[15186] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
The pirates of the 21st century (Translation)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Pelle Braendgaard)
Fri Jan 9 13:26:54 2004
X-Original-To: cryptography@metzdowd.com
X-Original-To: cryptography@metzdowd.com
From: Pelle Braendgaard <pelle@veraxpay.com>
To: Cryptography <cryptography@metzdowd.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2004 10:28:32 -0500
This article recently ran in Die Zeit in Germany about Cyber Punks.=20
I was ofcourse misquoted in the article, see my detraction about what was=20
wrong:
http://talk.org/archives/000193.html
http://www.zeit.de/2003/50/Cypherpunks (original in German)
http://talk.org/archives/000211.html (This Translation.
CYBERSPACE
The pirates of the 21st century
=46ighting against terror, police and secret services are establishing the=
=20
surveillance state. But a group of computer geniuses is waging data war on=
=20
authorities. A report from the world of encrypted messages.
By Thomas Fischermann (translated by Veronika Leluschko)
The art of power is the art of disappearing. (Paul Virilio)
The computer in the ZEIT office just reported the reception of a town clerk=
=E2=80=99s=20
e-mail. That man is an important informer for this story. One who has a=20
certain reputation among the cryptographers, the inventor and user of=20
electronic hiding and encrypting techniques. But that town clerk=E2=80=99s =
e-mail=20
cannot simply be opened by clicking on it. It took a couple of minutes unti=
l=20
the computer was accepted in the =E2=80=9CLasseiz Faire City=E2=80=9D, an u=
nderground=20
network, hiding deep underneath the surface of the internet, only to be=20
entered with the right code words.
On first sight, the Lasseiz Faire City doesn=E2=80=99t look different from =
many other=20
websites on the internet. One may send e-mails, post messages on a message=
=20
board and visit chatrooms. But here, different form the usual internet,=20
surfers can be assured of their anonymity. Nobody will intercept their=20
messages. A series of techniques, some 25 years ago only available to secre=
t=20
services, encrypt electronic messages beyond recognition, let them dash=20
around the globe as supposedly meaningless data dust, covering over all=20
traces on their long journey.
The town clerk=E2=80=99s message starts with =E2=80=9CaANQR1DBw04D/NSEz31qI=
+8QEADwytY=E2=80=9D, that=E2=80=99s=20
=E2=80=9CCyphertext=E2=80=9D. A mathematically encrypted message, only to b=
e read by its=20
receiver. A few mouse clicks, a password, and finally something readable=20
appears on the screen. =E2=80=9CThomas, let me think about those questions.=
I=E2=80=99=E2=80=99l get=20
back to you tomorrow.=E2=80=9D
=20
Welcome to the mysterious world of Cypherpunks! It was in May 1992, when E=
ric=20
Hughes went to see his friend Tim May in Santa Cruz, California =E2=80=93 a=
nd ended=20
up staying there for three days, chatting away. That time, Hughes was in hi=
s=20
late 20s and a gifted mathematician from UC Berkeley; May was 10 years olde=
r,=20
a former physicist at the Intel chip company, having =E2=80=9Cretired=E2=80=
=9D a couple of=20
years ago thanks to a huge shareholder package. It was obvious that the two=
=20
scientists got along together well: they shared a similar taste for Western=
=20
gear and cool sunglasses, a fascination for computer techniques and more th=
an=20
a healthy amount of paranoia. Most of all, they shared political conviction=
s.
Both regarded themselves associated with the libertarians, the supporters o=
f=20
an ultraliberal ideology, quite widely spread among the white American midd=
le=20
class. Libertarian Americans are facing the state in a particularly sceptic=
al=20
way, which concerns police as well as tax-collectors. Many of them would li=
ke=20
to completely abolish states including their taxes and authorities and leav=
e=20
the power to the free market. That was the vigorous subject the two friends=
=20
were discussing during their talk marathon that month of May. It wouldn=E2=
=80=99t be=20
worth mentioning if the duo hadn=E2=80=99t been convinced of holding the ke=
y to their=20
political dreams in their own hands.=20
=20
In fall 1992, May and Hughes created a loose association of like-minded=20
people which lead to one of the most unusual =E2=80=94 and most obscure pol=
itical=20
movements of all times. They called themselves Cypherpunks, based on a=20
science fiction style that had become popular around the end of the 19th=20
century. They were a conglomeration of highly decorated scientists and=20
dreamers, computer geniuses and political activists, lawyers and also=20
criminals. They wanted to be rebels in cyberspace, those guys in sneakers a=
nd=20
T-Shirts wanted to change the world, using their laptops as weapons. They=20
would gather for fortuitous =E2=80=9Cphysical meetings=E2=80=9D, their Cyph=
erpunk mailinglist=20
would raise to one of the hottest internet debating places with almost 2000=
=20
subscribers. They wanted to be the technical elite, creating the=20
infrastructure for a utopian, lawless cyberspace. And today, just 10 years=
=20
later and after the terror attacks of 9/11, some of them see their hour com=
e:=20
as the last bastion against a society of surveillance.
In the early 90s, the internet economy as we know it today, was still in it=
s=20
infancy. But among the technicians=E2=80=99 avantgarde Hughes and May frequ=
ented,=20
visions of a a digital future had already quite progressed: People on the=20
American west coast were already discussing how electronic mail would repla=
ce=20
all paper mailings in and between companies, that all money and shares=20
transfers should be moved from classical banking to cyberspace, that produc=
ts=20
such as music, movies and news should, one day, only be delivered via data=
=20
processing. More and more parts of our work and spare time would happen in=
=20
front of a screen.=20
That time, a hand full of books and essays appeared, like =E2=80=9CThe sov=
ereign=20
individual=E2=80=9D, describing someone who organizes his life and business=
in=20
cyberspace, allowing no state to govern him. An organization called Laissez=
=20
=46aire City opened a provisional office in Costa Rica, wanting to offer so=
me=20
sort of virtual citizenship. Political terms like cyberanarchy and virtual=
=20
regions managed to make their way into seminars of political sciences and l=
aw=20
schools. Wasn=E2=80=99t it a children=E2=80=99s game to smuggle all those d=
ata, messages and=20
products past governmental eavesdroppers and controllers, past all those=20
police, tax-collectors and customs officials? Would such an unregulated,=20
lawless cyberspace be able to force the hated states to their knees?
One might have thought about such ideologies what he wanted. Tim May once=20
openly declared that cryptography would also be advantageous for murderers=
=20
and terrorists, for racists, kidnappers and hijackers. That would be the=20
inevitable and necessary evil side of the new freedom, he said. =E2=80=98Cy=
pherpunks=20
break the laws they don=E2=80=99t like=E2=80=9D, the founders autocraticall=
y wrote in one of=20
their pamphlets. But, one way or the other, it seemed to be technically=20
feasible to the experts and even unavoidable.
In the 70s and 80s, methods for extreme data encryption had already slipped=
=20
out of the hands of the secret services. Powerless, military and police cou=
ld=20
only watch how programmes like Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) were spread all ov=
er=20
the world in the 90s, unable to be hacked with acceptable effort and expens=
e=20
=2D not even with the help of the secret services=E2=80=99 own supercompute=
rs.=20
=E2=80=9CCypherpunks will write programs=E2=80=9D, so Eric Hughes=E2=80=99 =
battle cry which he wrote=20
in a manifesto of the newly founded group. They would establish secret=20
electronic mailboxes, found electronic banks and deal with electronic money=
,=20
simply create a network of highly encrypted communication. =E2=80=9CThe cha=
nge will=20
not arise in a political but in a technical way=E2=80=9D co-founder Tim May=
added.
=E2=80=9CGovernments in the industrial world, you tired giants made of fles=
h and=20
steel=E2=80=9D. This is how, a couple of years later, John Perry Barlow beg=
an his=20
Declaration of Independence in Cyberspace. The rancher, former Grateful Dea=
d=20
songwriter and passionate fighter for civil rights had become an icon of th=
e=20
movement. =E2=80=9CWhere we gather, you have no sovereignty anymore.=E2=80=
=9D
=20
Lima, May 2003. Caryn Mladen had prepared her trip to Peru perfectly. Her=
=20
luggage looked quite unusual for a Canadian tourist, though: laptops,=20
adapters, computer software. A list with names of groups of the civil right=
s=20
movement that have gotten in trouble with police or political opponents.=20
=E2=80=9CPeru has a history as a particularly well organized surveillance s=
tate=E2=80=9D,=20
says the 38-year-old lawyer from Toronto, telling about her 2.5 week long=20
undercover trip. =E2=80=9CAlthough it=E2=80=99s now a democratic country, m=
any old forces are=20
still working. Nobody knows if the old surveillance systems are still in us=
e=20
and who uses them.=E2=80=9D
=20
Ms Caryn is a computer expert with extensive knowledge of data protection.=
=20
She has written books about computers and is the author of a news column. S=
he=20
has hitch-hiked through Africa and travelled Syria during the first Gulf Wa=
r=20
(=E2=80=9CI felt safer there than in New York City=E2=80=9D) and studied ma=
ssage techniques=20
from the Far East.
Recently, she says, =E2=80=9CI just needed something new, a new challenge. =
Then, in=20
December 2001, it just happened.=E2=80=9D They were five like-minded people=
, all of=20
them fascinated by data protection and encryption techniques. Three lawyers=
,=20
a medical doctor and a computer specialist with contacts to the Cypherpunk=
=20
scene. They called themselves Privaterra and wanted to do foreign=20
(development-) aid in an unusual way. They would provide civil rights=20
fighters in developing countries with modern instruments of encryption=20
techniques - the weapons of the Crypto movement.
Meanwhile the group has been to several countries in South- and Central=20
America, like-minded people in various African countries. =E2=80=9CThe need=
s are=20
often very different,=E2=80=9D says the activist, =E2=80=9Cmany groups have=
such little=20
technical knowledge, they first of all need things like a virus protection=
=20
program.=E2=80=9D Computers, e-mail and the internet have, for a long time,=
become an=20
indispensable tool for human rights fighters all over the world - an=20
indispensable tool in the search for political prisoners and for coordinati=
ng=20
campaigns. The disadvantage is, though, that these organizations=E2=80=99 c=
omputers=20
now host the addresses of activists, confidential mail and other body of=20
evidence.
Ms Caryn and her friends have taught dozens of civil rights fighters how to=
=20
encrypt such data, how to hide them on the hard disk or stock them in a saf=
e=20
place in the far cyberspace - just in case that a computer gets confiscated=
=20
by the police or disappears in a =E2=80=9Cburglary=E2=80=9D. They taught ci=
vil rights=20
fighters how to protect themselves from being attacked by hostile hackers w=
ho=20
often also work for secret services. They taught them how to encrypt messag=
es=20
and how to find their way into secret communication networks, cleverly=20
installed underneath the surface of the internet by crypto activists, inste=
ad=20
of sending a regular e-mail that can be read by everybody like a postcard.
=E2=80=9CWho are the opponents we=E2=80=99re fighting against?=E2=80=9D A q=
uestion Ms Caryn has asked=20
frequently. She didn't always get an answer. Sometimes it=E2=80=99s governm=
ents,=20
sometimes former governments=E2=80=99 loyal members who continue working un=
derground.=20
Privaterra is helped by amnesty international, Human Rights Watch and other=
=20
human rights movements when choosing their =E2=80=9Cclients=E2=80=9D to mak=
e sure that the=20
instruments aren=E2=80=99t handed over to the wrong people.
About ten years after the Cypherpunks=E2=80=99 foundation meeting some of t=
heir=20
political dreams have come closer to reality than ever before. Data=20
encryption that no curious state official can hack anymore, in Peru or at t=
he=20
American snooping service NSA? Many such techniques are today available for=
=20
everybody on the internet. Software forges like Martus Software or=20
Hacktivismo have even written custom-made programs on the internet for=20
political activists and civil rights movements. Nonetheless Caryn and her=20
traveling data rebels had to make a painful recognition: The technology mig=
ht=20
work, but a much bigger problem is the application. =E2=80=9CThose people a=
re no=20
computer experts, and we can=E2=80=99t make them computer experts=E2=80=9D =
says Caryn. =E2=80=9CBut=20
these groups cannot risk to make mistakes - their communication has to be=20
100% bugproof.=E2=80=9D
=E2=80=9CMost of the people we work with have extremely good reasons for pr=
ivacy=E2=80=9D she=20
says. Death threats, unannounced raids in dawn, unexplained burglaries in t=
he=20
organizations=E2=80=99 offices. A Privaterra =E2=80=9Cclient=E2=80=9D, =E2=
=80=9Csomewhere in Central=20
America=E2=80=9D, was later found murdered. Only a couple of weeks ago, the=
=20
Vietnamese activist Pham Hong Son was sentenced to 13 years in jail for=20
=E2=80=9Cespionage=E2=80=9D because he had exchanged e-mails with internati=
onal democracy=20
groups. =E2=80=9CThis is not an amusing adventure, most of all we have to b=
e careful=20
not to harm anybody=E2=80=9D, says one of Caryn=E2=80=99s co-workers. A cou=
ple of years ago,=20
when China built a wall around the entire Chinese internet and had police=20
control all internet caf=C3=A9s in Peking, a team of Cypherpunks immediatel=
y wrote=20
a program to break through the virtual wall. But after a short time of=20
enthusiasm they withdraw it, because the use of the program left suspicious=
=20
traces on the internet - which represented an even bigger source of trouble.
Las Vegas, August 2003. Once a year the walls of the Alexis Park Congress=20
Center are covered with black cloth. Bouncers guard the doors, the police=20
sends out special forces and allegedly even international secret services=20
reconnoitre the terrain. A motley crowd of hackers invades the Nevada deser=
t:=20
it=E2=80=99s DefCon, the biggest convention for all those who know about pe=
netrating=20
others=E2=80=99 computer systems. Hordes of computer geeks populate the con=
gress=20
halls and the deck chairs around the swimming pool, pale guys in T-Shirts a=
nd=20
enormous sandals, trendy hipsters with fantasy haircuts. Many of the guests=
=20
still have quite pimpled faces. Computer kids.
The speaker entering the stage is in his late 30s. Wearing a suit and T-Shi=
rt=20
and a gray floppy hat he may not quite fit into the surrounding. Also his=20
public is older and more serious looking than the huge amount of computer=20
kids. In the middle row a few FBI agents have mingled with the public,=20
expectantly folding their arms. No surprise considering the title of his=20
speech: Punish the collaborators! is Bill Scannell=E2=80=99s subject. He is=
a veteran=20
on these meetings: a confessed Cypherpunk, although not very knowledgeable =
in=20
technology. The power-speaker and chainsmoker Scannell has become famous as=
=20
the mouthpiece of a bunch of cryptography companies - for example The Bunke=
r,=20
the company who bought an entire nuclear blast-proof bunker in the West of=
=20
England and, since then, extols it as a particularly safe data storage plac=
e.=20
Today he is playing his preferred role: the self-declared civil rights=20
fighter and troublemaker. =E2=80=9CWe must prevent George Bush and John Ash=
croft from=20
making the US a society of observation and surveillance=E2=80=99 says Scann=
ell. He=20
quickly talks himself into a fury and receives mixed reactions - defiant=20
applauding, a few outraged listeners are leaving the conference hall. =E2=
=80=9CWe=20
must make life hell for those who want to take away the freedom of our=20
constitution from us!=E2=80=9D
Maybe it=E2=80=99s due to Bill Scannell=E2=80=99s personal history that he =
is so concerned=20
about privacy and data protection. Scannell has worked as a spy in=20
East-Berlin, then as a journalist in countries formerly belonging to the=20
Eastern bloc. He claims having experienced =E2=80=9Chow things are going in=
=20
totalitarian countries. I was always proud of the freedom an American enjoy=
s=20
in America.=E2=80=9D
When, in February, the American airline Delta offered to test an extensive=
=20
passenger surveillance system of the American government =E2=80=9CI blew a =
fuse=E2=80=9D,=20
says Scannell. A few days later he started a protest-website, requesting=20
boycott and attacking personally the Delta chief manager; he toured America=
n=20
talk shows and attended the Delta general meeting. The company ended up=20
withdrawing its original plan. At the moment he is working on a similar=20
website against the flight booking system Galileo. =E2=80=9CThese things do=
n=E2=80=99t help=20
at all to fight terrorism=E2=80=9D Scannell says. =E2=80=9CThey are an inst=
rument of=20
prosecutors for all kind of goals.=E2=80=9D
Scannell claims it a =E2=80=9Cfundamental right=E2=80=9D to travel through =
the country without=20
being detected. This has become more difficult since the terror attacks, bu=
t,=20
when he has enough extra-time for his check-in, he quarrels with the securi=
ty=20
staff; he gets a kick out of buying a bus- or railway ticket under a false=
=20
name (=E2=80=9CJoe Cypherpunk=E2=80=9D). =E2=80=9CRecently I was at the air=
port, talking to my sister=20
on the phone, about politics, and I spoke out clearly some personal points =
of=20
view=E2=80=9D he says. =E2=80=9CThen I noticed everybody was staring at me =
as if I were a=20
terrorist. That moment I realized that, in this country, we are beginning t=
o=20
be afraid to speak out freely what we think.=E2=80=9D
The early Cypherpunks considered it a law of nature that the internet era w=
ill=20
simply deprive the authorities of power, that, one day, they will just=20
capitulate and be quiet. But two years after 9/11 the =E2=80=9Ctired giants=
of flesh=20
and steel=E2=80=9D are regaining their strength. Only a few weeks after the=
terror=20
attacks Bush arranged for new laws. He even established an =E2=80=9CAdminis=
tration=20
for Cyberspace Security=E2=80=9D. Rumors could be heard that encryption tec=
hniques=20
deriving from hacker and cypherpunk forges had helped bin Laden=E2=80=99s k=
amikaze=20
pilots plan their attacks, that people like the Cypherpunks were even=20
partially responsible for 9/11.
It is, of course, an old contentious issue in the debate about data=20
protection if encryption techniques are in fact a civil right or only a=20
support for terrorists, rascals and drug dealers, if they are a modern=20
equivalent for a sealed envelope or a =E2=80=9Cproduct equivalent to weapon=
s=E2=80=9D, as the=20
US government decided at times. Is there a perfect balance between freedom=
=20
and security? The core around Tim May and Phil Zimmermann, the inventor of=
=20
the encryption program PGP, stuck to it after 9/11: protection for criminal=
s=20
and terrorists is a necessary price to pay. Nobody could stop the movement=
=20
anyway. And weren=E2=80=99t there enough legitimate applications for the ne=
w=20
technology? Protection for =E2=80=9Ccypher dissidents=E2=80=9D in China or =
Burma =E2=80=93 and even=20
in America, where, for example, some groups are planning to publish the nam=
es=20
of =E2=80=9Cmissing people=E2=80=9D in Guant=C3=A1namo Bay, fearing politic=
al repercussions, who=20
knows whether they are right or wrong? =E2=80=9CIf cryptography is prohibit=
ed, then=20
only the criminals have cryptography=E2=80=9D Phil Zimmermann occasionally =
declared=20
succinctly.
After 9/11 and the following hunt for more security, such remarks hardly fo=
und=20
sympathizers. Many law keepers and security services sensed their chance to=
=20
create facts. Step by step the rights of police and secret services to tap=
=20
phone calls are extended, authorities connect their data banks, more and mo=
re=20
they are given the right to access data banks of private companies =E2=80=
=93 in=20
America, in Europe and in other parts of the world. =E2=80=9CFew people hav=
e=20
understood that a surveillance like in Orwell=E2=80=99s Big Brother isn=E2=
=80=99t reduced to=20
the world of books and movies anymore=E2=80=9D says Barry Steinhart, the da=
ta=20
protection expert of the civil rights movement Civil Liberties Union.
However, it was not the first shock of 9/11 burying the Cypherpunk founders=
=E2=80=99=20
mantra of the =E2=80=9Cinevitability=E2=80=9D of unlimited privacy. It was =
the technical=20
development itself. The explosive spreading of computer technology and=20
internet in the industrial countries was followed by an explosion of spying=
=20
programs, an explosion of surveillance cameras in streets and on airports,=
=20
biometrical recognition techniques and loads more of other technologies. Mo=
re=20
and higher performing computer systems apparently became the snoopers=E2=80=
=99=20
advantage.
Never before companies, national authorities and obstinate internet=20
researchers could find out so much about anyone =E2=80=93 thanks to the int=
ernet that=20
once should bring unlimited freedom, as Cypherpunks had been dreaming. =E2=
=80=9CYou=20
have zero privacy anyway=E2=80=9D, Scott McNealy, head of the Californian c=
omputer=20
company Sun Microsystems said a couple of years ago. =E2=80=9CDeal with it.=
=E2=80=9D
New York City, October 2003. The head waiter lifted his eyebrows for a seco=
nd=20
as Jo, John and Sean entered his noble seafood restaurant in sneakers and=20
casual outfit. The three people in their mid-thirties and with gawky=20
Westcoast attitude look a bit different from the serious business people wh=
o=20
usually have lunch here. But how can the waiter know that he is confronted=
=20
with three future government leaders?
=E2=80=9CHas the dream of an anonymous, stateless Cyberspace burst?=E2=80=
=9D That=E2=80=99s the=20
question Sean asks. Leaning back, he repeats the sentence, then takes a=20
moment of reflection. Sean is clearly the man for the big answers, he=E2=80=
=99s the=20
leader of the group. A stocky young guy with a fat, round face. "It=E2=80=
=99s all=20
there, burglar-proof mathematical proceedings, anonymous e-mail-programs,=20
anonymous websurfing, even anonymous exchange platforms. But one of the big=
=20
problems is: Nobody uses these things! They are only reserved for a small=20
elite.=E2=80=9D
When Sean Hastings speaks about a small elite one thing is clear: he himsel=
f=20
and his friends count among them. Hastings is a Cypherpunk. None of the swo=
rn=20
founding members, but a gifted young computer programmer with a rebel=E2=80=
=99s=20
heart, who would just love to scare the hell out of the nation-states. =E2=
=80=9CBut,=20
don=E2=80=99t write that I=E2=80=99m a Cypherpunk=E2=80=9D he corrects imme=
diately. =E2=80=9CI don=E2=80=99t like to=20
be put in a drawer. Just write that I sympathize pretty much with the=20
Cypherpunks=E2=80=99 philosophy.=E2=80=9D
Hastings has reached cult status. In the late 90s he found an old book call=
ed=20
How to start your own country. A couple of months later he bought a number =
of=20
computer servers and installed them on a rusty air defense station from WWI=
I,=20
a few miles from the East coast of England (in the middle of the North Sea)=
,=20
opening the =E2=80=9Cfirst public data paradise in the world=E2=80=9D. Hast=
ings claimed that=20
these computers were not controlled by anybody. In 1967, the retired office=
r=20
Paddy Roy Bates =E2=80=9Cconquered=E2=80=9D and declared independent the de=
serted military=20
station. Bates once expelled the Royal Navy with well-aimed shots across th=
e=20
bow. (here is a pun which cannot be translated. T.F. writes =E2=80=9CSch=C3=
=BCsse vor den=20
Bug=E2=80=9D, which literally means =E2=80=9Cshots against the bow=E2=80=9D=
, but mainly =E2=80=9Cto severely=20
offend someone=E2=80=9D.)
Since then, Bates considers himself =E2=80=9CPrince of Sealand=E2=80=9D and=
, for a couple of=20
years, Hastings was his official national entrepreneur. Hastings, his wife =
Jo=20
and a hand full of seamen hackers squeezed themselves into windowless cabin=
s,=20
and they all were very discreet. The Prince kept his paws off the computers=
=20
and Hastings told nobody who used his servers to stock data base and=20
websites.=20
After all, Sealand was supposed to guarantee absolute data inviolability f=
or=20
the first time in history.
=E2=80=9CThroughout many discussions we had agreed that an anonymous cybers=
pace needs=20
a certain amount of physical safety,=E2=80=9D says Hastings. It may be more=
and more=20
difficult to hack encrypted messages, electronic =E2=80=9Cmagic hats=E2=80=
=9D may become more=20
and more efficient. But somewhere in the world, on some computer, all these=
=20
secret data must be stored and be fed into the internet. Somewhere out ther=
e=20
the world=E2=80=99s mystery-mongers are sitting in front of their computers=
, knowing=20
how to get to see their messages in plain text =E2=80=93 discreet and seclu=
ded=20
entrepreneurs from Kiev, tax evaders from the USA, secret online gamblers=20
from Brussels, unfaithful guys from Vienna, dealers of illegal nude picture=
s=20
from Bogot=C3=A1 and drug dealers from Lucerne. And everywhere unpleasant s=
tates=20
can cut off lines, confiscate hard disks or sentence their owners to hand o=
ut=20
keys. When a couple of years ago, during the Internet security fair RSA, a=
=20
young blas=C3=A9 programmer was listing all the =E2=80=9Cultrasafe=E2=80=9D=
protection programs of=20
his computer, one of the police representatives blew his top: =E2=80=9DSo w=
hat if I=20
kick down your door and hold a gun to your head? Are your data still safe=20
then?=E2=80=9D
Even Sealand, says Hastings, couldn=E2=80=99t have made the Cypherpunks=E2=
=80=99 dreams safe=20
and secure. =E2=80=9CIt only really works when we have computers all over t=
he world=20
and distribute encrypted data in little bits on all those systems.=E2=80=9D=
That=E2=80=99s=20
why he is already planning a new data paradise: a gigantic swimming island =
in=20
the international waters near Gibraltar. =E2=80=9CMaybe we establish a comp=
letely new=20
form of life down there=E2=80=9D he dreams. He has created a website about =
=E2=80=9CLife on=20
the sea=E2=80=9D. Details about the business plans are not yet available, b=
ut=20
Hastings says he has already hired engineers and found financing sources. T=
he=20
young nation would also have =E2=80=9Carms for self-defense=E2=80=9D on boa=
rd.=20
=E2=80=9CWater-to-air-rockets=E2=80=9D she will employ, says his wife Jo an=
d laughs. A joke?=20
That=E2=80=99s not really clear.
=E2=80=9CBy the way, I=E2=80=99m not gonna move there=E2=80=9C Jo adds, and=
Sean nods with a sour=20
grin. Obviously this is not the first time the subject is discussed=20
controversially at the Hastings=E2=80=99. =E2=80=9CShe=E2=80=99ll probably =
come to visit, Sean says.=E2=80=9D=20
Back in the Sealand cabins, the stateless guys had to shower with caught ra=
in=20
water for months, for security reasons they never could sleep on deck and t=
he=20
steady buzzing of the diesel generators made sleep almost impossible. =E2=
=80=9CAfter=20
Sealand I=E2=80=99ve got all I ever needed concerning life on weird marine=
=20
constructions=E2=80=9D says Jo.
How about crypto rebels who don=E2=80=99t live on far-away islands or rusty=
platforms=20
in the ocean? What do they do? Several of his colleagues say that Tim May h=
as=20
withdrawn from public and now lives as a bearded hermit, owning an impressi=
ve=20
arsenal of weapons -=E2=80=93 a statement May neither denies nor confirms. =
A=20
well-known crypto-pioneer from the American East coast is said to do=20
additional work for the Mafia, providing them with programs for highly=20
encrypted and unforgeable betting systems. The Cypherpunk founding member J=
im=20
Bell from Vancouver even became the first official =E2=80=9Ccrypto criminal=
=E2=80=9D in 2001:=20
A judge decided that Bell=E2=80=99s confused essay with the title =E2=80=9C=
Assassination=20
Politics=E2=80=9D was tantamount to a call for attacks. Bell had developed =
an=20
encrypted betting system with digital currency and guaranteed anonymity.=20
Participants could guess the decease of certain tax officers in the Vancouv=
er=20
area; the one who came closest to the actual time of death won the jackpot.
=E2=80=9CMany (Cypherpunks) aren=E2=80=99t even connected anymore to the li=
bertarian=20
ideology=E2=80=9D, says an insider. =E2=80=9CThe only thing they have in co=
mmon seems to be=20
the conviction that data protection is a good thing.=E2=80=9D Numerous Cyph=
erpunks=20
don=E2=80=99t even call themselves Cypherpunks anymore, also for the weird=
=20
self-portrayal of some of the founders. Some of the rebels even seem rather=
=20
bourgeois today.
There are a couple of companies offering programs and systems for anonymous=
=20
websurfing and e-mailing, safe from being spied by authorities and employer=
s=20
and protected against the maniac data collecting as it is done by advertisi=
ng=20
companies. Those systems are developed with the crypto rebels=E2=80=99 tech=
nologies=20
and sometimes operated by confessed Cypherpunks. They have names like Zero=
=20
Knowledge, Hushmail, Anonymizer or ZipLip. A New Yorker company called=20
iPrivacy even wanted to anonymize the trade of goods on the internet; the=20
clients could have done their shopping on the internet without delivering=20
their identity, with iPrivacy organizing the transactions and shipment=20
anonymously. Not even the delivering companies would have known a client=E2=
=80=99s=20
identity. But meanwhile iPrivacy has gotten bankrupt, many of such companie=
s=20
are having severe economic difficulties, due to the low demand for their=20
supplies.
Due to that situation, a number of activists associated with the Cypherpunk=
s=20
have, during the last years, switched from programming to debating. =E2=80=
=9CMany=20
Cypherpunks have become missionaries, seeing themselves as educators, their=
=20
task being the enlightenment of the public,=E2=80=9D says a founding member.
Meanwhile there is a huge amount of academic projects, such as the OpenNet=
=20
initiative at Harvard, Cambridge and the University of Toronto: they=20
regularly produce a summary about internet censorship all over the world.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), founded in 1990 by a hand full of=
=20
encryption activists, is today a political think tank and one of the loudes=
t=20
voices when it comes to debating data protection in the USA. The group also=
=20
employs lawyers to help hackers, data protectors and encryption artists =E2=
=80=93 and=20
forced American secret services to hand over encryption techniques or to ta=
ke=20
them off their list of =E2=80=9Cweapons=E2=80=9D banned from export.
=46or most private users the data protection programs are still too expensi=
ve=20
and too complicated. The company Anonymizer in San Diego asks $30 or more p=
er=20
year for =E2=80=9Canonymous websurfing=E2=80=9D -=E2=80=93 with the disadva=
ntage that web pages take=20
longer to load, in many situations a couple of extra clicks are necessary.=
=20
Easy to use music exchange programs like Napster and Kazaa have enormous=20
success, whereas complicated Cypherpunk alternatives like Moio Nation never=
=20
really caught on. Is the data protectors=E2=80=99 cause rather a cultural t=
han a=20
technical task? =E2=80=9CMost people still accept the internet the way it i=
s=E2=80=9D says=20
John Perry Barlow, author of the above mentioned =E2=80=9CDecleration of In=
dependence=20
in Cyberspace=E2=80=9D. =E2=80=9CWe still don=E2=80=99t have the killer app=
lication=E2=80=9D adds Lee Tien, a=20
law expert at EFF.
Panama City, October 2003. Sandy Sandfort=E2=80=99s office is located in a =
white=20
painted apartment building with rows of balconies. Sandy=E2=80=99s balcony =
can easily=20
be made out from the sidewalk: the one with the gigantic satellite dish in=
=20
front of the window. Sandy Sandfort is in sunny Panama City for work, not f=
or=20
vacation. =E2=80=9CVerax Inc.=E2=80=9D says the sign at his door. Inside th=
e bare room a few=20
desks, a couch, a number of computers, a buzzing fan. =E2=80=9CWe=E2=80=99r=
e a=20
post-venture-capital-business=E2=80=9D, says the director of the company an=
d laughs.=20
A company that has got no starting capital except for the money Sandy raise=
d=20
on a private basis. If things go as planned, Sandy Sandfort expects to make=
=20
history in his spartan office. A new payment system for online purchases is=
=20
supposed to arise in Panama City. A kind of central bank with a new kind of=
=20
electronic money, permitting superdiscreet, supersafe payments via internet=
=2E=20
One of the oldest dreams of the Cypherpunk community is planned to become=20
real =E2=80=93 economic freedom on the internet.
Sandy Sandfort is today 57 years old. He has worked as a lawyer in Arizona =
and=20
as an English teacher. In Costa Rica he was the star of a soap opera (=E2=
=80=9CI was=20
the bad guy=E2=80=9D). He was also part of the first members of the Cypherp=
unk=20
movement. Since last year he lives in Panama, and he had good reasons for=20
moving there: The payment system he intends to create could never be run=20
legally in the USA.
New payment systems for the internet =E2=80=93 for activists of encryption=
techniques=20
this has always been considered the royal discipline. Loads of web pages ha=
ve=20
been filled with concepts for a new currency, with the Internet-Dollar and=
=20
eGold, with pre-paid internet currency to be bought at kiosks and elaborate=
=20
money laundering methods. They were supposed to put an end to the control b=
y=20
tax offices and other authorities. Numerous elegant schemes for virtual=20
exchange circles and digital cash have been developed for a long time, many=
=20
of them are considered more elegant and better thought-out than Sandy=E2=80=
=99s=20
Neuclear system. But: they never were of economic success.
Sandy sees his advantage in a different aspect: beside the payment system, =
his=20
Verax Inc. includes its own =E2=80=9Ckiller application=E2=80=9D. Sandy San=
dfort also knows=20
quite well the gambling scene =E2=80=93 not the traditional Roulette or Can=
asta in=20
casinos, but cyber-gambling on the internet. For many years gambling websit=
es=20
have been part of the most important income sources in the digital economy,=
=20
but they have one problem: in many countries they are illegal.
Many criminal prosecutor offices, among them those in the USA, search their=
=20
citizens=E2=80=99 credit card billings for suspicious transactions with cyb=
er=20
casinos. No surprise that many gamblers all over the world are longing for =
an=20
alternative.
=E2=80=9CWe want to become the new payment system on the internet=E2=80=9C=
, says Sandy=20
Sandfort, rocking back and forth on his rickety desk chair as if suddenly h=
e=20
couldn=E2=80=99t wait for things to happen. =E2=80=9CA system people don=E2=
=80=99t have trouble with=20
when purchasing gambling chips, weapons or whatever it may be.=E2=80=9D Sim=
ply=20
spoken: clients will transfer money to Verax, via bank, postal money order =
or=20
even in cash. Verax grants them funds and, from this time on, they can star=
t=20
gambling in online casinos. In Panama there is no law prohibiting this=20
procedure. Only Sandfort and his colleagues will know a gambler=E2=80=99s r=
eal=20
identity; new crypto-technologies will make sure that the gambler=E2=80=99s=
anonymity=20
is guaranteed and prevent from fraud.
But what happens if, one day, the American authorities forbid money transfe=
rs=20
to Verax as they forbad transfers to casinos in the past? Sandy laughs.=20
=E2=80=9CThat=E2=80=99s why we want to make sure as soon as possible that o=
ur payment system=20
is accepted by as many online dealers as possible, also by hotels, travel=20
agencies, maybe one day even by Amazon.com. Our system will make it=20
impossible to retrace on what exactly a client spent his money. He always c=
an=20
deny having spent it on cyber gambling.=E2=80=9D
Once the payment system is running, Sandfort perhaps wants to licence it fo=
r=20
other providers. His programmer, Pelle, a 33-year-old Dane, has already=20
developed plenty of ideas on the subject. =E2=80=9CNeuclear works like very=
old=20
exchange systems, but is operated with high-tech-methods=E2=80=9D, he says.=
=20
=E2=80=9CTheoretically, you can create any kind of currency with this syste=
m. If you=20
want to, create a cyber currency, based upon gold as security. Or, even=20
better, on opium. I would laugh my head off if someone would try that=E2=80=
=9D. A=20
joke. Pelle is already working on a version of his banking program that isn=
=E2=80=99t=20
placed on only one computer, but distributed on many, many single computers=
=20
all over the world. Once that works, which banking laws could be applicable=
=20
here after all? Is this the hour of birth of perfect digital financial oase=
s=20
in cyberspace? Parallel economic areas, where all trade and gambling busine=
ss=20
can be hidden for good?
=E2=80=9CWell, you know, that=E2=80=99s the problem with all Cypherpunks,=
=E2=80=9D says Sandy=20
Sandfort. =E2=80=9CThey have this vision of totally disappearing in a paral=
lel world.=20
Most of the time the world doesn=E2=80=99t work that way.=E2=80=9D Sandfort=
walks over to his=20
desk and points at the ceiling: =E2=80=9CLook, I could sit right here with =
the best=20
and most secure software in the world -=E2=80=93 and then some spy or the p=
olice=20
could have built a tiny little camera in the lamp, recording everything I=20
write. Believe me, we will continue making progress, but you=E2=80=99ll nev=
er be=20
completely invisible in cyberspace.=E2=80=9D=20
=C2=A9 DIE ZEIT 12/04/2003 No.50
=2D-=20
http://talk.org + Live and direct from Panama
http://neuclear.org + Clear it both ways with NeuClear
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