Re: Jam Echelon Day II (JEDII)

[ZoeScanner <zoescanner@yahoo.com>]

[: hacktivism :]

Greetz all
            Info will be forthcoming in other
languages...just as soon as I get this   
Babbelsomethingorother prog up & running. 
(Big bugger..takes up most of my zip disk!)
meanwhile, Babbelfish  does a nice job of
translating...
http://babelfish.altavista.com/translate.dyn 

Got this newsflash in this morning about that
nasty UK 'RIP'...& after that
 are some of the links people were requesting
earlier both on this list & in me email. Many of
these links have Both info on Echelon AND
InfoWar. :
( I do hope this is presentable...been one HECK
of a looong nite..)
Peace!
ZoeScanner

*******
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 10:19:25 +0100 (BST) 

Dear Zoe,
>> Today's Top Story: 
'SNOOPING BILL' WILL BE LAW BY OCTOBER SAYS PEER
The Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Bill

could be law by October despite major amendments 
tabled by opposition Lords, according to a 
leading lobbyist... http://www.silicon.com/a38583
********************
>>Dear Zoe,
 
The House of Lords let RIP again this week by 
refusing to pass the UK government's much-amended

Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill.

Even though the legislation has been given a 
make-over Richard and Judy would've been proud
of, 
the titled toffs in their ermine considered the 
changes to be merely cosmetic, and trumpeted:
"This 
shall not pass."

The Lords voted in favour of two major amendments

to the Snooping Bill. The first would see the 
creation of an advisory board to oversee the 
practical implementation of the Bill. The second 
amendment would provide ISPs with "fair"
compensation 
for the costs of installing the 'black boxes' 
security forces will need to get access to
emails.

Keith Todd, UK CEO of ICL, has called for a two 
month moratorium on the Bill to give the
hot-heads 
on both sides of the debate a chance to cool off.

The Computer Software and Services Association 
(CSSA) too thinks this is wise.

It's hard to disagree.

But that means the legislation will be delayed 
until the next session of Parliament, and open
the 
government up to accusations of ineptitude when 
it comes to forging internet legislation at 
internet speed.

Perhaps it's better right and late than wrong and

punctual.

Even better right first time round.

The government will now have to reassess its 
position, as four ISPs threaten to move some or
all 
of their services overseas (see 
http://www.silicon.com/a38523)

The RIP tide continues to ebb and flow.

More bad news this week for civil servants as the

Public Accounts Committee came down hard on the 
mammoth ten-year, £2.4bn EDS/Inland Revenue (IR) 
contract.

The Committee suggested really quite firmly in a 
report released on Thursday that the IR break its

habit of changing the software specs: it's done 
this so many times now that a cool £500m has been

added to the original expected costs of the deal.

The report ominously states that further changes 
are expected before the contract comes up for 
renewal in 2004.

It also warns the department about potential 
lock-in problems, advising it to implement open 
systems wherever possible.

It says that the IR is slipping behind the rest 
of the industry because its application 
alterations and additions have prevented EDS
updating the 
operating system software, which is now out of 
date.

It also points out that drawing up dodgy specs is

a very bad plan: one minor omission has already 
cost the IR - and hence the taxpayer - £600,000.

And while the august body is capable of spotting 
a tax return mistake at 100 paces, it's incapable

of benchmarking EDS's performance: only 50 per 
cent of its work has been compared with similar 
projects being undertaken in other government 
departments and the private sector.

So, EDS seems to be taking all the money, and 
none of the blame. Nice work if you can get it.

EDS also won a $2.1bn contract with Rolls-Royce 
last week - they were already working together, 
but the luxury car maker wanted to expand the
deal 
to encompass ecommerce. A spokesman told us the 
companies had not yet made a decision about the 
ebusiness technology EDS will install. This 
prompted an astonished response from one of our
loyal 
viewers:

"So, let me get this right: EDS has just won a 
contract without actually defining how it will 
achieve a solution for the client?... It does
seem to 
be a case of, 'We're EDS, we cost a lot, don't 
look too hard at our track-record, but we've got 
thousands of IT personnel who can hopefully give 
you a solution.'

"I've worked for some of 'the big boys' and 
(unfortunately for me) I actually held onto my 
principles and have made a conscious decision to
put the 
clients' needs first. 

"We can knock out marketing blurbs all morning: 
'It's quality that counts, not quantity,' etc
etc. 
- the only thing is, it IS just marketing for the

'big boys'. Once they get their feet under the 
table, they're only there to make maximum profit,

rather than what they were originally contracted 
to do - i.e. supply a solution to a problem that
a 
customer is having. It's no different from a 
plumber, electrician or car mechanic - you have a

problem that you yourself cannot fix, but with
these 
people's help, the problem can be solved.

"Except when it comes to IT! You wouldn't put up 
with that style service from a car dealership who

you've just handed over your car to.

"I am just amused (yet again!) by the fact that 
the likes of EDS are still managing to win these 
contracts - but then again, I suppose, if you
were 
Rolls Royce and you had a couple of billion to 
spend on IT, you'd 'play it safe' and get one of 
the 'Big Five' in, because, well, that's what you

do isn't it? That's what you're taught to do on 
your MBA course - minimise your risks. It's 
beautiful, absolutely beautiful - perhaps silicon
should 
start 'influencing' university courses to ensure 
that they have guaranteed business in the 
future?"

It seems that they don't really need our help.

In slightly related news, an ICL-led consortium 
called Sirius won a ten-year, £350m contract with

the Home Office on Wednesday. 

The EC is beginning to prove it's got sharp claws

and isn't afraid of scratching BT. The Commission

this week ruled that all the EC countries' 
dominant telcos must unbundle their local loops
by the 
end of the year.

The announcement rather caught Oftel on the hop: 
they weren't really aware of the new regulation 
until we told them about it. A spokesman said:
"We 
understand it will only be the legal framework 
that will need to be put in place by the end of
the 
year." 

Not according to the EC.

And a BT spokeswoman would not comment on the 
feasibility of bringing the deadlines forward,
and 
just said that "everyone is working very hard to 
meet the agreed deadlines" -namely, July 2001.

Expect more telco tussles over the coming weeks.

BT itself caught someone on the hop this week: 
Michael Armstrong, CEO of AT&T, its partner in 
Concert.

BT announced that it's thinking of selling it 
off, which came as a bit of a surprise to
Armstrong, 
who was in Tokyo and seemed not to know about any

flotation plans.

BT subsequently back-tracked a bit and played 
down the possibilities of an imminent IPO.

Left hand, meet right...

Round-Up itself (?) will be back next Friday to 
talk its own special brand of nonsense. We're 
off down the park now to celebrate our second 
birthday. Thanks for all your invaluable feedback
to 
the last 100 or so editions of the Round-Up. 
After all, the more you write, the less I have to

make up...<<
******************
While NOT directly related to JEDII, this is
still an ugly
invasion of privacy people need to know about...
JUST in from Steve Gibson @ GRC.COM
http://grc.com/newsletter.htm , a forum to talk
about this...

>>Hello Zoe,
The NetZip, Netscape/AOL, and Real 
Networks
             Download Utilities *ARE* Spying On 
Us!

A SERIOUS New Spyware Threat ...
NetZip's "Download Demon" was purchased by Real 
Networks and
  renamed "Real Download". then Netscape/AOL 
licensed it from
  Real and called it "Netscape Smart Download."

  By watching the "packet traffic" flowing in and

out of one of
  my machines while downloading a file through 
the Internet, I
  verified the rumors which you may have heard 
regarding these
  programs: All of these programs immediately tag

your computer
  with a unique ID, after which EVERY SINGLE FILE

you download
  from ANYWHERE on the Internet (even places that

might not be
  anyone else's business) is immediately reported

back to the
  program's source where it is logged and 
recorded along with
  your machine's unique ID.  They also have the 
opportunity to
  capture and record your machine's unique 
Internet IP address.

     This information is then compiled and used 
to create
     a detailed "profile" about who you are based

upon the
     web sites you visit and the files you have 
downloaded.<<

(Thanks Steve!)
********************** 
Ok "sponges"...ready? ABSORB!
Here is some food fer yer headz..
http://privacy.net/anonymizer/
(Steve here is an eccentric genius! :) His progs
are tiny & top notch.He also has a super test
page that will blow yer socks off...
http://grc.com/default.htm
Best cover for pc there is so far...
http://www.zonelabs.com/zonealarmnews.htm
For the best most comp info on these matters
check out this site
http://www.counterpane.com/solitaire.html
Crypto info pages A-Z also some have downloads
http://whatis.com/encrypti.htm
http://www.cyberspacelaws.com/encrypti.asp
U.S. crypto policies
http://www.pacificresearch.org/fsheet/encrypt/encryption.html
PGP & facts
http://www.pgpi.org/
http://www.davecentral.com/encrypt.html
this is what the gov claims to know about
it..huh.
http://www.alw.nih.gov/Security/prog-auth.html
Steve's info on crypto
http://grc.com/oo/news.htm
cool team
http://world.std.com/~franl/crypto/cypherpunks.html
INteresting indeed...even news here.GREAT for
news.
http://www.infowar.com/
http://www.cdt.org/crypto/
http://www.anonymizer.com/
http://theory.lcs.mit.edu/~tcryptol/homepage.html
http://www.ipc.on.ca/Web_site.ups/MATTERS/SUM_PAP/PAPERS/encrypt.htm
http://www.swcp.com/~mccurley/cryptographers/cryptographers.html
http://world.std.com/~franl/crypto.html
http://cec.wustl.edu/~cs142/encryption.html
algorithims (3 most popular first)
http://www.counterpane.com/yarrow.html
http://www.counterpane.com/blowfish.html
http://www.counterpane.com/solitaire.html
http://www.counterpane.com/twofish.html
http://www.secureroot.com/category/encryption/
http://www.jetico.sci.fi/index.htm#/gost.htm
http://world.std.com/~franl/crypto/rsa-guts.html
recently declassified gov encryption..so ya know
they got it.
http://csrc.nist.gov/encryption/skipjack-kea.htm
http://www.fedcirc.gov/
http://www.nist.gov/
For some really cool info on progs to do yourself
(Just found this one..not done checking it out
yet)
http://ns.ssl.stu.neva.ru/psw/
Not done checking these either..looks interesting
http://www.rewnet.com/multiras/
http://www.fwnetwork.com/?AID=310042&PID=415466

information warfare links
What it is:
http://www.greenberet.net/bearpit/Reading/cyberwar/cyberwar.html
http://www.fas.org/irp/hotdocs.htm
http://www.fas.org/irp/program/task/impacts.htm
http://www.fas.org/irp/wwwinfo.html
http://www.psycom.net/iwar.1.html
http://www.cs.georgetown.edu/~denning/cosc511/spring00/index.html
http://www.infowar.com/mil_c4i/wik/834engc.html
http://www.slis.indiana.edu/TIS/tables_of_contents/toc.html#15-2
http://dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/people/pagre/rre.html
http://commons.somewhere.com/rre/2000/RRE.Investigating.Large..html
http://www.uta.fi/~ptmakul/infowar/
http://www.uta.fi/~ptmakul/infowar/index.html
http://www.au.af.mil/au/aul/bibs/infowar/if.htm
http://www.fedworld.gov/ftp.htm
http://www.secureroot.com/news/
http://www.infowar.com/
http://cryptome.org/iwd.htm
http://asweb.unco.edu/kosovoconnecti/online_resources_information_war.htm
http://www.twurled-world.com/
http://www.twurled-world.com/Infowar/Update2/V_infowar.htm
http://www.meydabbs.com/infosec/infowarfare/index.html
http://computer.org/computer/co1999/r4057abs.htm

http://www.disinfo.com/
http://www.disinfo.com/disinfo?p=folder&title=Silencing+Dissent%3A+The+Global+Information+War
http://www.terrorism.com/infowar/index.shtml
http://www.globalterrorism.com/
and a ...ah..odd one. HAR!
http://www.i-war.com/

Someone wanted book titles?
Just a few....BOOKz
can be found at 
http://www.amazon.com

the art of information warfare by
Richard Forno & Ron Baklarz

Information Warfare & security
by Dorthy Denning

Strategic Information Warfare Rising
by Roger c. Molander

Information Warfare, principles & operations
by Edward Waltz

Cyberwar, Security, Strategy & Conflict in the
Information age
by Alan D. Campten

And
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/

The Next World War
by James Adams

Information Warfare: Cyberterrorism
Winn Schwartau

Countering the New Terrorism
by Ian lesser,John Arquilla,Bruce Hoffman,Brian
Michael,David Ronfeldt,Michele Zanini

Class Warfare in The Information Age
by Michael Perelman

Overview of Information Warfare
by Fredric H. Levien


Enjoy!
Peace!
G'nite!

ZoeScanner
http://www.dfn.org

Cymru am Byth 
("Wales for Ever") 


=====
Carpe'Deiem!


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