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Article 1235 of cle.general:
Path: usenet.ins.cwru.edu!gw1.att.com!gw2.att.com!neoucom.edu!eff!eff!not-for-mail
From: brown@eff.org (Dan Brown)
>Newsgroups: cle.general
Subject: Re: Are there enemy spies lurking along the e-mail route?
Date: 22 Mar 1995 13:06:57 -0500
Organization: Subversive Student Publications un-inc.
Lines: 61
Message-ID: <3kpp01$1vi@eff.org>
References: <3kho0q$a03@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> <D5pKq3.F0o@hamnet.wariat.org> <3kl7p6$jj0@eff.org> <D5t9Dt.767@hamnet.wariat.org>
NNTP-Posting-Host: eff.org

In an earlier posting patrick@hamnet.wariat.org (Patrick Lewis) writes:
>
>Tell Mitnick that...in his prison cell.  Anyways, sure.. If you WANT
>to read something that is unencrypted, it's entirely possible. The issue
>is, most people don't want to and it generally doesn't happen.

Thats kinda like saying most people don't want to steal your car, so
you might as well pull the locks off. 

>That is not to say, however, that it CAN'T happen. Mitnick proved that it
>does.

Mitnick and many others. 


>If you have 10Base-T wires on an IPX-based network, you can buy a product
>called a Vampire Spike, stick it in the line, and see everything that's
>going thru the line.

If you have a PC with an Ethernet card, you can get a variety of _FREE_
software (say... Linux) and monitor traffic on the net. 

>Tempest isn't _that_ good, however, it is effective for tapping transmissions
>over wires.

The biggest protection against tempest is the fact that it costs LOTS. 
Its not something I typically worry about... but then, I'm not pushing
classified info over my net. 



Dunno... guess my real points are: 

1. NEVER assume that your Email is secure. Its not. There are TOO many
	ways that it can be read, including tapping on the network,
	a root level user just reading the file, a bounce going someplace
	it shouldn't, etc etc. 

2. Use strong, secure encryption routines if you want to make your mail
	(or any other data) private. PGP is one of the few programs
	out there that I'd really consider private any more. DES is
	not impossible to break, Clipper/Capstone (whatever they are
	calling it) is open to the Gov't (or whoever happens to grab
	the keys), etc. 

3. Push the gov't to lift the export restrictions on strong crypto 
	so that its possible for everyone to use stuff like PGP, 
	and its possible for decent authentication routines to be
	developed and implemented on the Internet... which is basically
	a world wide net. 


later.

Dan

-- 
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Online..    |    |		(Dan Brown brown@eff.org)
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fn979@cleveland.freenet.edu

D.Esq (Alias the Jackal)