News Update
Those of you who get 2600 on newsstands did not receive the special insert that came with the last issue. In it, we announced the good news that Steve Jackson had won his lawsuit against the United States Secret Service. More than $50,000 in damages will be awarded to Steve Jackson Games for violations of the Privacy Protection Act of 1980 and for lost profits as a result of the raid by the Secret Service in March 1990. Jackson's legal fees, which could amount to several hundred thousand dollars, must also be paid by the government. Each plaintiff in the case was also awarded $1,000 under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986. The Secret Service violated this act when they seized private mail on the Illuminati Bulletin Board System. Every user of the board could have been awarded $1,000 if they had also filed suit. This is obviously a very positive turning point and it wouldn't have been possible without Steve Jackson, the hacker community that stood by him, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation for providing the expertise and financing. We should probably also thank the United States Secret Service.
Speaking of the USSS, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) has been vigilantly pursuing the facts concerning the breakup of the D.C. 2600 meeting in November. In response to a Freedom of Information Act suit, the Secret Service has officially acknowledged that it possesses "information relating to the breakup of a meeting of individuals at the Pentagon City Mall in Arlington, Virginia." Other information is being withheld "because the documents in the requested file contain information compiled for law enforcement purposes" and because disclosure "could reasonably be expected to disclose the identity of a confidential source and/or information furnished by a confidential source."
More recent documents state that information was obtained "in the course of a criminal investigation that is being conducted pursuant to the Secret Service's authority to investigate access device and computer fraud." The agency has also admitted to possession of two documents which "consist solely of information identifying individuals." CPSR's interpretation, with which we agree, is that the Secret Service convinced the mall security people to illegally obtain a list of the people who attended the meeting. That list is now in the possession of the Secret Service. In short, the Secret Service appears to have been caught violating the law. Stay tuned.
You may have heard mention of the Clipper Chip, which basically amounts to a plan by the government to take back control of encryption. It appears that one standard would be utilized and the government would always have the ability to break your code if they so chose. Needless to say, this isn't sitting well with privacy advocates. The question everyone is waiting on is whether the government actually believes it can outlaw other forms of encryption. Expect a lot more on this in future issues.
Finally, a public service from the folks at Full Disclosure and (((1-900-STOPPER))). By dialing 800-235-1414, you can hear your phone number read back to you. In some places you can block your number by dialing *67 first, a method which was originally intended for blocking Caller ID. While in the past we've taken exception to STOPPER's prices for private calls on their 900 line, we have to admit that operating this 800 service and encouraging people to see how easy it is to be identified ultimately amounts to a good thing. We just hope that anonymous calls can be easily and cheaply obtainable in the future as they were not too long ago.