posted May 06, 2000 02:28 AM            

This should have everything your looking for http://www.pgpi.org/ it's pgps international site has all the software and info.

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insert witty remark here

posted May 06, 2000 06:00 AM            

However, they can brute force a weak passphrase (passwords are even easier) in short order. Using their databases and profiling, they can guess every possible combination of your past phone #s, licenses, pets, friends, etc.

Go to www.counterpane.com and read up on the subject before making a blanket statement like that. The man who runs the site wrote the (literal) bible of cryptography. I'm also subscribed to his monthly newsletter to keep up with current developments in the subject.

As far as programs go I have a few recommendations. I've used, or am currently using, the programs listed so I know what works. If I got some minor detail wrong don't complain to me about it, I'm doing it from memory.

I'm only going to post the names, you can find them to download with a search engine yourself:

1. Steganos II (2). Hides files in pictures, text, HTML, or .wav files (steganography). Also offers disk encryption using RC4. Very professional program. Large though with some useless features like 3D key management.

2. PGPi (international version). World famous crypto program. Does disk encryption, e-mail integration (usually), and file encryption. Very secure, but somewhat tedious to use. Newest version can create self-decrypting file you can send to people who don't have a copy of PGP.

3. Scramdisk. Very simple (less than 1Mb in size) program that offers 10+ different algorithms for disk encryption. Not very flashy looking, but nearly crash proof. PGPdisk (part of the PGPi) crashed my system several times before I got rid of it.

4. Filevault. Simple file encryptor that you can use to send files to friends without them having to have a copy of the program to use, as long as you both know the password. Very small size. Easy to us. Only bad thing is the ugly interface. It only has a 600 something bit size key, so don't use it for kiddie porn .

All the rest offer at least 1028. Some higher than 4,000 bit key lengths

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"The knowledge that they fear is a weapon to be used against them."

posted May 06, 2000 07:09 AM            

Another program that I use all the time is BCwipe. www.jetico.sci.fi . It's much quicker, but it's only a file deleter/disk cleaner. It's nowhere near as thorough as EE.

I've posted keygens for EE and Steganos II at the forum library for anyone who wants them. All other programs I listed are freeware as far as I know.

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"The knowledge that they fear is a weapon to be used against them."

Search the archive before you ask. http://members.xoom.com/forumlibrary

posted May 09, 2000 04:33 AM            

I would prefer an acid/solvent mix. Something a cop can't reach into or pour out without fucking himself off. And by the time they get the gloves and water to wash off the CD, it's too late, the CD is dissolved.

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"The knowledge that they fear is a weapon to be used against them."

posted May 14, 2000 05:33 PM            

Sure, the government may have more powerful computers, but there is such a huge difference between what computers can do now, and what they'll have to do to break a 1,028 bit code, that you don't have to worry about them breaking the code during your lifetime.

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"The knowledge that they fear is a weapon to be used against them."

posted May 14, 2000 09:41 PM         

The download I got was for 16 bit win 3.1 and was pfpshlzp.exe
732390 bits and was a self unzipping file.

Several encryption shells support up to 2048 bits
the 2.1 shell asks if you want to use highest (1024 bit) mil grade
encryption or regular encryption.

It may have been yanked due to its military source.
My version runs on a 16 bit win 3.1 machine.
There may not have been other versions, can't remember.

worth searching for because it is good, and it is fast.
However even the 128 bit version takes megabucks to crack. It would be
quite safe for modest offenders. The greatest weakness is not the
bits of code, but the passwords people end up using.

If the password uses all 256 asci characters then a ten letter word would
take 256 to the 10th power to try all versions,
If only the 26 letters in a single case, plus the space, were used, a phrase like
i eat grass to make fertilizer
would contain 30 symbols so if my permutations are correct
there would be 27 to the 30 power possible combinations.
That is a helluva big number (87 with 41 zeroes after it).

Keep in mind that software made to run on 16 bit machines usually will not run on
32 bit machines, and win3.1 software won't run on win95 or 98. However there are lots of
el cheapo 386 or 486 16 bit machines around for 50 bucks and one dedicated to
pgp uses would be a good investment, if you can get that win 2.1 shell.

Maybe others are as good, don't know. Haven't tried em.
There are pgp forums though, and its a hot topic on computer security forums.

Also a propane torch on the paint side of CD destroys the bit pattern fastest. The paint side is the nearest to the pattern. The clear side is very thick above the pattern.

For many CD's throw them on the ground paint up and pour gas on them and make a bonfire.

Works on floppys too.

A bullet hole in a hard drive is very effective and not worth trying to recover (unless you did in the messiah).

For serious stuff the post above giving the good poop on encryption is bible. But any encryption can screw up the usual nerds who do work for cops. They depend on passwords written on the computer face in pencil, or finding an unencrypted folder titled passwords, etc.

I zip whole forums and then encrypt that, for I seldom refer to them, and when I do its just as fast to decode it as to get it online.

Pay heed to the post above about wiping files. If you have nothing else, keep a large file of anykind of text as a document, and delete the secret document by using a word processor to select text and then hit the delete key then copy that text file to the empty secret document and save that then delete it using a file management deletion.
Unless you are public enemy # 1 recovering that is too much trouble, and cost.

Or, get one of the file cleaners posted earlier in another post.

posted May 15, 2000 08:32 AM         

the readmefirst text says this:

To restore the archives, download all the text (.txt) files with the
same name, including the restorer file (.bat) into the same folder.
Be sure to use BINARY or IMAGE when downloading to avoid a fucked up
download.

I have not figured out a way to do that yet.
When I clik "copy file as" it fails. When I clik it directly it fails. when I clik the "properties" option it tells me this is a HTML file, so the file is telling my computer what kind of file it is, and I can find no way to tell my computer any different. So it fails, just as soon as the bit stream starts and is not html.

If anyone with the same problem solved it please suggest solutions.

I did get two files to download, which were really txt.

Please, no flames from the one who contrived this kewl way to do it differently than standard internet protocols.

Protocols are there so all machines can adapt to standard ways to do things. There are millions of different machines on the net. It is not possible to test a new method against them all, or even some of them for private persons.

Its best to stick with standard ways to do things, and if the file must be encrypted, then do that, and publish the password on the forum. That way only forum watchers can see what was transfered, and it won't upset any transmission filters along the way.

Anyway, when setting out to do something, the first question to ask is "if I do what I intend to do, will that accomplish what I want done?".

An archive is storage. It must be accessible to those allowed to view it. If downloading is permitted it must download to people who know nothing about computers, but who do download all over the net without much problem.

Being "different" on a network is akin to suicide, or yelling at me in chinese. No information will get across.

The first thing a clever person must avoid doing is to outwit himself.

That said, I would like to download some of the stuff, if I can ever figure out a way to do that.

Until this is fixed I think the flames to persons who ask stuff that is in the archive ought to be cooled, and a civil answer given.

In some cases the answer would take less time and space than the flame.

Remember your purpose... it ought to be to assist others to acquire knowlege. It ought not to be to berate them because they have not yet gotten as much of it as you would like.

Remember, almost everything you know was given to you free by someone who possessed it. The only exceptions are the results of your own original research.

Up through highschool your parents and other adults paid for the education. And just as in
college, you did not pay for the information, but paid for the facilities which were required to bring it to you, and spoon feed it to you.

You could go to any library and get the same information free.

posted May 15, 2000 04:16 PM         

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WARNING - Tresspassers will be shot, Survivers will be shot again.

posted May 16, 2000 02:24 AM            

Believe me, if I could have posted the files whole, I would have. Unfortunately, the vast majority of free web servers don't support 20 megabyte sized files. I've had to split the files into 1-2 MB sized chunks, otherwise xoom will delete them.

Same thing for the filename. Xoom only supports .txt, .html, and graphic names. I've tried posting PDF files directly and the site always gets deleted within a day or 2.

Right click on the file name, choose "save file as.." and follow the read me file instructions. Remove the extensions ".txt" from the filenames before you run the .bat file.

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"The knowledge that they fear is a weapon to be used against them."

posted May 16, 2000 05:30 AM         

I better understand your problem now.

One must do what one must do to get there if that is not with a full load.

I'll keep trying.

The thing that throws me is I cannot find any option to choose image or binary, within the
explorer browser, when its downloading. All I get to specify is where to put it.

posted May 18, 2000 02:29 AM            

1,028 bit encryption is many millions of times more difficult to break.

Go to www.counterpane.com and read up on encryption before spouting off irrelevant and out of context factoids.

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"The knowledge that they fear is a weapon to be used against them."