[free-sklyarov] Fwd: SECURITY ADVISOR: Network protection
commentary from InfoWorld.com, Thursday
Neon Samurai
alex at 2600.COM
Thu Aug 9 10:22:36 PDT 2001
Brian Livinston, also of Infoworld, wrote a small but well
informed piece on Dmitry and the DMCA as well. It was in the printed version
so I would imagine it must be on their site as well.
Best,
Alex
http://www.VerizonEatsPoop.com
On Thu, 9 Aug 2001, Edmund A. Hintz wrote:
> Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2001 09:55:29 -0700
> From: Edmund A. Hintz <ed at hintz.org>
> To: free-sklyarov at zork.net
> Subject: [free-sklyarov] Fwd: SECURITY ADVISOR: Network protection
> commentary from InfoWorld.com, Thursday
>
> Infoworld has a daily security commentary/soapbox, todays subject may be
> of interest to a few folks on this list... ;-)
>
>
> ---------------- Begin Forwarded Message ----------------
>
> ========================================================
> SECURITY ADVISOR InfoWorld.com
> ========================================================
>
> Thursday, August 9, 2001
>
> Network protection commentary by: P.J. Connolly
>
> Advertising Sponsor - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> FREE SECURITY GUIDE: Don't expose your company's deepest
> secrets. Get all the in-depth knowledge you need to secure
> your enterprise with NetIQ's FREE step-by-step security
> guide - "Selecting The Right Security Solution"- at:
> http://www.netiq.com/sponsor/default.asp?263
> Read it now before it's too late. NetIQ's security solutions
> not only identify intruders, but ensure that threats don't
> ever become incidents. NetIQ. Making your world secure
> today. Making the world secure tomorrow.
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>
> CRYPTO LAW MISGUIDED
>
> Posted at August 3, 2001 01:01 PM PST Pacific
>
>
> RUSSIAN DEVELOPER Dmitry Sklyarov is now a guest of the
> FBI, having been charged with violation of the DMCA
> (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). The feds and Adobe
> Systems are unhappy because Sklyarov
> reverse-engineered the encryption scheme used in
> Adobe's eBooks technology. This may be perfectly legal
> in Russia, but here it's a felony.
>
> If Sklyarov had just written a paper and put together
> some PowerPoint slides for a presentation, things
> would be a lot simpler. Can you say "First Amendment"?
> But press reports claim that Sklyarov came to a
> convention in Las Vegas with 500 demo copies of his
> decryption program. That's a problem -- 500 of
> anything is enough evidence to prove a distribution
> charge. Although the demo version will process only
> about a quarter of an eBook -- and his employer
> ElcomSoft is keeping the full version under wraps --
> Sklyarov will get deported if he's lucky, and jail if
> he's not.
>
> If I were running Adobe, I'd have hired Sklyarov
> because he grasps encryption better than anyone at
> Adobe. The company chose instead to get heavy, hoping
> that nobody would notice the eBook scheme's
> shortcomings. This backfired when, faced with an
> ill-concealed rebellion among its own employees, Adobe
> management caved and is now calling for Sklyarov's release.
>
> This circus underscores a fundamental flaw in the DMCA:
> that any "reverse engineering" of an encryption scheme
> is illegal. It doesn't matter what your motive is; if
> you're not authorized by the owner to tinker, you're a
> criminal. This flies in the face of centuries of
> engineering progress that came about because someone
> made improvements to somebody else's work. It's time
> to put a provision into the DMCA that should have been
> in the original bill: one that allows for legitimate
> discussion and research. Send this column to your
> representatives and senators, because as the law
> stands right now, Thomas Edison would get life.
>
> A secure infrastructure for e-commerce cannot be
> created if the mere act of finding and publicizing
> holes in security schemes is a crime. A "reasonable
> behavior" test would have exonerated recent victims of
> the DMCA such as Princeton's Edward Felten, who with
> others entered the recording industry's contest to
> crack its latest "uncrackable" watermarking scheme.
> Yet he was threatened with a lawsuit this spring for
> succeeding and for publishing his results.
>
> It's not hard to identify malicious behavior; judges
> and juries do that every day. If e-commerce is going
> to succeed, it has to be secure; and if it's going to
> be secure, it has to be tested. I'd rather that
> testing take place at the hands of some mild-mannered
> academics scrambling for tenure than by some digital
> pirate less interested in getting rich than in
> listening to free music, or discrediting my business.
>
> P.J. Connolly (pj_connolly at infoworld.com) covers
> security for the Test Center. Get this column free via
> e-mail each week. Sign up at http://www.iwsubscribe.com/newsletters.
>
>
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>
> MORE SECURITY ADVISOR
> For a complete archive of his InfoWorld columns visit
> http://www2.infoworld.com/cgi/component/columnarchive.wbs?column=swatch
>
> INFOWORLD OPINIONS
> Weekly commentary from the most trusted voices in
> IT at: http://www.infoworld.com/community/t_opinions.html
>
> To join, or start, a discussion on this or any IT-related
> topic, please visit our InfoWorld forums at
> http://forums.infoworld.com. Here you can interact and
> exchange ideas with InfoWorld staff and other readers.
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> QUOTE OF THE DAY:
>
> "What we are doing now I compare to the government's 'Best
> of Breed' approach of the 1990s but with a little Viagra
> added in."
>
> --Mark Forman, director of IT and e-government within the
> Bush administration's Office of Management and Budget,
> explains to InfoWorld Senior Editor Jennifer Jones how the
> current fed-wide IT revamp enhances an earlier policy.
>
> http://iwsun4.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/01/08/03/010803hnforman.xml?080
> 9thse
>
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>
> SUBSCRIBE
> To subscribe to any of InfoWorld's e-mail newsletters,
> tell your friends and colleagues to go to:
> http://www.iwsubscribe.com/newsletters/
>
> To subscribe to InfoWorld.com, or InfoWorld Print,
> or both, go to http://www.iwsubscribe.com
>
> UNSUBSCRIBE
> If you want to unsubscribe from InfoWorld's Newsletters,
> go to http://iwsubscribe.com/newsletters/unsubscribe/
>
> CHANGE E-MAIL
> If you want to change the e-mail address where
> you are receiving InfoWorld newsletters, go to
> http://iwsubscribe.com/newsletters/adchange/
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>
> Must-Have Info for Can-Do Companies
> Even in the new economy, small and medium-sized
> companies are the little engines that can and do power
> the economy. And they could no sooner do without
> information technology, and the savvy to use it wisely and
> well, than the Fortune 500. If that sounds like you and your
> organization, InfoWorld's Small-Medium Business Report
> newsletter is your must-read weekly digest of technology
> and management stories you need to read. Subscribe now at
> http://www.iwsubscribe.com/newsletters/
>
> Advertising Sponsor - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> FREE SECURITY GUIDE: Don't expose your company's deepest
> secrets. Get all the in-depth knowledge you need to secure
> your enterprise with NetIQ's FREE step-by-step security
> guide - "Selecting The Right Security Solution"- at:
> http://www.netiq.com/sponsor/default.asp?263
> Read it now before it's too late. NetIQ's security solutions
> not only identify intruders, but ensure that threats don't
> ever become incidents. NetIQ. Making your world secure
> today. Making the world secure tomorrow.
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>
> Copyright 2001 InfoWorld Media Group Inc.
>
>
> ----------------- End Forwarded Message -----------------
>
>
> Peace,
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Edmund A. Hintz **|** "You may say I'm a dreamer,
> Mac Techie, Linux Geek, * | * But I'm not the only one...
> Mac/Linux Consultant * /|\ * I hope someday you'll join us,
> <ed at hintz.org> */ | \* And the world will live as one.
> '78 Westy ***** Imagine."
> http://www.hintz.org
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> free-sklyarov mailing list
> free-sklyarov at zork.net
> http://zork.net/mailman/listinfo/free-sklyarov
>
More information about the Free-sklyarov
mailing list