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17-Jan-86 13:28:25-PST,8440;000000000001 Mail-From: NEUMANN created at 17-Jan-86 13:26:29 Date: Fri 17 Jan 86 13:26:29-PST From: RISKS FORUM (Peter G. Neumann, Coordinator) <RISKS@SRI-CSL.ARPA> Subject: RISKS-1.40 Sender: NEUMANN@SRI-CSL.ARPA To: RISKS-LIST@SRI-CSL.ARPA

RISKS-LIST: RISKS-FORUM Digest, Friday, 17 Jan 1986 Volume 1 : Issue 40

FORUM ON RISKS TO THE PUBLIC IN COMPUTER SYSTEMS sponsored by the ACM, Peter G. Neumann, moderator Contents: Big Brother (Jim Ziobro, Keith Lynch) Multiple redundancy (Henry Spencer) COMPASS 86: System Integrity: Process Security and Safety (Al Friend)

The RISKS Forum is moderated. Contributions should be relevant, sound, in good taste, objective, coherent, concise, nonrepetitious. Diversity is welcome. (Contributions to RISKS@SRI-CSL.ARPA, Requests to RISKS-Request@SRI-CSL.ARPA.) (Back issues Vol 1 Issue n stored in SRI-CSL:<RISKS>RISKS-1.n.)

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Date: Fri, 17 Jan 86 13:39:48 est From: rocksvax!z@rochester.arpa (Jim Ziobro) To: mcgrath%mit-oz@mit-mc.arpa, neumann@sri-csl.arpa Subject: Big Brother (Chaum's articel, CACM vol 28, #10, 1030-1044)

I believe the point of Chaum's article was to show how computer technology might prevent invasions of privacy by unauthorized parties. He did not give specific algorithms. The challenge is now to develop secure algorithms and to get public acceptance. All in all I thought it was a very good article.

As PGN points out, a completely secure algorithm is impossible. But all we really need do is get one that is better than our current coupon system. How secure is our coupon system (Dollars and coins)? Well at least one person in Xerox can make money (given the proper paper) that will fool most of the population. A friend in printing says that passable money is quite easy to do but this particular individual had better things to do with his time.

The privacy of currency is hard to beat. But already many people prefer credit cards to the vulnerability of cash. In that case they trade off security for allowing nearly anyone at their bank to see where they shop and how much they spend. People are also willing to spend the $20/year for the credentials/security that credit cards offer.

I think public acceptance increases by one everytime someone receives a false transaction on their credit card or even when their Social Security check is stolen in the mail. At that rate Chaum's vision of the future may be with us before 2000.

//Z\\ James M. Ziobro Ziobro.Henr@Xerox.ARPA {rochester,amd,sunybcs,ihnp4}!rocksvax!z

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Date: Mon, 13 Jan 86 21:33:27 EST From: "Keith F. Lynch" <KFL@MC.LCS.MIT.EDU> Subject: Big Brother To: mcgrath@OZ.AI.MIT.EDU cc: KFL@MC.LCS.MIT.EDU, <RISKS@SRI-CSL.ARPA

Date: Wed 8 Jan 86 19:53:41-PST From: Jim McGrath <J.JPM@Epic>

... David Chaum ... asserts that it would be in the interests of both individuals and organizations to adopt a system whereby transactions would be essentially unforgeable and untraceable.

I agree that this would be great. I doubt that it will happen. The character of people in government today is very different from 200 years ago. It is obvious that the signers of the constitution would have extended their protections of papers and places to computer files and disks, had they heard of such things. Confiscation of CBBS computers is just as wrong as confiscation of printing presses. 'Fairness' rules concerning radio and TV are just as unreasonable as similar rules concerning newspapers and magazines would be. The only reason why the printed media get preferred treatment is that they were explicitly mentioned in the constitution. Had radio, TV, electronic funds transfer systems, and telephones been around in the days of Jefferson and Washington, I am sure that they would enjoy similar constitutional protection. There are many good reasons why it is in the government's interest to be able to track each individual's finances, phone usage, electronic mail usage, etc. Mainly to fight crime, especially the new bugaboo of terrorism. But this same reasoning could have been used by the writers of the constitution, but it wasn't. It was believed that the benefits of having a free society outweighed the problems of some people abusing these freedoms. Two hundred years later, comparing our country with countries that made the opposite decision, I think we did the right thing. I believe that this is probably the greatest risk of computers. That by phasing out the media that are mentioned in the constitution, that we are also phasing out the protections long enjoyed by their users. ...Keith

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Date: Mon, 13 Jan 86 19:49:18 PST From: ihnp4!utzoo!henry@ucbvax.berkeley.edu To: risks@sri-csl.arpa Subject: Re: Multiple redundancy

A correction and an addendum to my earlier contribution about multiple redundancy...

Correction: It was not the "De Havilland Victor" but the "Handley Page Victor". Blush. That's like calling Boeing "McDonnell Douglas".

Addendum: The full reference is Bill Gunston, "Bombers of the West", Ian Allan, London 1973, page 92.

Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry

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Date: Tue, 14 Jan 86 10:19:26 est From: friend@nrl-csr (Al Friend) To: risks@sri-csl Subject: COMPASS 86 Call for Papers

COMPUTER ASSURANCE System Integrity: Process Security and Safety

******************* * CALL FOR PAPERS * *******************

Important Dates Date & Location --------------- --------------- March 31, 1986 July 7 - 11, 1986 3 Copies of Abstract Submitted The George Washington University

April 30, 1986 Washington, D.C. Authors Notified of Acceptance Accomodations available in Dorms

May 30, 1986 Camera Ready Manuscripts Due

Keynote Address by: David Lorge Parnas

Sponsored by: WASHINGTON SECTION IEEE Conference Name: COMPASS 86 (COMPuter ASSurance)

Our safety, health and welfare as individuals and as a nation are increasingly dependent on the correct use of computers. However it is usual to find major "bugs" and untrustworthy operation in critical computer controlled systems, despite advances in software engineering and computer system design. New approaches are needed. The purpose of this conference is to discuss these needs, and to encourage the presentation of possible new approaches. Abstracts presenting innovative new ideas are encouraged, even if the ideas have not been fully developed. Our goal is not to sell old ideas but to encourage new ones. Abstracts of 5 to 10 pages are encouraged.

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XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Subject Areas Include (but are not limited to): X For information contact: X ----------------------------------------------- X Albert W. Friend, Prog. ChmnX X COMPASS, P.O. Box 3815 X * Specifications X Gaithersburg, MD 20878 X * Processes X friend@nrl-csr X * Assessment and Measurement X X * Formal methods and tests X NAME_____________________ X * Human limitations X Affiliation______________ X * Implementations X Address__________________ X * Kernels X City, State, Zip_________ X X _______________________ X All submissions reviewed by program committee XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

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