The Chaos Communication Congress is an annual conference organized by the

Chaos Computer Club The Chaos Computer Club (CCC) is Europe's largest association of hackers with 7,700 registered members. Founded in 1981, the association is incorporated as an ''eingetragener Verein'' in Germany, with local chapters (called ''Erfa-Kreise'') in ...

. The congress features a variety of lectures and workshops on technical and political issues related to security,

cryptography Cryptography, or cryptology (from grc, , translit=kryptós "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adver ...

privacy Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...

and online

freedom of speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...

. It has taken place regularly at the end of the year since 1984, with the current date and duration (27–30 December) established in 2005. It is considered one of the largest events of its kind, alongside

DEF CON DEF CON (also written as DEFCON, Defcon or DC) is a hacker convention held annually in Las Vegas, Nevada. The first DEF CON took place in June 1993 and today many attendees at DEF CON include computer security professionals, journalists, lawyer ...

in Las Vegas.

History

The congress is held in Germany. It started in 1984 in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, moved to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

in 1998, and back to Hamburg in 2012, having exceeded the capacity of the Berlin venue with more than attendees. Since then, it attracts an increasing number of people: around attendees in 2012, over in 2015, and more than in 2017. Since 2017 it has taken place at the Trade Fair Grounds in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

, since the Hamburg venue was closed for renovation in 2017 and the existing space was not enough for the growing congress. A large range of speakers are featured. The event is organized by volunteers called ''Chaos Angels''. The non-members entry fee for four days was

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

100 in 2016, and was raised to €120 in 2018 to include a public transport ticket for the Leipzig area. An important part of the congress are the ''assemblies'', semi-open spaces with clusters of tables and internet connections for groups and individuals to collaborate and socialize in projects, workshops and hands-on talks. These assembly spaces, introduced at the 2012 meeting, combine the ''hack center'' project space and distributed group spaces of former years. From 1997 to 2004 the congress also hosted the annual German

Lockpicking Lock picking is the practice of unlocking a lock by manipulating the components of the lock device without the original key. Although lock-picking can be associated with criminal intent, it is an essential skill for the legitimate professi ...

Championships. 2005 was the first year the Congress lasted four days instead of three and lacked the German Lockpicking Championships. 2020 was the first year where the Congress did not take place at a physical location due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, giving way to the first Remote Chaos Experience (rC3). The Chaos Computer Club announced to return to the now newly renovated

Congress Center Hamburg Congress Center Hamburg (formerly Congress Centrum Hamburg) is a convention center in Hamburg, Germany, located right next to Planten un Blomen, near the Hamburg Dammtor station. It opened on 14 April 1973 as the first of its kind in Germany. ...

for the 37th edition of the Chaos Communication Congress. The announcement confirms the usual date of 27-30 December, notably omitting the ''year'' it will be held. On 18 October 2022, they confirmed that the congress will indeed not be held in 2022.

Congresses from 1984 to today

Gallery

2013-12-30 30C3 2840.JPG,

Glenn Greenwald Glenn Edward Greenwald (born March 6, 1967) is an American journalist, author and lawyer. In 2014, he cofounded ''The Intercept'', of which he was an editor until he resigned in October 2020. Greenwald subsequently started publishing on Substac ...

gives his Keynote at 30C3 2013-12-30 30C3 3432.JPG, „Seidenstraße” (''Silk Road''), a Pneumatic tube system introduced at 30C3 2013-12-30 30C3 3455.JPG, Assemblies and the Pneumatic tube system at 30C3 2013-12-29 30C3 - Sarah Harrison 3268.JPG, Sarah Harrison appears with

Julian Assange Julian Paul Assange ( ; Hawkins; born 3 July 1971) is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. WikiLeaks came to international attention in 2010 when it published a series of leaks provided by U.S. Army inte ...

for an appeal at 30C3 2017-12-28 Leipzig, 34c3, Fairy Dust (freddy2001) - denoised and pixelized.jpg, Main hall of the

Leipzig Trade Fair The Leipzig Trade Fair (german: Leipziger Messe) is a major trade fair, which traces its roots back for nearly a millennium. After the Second World War, Leipzig fell within the territory of East Germany, whereupon the Leipzig Trade Fair became o ...

during 34C3 Leipziger Messe Night - 35c3.jpg, The

seen from the west during the 35C3

Notes

References

External links