fare of idiocy, sex and violence will take over all new media, and the users will remain as imbecilic as ever, while in the background pseudo-revolutionaries conduct make believe wars against the hand that feeds them, and corporate sponsored magazines bring unknowing fools the latest in irrelevant false techno-anarchists (read:hackers) in an entertaining manner. The mediums may change but the content will remain the same. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Jan 1994 13:33:16 EST From: EVFW91A@PRODIGY.COM(MR DAVID W BATTERSON) Subject: File 5--New AIDS BBS CAM - Computerized AIDS Ministries BBS Network by David Batterson NEW YORK--The Computerized AIDS Ministries (CAM) Resource Network is a BBS that has been attracting a broad cross-section of people among its 300 plus users. CAM BBS provides a medium through which people may obtain current information and resources to assist in ministering to persons impacted by HIV disease. CAM also provides services that help those engaged in HIV/AIDS medical treatment, caregiving, education and counseling to interact with one another, thus providing mutual support and interchange of ideas and methods. The board is a friendly and warm gathering of diverse people brought together into cyberspace by the nefarious specter of AIDS. The CAM Network is run by the health and welfare ministries program of the general board of global ministries at the United Methodist Church headquarters, New York. However, persons of all religious faiths (or none) are welcome on the BBS, and there is no proselytizing of the "unfaithful" by other BBS users. Charles Carnahan is executive director of the church's HIV/AIDS ministries. CAM's sysop is Nancy Carter. Carter provided some calling statistics for CAM. "Right now we have 318 accounts," she said. "Unused accounts age off after 60 days. We have 249 males and 69 females; we have teens on up." As for calling frequency, the CAM board stays busy. "To date, we have had 23,000 calls, Carter said. Usually we have more than 100 calls a day. This month average hours of use per day has been 17-18. It has been as high as 22 but went lower when we introduced QWK mail, and folks started to use offline readers." On CAM, a gay, white, leatherman atheist in Los Angeles might find himself exchanging thoughts and feelings with a married, heterosexual, female PWA-caregiver in the South. And it works. The BBS has a wealth of AIDS/HIV information files in its library, which grow daily. Many of these information resources have been shared with CAM by persons involved in the AIDS struggle, including health professionals. CAM also gets AIDS information files from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), such as "CDC AIDS Daily Summaries," "Effectiveness of Drugs for CMV and MAC," "Q&As Often Heard on the CDC Hotline," "AIDS and Injection Drug Use," "Use of AZT with Persons Newly Infected" and "Vaccine Trials for HIV." Other files run the gamut, with titles including "WHO Global AIDS Statistics," "World AIDS Day Logo-PCX file," "Nutrition and HIV Bibliography," "Traditional Herbal Remedies," "Lesbians & AIDS Study," and "HIV/AIDS and the Churches' Response." The board will soon be tied in with the AIDS Education and General Information Service (AEGIS), a network that supplies BBSs across the U.S. and in other countries with its thousands of files. Boards that join AEGIS must provide free access to information, and permit callers to use anonymous handles. Use of the CAM BBS is free, but they welcome donations. Donated funds help pay for CAM's costs--running over $75 thousand a year--and continue making a free BBS available for those who could not otherwise afford to use it. You can access CAM via one of two numbers: (212) 870-3953 or (800) 542-5921. Using the first number saves the program money, which it needs to maintain the toll-free 800 number for those who can't afford to call long distance. Any speed up to 9600 bits per second (bps) may be used; there will soon be support for 14.4K bps modems. When you call CAM, you enter a system that's all menu driven. First-time users are asked to identify themselves, and answer a few questions. The CAM sysop will send a full manual of operating instructions to first-time users. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 31 Jan 94 10:23:10 PST From: ross@QCKTRN.COM( Gary Ross ) Subject: File 6--1994-01-26 Notice of NII Advisory Council Open Meeting Date--Fri, 28 Jan 1994 12:25-0500 From--The White House Subject--1994-01-26 Notice of NII Advisory Council Open Meeting Federal Register/Vol. 59, No. 17/January 26, 1993/pp. 3758 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE ADVISORY COUNCIL ON THE NATIONAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE Notice of Open Meeting AGENCY: National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). ACTION: Notice is hereby given of the first meeting of the Advisory Council on the National Information Infrastructure, created pursuant to Executive Order 12864, as amended. SUMMARY: The President established the Advisory Council on the National Information Infrastructure (NII) to advise the Secretary of Commerce on matters related to the development of the NII. In addition, the Council shall advise the Secretary on a national strategy for promoting the development of a NII. The NII will result from the integration of hardware, software, and skills that will make it easy and affordable to connect people, through the use of communication and information technology, with each other and with a vast array of services and information resources. Within the Department of Commerce, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration has been designated to provide secretariat services for the Council. AUTHORITY: Executive Order 12864, signed by President Clinton on September 15, 1993, and amended on December 30, 1993. DATE: The meeting will be held on Thursday, February 10, 1994, from 1:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m. ADDRESS: The meeting will take place in the Indian Treaty Room at the Old Executive Office Building (OEOB), Room 474; 17th St. and Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.; Washington, D.C. 20500. The Pennsylvania Avenue entrance to the OEOB should be used. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Sarah Maloney, Designated Federal Official for the National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council and Chief, Policy Coordination Division at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA); U.S. Department of Commerce, Room 4625; 14th Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W.; Washington, D.C. 20230. Telephone: 202-482-1835; Fax: 202-482-0979; E-mail: nii@ntia.doc.gov. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Advisory Council was chartered on January 5, 1994, pursuant to Executive Order 12864, as amended, to advise the Secretary of Commerce on matters related to the development of the National Information Infrastructure (NII). In addition, the Council shall advise the Secretary on a national strategy for promoting the development of a NII. AGENDA: 1. Welcoming Remarks by the Vice President and the Secretary of Commerce 2. Opening Introductions and Remarks by the National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council Co-Chairs 3. Briefing by the Information Infrastructure Task Force Committee Chairpersons 4. Open Discussion 5. Administrative Issues 6. Next Meeting Date and Agenda Items 7. Closing Remarks PUBLIC PARTICIPATION: The meeting will be open to the public, with limited seating available on a first-come, first-served basis. Interested members of the public who wish to attend the meeting should provide their full name, date of birth, and social security number to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) by fax at 202-482-0979 or through electronic mail at nii@ntia.doc.gov. This information is required to satisfy the security regulations for the Old Executive Office Building and must be provided to NTIA by 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 8, 1994, to allow expeditious entry into the meeting. Any member of the public may submit written comments concerning the Council's affairs at any time before or after the meeting. Comments should be submitted to the Designated Federal Official at the address listed above. Copies of the minutes of the Council meetings may be obtained from the U.S. Department of Commerce Public Reading Room, Room 6204, 14th Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W.; Washington, D.C. 20230; Telephone 202-482-4115; within 30 days following the meeting. Date Larry Irving Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information ------------------------------ From: Dave Banisar Date: Mon, 31 Jan 1994 15:59:20 EST Subject: File 7--Anti-Clipper Petition from CPSRClipper Petition Clipper Petition Electronic Petition to Oppose Clipper Please Distribute Widely On January 24, many of the nation's leading experts in cryptography and computer security wrote President Clinton and asked him to withdraw the Clipper proposal. The public response to the letter has been extremely favorable, including coverage in the New York Times and numerous computer and security trade magazines. Many people have expressed interest in adding their names to the letter. In response to these requests, CPSR is organizing an Internet petition drive to oppose the Clipper proposal. We will deliver the signed petition to the White House, complete with the names of all the people who oppose Clipper. To sign on to the letter, send a message to: Clipper.petition@cpsr.org with the message "I oppose Clipper" (no quotes) You will receive a return message confirming your vote. Please distribute this announcement so that others may also express their opposition to the Clipper proposal. CPSR is a membership-based public interest organization. For membership information, please email cpsr@cpsr.org. For more information about Clipper, please consult the CPSR Internet Library - FTP/WAIS/Gopher CPSR.ORG /cpsr/privacy/crypto/clipper ===================================================================== The President The White House Washington, DC 20500 Dear Mr. President: We are writing to you regarding the "Clipper" escrowed encryption proposal now under consideration by the White House. We wish to express our concern about this plan and similar technical standards that may be proposed for the nation's communications infrastructure. The current proposal was developed in secret by federal agencies primarily concerned about electronic surveillance, not privacy protection. Critical aspects of the plan remain classified and thus beyond public review. The private sector and the public have expressed nearly unanimous opposition to Clipper. In the formal request for comments conducted by the Department of Commerce last year, less than a handful of respondents supported the plan. Several hundred opposed it. If the plan goes forward, commercial firms that hope to develop new products will face extensive government obstacles. Cryptographers who wish to develop new privacy enhancing technologies will be discouraged. Citizens who anticipate that the progress of technology will enhance personal privacy will find their expectations unfulfilled. Some have proposed that Clipper be adopted on a voluntary basis and suggest that other technical approaches will remain viable. The government, however, exerts enormous influence in the marketplace, and the likelihood that competing standards would survive is small. Few in the user community believe that the proposal would be truly voluntary. The Clipper proposal should not be adopted. We believe that if this proposal and the associated standards go forward, even on a voluntary basis, privacy protection will be diminished, innovation will be slowed, government accountability will be lessened, and the openness necessary to ensure the successful development of the nation's communications infrastructure will be threatened. We respectfully ask the White House to withdraw the Clipper proposal. ------------------------------ End of Computer Underground Digest #6.13 ************************************