30c3: a personal collection of lectures worth watching
About 1 ½ months after the 30th annual Chaos Communication Congress I have finally managed to watch if not all, at least the majority of lectures and presentations given there. One can either download all the material here (in any quality / format one could possibly wish for), or, as the videos have also found their way onto Youtube in the meantime, watch them online.
And accordingly, in the following a personal selection of recommended videos (with some very short commentary) [order does not signify significance] {might be extended over time}.
Although they didn’t get Snowden himself, they got the next best speaker to talk about 2013’s unquestionably most important IT-related news: the surveillance leaks. In his engaging and actually quite humorous talk, Greenwald gives a short overview on how he came to report on one of the most significant leaks in history, how it almost failed because he didn’t know how to use email-encryption and why he believes it is of utter importance for technologists like the ones attending 30c3 to live up to the moral responsibility that comes with their occupation. Definitely worth watching.
In the probably most jaw-dropping lecture given on 30c3, Jacob Applebaum walks the crowd through a series of previously unknown / undisclosed technological solutions used by the NSA and other surveillance agencies to spy on whoever they want to target — citizens, corporations or governments. The amount of sophistication and wicked ingenuity displayed in the various zero-day exploits and technical devixes is simply incredible. If one was under any illusion a la “they wouldn’t go to such lengths to get this data” this talk certainly demolishes it. There is no such thing as “too expensive” and no such thing as “too complicated”. Be it bombarding an apartment with microwaves and deducing data from the reflections or interception of hardware and introduction of remote-controlled snooping devices, there is apparently no limit to the budgets and unscrupulousness of NSA, GCHQ and Co.
Another lecture featuring Jacob Applebaum, this time concerning his daytime occupation — which is working with and for the TOR project. Said project’s goal is to provide a powerful tool for global users to anonymise their online activities. Aside from outlining the general design and workings of TOR, Applebaum spends considerable time on encouraging the audience to contribute and make TOR a tool for privacy, democracy and the emancipation of civilisation.
In this lecture, speaker Michal “rysiek” Wozniak speaks on behalf of the Free and Open Source Software Foundation and against the monopolization of technologies. In his own words:
“We all know monopolies are bad. We even have laws against them that sometimes get enforced. However, today we have new kinds of monopolies that affect us without us even noticing them for what they truly are. And technology plays a central role.
When we look at social networks we see them usually as a single market, maybe divided between full-blown ones and microblogs. Thus we see Facebook and Google+ competing on a single market that seems to be divided between many players, including a small slice for Diaspora, for example. Competition only works where there is a real possibility to choose a product or service.”
Although the skype connection repeatedly broke down (was this just coincidence?) [why don’t you use xabber/jitsi already Julian?] Julian Assange also made an appearance at 30c3 — via video link, not in person as he continues to be (wrongfully) confined to the Equadorian embassy in London. In summary:
“Finally, the world is aware of the threat of mass surveillance and control, but we still have a fight on our hands, and that fight is both technical and political. Global democracy is not going to protect itself. There has never been a higher demand for a politically-engaged hackerdom. […]
For decades hackers have known of the growth of a surveillance state at the heart of Western democracies. Now, everyone knows, and we are left with a single question, how do we stop this? Hackers, sysadmins, developers and people of a technical persuasion are neither neutral parties nor spectators to this. We built the internet and we keep it running. We live there. We write the code. We manage the networks. Communications hegemony is impossible without the obedience of the people who build and run the system. Our network has become the nervous system of the world.
We must wake up to this. We must realize the power and responsibility we hold for the great structural problems of our time. This year, Edward Snowden showed that we are not powerless. We all face a moral choice whether to collude or to resist. We say, resist! Sysadmins of the world, unite!”
I couldn’t agree more.
A very interesting talk on ICT from the perspective of Amnesty International:
“This talk aims to shed some light on recent human rights violations in the context of the use of digital information and communications technology, particularly considering the latest disclosures about the surveillance programmes of Western intelligence services”
In this fascinating presentation, artist Trevor Paglen walks the audience through some examples of his exceptional works, showcasing the visual realities of the spy-machines that watch over all of use. By misappropriating gear for astronomical observation, Paglen takes pictures of top secret facilities, drones, fake corporation “headquarters” that serve to cover up secret prisoner transports etc., spaceships (yes, you heard right; while NASA’s space shuttle programme was discontinued, the NSA continues to operate their very own [advanced] space shuttle), spy satellites and mission matches that speak louder than words ever could. Often we don’t fully appreciate the scale and magnitude of something until we see it with our own eyes — Trevor Paglen’s lecture provides this opportunity with regards to the global spy machine.