From: Tony Hollick (anduril@cix.compulink.co.uk)
Date: Thu Oct 23 1997 - 06:58:39 MDT
Kathryn Aegis writes:
Q:
> This message is being circulated throughout the Internet, and I don't
> know where it originated, although it came with attachments coded in
> html. Can anyone render an opinion as to its possible veracity? Can
> cookies possibly be constructed to operate in this fashion?
A: Bet your bippy!!! In a word: "YES"
Worse: Microsoft Corporation's Windows95 _already has these
routines coded into it_, with rather weak encrypted lockouts. These
lockouts can be (and are being) broken by any competent Signals
Intelligent outfit, and by _anyone else_ who can afford a trip to
Russia to buy the services of a retired Russian cryptanalyst trying
to feed his family on cardboard and water... That means that every
Windows95 user in the world who uses the (insecure) Internet -- even
with (the equally insecure) PGP -- is already -- for computing and
data security purposes -- living in a glasshouse with no clothes
on... >:-} Quite exciting... I'll stay with my Atari Falcon and
steganography, perhaps.
The 'bad guys' can search, get _and put_ files to your hard drives
at will.
That is (ferinstance), all the uptight 'Moral Majority' crowd could
already have really gross 'kiddie porn' piccies on their hard drives
_right now_... All their back filed letters subtly altered in
various horribly incriminating ways...
Use some imagination (NSA certainly do!) The mind boggles... >:-}
"While class consciousness is a continuous topic of conversation in
European society,from lowest to highest stratum, Americans seem to
find the ideas offensive and most 'impolite' conversation. Only
rightist kooks and commies talk about ruling classes and class
structures. Rothbardians and neo-Rothbardians fight this "love which
casnnot mention its name" (to borrow from Oscar Wilde) inhibition to
discussion and elaboration of class theory in various ways..." --
Samuel Edward Konkin, III; from "Agorism Contra Marxism", in
"Strategy of the New Libertarian Alliance #2, [1982-3] pp. 16-17.
The original (daffy!) idea of the Great Microsoft Scam was that US
Intelligence would gain access to everone's personal computers
worldwide via the Internet, and -- as a 'quid pro quo' -- all
Microsoft Corporation's competitors would be 'disappeared.' (The
Prez has openly tasked NSA and CIA to garner commercial intelligence
of value to US Corporations, worldwide).
An irresistible temptation, huh? "Let's Pull A Fast One On Joey!"
Trouble is, it's completely illegal. And civilly actionable...
It directly violates NSA's Legal Charter, and the sworn Oath of
Allegiance to the Constitution of the United states of every
relevant government official who's involved... Worse, every other
US Government Spaghetti Agency (FBI, IRS, the list goes on...) who
learned of the 'backdoors' wanted in on the 'take' and their piece
of the pie -- and spooks do love to gossip... All the NSA and CIA
folk I chat with have known of this problem for quite some time.
All this leaves the Federales looking rather like a circular firing
squad, all pointing their rifles inwards, but with no-one actually
standing in the middle anymore...
William Neukom (Microsoft's Chief Legal Officer at their Redmond HQ,
who has called me to discuss this problem -- a nice 'man in a
foxhole'); and Bill Gates (who I faxed directly in June concerning
these matters) are presently trying to fight the spooks and flics
and fuzz and Vopos and Federales off their backs.
They need all the help they can get (the good guys, that is!)
I have already discussed these problems at great length with:
* The National Security Agency (including with a former DIRNSA);
* GCHQ (NSA's British equivalent);
* The Headquarters Directorate of George Soros' Quantum Fund...
[ FX: <chortle> "Bear Raids!!! Class Actions!!! Chapter 11!!!" ]
* Marc Andreesen's Office at NetScape;
* IBM's Chief Legal Office at Armonk HQ:
(now they understand why IBM's OS/2 lost market share with OS2);
* NATO's Headquarters Technical Directorate
(who took the whole matter under formal advisement last week).
* The FBI;
* The US Embassy in London <verbatim>: "Are you saying we should
arrest _BILL GATES?_ _The world's richest man_? That would be like
arresting the _Queen_... Prince Charles, on the other hand..."
>:-}
No doubt the Department of Justice's latest Inquiry into Microsoft
Corporation's practices _and_ the European Commission's new Inquiry
into Microsoft Corporation's monopolistic practices will be homing
in on all these problems any day now ... "The men of the double
standard"
[ FX: "No? I'll prove it to you in the next fifteen minutes..." ]
[ FX: "But all those discoveries won't do the stockholders ... any
good, because the stock ... will have *crashed* tomorrow morning,
crashed like an electric bulb against concrete, crashed like an
express elevator, spattering pieces of hitchhikers all over the
gutters!" ]
[ FX: "CRASH!!!" "CRASH!!!" "CRASH!!!" "FLASH!!!" ]
[ FX: <This was like the Wyatt fire again, he thought, this was his
secret danger...> ]
[ FX: "Is... is there something wrong? I mean, on... on the Stock
Exchange?" ]
[ FX: "Heep quiet," he whispered. "For God's sake, keep quiet!" ]
[ FX: <The man was shaking>. "Something's ... wrong?" ]
[ FX: <austerely>: "Watch." ]
(Ayn Rand, from "Atlas Shrugged" [1957]
[ FX: "Hello" to Francisco d'Anconia! ]
[ FX: "FLASH!!!" ]
/ /\ \
--*--<Tony>--*--
Tony Hollick
============
Anduril@CIX.compulink.co.uk
http://www.agora.demon.co.uk
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/la-agora
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
(Just try a string search-and-replace of 'AOL' with 'Microsoft Corporation')
<quote>
> From a former AOL employee:
I'll try and cut through the crap, and try to get to the point of this
letter. I used to work for America Online, and would like to remain
anonymous for that reason. I was laid off in early September, but I
know exactly why I was laid off, which I will now explain:
Since last December, I had been one of the many people assigned to
design AOL 4.0 for Windows (AOL 4.0 beta, codenamed Casablanca). In
the beginning, I was very proud of this task, until I found out the true
cost of it. Things were going fine until about mid-February, when me
and 2 of my colleagues started to suspect a problem, an unexplainable
'Privacy Invasion', with the new version. One of them, who is a master
programmer, copied the finished portion of the new version (Then 'Build
52'), and took it home, and we spent nearly 2 weeks of sleepless nights
examining and debugging the program, flipping it inside-out, and here is
what we found.
Unlike all previous versions of America Online, version 4.0 puts
something in your hard drive called a 'cookie'. (AOL members click <A
HREF="aol://4344:1047.g334.8411481.532897009">here</A> for a
definition). However, the cookie we found on Version 4.0 was far more
treacherous than the simple internet cookie. How would you like
somebody looking at your entire hard drive, snooping through any (yes,
any) piece of information on your hard drive. It could also read your
password and log in information and store it deep in the program code.
Well, all previous versions, whether you like it or not, have done this
to a certain extent, but only with files you downloaded. As me and my
colleagues discovered, with the new version, anytime you are signed on
to AOL, any top aol executive, any aol worker, who has been sworn to
secrecy regarding this feature, can go into your hard drive and retrieve
any piece of information that they so desire. Billing, download
records, e-mail, directories, personal documents, programs, financial
information, scanned images, etc ... Better start keeping all those
pictures on a floppy disk!
This is a totally disgusting violation of our rights, and your right to
know as well. Since this is undoubtably 'Top Secret' information that I
am revealing, my life at AOL is pretty much over. After discovering
this information, we started to inform a few other workers at America
Online, so that we could get a large enough crew to stop this from
happening to the millions of unfortunate and unsuspecting America Online
members. This was in early August. One month later, all three of us
were unemployed. We got together, and figured there was something we
had to do to let the public know.
Unemployed, with one of us going through a divorce (me) and another who
is about to undergo treatment for Cancer, our combined financial
situation is not currently enough to release any sort or article. We
attempted to create a web page on three different servers containing
in-depth information on AOL 4.0, but all three were taken down within 2
days. We were running very low on time (4.0 is released early this
winter), so we figured our last hope to reveal this madness before it
effects the people was starting something similar to a chain letter,
this letter you are reading. Please do the following, to help us expose
AOL for who they really are, and to help us and yourself recieve
personal gratification for taking a stand for our freedom:
1. Forward this letter to as many people as you can (not just friends
and family, as many as you can!)
2. Tell people who aren't on America Online in person, especially
important people (Private Investigators, Government workers, City
Council)
3. If the information about the new version isn't exposed by the time
aol is released early this winter, for your own protection, DON'T
DOWNLOAD AOL 4.0 UNDER ANY CONDITION !!!
Thank you for reading and examining this information. Me and my
colleagues hope that you will help us do the right thing in this
situation. Enjoy America Online (just kidding!).
Regards,
A former AOL employee
</quote>
HHOK... >:-}
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 14:45:03 MST