The event:

The Chaos Communication Congress (C3) is an IT-/Hacker-/Tech-/Art-/Politics-/Nerd-/Cyber(tm)-Conference, organized by the Chaos Computer Club (CCC), a club / NGO of hackers (all colours, majority: white-hat) in Germany. It grew to be one of the larger events of this sort in Europe and is being held in its 34th iteration. I’ll be joining as a regular visitor for my 5th time, despite not being a member. You get to meet all sorts of interesting people there and -most importantly- their work. The “hackcenter” is always worth a visit, for it is a gathering of hackerspaces, fablabs, CCC-subdivisions etc. from all over Europe, showing off their projects and builds - similar to a smaller but nerdier makerfair. Techies of all ages and skills, even myself, will find enough to see to justify an enjoyable visit! The lounge / bar / disco would suffice already.

The mission:

• Survive in the hosting city / convention center
• Survive living / celebrating / learning among the european- and world-elite of hackers with your devices and data intact
• Stay fed and cozy
• Keep your devices (and yourself) powered
• Keep your devices (and yourself) connected
• Have fun and learn stuff!

What to bring?

Bring your fancy pants!

While the community on location is one of the most diverse and tolerant I have yet met, the surrounding city is average, at best. So I need to adjust my wardrobe to suit both worlds. A trivial task to many, so I will not discuss it further.

Stay safe!

Hardening your devices is key though. The CCC provides a tutorial for that, which is worth following. Most measures, when you look at them more closely, should actually be considered as best practises in any public space. The process begins with choosing which devices to bring: My phone is always patched with the latest pure Android, uses 4G (so NOT the WiFi) and will easily connect to a VPN if needed. My tablet, a Samsung-made flagship device of this year(sic!), is lacking months of security patches and depends on WiFi, with the recently discovered WPA2-vulnerabilities still unpatched. Taking this otherwise great device out of your home would be unwise, regardless of the destination.

My laptop is dual-booting pleasure and necessity a.k.a. Linux and Windows. The latter will remain dormant during the event, the former is properly hardened and capable of using a VPN.

A camping-trip to urban Nerdistan:

As suggested by the title, the remaining space in my rucksack will be occupied by an inflatable sofa/chair, water-bottles (reusable, of course), a mug/cup and cables for power and networking. These will be joined by my lockpicks, SDR-reciever and other tools. An interesting mix of things, one can conclude. Explaining the contents of my luggage to anyone, though not likely necessary, would be an awkwardly funny endeavour…

Reports will follow!