In RISKS-15.19, Steven S. Davis points out that anonymous remailers (at least
the one at anon.penet.fi) remove signatures beginning with -- lines. But
there is a much more effective signature.
On the two occasions that I have been curious enough to investigate the real
identity of anonymous posters I have had no difficulty identifying them with a
bit of searching about. Both of the people I was looking for had posted signed
messages in the same or nearby groups, and were readily identified. How?
Consider Steven's text:
"In Risks 15.17, an32153@anon.penet.fi remarked upon the dangers of including a
signature with anonymous postings. It's not quite as absurd as it seems, if
someone uses a mailer that appends the signature automatically ( I can't
imagine that anyone who cared about their anonymity, as opposed to those who
just are assigned an anonymous id because they reply to somebody who uses one,
would deliberately append a revealing signature ). The solution to that, at
least on anon.penet.fi, is simple: The server considers anything after a line
beginning with two dashes as a signature and cuts it off ( this can be a
complication if someone tries to append a document to a message and uses a row
of dashes to separate it from the main text ). So if you want to send mail
anonymously, either dump your signature or be certain it starts with --."
Now, look at the style:
1) he has a unique habit of adding spaces after ( and before ).
2) the paren clauses come at the end of sentences. They are not dependent
clauses, and the . comes outside the )
3) he uses commas before dependent clauses. (cf last sentence)
The meter is distinctive. (Read it aloud without paying attention to the
words.) Ta-d-d-d-d-d, COMMA, d-d-d-d-d-d-d ( Ta-d-d-d-d-d-d, COMMA, ta-d-d
-d-d-d-d-d ). Ta-d-d-d-d-d, COMMA, d-d-d-d-d-d-d ( Ta-d-d-d-d-d-d, COMMA,
ta-d-d-d-d-d-d-d ).
I'm not picking on Steven; anyone who doesn't write in a formal, carefully
corrected prose style will get caught by this.
It is real easy. And not so easy to really be anonymous.
[PGN adds: By the way, you might have mentioned line lengths. (But I use
a standard of 78 for RISKS, so that the people who add "< " do not overflow,
and I usually reblock longer or shorter lines.) I also usually neutralize
the time zone on authored mailings to RISKS for which the author wishes to
remain anonymous. You also did not mention giveaway mispelings. (I try
to run every issue through a speling corekter.) As Tom Lehrer once wrote
<and as my grepper notes I quoted 2.5 years ago in RISKS-11.48>,
Don't write naughty words on walls that you can't spell. ] [ariel@world.std.com (Robert L Ullmann) via risks-digest Volume 15, Issue 25]
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