[tor-reports] December status report, early

[Jacob Appelbaum]

December is already a very busy month and we're just halfway through it.

Highlights for December:

Along with the Heinrich Boell Stiftung, I helped host a rather large
series of events about privacy. We also held workshops about using Tails:

  http://www.boell.de/en/whatever-happened-privacy

I was invited to the Germany Bundestag to participate on a panel about
data protection:


http://www.gruene-bundestag.de/news/termin_ID_2000125/veranstaltung/freund-hoert-mit.html

Traveled to Brussels for an IAPP event (
https://www.privacyassociation.org/events_and_programs/iapp_europe_data_protection_congress_2013/speakers_dpc13/263
) where I spoke on a panel with folks from Vodafone, the EU Green party
and NSA's former general council Stewart Baker. An amusing photo follows:

  http://bendrath.blogspot.be/2013/12/layers-of-struggle-privacy-vs.html

I wrote a talk with Adam Langley on Pond for a side event at the 30c3. I
also contributed some code to Pond to make the CLI more usable as well
as documenting its use on Tails. The paper we're writing about PANDA (a
discovery and keying agreement protocol) is also starting to shape up -
though it still needs a bit of love to make it worth submitting to FOCI
or a similar venue.

I found an important privacy leak in TAILS that I reported to the
developers. More information will be released pending discussion.

This month is another month where I am bombarded with calls from
journalists asking about Tor, the Tor network and of course, the NSA.
This takes up a lot of time - sometimes it can take a few hours in a
single day.

The big event coming up in December is of course the 30c3. I'm giving
three talks on the official program, one at a side event (the Pond
talk), and I'm moderating a panel about alternative name systems.

I'll be giving a talk with Roger about the Tor network:

  https://events.ccc.de/congress/2013/Fahrplan/events/5423.html

Additionally, I'm giving two other talks - one is with Julian about the
Usual Topics:

  https://events.ccc.de/congress/2013/Fahrplan/events/5397.html

On the final day of the congress, I'm giving a talk with Morgan and Claudio:

  https://events.ccc.de/congress/2013/Fahrplan/events/5439.html

After the CCC Congress, I plan to be offline most of January to regain
some physical, mental and general emotional strength. I've been ill more
than not in the last six months, mostly from stress and exhaustion.

All the best,
Jake