Durham CryptoParty on October 21st, 2014


This is the wikipage we used to organise the CryptoParty on Oct 21st. It's been moved off the cryptoparty.in/durham page to keep that uncluttered. Please don't edit it - it's a historic record. Put new stuff and ideas in the durham page.


Welcome to the organising page for the Durham CryptoParty.

Book your place now ← This will not record anything about you other than what you write in the form. You can use a pseudonym.

Please book yourself a place if you intend to be there on the night in any capacity, so we don't overcrowd the room. If we get fully booked we'll think about putting on another event for anyone who we couldnt' fit in.

There is no charge for attendance. We have been given free use of a room on the understanding that we will be buying drinks at the bar which is open from 7.30PM.


What is a CryptoParty?

Attend this CryptoParty to learn and teach how to use basic cryptography tools. A CryptoParty is free, public and fun. People bring their computers, mobile devices, and a willingness to learn! CryptoParty is a decentralized, global initiative to introduce the most basic cryptography software and the fundamental concepts of their operation to the general public, such as the Tor anonymity network, public key encryption (PGP/GPG), and OTR (Off The Record messaging).

CryptoParties are free to attend, public, and commercially and politically non-aligned. (see the guiding principles)

Who should come?

Anyone who wants to learn about, or share their skills about, basic cryptographic software. That means the kind of program that can keep your personal information private, if you use it properly. So if you don't like the idea of strangers looking at your personal things, and you use a computer, this is for you.

Who is organising this?

The event has been instigated by some members of Durham Linux User Group, however the event is open to users of all computer systems. We're offering this event as a service to the community, because we think it's important that people should be able to protect their privacy (it is a human right, after all) and because it's fun :)

We are also reaching out to some other local groups in the hope of involving them. If you have knowledge of a non-*nix system and are able to help people use simple encryption tools on it, please make yourself known (use an alias if you like) in the volunteers section below.

What should I do before I come?

This website you're reading now has loads of useful information on it. Have a look at the documentation and see what you make of it. If you find it easy, you can come along and help people who didn't find it easy. We can all learn something from each other.

Keysigning session

We will be holding a keysigning session at the cryptoparty. This helps us to build a Web of Trust both amongst ourselves and with the wider online community.

To take part you will need to:

  • before the signing (preferably before the party to streamline things on the night)
    • generate a private PGP/GPG key - if you do not already have one.
    • send the key fingerprint to richm+keysigning@oldelvet.org.uk. The following GPG command outputs the information that you need to send.
      • gpg –fingerprint <Your_Key_ID>
  • At the party.
    • be prepared to identify yourself/your key.
      • Typically we suggest that you bring yourself and two forms of photo ID.
      • However some people choose to only prove that they have control of a key and not to tie this to a government recognised form of ID.
      • See the examples under Keysigning policy for what options are generally used.
    • verify the ID of others at the party. We will be using the list based method. Copies of the keysigning list will be available at the party.
  • After the party.
    • sign the keys of the people whose ID you verified.
    • But specifically
      • load the key into your keyring
        • gpg –keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net –recv-keys <Key_ID>
      • fingerprint and verify key
        • gpg –fingerprint <Key_ID>
      • sign the key
        • gpg –sign-key <Key_ID>
      • return key to user or upload to keyserver
        • gpg –keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net –send-key <Key_ID>

More GPG & keysigning reading

Now the organising section...

Nobody is in charge so dive in and make it happen. You see those little gray words that say “Edit” to the right of this? They are talking to you kid. Also the thing at the top left that say “Edit this page” is also talking to you, the difference is that does the whole page at once.

Go on… if you don't do it, maybe no one will… and if you're not sure just edit the Q&A section and put in a question then check back later to see if someone answered it.

What we have

This is what we've got:

  • Venue: Classroom at the Durham Amateur Rowing Club
  • Time: 7.30pm to 10.30pm
  • Desk space and chairs for up to 30 people
  • Plenty of power sockets
  • wifi
  • projector with VGA input if anyone wants to show stuff to the group
  • “break out” space in the bar
  • parking for cars and bikes. and boats for that matter.
  • level access for those with mobility problems
  • Real ale

What we need

Can you help us source these?

  • Snacks
  • Signage
  • Some old, cheapo USB flash drives to give away TAILS on. Anyone know where we can get some, e.g. some promotional ones that got overproduced? [TAILS needs at least 4GB, or 8GB with a persistent volume, so old drives are likely to be far too small. We could easily set up TAILS for anyone who brings along their own USB drive.]
  • Relevant campaign stickers

Volunteers

In advance
RoleVolunteer
Make some witty, attractive promotional materials who has dem skillz please?
Add good ideas to this wiki page all
Contact interested local groups all
Make some signs (A4 should do) to direct people to the right room mark
Bake a cake #1 mark will make one
Bake a cake #2 biscuits (session cookies?) olly
Pump out social media & other links & invitations pointing to this page all
Publicity and Inivitations

All of us should be inviting people and groups, however if one of those people gets multiple invitations it would make us look like some dodgy spam-lords. Which we aint. So record here when you invite someone. If you're thinking of inviting some people, check here first to see if they've already been invited.

  • Durham Uni computer society
  • Durham Uni pro-bono lawyers
  • DU librarians
  • Durham student union activities
  • DSU LGBTA
  • Durham Palestine Educational Trust
  • Durham Free Software Skillshare project
  • Transition Durham
  • Open Rights Group
On the night

I think the main plan is to hang loose and show each other cool stuff. However if lots of people turn up needing a basic overview of a topic, it would be cool to have a 5-minute presentation prepared, would it not? There are slides already on this wiki for us to use. Could folks nominate themselves here / add your offer to the list, or take one of these:

RoleVolunteer
PGP basics Olly
PGP keysigning Rich M
Simple TOR usage with TBB mark
OTR Dan + someone else? Alice and Bob?
Hard disk encryption several of us know how to use dmcrypt?
Mac go-to person Helen
Windows go-to person Rich P

Questions and Answers

please add Q/A depending on what you have

Q Will the cakes be stored in a CryptoPantry?

A No, nor will they contain keys.

Q I have a 3D printer which can dispense solder paste. Can I use it to render my key into icing on top of a cake?

A You should definitely do that. Use a clean syringe though.

Q Who should attend?

A Anyone who wants to learn or share how to use simple encryption tools

Q What should I bring?

A Bring a portable computing device if you want help to use it