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UNIGROUP OF NEW YORK JANUARY 2001 ANNOUNCEMENTS
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1. UNIGROUP'S JANUARY 2001 GENERAL MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT
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When: Thursday, January 18, 2001
Where: The Chase Manhattan Bank
55 Water Street (enter at Old Slip)
South Tower
13th Floor, Conference Room C
Time: 6:15 PM - 6:30 PM Registration
6:30 PM - 6:40 PM Ask the Wizard,
Questions, Answers and Current Events
6:40 PM - 6:50 PM Unigroup Business
6:50 PM - 9:30 PM Main Presentation
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Topic: Security Protocols and Technologies
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Speaker: Jeffrey Altman,
Sr. Software Designer,
The Kermit Project at Columbia University
Meeting Introduction:
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Happy New Year to all!
Those of you who have been using computers for over 15 years should
remember the "good old days" of file transfer which depended on serial
cabling, modems and a small handful of communications protocols which
could be used to transfer data between machines.
Unix shipped with UUCP (at least from v7) which allowed reliable
remote command execution and file transfer. BSD variants of Unix
eventually shipped with TCP/IP networking (foundation for the
modern Internet). VAXs were running VMS and DECNet, but not
UUCP or TCP/IP. And for DOS, those 360k floppies didn't allow for
many options.
Before the wide-spread use of TCP/IP networking, one common way of
sending files across different platforms was to use Kermit.
Kermit's roots go back to Columbia University in 1981. It is both
a communications protocol and file transfer program.
Over the years it has been ported to just about every machine and
operating system you can think of. Certain versions also come with
extensive terminal emulation capabilities and have an advanced
scripting language built in.
Modern Kermit versions support TCP/IP networking (among others) and
can be used as a server for both serial and Internet communications.
The freely available C-Kermit 7.x (which runs on many operating
systems) and Kermit 95 (commercial product for win32) support
Secure Telnet and FTP using Internet standard protocols for
Authentication and Encryption such as Kerberos, SRP, and SSL/TLS.
Unigroup's January 2001 meeting will address the usage of Internet
Security Protocols and Technologies from a development and
implementation point of view.
Web Resources:
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1. The Kermit Project http://www.kermit-project.org
2. C-Kermit Home http://www.kermit-project.org/ckermit.html
3. C-Kermit 7.1 Alpha http://www.kermit-project.org/ck71.html
4. Kermit Security Features http://www.kermit-project.org/security71.html
5. Internet Kermit Service http://www.kermit-project.org/cuiksd.html
6. Kermit Standards Reference Page http://www.kermit-project.org/standards.html
7. Kermit 95 (win32, commercial) http://www.kermit-project.org/k95
8. G-Kermit http://www.kermit-project.org/gkermit.html
9. MIT Kerberos http://web.mit.edu/kerberos/www
10. Secure Remote Password http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~tjw/srp
11. OpenSSL http://www.openssl.org
12. IETF http://www.ietf.org
Giveaways:
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Caldera has donated three "cartons" of
Caldera OpenLinux 2.3 for giveaways at Unigroup meetings. These
are full, boxed distributions (3 CDs + Manuals). OpenLinux is
a leading commercially supported Linux Operating System!
Unigroup will be giving these distributions out (raffling
them off) as door prizes at upcoming meetings. Unigroup
appreciates Caldera's continued support!
Description of Talk:
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Jeffrey Altman, one of the primary authors of Kermit software from
Columbia University's Kermit Project and an active participant in the
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), will present a talk on the
incorporation of security protocols and algorithms into an age old
communications product. Kermit is traditionally thought of as a
serial modem communications. However, it has been used as a telnet
client since the mid-80s and other protocols have been integrated
since. As the use of the Internet became increasingly popular, the
need to protect data transmissions increased as well.
The Kermit Project has worked with other Universities and
organizations such as the IETF to design and implement methods for
authenticating and protecting the communication sessions in Telnet,
Rlogin and FTP. The mechanisms implemented within Kermit include
Kerberos 4 and 5; Secure Remote Password protocol; and SSL/TLS (X.509
certificates). This talk will focus on the capabilities of Kermit;
the design of the Internet Kermit Service
; and how and why we
decided to implement that security methods we chose. The talk will
provide an overview of how the security methods work including their
strengths and weaknesses.
Speaker Biography:
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Jeffrey Altman is the Sr. Software Designer for Columbia University's
Kermit Project and Chief Technology Officer for IAM Training and
Consulting. He is currently the chairperson of the IETF Telnet
Security working group and has edited close to two dozen Internet
Drafts and RFCs. He is also a member of MIT's Kerberos development
group and actively contributes to the OpenSSL open source development
project and the Secure Remote Password (SRP) development effort.
Project Biography:
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The Kermit Project has been the
central organization behind the development of the Kermit file
transfer protocol and the cross platform suite of applications which
have been built around the protocol. The flagship implementation,
C-Kermit , has been ported
to more than 900 variations of Operating System and hardware. It is
secure; can be used as a client and a server; supports numerous
networking protocols; and sports a high powered scripting language
designed specifically for managing data communications.
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Complimentary Food and Refreshments will be served. This now includes
salads and sandwiches (eg. turkey, roast beef, chicken, tuna)!
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Directions:
55 Water Street is between Water Street & Front Streets at Old Slip...
about 7 blocks south of Fulton St. and the South Street Seaport.
Take 4 train to Bowling Green & Walk Due East;
Take 2/3 trains to Wall Street, Walk East to Water St.
then walk South 5 blocks;
Take M/J trains to Broad St., Walk East to Water St.;
Take N/R trains to Whitehall St., Walk North East to Water St.
There is parking on the street (after 6:30-7pm) and there is a lot
right in the building, entrance on Old Slip.
Walking from Wall St., follow William St. south which bends around
and leads you to Hanover Sq. and Old Slip is across Water Street.
Room Location Specifics:
Enter the building at Old Slip. To get to the South Tower of the
complex, you enter the building at Old Slip at the "North Tower"
doors. This entrance is is immediately to the right of the main
entrance, towards Water Street... ie. Use the right-most side doors
rather than walking straight ahead at the Old Slip entrance.
Go past the guard's desk (mentioning you are heading for Unigroup,
sometimes there is a sign-in) to the elevator bank and go to the 13th
floor. When you get to the 13th floor, follow the signs leading you
to the meeting room.
The signs will lead you from the elevator, through a set of doors
(soda machine will be on your left), then past the cafeteria. After
the cafeteria, you see another "lobby" area. Walk past the cash
machines, make a left and look for a sign marking the meeting room.
Conference Room C will be on your left.
If you come very early, we may not have the signs in place yet, but
hopefully these directions will get you to the meeting room.
If you arrive before Unigroup Board Members, please be patient and
wait for us to arrive.
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Fee Schedule:
Yearly Membership (includes all meetings): $ 50.00
* Non-Member Single Meeting: $ 20.00
Student Yearly Membership: $ 20.00
Non-Member Student Single Meeting (with ID): $ 5.00
Cash, Check, American Express.
* Employees of Chase (with ID) can attend general meetings at no charge.
==> Unigroup is the Greater NYC Regional Area Affiliate
of UniForum - an International Unix Users Group.
Our Joint Membership Program with UniForum is currently
on hold due to circumstances at UniForum.
For information about UniForum visit http://www.uniforum.org.
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Please mark this meeting on your calendar and join us!
Please tell your friends about Unigroup!
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2. UPCOMING MEETINGS
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We have a couple of meetings in the works.
- Building a Firewall using FreeBSD and Linux
- Linux Beowolf Clusters
- Unix Office Tools: Word Processors, Spreadsheets, Accounting Packages.
- Emacs
- PKI
- GNU Development Environments
Please let us know about any other meeting topics that you may be
interested in.
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3. PRIOR MEETING
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Our thanks go to Pat Villani, Compaq Unix Software Engineer, and the
other people from the Compaq NYC Regional offices, who helped us put
together our meeting entitled "Linux Overview: Today and Tomorrow".
Compaq was well represented with technical and sales staff and
provided product literature and a whole collection of giveaways.
Compaq also sponsored the food service for this meeting.
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4. TRADE SHOW ANNOUNCEMENTS
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The LinuxWorld Conference & Expo will be held in NYC on
January 30 - February 2, 2001 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.
For more information or for online registration visit the show's web site:
http://www.linuxworldexpo.com
The NYSA group is looking for volunteers to help
staff their booth at this show. If you may be able to help volunteer,
you can contact nysa-info@nysa.org or talk to the Unigroup board at
our January meeting (it would be a way to have Unigroup represented
at the show since we don't have a table of our own this year :-)).
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5. UNIGROUP INFORMATION
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Unigroup is one of the oldest and largest Unix User's Groups serving the
Greater New York City Regional Area since the early 1980s. Unigroup is a
not-for-profit, vendor-neutral and member funded volunteer organization.
Unigroup holds regular and special event meetings throughout the year on
technical topics relating to Unix and the Unix User Community. Unigroup
is also the Greater NYC Regional Area Affiliate of UniForum - an
International Unix Users Group.
Thanks to Chase, Unigroup holds regular meetings planned for the Third
THURSDAY of Odd Months at The Chase Manhattan Bank, 55 Water Street, NYC.
Chase has been a long time sponsor of Unigroup, allowing us the use of a
meeting room and presentation equipment.
Planned meeting dates are: 1/18/01, 3/15/01, 5/17/01, 7/19/01...
Watch for our Special Event meetings at the various trade shows in NYC
as well as "field trips" to the facilities of local hardware and
software vendors.
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= For Unigroup Information, Events and Meeting Announcements be sure to =
= visit our World Wide Web Home Page: =
= http://www.unigroup.org =
=========================================================================
For further information or to get on the Unigroup Electronic Mail Mailing
List send an EMail message to:
unilist@unigroup.org
To contact the Board of Directors of Unigroup, send an EMail message to:
uniboard@unigroup.org
To contact the Newsletter Editor, send an EMail message to:
editor@unigroup.org
If you have recently attended a meeting and you are not receiving
Email announcements, please send us an Email and we will make
corrections to our lists.
Please Email the Board with any suggestions, especially potential meeting
topics and speakers. Unigroup welcomes contributions and content
suggestions for our newsletter. Unigroup is a volunteer organization and
we need your assistance! Please let us know if you can help!
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I hope to see you all at our next meeting!
-Rob Weiner
Unigroup Executive Director
unilist@unigroup.org
http://www.unigroup.org
[Unigroup Home]