1859 lines
100 KiB
Plaintext
1859 lines
100 KiB
Plaintext
[pp 38-40: Article from DIE ZEIT, 30 November 1984, by Thomas von Randow]
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Bildschirmtext: A Blow Against the System
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A Computer Club Discovers Breaches of Security in the Bundespost's BTX Program
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"Whoever hooks up to the BTX system in the next two to three years should be
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punished for stupidity." This withering assessment of the Bundespost's new
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service, Bildschirmtext, could be heard last week at the eighth conference of
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data protection specialists in Cologne--from an authoritative source. It was
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spoken by the chairman of the Association for Data Protection (GDD), the
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conference host, after he heard the comments of a computer entthusiast. With
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wit and a relaxed patter, Herwart ("Wau") Holland of Hamburg's "Chaos Computer
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Club" (CCC) explained how he and his 23-year-old fellow club member, Steffen
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Wern‚ry, had managed to take the Bildschirmtext service for a ride.
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It is easier to get a winning six-digit combination in the lottery than to
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illegally acquire the password of a BTX subscriber, Bildschirmtext experts at
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the Bundespost had boasted. But that is exactly what the computer chaotics did
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straight away. An error, in professional circles called a bug, in the system's
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computer program made it as simple as child's play for the hackers. Many
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Bildschirmtext users had already noticed that there was something wrong with
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the program.
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Suppliers compose full-screen images with information about what they have to
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offer--merchandise from the mail-order catalogue, vacations, account statements
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for bank customers, or simply letters to friends. These "pages" can then be
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called in by (authorized) BTX subscribers, and responses to the relevant
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questions--concerning a flight booking or a money transfer, for example--can be
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input at home on the keyboard of the BTX auxiliary unit.
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However, space on a television screen is limited, and the BTX page can hold
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only 1,626 characters. So that the designer knows during editing how many
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characters he has left on the page, this number is indicated at the bottom edge
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of the screen. Until recently, however, this number was wrong--programmers are
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notoriously poor at mental arithmetic. The page was full before the number of
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available characters reached zero. For this reason, many suppliers experienced
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a chaotic overflow of characters, something that should not happen.
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Suddenly, all sorts of words, numbers or incomprehensible letter sequences flit
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by on the screen. The reason for this character salad: The creators of the
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BTX program apparently forgot to take care of "trash disposal," i.e., to see to
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it that excess text be ignored by the program or somehow set aside. For that
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reason, the excess characters force parts of the program writer onto the
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screen, and they are, as the Hamburg hackers discovered, sometimes telling.
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Specifically, they sometimes reveal the very secret that a BTX subscriber must
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guard most closely, his identification code. This password is the key to
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access to the system. Although it cannot be used to plunder someone else's
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bank account, it is possible to cause a great deal of mischief. Merchandise
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can be ordered, vacations can be booked, magazine subscriptions can be entered.
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By agreement, the legal holder of the security code is liable for all damage
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thus incurred.
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Steffen Wern‚ry and his colleagues--the club is a registered subscriber--caused
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masses of BTX pages to overflow and then studied the ghostly characters on the
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screen. In so doing, they discovered "usd 70000," the password for Hamburger
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Sparkasse (Haspa). Now they were able to carry out what they had been planning
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for some time: an impressive demonstration of the inadequacies of
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Bildschirmtext. They set up a "contribution page." Suppliers may charge a
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type of protection fee or contribution for each call-in of their pages,
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although this fee cannot exceed DM 9.99. The account of the subscriber who
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calls in the page is automatically charged with the fee. With the Sparkasse
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password, the hackers now called in their own page--to the tune of DM 9.97.
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The idea was for this to occur repeatedly, which is why a home computer was
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programmed to automatically call in the page over and over again. It did its
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job well, and while the club members worked on other activities, the cash
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register rang every three seconds. From Saturday at 6:00 p.m. until Sunday at
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1:00 p.m., a total of DM 135,000 was credited to the club's account, money
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which they gladly returned to Haspa.
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Long before computers were popular, American students dubbed a type of trick
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using technology a "hack." Legendary is the hack of Captain Crunch, a student
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who took his name from a brand of breakfast cereal. Inside the box of this
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type of cereal was a small plastic whistle, that was coincidentally tuned to
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exactly 2,600 hertz. In the American telephone system, as Captain Crunch
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discovered, this frequency, when whistled into the microphone of the telephone
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receiver, caused a breakdown in the fee meter.
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Word of the trick with free long-distance calls soon spread; it made the cereal
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company rich and the telephone company poor. Or at any rate, it was in a
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difficult bind. A decision had to be made between accepting the loss, the
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amount of which was difficult to determine, and undertaking expensive technical
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changes in the continental network. Bell decided in favor of the second
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option.
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This type of blow against a computer system represents a wonderful triumph that
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goes far beyond the financial advantage associated with it; it is a liberating
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blow, which frees us for a few moments from the dominance of technology. In
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the 1930s, small-plot gardeners in Hamburg illuminated their houses free of
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charge. The supplier of electricity was the nearby antenna of a strong radio
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broadcaster, from which energy was diverted using a simple trap circuit to the
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lamps. For years, this hack went undetected--and once it was finally blown
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open, it elicited a fundamental legal debate: Are radio waves movable property
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under the meaning of the law?
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The trickster who thought up the hack with the first push-button pay phone by
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SEL just 10 years ago remained anonymous. For this, he used a piezoelectric
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lighter. Whoever wanted to make a free phone call simply went to a telephone
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booth with the SEL phone, inserted a five-mark piece and called his party. But
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before all the money was used up, the lighter had to be struck near the key
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pad. The spark from the lighter significantly disturbed the electronics and
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the phone was then forced to assume that the connection had not been made, and
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thus--in dubio pro comparticipte--the five-mark piece was returned. In all pay
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phones of that type, the logic boards had to be replaced.
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For the victim, the hack is not only annoying, it is generally an educational
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experience as well, revealing technical design flaws. Naturally, as the degree
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of complexity of the system increases, so does the potential for damage that
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can be inflicted even with the first hack. Thus, it is a wonder that the games
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played by BTX hackers have thus far been harmless. After all, they revealed
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the wretchedness of the Bildschirmtext design with a degree of clarity that
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leaves nothing to be desired.
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In BTX's country of origin, Great Britain, hackers made a game out of cracking
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Prince Philip's electronic mailbox. The BTX mailboxes are definitely oddly
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constructed. Bildschirmtext letters that have already been mailed can be
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rewritten later by the sender. Any mailbox can even be rendered fully
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inoperative. In order to do so, all that is required--as the Hamburg Chaos
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hackers also discovered--is that the command to repeat the entire call-in be
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placed at the end of a page edit. The page drawn up in this way then appears
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repeatedly. It also does so in the mailbox to which it is sent, the result
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being that nothing else can be retrieved from it. Only the Bundespost knows
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how to break up this vicious cycle.
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A microcomputer can also be connected to the Bildschirmtext system. But pity
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the poor soul who uses it to call in a crash program specialized for his type
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of machine. That will cause the computer to crash, destroying the programs
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loaded in its memory. The only thing that can be done then is to reboot. The
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destructive program is offered as a harmless Bildschirmtext page. Advanced
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hackers have even set them up as time bombs. It is only later, once the page--
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generally headed with silly sayings--is long forgotten that the machine breaks
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down, so that generally the cause can no longer be determined.
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The Bundespost should have learned its lesson long ago, before its pride and
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joy, Bildschirmtext, was dealt a resounding blow last week by the Sparkasse
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trick. The piecemeal adjustments that they undertook in the past after every
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announced BTX hack were apparently inadequate. A program that needs so much
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clearing up is hopelessly contaminated.
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Naturally, the Bundespost knows this, and it grieves them in particular because
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BTX had just overcome the last political hurdle on the path to being
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universally introduced. It also hurts since there is already a dearth of
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interest in the new medium of communication. According to predictions by the
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Ministry, BTX should have around 150,000 subscribers by now. In reality, that
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figure is only a scant 19,000, of which 3,000 are suppliers.
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It is questionable whether the Bundespost will be able to compensate for its
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losses from IBM, who set up the system. "Big Blue" will scarcely be able to
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get out of supplying a new computer program. And that could take two to three
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years, which is the time that Reinhard Vossbein meant when he declared anyone
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who subscribes to Bildschirmtext during that period guilty of stupidity.
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[p 40: Unattributed text]
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MSG by GAST
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20 November 1984, 5:10 a.m.
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MICKI is thinking about the CCC's BTX gag (bravo, by the way...), and reaches
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the following conclusion:
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The more securely a system is protected against unauthorized access, the more
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unauthorized the people who can uncover weaknesses must be.
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Ultimately, you have a system to which only the unauthorized have access...
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In this regard: Keep on doing it!
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[p 40: Unattributed text of computer program]
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10 REM bankrob.ba
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20 REM Version 1.00
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30 REM (c) 1984 by Wau
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40 MOTOR OFF: 'Relay for money key
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100 CLS:PRINT"Bankrob.ba -Restart procedure"
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110 INPUT "Prior money received: ";MONEY
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120 IN=52:'Time value key on
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130 OUT=169:'Time value key off
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150 CLS:PRINT0,"DM ";MONEY,"in: ";IN;" out: ";OUT;
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160 PRINT90,"o<<<< out >>>> O"
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170 PRINT130,"i<<<< in >>>> I"
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180 PRINT170,"Stop with x "
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190 PRINT210,TIME$;:GOTO 1100
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200 REM Rhomboid loop
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210 MOTOR ON:PRINT40,"IN":PRINT40,TIME$:FOR I=1 TO IN:GOSUB 1000:NEXT I
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220 MOTOR OFF:PRINT40,"OUT":FOR I=1 TO IN:GOSUB 1000:NEXT I
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230 MOTOR ON:PRINT40,"IN":FOR I=1 TO IN:GOSUB 1000:NEXT I
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240 MOTOR OFF:PRINT40,"OUT":FOR I=1 TO OUT:GOSUB 1000:NEXT I
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250 MONEY=MONEY+9.97:PRINT0,"DM ";MONEY,"In: ";IN;" Out: ";OUT;
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260 GOTO200
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1000 REM Speed
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1010 X$=INKEY$:IF X$="" THEN RETURN
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1020 IF X$="o"THEN OUT=OUT-1:RETURN
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1030 IF X$="O"THEN OUT=OUT+1:RETURN
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1040 IF X$="i"THEN IN=IN-1:RETURN
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1050 IF X$="I"THEN IN=IN+1:RETURN
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1060 IF X$<>"x" THEN RETURN
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1100 PRINT170,"Continue with x "
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1110 MOTOR OFF:PRINT40,"OUT"
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1120 X$=INKEY$:IF X$="x" THEN 1150 ELSE 1120
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1150 PRINT170,"Stop with x ";GOTO 200
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[pp 41-42: Article by "Wau," from TAZ, 22 November 1984]
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How the Hamburger Sparkasse BTX Code Was Cracked
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Bildschirmtext Tested for Weaknesses
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Ever since the coup by the Chaos Computer Club in Hamburg, who used a bug in
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the Bildschirmtext system to charge fees of DM 135,000 to Hamburger Sparkasse,
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Bildschirmtext, or BTX, has been a topic of discussion, and the chaotics from
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the Chaos Club have made headlines.
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Bildschirmtext is a big joke being played on consumers. For more than seven
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years, "field tests" were run in Berlin and D<>sseldorf. From the very
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beginning, it was obvious that the system would be introduced following the
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field tests, regardless of the results of the "tests." The political objective
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made immense investments possible, thus making it simply impossible to abandon
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the system. After the "test," the test subscribers could throw away their
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equipment, since in the meantime it had become technically obsolete. The
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Bundespost paid for the technical conversion, giving all the subscribers a
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1,000-mark credit, financed by the coins spent on pay telephone calls.
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Nevertheless, around one in six refused this attractive offer and terminated
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BTX service. The Bundespost predicted 150,000 subscribers by the end of 1984.
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It was actually a scant 20,000, which includes many who are not active
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subscribers. In the meantime, the Bundespost has stopped making its own
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predictions, instead spending a couple of million on programs that are supposed
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to provide better prognoses.
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The Bundespost has invested more than DM 700 million in BTX. If you compare
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this to subsidies for opera houses, then the Bundespost has built a 35,000-mark
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box for each subscriber. The only problem is that the opera program is still
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rather monotonous.
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IBM is the supplier of the computer and of the programs for the current system.
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They had high hopes about their deal, and wanted to sell their system to a
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number of countries. After all, approximately 100 people worked on programming
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for around two years. If you spend DM 20,000 a month for one of these
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specialists, that makes DM 50 million. A succession of several executives was
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in charge of the project. There were only a few "minor details" to be improved
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in the program, and with programs the smaller the correction, the more time
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they take.
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Chaos Team Becomes BTX Supplier
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In the fall of 1984, after long debate, the Chaos Computer Club decided to
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subscribe to BTX. Naturally as a "supplier," since being a subscriber is not
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interesting. They started with the least expensive equipment, which was
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technically refurbished. Still, the first months were torturous. The
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prevailing mood with home computers is well-known: "Turn it on--it doesn't
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work." But with the Bundespost, everyone expects that everything will work
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fine. It is only rarely that you get mail from the Bundespost saying, "Because
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of work on the system, few telephone calls will be possible on the weekend."
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With Bildschirmtext, hardly anything worked. Even an accent on a letter in a
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person's name caused unexpected developments (and this in a "European" system).
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In terms of computerization, changing names with accepts is offered up as a
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subversive strategy. Moreover, the blocking and unblocking of pages did not
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work. Blocked pages were legible, unblocked ones were not. The Bundespost
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told people who complained that they were doing something wrong. Blocked pages
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are something like the closed doors in an Advent calendar. On the first of
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December, the first door is opened (in BTX: unblocked), on the second the
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second door, and so on. The Bundespost has a Christmas calendar game of chance
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in Bildschirmtext. Every day, new letters behind a door can be seen, and on 24
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December, there is a complete sentence (Season's Greetings from the
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Bundespost). But without any coercion, all the doors flew open on the first of
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the month. Either someone at the Bundespost typed something wrong, or the
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system has yet another small bug. The Chaos Computer Club (CCC) first got wind
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of this on 12 December, and sent in the complete solution, the prize being
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telephone credits. It is interesting how many subscribers sent in the solution
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before the CCC. Does the Bundespost perhaps believe here as well that some
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chaotics sneaked into the Bundespost to find the solution?
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However, a major problem with BTX is composing pages. The CCC does a type of
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electronic newspaper, which is published irregularly. Once a new article has
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been written and is supposed to be loaded into the system, all eyes focus on
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the lowest line, waiting for the message "ED007 EXECUTION NOT POSSIBLE AT
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PRESENT" or otherwise "Won't work right now."
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In order to penetrate the BTX system, all you need is the connection code.
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Every subscriber has a different 12-digit number. This access authorization is
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generally sent by pressing one key. This is practical and reasonably safe.
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You can imagine it as a nine-digit padlock (the first three numbers are
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generally zero) on your bicycle shed. Secondly, there is a personal code word.
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This is comparable to a padlock on the bicycle itself. And you can also put
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your bicycle in a communal shed. In BTX, this is called a "free-access
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connection." In that case, anyone can go into the communal shed and, if he
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knows the number of a particular bicycle lock, he can move about in BTX and
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take a look at things. A lot of it is free of charge, but some information or
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offerings cost money. Springer-Verlag reports cost 1 pfennig, FRANKFURTER
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ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG reports cost 2 pfennigs, and the owner of the bicycle pays
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for this, not the cyclist.
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Test of BTX Weaknesses
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At some point, discussion at CCC came back to BTX and the policy of the
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Bundespost to simply ignore or deny the risks of BTX. The question arose of
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whether this was intentional or just stupid. A test was decided on. Who would
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be the guinea pig? The Bundespost Ministry in Bonn? A single quote suffices
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here: BTX is allegedly secure because it is difficult to tap into the
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telephone lines in this country, since they are all underground.
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The BTX control facility in Ulm is not that interesting as a test object. It
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tries to keep the system running. And the Berlin office of BTX is responsible
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for calming down postal customers when something goes wrong. The Central
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Telecommunications Office (FTZ) in Darmstadt is the site where technical plans
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and standards are drawn up. There one might expect to find the practical
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technicians who worked out the security system. Those are the right people for
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a test of BTX weaknesses. Without giving it much more thought, the BTX
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connection of the FTZ was tested one day by the CCC: Do they or do they not
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have free access? In order to find out, their subscriber number had to first
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be entered: 06151 83. That is the telephone number for the FTZ. Then there
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is the prompt for the code word. At this point, you can type in anything and
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tell from the subsequent error message whether the FTZ has a free-access
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connection or not. The CCC typed something in, the same telephone number
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again. The FTZ was careless: There was free access. But even worse, the FTZ
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had chosen its own telephone number as its secret code word. That is clearly
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more careless than one would have expected, certainly from Bundespost
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specialists.
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A record is kept by the Hamburg data protection commissioner of who worked on
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Bildschirmtext when. Since the BTX reports when someone was last "on," an
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"outside use" can often be detected in this way. But scarcely anyone keeps a
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record of it; it is too tedious. At any rate, the FTZ did not notice the
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"outside use" by the CCC. This cleared up the question: The Bundespost was
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not withholding and/or providing false information about BTX out of stupidity.
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The CCC considered what it should do now. The most obvious thing was of course
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to get money from the Bundespost. In order to do so, a page for which a fee is
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charged must be called in by another BTX subscriber. And that can be repeated
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any number of times. The highest price per page is currently DM 9.99. With 1-
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pfennig pages from Axel Springer, the CCC tested, at its own expense, how fast
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money can be collected using that method. In non-automatic operation, it
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worked out to around DM 10 an hour. For the CCC page, at DM 9.97, this would
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be DM 10,000 an hour. So you could really get something over night. These
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fees are charged on the telephone bill--in this case, the FTZ's telephone bill
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--and transferred to the suppliers a couple of weeks later. Right now, it is
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not working again, the Bundespost has another bug in the program, and it hopes
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to be able to pay the fees in February. In principle, however, the money is
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being recorded.
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Getting the money would be phase one. What then? Should we sell this breach
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of security to the Bundespost? We could, as is normal in industry, "hack" DM
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100,000 or more and then sell the Bundespost consultation on this problem for a
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certain percentage of the money. Or get free, lifetime telephone service for
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the CCC or something like that. The Bundespost had to pay for its gross
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negligence.
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In both cases, however, the price would have been silence. Otherwise, the
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concentrated rage of the postal authorities would have been forthcoming.
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Consequently, perhaps half a dozen officials would have tried to do something
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to the CCC.
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But the CCC wanted enlightenment about the risks of this new system. To this
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end, the finance transaction had to be made public. Fine, but who should push
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the starting button for the money transfer? After all, it is an infringement
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like a parking ticket, although more expensive: a DM 50,000 fine. Will the
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data protection commissioner do it? He probably would have taken advantage of
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the opportunity and attempted to achieve an improvement by official means.
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A politician? Perhaps. But what if he leaks the story? There remained only
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one option: Do it ourselves, and abrogate our criminal liability by going
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public with it. A week later, the attempt failed, since the FTZ had in the
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meantime closed off free access to its connection.
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Hackers as Data Protection Specialists
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Several weeks later, Wau gave a presentation at a conference of data protection
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specialists in Cologne: BTX--El Dorado for Hackers. Cologne was a sea of pin-
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stripes, and Wau looked like a parrot in the midst of it all. Despite their
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initial distance, the audience was impressed by his presentation. Only the
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representative of the Bundespost felt that he was hitting below the belt, and
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that he did not intend to address those issues. That was dismissed with
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laughter, since the presentation depicted a series of program bugs drastically
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and in three dimensions. There is a bug in the sending of electronic mail.
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The sender can still change the contents after the letter has arrived. You can
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send a business partner a bid for, say, DM 2,300 and then later change the
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price, either raising it or lowering it. Another bug means that under certain
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circumstances the BTX system spits out internal system information. With a
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little luck, connection code words and secret passwords can be detected in this
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way. "Nonsense," said the Bundespost representative. And to the offer of
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cooperation came only the response, "First you have to get serious." It is
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unclear whether the CCC succeeded in doing so. At the very least, the BTX
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system finally spit out the connection code word and secret password of the
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Hamburger Sparkasse after a number of tries with the well-known system bug.
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Thus, it became possible to carry out the presentation planned for the FTZ with
|
||
the Sparkasse instead.
|
||
|
||
Almost everything went as planned. Over night, in 12 hours and 59 minutes, a
|
||
good DM 134,000 was raised. With a portabfŸ œÒÆ@%ÁÕÑ•È<E280A2>Ñ¡”<C2A1>Á…<C381>”ƒen run in a
|
||
daily newspaper, and a meeting of two dozen people from all over West Germany
|
||
then took place in Berlin. We then decided to keep in touch and exchange
|
||
experiences. The idea was simply to put together a magazine, but at that point
|
||
it was all too vague, and it didn't come off. Next, contacts with the United
|
||
States were established, with Cheshire Catalyst (the "king" of U.S. hackers,
|
||
Ed.) and with his magazine TAP, which a bunch of people here in West Germany
|
||
already knew about and subscribed to. At the Telecom in the fall of 1983, I
|
||
met him personally and wrote a two-page article about him in a daily newspaper.
|
||
And this two-page article elicited a great deal of response. By the end of the
|
||
year, things had progressed far enough to set up a magazine. Previously, the
|
||
idea was to exchange all information by floppy disk, but everything was
|
||
incompatible, and it had no purpose. The magazine was announced around the
|
||
beginning of the year, and we received 100 replies within one week. And so to
|
||
us in Hamburg, it was obvious: If 100 people want it, then it has to be done.
|
||
In March, the first issue was finally finished. Once the first and second
|
||
issues were out, there was a veritable flood of letters. The amount of mail
|
||
was equivalent to placing both my hands on end.
|
||
|
||
[Question] How many subscriptions does the magazine have?
|
||
|
||
[Answer] We took the course that whoever writes should get information,
|
||
regardless of whether they send money in. The number of subscriptions
|
||
fluctuates somewhere over 200.
|
||
|
||
[Question] How do your finances look right now?
|
||
|
||
[Answer] Terrible! The production costs are around 10 pfennigs per copy, for
|
||
both sides of a DIN A3 page. On the other hand, the most expensive thing is
|
||
postage, 50 pfennigs a piece. For each copy there are three copies that are
|
||
not paid for, that we simply send out, as a sample or in response to a request
|
||
with no money enclosed. It is in fact financed by the skin of our teeth, but
|
||
we do hope that a number of people are willing to pay for it. If money comes
|
||
in, then we can continue.
|
||
|
||
[Question] And of the 200 subscriptions has each one paid around DM 30?
|
||
|
||
[Answer] More or less. They came in with the full amount, a couple sent more
|
||
than that, but unfortunately it was fewer than we had hoped. It costs about DM
|
||
1000 to produce one issue of DATENSCHLEUDER.
|
||
|
||
[Question] How long will people receive DATENSCHLEUDER for their DM 30?
|
||
|
||
[Answer] One Chaos year. That is effectively around one year, with around 10
|
||
issues. You definitely have to give our address, or they'll come beating your
|
||
door down for that.
|
||
|
||
[Question] How many regular members do you have now?
|
||
|
||
[Answer] About the membership structure--it's rather open and free. Everyone
|
||
who has information for us simply contributes it, whether he has a subscription
|
||
or simply receives DATENSCHLEUDER, or even if he knows nothing about
|
||
DATENSCHLEUDER. There are people who are working on the modem layout, and we
|
||
are producing and marketing motherboards, for example. And then we do
|
||
DATENSCHLEUDER, and also do communication via computer. It is simply an open
|
||
structure, where anyone who feels like it can join in and leave at any time.
|
||
But we are thinking about whether we should impose organizational structures on
|
||
the whole thing. There are a couple of external areas where we are simply
|
||
encountering problems. But on the other hand, we basically like this open
|
||
structure. It's a dilemma.
|
||
|
||
[Question] But surely you can provide an approximate number?
|
||
|
||
[Answer] If we approach it in terms of subscriptions, we come up with more
|
||
than 200, of which around 30 are in Hamburg. But that's very fluid. Should I
|
||
count a graphic artist who does a couple of pictures for DATENSCHLEUDER as a
|
||
member? We don't look at it that narrowly. Somebody comes along, finds it
|
||
interesting, and joins in. That's also how it is at our meetings, which we
|
||
hold once a week at a bar here in Hamburg. We always get different people
|
||
there, it's just a regular meeting base. On the other hand, we generally meet
|
||
once a month to exchange information.
|
||
|
||
[Question] What kind of people are involved?
|
||
|
||
[Answer] It ranges from pilots to a metalworker, people who run their own
|
||
shops to unemployed people and students. They are between 16 and 35. No one
|
||
is older than that.
|
||
|
||
[Question] What is your assessment of the legal status of your activities?
|
||
|
||
[Answer] We just don't like being forced into any corner. Now people are
|
||
saying that it's all criminal, breaking into data bases and getting into
|
||
0ä=
|
||
uéƒ~* té
|
||
‹F(» ÷ëÄv6&‹\R&‹tPð<16>FP‰^.‰v,šÂ‹åÄv,&‰D&‰\ŠF0äéš Äv,&Ç ŠF0ä±ÓàŠ^0ÿØ&‰\é‘ Äv,&Ç ŠF0ä&‰DŠF0ä&‰DëuÄv,&Ç ŠF0ä&‰DëbÄv,&Ç ŠF0ä&‰DëOÄv,&ÇA ŠF0ä&‰Dë< ¸ŽP¸ Pš
|
||
Postreklame Hamburg, Eiffestr. 16, 2000 Hamburg 26
|
||
|
||
Mr Phan ba Qu
|
||
2000 Hamburg
|
||
|
||
Winner, happy ending
|
||
|
||
Dear Mr ba Qu!
|
||
|
||
The "BTX Hamburg Week 85" from 1-8 June dealt with BTX.
|
||
|
||
Information, joining in, winning--this was what was going on during this
|
||
fantastic action week.
|
||
|
||
And you won! Congratulations!
|
||
|
||
From the happy ending conclusion of our big BTX competition, you will receive
|
||
as a prize your choice of
|
||
|
||
1 year subscription to DATENSCHLEUDER or
|
||
1 gift certificate for DM 25.
|
||
|
||
We look forward to giving you your prize; please call about details.
|
||
|
||
CCC Chaos Computer Club.
|
||
|
||
Sincerely,
|
||
|
||
[signature]
|
||
|
||
[p 44: Boxed item]
|
||
|
||
June 1985
|
||
|
||
10 Previous month
|
||
|
||
Again, no revision in the month of June.
|
||
|
||
The CCC is currently working on the "Hacker Bible." This work of approx. 254
|
||
pages will be published in the fall.
|
||
|
||
More on this after printing in the current section.
|
||
|
||
Have a sunny vacation!
|
||
|
||
Chaos Team
|
||
|
||
90 Next month
|
||
|
||
[p 44: Boxed item]
|
||
|
||
Advertisement in BILD-HAMBURG paid for by the Bundespost
|
||
|
||
BTX Hamburg Week 85, 1-8 June
|
||
|
||
Information, join in, win
|
||
|
||
Here You Will See BTX "Live"
|
||
|
||
ABC-Datensysteme
|
||
Segeberger Chaussee 36, Norderstedt
|
||
|
||
A+L Infocenter
|
||
Isestr. 115, Hamburg 13
|
||
|
||
BTX Partner
|
||
Koopstr. 20-22, Hamburg 13
|
||
|
||
Chaos Computer Club International
|
||
[address redacted], Hamburg 20
|
||
|
||
Deutsche Bank
|
||
Spitalerstr. 16, Hamburg 1
|
||
|
||
Hamburg-Information
|
||
Pavillon, Gerhart-Hauptmann-Platz, Hamburg 1
|
||
|
||
HEW
|
||
Spitalerstrasse 22, Hamburg 1
|
||
Osterstrasse 133, Hamburg 20
|
||
Gr. Bergstrasse 223-225, Hamburg 50
|
||
Fuhlsb<EFBFBD>ttler Strasse 229, Hamburg 60
|
||
Bergedorfer Strasse 133, Hamburg 80
|
||
Schlossm<EFBFBD>hlendamm 12, Hamburg 90
|
||
|
||
Philips
|
||
M”nckebergstr. 7, Hamburg 1
|
||
In the foyer
|
||
|
||
Vereins- und Westbank
|
||
Alter Wall 22, Hamburg 11
|
||
|
||
[p 45: Cartoon] Left bubble: This is the horrible story of where
|
||
overmechanization and the associated shortening of the work week will lead if
|
||
we are not sensible about it.
|
||
|
||
Right bubble: O Duckberg, you noble, you industrious city! How much energy is
|
||
wasted within your walls because the citizens have not noticed that the future
|
||
is already upon us?
|
||
|
||
[p 45: Caption, upper right corner] The Chaos Computer Club thinks that love
|
||
on an empty stomach is no fun.
|
||
|
||
[pp 45-46: Unattributed article]
|
||
|
||
Progress Into Chaos
|
||
|
||
Oh, Daniel, you quack. So we're living in the beginning of the future. In the
|
||
middle of chaos. Terrible, terrible! But that's no reason to go decadent and
|
||
engage in rampant consumerism. There has always been chaos. First violent and
|
||
ribald, then in the hammock. Chin up! Hope is the feeling that can achieve
|
||
what you long for. And as long as THE bomb has not fallen, there is naturally
|
||
hope.
|
||
Where is chaos? This was the 64-thousand-dollar question posed by the Black &
|
||
White Group to the CCC (TAZ of 22 February). So let's see...
|
||
|
||
On Criticism of the CCC
|
||
|
||
... the result of these free tests has always been that the Bundespost has
|
||
filled in the gaps even tighter, and the system has become tangibly "more
|
||
secure..."
|
||
|
||
It is also true that the police learns something from each demonstration. "In
|
||
contrast to the CCC, we (Black & White) are not interested in seeing
|
||
Bildschirmtext become more secure or in guaranteeing optimal 'data protection.'
|
||
We are fundamentally opposed to BTX and to the computerization of all areas of
|
||
life."
|
||
|
||
Something that I somehow suspected all along, but did not dare ask: security
|
||
in quotation marks. Clearly ambiguous.
|
||
|
||
Precisely the synonym for all manifestations of "security." With absolute
|
||
security (thanks to Albert), it is clear that the speed of light is the same
|
||
absolutely ALWAYS. And otherwise not at all! [Footnote: "Relative Interest?
|
||
Bertrand Russell, "The ABCs of Relativity Theory," 1972, rororo 6787, DM 4.80]
|
||
|
||
Anyone who knows only a little about machines will not dare deny the following:
|
||
The simpler the design of a machine and the fewer parts it has, the less
|
||
susceptible to disruption it is. Thus, relatively simple machinery is more
|
||
flexible and can be adapted more easily to changing needs. In contrast, our
|
||
technological society has specialized its functions to such a degree that the
|
||
entire system threatens to break down if only one part of the machinery
|
||
fails...
|
||
|
||
Overspecialization, biologists say, is one of the main factors that cause a
|
||
species to become extinct.
|
||
|
||
So how do things look in the computer industry?
|
||
|
||
Software. The programs. Experts think that for every legally sold diskette
|
||
there are up to ten pirated ones. Of course, we know that there are more than
|
||
this. The dimensions: Millions of copies of the successful word-processing
|
||
program Wordstar have been sold. DM 1,200 per diskette. That comes to... But
|
||
please consider the price-depressing factor of software piracy. Eighty million
|
||
diskettes are sold worldwide each year.
|
||
|
||
The professional marketers of software have a bad hand, because their cards are
|
||
marked by their own operational structures. Professional institutions need
|
||
their time for planning, organization, marketing, etc.
|
||
|
||
Most programs come from the United States. Software piracy is hooked up in
|
||
networks. "Security" again takes a back seat. Quickly pirated, copies come
|
||
here to Germany by telecommunication. Before the pros assert their
|
||
professional needs, the alternative need has spread: Once the program has been
|
||
written, it can be copied by anyone in seconds.
|
||
|
||
Software can also be changed. What's plagiarism?
|
||
|
||
A typical career: A programmer writes a program. Before completion, he is
|
||
fired. He sets up his own company and sells the program himself. How many
|
||
word-processing companies haven't come into being this way?
|
||
|
||
The legal opinion on this: "A computer program constitutes unacceptable
|
||
plagiarism if it is on the average 70 percent identical to another program
|
||
system in its problem-solving section" (Kassel State Court ruling of 21 May
|
||
1981).
|
||
|
||
About hardware. There are these wonderful Apple II computers. They are so
|
||
wonderful that the yellow pirates from Taiwan can't help copying them for half
|
||
the price. The Apple copyright applies only to the EPROMs (electrically
|
||
programmable read-only memory). I buy that computer. The dealer becomes hard
|
||
of hearing when I ask about these EPROMs. Why all these questions? It's
|
||
obvious that these are copies. Everything's copied. Legal? Illegal? It's
|
||
all the same!
|
||
|
||
And these are not isolated "chaotic" incidents.
|
||
|
||
Future Music
|
||
|
||
Creating a community that can be active in many different places and
|
||
nevertheless can be part of a joint, creative process.
|
||
|
||
Permitting electronic conferences by computer, making a single input or message
|
||
instantaneously available to all other terminals. The distance between the
|
||
participants plays no role here. In financial terms it does. This is another
|
||
major field to be cultivated for data telecommunications. Fantasies in the
|
||
making.
|
||
|
||
Hacking should not be viewed as being solely linked to computers. Wood too is
|
||
hackable. It is a description of a different manner of approaching technology.
|
||
A different use is tested experimentally. In this area, children are by nature
|
||
capable of colossal flights of fancy. The "grown-up" world reacts with
|
||
incomprehension. Childish creativity is rejected as being "crazy." If only
|
||
people would let it be! Learning by doing. The knowledge developed in this
|
||
way has a completely different quality than knowledge, for example, because it
|
||
has emerged from practice.
|
||
|
||
Model-building division: There is a model helicopter by the Graupner company.
|
||
Bell 212 twin jet, two meters long, weighs four and a half kilograms. Holds a
|
||
load of two and a half kilograms. Remote-control, for DM 2,500. A legal note:
|
||
"If the 5 kg limit for model airplanes is exceeded, permission from the
|
||
competent aviation authorities must be obtained for takeoffs and landings."
|
||
|
||
What can be done? "The Flying Robert is a model helicopter... from which a
|
||
computer hangs. The computer, which is being developed by the Bazoobis, has a
|
||
sensor and--most importantly--a 'calculator with print-out capability.' It has
|
||
a roll of paper on which the measured value is noted every second. The thing
|
||
can be calibrated and sealed... The Flying Robert is sent by remote-control
|
||
over a smokestack, where it hovers for an hour. The same thing can be done for
|
||
radiation levels at nuclear power plants or noise levels near airports.
|
||
Citizens' initiative groups would finally have verifiable data." [Footnote:
|
||
Mattias Horx, "Chip Generation," rororo 8118, 1984, DM 12.80, pp 125f]
|
||
|
||
Other ideas from various readily available publications:
|
||
|
||
You could fiddle with the computer and use it to disrupt various undertakings.
|
||
Startbahn West [disputed new runway at Frankfurt/Main Airport]? Equip it with
|
||
small cameras and use it for reconnaissance. Equip it with squirt guns and use
|
||
it for agitation. The Telemichel has a lot of room! As a resupply craft while
|
||
occupying industrial facilities. Or use it to seal up smokestacks? Tip over
|
||
construction cranes, after outfitting it with the necessary equipment. Use
|
||
teamwork to short-circuit high-tension wires. Demolish/demodulate radio
|
||
antennas, or a flying radio transmitter, jamming transmitter, loudspeaker. The
|
||
air knows no limits.
|
||
|
||
Normal airplane models are cheaper. Electric engine. Solar cells. Sun.
|
||
Flying time? Fantasy in the making.
|
||
|
||
Protect the forests? Long nails inserted crossways in trees are not exactly
|
||
the best thing for them, but they do keep chain saws from cutting them down.
|
||
|
||
Test alarm systems? Set off the broken-glass alarm? At C&A [department
|
||
store], all you need is to design a lucky charm, and the gong at the entrance
|
||
sounds. Practical, chic and it can be worn.
|
||
|
||
The subject is not the big revolution, but rather the small, embarrassing
|
||
scandals that create confusion and ulcers and spoil the desire to exercise
|
||
power. Anyone who knows any tricks should right to the "Lexicon of Subversive
|
||
Fantasy," c/o Eichborn Verlag, Sachsenh„user Landwehrweg 293, 6000 Frankfurt
|
||
70. Copy to the CCC.
|
||
|
||
Rationalization
|
||
|
||
Black & White criticism:
|
||
|
||
"We reject these new techniques for increasing efficiency, because they lead to
|
||
further unemployment, and we are dependent on 'income from non-self-employed
|
||
work' to make a living."
|
||
|
||
How much work does a human being need in order to live? Or does he live to
|
||
work? What is work?
|
||
|
||
Work is force times distance (old mechanics' saying). What is force? Kinetic
|
||
energy and intellectual energy. What is distance? Movement. Activity.
|
||
Dynamics. And: entropy. [Footnote: Jeremy Rifkin, "Entropy," 1982, Hoffmann
|
||
& Campe, DM 30]
|
||
|
||
Entropy says that where there is activity, energy is irretrievably consumed,
|
||
rendering it no longer available for human use. Our solar system will freeze
|
||
to death. What is true of our solar system also applies to the relatively
|
||
closed system of Earth. We should deal with energy sparingly. Adapted to
|
||
natural cycles, with optimally low-entropy structures. Alienation thus becomes
|
||
a central theme. Labor is increasingly alienated the greater the distance--in
|
||
terms of space, place and time--there is between the production and consumption
|
||
of a product. In order to consume little energy, it is advisable that the be
|
||
located close to the residential areas. Rush hour is a nerve-wracking, energy-
|
||
consuming and accident-prone product of our sharply alienated "work world."
|
||
|
||
And so the masses shouldn't go to work at the same time on the same days.
|
||
|
||
Individual working hours are called for even more than ever. And why not work
|
||
at home? Will people miss the human contact with co-workers? How human is
|
||
contact on the assembly line, in piecework, etc.? Is it even capable of being
|
||
human? There are jobs that really should not exist. And if we economize these
|
||
job possibilities away, then it would be best if they simply disappear.
|
||
|
||
"For some time now it has begun to look as if we are no longer working in order
|
||
to live, but rather having to structure our lives in such a way that we have
|
||
enough work." (Hans A. Pestalozzi)
|
||
|
||
Counter-Realization
|
||
|
||
Black & White criticism: "The hackers have simply accepted that everything
|
||
that is coming is inevitable, and they are trying to find a comfortable niche
|
||
in it."
|
||
|
||
Nothing is inevitable. No input, no output. I am content with the fact that I
|
||
react. A passive role. Supplemented with Sysiphos work.
|
||
|
||
"... in every society, those asking questions have the key to power, not those
|
||
with the answers. True power is with those who set up the structure that the
|
||
others must contemplate, because they define what is available and what is not,
|
||
what is recorded and what is forgotten." [Footnote: Jaques Vallee, "Computer
|
||
Networks," 1984, rororo 8101, DM 12.80, p 115]
|
||
|
||
Why are there no alternative software producers? Are niches so abhorrent?
|
||
|
||
Let me make it perfectly clear: I am for the computerization of our planet.
|
||
The problems we are facing concern the earth as a whole. Global, alternative
|
||
networking must be massively advanced. A present-day computer has a memory
|
||
capacity of 64 kilos of bytes. Multiplied by x-number of users worldwide, and
|
||
you have an unbeatable potential for creativity. The melting pot of
|
||
alternative, green, lavender, checkered, etc. itself offers elbow room where
|
||
innovative ideas are developing en masse. The only question is: Where is the
|
||
application in practice?
|
||
|
||
The computer is an extremely universal tool. I can make it do many boring,
|
||
monotonous administrative functions. Word processing alone offers completely
|
||
new possibilities for dealing with words. Everything can be combined with
|
||
graphics and music. Data telecommunications. Things are copied, simulated and
|
||
stored. Everything can be printed out once or umpteen times. Color. Games.
|
||
Control. Manipulation. Very small computer-controlled work stations can be
|
||
set up. Here, the ideas can be (self-) realized. Sales and marketing can be
|
||
done through further expanded telecommunications networks.
|
||
|
||
Why not try to take away the professionals' livelihood? Niches can be very
|
||
flexible. There are so many awful programs, and rarely good advice. And
|
||
projects lack the money before and after.
|
||
|
||
"Blue Bazoobi": The project builds computers. Small portable terminals to
|
||
control air pressure valves. DM 20,000 a piece. Sold to Singapore, Brazil and
|
||
China. The market niche is an area of application that is not feasible for the
|
||
pros, due to a lack of large volume. There are fifty copies right now. The
|
||
"Flying Robert" project will be financed with the money earned. So things are
|
||
coming along. A broad field of activity is opening up.
|
||
|
||
Effective immediately, the CCC is offering advice in all situations for the
|
||
Apple II computer. Address for complements and the like: TAZ Hamburg,
|
||
Apfelmus Department, Nernstweg 32, 2000 Hamburg 50, Wolfgang CCC, Kraut & R<>ben
|
||
Department.
|
||
|
||
[p 45: Article by "Wau"]
|
||
|
||
Practical Note
|
||
|
||
Data processing is slowly but surely entering our everyday life. It is
|
||
difficult to resist it. A couple of practical notes: Never release data if it
|
||
does not immediately seem reasonable to you. Even then, be careful. Asking
|
||
questions is free, but there must be time for it. Make it clear that your data
|
||
is very personal, and ask how the people who are requesting your data handle
|
||
data protection. Cancel your direct-debit order. Think about what one
|
||
programmer at the electricity company could do with a couple million automatic
|
||
debit orders. Don't get cable. Keep your own data in order and do not let
|
||
someone else do it, even if it is more comfortable that way.
|
||
|
||
[p 46: Article from GELSENKIRCHENER STADTZEITUNG]
|
||
|
||
Burglar Alarm
|
||
|
||
There were several questions about the burglar alarm, so here is the sketch
|
||
again.
|
||
|
||
The original dimensions of 60 x 80 mm should be adhered to rather closely. The
|
||
copper wire (naturally insulated, otherwise it would be no good) can be found
|
||
in any electronics store, as can the capacitor. With the copper wire arranged
|
||
as above, 30-40 picofarads cause a so-called field deviation within the
|
||
electronic fields between the bows, which is registered via the electronic
|
||
circuits. The alarm is then triggered by way of a relay, and the detective is
|
||
there. So far, so good.
|
||
|
||
The copper wire is soldered to the ends of the contacts. While soldering, be
|
||
careful not to destroy the capacitor. It would be great to have small-scale
|
||
mass production of this or other subversive products.
|
||
|
||
[p 47: Article by "Wolfgang"]
|
||
|
||
The Future: Entropy and Yeast Dough
|
||
|
||
Yeast dough, a so-called raising agent. The dough must be handled carefully.
|
||
A cool draft of air and it falls. The nice swelling action turns into the
|
||
opposite. Chaos among the bacteria! (Yeast is a fungus, note from
|
||
headquarters.)
|
||
|
||
Institutions: Objects that permanently grow. Rising agent: Money. The
|
||
swelling process, shaken by crises, can drag on for decades. Until the self-
|
||
sown storm is too powerful. The system TILT. Chaos among the bureaucrats!
|
||
|
||
Entropy says that the amount of energy in the universe is always constant.
|
||
Nothing can be added, nothing used up. Energy changes its "manifestation." It
|
||
transforms itself from a state available to man to one not available to him.
|
||
|
||
All of our environmental pollution is a manifestation of our high-entropy
|
||
economy. "In the three summer months alone, the United States consumes more
|
||
electricity for air conditioning than the population of the People's Republic
|
||
of China uses for its overall needs for the entire year. And China has four
|
||
times as many people." [Footnote: Jeremy Rifkin, "Entropy," Hoffmann & Campe
|
||
82, p 134]
|
||
|
||
Everywhere that there is activity, energy is being transformed. The available
|
||
supplies are evaporating appreciably. Technology is going astray: nuclear
|
||
technology, fusion technology, genetic engineering...
|
||
|
||
All systems where the energy input is greater than the output: pacemaker for
|
||
cancer!
|
||
|
||
The oven is cold!
|
||
|
||
The dough has fallen. Only rock-hard bread is possible now. We have to make
|
||
do with what we have. Or do we? A new dough? With a significantly different
|
||
recipe?
|
||
|
||
Are complex systems capable of innovation?
|
||
|
||
Of course not. A ridiculous example: Our diligent scientists are promoting
|
||
fusion technology as the solution to all our energy problems. The bare facts
|
||
point to another conclusion. The deuterium-tritium reactor needs tritium
|
||
molecules. Tritium is obtained from lithium, an element that is as rare as
|
||
uranium. Thus, limitless economizing is not possible. Similarly necessary
|
||
substances, such as niobium and vanadium, are becoming more scarce even today.
|
||
To say nothing of copper.
|
||
|
||
And the culmination of innovation potential: The hydrogen-boron reactor,
|
||
filled with sea water, has a reaction temperature of three billion degrees
|
||
Celsius. Just let that number roll slowly off your tongue! There is no matter
|
||
that could even come close to standing up to that temperature. The deuterium-
|
||
tritium reactor needs only 100 million degrees Celsius. Nothing more practical
|
||
is possible. "All applications of nuclear technology appear to him as if one
|
||
were using a chain saw to cut butter." [Footnote: Rifken, p 129] Every
|
||
change in complex systems will by necessity cause changes in other places and
|
||
at different times.
|
||
|
||
The degree or the size of the complexity is critical in determining:
|
||
- the effect of only one change, or of many changes;
|
||
- the momentum of these changes, which, for example, are in turn the cause of
|
||
further changes, etc...
|
||
|
||
Very interesting "autonomous," cumulative feedback processes can be set in
|
||
motion here.
|
||
|
||
The gaps discovered by hackers are naturally stopped up. How? With knitting
|
||
yarn. That is, hardware, software and human beings are transformed, and thus
|
||
energy is used.
|
||
|
||
Since the earth is a relatively closed system (aside from solar energy, nothing
|
||
significantly is added), the following applies in particular to our planet:
|
||
"In a closed system, material entropy must ultimately achieve its maximum."
|
||
[Footnote: Rifkin, p 50]
|
||
|
||
It is precisely the many changes in all institutions that are causing an
|
||
increase in energy consumption. On payday, the co$t then? Should we sell this breach
|
||
of security to the Bundespost? We could, as is normal in industry, "hack" DM
|
||
100,000 or more and then sell the Bundespost consultation on this problem for a
|
||
certain percentage of the money. Or get free, lifetime telephone service for
|
||
the CCC or something like that. The Bundespost had to pay for its gross
|
||
negligence.
|
||
|
||
In both cases, however, the price would have been silence. Otherwise, the
|
||
concentrated rage of the postal authorities would have been forthcoming.
|
||
Consequently, perhaps half a dozen officials would have tried to do something
|
||
to the CCC.
|
||
|
||
But the CCC wanted enlightenment about the risks of this new system. To this
|
||
end, the finance transaction had to be made public. Fine, but who should push
|
||
the starting button for the money transfer? After all, it is an infringement
|
||
like a parking ticket, although more expensive: a DM 50,000 fine. Will the
|
||
data protection commissioner do it? He probably would have taken advantage of
|
||
the opportunity and attempted to achieve an improvement by official means.
|
||
|
||
A politician? Perhaps. But what if he leaks the story? There remained only
|
||
one option: Do it ourselves, and abrogate our criminal liability by going
|
||
public with it. A week later, the attempt failed, since the FTZ had in the
|
||
meantime closed off free access to its connection.
|
||
|
||
Hackers as Data Protection Specialists
|
||
|
||
Several weeks later, Wau gave a presentation at a conference of data protection
|
||
specialists in Cologne: BTX--El Dorado for Hackers. Cologne was a sea of pin-
|
||
stripes, and Wau looked like a parrot in the midst of it all. Despite their
|
||
initial distance, the audience was impressed by his presentation. Only the
|
||
representative of the Bundespost felt that he was hitting below the belt, and
|
||
that he did not intend to address those issues. That was dismissed with
|
||
laughter, since the presentation depicted a series of program bugs drastically
|
||
and in three dimensions. There is a bug in the sending of electronic mail.
|
||
The sendlled this
|
||
because the people who flashed on it are coincidentally named Rivest-Shamir-
|
||
Adleman. Clever as mathematicians are, it occurred to them that you could take
|
||
a text like DAS IST JA ZUM KOTZEN [THAT'S DISGUSTING] and break it down into
|
||
ASCII characters, and thus end up with what mathematicians like best: numbers!
|
||
(n e N, 0"n" = 255) 68 65 83 32 73 83 84 32 74 65 32 90 85 77 32 79 84 90 69 78
|
||
|
||
These were then combined into groups of 6 characters: 686583 327383 843274
|
||
653290 857732 798490 697800.
|
||
|
||
The key to encoding the message, called n, is generally making it more
|
||
difficult to find the product of two primary numbers. If you take 98415109
|
||
(which is a primary number) as a key, then you can start encoding the above
|
||
block:
|
||
(686583 * 686583 * 686583) mod 98415109 = encoded cryptoblock.
|
||
|
||
In order to decode this block, you need the corresponding key. It is called d,
|
||
for decryption. Decoding as well involves major calculation:
|
||
For n = 98415109, d = 63196467.
|
||
(Encoded cryptoblock ** 63196467) mod 98415109 = 686583.
|
||
|
||
As even non-mathematicians recognize immediately, the trick of the matter is
|
||
the two numbers n and d.
|
||
|
||
They are related as follows:
|
||
n is the product of two large primary numbers p and q (n = p * q);
|
||
d is determined from p and q: d = (2 * (p-1) * (q-1) + 1)/3
|
||
|
||
Although n is known, p and q remain secret. If n is big enough (around 200
|
||
digits), it is more or less impossible to determine p and q. With a value for
|
||
n that is 300 digits long, it would theoretically take the NASA computer 600
|
||
years to figure out what p and q are.
|
||
|
||
In the example above, p = 7151 and q = 13259. These primary numbers are
|
||
subject to further restrictions that must be taken into account if the RSA
|
||
nonsense is to run:
|
||
1. Neither p-1 nor q-1 may be evenly divisible by 3.
|
||
2. Either p-1 or q-1 must be a large primary number factor.
|
||
3. Dividing p by q must yield a complex fraction, thus not 2/3, 3/4, etc.
|
||
|
||
Taking points 2 and 3 into account means finding a qualitatively high-value n
|
||
that is difficult to decode.
|
||
|
||
Now to the programs:
|
||
Program 1: Encoding messages
|
||
Program 2: Decoding messages
|
||
Program 3: Determining n and d
|
||
10 DEFDBL C,M,N:DIM M(100):CHARACTER PROBLOCK=3
|
||
20 LINE INPUT"Name of the crypto output file:";OUT
|
||
25 OPEN"O",1,OUT
|
||
30 INPUT"Public key of the receiver (Test condition at "RETURN<=94815109";N
|
||
40 IF N=0 THEN N=94815109
|
||
60 PRINT"Input message text or NNNN at beginning of line to end"
|
||
70 W=W+1:PRINT USING "";W;:LINE INPUT".:";M
|
||
71 IF LEFT(M,4)="NNNN" OR LEFT(M,4)="nnnn" THEN CLOSE:PRINT:PRINT
|
||
"Cryptogram under file: "OUT;" stored.":PRINT:PRINT:END
|
||
80 M=M+CHR(13):L=LEN(M):Q=INT(L/CHARACTER PROBLOCK)
|
||
90 R=L-Q*CHARACTER PROBLOCK
|
||
100 IF R<0 THEN M=M+CHR(0):GOTO 80
|
||
110 FOR I=0 TO Q-1
|
||
120 M(I)=0
|
||
130 FOR J=1 TO CHARACTER PROBLOCK
|
||
140 A=ASC(MID(M,3*I+J,1))
|
||
150 M(I)=M(I)*100
|
||
160 M(I)=M(I)+A
|
||
170 NEXT J
|
||
180 NEXT I
|
||
185 PRINT:PRINT"Cryptogram:"PRINT
|
||
190 FOR I=0 TO Q-1
|
||
200 M = M(I)
|
||
210 C=M*M:C=C-INT(C/N)*N:C=C*M:C=C-INT(C/N)*N
|
||
220 PRINT'1,USING "";C
|
||
225 PRINT USING "";C
|
||
230 NEXT I
|
||
235 PRINT:PRINT
|
||
240 GOTO 70
|
||
|
||
10 DEFDBL C,D,M,N
|
||
11 CHARACTER PROBLOCK=3
|
||
20 INPUT"Own Public Key (Test = 0+CR = 94815109) : ";N
|
||
30 IF N=0 THEN N=94815109
|
||
40 INPUT"Own Public Key (Test = 0+CR = 63196467) : ";D
|
||
50 IF D=0 THEN D=63196467
|
||
51 LINE INPUT"File name for decoded text : ";OUT
|
||
52 OPEN"O",2,OUT
|
||
60 LINE INPUT"Cryptogram from F<ile or M<anual : ";QUER
|
||
70 IF QUER="M" OR QUER="m" THEN MANUAL=-1:GOTO 90 ELSE MANUAL=0
|
||
80 LINE INPUT"File name for crypto file " ";FILE: OPEN"I",1,FILE
|
||
81 IF NOT (MANUAL) THEN PRINT:PRINT"Decoded text:":PRINT:PRINT
|
||
90 IF MANUAL THEN INPUT"Cryptoblock : ";C ELSE IF EOF(1) THEN CLOSE:PRINT"Text
|
||
end.":PRINT:PRINT:END ELSE INPUT'1,C
|
||
100 D1=D:M=1
|
||
110 IF D1/2 = INT(D1/2) THEN 130
|
||
120 M=M*C:M=M-INT(M/N)*N
|
||
130 C=C*C:C=C-INT(C/N)*N
|
||
140 D1=INT(D1/2):IF D1 < 0 THEN 110
|
||
150 M=STR(M):M=RIGHT(M,LEN(M)-1):'blank start with own interpr.
|
||
160 LX=LEN(M):IF (LX/2)"<INT(LX/2) THEN M="0"+M:GOTO 160
|
||
170 FOR T=1 TO CHARACTER PROBLOCK
|
||
180 CHARACTER=MID(M,1+(T1)*2,2):CHARACTER=
|
||
CHR(VAL(CHARACTER))
|
||
190 PRINT CHARACTER;
|
||
200 PRINT'2,CHARACTER;
|
||
210 NEXT T
|
||
220 GOTO 90
|
||
|
||
5 RANDOMIZE
|
||
10 PRINT"Program for determining public and secret keys"
|
||
PRINT"=========================================================================
|
||
30 PRINT"To determine the secret key you need 2 (known only to you)"
|
||
40 PRINT"primary numbers p and q. The following program consists of 2 parts:"
|
||
50 PRINT"Part 1 searches in the range of a randomly chosen number for the next"
|
||
60 PRINT"primary number that is suitable for p and q."
|
||
70 PRINT"Part 2 determines from the p and q located in the this way the secret
|
||
and public"
|
||
80 PRINT"keys."
|
||
90 PRINT
|
||
100 PRINT"Start Part 1":PRINT
|
||
110 DEFDBL N,P,Q,R,S,X,Y:K=10
|
||
120 INPUT"Number to be analyzed (0 for transition to program part 2) : ";N
|
||
130 IF N=0 THEN 280
|
||
140 IF N<99999999 THEN PRINT"Please select a smaller value":GOTO 120
|
||
150 IF N/2=INT(N/2) THEN N=N-1
|
||
160 FOR I=1 TO K
|
||
170 X=2+INT((N-2)*RND(0))
|
||
180 Y=1:P=N-1
|
||
190 IF P/2=INT(P/2) THEN 210
|
||
200 Y=Y*X:Y=Y-INT(Y/N)*N
|
||
210 X=X*X:X=X-INT(X/N)*N
|
||
220 P=INT(P/2):IF P<0 THEN 190
|
||
230 IF Y"<1 THEN 250
|
||
240 NEXT I
|
||
250 IF Y=1 THEN PRINT N;"is suitable as primary number for p or q":GOTO 120
|
||
260 PRINT"No suitable number found. Test number now";N:N=N-2:GOTO 160
|
||
270 '
|
||
280 PRINT"Start Part 2":PRINT
|
||
290 INPUT"What value had you determined for p : ";P
|
||
300 INPUT"What value had you determined for q : ";Q
|
||
310 PRINT
|
||
320 PRINT"Your public key is : ";P*Q
|
||
330 PRINT"Your secret key is : ";(2*(P-1)*(Q-1)+1)/3
|
||
Ralf translates for MS-DOS from BYTE.
|
||
|
||
[pp 54-55: Article by Maxin Holz]
|
||
|
||
Let Them Do Our Dirty Work
|
||
|
||
The headline was "joint production," a stylish description of the flight of
|
||
industry to countries with low wages and a peaceful workforce, and of disregard
|
||
for the environment. Now that the office of the future is upon us, the U.S.
|
||
companies want others to have a part in it as well. Encouraged by promises of
|
||
drastic reductions in cost through the remote transmission of information in
|
||
the course of mere seconds, industry analysts and foreign political figures are
|
||
formulating the idea of a new marriage of convenience between American business
|
||
and poor nations. Although the "joint office" is not entirely new, industry
|
||
observers are now predicting the expansion of data input centers to poor
|
||
countries within a few years.
|
||
|
||
Before the new satellite technology was available, overseas branches could
|
||
profitably process only low-priority information that did not have to be turned
|
||
over quickly, such as order and shipping lists. The best-known example of the
|
||
new trend is the American Airlines data processing center in Barbados. Every
|
||
morning, American Airlines flies a planeload full of its ticket carbons to
|
||
Barbados, where data input workers input information at wages of $1.50 to $3.00
|
||
an hour. The information is then returned electronically to the American
|
||
Airlines computer in the United States.
|
||
|
||
The U.S. companies were drawn by low wages, cheap office space and extremely
|
||
low taxes and surcharges, for which they were invited by the governments in
|
||
places such as Singapore, the Philippines and the Caribbean. The preferred
|
||
goals for overseas offices are English-speaking countries like Barbados, in
|
||
addition to China, another country that is competing for jobs in information
|
||
processing using satellite communications, and as a special enticement can
|
||
offer its disciplined workforce, which earns the equivalent of $7 a week at a
|
||
precision rate of 99.5%
|
||
|
||
When explaining the advantages accrued to the receiving countries from overseas
|
||
investment, the chauvinistic presumptuousness of the economic press is exceeded
|
||
only by the self-serving optimism and short-sightedness of the governments that
|
||
are competing with one another for American investments. Thus, NEWSWEEK
|
||
declared that since the products of the companies investing in the Caribbean
|
||
are prohibitively expensive for the people there, they "would do best to
|
||
produce goods for sale in the United States." Now the inhabitants of Barbados
|
||
may also perform services that are meaningless to their own living situation.
|
||
(What generosity by U.S. companies, which are giving the people of Barbados
|
||
data processing so that Americans can take airplane trips.) The same article
|
||
explains that there is no longer a significant reservoir of unskilled laborers
|
||
in the United States (what about the unemployment rate of 40% among young
|
||
blacks?), while "in many underdeveloped countries there are enormous surpluses
|
||
of unskilled labor." This theory of "give them our dirty work" attempts to
|
||
identify reasonable grounds for the distribution of labor that permits the
|
||
citizens of the United States to live much better than the vast majority of the
|
||
rest of the world.
|
||
|
||
In competing for investments, foreign governments and chambers of commerce are
|
||
shameless in their claims made to the American business community concerning
|
||
the paltry demands and high productivity of their population. Government heads
|
||
justify tax exemptions by saying that they need foreign currency and the jobs
|
||
offered by the multinationals in order to raise the living standards in their
|
||
countries. Moreover, the argument goes, the expanding technology accompanying
|
||
the overseas offices helps familiarize the local workforce with the computer,
|
||
thus closing the technological gap between industrial countries and developing
|
||
countries.
|
||
|
||
The possibility that such rose-colored projections will be fulfilled by
|
||
satellite-based data processing is extremely small, and that is even in the
|
||
unlikely event that unemployment will decrease for a time. The so-called
|
||
"surplus" of unskilled workers in poor countries has resulted primarily from
|
||
past efforts resulting from investment policy, which were justified with the
|
||
same faulty logic. From the foreign investments that were poured into the
|
||
"underdeveloped" countries after the Second World War, it was assumed that they
|
||
would lead to an international distribution of labor that would be beneficial
|
||
to all. Farmers were driven off the land in order to make room for the modern
|
||
forms of exploitation preferred by multinational companies and local
|
||
governments. While the multinationals blossomed, countries that had at one
|
||
time been agriculturally self-sufficient became dependent on developed
|
||
countries for food, and found themselves subject to a world market on which
|
||
they could exercise no influence. Far from promoting regional industry and
|
||
agriculture, the foreign investments resulted in dependency on the
|
||
multinationals and on the markets dominated by them. This in turn led to a
|
||
gigantic growth in debt owed to multinational banks and international credit
|
||
institutions controlled by the United States and its allies. With the help of
|
||
these institutions, the developed countries tyrannically exert their influence
|
||
on the economic policy of the receiving countries.
|
||
|
||
The overseas office can only reinforce this phenomenon. Data input centers in
|
||
Barbados cannot bridge any technological gaps. The exported office jobs
|
||
primarily involve the most primitive and strenuous computer work, and their
|
||
elimination by automation will only be a question of time. A country like
|
||
Barbados can never gain an independent place in a market dominated by
|
||
multinational giants. Even under the best of conditions, a practical
|
||
application of computer technology to local problems would be extremely
|
||
expensive, and it would represent a disastrous waste of resources.
|
||
|
||
The cultural consequences of foreign investments could be at least as painful
|
||
as the directly economic ones. The office environment (furnishings, clothing,
|
||
architecture) promotes a culture with an emphasis on material values, on a
|
||
maximum awareness of time, and on neutral, sterile modernity. Regardless of
|
||
how finance centers present themselves throughout the world, they generate the
|
||
unifying effect of office culture. An ever-smaller elite would actually be
|
||
able to work its way up to the comforts of merchandise heaven as glorified by
|
||
office culture. Many more people, however, will fall victim to the plundering
|
||
of the country and the devaluation of their traditions in the hands of
|
||
multinational capital.
|
||
|
||
[pp 55-56: Unattributed article]
|
||
|
||
Down in the Valley
|
||
|
||
Mail Wars
|
||
|
||
After the top management of "Tandem" announced the hiring and wage freeze in
|
||
November 1982, I arrived at my job the next day to find an electronically
|
||
transmitted message that had been sent by a courageous technician who worked
|
||
for a distant branch of the company. The message protested the wage and hiring
|
||
freeze--such measures were disgraceful and unjust. The electronic letter--and
|
||
the mail network--allows direct connections between most employees, even if
|
||
they are separated by thousands of Hwhat is not,
|
||
what is recorded and what is forgotten." [Footnote: Jaques Vallee, "Computer
|
||
Networks," 1984, rororo 8101, DM 12.80, p 115]
|
||
|
||
Why are there no alternative software producers? Are niches so abhorrent?
|
||
|
||
Let me make it perfectly clear: I am for the computerization of our planet.
|
||
The problems we are facing concern the earth as a whole. Global, alternative
|
||
networking must be massively advanced. A present-day computer has a memory
|
||
capacity of 64 kilos of bytes. Multiplied by x-number of users worldwide, and
|
||
you have an unbeatable potential for creativity. The melting pot of
|
||
alternative, green, lavender, checkered, etc. itself offers elbow room where
|
||
innovative ideas are developing en masse. The only question is: Where is the
|
||
application in practice?
|
||
|
||
The computer is an extremely universal tool. I can make it do many boring,
|
||
monotonous administrative functions. Word processing alone offers completely
|
||
new possibilities for dealing with words. Everything can be combined with
|
||
graphics and music. Data telecommunications. Things are copied, simulated and
|
||
stored. Everything can be printed out once or umpteen times. Color. Games.
|
||
Control. Manipulation. Very small computer-controlled work stations can be
|
||
set up. Here, the ideas can be (self-) realized. Sales and marketing can be
|
||
done through further expanded telecommunications networks.
|
||
|
||
Why not try to take away the professionals' livelihood? Niches can be very
|
||
flexible. There are so many awful programs, and rarely good advice. And
|
||
projects lack the money before and after.
|
||
|
||
"Blue Bazoobi": The project builds computers. Small portable terminals to
|
||
control air pressure valves. DM 20,000 a piece. Sold to Singapore, Brazil and
|
||
China. The market niche is an area of application that is not feasible for the
|
||
pros, due to a lack of large volume. There are fifty copies right now. The
|
||
"Flying Robert" project will be financed with the money earned. So things are
|
||
coming along. A broad field of activity is opening up.
|
||
|
||
Effective immediately, the CCC is offering advice in all situations for the
|
||
Apple II computer. Address for complements and the like: TAZ Hamburg,
|
||
Apfelmus Department, Nernstweg 32, 2000 Hamburg 50, Wolfgang CCC, Kraut & R<>ben
|
||
Department.
|
||
|
||
[p 45: Article by "Wau"]
|
||
|
||
Practical Note
|
||
|
||
Data processing is slowly but surely entering our everyday life. It is
|
||
difficult to resist it. A couple of practical notes: Never release data if it
|
||
does not immediately seem reasonable to you. Even then, be careful. Asking
|
||
questions is free, but there must be time for it. Make it clear that your data
|
||
is very personal, and ask how the people who are requesting your data handle
|
||
data protection. Cancel your direct-debit order. Think about what one
|
||
programmer at the electricity company could do with a couple million automatic
|
||
debit orders. Don't get cable. Keep your own data in order and do not let
|
||
someone else do it, even if it is more comfortable that way.
|
||
|
||
[p 46: Article from GELSENKIRCHENER STADTZEITUNG]
|
||
|
||
Burglar Alarm
|
||
|
||
There were several questions about the burglar alarm, so here is the sketch
|
||
again.
|
||
|
||
The original dimensions of 60 x 80 mm should be adhered to rather closely. The
|
||
copper wire (naturally insulated, otherwise it would be no good) can be found
|
||
in any electronics store, as can the capacitor. With the copper wire arranged
|
||
as above, 30-40 picofarads cause a so-called field deviation within the
|
||
electronic fields between the bows, which is registered via the electronic
|
||
circuits. The alarm is then triggered by way of a relay, and the detective is
|
||
there. So far, so good.
|
||
|
||
The copper wire is soldered to the ends of the contacts. While soldering, be
|
||
careful not to destroy the capacitor. It would be great to have small-scale
|
||
mass production of this or other subversive products.
|
||
|
||
[p 47: Article by "Wolfgang"]
|
||
|
||
The Future: Entropy and Yeast Dough
|
||
|
||
Yeast dough, a so-called raising agent. The dough must be handled carefully.
|
||
A cool draft of air and it falls. The nice swelling action turns into the
|
||
opposite. Chaos among the bacteria! (Yeast is a fungus, note from
|
||
headquarters.)
|
||
|
||
Institutions: Objects that permanently grow. Rising agent: Money. The
|
||
swelling process, shaken by crises, can drag on for decades. Until the self-
|
||
sown storm is too powerful. The system TILT. Chaos among the bureaucrats!
|
||
|
||
Entropy says that the amount of energy in the universe is always constant.
|
||
Nothing can be added, nothing used up. Energy changes its "manifestation." It
|
||
transforms itself from a state available to man to one not available to him.
|
||
|
||
All of our environmental pollution is a manifestation of our high-entropy
|
||
economy. "In the three summer months alone, the United States consumes more
|
||
electricity for air conditioning than the population of the People's Republic
|
||
of China uses for its overall needs for the entire year. And China has four
|
||
times as many people." [Footnote: Jeremy Rifkin, "Entropy," Hoffmann & Campe
|
||
82, p 134]
|
||
|
||
Everywhere that there is activity, energy is being transformed. The available
|
||
supplies are evaporating appreciably. Technology is going astray: nuclear
|
||
technology, fusion technology, genetic engineering...
|
||
|
||
All systems where the energy input is greater than the output: pacemaker for
|
||
cancer!
|
||
|
||
The oven is cold!
|
||
|
||
The dough has fallen. Only rock-hard bread is possible now. We have to make
|
||
do with what we have. Or do we? A new dough? With a significantly different
|
||
recipe?
|
||
|
||
Are complex systems capable of innovation?
|
||
|
||
Of course not. A ridiculous example: Our diligent scientists are promoting
|
||
fusion technology as the solution to all our energy problems. The bare facts
|
||
point to another conclusion. The deuterium-tritium reactor needs tritium
|
||
molecules. Tritium is obtained from lithium, an element that is as rare as
|
||
uranium. Thus, limitless economizing is not possible. Similarly necessary
|
||
substances, such as niobium and vanadium, are becoming more scarce even today.
|
||
To say nothing of copper.
|
||
|
||
And the culmination of innovation potential: The hydrogen-boron reactor,
|
||
filled with sea water, has a reaction temperature of three billion degrees
|
||
Celsius. Just let that number roll slowly off your tongue! There is no matter
|
||
that could even come close to standing up to that temperature. The deuterium-
|
||
tritium reactor needs only 100 million degrees Celsius. Nothing more practical
|
||
is possible. "All applications of nuclear technology appear to him as if one
|
||
were using a chain saw to cut butter." [Footnote: Rifken, p 129] Every
|
||
change in complex systems will by necessity cause changes in other places and
|
||
at different times.
|
||
|
||
The degree or the size of the complexity is critical in determining:
|
||
- the effect of only one change, or of many changes;
|
||
- the momentum of these changes, which, for example, are in turn the cause of
|
||
further changes, etc...
|
||
|
||
Very interesting "autonomous," cumulative feedback processes can be set in
|
||
motion here.
|
||
|
||
The gaps discovered by hackers are naturally stopped up. How? With knitting
|
||
yarn. That is, hardware, software and human beings are transformed, and thus
|
||
energy is used.
|
||
|
||
Since the earth is a relatively closed system (aside from solar energy, nothing
|
||
significantly is added), the following applies in particular to our planet:
|
||
"In a closed system, material entropy must ultimately achieve its maximum."
|
||
[Footnote: Rifkin, p 50]
|
||
|
||
It is precisely the many changes in all institutions that are causing an
|
||
increase in energy consumption. On payday, the co$t then? Should we sell this breach
|
||
of security to the Bundespost? We could, as is normal in industry, "hack" DM
|
||
100,000 or more and then sell the Bundespost consultation on this problem for a
|
||
certain percentage of the money. Or get free, lifetime telephone service for
|
||
the CCC or something like that. The Bundespost had to pay for its gross
|
||
negligence.
|
||
|
||
In both cases, however, the price would have been silence. Otherwise, the
|
||
concentrated rage of the postal authorities would have been forthcoming.
|
||
Consequently, perhaps half a dozen officials would have tried to do something
|
||
to the CCC.
|
||
|
||
But the CCC wanted enlightenment about the risks of this new system. To this
|
||
end, the finance transaction had to be made public. Fine, but who should push
|
||
the starting button for the money transfer? After all, it is an infringement
|
||
like a parking ticket, although more expensive: a DM 50,000 fine. Will the
|
||
data protection commissioner do it? He probably would have taken advantage of
|
||
the opportunity and attempted to achieve an improvement by official means.
|
||
|
||
A politician? Perhaps. But what if he leaks the story? There remained only
|
||
one option: Do it ourselves, and abrogate our criminal liability by going
|
||
public with it. A week later, the attempt failed, since the FTZ had in the
|
||
meantime closed off free access to its connection.
|
||
|
||
Hackers as Data Protection Specialists
|
||
|
||
Several weeks later, Wau gave a presentation at a conference of data protection
|
||
specialists in Cologne: BTX--El Dorado for Hackers. Cologne was a sea of pin-
|
||
stripes, and Wau looked like a parrot in the midst of it all. Despite their
|
||
initial distance, the audience was impressed by his presentation. Only the
|
||
representative of the Bundespost felt that he was hitting below the belt, and
|
||
that he did not intend to address those issues. That was dismissed with
|
||
laughter, since the presentation depicted a series of program bugs drastically
|
||
and in three dimensions. There is a bug in the sending of electronic mail.
|
||
The sendlled this
|
||
because the people who flashed on it are coincidentally named Rivest-Shamir-
|
||
Adleman. Clever as mathematicians are, it occurred to them that you could take
|
||
a text like DAS IST JA ZUM KOTZEN [THAT'S DISGUSTING] and break it down into
|
||
TX system spits out internal system information. With a
|
||
little luck, connection code words and secret passwords can be detected in this
|
||
way. "Nonsense," said the Bundespost representative. And to the offer of
|
||
cooperation came only the response, "First you have to get serious." It is
|
||
unclear whether the CCC succeeded in doing so. At the very least, the BTX
|
||
system finally spit out the connection code word and secret password of the
|
||
Hamburger Sparkasse after a number of tries with the well-known system bug.
|
||
Thus, it became possible to carry out the presentation planned for the FTZ with
|
||
the Sparkasse instead.
|
||
|
||
Almost everything went as planned. Over night, in 12 hours and 59 minutes, a
|
||
good DM 134,000 was raised. With a portabfŸ œÒÆ@%ÁÕÑ•È<E280A2>Ñ¡”<C2A1>Á…<C381>”ƒen run in a
|
||
daily newspaper, and a meeting of two dozen people from all over West Germany
|
||
then took place in Berlin. We then decided to keep in touch and exchange
|
||
experiences. The idea was simply to put together a magazine, but at that point
|
||
it was all too vague, and it didn't come off. Next, contacts with the United
|
||
States were established, with Cheshire Catalyst (the "king" of U.S. hackers,
|
||
Ed.) and with his magazine TAP, which a bunch of people here in West Germany
|
||
already knew about and subscribed to. At the Telecom in the fall of 1983, I
|
||
met him personally and wrote a two-page article about him in a daily newspaper.
|
||
And this two-page article elicited a great deal of response. By the end of the
|
||
year, things had progressed far enough to set up a magazine. Previously, the
|
||
idea was to exchange all information by floppy disk, but everything was
|
||
incompatible, and it had no purpose. The magazine was announced around the
|
||
beginning of the year, and we received 100 replies within one week. And so to
|
||
us in Hamburg, it was obvious: If 100 people want it, then it has to be done.
|
||
In March, the first issue was finally finished. Once the first and second
|
||
issues were out, there was a veritable flood of letters. The amount of mail
|
||
was equivalent to placing both my hands on end.
|
||
|
||
[Question] How many subscriptions does the magazine have?
|
||
|
||
[Answer] We took the course that whoever writes should get information,
|
||
regardless of whether they send money in. The number of subscriptions
|
||
fluctuates somewhere over 200.
|
||
|
||
[Question] How do your finances look right now?
|
||
|
||
[Answer] Terrible! The production costs are around 10 pfennigs per copy, for
|
||
both sides of a DIN A3 page. On the other hand, the most expensive thing is
|
||
postage, 50 pfennigs a piece. For each copy there are three copies that are
|
||
not paid for, that we simply send out, as a sample or in response to a request
|
||
with no money enclosed. It is in fact financed by the skin of our teeth, but
|
||
we do hope that a number of people are willing to pay for it. If money comes
|
||
in, then we can continue.
|
||
|
||
[Question] And of the 200 subscriptions has each one paid around DM 30?
|
||
|
||
[Answer] More or less. They came in with the full amount, a couple sent more
|
||
than that, but unfortunately it was fewer than we had hoped. It costs about DM
|
||
1000 to produce one issue of DATENSCHLEUDER.
|
||
|
||
[Question] How long will people receive DATENSCHLEUDER for their DM 30?
|
||
|
||
[Answer] One Chaos year. That is effectively around one year, with around 10
|
||
issues. You definitely have to give our address, or they'll come beating your
|
||
door down for that.
|
||
|
||
[Question] How many regular members do you have now?
|
||
|
||
[Answer] About the membership structure--it's rather open and free. Everyone
|
||
who has information for us simply contributes it, whether he has a subscription
|
||
or simply receives DATENSCHLEUDER, or even if he knows nothing about
|
||
DATENSCHLEUDER. There are people who are working on the modem layout, and we
|
||
are producing and marketing motherboards, for example. And then we do
|
||
DATENSCHLEUDER, and also do communication via computer. It is simply an open
|
||
structure, where anyone who feels like it can join in and leave at any time.
|
||
But we are thinking about whether we should impose organizational structures on
|
||
the whole thing. There are a couple of external areas where we are simply
|
||
encountering problems. But on the other hand, we basically like this open
|
||
structure. It's a dilemma.
|
||
|
||
[Question] But surely you can provide an approximate number?
|
||
|
||
[Answer] If we approach it in terms of subscriptions, we come up with more
|
||
than 200, of which around 30 are in Hamburg. But that's very fluid. Should I
|
||
count a graphic artist who does a couple of pictures for DATENSCHLEUDER as a
|
||
member? We don't look at it that narrowly. Somebody comes along, finds it
|
||
interesting, and joins in. That's also how it is at our meetings, which we
|
||
hold once a week at a bar here in Hamburg. We always get different people
|
||
there, it's just a regular meeting base. On the other hand, we generally meet
|
||
once a month to exchange information.
|
||
|
||
[Question] What kind of people are involved?
|
||
|
||
[Answer] It ranges from pilots to a metalworker, people who run their own
|
||
shops to unemployed people and students. They are between 16 and 35. No one
|
||
is older than that.
|
||
|
||
[Question] What is your assessment of the legal status of your activities?
|
||
|
||
[Answer] We just don't like being forced into any corner. Now people are
|
||
saying that it's all criminal, breaking into data base
|
||
together with the other supervisors. However, Al's fate was left hanging. As
|
||
we left the meeting, one of my colleagues commented, "I'm not satisfied with
|
||
the number of corpses."
|
||
|
||
Al and the production head were soon thereafter demoted and privately urged to
|
||
seek employment elsewhere. They were gone within a couple of months. Several
|
||
days after the meeting, several computer programs that are used in manual
|
||
production were sabotaged. It appeared that the supervisors who were fired had
|
||
computers at home, and thus still had access to the computer through the
|
||
telephone lines.
|
||
|
||
At the end of the meetings with the honchos, the head of our company grumbled
|
||
about the "animosity" that had developed in our department. As if capitalism
|
||
is not based on "animosity"!
|
||
|
||
While "soft management" can be used by employees to their own benefit in
|
||
situations like the one above, we should keep in mind that it is not simply a
|
||
"gift" from our superiors. The less authoritarian style of leadership exists
|
||
because many companies regard it as a more effective method for gaining the
|
||
cooperation of the workers in order to thus achieve management goals. But it
|
||
is regarded as effective only in terms of the opposition, both passive and
|
||
active, by workers to openly authoritarian methods of management. Soft
|
||
management does not--cannot--eliminate the very real conflict of interest
|
||
between workers and employers. The fact remains that workers neither manage
|
||
the operation nor have control over the capital. This makes conflict
|
||
unavoidable.
|
||
|
||
[pp 59-60: Article from PARANOIA CITY LADEN]
|
||
|
||
Bolo'Bolo
|
||
|
||
Departure
|
||
|
||
Seven-thirty in the morning, 25 March 1983, on the number 32 bus. It is
|
||
raining and it is cold, later it will snow. There are empty seats, and so I
|
||
sit down. I feel the wetness through my shoes and pants. I see the calm,
|
||
composed faces. A young woman suppresses a yawn, draws the corners of her
|
||
mouth down. "Nordstrasse." Several passengers get off and move away briskly.
|
||
Once again, I am struck with this feeling of alienation. "What's it all
|
||
about?" "Why I am going along with it?" "How much longer?" Revulsion is
|
||
building up in my chest. The everyday machine once again has me in its grip.
|
||
I am moved inexorably towards my job. Scarcely wrenched from a sound sleep, I
|
||
am again helplessly sitting in the workforce transport machine.
|
||
|
||
I imagine taking the bus to the terminus and then beyond: through Austria,
|
||
Yugoslavia, Turkey, Syria, Iran... to India, Malaya. During the trip, the bus
|
||
changes little by little; it is repainted, repaired, converted, equipped with
|
||
beds. The passengers are transformed into a close-knit community. They work
|
||
as we go in order to get fuel, the replacement parts and food. They tell their
|
||
stories. They act against the everyday machine using diverse means: refusing
|
||
to produce, sabotage, intentional sloppiness, stealing, indiscretions, sick-
|
||
leave abuses, arson, solidarity campaigns. The brutality of the machine can be
|
||
explained by the resistance to it. Five years later, the bus returns. It is
|
||
colorful, has curtains, additions, inscriptions in unknown alphabets. No one
|
||
recognizes it, and the returnees are strangers...
|
||
|
||
Bus stop. The dream is over. Weekends, holidays, illusions always come to an
|
||
end, and we are once again sitting obediently in the bus or streetcar. The
|
||
everyday machine triumphs over us. We are part of it. It dismembers our life
|
||
into portions of time, soaks up our energy, plows our desires under. We are
|
||
reliable, punctual, disciplined cogs. Why do we function?
|
||
|
||
Deal
|
||
|
||
The everyday machine does grind us down, although at the same time it immunizes
|
||
us against revulsion, hate and despair. We feel these things only for brief
|
||
moments, when we have nothing to do and at the same time cannot consume
|
||
anything. In the morning we look forward to the evening, on Monday we look
|
||
forward to Friday, at the end of vacation we look forward to the next vacation.
|
||
We give the machine our time and energy, but at the same time it provides us
|
||
with (depending on salary) a number of pleasures: steaks, stereos, Mykonos,
|
||
wind surfing, Aikido, video, Chivas Regal, arts synthesis, Laurie Anderson...
|
||
This is our deal with the machine. This is our balance of life and work. And
|
||
it has been in the red for some time now.
|
||
|
||
Even though real wages have fallen and the rat race has intensified, this is
|
||
not the main reason for our life deficit. The "pleasures" that the machine has
|
||
to offer us are essentially polluted, and we ourselves are less and less
|
||
capable of truly enjoying them. On the one hand, we get mass products that
|
||
spoil us faster and faster, and on the other hand our work dulls our senses so
|
||
much that we become passive, isolated, unimaginative, lethargic and narrow-
|
||
minded. As satisfaction decreases, our craving for pleasure increases. The
|
||
large hole that the machine has carved in us simply cannot be filled. We can
|
||
cram our apartments full of electronics, travel far away, do gymnastics,
|
||
psychology courses, creativity and meditation, illegal and legal drugs: But we
|
||
cannot get away from ourselves.
|
||
|
||
The deal is rotten, because the "good things" are destroyed by the machine: we
|
||
ourselves, time, relationships, nature, traditions. Although we can travel
|
||
ever-faster and ever-farther, our freedom of movement in everyday life is
|
||
decreasing. Economization, renovation, redevelopment and standardization track
|
||
down every "free" second and every unused square meter. Time and space are
|
||
money. The machine uses money to implement its logic. We are locked in,
|
||
budgeted, clean and orderly and unhappy, although we don't really have any
|
||
"reason" to be.
|
||
|
||
Security
|
||
|
||
We are gagging on aversion. We have sensed for some time now that the old deal
|
||
has gone bad, and always was bad. The illusions of consumption, of technology,
|
||
of the "modern" industrial society in general, are crumbling. Why don't we get
|
||
out? Has the machine swallowed us up for good?
|
||
|
||
Fear of the unknown is stronger than revulsion for the everyday. The machine
|
||
appears to be the only possible reality. Habit. Security. Reason. Normalcy.
|
||
Power. Who guarantees our survival if we leave or destroy the machine? Where
|
||
is the medical care, the retirement and survivors' benefits, the insurance? We
|
||
are alone, and the machine is our only security in life.
|
||
|
||
Thus, we try to suppress our feelings, our reason and our doubts so that we can
|
||
function. We convince ourselves over and over again that this is how life is,
|
||
and that no other way is possible. Thus, we need normalcy to protect ourselves
|
||
from understanding our unhappiness. We are a conspiracy of unhappy people who
|
||
together defend their unhappiness. Whoever draws attention to this
|
||
unhappiness, assails it, is met with hate and envy. Whoever does not go along
|
||
with it becomes a disrupter, a parasite, a weakling, a failure, a dreamer or a
|
||
terrorist, depending on the degree of hate that is felt. Dropouts encounter
|
||
the perverse solidarity of those people who have understood the seriousness of
|
||
life, who have both feet on the ground, who can be proud of their deprivation
|
||
and frustrations (also known as achievements)...
|
||
|
||
But how safe is the machine, anyway? Is solidarity with it worthwhile? What
|
||
is the source of this strange nervousness of the defenders of normalcy? The
|
||
truth today is that this imposing machine, industrial society, is inexorably
|
||
pushing forward towards collapse. Not only is it sucking us dry, it is also
|
||
destroying itself. Industrial wealth is based on labor, but labor is being
|
||
superseded by automation and electronics, resulting in mass unemployment. The
|
||
more complex the machine becomes, the more work that must be expended on
|
||
repairs, administration and control. Maintenance of the machine requires more
|
||
work than the value that it generates on its own. The harm to nature and to
|
||
health that it inflicts is growing faster than production. The "health sector"
|
||
is exploding because our sickness is the most important product of the machine.
|
||
Industrial labor proves to be purely destructive work.
|
||
|
||
The current long-term economic crisis is the result of the internal
|
||
contradiction of the machine. When there are upswings, they represent only
|
||
small "recoveries" on the downward spiral. Each boom period leaves behind a
|
||
larger stock of unemployed people.
|
||
|
||
If the economy is in crisis, then this is also true of the welfare state. A
|
||
collapse of the monetary system could sweep away our retirement and survivors'
|
||
benefits, our insurance and pensions, at any time. Our "guarantees" are only
|
||
on paper--we have no recourse for getting what is owed us. Our faith in state
|
||
security is only an expression of our actual powerlessness and isolation. A
|
||
couple of good friends will be worth more than your retirement fund card or
|
||
savings passbook.
|
||
|
||
Realistic Politics
|
||
|
||
Perhaps the machine can still be changed and converted, so that it becomes
|
||
safer and more humane? Why not eliminate unemployment by introducing the 20-
|
||
hour work week, while at the same time applying leisure time to self-help and
|
||
self-sufficiency in neighborhoods and in the social domain? In this way,
|
||
everyone would have work, and the state could save on most welfare
|
||
expenditures. Why not restrict private transportation, invest more in public
|
||
transport, save energy (no atomic power plants, more insulation), recycle
|
||
garbage, eat less meat, introduce strict laws on the environment, strengthen
|
||
health care, delegate administration to the neighborhoods ("autonomous
|
||
sector"), abolish the armies? These reform proposals are reasonable, realistic
|
||
and in fact feasible as well. Thus, they constitute the official or unofficial
|
||
program of the "enlightened" alternative-social democratic-green-mixed [text
|
||
missing] just as those who start a popular initiative for the 40-hour work week
|
||
or set fire to a speculator's villa. Both know that the 40-hour week will
|
||
scarcely change the machine and that speculation will nevertheless continue.
|
||
Thus, this political reason actually conceals a lie: People act as if they
|
||
will gain something from their action, while knowing that even if their route
|
||
is the right one they will be long since dead once the "goal" is achieved.
|
||
They will become a hero of history, and will soon feel cheated. Disappointment
|
||
demands a "reward," and only the machine can provide that. And so yesterday's
|
||
partisan becomes tomorrow's minister of police...
|
||
|
||
Thus, we cannot avoid first expressing our very "private" dreams, so that we do
|
||
not deceive each other. Morale and realism are the machine's ideological
|
||
weapons, and for that reason, we must dare to be both egotistical and
|
||
ridiculous. Perhaps it will be obvious then that the "others" are not that
|
||
"different," but that we are all more alike than we think. Perhaps the
|
||
majority, the people, the masses, society, the voters, etc. are only a puppet
|
||
of the machine. Counter to the "first reality" of the machine, we must develop
|
||
our "second reality." It is our only change, because the first (including its
|
||
possibilities for improvement) is definitively on a dead-end road.
|
||
|
||
The machine attempts to take hold of the "second reality" and to digest it as
|
||
culture. Dreams are planned for and delimited as films, music, novels,
|
||
vacation sites, etc. Mixing the first and second realities is carefully
|
||
avoided. We must break through this channeling of our desires.
|
||
|
||
Today, the "realistic" attitude is one of "all or nothing." Either we achieve
|
||
rather quickly the jump from the first to the second reality, or both are lost
|
||
together. Apocalypse and the gospel. End of the world or utopia: These
|
||
possibilities stand in sharp juxtaposition today. We must chose between a
|
||
final, cynical pessimism and a "salto vitale" into an entirely different world.
|
||
Either apocalyptic enthusiasm or total resignation. Today, a middle-of-the-
|
||
road position such as "hope," "faith" or "patience" is merely self-deception or
|
||
demagogy.
|
||
|
||
The "nothing" is possible today, and it has also become a world view with which
|
||
it is quite possible to live. We do not necessarily have to survive. "Life"
|
||
as well as "nature" do not care whether they continue to exist. Making a
|
||
"value" out of survival and nature brings with it only totalitarian risks
|
||
(ecological fascism). The apocalypticists, nihilists and pessimists have good
|
||
arguments for their decision. They have their lifestyle, their fashion, music
|
||
and philosophy (Schopenhauer, Cioran, Buddhism). Perhaps the pessimists are
|
||
even the ones who are truly "happy," and the impending atomic or ecological end
|
||
of the world is the great deliverance from the torturous "life drive." But
|
||
this is not what I am talking about.
|
||
|
||
The "nothing" is one possibility, the "all" is another. Thus, if I attempt to
|
||
depict my phantasies about "all," then this is not to say anything against
|
||
"nothing." In contrast to nothing, "all" today is relatively poorly defined,
|
||
and appears to be less realistic. No one subjects himself to ridicule through
|
||
pessimistic predictions. It is worth expanding the "all" somewhat, if for no
|
||
other reason than to perhaps make "nothing" even more enticing...
|
||
|
||
Politic Real
|
||
|
||
During my reconnaissance missions into the second reality, I came across
|
||
bolo'bolo. This is my provisional, personal dream of a world in which I would
|
||
like to live as a vagabond or in a certain bolo. To this extent, it is quite
|
||
serious. On the other hand, it is only an idea shared by many people, a
|
||
hypothesis that can be dreamed up and then forgotten, a disposable utopia. I
|
||
would really like to see bolo'bolo become reality within five years, but I also
|
||
know that it can only be a flip among many. Even if it is only an incentive
|
||
and encouragement to others to let out their fantasies for the future as well,
|
||
then bolo'bolo would serve its purpose...
|
||
|
||
I imagine that bolo'bolo or other dreams could entice those resigned to real
|
||
politics out of their apathy, and that in this way a new "politic real" could
|
||
emerge. A politics (i.e., contact with oneself and with others) that is based
|
||
not only on preventing the "worst," but also on certain, wherever possible
|
||
practical, but also comprehensive ideas, from whence it then attempts to
|
||
project itself into the present. This could mean, for example, trying to
|
||
establish tega-sadis (see below) even today, and demanding the proper
|
||
buildings.
|
||
|
||
However, it is not really a question of assessing the feasibility of bolo'bolo,
|
||
nor of its (modest) potential uses in present-day situations; rather, it is a
|
||
question of itself. For this reason, I have gone to some (but not too much)
|
||
effort to determine whether bolo'bolo could function, in purely technical
|
||
terms, in an area like Switzerland (which would in that case not necessarily
|
||
continue to exist), and how long it would take to implement it. The available
|
||
data indicate that bolo'bolo could be essentially introduced within five years.
|
||
I have taken the fears of many people in Switzerland (one of the most heavily
|
||
insured countries in the world) into account and determined that no one would
|
||
have to starve, freeze to death or die any earlier than today. Bolo'bolo
|
||
guarantees a soft landing into the second reality.
|
||
|
||
Five years (only three, according to the delegate for economic war provisions)
|
||
would be enough time to convert agriculture to self-sufficiency. Through
|
||
improvisation, understanding and joy in chaos, the major confusion can be
|
||
overcome. If the nimas are strong enough, the state machinery can be paralyzed
|
||
and the factories are shut down, there will be enough time and energy for the
|
||
big day of restraint X.
|
||
|
||
Still, bolo'bolo is a planetary arrangement and can only exist if it is at
|
||
least dominant on a worldwide scale (about the same degree as the money economy
|
||
today). Nevertheless, bolo'bolo as a beginning in a country--such as
|
||
Switzerland, which is especially well-suited to it--is conceivable, since it is
|
||
part of the worldwide process. Switzerland could move ahead, since it is
|
||
compact, it would not cause any major political shifts, it has a certain model
|
||
character in terms of level of industrialization, and it is also centrally
|
||
positioned in Europe. The disruptions in the international banking system
|
||
could also be overcome...
|
||
|
||
But things could turn out completely different.
|
||
|
||
[p 61: Unattributed article]
|
||
|
||
Secret Code Detected by Satellite?
|
||
|
||
United States Engrossed in Spectacular Data Theft
|
||
|
||
New Brunswick (DPA)--The U.S. media are currently engrossed in a new,
|
||
spectacular case of "data burglary" reportedly involving seven young computer
|
||
enthusiasts, known as "hackers." The young people, who live in New Jersey and
|
||
whose names have not been disclosed because they are all under 18 years of age,
|
||
are said to have tapped into data bases, penetrated the communication system of
|
||
the telephone company AT&T, and even cracked codes in the Department of
|
||
Defense.
|
||
|
||
As the prosecutors reported, telephone services and data bases were supposedly
|
||
hit for thousands of dollars. Some estimates of the damage even go into the
|
||
millions. The young people, who are being charged with "conspiracy to theft,"
|
||
are said to have stored code numbers in their home computers with which the
|
||
positions of communications satellites can be altered and transcontinental
|
||
phone calls can be interrupted or placed.
|
||
|
||
On one of the hackers' electronic bulletin boards, coded telephone numbers were
|
||
found that gave the teenagers access to a communications system in the U.S.
|
||
Department of Defense, said district attorney Alan Rockoff. "We dialed one of
|
||
the numbers," says Rockoff, "and got a lieutenant general at the Pentagon."
|
||
|
||
According to the daily USA TODAY, the hackers also called in information on
|
||
U.S. Army tanks, and ordered stereos and radar detectors from mail-order houses
|
||
using stolen credit card numbers. In order to assess the full range of the
|
||
"data theft," the prosecutors must still examine six computers and mountains of
|
||
floppy diskettes.
|
||
|
||
The seven accused hackers reportedly did not know each other personally, but
|
||
rather exchanged information via their computers. In an interview with the NEW
|
||
YORK TIMES, one of the teenagers said that he was innocent, and thus not
|
||
particularly upset by the charges.
|
||
|
||
An AT&T spokesman said that there was no indication that the young people even
|
||
attempted to alter the positions of satellites. And the Pentagon assured that
|
||
its computer systems are hacker-safe. Based on previous experience with
|
||
hackers, however, computer experts doubt this assertion.
|
||
|
||
[p 61: Unattributed article]
|
||
|
||
Engelhard Wants to Restrict Computer Crime
|
||
|
||
Targeted Prosecution and "Social Control"
|
||
|
||
Bonn, 16 July--Minister of Justice Engelhard wants to strengthen efforts to
|
||
halt white-collar crime by creating criminal liability for "computer crimes."
|
||
Besides improving judicial organization through white-collar crime divisions
|
||
and using "targeted prosecution," rethinking in terms of "social control" is
|
||
also necessary, the minister believes. Despite the large amount of damage that
|
||
they inflict and their assault on the foundations of the economic system, these
|
||
criminals continue to be secretly admired. "White-collar crimes must be
|
||
subjected to the same level of ostracism in our society as other criminal
|
||
misdeeds." He added that this is not the equivalent of skipping out on a bar
|
||
tab, riding the streetcar without paying or sneaking a beer on the sly.
|
||
Rather, public prosecutors estimate that white-collar crime inflicted damages
|
||
totalling DM 6.9 billion in 1983.
|
||
|
||
Up to now, Engelhard said, it has been particularly difficult to uncover and
|
||
punish criminal acts conducted with computers. The second law on combatting
|
||
white-collar crime, which is currently under deliberation in the Bundestag
|
||
justice committee and which he hopes to see passed this year, should close
|
||
legal loopholes. In many cases, the current provisions have been inadequate.
|
||
For example, if money is set aside for one's own benefit through a computer
|
||
manipulation, then this cannot be considered embezzlement, since that crime
|
||
presupposes a special role by the perpetrator in overseeing the money that he
|
||
"burgled." Another example: Withdrawing a sum of money from an automatic
|
||
teller machine using a falsified ATM card is not necessarily robbery under the
|
||
law, since the money is not acquired through breaking into someone else's
|
||
safekeeping, and since the money in question is not a purloined object, but
|
||
rather a claim by the account-holder from his bank. Engelhard provided a
|
||
planned list of punishable computer crimes: computer manipulation, computer
|
||
espionage, computer sabotage and unauthorized use of data processing. As an
|
||
example of computer manipulation, he cited the example of an employee with a
|
||
Bavarian employment office who had DM 250,000 credited to his family by
|
||
improperly inputting child subsidy payments, including alleged child subsidy
|
||
payments for his grandparents, who were over 80 years old. As "computer
|
||
espionage," he noted the experiment by a Hamburg "Chaos Computer Club," which
|
||
managed to acquire the password for the Hamburger Sparkasse, which enabled them
|
||
to repeatedly call in BTX pages and perpetrate a fraud to the tune of DM
|
||
135,000. However, this took place under the supervision of the Hamburg data
|
||
protection commissioner. As potential sabotage, the minister mentioned the
|
||
insertion of a "logical time bomb" in a program. Someone had instructed a
|
||
program to destroy itself two years after its release at three o'clock in the
|
||
afternoon, which did in fact happen. For several days, 300 terminals were out
|
||
of order, Engelhard said. An insurance company dealing with computer misuse
|
||
surveyed 13,000 companies with data processing, 30 percent of which indicated
|
||
the presence of manipulation of data processing. Engelhard also turned his
|
||
attention towards the misuse of home computers by "hackers." The cracking of
|
||
access codes, he said, is not a game, but rather "electronic trespassing." Nor
|
||
is stealing programs (software piracy) a trivial offense; a Hanover high school
|
||
student allegedly inflicted damages totalling DM 23 million through
|
||
unauthorized copying. Thus, Engelhard said, it is proper that programs be
|
||
covered by copyright in the amended copyright law, and that criminal acts
|
||
henceforth be punishable by a maximum sentence of five years in prison (was one
|
||
year).
|
||
|
||
Furthermore, the second law for combatting white-collar crime is intended to
|
||
avert capital investment fraud and curb dubious futures trading, as well as to
|
||
standardize the mix of penal provisions pertaining to the misappropriation of
|
||
wages. |