I find this extremely interesting - one of the threats that well known cryptographic keys face is "angry mob cryptanalysis" - a bunch of people get together on the Internet and crack your key. If there is enough widespread interest in cracking your key that the masses have enough computing power between them to crack it, the mob wins and your private key becomes a matter of public knowledge.

This is a risk for code signing keys because they make it hard for people to do what they want their their computers. While its interesting on paper I'm not aware that it ever happened in practice until today. All of the distributed computing efforts to crack keys that I'm aware of have focused on "public challenges" that are intended to be cracked, or were otherwise organized as security demonstrations rather than as real attacks. Maybe someone on MemeStreams will recall an older example of this that I'm forgetting.

(I'm talking about cases where cracking the cryptography was a means to an end and not the end itself. The hash collision attack from December was extremely cool but it doesn't qualify, because they were breaking the security of the system for the sole purpose of demonstrating that it could be done - rather than because they wanted to get at the thing that the security protects.**)

The ever-mysterious Benjamin Moody posted a cryptic message on the United-TI forum yesterday. In it, he listed the factorization of the 512-bit RSA modulus used by TI's OS signing key for the 83+ (the "0004 key").

With this achievement... Third party operating systems can thus be loaded on any 83+ calculators... Complete programming freedom has finally been achieved on the TI-83 Plus!.

In this case the key is old, and due to the nature of the platform in question a relatively small, 512 bit key was chosen. The guy was able to crack the key by himself without organizing a mob. He posted some details about his cracking effort:

- The factorization took, in total, about 1745 hours, or a bit less than 73 days, of computation. (I've actually been working on this since early March; I had a couple of false starts and haven't been able to run the software continously.)
- My CPU, for reference, is a dual-core Athlon64 at 1900 MHz.
- The sieving database was 4.9 gigabytes and contained just over 51 million relations.
- During the "filtering" phase, Msieve was using about 2.5 gigabytes of RAM.
- The final processing involved finding the null space of a 5.4 million x 5.4 million matrix.

However, it appears that a mob has formed to target some of the other keys on the TI:

A distributed computing project has been set up. Information about how to join the effort to crack the OS keys for the rema... [ Read More (0.1k in body) ]

TI-83 Plus OS Signing Key Cracked - ticalc.org

flynn23 wrote:
It's much easier to talk about personal responsibility and earning what you have, when you already have plenty. Much of it inherited.

Political discussions over the last few years have basically been class warfare and bigotry under new brand names.

It's everyone in the middle that's going to get the big Fuck You. The standard of living for the middle class has been dropping since the 70s. Wage growth is negative for at least the last 12 years. Yet your options for affordable care are dwindling. You're misrepresented in terms of lobbying efforts. And even if you do get that tax break, everyone else's hands are in your pockets when it comes to food, security, energy, transportation, and education.

This post was extremely well put. I'm essentially replying to push this out to my MemeStream because I think people should click through and read the whole thing.

RE: Healthcare "debate"

Obama administration is faced with a full-scale culture war over healthcare which has very little to do with arguments and everything to do with identity.

The largest chunk [of protestors] know little about the proposed reforms and have no intention of rectifying their ignorance.

For all their impact, reasonable people may as well be living on Venus.

This editorial, although a bit histrionic at points, echos many of the sentiments that have been expressed on MemeStreams.

FT.com / Comment / Opinion - Healthcare paranoia is part of America’s culture war

This set of charts illustrates, among other things, that foreclosures will peak in 2010 with the number of foreclosures due to unemployment exceeding those due to bad loans and ARM resets. As an aside, more than a few people seem to be calling for a market crash today. Hold on to your hats.

The Coming Foreclosure Wave | The Economic Populist

flynn23 wrote:
This is not something that can be solved in one legislative session.

In some sense I agree. I certainly agree with you about the complexity of the issue. I thought about writing up my real thoughts on this a few days ago and I came up with a conception of the healthcare situation that involved interactions between 7 primary groups of people that I though represented the issues fairly well, but then I tried to explain McCain's proposals from the election in my framework, and I realized it needed more detail, and things started to fall apart conceptually and I decided not to post.

You're right, dealing with something this complex *democratically* would need to be done very gradually so that people could take in each issue separately.

This is a *republican* approach - not politically, structurally. They are making the decisions for us. We won't know what they're really doing until we have to deal with it in our daily lives. I don't know if they had a choice.

They kind of tried to float this as a dialog 15 years ago with Hillary Care, and the Republicans responded with a pretty effective oversimplification:

1. Canada has national healthcare.
2. Canada is a socialist country.
3. Socialism is the same thing as Communism.
4. We've spent most of our lives fighting the Communists.

People all across America bought this hook, line, and sinker - because Americans simply don't know anything about Canada.

As a Canadian, I can't tell you how annoying it is to hear people say things like "Canada is a socialist country." At first it wasn't annoying because I thought it was a joke - a sarcastic hyperbole - but it turns out most of these people are really serious. They really believe that Canada is a socialist country.

Your next thought is "Really? I really have to respond to that?!" Its like the time I learned that several college educated American friends of mine had no idea, like literally did not know, that Canadians had fought in the Second World War, and were somewhat incredulous when I corrected them about it.

You start out slightly amused, but when you realize that they aren't joking your amusement turns into amazement. Like, where the hell have these people been?

But it gets worse with the socialism thing because they're emotionally convicted about the idea and they won't let it go. They argue with you about it like they know what they're talking about or something!

The Republicans effectively found something that everyone in America is totally ignorant about, and they filled it up with fear, and pointed it at this issue. There simply is no reasoning with that. No amount of fireside chats are going to bring people around to thinking about it differently. They've been fighting communists for generations and if this is communism they don't want it and they don't want to talk about it. If there is no room for dialog, we can't have one.

RE: Healthcare "debate"

janelane wrote:
This is why I don't watch town hall meetings on TV. Nobody with at least a halfway informed opinion shows up.

I've been waffling about posting on the Keep your Goddamn Government hands off my Medicare crowd. I have to admit that I take some pleasure in watching them look stupid.

I watched this debate unfold first in Tennessee before watching it unfold nationally, and I'm both angry and tired of it. I'm tired of being called a "socialist" by people who have no idea what they are talking about. I'm tired of the lies and the punditry and the over simplifications, and I'm tired of arguing with friends who have absolute convictions about an issue that they can barely explain.

I do think the way things work right now is fucked up and I'm tired to trying to explain it to people who aren't interested in listening. There are a lot of policy objectives of the Democrats that I'm not too happy about. I'm skeptical of the climate change legislation, and the EFCA's ban on anonymous ballots for unionization seems blatantly and overtly crooked. But I'm glad they are able to push through healthcare reform. Its opponents have demonstrated consistently for 15 years that they aren't interested in engaging in an intelligent discussion about the issue. Eventually, the time for conversation is over, and they must loose.

RE: Healthcare "debate"

I was particularly impressed with #8 and #28. If you're into the hard stuff, click here. The terminator story line, sans time travel, seems realistic.

More Robots - The Big Picture - Boston.com

Change your market, pivot your product. Rebuild. More contact. Iterate, iterate, iterate.nullnullnull

Building a Startup Means Building More Than One Thing — TechDrawl

Two people have been successfully prosecuted for refusing to provide authorities with their encryption keys, resulting in landmark convictions that may have carried jail sentences of up to five years.

Two convicted for refusal to decrypt data • The Register

I've been trying to figure out exactly when U.S. Customs started searching the belongings of travelers. In researching the matter Palindrome and I found this short piece which was published by the New York Times in 1879. Not only does it describe an inspection process similar to the modern one, but it mocks it quite mercilessly.

There is no doubt that the real object which our Government had in view in establishing the existing rules in regard to passengers' baggage is not the collection of revenue but the education of the traveling public in the elegant and useful accomplishment of perjury.

This essay is a useful datapoint, but I'll have to push further back in time for my answer.

(When you open the PDF, scroll down - the article starts in the left column.)

Here is a reference from 1864.

There was but one obstacle that we foresaw would interfere with our immediate departure from New York, and that was the examination of the passengers' baggage, which we anticipated would be diligently overhauled by the officers. Doubtless through the heavy demands on the United States Government for the continued support of the expensive war now being waged upon this continent, a strict and rigid system of searching emigrants' luggage for contraband articles, is enforced; the officers charge for almost everything besides what individuals are clothed with.

A prewar reference to customs inspections of travelers.

Emigrants who prefer going into Canada by way of New York will receive advice and direction by applying to the British Consul at New York (James Buchanan, Esq.) Formerly this gentleman could procure for emigrants who were positively determined to settle in the Canadas, permission to land their baggage and effects free of custom-house duty; but in a letter dated 16th March, 1835, he says-
"In consequence of a change in the truly liberal course heretofore adopted at this port, in permitting, without unpacking or payment of duty, of the personal baggage, household, and farming utensils of emigrants landing here to pass in transit through this state to his Majesty's provinces, upon evidence being furnished of the fact, and that such packages alone contained articles of the foregoing description, I deem it my duty to make known that all articles arriving at this port accompanying emigrants in transit to Canada, will be subject to the same inspection as if to remain in the United States, and pay the duties to which the same are subjected. I think it proper to mention that all articles suited to new settlers are to be had in Canada on better terms than they can be brought out and such as are adapted to the country."

A GALLANT DEED. - Article Preview - The New York Times