Ain’t no party like a cryptoparty

Last night I attended an event that’s new to Hamilton, a CryptoParty: cryptoparty.in/hamilton.

Attend a CryptoParty to learn and teach how to use basic cryptography tools. A CryptoParty is free, public and fun. It is an open format where everyone is welcome independent of their age, gender or knowledge. 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).

The event was organized by Wes Kerfoot (@weskerfoot), and started off with the following video:

After this the 30 or so attendees went over materials covering cryptography concepts together. The event attendees were friendly and social, mingling in groups and discussing cryptography and related tools in a relaxed setting. More meetups will take place in the future (see: cryptoparty.in/hamilton). I’ll keep an eye out and post upcoming events on the SH calendar. If you’re interested in learning about cryptography it’s worth checking out, and it was true to form in being beginner friendly too.