[25016] in Cypherpunks
Don't Say Anything More in Public!
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Timothy C. May)
Sat Jan 7 18:43:41 1995
From: tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)
To: jsled@free.org (Josh Michael Sled)
Date: Sat, 7 Jan 1995 15:38:12 -0800 (PST)
Cc: cypherpunks@toad.com
In-Reply-To: <199501072319.RAA03833@squeaky.free.org> from "Josh Michael Sled" at Jan 7, 95 05:19:56 pm
Josh Michael Sled wrote:
...
> The idea of the Chinese Lottery seemed to be rather far fetched in my
> first few readings, but then I came across the discussion of the new
> Emergency Broadcast System.
>
> This may just be an unfair helping of paranoia, but the system seems
> to be a perfect distribution system for a Chinese Lottery-like
> keychecking or cracking system. Even though the public can turn off the
> broadcast, the signal will still be sent. The chips may even be
> government-regulated... available only from the government so no one can
> tamper with the signal and use this system for their own
> information-disemination needs (*ahem* Political agendas *ahem*
> re-election ads). They might even encrypt the signals, for a touch of
> irony. Anyone find fault in this?
Josh, I'm sending this note to you privately--please don't comment
anymore in public on this! You could be undermining national
insecurity by revealing this system!
More than just key-crackers are included in the Emergency Broadcast
System boxes. In addition, the red LED acts just as the LEDs on cable
set-top boxes act, namely, as an infrared sensor. These LEDs can count
the numbers of citizen-units in the same room as the unit, and can of
course even detect the thermal signature of drug abuser (flushed skin,
dilated eyes, etc.).
The key-cracking functions are only incidental. In fact, they may not
even be cost-effective. I was told last year by the NSA's A.U.N.T.I.E.
(Authorization Unit for Non-Terminal Industrial Enterprises)
group that the real key-cracking crunch is contained in the *Clipper*
phones, which of course have crypto modules and can do all the right
calculations.
They can also occasionally dial the Clipper phone ("Sorry, wrong
number.") and check on the progress of calculations. Mysterious phone
calls in the middle of the night should rightly worry folks--it may
mean your number's up.
But don't discuss this on the list! If you do, she'll have us killed.
(And don't call her Dotty!)
--Klaus! von Future Prime, being channelled by Carol
Moore^H^H^H^H^HAnne Braddock
