CryptoParty in Brussels

The protection of personal data is a trending topic – not only on the
political scene in Brussels but also as a result of CryptoParties, which
have become a decentralised global movement in past months.

Protecting our data, information and privacy is of vital importance,
particularly on the internet. We always try to ensure adequate security
for physical objects such as cars, houses and credit cards. But how do
we secure our electronic data? How can we ensure that nobody is
eavesdropping on our emails or text messages? How can we improve our
security while surfing the web? These and other questions are being
answered during these “Tupperware parties” for online privacy.

In August 2012, the “CryptoParty” was invented by privacy activist Asher
Wolf in response to a controversial Australian Internet surveillance
bill proposed in mid-2012. Since then, CryptoParties have been organised
all over the world in order to create places where Internet users,
security experts and privacy advocates can meet and exchange knowledge,
where non-experts can bring their laptops, smartphones or tablets and
learn how to install and use basic encryption tools.

On 23 March 2013, the Hacker Space Bxl, NURPA, Access and EDRi organised
such a hands-on workshop for the general public in order to promote the
use of privacy enhancing tools in Brussels, the political centre of
Europe and home of many decision-makers and experts. Especially with
regard to the data protection reform, it is necessary to raise awareness
in the “Brussels bubble” for privacy as a fundamental human right.

Of course, CryptoParties are only a partial solution to a wider problem.
The collection, processing and re-use of citizens’ data has become
increasingly important from an economic perspective. This has lead to
pressure to weaken this fundamental right and also to change the
legislative framework to make legal protections less predictable and
robust. We do not only need to individually “defend our own privacy if
we expect to have any”, we now need to make sure that the current reform
will lead to better data protection for all.

Slides of the introduction to the Brussels CryptoParty (23.03.2013)
https://resources.telecomix.ceops.eu/cryptoparty/20130323_slides_brux.pdf

CyptoParty Wiki
https://cryptoparty.org/wiki/Brussels

EDRi Data protection booklet
http://www.edri.org/files/paper06_datap.pdf

Cypherpunk Manifesto
http://www.activism.net/cypherpunk/manifesto.html

Tools:
Tech Tools for activism
https://techtoolsforactivism.org/booklet

Tor – Anonymity online
https://www.torproject.org/

Email encryption
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy
http://www.gnupg.org/

Web browsing
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_Secure

Text messaging
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.thoughtcrime.securesms&hl=en

(Contributions by Kirsten Fiedler – EDRi)