Cryptoparty/2018/June

Cryptoparty Reboot - 16 June 2018

attendees

• jenny, lesley, bill, sierk, gabby, alexis, toast, mai

Wiki: https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Cryptoparty Mailing List: http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/cryptoparty

notes

• alexis works with techactivist.org - outreach and education for activists
• offensive-security.com - training by the makers of Kali
• bill - wary of using Tor for false assurances - eg web browsing identifiers
• bill: always going to be a "well actually" douchebag at every cryptoparty - how to deal with the know-it-all taking over the cryptoparty / making it alienating for those who most need the education
  • alexis: got excellent training on that from Khalil __ (missed it) - cutting off soliloquoy and redirecting back to the convo, invite to converse after the workshop, etc
    • bill: having knowledge and skills doesn't make one able to be an educator - match technical knowledge with
  • mai: best cryptoparties i've been to set expectations right at the beginning, code of conduct, "no such thing as stupid questions",
• alexis: always make sure to emphasize how using Tor/VPNs can impact your web traffic
• gabby: I've been using a VPN and it's been slowing my web browsing very significantly
  • bill: There's not particularly a correlation between speed and security of VPNs. Suggests reviewing thatoneprivacysite.net to compare VPNs
• bill: i always make sure to emphasize there's no such thing as 100% secure - eg; endpoints can be hacked - tho you can continue to improve
  • mai: using metaphors helps a lot -
• toast: get a list going of things people would like to see in messaging apps. EFF probably has this. brainstorming suggestions
• alexis: best to try and work with what people already use, hard to get people to adopt new things
  • eg; facebook has encrypted messaging - most people don't know about it - "make conversation secret"
• bill - hushmail - big security vulnerability - can target a specific population to backdoor the service (eg by IP address) - protonmail has this same problem

previous cryptoparties

• lesley: trying to do it every month was just too often. sam moved away...
• jnny: just no capacity at a certain point - to do the outreach, hold the space, get someone super infosec-savvy to be present in the event of complex problems someone brings
• gabby: outreach-teaching event one month, training trainers / working group another month. could also have just two of us host it every month
• jnny: having equal # tech/sec-savvy and people coming to learn is great, can pair people off
• bill - don't want to call it a cryptoparty as it draws the wrong people (people who already know what they're doing)
• mai: could do it more thematically, eg "Secure your mobile communications" - narrowing framing would enable us to teach better and target a more specific audience
• sierk: users teaching users, Drupal meetups, [missed this]
• bill: narrowing focus great way to bring people out
  • lesley: could have different talks set up ahead of time. got me interested was looking up things, the acronyms etc
    • jenny: maybe make that a ground rule, don't abuse acronyms.
      • bill: or just state that "we'll be covering a lot of things, but everything we're talking about is in the handout
• gabby: didn't know exactly what a cryptoparty was - didn't expect

what to learn/teach

web browsing

• orbot - tor for mobile - initiated by Guardian Project, now officially Tor Project?
  • orfox - tor browser for android - Guardian Project - https://guardianproject.info/apps/orfox/
  • firefox focus - app that essentially enables you to always be browsing incognito
  • firefox quantum - multi container add-on - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-account-containers/?src=search - create different containers for eg facebook, google, etc
• HTTPS Everywhere - download separately and then deliver it to the browser - offline signing process

email

• protonmail - encrypts email in transit (still shows plantext in browser) - https://protonmail.com/
• mailvelope - add-on for GMail encryption - https://www.mailvelope.com/en
• riseup - and the canary: https://riseup.net/en/canary

operating systems

• qubes - "A reasonably secure operating system" - https://www.qubes-os.org/
  • like having multiple containers/Virtual Machines (VMs)
  • network VM separate from application VM
• tails - https://tails.boum.org/

VPNs

• can be fast and secure, slow and insecure, fast and insecure, etc;
  • https://thatoneprivacysite.net/ - https://thatoneprivacysite.net/simple-vpn-comparison-chart/

Clearing up Misconceptions

• Using Signal securely
• Vulnerabilities of PGP
• No 100% security - endpoints can be hacked

resources to create/build

• piratebox with software for faster downloads
• handouts:
  • anonyzebra zine? (see https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Cryptoparty / )
  • for different levels of security / threat models (eg average users,
• code of conduct

resources for trainers

• EFF's Security Education Companion - https://sec.eff.org/

next digital security wkshp

• August 19th (edit: unfortunately this did not happen. will shoot for October!)