Slashdot Mirror

Q: What is the CCC?

A: The CCC is a galactic community of human beings including all ages, genders, races and social positions. We demand freedom and flow of information without censorship. Although we enjoy to discuss and analyze recent advances in information technology, our focus is on addressing the issues of our time by giving targeted recommendations for a public policy able to deal with these issues in an intelligent manner. While this also includes more or less spectacular endeavours the focus of our work is on creating a public awareness for the need to approach issues like (e.g.) security, privacy and key escrow from a more informed, open viewpoint. If you are interested in supporting these goals, then the CCC is for you. If not, you might want to consider looking at other, more technically oriented computer clubs. We do NOT select our members on some dubious "elite" criteria. As it will be difficult for you to contribute to our efforts in Germany, in case that you are interested I suggest that you contact us again (identifying yourself with your real name) for a contact at the CCC-Bay Area (our only overseas operation so far). Sorry, the rest of this FAQ is in German only. If you'd like to translate this stuff, please mail!

Of course the probability of a Security Expert to be a black hat increases somewhat, if you know that he has been jailed for cracking. But you even might be able to trust an rehabilitated ex-cracker more than a hacker, whose hat colour you cant know...

And of course it goes without saing that I would hire Kevin Mitnick anytime. Indeed, this would give me a strong warm and fuzzy feeling.

In Linux (also in win) you have many different ways to protect your partitions:

http://koeln.ccc.de/archiv/drt/crypto/linux-disk.h tml

I think that the difference is important; in Linux everybody know the way to mount partitions and retrieve/change the info inside them. In windows it's suppossed you can't do that.

I've been at 19c3, an in the internal network, no Windows computer was known to be attacked. The only attack that really spread fear was a man-in-the-middle attack on SSH2. Very interesting stuff, unfortunately I was unable to get a sniffer up soon enough to log a few of those things.

try ccc.de---they offer free certs

Maybe its too bad for their /. appreciation that its called the Big Green Gathering and not HAL or Chaos Communication Camp.. Nonetheless they have done a nice and valuable hack, and a green one too...

If you want to give your german language skills a test, you might like this mp3 file of a police operation in Berlin involving GSM tapping and localisation. The cops refer to it as "ping".
If you want to know about the streets they're talking about, try this link and click on Berlin.

GSM seems to be enough for everyday police "work".

Cite from Andy Mueller-Maghun, ICANN director and Chaos Computer Club lead member:

"No intellectual property was stolen on 18C3 - it was augmented" (ok my bad direct translation from German..)

original link (German Heise newsticker article): 18C3: Hackernetzwerk war Europas größter File-Sharing-Knoten

Cite from Andy Mueller-Maghun, ICANN director and Chaos Computer Club lead member:

"No intellectual property was stolen on 18C3 - it was augmented" (ok my bad direct translation from German..)

original link (German Heise newsticker article): 18C3: Hackernetzwerk war Europas größter File-Sharing-Knoten

"KJustice", also known as "Kourt" all SuSE release prior to 14.2, before a certain criminal German lawyer got busy and caused another K-app name change.

woof.

Please note I wrote "criminal German lawyer", not "German criminal lawyer": this particular German lawyer is a criminal.

Gravenreuth FAQ

In case you need the fish.

Stephan,

I would recommend the Chaos Computer Club as a potential recipient for a "Spendchen". They are at http://www.ccc.de/. Since it is a registered membership organization (e.V.), you can write a donation off on your taxes. You can also subscribe to their magazine ``Datenschleuder''.

Mach's gut!

www.ccc.de

...but my favorite language is, has and always will be: Brainfuck.

This guy knew enough to say that he hadn't the expertise, but he would like to accept their offer and bring some experts from the from the Bundesamt fuer Sicherheit in Informationstechnik and, of course, the Chaos Computer Club. Microsoft Germany did not respond after that.

To be honest, it could have been a good advertisement for MS if these guys had passed Win2K, but oh well, obviously they had their doubts.

http://berlin.ccc.de/~hans/cam2.jpg

Also see the site dedicated to the event here.

This is far more interesting

The Caos Computer Club has a transcript of the letters sent to the ISPs by the Government. They demanded the blocking of: front14.org, stormfront.org, nazi-lauck-nsdapao.com for illegal nazi-content (which is illegal in Germany for historical reasons) and rotten.com As a site that uses pictures undermining the dignity of man and endangering the youth. I'd personaly - as a german citizen - prefer to see more money spent on media-education so people could make an informed decision about good and bad links to follow than on this campaign that opens doors to censorship (which is against our constitution btw.)

Providers start to censor in Germany, too, according to CCC. Rotten.com and some Nazi sites are on the currently very short list.

...at least this particular "ally" has some practical experience with bringing down high rise buildings full of people! Imagine what this can do to the credibility of this whole thing...are New Yorkers' lives worth more than Moscovites?

Something for GWB to chew on.

One of the most interesting reads I've ever come across was the PC Week crack. Just cool to see what he went through, his thoughts/ideas, and especially his thought process.

Although I think Java is a good language, I think it's not very good for teaching at a college level. I consider myself lucky having gone through my college program in C++ right before their switch to Java. I have some resons for thinking like I do.

Java forces OOP down your throat. I'll admit that I like OOP (with the exception of the Fortran implementation), but I think it's a mistake to stuff it out front right off. Understanding how programs are structured and how the logic works is more important. In C++ you can have a simple assignment with a cout statment to show the results. With Java you immediatly have to start bouncing around with OOP. This assumes that every problem has an object oriented approach, which I think is very untrue. There are many times when a program is very strait foreward, and OOP should even be involved. C++ gives you the flexibility to choose your own path, but gives you the power in whatever way you choose.

Most importantly I think C++ is better for teaching because it forces you to learn about pointers. Now I hate pointers myself, but I understand that "this" points to "that" in memory, and that you allocate, and deallocate, or point it somewhere else. I mean probably the two most fundamental building blocks in a computer (non hardware wise) are the pointer and the datatype. Just from talking to underclassmen, I tend to get blank stares from them whenever I talk about ponters since they hardly understand the concept... which I think is pretty important.

I know C++ probably isn't going anywhere simply because it's flexible, powerful, (dangerous), and fairly efficent. But I wonder where Java will be if OOP loses popularity in favor of something better.

Or if they will both become obsolite once D#++ comes out being the successor to brainfuck. Yes, object oriented brainfuck, that's where the future is.

Their approach is quite successful: do a quick-and-dirty job and fix things up later.

C was designed to be as low-level a language as possible while maintaining platform independence. It has nothing to do with "hack jobs". You can do pretty good hack jobs in ANY language, just like you can do superb coding in ANY language... well, except maybe brainfuck. ;-)

... is my favorite language: Brainfuck.

Survelliance Camera Players. Others are in the UK: mtp2001, in Belgium here or in Germany - Chaos Curcuit Club.

If you want to think about all of pros and cons of camera systems, read Public Surveillance System Privacy Guidelines.

Second, some of ICANN's Board of Directors was actually elected by internet users, and while that election may not have been organized very splendidly, those who say it had been rigged are full of it, because otherwise, the European representative, a member of the CCC would never have been elected.

Oh and a member of what was once a notorious cracker outfit should be automatically believed when he makes such statements? According to the Article Mueller Maghun is also an occasional adviser to government figures, the CCC is nowadays quite frank about it's motivations and what he said is, while carefully expressed, quite reasonable. It also fits with what the Ministry Defense Official said. His wording is also quite careful: "I can confirm that the Ministry signed a general licensing contract with Microsoft [...] and we intend to continue to use such systems." quite a lot of words to say very little. Also he didn't deny that serious concerns remained. Then he explicitly states that "[...] additional security measures are independent of Microsoft software.". Also Mueller-Maguhn never said anything like it MUST BE TRUE and his arguing isn't along the line they can't prove it to be false, but more along the line of "they choose their wording carefully so as not to hurt international relationships, so you'll have to read between the lines for the true meaning".

Had you read the first article you'd also know that Linux was not considered the alternative, but some OS from a german corporation. Also i don't find it weird that a military organisation can have a consistent policy wich OS to use. They have rules for everything there, to the point at which depth of water you have to start swimming.

While I do respect his technical accomplishments, such as his work in white hat hacking, and his political ones (he's spokesman for the CCC, a hacker organization that, among other things, fights censorship ), I do have to respectfully disagree with some of his ideals.

First of all, I hate to say this, but he parrots whatever ideas are fashionable at the moment. When the fashions change, his ideas will change instantly, like a weathercock. The key point here is that I sometimes ask myself whether the struggle to express my views is worth all of the potential consequences. And I consistently answer by saying that he has two imperatives. The first is to trade fundamental human rights for a cheap "guarantee" of safety and security. The second imperative is to make a fetish of the virtues of macabre absenteeism. The problem, as I see it, is not a question of who the litterbugs of this society are, but rather that I like to speak of Mr. Müller-Maguhn as "morbid". That's a reasonable term to use, I maintain, but let's now try to understand it a little better. For starters, he claims that the laws of nature don't apply to him. That claim is preposterous and, to use Mr. Müller-Maguhn's own language, overtly ruthless. No history can justify it.

Second, I am sorry to have to put this so bluntly, but if anything, he always sounds like he's reading a prepared speech. And let me tell you, his intimations are continually evolving into more and more quasi-truculent incarnations. Here, I'm not just talking about evolution in a simply Darwinist sense; I'm also talking about how in public, Mr. Müller-Maguhn vehemently inveighs against corruption and sin. But when nobody's looking, Mr. Müller-Maguhn never fails to dismantle the guard rails that protect society from the mudslinging elements in its midst. Accordingly, Mr. Müller-Maguhn's idea of a good time is to pose a threat to personal autonomy and social development. If you don't believe me, see for yourself. I would like to end on a heartfelt note. This is a truth that Mr. Andy Müller-Maguhn's comrades are told by Mr. Müller-Maguhn that they cannot acknowledge, lest they give aid and comfort to the rest of us.

Eris does not have a different connotation in Europe. This guy is speaking of the same discordian you and I both know and love. Check out the Chaos Computer Club's faq.

at-b on the CCC:

They're the German '2600' equivalent, reviled and detested by state institutions, telecomms companies, etc. They're the rebels of the underground.

I'd suggest you have a look at Andy's schedule which is online. There, you'll find information about events at banks, political parties (and their associated foundations), federal ministries, and the like.

In short: This isn't the 80s any more. The myth may still be alive, but ...

This kinda thing has happened before. Just makes me shake my head.

In Europe, there's a 70 or so candidates (but some of them seem to candidate just for fun). Looking at the endorsments received right now, there seems to be a good chance that the speaker of german hacker organization CCC Andy Mueller Maghun will make it.
My favourite, though, is crypto- and usenet activist Lutz Donnerhacke, who is CCC-related as well.

A mirror of cryptome can be found here.

For the record, there is a nice mirror of cryptome at: https://www.ccc.de/mirrors/cryptome.org/ I am surprised that there is not more about this in the traditional hacker media.. this seems like a huge deal to me..

...free (c) CCC

Nope. Just use also a wildcard as common name and it works. Have a look at the certificate at ccc.de

There are all sorts of ways to manipulate log files and prevent anyone from ever knowing that he was there.

Nice article, but the guy who cracked the box wrote up a detailed account of *exactly* how he did it, complete with code:

http://hispahack.ccc.de/en/mi019en.htm

Very interesting reading.

-jason

http://www.kottke.org
"home of fine hypertext products"

And if bad weather hasn't been enough for the Microsoft team, there is also a total eclipse coming up. Oooooh! Bad omen! :-)

at the ccc-congress98 some creative folks did it with ocb-papers (long). The better scanner (can't rememeber the brand, sorry) required to use a wax copy (right, candle wax) of the fingerprint.