R.I.P. Cypherpunks
Source: Security Focus
"Once the online haunt of top cryptographers, the Cypherpunks list was characterized by its mix of revolutionary politics and advanced mathematics. This week, a founder pronounced it dead and buried."
The Cypherpunks list, an online forum that in many ways defined Internet activism, was booted unceremoniously from its original home, toad.com, earlier this week.
In an open posting to several mailing lists, Cypherpunks veteran John Gilmore all but dismissed the computer-security and privacy forum he co-founded in the early 1990s. It had, he wrote, "degenerated a long time ago to the point where I have no idea why more than 500 people are still receiving it every day."
Yet, for all the irrelevant comments, vicious infighting and radical libertarian politics that flourish on the list, Cypherpunks has chronicled every important event in the short history of modern cryptography, as well as the cyber-rights movement that grew out of it.
