CryptoRights Mission Statement
Mission:
The CryptoRights Foundation (CRF) is a human rights security organization which brings expertise in the science of cryptography to bear on the security and safety of the social justice community and the general Public. CRF is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization (NGO) with two primary and strongly related tasks: First, CRF promotes global justice through the protection of human rights workers, journalists and humanitarian workers. We do this through educational, research and development projects focussed on protecting their privacy and the security and integrity of the critical information they collect, transmit and communicate for the public good. Second, CRF works to protect and promote freedom of speech for security professionals who do open research in the Public's interest on how to enhance personal privacy and safety in responsible, socially justifiable ways. CRF is a membership organization, and relies on the support of the Public in conducting research and delivering technology, knowledge and other benefits to NGOs and world citizens internationally.
Vision:
In the near term, CRF is: developing a range of integrated open source software and hardware technologies for enhancing safety and security while using common communications media; providing technical support for social justice NGOs worldwide in their use and understanding of privacy-enhancing technologies, and; providing individual and group trainings and educational materials. In the medium term, CRF has seven major research projects, one of which provides a set of extremely high-tech intelligence and information capabilities to social justice organizations, especially the journalism community, for unparalleled, reliable witnessing of societal events and developments, and the other six all represent the core technologies on that platform. In the long run, CRF will provide these digital witnessing, communications and sensitive informamtion handling capabilities into the hands of the world's social justice communities to form a new corps of international witnesses which can protect the disadvantaged, shine the light of empirical truth on injustice and criminal abuses of human beings and protect fundamental human rights.
Why Is There a CryptoRights Foundation?
For communications (speech) to be truly free, there must be provable
security from unauthorized interception and modification when desired
by the communicants. For humanitarian communications — which exist on
a plane above national biases — it is particularly important to have
privacy and the assurance of identity of the speakers. This requires
the active cooperation and co-vigilance of two communities which have
historically been isolated from each other by government regulation
and precedent:
- Human rights (HR) workers and journalists — and the data they
collect — investigating and documenting human rights violations must
be protected so that the results of their work can be both
authenticated and available to all of humanity.
- Security workers who research, develop and audit privacy
enhancements offered to the public by corporations, government
agencies and others must be free to openly share and prove — or
disprove — the trustworthiness of those systems to the public without
interference or prior restraint.
These communities need to work together and help each other to furnish
such proof to the world, rather than relying on the promises of vested
interests (e.g. corporations and government agencies) that their
privacy & security solutions are truly private and secure.
CryptoRights is dedicated to bringing these two communities together
and helping them collaborate effectively. HR workers and journalists
are the best possible advocates for the rights of security workers and
security workers have the necessary expertise to assist HR workers and
journalists with their communications security and the authentication
of their data.
Who Are CryptoRights Foundation's Members & Volunteers?
At an operational level, CRF consists of an international team of
staff, boardmembers,
advisors, volunteers
and supporting members.
The people who comprise CryptoRights come from many different cultures
around the world and share a common passion for privacy, human rights and
humanitarian issues. They have backgrounds in various applicable and related
disciplines and professions, including:
- Security professionals & academics
- Human rights workers
- Investigative journalists
- Privacy activists & attorneys
- Cryptographic software developers
- Environmental activists
- Intelligence analysts
- Network security administrators
- Bioethics & medical informatics experts
- Mathematicians
- Socially-oriented technologists
- Philanthropists
- Human interface designers
- Communications futurists
- Digital media artists
- War crimes investigators
What Does CryptoRights Actually Do?
- To improve the privacy and safety of our human rights &
journalism clients, CryptoRights provides on-site (field) and online
(web) support and education services on cryptography and all related
security issues (both digital and physical), and provides software and
hardware tools, technology and services.
- To establish and protect the intellectual freedoms of our Security
Research community clients, CryptoRights develops public security
policy and system review processes, as well as establishing and
funding open source software and hardware development projects.
- To help our NGO clients above to come together into a broader
community that provides mutual assistance and protection, CryptoRights
organizes and hosts regular meetings, workshops and conferences for
the human rights, privacy, journalism and technical security
communities.
Who Are CryptoRights Foundation's Clients?
CryptoRights clients are generally either humanitarian groups or
individuals & organizations connected with computer security work:
- Human rights workers & journalists who need secure and
protected communications in order to more safely work on transforming
our global society in positive directions. This security and
protection includes: secure field communications and evidence
protection/authentication for war crimes investigators, protection of
data about witnesses to crimes against humanity and for whistleblowers
who document abuses of the environment by powerful interests, etc.
- Academic security researchers who need assistance and
protection from unfair regulation and commercial misconduct in order
to protect the public from abuses of their right to privacy. This
assistance includes: publishing the work of researchers who
investigate the actual security provided by privacy & security systems (e.g., consumer
privacy products, electronic voting systems, etc); legal protection
for academics who wish to openly discuss the weaknesses of security
protocols without fear of chilling effects (e.g., from lawsuits by
corporations making false claims of robustness while providing weak
security by relying on obscuring how their their protocols really
work); suppression of academic security research through the chilling
effect of jailing security researchers, etc (e.g., Adobe v
ElcomSoft & Sklyarov).
How Will CryptoRights Accomplish Its Mission?
- CRF User Services Group safety & security advisors travel on
technical missions to work in the field with human rights &
journalism organizations (a.k.a. the "Cryptographers without
Borders" program).
- CryptoRights User Services Group volunteers conduct public awareness
and activism campaigns supporting the academic freedoms of security
researchers and privacy workers.
- CryptoRights brings the human rights and security communities
together physically and electronically in an atmosphere of cooperation and
mutual support by:
- organizing regular security
meetings around the world for security researchers and
others;
- sponsoring private online lists and IRC discussions and
archives of security resources/services for Clients; and
- planning unique workshops for clients and conferences such
as CIPHR — the
world's first conference devoted to Cryptography and the
International Protection of Human Rights.
What Is CryptoRights Foundation's Definition of Success?
Human rights and journalism organizations will begin widely and
visibly using cryptographic technology to protect and authenticate
their communications without fear of being negatively characterized
for so doing. There will be a measurable decline in the number of
security incidents (i.e. assaults, deaths, etc.) among, and a
measurable increase in the number of successful/uninterrupted
activities by, human rights workers and journalists.
Security research and security awareness will grow into
widely-understood phenomena in the public's mind and in the popular
press, and security and privacy will become a more fundamental
consideration when designing systems within and between the
internetworked societies of the future. There will be a measurable
number of new and improved security tools available for public use.
Security protocols will be better understood and accepted by the
public and will be more openly implemented by the various
communications industries. Security technology will become easier to
use and therefore widely used among the general population, resulting
in positive social changes such as decreasing instances of identity
theft and unsolicited commercial email and increased access to secure
communications and privacy-enhancing technologies.
For More Information...
For information on our educational & support efforts, please visit
our User Services Group area:
http://www.cryptorights.org/operations/
For information on our ongoing research & development projects, please visit
our R&D Group area:
http://www.cryptorights.org/research/
For information on who we are, please visit our People area:
http://www.cryptorights.org/people/
For information on various public discussion lists CRF operates,
please visit our Lists area:
http://www.cryptorights.org/lists/
For information on how to support our work, please visit our Donation area:
http://www.cryptorights.org/join/donation.html
For information on how to participate in what we do, please visit
our Participation area:
http://www.cryptorights.org/join/
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