[Noisebridge-discuss] Deep Crack

[aestetix aestetix]

Jake,

Thanks so much for this effort. Deep Crack has played a *very* important
role in cryptohistory. I'd personally argue that it's about as important as
the creation of public key cryptography, but that's my opinion.

I think this is going to generate a lot of discussion and objections, but
people should keep in mind one thing: John Gilmore co-founded the EFF, one
of the most respected cyber law authorities in the country. If anyone can
answer legal questions about this, they can. In other words, Gilmore is a
very smart guy.

aestetix

On Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 10:07 PM, Jacob Appelbaum <jacob at appelbaum.net>wrote:

> Hi *,
>
> I had a conversation with John Gilmore today about picking up Deep
> Crack. During our discussion, I asked John about donating the machine
> and about a receipt and so on. To my surprise, he isn't ready to
> transfer ownership of the machine to Noisebridge at this time. This
> outright solves any tax concerns, although such concerns would have been
> John's burden anyway (it's up to him to value the item, not us -- we
> just confirm that we received an item).
>
> I'm going to lead a time limited project involving Deep Crack. The goal
> of this project will be to understand the history of the politics
> surrounding DES, a study of the machine itself and we'll hopefully also
> actually crack some DES keys at some point during this project. I hope
> we can find something in the wild to crack (found ciphertext, is that
> like found art?) but I'm also happy to attempt to crack a specially
> crafted message just for the purposes of learning! I'm open to other
> topics and I think it's a good way for people to be introduced to
> attacking crypto systems. When I was younger, I was really inspired by
> the Cypherpunks movement and specifically by John's work. To have Deep
> Crack in our space is probably the greatest honor Noisebridge has received.
>
> Andy, Leif, Vlad and myself will meet with John tomorrow evening. We'll
> pick it up in Vlad's truck and we'll bring it to Noisebridge shortly
> after 6PM. If you'd like to help unload it and move it into the space,
> your physical labor would been very appreciated tomorrow evening!
>
> If we don't use Deep Crack, it's silly to have it around. If we're going
> to study and learn from it, it's apparent that it will be useful. If we
> do use and benefit from it, it will be apparent to everyone, and perhaps
> someday I would even have the guts to ask John for it on a permanent
> basis. I find it _really_ inspiring to imagine our space housing the
> fastest unclassified special purpose DES cracking machine in the world.
> After ten years, it's still the fastest (it's not the cheapest
> obviously)! I really want to emphasize something special about having
> this machine at Noisebridge over say, a museum: We're going to use it
> and we're going to learn from it! I firmly believe that it will inspire
> other people to learn about cryptography in a really serious way. I hope
> that someone who has no interest in cryptography can come and touch the
> machine, to see it run and to take part in our project. It doesn't
> belong in a museum yet. The battle over other weak crypto systems is
> _far_ from over. This machine is still useful and still relevant for
> todays systems! The current battle over GSM security seems relevant in
> some ways and very different in others.
>
> It appears that there is an interest from many people at and around
> Noisebridge. I'm really excited about this project and I think it's
> great that so many awesome people have expressed support. If you'd like
> to help, please let me know on the list or off the list! Perhaps we'll
> make a sublist about cryptography in general?
>
> From a legal perspective, I do not believe that being near the Deep
> Crack machine is going to pose a problem for non-US citizens. Deep Crack
> was famously run a number of times, it even won awards for these runs! I
> might add that it was quite the spectacle, so it wasn't simply
> unnoticed! I have stood next to a non-US citizen holding a part of the
> machine. As I understand it this is not a violation of ITAR in spirit or
> in the letter of the law. I'll talk with John about this tomorrow too.
> He has spent a long time fighting ITAR and is probably the best person
> on the planet to talk with about it.
>
> I do however believe that a non-US citizen should not attempt to run or
> use the machine. This issue will not preclude any such persons from
> _learning about the machine_ or its history.
>
> I will attempt to talk with the relevant legal minds at the EFF and
> until then, I ask that people who have a concern about their respective
> visa situation to not touch the machine. It seems clear to me that if
> you're not sure if you should touch such a system, please be reasonable
> and do not do so.
>
> Here's a nice link that can lead you to a lot information about Deep Crack:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EFF_DES_cracker
>
> Best,
> Jake
>
>
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