Integer factorization, etc.
in [Math]
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From: quasi on 18 Apr 2008 21:19 supposed to look like, two police officers stopped him, * searched him and seized his $9600. The businessman was given a receipt * and told he was free to go. * * "No evidence of wrongdoing was ever produced. No charges were ever filed. * As far as anyone knows, Willie Jones neither uses drugs nor buys nor sells * them. He is a gardening contractor who bought an airplane ticket. Who lost * his hard-earned money to the cops." After a long legal battle and a lot of * publicity, Jones got his money back. * [snip] * * Paolo Alvarez: "I believe in God, but the government's seizure of all my * savings was really horrible. I felt trapped and I almost flipped out." * * Alvarez was a landscape contractor, cautious and frugal, who saved his * money. Several years ago, however, Alvarez began listening to the * speeches of Ross Perot, especially Perot's exaggerated [beat the drum * of fear] warnings that the nation's savings and loan institutions * were about to collapse. As a reult of mounting anxiety generated by * the Texas businessman, Alvarez decided to move the nest egg from his * savings and loan. * * He placed some of the money in a regular bank and hid the balance in * small caches around the house. * * When the sky did not fall, when Ross Perot's predictions did not come * true, Alvarez began slowly moving the cash in his house back into a * bank. Partly because of his fear of a possible robbery, he chose to * redeposit his money in
From: Risto Lankinen on 18 Apr 2008 17:34 for requiring fingerprinting for driver's licenses... But it is still a violation of the minimization requirement of the Privacy Act of 1974. Biometric data on citizens is FAR BEYOND any reason government can give. Notice how no citizens in any state ever got to vote on such an important escalation of personal data collection by the government. Indeed, it seems to be accomplished in the quietest way possible, giving citizens the least amount of opportunity to choose their fate. Odd, since tax-payer paid-for government services is what gives them the power. But elected representatives will do, you say? Did you hear any of them mention it during campaigning? Did Alabama elected officials even mention it with their press release of a new driver's license, despite that being the plan? No. What does that tell you? We need a cabinet-level Privacy Commission, with the power to intervene nationwide. Power to protect us little people from fanatical personal data collection. We are losing it piece by piece. Who would have thought the United States would collect fingerprints from all citizens? Collect biometric information from everyone... law enforcement's Evil Holy Grail. * "U.S. Has Plan to Broaden Availability tests of DNA Testing" * By Fox Butterfield, The New York Times, undated but 1996 implied. * * In a little known provision of the Clinton Administration's 1994 Crime * Control Act was a call for the establishment of a nationwide DNA data * bank like the current national system for fingerprints, run by the FBI. * * In the two years since then, 42 states have passed laws requiring prison * inma
From: Tim Little on 18 Apr 2008 18:11 in three semicircular tiers of : desks, can watch---and direct---as criminals are caught in the act. : : Their computer mouse screen pointers are a gun icon. OH MY GAWD!!!! WHAT'S NEXT, THE WHOLE DAMN COUNTRY??? What is this? * Subject: Air Force News Service 01oct96 * From: webmaster(a)vnis.com (Veterans News & Information Service) * Date: 1996/10/01 * Newsgroups: soc.veterans * * Night vision lasers go to court * * KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. (AFNS) -- More drug and * smuggling convictions may soon result from a laser optics research * agreement signed here Sept. 25 between the Air Force Phillips * Laboratory and FLIR Systems, Inc. * * "Current sensors cannot read a license plate, ship registration, or * aircraft tail number," said 1st Lieutenant Robert J. Ireland of * Phillips's Lasers and Imaging Directorate. * * "But an operator with special eyewear, using a laser spotlight having a * wavelength invisible to the unaided eye, may be able to," he said. * * ---------------------------
From: Risto Lankinen on 18 Apr 2008 20:09 and then use computers to search for pre-programmed addresses and keywords. In this way they select out manageable numbers (hundreds or thousands) of messages to be searched through and read by the intelligence analysis staff. Many people are vaguely aware that a lot of spying occurs, maybe even on them, but how do we judge if it is ubiquitous or not a worry at all? Is someone listening every time we pick up the telephone? Are all Internet or fax messages being pored over continuously by shadowy figures somewhere in a windowless building? There is almost never any solid information with which to judge what is realistic concern and what is silly paranoia. What follows explains as precisely as possible - and for the first time in public - how the worldwide system works, just how immense and powerful it is and what it can and cannot do. The electronic spies are not ubiquitous, but the paranoia is not unfounded. The global system has a highly secret codename - ECHELON. The intelligence agencies will be shocked to see it named and described for the first time in print. Each station in the ECHELON network has computers that automatically search through millions of intercepted messages for ones containing pre-programmed keywords or fax, telex and email addresses. Every word of every message is automatically searched: they do not need your specific telephone number or Internet address on the list. All the different computers in the network are known, within the UKUSA agencies, as the ECHELON Dictionaries. Computers that can search for keywords have existed since at least the 1970s, but the ECHELON system has been designed to interconnect all these computers and allow the stations to function as components of an integrated whole. Under the ECHELON system, a particular station's Dictionary computers contain not only its parent agency's chosen keywords, but also a list for each of the other four agenci
From: David Bernier on 18 Apr 2008 19:17
zine, subscribed to by members of security departments all over Wall Street (at the least). It is filled with fascinating information, highly useful for securing one's systems. Here's a random sample factoid from 2600: although on-site company switches are commonly programmed to block '900' number calls, there is a hole in the programming logic that always lets '555' exchange numbers through. ("Information wants to be free") Companies that advertise 900 numbers take advantage of this. For example, even though you can't dial most 900 numbers, you can still call numbers like USA Today's 1-900-555-5555, which are specifically chosen to get around the 900 programming restrictions. Oh yeah: I remember another one that triggered firm-wide security checks: 2600 described a hole in DOS that could allow others to execute commands on your system by virtue of defining function key contents (F1, F2..) on the fly AND THEN EXECUTING THEM. ] > Cummings apologized to the court for his "odd curiosity" of the past, > insisting that he merely collected books and information and never > caused harm to anyone. His lawyer pleaded with the judge to allow > Cummings to pick up the pieces of his life and not be subjected to > any more inhumane treatment. [ I feel sick upon reading he felt compelled to apologize for books. ] > Judge Panella passed sentence: 6 to 24 months plus a $3,000 fine. > > We have also learned of a very similar case that took place in Kentucky > late last year where |