Persecution of Internet Activists:
Barrett Brown, a Dallas-based writer and freelance journalist, was arrested in late 2012 and indicted several times on charges including the publication of a hyperlink. He was earlier pegged by the media as an “unofficial spokesperson” for the hacktivist collective known as Anonymous. But who is he really and what was he trying to uncover that made him a target of the feds? The prosecution was widely regarded as excessive and included a gag order, subpoenas, charges issued against family members, attempts to seize defense funds, and criminal counts so flawed that they were later dismissed. This talk will explore Brown’s work, what happened during his case, the dynamics of his interactions with Anonymous and its implications for other journalists who work with hackers, and why his case outraged many of those who care for free speech and freedom of press.
Speakers: Kevin Gallagher; Ahmed Ghappour; Gabriella Coleman
HTTP Must Die!:
We all know that HTTP is insecure, but the Snowden revelations of 2013 showed that insecurity runs far, far deeper than most of us could have imagined. It’s bad enough, in fact, that anyone who still supports it is contributing to the weaponization of the Internet by government spy agencies. The speakers believe that nobody at HOPE X has any excuse to be using plain HTTP instead of HTTPS in 2014. In this talk, they will summarize what the Snowden revelations mean for protecting data in transit: scary stuff like how supposedly secure cookies on social network sites can be turned into custom beacons for marking victims of targeted malware. They’ll talk about what every web service provider needs to do at the very minimum to mitigate these attacks, and what clients can do to protect themselves. Finally, they will share some success stories from the last year that show how Edward Snowden has raised the bar for web security and created a safer online landscape for the average user.
Speakers: Yan Zhu; Parker Higgins
Community Owned and Operated Cellular Networks in Rural Mexico:
Why try to avoid them spying on us on their networks when we could just build our own? This is what the Rhizomatica project has done in rural Mexico, where they help to build and maintain community owned and operated GSM/cellular infrastructure. Come and hear about experiences in the field and how to deal with the technological, legal, social, and organizational aspects that come along with operating critical communications infrastructure from a community emancipation and autonomy perspective. If you enjoy freedom, community, and dismantling the corporations and governments that seek to monitor, control, and exploit us, then this presentation is for you. The talk will not be overly tech-focused, so don’t worry if you haven’t got the faintest idea or couldn’t care less how a cell phone network operates. If you want tech and geekiness, you can also attend the workshop: “How to Build and Run Your Own Cellular Network.”
Speakers: Peter Bloom; Maka Muñoz
Building an Open Source Cellular Network at Burning Man:
There is literally nowhere else on earth where you can run an experimental mobile phone network with a potential 50,000 users and get away with it (legally). Nowhere else can you learn so much in as short a timeframe about people’s relationships with their mobile phones or what makes a mobile network tick. Since 2006, the folks behind OpenBTS have been running the Papa Legba camp at Burning Man, providing fully licensed independent (free) GSM cellular service in the most unlikely of places. Johnny and Willow will go through the hardware and software tools they deployed in 2013, along with a discussion of lessons learned and future plans.
Speakers: Johnny Diggz; Willow Brugh