Boston Linux Meeting Wednesday, September 17, 2014 - Crypto News, TOR, and our PGP/GnuPG Keysigning Party XIV

When: September 17, 2014 7PM (6:30PM for Q&A)
Topic: Crypto News, TOR, and our PGP/GnuPG Keysigning Party XIV
Moderators:Bill Ricker
Shava Nerad, Founding executive director of the Tor Project

Location: MIT Building E51, Room 315


Summary
Bill's annual Crypto News update, a history of TOR, and our annual
keysigning party. Pre-register your PGP key before the meeting!

Abstract

Add your key to the keysigning party checksheet:
[url]http://blu.org/keysignings/[/url]

A key signing party is a get-together of people who use the PGP
encryption system with the purpose of allowing those people to sign each
others keys. Key signing parties serve to extend the web of trust to a
great degree. Key signing parties also serve as great opportunities to
discuss the political and social issues surrounding strong cryptography,
individual liberties, individual sovereignty, and even implementing
encryption technologies or perhaps future work on free encryption software.

The basic workflow of signing someone's key is as follows:

[list] [*]Verify that the person actually is who they claim to be;
[*]Have them verify their key ID and fingerprint; [*]Sign their key;
[*]Send the signed key back to them [/list]

At the meeting, we go through the first two steps. Each person who
preregistered their key will announce their presence and then read off
their key ID and fingerprint, so everyone can verify that their copy of
the list of keys is correct. Once we've run down the list, we line up,
and each of us examines everyone else's photo IDs to verify that they
are who they claim to be. After the meeting is over, each participant
can then retrieve the keys that they've personally verified, sign those
keys, and send the signed keys back to their respective owners.

In order to complete the keysigning in the allotted time, we follow
a formal procedure as seen in V. Alex Brennen's "GnuPG Keysigning Party
HOWTO", attached below. It is strongly advised that if you have not been
to a keysigning party before, you read this document. We're using the
List-based method for this keysigning party, and the keyserver at
subkeys.pgp.net.

It is essential that, before the meeting, you register on the signup
form listed in the attachments. You should bring at least one picture ID
with you. You must also bring your own printout of the report on that
page, so you can check off the names/keys of the people you have
personally verified.

The list will be printed on Wednesday afternoon, the day of the
meeting; be sure to register your key for the keysigning before that.
The official cutoff time is 3:00 pm.

Additional Links:
Registration http://blu.org/keysignings/keypartyregister.php
GNUPG Keysigning Party Howto:
http://www.cryptnet.net/fdp/crypto/gpg-party.html
GNU Privacy Guard: http://www.gnupg.org/

For further information and directions please consult the BLU Web site
http://www.blu.org
Please note that there is usually plenty of free parking in the E-51
parking lot at 2 Amherst St, or directly on Amherst St.

After the meeting we will adjourn to the official after meeting meeting
location at The Cambridge Brewing Company
http://www.cambridgebrewingcompany.com/

--
Jerry Feldman <gaf@blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
PGP key id:3BC1EB90
PGP Key fingerprint: 49E2 C52A FC5A A31F 8D66 C0AF 7CEA 30FC 3BC1 EB90