From 301946f96a37359bcd93dca5b1f28193c556a018 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Daniel Borkmann Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2012 11:18:55 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] docs: add document Signed-off-by: Daniel Borkmann --- Documentation/Motivation | 102 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 102 insertions(+) create mode 100644 Documentation/Motivation diff --git a/Documentation/Motivation b/Documentation/Motivation new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c440c6d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/Motivation @@ -0,0 +1,102 @@ +Motivation: +/////////// + +First, let me introduce you an important manifest formulated by Eric Hughes (in +case you already know it, scroll down for further explanations): + +Privacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic age. Privacy is not +secrecy. A private matter is something one doesn't want the whole world to know, +but a secret matter is something one doesn't want anybody to know. Privacy is +the power to selectively reveal oneself to the world. + +If two parties have some sort of dealings, then each has a memory of their +interaction. Each party can speak about their own memory of this; how could +anyone prevent it? One could pass laws against it, but the freedom of speech, +even more than privacy, is fundamental to an open society; we seek not to +restrict any speech at all. If many parties speak together in the same forum, +each can speak to all the others and aggregate together knowledge about +individuals and other parties. The power of electronic communications has +enabled such group speech, and it will not go away merely because we might +want it to. + +Since we desire privacy, we must ensure that each party to a transaction have +knowledge only of that which is directly necessary for that transaction. Since +any information can be spoken of, we must ensure that we reveal as little as +possible. In most cases personal identity is not salient. When I purchase a +magazine at a store and hand cash to the clerk, there is no need to know who I +am. When I ask my electronic mail provider to send and receive messages, my +provider need not know to whom I am speaking or what I am saying or what others +are saying to me; my provider only need know how to get the message there and +how much I owe them in fees. When my identity is revealed by the underlying +mechanism of the transaction, I have no privacy. I cannot here selectively +reveal myself; I must always reveal myself. + +Therefore, privacy in an open society requires anonymous transaction systems. +Until now, cash has been the primary such system. An anonymous transaction +system is not a secret transaction system. An anonymous system empowers +individuals to reveal their identity when desired and only when desired; this +is the essence of privacy. + +Privacy in an open society also requires cryptography. If I say something, I +want it heard only by those for whom I intend it. If the content of my speech +is available to the world, I have no privacy. To encrypt is to indicate the +desire for privacy, and to encrypt with weak cryptography is to indicate not +too much desire for privacy. Furthermore, to reveal one's identity with +assurance when the default is anonymity requires the cryptographic signature. + +We cannot expect governments, corporations, or other large, faceless +organizations to grant us privacy out of their beneficence. It is to their +advantage to speak of us, and we should expect that they will speak. To try to +prevent their speech is to fight against the realities of information. +Information does not just want to be free, it longs to be free. Information +expands to fill the available storage space. Information is Rumor's younger, +stronger cousin; Information is fleeter of foot, has more eyes, knows more, +and understands less than Rumor. + +We must defend our own privacy if we expect to have any. We must come together +and create systems which allow anonymous transactions to take place. People have +been defending their own privacy for centuries with whispers, darkness, +envelopes, closed doors, secret handshakes, and couriers. The technologies of +the past did not allow for strong privacy, but electronic technologies do. + +We the Cypherpunks are dedicated to building anonymous systems. We are defending +our privacy with cryptography, with anonymous mail forwarding systems, with +digital signatures, and with electronic money. + +Cypherpunks write code. We know that someone has to write software to defend +privacy, and since we can't get privacy unless we all do, we're going to write +it. We publish our code so that our fellow Cypherpunks may practice and play +with it. Our code is free for all to use, worldwide. We don't much care if you +don't approve of the software we write. We know that software can't be +destroyed and that a widely dispersed system can't be shut down. + +Cypherpunks deplore regulations on cryptography, for encryption is fundamentally +a private act. The act of encryption, in fact, removes information from the +public realm. Even laws against cryptography reach only so far as a nation's +border and the arm of its violence. Cryptography will ineluctably spread over +the whole globe, and with it the anonymous transactions systems that it makes +possible. + +For privacy to be widespread it must be part of a social contract. People must +come and together deploy these systems for the common good. Privacy only extends +so far as the cooperation of one's fellows in society. We the Cypherpunks seek +your questions and your concerns and hope we may engage you so that we do not +deceive ourselves. We will not, however, be moved out of our course because +some may disagree with our goals. + +The Cypherpunks are actively engaged in making the networks safer for privacy. +Let us proceed together apace. + +Onward. + + Eric Hughes , 9 March 1993 + +That said, why is it important to have such a networking toolkit? + +Since only curvetun was created to offer security for your communications, the +rest is not. However, we believe that it is equally important to have a Swiss +army knife of network debugging, development or audit tools in order to stress +test developed privacy- and networking-related applications such as Tor, +Bitcoin and the like, but also the underlying operating system kernel or +routing and other security applications. With the netsniff-ng toolkit we aim to +fill such a gap. -- 2.11.4.GIT