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Subject: RISKS DIGEST 13.59 REPLY-TO: risks@csl.sri.com

RISKS-LIST: RISKS-FORUM Digest Thursday 18 June 1992 Volume 13 : Issue 59

FORUM ON RISKS TO THE PUBLIC IN COMPUTERS AND RELATED SYSTEMS ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy, Peter G. Neumann, moderator

Contents: SOUNDEX algorithm fails in Directory Enquiries (Nick Rothwell) Two wrongs make a right (Fred Cohen) Computer problem provides free phone porn (Mark Bartelt) Australia benefits from US encryption export ban (Rick Noah Zucker) Re: Missed Pagings (Marc Schwartz) Privacy problems with voter records (Norman Kraft) Call for Participation, CFP '93 (Bruce R Koball)

The RISKS Forum is moderated. Contributions should be relevant, sound, in good taste, objective, coherent, concise, and nonrepetitious. Diversity is welcome. CONTRIBUTIONS to RISKS@CSL.SRI.COM, with relevant, substantive "Subject:" line. Others may be ignored! Contributions will not be ACKed. The load is too great. **PLEASE** INCLUDE YOUR NAME & INTERNET FROM: ADDRESS, especially .UUCP folks. REQUESTS please to RISKS-Request@CSL.SRI.COM. Vol i issue j, type "FTP CRVAX.SRI.COM<CR>login anonymous<CR>AnyNonNullPW<CR> CD RISKS:<CR>GET RISKS-i.j<CR>" (where i=1 to 13, j always TWO digits). Vol i summaries in j=00; "dir risks-*.*<CR>" gives directory; "bye<CR>" logs out. The COLON in "CD RISKS:" is essential. "CRVAX.SRI.COM" = "128.18.10.1". <CR>=CarriageReturn; FTPs may differ; UNIX prompts for username, password. If you cannot read RISKS on-line, try FAX! For info, phone 310-455-9300 (or send FAX to RISKS at 310-455-2364, or EMail to risks-fax@cv.vortex.com). ALL CONTRIBUTIONS CONSIDERED AS PERSONAL COMMENTS; USUAL DISCLAIMERS APPLY. Relevant contributions may appear in the RISKS section of regular issues of ACM SIGSOFT's SOFTWARE ENGINEERING NOTES, unless you state otherwise.

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Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1992 10:45:55 +0000 From: Nick Rothwell <nick@dcs.edinburgh.ac.uk> Subject: SOUNDEX algorithm fails in Directory Enquiries

This is something I picked up while having some discussions at a software company here in Edinburgh. The company has a Gaelic name, and has been having problems with British Telecom's directory enquiries service not finding their entry. Apparently, all calls to directory enquiries are put through an implementation of the SOUNDEX algorithm: the operator listens to the name given by the caller, and types in the name as heard or a close phonetic approximation to it. I don't know a great deal about SOUNDEX, but it doesn't work for Gaelic, even though the company's name (An Teallach) is not too distant from the phonetic pronunciation (An Chellack).

The final part of the long, heated discussion with the BT engineer revealed that they've been having a lot of problems with the system, especially with people calling up to ask for phone numbers of French restaurants... Nick

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Date: Wed, 17 Jun 92 14:55 EDT From: fc <FBCohen@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL> Subject: Two wrongs make a right

Those of us who are aware that denial results when the output queues for peripherals overrun are aware that it can be devastating, but there are also those of us who take advantage of it as if it were a feature. Here is what happened to me today.

On a 3B2, the system backups and restoration program does not allow you to restore information to different directory structures than it was backed up from without great difficulty. I happened to have over 9,000 files to restore to a system, and they were backed up from "/v", but the system they were being restored on had only a "/u" it would fit on. (These are Unix sub\directories). As a result, I essentially had to do the restore to a newly created "/v" in the root file system, which did not have enough file space available to do the entire restore. I had a plan - As the tape was restored, I would copy disk-to-disk and delete the incoming files after copying them. I have done this "race" before, and I knew that I had to transfer out at a rate high enough so that the root file system would not overrun - which is to say, I had to beat the incoming tape transfer with disk to disk transfers. Of cours the tape in streeming mode operates faster than the disk I was using, so in the end, it was helpless because it takes two disk accesses to move a file from one disk to another, but only 1 access to get a new file from the tape. I tried putting in multiple transfer processes at high priority, but of course, the DMAs always won from the tape to the disk.

The solution I used (when the available space began to get critical) was to halt output on the console! Hard to believe it works? Of course it does. The tape transfers produce a dot on the screen for each of the files transfered in, and by pressing <ctrl>s (stop output) I was able to block the tape transfer process after only a few hundred more files are transfered. By watching the disk space, stopping the console output to block tape transfers when space got too low, and continuing output when more space was created by the transfer to the second disk, I was able to complete the job.

The point of this insanity is that as a practical matter, there are times when knowing how to cause denial of services can be a very useful part of systems administration - especially when we can do it so selectively. The title of this piece indicates that by knowing about how to break a system, I was able to compensate for one flaw in the system by exploiting another flaw - hence, 2 wrongs made a right!

P.S. I am interested in other stories where knopwn holes were used to compensate creatively for other known holes. It is my contention that most of the best systems administrators and systems programmers know about and exploit these sorts of things all of the time, and that without these flaws, we would really have to design systems right - otherwise, we would never be able to make up for the wrongs with other wrongs. FC

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Date: Thu, 18 Jun 92 08:00:43 EDT From: Mark Bartelt <sysmark@orca.cita.utoronto.ca> Subject: Computer problem provides free phone porn

[ Toronto Star, 17-Jun-92 ]

Bell attempts to correct error that allows free phone-sex calls

OTTAWA (CP) -- Bell Canada is scrambling to repair a computer error that allows some Ottawa pay phones to dispense free phone-sex services. The error has been giving callers easy access for months to graphic recordings of simulated kinky sex. Callers have also been able to speak to women whose job is to fulfil sexual fantasies by talking dirty. Bell officials weren't aware of the glitch in the system until an Ottawa Citizen reporter told them of it, said official Lynn Francoeur. Phone-sex clients "certainly weren't going to call Bell and tell us they were getting this for free." Francoeur could not say why Bell hadn't detected the error which has affected pay phones in Ottawa's west end and in the nearby community of Nepean. Nor could she say how much money Bell and the phone-sex companies have lost, or how long the error has existed. Many west-end high school students have been in the know for months. At Woodroffe High School, where three pay phones allowed the no-charge calls, several teenagers said they knew of the free dial-a-porn since late 1990. "It's perverted," said a 16-year-old male in Grade 10, who asked not to be identified.

Mark Bartelt 416/978-5619 Canadian Institute for mark@cita.toronto.edu Theoretical Astrophysics mark@cita.utoronto.ca

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Date: Wed, 17 Jun 92 16:19:13 -0700 From: noah@cs.washington.edu Subject: Australia benefits from US encryption export ban

>From The Courier-Mail, Queensland, Australia - May 18, 1992 "Pay-TV boost to technology" (copied without permission)

A US export ban on pay-TV decoding technology could lead to a multibillion- dollar, Australian-led revolution in the industry. The 15-year-old decoding or encryption system used in the US is classified "military sensitive", ruling out its export to and use in Australia when this country introduces a pay-TV system in 1994.

Far from creating a major hurdle for Australia's nascent pay-TV industry - pay TV cannot work without a signal decoding system - the export ban is likely to result in a massive boost for Australian technology.

After three years of developmental work, Gold Coast-based electronics company Digital Blanking Systems has produced a pay-TV "black box" which, it says, is better than the American version and which could save Australia $100 million a year in imports. [RNZ - = ~.76]

The company says its revolutionary decoder could earn Australia up to $2.5 billion a year in exports if the designed was accepted in key Asian and European pay-TV markets.

So, what we've said in the past about US export restrictions on encryption technology being detrimental economically is coming to pass.

Rick Noah Zucker, Dept. of Computer Science & Eng., University of Washington noah@cs.washington.edu

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Date: Tue, 16 Jun 92 12:38 EDT From: SchwartzM@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL Subject: Re: Missed Pagings (RISKS-13.58)

In the June 15 issue of RISKS-13.58, Bill Griswold of UCSD describes an incident that took place regarding a missed page that nearly cost the life of a person in personal crisis. I cannot comment on the availablity of any type of fault-tolerance in most radio paging system, that is can the system confirm that the page was recieved by the intended beeper? It would seem that the beepers that are typically available cannot transmit a return signal to indicate reception. I make that statement based upon the logical assumption that if the system needs a 100 foot tall (sometimes taller) tower to transmit the primary signal to the pager, the pager does not have the power to send a return signal. There are certainly experts out there in radio signal transmission that can comment on the specifics. But in most cases, it takes less power to sense a transmission than to actually generate one. Automotive radar detectors are a prime example of this.

My personal experience has had similar events. In my former life as a cardiac surgical assistant, there were times that I missed pages during life threatening situations when patients were in need of immediate attention from a health care professional. I had a Motorola BPR2000 beeper (the LCD display type) that was considered one of the best at the time (1981 - 1986 time frame) and there were more times than I care to think about when I was either in the hospital or on call away from the hospital that pages were missed. In no case did anyone die (luckily), but it did create enormous amounts of tension as precious minutes were sometimes lost due to not recieving the page the first time. In one circumstance, I changed from the hospital's own system to a commercial system, that was signifcantly more reliable (higher power transmitter with a better, more central antenna location). With that system, I did not miss any pages over the course of the subsequent year. At least that I know of!

I also would be curious to hear of any similar experiences and any expert comments on the nature of error detection and correction on the systems, especially with the new nation-wide paging systems that are in wide spread use by companies, including my present employer for our field personnel.

Marc Schwartz, Director, Clinical Services, Summit Medical Systems Minneapolis, Minnesota E-mail: SchwartzM at dockmaster.ncsc.mil

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Date: Wed, 17 Jun 92 15:53:06 EDT From: Lance J. Hoffman <hoffman@seas.gwu.edu> Subject: privacy problems with voter records

Date: Wed, 17 Jun 92 11:49:09 PDT From: "Willis H. Ware" <willis%iris@rand.org>

From: nkraft@bkhouse.cts.com (Norman Kraft) Newsgroups: alt.privacy Subject: Privacy alert:San Diego voters on CD Date: 8 Jun 92 18:31:33 GMT Organization: Argus Computing, San Diego, CA

An article that made the front page of the San Diego Union on Sunday, June 7, 1992 bore the title: "Technology pits privacy vs. Information Age". The article starts with these paragraphs:

++++++

The morning after Bill Turner voted in last week's election, he picked up a copy of a local computer magazine and his jaw dropped. "This ad just jumped out and hit me in the face," said the 35-year old La Mesa computer programmer. "It was a severe shock." There, for sale, were Turner's name, address, unlisted telephone number, occupation, birthplace, birthdate and political affiliation.

A list of San Diego County's 1.25 million registered voters containing the information is available for $99 in a relatively new format [CD-ROM] that virtually anyone with a personal computer can use. It is the first known such use of voter registration data in the nation.

++++++

The CD-ROM is marketed by a San Diego company call Sole Source Systems, a local computer store.

Lists of voter information have always been available, and political campaigns have had access to the information on data tapes for years. This is, however, the first time that such information has been made available to the public at large, in an easily accessible format (dBase, from what I can gather).

Sole Source says that use of the CD is limited to "election purposes, ...election, scholarly or political research, or government purposes." Sole Source says that they require ID and the completion of a form before selling the CD. Turner responds to this with "What is there to prevent me from going up there and telling him I'm with the Little Old Ladies Auxilliary 97, and I want this list to call people up and help arrange transportation to the polls on Election Day? It would be a bald-faced lie, but I would get it [the CD]."

He may be right, as Conny McCormack, the San Diego County Registrar of Voters says that the registrar's office does not check to make sure the list is being used within the law, primarily because "we have no authority in that area."

David Banisar, a policy analyst with Computer Professionals for Social Responsibilities in Washington, DC, said in all likelihood the CD would end up in the hands of direct marketers. "This is really an unanticipated use of the data," he said, "You register to vote because you want to feel patriotic and do your citizen's duty and try to get some good government. You don't register to vote so that you can be solicited by every bozo out there with a widget that he feels he should hock to you."

The article goes on to discuss the problems of privacy in the computer age, and mentions two other CD-ROM databases that are publicly available: PhoneDisc USA, from a corporation of the same name in Marblehead, Mass., lists 90 million names, addresses and phone numbers nation wide. MetroScan CD, from Transamerica Information Management in Sacramento, is a database containing housing ownership information, from deed filings, and for a given address provides the owner's name, address, when the building was purchased, how many bedrooms and bathrooms it has, how many square feet it has, and it's property tax assessment.

In the article, Ken Smith, from Transamerica Information Magagement, is quoted as saying:

"I'm very much in favor of making the information, if it's in the public domain, available to a very wide audience, rather than just major corporations and government agencies. It's a very, very powerful tool for the little guy."

and further:

"I don't think the privace issue has been a concern yet. I can see where it might be in the future, but it's not a problem now."

Finally the article goes back to Dante Tuccero, from PhoneDisc USA Corp., listing such PhoneDisc customers as "the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Navy, the Air Force, the Social Security Administration, as well as local libraries and law enforcement, public investigators, geneologists, and even high school and college reunions." Quoting Tuccero, "There's a company in Langley, Va,. that uses it, I believe, but wouldn't say so."

The last paragraphs of the article point out that "the direct-mail company that provides PhoneDisc with most of it's data prefers to remain off other people's lists."

"We're not at liberty to share that," Tuccero said, "A lot of data providers like to be low key."

The saddest part of the whole article, in my opinion, is this statement from Turner: "I have voted in every election since I was 18, and I think (this) was the last election I'll ever vote in."

[For those concerned about the PhoneDisc listings, they will remove your name from the next release of their CD if you call. They claim that only two people have called so far. I imagine we can change that! Their number in Marblehead, Mass. as given by directory assistance, is 617-639-2900.]

Norman R. Kraft, Senior Partner, Argus Computing, San Diego, CA UUCP : ucsd!crash!bkhouse!nkraft INET : nkraft@bkhouse.cts.com

------- Message 2

From: jim@rand.org (Jim Gillogly) Newsgroups: alt.privacy Subject: Re: Privacy alert:San Diego voters on CD Summary: PhoneDisc won't remove names. Date: 9 Jun 92 21:18:44 GMT

...

I called this number to get removed from their list. The lady who answered the phone was polite, and told me that they got their information from the white pages of phone books around the country, which are public information. I told her I wanted to be removed from their product, and she responded that all I needed to do was to get an unlisted number from the phone company so that I would not be in the next phone book, and that would prevent me from getting into the next copy of their product. They will not remove someone from it individually.

Looks like more cause for concern...

Jim Gillogly jim@rand.org

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Date: Tue, 16 Jun 92 19:28:55 -0700 From: Bruce R Koball <bkoball@well.sf.ca.us> Subject: Call for Participation, CFP '93

CFP'93 The Third Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy Sponsored by ACM SIGCOMM, SIGCAS & SIGSAC 9 - 12 March 1993 San Francisco Airport Marriott Hotel, Burlingame, CA

INVITATION

This is an invitation to submit session and topic proposals for inclusion in the program of the Third Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy. Proposals may be for individual talks, panel discussions, debates or other presentations in appropriate formats. Proposed topics should be within the general scope of the conference, as outlined below.

SCOPE

The advance of computer and telecommunications technologies holds great promise for individuals and society. From convenience for consumers and efficiency in commerce to improved public health and safety and increased participation in democratic institutions, these technologies can fundamentally transform our lives.

At the same time these technologies pose threats to the ideals of a free and open society. Personal privacy is increasingly at risk from invasion by high-tech surveillance and eavesdropping. The myriad databases containing personal information maintained in the public and private sectors expose private life to constant scrutiny.

Technological advances also enable new forms of illegal activity, posing new problems for legal and law enforcement officials and challenging the very definitions of crime and civil liberties. But technologies used to combat these crimes can threaten the traditional barriers between the individual and the state.

Even such fundamental notions as speech, assembly and property are being transformed by these technologies, throwing into question the basic Constitutional protections that have guarded them. Similarly, information knows no borders; as the scope of economies becomes global and as networked communities transcend international boundaries, ways must be found to reconcile competing political, social and economic interests in the digital domain.

The Third Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy will assemble experts, advocates and interested people from a broad spectrum of disciplines and backgrounds in a balanced public forum to address the impact of computer and telecommunications technologies on freedom and privacy in society. Participants will include people from the fields of computer science, law, business, research, information, library science, health, public policy, government, law enforcement, public advocacy and many others.

Topics covered in previous CFP conferences include:

Personal Information and Privacy International Perspectives and Impacts Law Enforcement and Civil Liberties Ethics, Morality and Criminality Electronic Speech, Press and Assembly Who Logs On (Computer & Telecom Networks) Free Speech and the Public Telephone Network Access to Government Information Computer-based Surveillance of Individuals Computers in the Workplace Who Holds the Keys? (Cryptography) Who's in Your Genes? (Genetic Information) Ethics and Education Public Policy for the 21st Century

These topics are given as examples and are not meant to exclude other possible topics on the general subject of Computers, Freedom and Privacy.

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION

All proposals should be accompanied by a position statement of at least one page, describing the proposed presentation, its theme and format. Proposals for panel discussions, debates and other multi-person presentations should include a list of proposed participants and session chair. Proposals should be sent to:

CFP'93 Proposals 2210 Sixth Street Berkeley, CA 94710

or by email to: cfp93@well.sf.ca.us with the word "Proposal" in the subject line. Proposals should be submitted as soon as possible to allow thorough consideration for inclusion in the formal program. The deadline for submissions is 15 August 1992.

STUDENT PAPER COMPETITION

Full time students are invited to enter the student paper competition. Winners will receive a scholarship to attend the conference and present their papers.

Papers should not exceed 2500 words and should address the impact of computer and telecommunications technologies on freedom and privacy in society. All papers should be submitted to Professor Dorothy Denning by 15 October 1992. Authors may submit their papers either by sending them as straight text via email to: denning@cs.georgetown.edu or by sending 6 printed copies to:

Professor Dorothy Denning Georgetown University Dept. of Computer Science 225 Reiss Science Bldg. Washington DC 20057

Submitters should include the name of their institution, degree program, and a signed statement affirming that they are a full- time student at their institution and that the paper is an original, unpublished work of their own.

INFORMATION

For more information on the CFP'93 program and advance registration, as it becomes available, write to:

CFP'93 Information 2210 Sixth Street Berkeley, CA 94710

or send email to: cfp93@well.sf.ca.us with the word "Information" in the subject line.

THE ORGANIZERS

General Chair ------------- Bruce R. Koball CFP'93 2210 Sixth Street Berkeley, CA 94710 510-845-1350 (voice) 510-845-3946 (fax) bkoball@well.sf.ca.us

Steering Committee ------------------ John Baker Mitch Ratcliffe Equifax MacWeek Magazine

Mary J. Culnan David D. Redell Georgetown University DEC Systems Research Center Dorothy Denning Georgetown University Marc Rotenberg Computer Professionals Les Earnest for Social Responsibility GeoGroup, Inc. C. James Schmidt Mike Godwin San Jose State University Electronic Frontier Foundation Barbara Simons Mark Graham IBM Pandora Systems Lee Tien Lance J. Hoffman Attorney George Washington University George Trubow Donald G. Ingraham John Marshall Law School Office of the District Attorney, Alameda County, CA Willis Ware Rand Corp. Simona Nass Student - Cardozo Law School Jim Warren Microtimes Peter G. Neumann & Autodesk, Inc. SRI International

Affiliations are listed for identification only.

Please distribute and post this notice!

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End of RISKS-FORUM Digest 13.59 ************************