] Here's the idea: you promise a voter 50 euros (31 pounds)
] to cast their ballot for your candidate, send them into
] the booth with a 3G phone, they send a picture via the
] phone proving that they have voted as instructed and then
] they get the cash.

The T-Mobile Election Rigger

] North Korea is training around 100 computer hackers each
] year to boost its cyber-warfare capabilities, pushing the
] South to fortify its own computer security, a South
] Korean military official said on Friday.

The main reason this seems offbase to me is the "100 hackers each year" thing. I have a feeling tracking down 100 computers in North Korea is a hell of a challenge, let alone 100 hax0rs with clue. Not to mention a decent net connection for them to search out tools over, keep up to date on discovered sploits, etc.. The thing that is going to make a cracker a danger isn't a set selection of skills that the other 99 also have, but rather the ability to think on their feet and learn on the fly.. That takes time and experience. I see this situation being very hard to cultivate, as it would require their cracker-corps to be constantally working on their skills, finding new sploits, etc.. It would require access to many of the devices/software they are interested in hacking, which is going to be nearly impossible for them.. I immagine the resources for this all are very slim..

That number also leads to believe that their intent is not to have their hacker-corps working out of North Korea, but rather send them out of the country and have them work elsewhere. North Korea proper would likely be very easy to cut off from the rest of the world in the event of a conflict, rendering their hacker teams useless.. They would have to be stationed in many places outside North Korea to be useful.

Now, if North Korea had crackers spread out all over the globe, working toegether to form some l33t North Korea cracker-corps, this might be logical.. Otherwise, its very unlikely to exist, or be a real danger. Of course, that also implies that North Korea has their shit together, something I don't think is likely. Its more likely that they have 100 people in North Korea who are being called "hackers" and being "trained on hacking", even though most of them have never actually used a real computer for more then 5 min.

This is probably another case of North Korea trying to give the impression to South Korea (and everyone else) it is more dangerous then it actually is.. They have 4 skilled and loyal hax0r kiddies, and somehow it became "100 every year".. Don't they have 300 nukes aimed at the US right now? Heh. Two or three maybe. (And more on the way, but that's another story..)

There is also another option.. North Korea has zero to do with this, and South Korea is just trying too pump up some fear in order to get its people to take computer security more seriously.. Slammer did really take them for a spin. They have reason to be concerned.

CNN.com - N. Korean training hackers, Seoul says - May. 16, 2003

] I was sure we'd see a silly "Hackers"-esque 3D animated
] "hacking scene".
] Not so! Trinity is as smart as she is seductive! She
] whips out Nmap (!!!), scans her target, finds 22/tcp open,
] and proceeds with an über ssh technique! I was so surprised,
] I almost jumped out of my seat and did the "r00t dance"
] right there in the theatre!
]
] There can be only one explanation: Carie-Anne has the
] hots for me!

Fyodor wants a screenshot..

Update: And the screnshots are at: http://images.insecure.org/nmap/images/matrix/

Nmap Hackers: Whoa!

] Chilling details of al Qaeda's secret communications
] system - and the possibility of widespread knowledge that
] the devastating attacks on New York and Washington were
] in the works - were unveiled in a courtroom in Milan,
] where a group of Islamic militants are on trial for
] supporting al Qaeda's terrorist activities.
]
] According to reports in the Corriere della Sera newspaper
] and on ABC News' Web site, the secret communications were
] discovered during a November 2001 raid on the Via
] Quaranta mosque in Milan, where police confiscated 11
] computers.

] Investigators believe cell members were using a process
] called stenography, in which special software allows a
] text message to be hidden inside a small part of a
] computer photograph.

NYPOST.COM World News: 9/11 PLOT HIDDEN IN E-PORN By NILES LATHEM

Decentralized anonymity systems tend to be unreliable, because users must choose paths through the network without knowing the entire state of the network. Reputation systems can improve reliability by predicting the state of the network. In this paper we focus on anonymous remailers and anonymous publishing, explain why the systems can benefit from reputation, and describe our experiences designing reputation systems for them while still ensuring anonymity. We find that in each example we first must redesign the underlying anonymity system to support verifiable transactions.

Reputation in P2P Anonymity Systems [PDF]

] An American citizen detained for more than a month as a
] material witness in a terrorism case in Oregon was
] charged today with plotting to fight against American
] soldiers in Afghanistan.
]

] The American, Maher Hawash, a 38-year-old software
] designer in Portland, was accused of conspiring with a
] group of six others who had already been charged with
] trying to provide material support to Al Qaeda and the
] Taliban.

Hawash Charged With Plotting to Fight U.S. in Afghanistan

] "I looked at it and found the emperor has no
] clothes, and now everyone's mad at me."

The Washington Post gives Billy Hoffman the Quote of the Day.

Link to my posting of the original story:
http://www.memestreams.net/users/rattle/blogid2864198

The full quote:
] "All I wanted to do is tell everyone, 'Hey, this
] is a problem, and it needs to be protected,'"
] Hoffman said. "Everyone was blissfully unaware of
] how it works. I looked at it and found the emperor
] has no clothes, and now everyone's mad at me."

DID YOU HEAR? . . . (washingtonpost.com)

The statement put up by blackboard about Interz0ne

There is one key point they are missing.. Using the law to silence someone is a very dangerous game. You don't casually sue someone in a mannor that attacks their free speech rights and go on to frame yourself as a good American company looking after your customers.. It doesn't work that way. Once you pull out the legal guns, and use them to attack free speech in any form, our core American values kick in immediately and become focused 100% on taking your ass out. Its the point where you have proven yourself a danger.. Not just to some hacker con, not just to the security community, but to our country and its values as a whole. Really! It is that _big_ if an issue. There is no excuse or way to rationalize attacking free speech that you are going to be able to convince me, or most of this community, is just.

The hacking community (security, open source, etc) is under attack on all fronts right now by the abuse of IP law. As the situation continues to get worse, its safe to assume we will start to respond to attacks such as this much like wounded animals protecting their young.. Unrestrained and vicious. People are starting to lose faith in the legal system's ability to protect our rights from the big pockets who would rather have more control.. This is a bad situation getting worse.

Criminals can work outside the system.. Thats an option for them.. So the people they are truly afraid of will barely be effected. However, the rest of us do not have that option. Destroying the openness of the hacking community will destroy the ability for the hacking community to exist at all.. The basis of the hacking community is the open share of ideas and knowledge.. Thats whats being attacked.. The heart of our community. It will not be allowed to happen.

BlackBoard Inc.

] Geeks will look at proposed network regulation and
] immediately ask "How will this affect interoperability?"
] or "Is this consistent with the end-to-end principle?"
] but non-geeks will look at the same proposal and think of
] different questions. They know what interoperability is,
] but it's just not at the front of their minds.

Slashdot | Princeton CS Prof Edward W. Felten (Almost) Live

Interz0ne talk censored due to DMCA notice (blogging from the sequestered talk (which is instead a discussion about what occured)).

(Rattle here blogging live from my talk.. There is a reason I have been going around all day chanting "Chilling Effects" in ominous tones..)

Interz0ne: Cease and Desist Letter - 20030411