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Crypto consequences of dimensionless constants changing their values over time?
by Georgi Guninski 01 Apr '17

01 Apr '17

This bugs me. Since 2009 it is known that the value of the dimensionless constant Pi changes over time: https://arxiv.org/abs/0903.5321 [1] Personally don't care about the curvature of space, time and whatever other dimensions, as long as macro objects and concepts keep their _usual_ properties. The end of [1] claims that "the values of the integers could vary with time". This is clearly crypto related, possibly worse than Row Hammer. Are there crypto consequences of dimensionless constants changing their values over time?

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Entrepreneurial Spirit: Business Town - What Value Creating Winners Do All Day
by Razer 01 Apr '17

01 Apr '17

> An ongoing project attempting to explain our highly intangible, deeply > disruptive, data-driven, venture-backed, gluten-free economic > meritocracy to the uninitiated. With apologies to Richard Scarry. http://welcometobusinesstown.tumblr.com/

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Kafka on the GateKeepers
by grarpamp 01 Apr '17

01 Apr '17

Before the law sits a gatekeeper. To this gatekeeper comes a man from the country who asks to gain entry into the law. But the gatekeeper says that he cannot grant him entry at the moment. The man thinks about it and then asks if he will be allowed to come in sometime later on. “It is possible,” says the gatekeeper, “but not now.” The gate to the law stands open, as always, and the gatekeeper walks to the side, so the man bends over in order to see through the gate into the inside. When the gatekeeper notices that, he laughs and says: “If it tempts you so much, try going inside in spite of my prohibition. But take note. I am powerful. And I am only the lowliest gatekeeper. But from room to room stand gatekeepers, each more powerful than the last. I cannot endure even one glimpse of the third.” The man from the country has not expected such difficulties: the law should always be accessible for everyone, he thinks, but as he now looks more closely at the gatekeeper in his fur coat, at his large pointed nose and his long, thin, black Tartar’s beard, he decides that it would be better to wait until he gets permission to go inside. The gatekeeper gives him a stool and allows him to sit down at the side in front of the gate. There he sits for days and years. He makes many attempts to be let in, and he wears the gatekeeper out with his requests. The gatekeeper often interrogates him briefly, questioning him about his homeland and many other things, but they are indifferent questions, the kind great men put, and at the end he always tells him once more that he cannot let him inside yet. The man, who has equipped himself with many things for his journey, spends everything, no matter how valuable, to win over the gatekeeper. The latter takes it all but, as he does so, says, “I am taking this only so that you do not think you have failed to do anything.” During the many years the man observes the gatekeeper almost continuously. He forgets the other gatekeepers, and this first one seems to him the only obstacle for entry into the law. He curses the unlucky circumstance, in the first years thoughtlessly and out loud; later, as he grows old, he only mumbles to himself. He becomes childish and, since in the long years studying the gatekeeper he has also come to know the fleas in his fur collar, he even asks the fleas to help him persuade the gatekeeper. Finally his eyesight grows weak, and he does not know whether things are really darker around him or whether his eyes are merely deceiving him. But he recognizes now in the darkness an illumination which breaks inextinguishably out of the gateway to the law. Now he no longer has much time to live. Before his death he gathers up in his head all his experiences of the entire time into one question which he has not yet put to the gatekeeper. He waves to him, since he can no longer lift up his stiffening body. The gatekeeper has to bend way down to him, for the difference between them has changed considerably to the disadvantage of the man. “What do you want to know now?” asks the gatekeeper. “You are insatiable.” “Everyone strives after the law,” says the man, “so how is it that in these many years no one except me has requested entry?” The gatekeeper sees that the man is already dying and, in order to reach his diminishing sense of hearing, he shouts at him, “Here no one else can gain entry, since this entrance was assigned only to you. I’m going now to close it.” -- Kafka

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John Stossel: Libertarian Mainstream Journalist?
by grarpamp 01 Apr '17

01 Apr '17

This John Stossel has a channel full of short videos geared toward highlighting things for the public... https://www.youtube.com/user/rickjohn12000/videos After 40+ years of reporting, I now understand the importance of limited government and personal freedom. Libertarian journalist John Stossel is a zealous advocate of free markets, a syndicated columnist and Fox News contributor. Prior to joining Fox, John co-anchored ABC’s primetime newsmagazine show, 20/20. Stossel’s economic programs have been adapted into teaching kits by a non-profit organization, "Stossel in the Classroom." High school teachers in American public schools now use the videos to help educate their students on economics and economic freedom. They are seen by more than 12 million students every year. Stossel has received 19 Emmy Awards and has been honored five times for excellence in consumer reporting by the National Press Club. Other honors include the George Polk Award for Outstanding Local Reporting and the George Foster Peabody Award.

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Checkpoint America: Papers Please, Or We'll Fuck You Up
by grarpamp 01 Apr '17

01 Apr '17

John Stossel Commentary... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnicMKKSReY

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Tracking the Agents: FBI's James Comey's Twitter and Instagram Outed
by grarpamp 01 Apr '17

01 Apr '17

https://gizmodo.com/this-is-almost-certainly-james-comey-s-twitter-account-… https://www.instagram.com/reinholdniebuhr/ https://twitter.com/projectexile7 Digital security and its discontents—from Hillary Clinton’s emails to ransomware to Tor hacks—is in many ways one of the chief concerns of the contemporary FBI. So it makes sense that the bureau’s director, James Comey, would dip his toe into the digital torrent with a Twitter account. It also makes sense, given Comey’s high profile, that he would want that Twitter account to be a secret from the world, lest his follows and favs be scrubbed for clues about what the feds are up to.

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Bitcoiner Running Game On NYDFS BitLicense In Court
by grarpamp 01 Apr '17

01 Apr '17

http://www.article78againstnydfs.com/ https://cei.org/blog/new-yorks-bitlicense-trial https://www.2600.com/offthehook/mp3files/2017/off_the_hook__20170329.mp3 New York's "BitLicense" on Trial Jim Harper • March 8, 2017 Regulators enjoy a lot of deference in the courts, and New York regulations in New York courts are no exception. But Theo Chino’s challenge to New York’s “BitLicense” regulation stands as good a chance as I’ve seen of toppling an inadvisable and poorly devised regulation. I was happy to play a small part this week in the effort to get the regulation overturned. For those just tuning in, the “BitLicense” is a special regulation aimed at Bitcoin businesses, which the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) issued in June, 2015. When New York’s then-Superintendent of Financial Services Benjamin Lawsky first encountered Bitcoin, he sent subpoenas to everyone in the Bitcoin world and went on TV talking about “narcoterrorists.” But by the time he concluded the matter, he thought differently. In fact, immediately after his office finalized the “BitLicense” regulation, Lawsky decamped to a private sector consultancy where his website now boasts that he was one of 2014’s “Top Ten Most Influential People in Bitcoin.” Since imposing the “BitLicense” requirement, the NYDFS has licensed (or “chartered”) a whopping five companies (as of January, at least). The NYDFS has chased off four other companies trying to provide Bitcoin services in New York. They join the many more firms that suspended services in New York after the regulation was finalized. Enter Theo Chino. While the big Bitcoin companies steered clear or meekly complied with the BitLicense – they expect to be repeat players before the NYDFS, of course – Mr. Chino opted to stand and fight. First filing a pro se petition against the regulation, he now has counsel to carry forward what is known as an Article 78 action against the “BitLicense” regulation. An Article 78 proceeding in New York allows aggrieved parties to challenge regulatory actions, including actions taken that are beyond the jurisdiction of the regulatory body or officer. That is one basis for Chino’s challenge: that the NYDFS was never given authority by the legislature to regulate Bitcoin. Another argument is that the action was arbitrary and capricious or an abuse of discretion. In theory, administrative regulation assigns expert, neutral lawmakers to the task of taking arguments from the public and figuring out the very best rules. This doesn’t seem to be what happened in the BitLicense rulemaking. As I described to the New York Supreme Court in an affidavit filed by Chino’s counsel this week, the NYDFS stated that “extensive research and analysis” supported the “BitLicense” regulation. But when I asked for it (wearing my hat as the Bitcoin Foundation’s Global Policy Counsel), the agency first promised to share it, then delayed sharing it, and then never shared it. As a point of comparison, at this time the European Banking Authority had produced a 46-page analysis of benefits and risks from Bitcoin. The results were far from perfect, but the methodology allowed for reasoned debate about the need for regulation and what any regulation might address. The EBA demonstrated part of what an administrative rulemaking process should entail. The NYDFS either didn’t do any analysis to speak of or declined to make its analysis public, denying itself feedback from Bitcoin experts. Not only do the defects in the NYDFS’s processes bode well for Theo Chino’s Article 78 challenge to the “BitLicense,” the results do, too. The BitLicense made New York a pariah jurisdiction for Bitcoin, denying consumers access to service providers in this highly innovative field. The world’s financial capital has made itself a Bitcoin backwater. Other regulators, looking on with interest, have not followed New York’s lead. Thanks to the persistence of Theo Chino and his counsel, the “BitLicense” is in the dock and heading for trial. The case will have many twists and turns, but hopefully the idea of special, restrictive regulation aimed at digital currency will get the electric – er, the electronic chair.

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SuperNET, Blockchain (and Governance?)
by grarpamp 01 Apr '17

01 Apr '17

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=762346 https://supernet.org/ http://www.digitalcatallaxy.com/report2015.html

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Keyshuffling Nintendo 3DS Secure Bootchain
by grarpamp 01 Apr '17

01 Apr '17

https://github.com/Plailect/keyshuffling https://www.3dbrew.org/ https://media.ccc.de/v/32c3-7240-console_hacking We demonstrate an attack on the secure bootchain of the Nintendo 3DS in order to gain early code execution. The attack utilizes the block shuffling vulnerability of the ECB cipher mode to rearrange keys in the Nintendo 3DS's encrypted keystore. Because the shuffled keys will deterministically decrypt the encrypted firmware binary to incorrect plaintext data and execute it, and because the device's memory contents are kept between hard reboots, it is possible to reliably reach a branching instruction to a payload in memory. This payload, due to its execution by a privileged processor and its early execution, is able to extract the hash of hardware secrets necessary to decrypt the device's encrypted keystore and set up a persistant exploit of the system.

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WikiLeaks: Vault7 Marble Framework, CIA, Barrett Brown Commentary
by grarpamp 01 Apr '17

01 Apr '17

https://wikileaks.org/vault7/releases/#Marble%20Framework Today, March 31st 2017, WikiLeaks releases Vault 7 "Marble" -- 676 source code files for the CIA's secret anti-forensic Marble Framework. Marble is used to hamper forensic investigators and anti-virus companies from attributing viruses, trojans and hacking attacks to the CIA. https://sputniknews.com/radio_by_any_means/201703301052100018-dangers-of-th… https://video.img.ria.ru/Out/MP3/20170329/2017_03_29_ByAnyMeans188Sprkr_yfl… @07:10 On this episode of "By Any Means Necessary" host Eugene Puryear is joined by award winning journalist Barrett Brown. Barrett founded Project PM, a research collaboration and wiki, to facilitate analysis of the troves of hacked emails and other leaked information concerning the inner workings of the cyber-military-industrial complex. In January 2015, Brown was sentenced to 63 months in federal prison for the crimes of accessory after the fact, obstruction of justice, and threatening a federal officer stemming from the FBI's investigation into the 2012 Stratfor email leak. On November 29, 2016, Barrett Brown was released from federal custody. Barrett returns to talk about the Vault 7 Wikileaks, the usage of the internet of things, the cyber-security landscape, and the relationship between the US intelligence community and multinational corporations.

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