samthetechie

Wednesday, 5 December 2012

Free Event: CryptopartyLondon 3 by White Hat Hackers and Makers that care about your right to Privacy and Anonymity online!

An invitation to CryptopartyLondon 3!
=================================
It is a sincere pleasure to invite you to an event that some friends and I are hosting next Wednesday at the Mozilla (as in Firefox) Offices. Please bring your laptop and cake. I hope to see many of you there! ^_^

Please note that registration via eventbrite is mandatory but you can use a pseudonym if you like :p
https://cryptopartylondon.eventbrite.co.uk

Why do we do this?
=================
We are a collective of white hat hackers, engineers and makers who believe in disseminating information that empowers people. We also believe that a person's human right to privacy and a family life should extend to the digital domain although this is, evidently, not the understanding of the government and many companies. Furthermore that the right to personal anonymity, pseudonymity and privacy are basic human rights and should be regarded by all people that are responsible for handling our sensitive data. It is also noted that these rights also include life, liberty, dignity, security, right to a family, and the right to live without fear or intimidation. No government, organisation or individual should prevent people from accessing the technology which underscores these basic human rights.
We want to help tech you, the people, how to stay safe against governments and companies that are constantly pushing to erode our civil liberties and snoop on the most intimate of our private communications. So please spread the word by word of mouth, twitter, email, facebook and please try come and join us at our free event and last but not least, please bring cake!!!

For more information about why we do this, please read (and edit!!! if you wish) a Cryptoparty manifesto: https://github.com/cryptoparty/handbook/blob/master/src/chapter_00_cryptoparty_handbook/01_a_cryptoparty_manifesto.md
#peace #love #solidarity #hacktheplanet
@samthetechie

What to Expect?
===============
We will be covering the basics of PGP encrypted emails, privacy-protected browsing using TOR Browser Bundle, OTR encrypted chat messages, hard disk encryption using truecrypt, encrypted SMS messages on Android, encrypted voice calls on Android and anonymity techniques like oyster card swapping and swapping sims/mobile phones.

We are not financially or politically aligned and everyone is welcome to attend for free. (well you can bring cake)

Suggested Conduct at Cryptoparties
================================
Thank you to Noisebridge Hackspace for these!

Excellence
----------------
Be excellent to each other is a guiding principle of CryptoParty. Wikipedia uses a somewhat similar rule, which they call "the fundamental rule of all social spaces. Every other policy for getting along is a special case of it." Unlike Wikipedia, CryptoParty takes a positive approach, and avoids the practice of officially enumerating the myriad potential special cases; "be excellent" is enough.
(bringing cake is considered excellent behaviour)

Do-ocracy
----------------
Doing excellent stuff at CryptoParty does not require permission or an official consensus decision. If you're uncertain about the excellence of something you want to do, you should ask someone else what they think.

Sudo Leadership
--------------------------
Leadership is taken by individuals for specific projects. This is called "sudo leadership" after the *nix command sudo which allows a regular user to do one root-level, or superuser, task. In other words, if you want CryptoParty to do something, start doing it. At times someone may take sudo leadership to take a tutorial, fix the wifi, update the wiki, or organise the next CryptoParty.
($sudo bring us some cake)

The CryptoParty Handbook
========================
Also, you might want to take a look at our Creative Commons licensed book (available for free in .pdf and .mobi for kindle or cost price in paperback).

This 392 page, Creative Commons licensed handbook is designed to help those with no prior experience to protect their basic human right to Privacy in networked, digital domains. By covering a broad array of topics and use contexts it is written to help anyone wishing to understand and then quickly mitigate many kinds of vulnerability using free, open-source tools. Most importantly however this handbook is intended as a reference for use during Crypto Parties

NEWS: The CryptoParty Handbook v1 has been released! https://cryptoparty.org/wiki/CryptoPartyHandbook

It would be great to have some of you guys review and crunch through the book and pointing out what we got wrong or what could be added.

Download the book here: get this book now. Read it. http://www.hostb.org/97/download
NPO (not for profit) harbook purchse here: http://www.lulu.com/shop/the-contributors/the-cryptoparty-handbook/paperback/product-20427875.html

Saturday, 10 November 2012

Free (as in free beer) Mozfest Event SMS Reminders (by Google)

Short Version
#mozfest #protip add the events to your google calendar by url: http://bit.ly/UsaW9a then enable free sms reminders: http://bit.ly/TxH9W5

Long Version
Google will send you a free SMS reminder for each calendar event if you set it up right. This is help you to not miss the 60+ individual events on both Saturday and Sunday.
Add this Calendar: http://lanyrd.com/2012/mozilla-festival/mozilla-festival-schedule.ics

There is also a random video to show you how to enable the SMS reminders https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqbXLr9gRP8

Sunday, 4 November 2012

TODAY 1pm to 11pm- #HurricaneHackers Hackathon + (Mini #Cryptoparty) - Help #Sandy Victims.

Free Tickets: http://hurricanehackerslondon.eventbrite.com/
SUPER LAST MINUTE INVITATION: HACKATHON 1pm to 11pm @ Google Campus!
Is it raining? Are you stuck inside? Bored? Come and join us at Google Campus London and Hack! :D

We would like to invite you to an event to write code, write software for social good, hack wireless routers and learn something about cryptography all in aid of helping people affected by hurricane #sandy.

The event will feel a bit like a #HurricaneHackers themed Cryptoparty and there will be a lot of crossover of interests.

The event will have the following format:

Important Note: BRING YOUR LAPTOP

Introduction (10mins)

A quick talk to provide some context for the hackathon and to let people know what they can expect from the event.

Workshops

Round table style (where everyone that turns up shares their knowledge on the topic / focus).
~ 80mins each w/ breaks and then people should go to the next table

OpenWRT router hacking (Howto: Flash and Hack Different Models of Router, Extend Coverage of Public Hotspots, Mesh Networking, Other advanced topics etc) + Sharing Internet Connections Between Devices (more than just tethering :p)
Howto: #HurricaneHackers Community (howto join us, help us etc) + Maptivism,. Making Maps To Help People (bit.ly/hh-index, bit.ly/hh-projects, bit.ly/hh-linklist, hh-mindmap) + Howto #Cryptoparty Community (IRC, the wiki, meetups, the book).
Robust Android Communications - Oppertunistic Twitter Client (Twimight) + Secure Android Communications - Encrypted SMS and Phone Calls (Textsecure and Ostel.me etc)

Hackathon

#HurricaneHackers Code Sprints and Development Sessions-
Hacking on bit.ly/hh-projects and https://github.com/hurricanehackers

Putting it into context

Sandy is a major storm, previously a hurricane, that has caused extensive flooding, power and transportation outages, and physical damage to the US East Coast and Caribbean. More than 100 deaths have been linked to the storm. You can see an overview of what is going on in NYC here: http://google.org/crisismap/2012-sandy-nyc

So essentially, over 100,000 people in Lower Manhattan are without power, and will likely not have it back up for a few days. In order to stay informed as the situation changes, and to keep in touch with loved ones, they will need a way to communicate with their laptops and phones.

We are innovating rapidly to create tools built and deployed using Heroku, Twillio, Human.io, google docs, google maps, crowdmaps -- pretty much anything we can get our hands on. This effort is being spearheaded by the http://civic.mit.edu/ to help make services and connect tech people with people in need on the ground. A lot of interesting things are happening in the wake of this natural disaster: http://www.fastcompany.com/3002598/sandy-prompts-louder-calls-free-wi-fi

This is a unique opportunity to innovate to help people (people before borders, tech beyond borders) and maybe change the debate on issues like universal free open wifi). Please volunteer some coding / hacking time and help some real people in a different part of the world that are not having a great time right now. This a chance to demonstrate the power of the open, unrestricted internet, and the community that such an internet makes possible.

Come and help us over at #HurricaneHackers! Start here: http://hurricanehackers.com/ | Then read the HH-Projects list here: http://bit.ly/hh-projects-read | lulz: http://brownbag.me:9001/p/sandylulz | tunes: http://turntable.fm/hurricane_jammin | follow us @hurricanehackrs. Also: Join or organize a Sandy CrisisCamp this weekend: http://crisiscommons.org/2012/10/30/sandycrisiscamp/

If you are in NYC are looking for space to work with power, heat, and wifi, check out https://sandycoworking.crowdmap.com/ and the#sandycoworking hashtag on Twitter. Many of NYC's co-working spaces were damaged, so the need for work space is urgent. Updates on the broader NY Tech community response can be found at www.nytechresponds.org.

Please share this post far and wide!

#HurricaneHackers

@hurricanehackrs

Thursday, 1 November 2012

Hackers Unite! Help #Sandy Victims. Join #HurricaneHackers on irc.freenode.net and follow @hurricanehackrs on twitter

Hey all,

Please share this post far and wide!

#HurricaneHackers

@hurricanehackrs

Wednesday, 31 October 2012

Help the #Hurricanehackers ! Get into irc.freenode.net

Dear all, I just wanted to give a shoutout to all engineers, hackers, sysadmins and techies to come and join #hurricanehackers irc.freenode.net (webchat link for those without an IRC client: http://irc.lc/freenode/hurricanehackers) We need good hackers to come solve real engineering and logistical problems for the people of New York who are without power and have been flooded out of their homes so please join the channel and please spread the word.
~samthetechie

Tuesday, 30 October 2012

#HurricaneHackers

What is happening?

Hurricane #Sandy
http://google.org/crisismap/2012-sandy
http://google.org/crisismap/2012-sandy-nyc

Why help?

It is pretty simple: People before borders. Tech beyond borders. We need to help.

How you can help

Dear all I am @samthetechie from London Hackspace. I am the founder of sukey.org and sukey.io

I am an electronic engineer and I have been lurking in #hurricanehackers on irc.freenode.net looking to collaborate with people there. Please come and join me.

Website

This is all the google docs tidied and copied onto a website- I am actively looking for collaborators, I can add anyone that emails me their github handle, access to push to this repo.

Rapid Project Deployment and Development

Github https://github.com/HurricaneHackers
IRC #hurricanehackers
Linux Box {Apache, PHP, Python, Git, OpenSSH Server}

git clone (from the server) git@github.com:HurricaneHackers/hurricanehackers.com.git
this will publish to http://www.hurricanehackers.com/
thereafter git pull to 'fast forward' to the latest
Do not modify files on the server.
I would love help with some git post-hook triggers for pushing the repo live auto magically each time.

Twitter

I badly need help to run this, I am really busy with code. Please get in touch.

https://twitter.com/HurricaneH4x0rs
there is also https://twitter.com/HurricaneHackrs but it appears it is not very active and has 3 posts!I dont have access :(

Github

https://github.com/HurricaneHackers
where I am trying to fork all of the other sandy github projects I can see.

--
Samuel Carlisle BEng (Hons) Dunelm MIET
pgp: 0x54828CAA
twitter: @samthetechie

Monday, 8 October 2012

Cryptoparty Handbook

UPDATE: https://www.cryptoparty.in/documentation/handbook

I am thrilled about this initiative and the book is going to be great.

Aims

IMHO the first aim of this book should be to aid comprehension of
these tools and how to use them for as many people as possible.

Collaboration

I see the book as having many revisions (probably through rounds of collaboration and calls for contributions via twitter and on the wiki practically) but to a group of programmers this would look more like Git commits. We can just accept that git is not the perfect platform for non programmers but commit to accepting all contributions and trying to work them into the book. So we can push the issues system / bug tracker for this https://github.com/cryptoparty/handbook/issues and I like also the properties of forking and branching as one author may choose to go away and rework substantial portions of the book and then request a review which we can do as a team. Again, git is perfect for this because well as hashing to preserve data integrity it is also a great way to make sure there are no malicious edits that have crept in without being noticed.

Distribution

I have started seeding a torrent: https://cryptoparty.org/wiki/CryptoPartyHandbook#Torrent

Here is an idea for viral distribution of the ebook: https://occupywiki.org.uk/wiki/Projects/DiffusionEbooks

If we use this approach we can then distribute the printing costs and supporting the movement can be a simple act of printing out 5 booklets or maybe even just individual chapters for reading on the train or something and dropping them off somewhere or putting them in a cafe or some
other interesting alternative meetup spaces (for me that is London
hackspace for sure). Maybe people can even just print out individual chapters?

Virality

I think this level of virality and outreach is really what we need to
keep growing and getting our message and this good information to more
people. It is also nice to be able to give something to people that
attend the parties something to take away in order to help them learn
from home.

Added to which, git might just be the most non hierarchical and most advanced
collaboration platform that we all have so I think that we should
 give it a shot and we can always switch to another platform if it doesn't work out.

Github

UPDATE: I posted more thoughts about the use of GIT on the Liberation Tech Mailing List

https://mailman.stanford.edu/pipermail/liberationtech/2012-October/005172.html

I am pleased to say that the book can now be found here: https://github.com/cryptoparty/handbook/