Chinese EBS

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

I've been reading through "Applied Cryptography," as every good boy
and girl should :) and one of the concepts struck out at me recently. 
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?

- -Joshua M. Sled <jsled@ctp.org/jsled@free.org>

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 2.6

iQCVAgUBLw3WJqTT29daLBKRAQFbRgP/RAhGdEmxMe4zOuLORY9rKu7VhapXen7S
6+cVOvrlOxJ2ohCmxZpXbwKY9oR6ggF1jURwb9LZEiHPfzaOOsftURxcmJUsC2db
1vkSRuBarkm6vOK+JIlLMwKzRdk9omt+TmJPD7/wI5M1jhMfLRNS+fkbEpDFtisn
0s1H2nvXdDs=
=kGbJ
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

---
  KWQ/2 1.2g NR  "MTV get off the air!" - DKs

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