No Subject

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[ To: cypherpunks ## Date: 07/19/96 08:13 pm ##
  Subject: Message pools ]

>Date: Wed, 17 Jul 1996 23:19:59 -0700
>From: Bill Stewart <stewarts@ix.netcom.com>
>Subject: Re: Message pools _are_ in use today!

>>2. The authorities already have identified a suspect, call him "Bob," and
>>wish to know if he reading (and perhaps decrypting) messages to "Alice."

>>As several of us have noted, #1 is tough--real tough. The authorities would
>>have to contact 10,000 or more ISPs who have local newsfeeds and subpoena
>>their logs of who read which newsgroups...assuming such logs are even kept

>Getting everybody is tough.  Getting a lot of the potential suspects,
>however, isn't as tough as it looks - the vast majority of home Internet
>users are on AOL, Compuserve, Prodigy, UUNet, Netcom, or (RSN) AT&T.
>Anonymous Message Pool users are a bit more likely to use niche-market ISPs,
>especially under pseudonyms, but if the number of users increases
>significantly there'll still be a reasonable proportion on the big carriers,
>which are probably more cooperative and probably keep more complete logs.

There are two other factors.

1.   If you're trying to figure out who anonymously posted the ``All
faggots must die'' message on alt.sex.motss, you have a very large
number of potential suspects. However, if you're trying to figure
out who anonymously posted the ``how to manufacture nerve gas''
post, your suspect list is quite a bit smaller.  The condition for
technical information about cryptography or computer security is
similar.

2.   It may be that the way you test your suspects is parallelizable
enough that you can do a ``dictionary attack,'' in which you go down
a list of people who you might suspect of posting something for one
reason or another, and test the hypothesis that each of them
actually did post it.  Suppose I have such a test which can rule out
75% of my suspect list.  This becomes a useful tool--especially if I
can track multiple posts by the same user and rule out more and more
of my suspect list as more and more messages are posted.

I wouldn't count on even heavily-chained anonymous remailer messages
to protect my identity from moderately wealthy and determined
attackers, if I did many anonymous posts.  Writing style and topic
alone may narrow the suspect list down to a manageable number.

># Bill Stewart +1-415-442-2215 stewarts@ix.netcom.com
># http://www.idiom.com/~wcs

   --John Kelsey, jmkelsey@delphi.com / kelsey@counterpane.com
 PGP 2.6 fingerprint = 4FE2 F421 100F BB0A 03D1 FE06 A435 7E36

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On Wed, 24 Jul 1996, JMKELSEY@delphi.com wrote:
>I wouldn't count on even heavily-chained anonymous remailer messages
>to protect my identity from moderately wealthy and determined
>attackers, if I did many anonymous posts.  Writing style and topic
>alone may narrow the suspect list down to a manageable number.

There is an easy way to defeat psycholinguistic analysis techniques used by 
LEA's to profile perps.  Buy a translation program, (such as Globalink's Spanish 
Assistant) use the program to translate the text to Spanish, (or any other 
language) and then use the program to translate the foreign language text back 
to English.  The baselines of word choice, grammatical structure, etc. will be 
shifted to reflect the biases of the program rather than the biases of the 
writer.  As an example, I will use the entire text of this message as a 
demonstration.

Jonathan Wienke

"1935 will go down in history! For the first time a civilized nation has full 
gun registration! Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the 
world will follow our lead in the future!"
--Adolf Hitler

"46.  The U.S. government declares a ban on the possession, sale, 
transportation, and transfer of all non-sporting firearms. ...Consider the 
following statement:  I would fire upon U.S. citizens who refuse or resist 
confiscation of firearms banned by the U.S. government."
--The 29 Palms Combat Arms Survey  
http://www.ksfo560.com/Personalities/Palms.htm

1935 Germany = 1996 U.S.?

Key fingerprint =  30 F9 85 7F D2 75 4B C6  BC 79 87 3D 99 21 50 CB


[Begin Spanish Translation]

En Casa, 24 Jul 1996, JMKELSEY@ [delphi.com] escribió:
 "no hago cuento con mensajes del [remailer] iguales muy-encadenado anónimos 
proteger mi identidad de asaltadores algo adinerados y determinados, si hacía 
muchos postes anónimos.  Estilo de la escritura y tema solo estrecharía la lista 
del sospechoso a un número manejable."

Hay una manera fácil derrotar técnicas del análisis del [psycholinguistic] usó 
por LEA perfilar [perps].  Compra una traducción programa, (tal como el Spanish 
Assistant de Globalink) usa el programa traducir el texto a español, (o 
cualquier otro idioma) y entonces usa el programa traducir el texto del idioma 
extranjero retrocede a inglés.  El [baselines] de opción de la palabra, 
estructura gramática, etc. se cambie reflejar los sesgos del programa en lugar 
de los sesgos del escritor.  Como un ejemplo, usaré el texto entero de este 
mensaje como una demostración.

Jonathan Wienke

¡" 1935 bajará en historia! ¡Por la primera vez una nación civilizada tiene 
registro del arma lleno! Nuestras calles serán más seguras, nuestro policía más 
eficaz, y el mundo seguirá nuestra primacía en el futuro!"
--Adolf Hitler

" 46.  El EE.UU. gobierno declara una prohibición en la posesión, venta, 
transportación, y transfiere de todo arma de fuego no-deportivos. .Consider the 
following statement:  I would fire upon U.S. citizens who refuse or resist 
confiscation of firearms banned by the U.S. government."
--Las 29 Palmas Combaten [http] del Estudio de los Brazos:// www.ksfo560.com/ 
Personalidades/ Palms.htm

¿1935 Alemania= 1996 EE.UU.?

Huella digital importante= 30 F9 85 7F D2 75 4B C6 AC 79 87 3D 99 21 50 CB


[Begin English Translation of Spanish Text]

At home, 24 Jul 1996, JMKELSEY@[ [delphi.com]] he/she/it/you wrote:
 "I don't make have messages of the[ [remailer]] equal very-chained anonymous 
letter protect my identity of attackers something wealthy persons and certain, 
if I/he/she/it/you did many anonymous posts.  Style of the writing and alone 
topic would take in the list of the suspect to a governable number."

There is an easy way defeat technical of the analysis of the[ 
[psycholinguistic]] he/she/it/you used for I/he/she/it/you READ profile[ 
[perps]].  You/he/she/it buy a translation you/he/she/it program, (as the 
Spanish Assistant of Globalink) you/he/she/it use the program translate the text 
to Spanish, (or any another language) and you/he/she/it then use the program 
translate the text of the foreign language you/he/she/it go back to English.  
The[ [baselines]] of option of the word, grammatical structure, etc. 
I/he/she/it/you am changed to reflect the biases of the program instead of the 
biases of the writer.  Like an example, I will use the text I find out this 
message like a demonstration.

Jonathan Wienke

" 1935 will lower in history! For the first time a civilized nation has 
registration of the full weapon! Our streets will be surer, our more effective 
police, and the world will continue our primacy in the future!"
--Adolf Hitler

" 46.  The USA gobierno declara una prohibición en la posesión, venta, 
transportación, y transfiere de todo arma de fuego no-deportivos. .Consider [the 
following statement]: I [would fire] U.S [upon]. [citizens who refuse or resist 
confiscation of firearms banned by] U.S [the]. [government]."
--The 29 Palms Combat[ [http]] of the Study of the Arms:// www.ksfo560.com/ 
Personalities/ Palms.htm

1935 Germany= 1996 USA?

Important fingerprint= 30 F9 85 7F D2 75 4B C6 AC 79 87 3D 99 21 50 CB

[Begin Follow-Up Comments]

Obviously, the technique is crude, (translation software on autopilot works in 
mysterious ways) but it ought to be used by anyone wishing to anonymously 
communicate.  To really work properly, the original message should be worded so 
that the translator program understands all of the words in the message (none of 
the words are bracketed and left untranslated).  Otherwise, an analysis of 
untranslated words can be made.  The subject matter, etc. can still be studied, 
but at least most conventional profiling techniques are rendered orders of 
magnitude more difficult by this process.  Perhaps this could be a value-added 
fee-for-service option for remailer operators? (Using ecash for payment, of 
course.)

JonWienk@ix.netcom.com wrote:

   [Begin English Translation of Spanish Text]

   At home, 24 Jul 1996, JMKELSEY@[ [delphi.com]] he/she/it/you wrote:
    "I don't make have messages of the[ [remailer]] equal very-chained anony=
   mous=20
   letter protect my identity of attackers something wealthy persons and cer=
   tain,=20
   if I/he/she/it/you did many anonymous posts.  Style of the writing and al=
   one=20
   topic would take in the list of the suspect to a governable number."

John Young obviously uses this technique regularly :-)

-- 
Paul Foley <mycroft@actrix.gen.nz>       ---         PGPmail preferred

	   PGP key ID 0x1CA3386D available from keyservers
    fingerprint = 4A 76 83 D8 99 BC ED 33  C5 02 81 C9 BF 7A 91 E8
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Who cares if it doesn't do anything?  It was made with our new
Triple-Iso-Bifurcated-Krypton-Gate-MOS process ..."

At 10:08 PM -0700 7/25/96, JonWienk@ix.netcom.com wrote:
>On Wed, 24 Jul 1996, JMKELSEY@delphi.com wrote:
>>I wouldn't count on even heavily-chained anonymous remailer messages
>>to protect my identity from moderately wealthy and determined
>>attackers, if I did many anonymous posts.  Writing style and topic
>>alone may narrow the suspect list down to a manageable number.
>
>There is an easy way to defeat psycholinguistic analysis techniques used by
>LEA's to profile perps.  Buy a translation program, (such as Globalink's
>Spanish
>Assistant) use the program to translate the text to Spanish, (or any other
>language) and then use the program to translate the foreign language text
>back
>to English.  The baselines of word choice, grammatical structure, etc.
>will be
>shifted to reflect the biases of the program rather than the biases of the
>writer.  As an example, I will use the entire text of this message as a
>demonstration.

You are using two code books for double encoding. This is the kind of
problem analysts solve while brushing their teeth. All the analyst has to
do is determine your translation programs (easy to do since they have such
obvious anomalies) and create reverse code books. The malapropisms are so
obvious that there should be little difficulty aggregating the longest
phrases that make up one codebook entry.

David