Cypherpunk

Cypherpunks (formed from cipher (English for: cipher), cyber and punk ) describes a group of technically experienced people who are committed to the further spread of data protection in electronic data processing . This goal is to be realized by encrypting data and communication channels. Communication within the group usually takes place in mailing lists , if not publicly in Usenet discussion forums .

Surname

The term cypherpunk was originally coined by Jude Milhon . Milhon wanted to describe cyberpunks that use cryptography .

aims

The Cypherpunks are politically close to libertarianism and demand the strict disclosure of public knowledge (knowledge about society, politics, economy, science) and the concealment of private knowledge (knowledge about an individual, personal knowledge). From this it follows that every form of private knowledge should be hidden from the public, but public knowledge should be accessible to everyone. This ideal is very much in favor of data protectionists, but often leads to a conflict of interests with the state and business.

Tools

Cypherpunks create and use various tools in the implementation of their goals. These are, for example, web anonymizers , encryption programs and remailers . This is intended to achieve a certain degree of anonymity on the Internet .

literature

• Julian Assange : Cypherpunks. Our Freedom and the Future of the Internet Campus Verlag, Frankfurt FFM / New York NY 2013, ISBN 359339913X .
• Steven Levy : Crypto. How the code rebels beat the government. Saving privacy in the digital age. Viking, New York NY 2001, ISBN 0-670-85950-8 .

Web links

• Ideological Foundations (1993)
• THE CYPHERNOMICON : Cypherpunks FAQ and More (1994)
• Now push something big into my exon ( Memento from January 16, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) - attempts at censorship and liberation technologies.