Re: Black Net

Does anyone actually believe Blacknet exists this is about the umpteenth time
I have heard about some kind of Blackmarket internet traders that are very had
to find.  It sounds like something out of that Gibson book "Virtual Light"
Reuben Halper
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One of several such questions or comments:

> Does anyone actually believe Blacknet exists this is about the umpteenth time
> I have heard about some kind of Blackmarket internet traders that are very had
> to find.  It sounds like something out of that Gibson book "Virtual Light"
> Reuben Halper

I don't have time right now to dig up my last couple of explanations
of this experiment, so let me summarize for the new folks.

I'm not enclosing the original BlackNet "prospectus" here, as it has
been circulated several times, including a posting to 100 newsgroups
by L. Detweiler a short time ago. If you simply _have_ to have it,
it's around. 

1. I authored BlackNet last summer, as an experiment, and as a "proof
of principle" for a discussion at a Palo Alto nanotechnology group.
Several list members were there.

2. Hence the emphasis on nanotechnology and the like. That was picked
so as to strike a resonant chord with the nannites.

3. I anonymously e-mailed copies to several people I expected to be in
attendance, so as to encourage some interest, and so they could see
how such things might really develop (black markets for nanotech
weapons and other developments). 

4. The numbers are real. I generated the BlackNet key, for the
<blacknet@cyberspace.nil> address, and I can of course read the
traffic posted to BlackNet. Communication is by anonymous pool (a la
Myron Cuperman's pools) or by posting anonymously into a
publically-readable group (same idea). If BlackNet were real, I would
of course not be admitting my connection to it.

(However, to reiterate: it is real in the sense that the "parts work."
That is, it is not just a Potemkin protocol.)

5. Somebody, not me, took his e-mail copy and anonymously e-mailed it
to the Cypherpunks list, around last August-September. It caused only
a minor stir. On the Extropians list, I also did a follow-up--this
time intentional--announcing that "BlackNet Investigations" was
announcing its anonymous dossier service. You can imagine the
implications.

(I confessed to this experiment a mere few days later, as it looked
like some were going along with the joke, adding their own comments
about being "shocked, simple shocked" at what they found in their
dossiers, while others were growing more and more worried. I think it
was Eric Hughes who dubbed this "guerilla ontology.")

6. From Cypherpunks, Detweiler posted it to more than a hundred
newsgroups, where the reaction was puzzled, confused, and angry. This
was largely the reason he finally had his colostate account yanked.

7. Since then, it continues to bounce around. Oak Ridge National Labs
was one of several places that had it (minus the PK block at the end)
and had warned their employeess to be "on the lookout" for it and for
evidence of theis kind of cyberespionage.

And so that's the story. 

--Tim May

(If you don't hear from me the next couple of days you can assume I
was taken away by the Men in Black to the Area 51 Surveillance Center,
or that I am off at the Asilomar Microcomputer Workshop.)

On Tue, 19 Apr 1994, Timothy C. May wrote:

> I don't have time right now to dig up my last couple of explanations
> of this experiment, so let me summarize for the new folks.

[A very good outline of the history of blacknet followed... deleted to 
preserve bandwidth.]
 
> And so that's the story. 
> 
> --Tim May
I have something to add here... since the original blacknet message 
release, I have encountered about 7 additional blacknet posts... posts 
presumably not of T.C.May origination. One had to do with some TEMPEST 
monitoring eqip for sale, one claimed to have knowledge of some major 
AT&T exec's sexual preferences, yet another was offering pirated software 
for sale (what a joke!). Each of these posts have had thier own PGP 
public key attached, and a list of acceptable 'pools'. Upon adding each 
key to my key ring, they each claim to belong to 
<BlackNet@nowhere.cyberspace.nil> or whatever (all identicle) but had 
different key id #s and one was even less than 1024bits! (the pirate 
warez key if I remember right...)

My point being, even if Tim didn't originaly intend for it to be a 'real' 
thing, some people have taken it to heart. Hell, if I ever have anything 
shady to buy or sell (me? no, *never*!) I might just roll myself a 
blacknet key and do it that way myself.

On a lighter note, Thanks a billion to everyone who posted a "Blacknet is 
real, man, stay away from them!" message today, I nearly died laughing.

Happy Hunting, -Chris.

______________________________________________________________________________
Christian Douglas Odhner     | "The NSA can have my secret key when they pry
cdodhner@indirect.com	     | it from my cold, dead, hands... But they shall
pgp 2.3 public key by finger | NEVER have the password it's encrypted with!"
cypherpunks         WOw            dCD           Traskcom          Team Stupid
  Key fingerprint =  58 62 A2 84 FD 4F 56 38  82 69 6F 08 E4 F1 79 11 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

<My computer told me that Christian D. Odhner said:>

   ...

> My point being, even if Tim didn't originaly intend for it to be a 'real' 
> thing, some people have taken it to heart. 

   ...

Or perhaps they are just going along with the joke as they did with the
"stay away" messages.

-- 
   Tantalus Inc.        Bringing people together     Jim Sewell-KD4CKQ
2407 N. Roosevelt Blvd.   to have a little fun.  Internet: jims@mpgn.com
Key West, FL  33041                               	  CIS: 71061,1027
  (305) 293-8100    "We keep coding and coding and coding..."

Frederic Halper says:
> Does anyone actually believe Blacknet exists this is about the
> umpteenth time I have heard about some kind of Blackmarket internet
> traders that are very had to find.  It sounds like something out of
> that Gibson book "Virtual Light"

The March 21st issue of "Cyberspace Intelligence Weekly" reports that
Blacknet may be selling portions of (but sadly not complete)
specifications to the Skipjack algorithm. Rumor has it that they are
physically based on the island of Sonsorol in the western Pacific.

Perry