jsq@ut-sally.UUCP (John Quarterman) (04/09/84)
<This will no longer be needed when the state withers away....>
...and just how secure WOULD you
feel if the KGB could not only read your postings (some of
which are quite revealing at times) but maybe get into your
system? There ARE security holes, you know...
"That's the biz, sweetheart..."
Dave Fiedler
{harpo,astrovax,philabs}!infopro!dave
P.S. You also might consider that the NSA and CIA have access
to the net.
You really think that NSA and CIA can read USENET but KGB can't?
It would only take one tapped phone line somewhere on four continents....
--
John Quarterman, CS Dept., University of Texas, Austin, Texas
jsq@ut-sally.ARPA, jsq@ut-sally.UUCP, {ihnp4,seismo,ctvax}!ut-sally!jsqriddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) (04/09/84)
>> You really think that NSA and CIA can read USENET but KGB can't? It >> would only take one tapped phone line somewhere on four continents.... >> -- John Quarterman jsq@ut-sally.UUCP May be, but I'll bet they're more interested in net.sources and net.unix-wizards than net.politics or net.flame. --- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.") --- {ihnp4,seismo,gatech,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle
norskog@fortune.UUCP (Lance Norskog) (04/09/84)
Anyone who doesn't immediately recognize the name "N. Chernenko" is
spending too much time reading netnews.
Lance C. Norskog
Fortune Systems, 101 Twin Dolphin Drive, Redwood City, CA
{cbosgd,hpda,harpo,sri-unix,amd70,decvax!ihnp4,allegra}!fortune!norskognorth@down.UUCP (Professor X) (04/10/84)
From tilt!princeton!allegra!ulysses!harpo!seismo!ut-sally!riddle Mon Apr 9 13:08:59 1984 Subject: Re: RE: Russia on the Net Organization: U. of Tx. at Houston-in-the-Hills >> You really think that NSA and CIA can read USENET but KGB can't? It >> would only take one tapped phone line somewhere on four continents.... >> -- John Quarterman jsq@ut-sally.UUCP May be, but I'll bet they're more interested in net.sources and net.unix-wizards than net.politics or net.flame. --- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.") --- {ihnp4,seismo,gatech,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle i know for a fact that the Russians on the net are *very* interested in expire with history rebuilding, although expire is such a dog that their national defense system (everything is a system) is highly vulnerable while it toils away (but it's *still* worth it). they also are hoping to learn how to delete files with unprintable characters in their names and what "fubar" means. and wait til they snarf "car.c" out of net.sources. it could be the end of the free world as we know it. Professor X
france@unc.UUCP (Robert France) (04/10/84)
The USSR without vaxen? USENet a secure environment? Who's the April fool now? Anyone who seriously believes that their communications on the nets are not easily monitored by (a) partisan agents, (b) domestic government `security' groups, or (c) junior high school students should carefully reconsider the state and structure of their net. Not that I believe that (a) or (b) are true -- who would want to monitor this much drivel? On the other hand, the thought that USENet communications are in any way more secure than ham radio has, I fear, been shown time and time again to be in vain. Still, it would be nice to believe that various authoritarian regimes Who Shall Remain Nameless were wasting their machine cycles on us. Sort of gives you that warm, looked-after feeling. Sayonara, Robert france@unc.UUCP
pector@ihuxw.UUCP (Scott W. Pector) (04/10/84)
<ashataN dna siroB .sv elkniwlluB dna ykcoR, III (dna) ykcoR sa nwonk osla> Congratulations, once again, to the perpetrator of the joke. When I read it, I was thinking initially: Is this a joke! Then I looked at the first line of text and it said 840401 in it. It had to be a prank when I saw that! So much for the Saskatchewanan who implied that since he didn't get the article on 4/1, he had no indication it was a prank. For those who were fooled: c'mon and 'fess up! No more of this whining about how poor the joke was and how it must be an indication of a breach of Net security and how a new beginning in international communications was about to unfold, etc.! All of this is an attempt to save face over being fooled. One of the most popular authors in the eyes of Netters, Mark Twain, was known to play a hoax now or then. I gave an example of one of his in net.books last November. That one involved a nonsensical, physically impossible description of a nature scene in one of his stories. People in the 1890s and 1900s completely ignored that paragraph or 90% of it at that time, taking it as plausible. Practically all the Netters who responded to my article failed to pick up 90% or more of the errors in that paragraph! No one whined when I gave the correct answer there. Another prank that Twain pulled was in 1864 in Nevada. He wrote a story for a local newspaper about the amazing "Petrified Man" found in some local mountain cave. There, too, he defined a location which even the locals should have known did not exist, but everyone fell for it. Further, he had the Petrified Man thumbing his nose in a frozen pose! The article got circulated in many parts of the US and an expedition was almost taken up to recover the fake fossil before the prank was revealed! As W. C. Fields said: There's a sucker born every minute. Last comment: After reading the joke, I thought that no one would fall for it for more than a second or two. In fact, I thought that the author of it should have used a leading Russian scientist as his spokesperson, instead of Chernenko, to make it more believable. Boy, did I overestimate Net intelligence! Scott Pector
fjg@ihuxj.UUCP (Frank Greco) (04/10/84)
For all you netizens who can't appreciate a joke for its humor
and must debate its theme, consider the following:
The VAXEN report was perpetrated by KGB agents operating undercover
as admission officers at a well known Big Ten university.
The perpetrators were part of a larger espionage ring whose
primary mission, known to the US intelligence
community for some time, was to both monitor the caliber of
student entering American universities and colleges, and to
facilitate the infiltration of the American academic community
by KGB agents posing as graduate students seeking admission
to the universities.
(The espionage ring was so entrenched as to have had financial
aid officers in place at some very prestigious institutions.)
The perpetrators had a secondary mission.
This secondary mission consisted of monitoring the broadcasts
of local radio and television stations, and keeping abreast of
the contents of newpapers, popular magazines, trade journals,
and other forms of public communication.
In other words, the agents were responsible for keeping
abreast with current events as seen through the average American's
eyes.
The agents were also responsible for interpreting this information
vis-a-vis personal relationships developed under cover.
The agents were to report their findings indirectly to Moscow
via Russian embassies in the United States on a regular basis.
The VAXEN hoax fell under the auspices of this second mission.
The perpetrators were ostensibly low key university users with
general network priviledges. Covertly, they were KGB agents on
a mission.
The perpetrators had been monitoring the network, a
form of public communication, for some time.
The perpetrators planted the VAXEN article to test the
gullibility of network users and to test the security of their covers
on the network.
The perpetrators enlisted the aid of a KGB agent posing as
a computer science Master's student to dummy up the network path name.
Unfortunately for the KGB, this agent was a double agent!wmartin@brl-vgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (04/11/84)
KGB Officers are university admissions personnel? AHA! THAT explains it! Now I know why the current crop of students are who they are...
carol@wdl1.UUCP (Carol R. Hamilton) (04/12/84)
The APRIL'S FOOL joke that s many are crying about was very well-done. I was a little unsure whether it was a prank or not - and did spend a few seconds in a quandry. Anyone who is unable to laugh at themselves for getting caught deserves our sympathy. I really feel sorry for someone who is SO serious about life. I thoroughly enjoyed the joke - and I count as a "caught".
wm@tekchips.UUCP (Wm Leler) (04/17/84)
You cannot underestimate the intelligence of the net. wm
sef@drutx.UUCP (04/19/84)
This message is empty.