"In Europe it's a lot more political, especially with the German hackers, they have alot more of a political agenda. In Holland it's more anarchistic. You know hacking just for the sake of hacking, just to be, you know the Dutch spirit of rebelliousness. In America you have all that, you have some political hackers, you have some anarchistic hackers, you have a lot of kids just being trendy as well. - Emmanuel Goldstein - 2600 Magazine

Hack-Tic started out as a magazine much like 2600 in Amsterdam (in Dutch) and grew into what is now known as XS4ALL. Hack-Tic as a group officially doesn't exist anymore, however the driving force behind Hack-Tic still exists as XS4ALL the dutch internet provider.

When Hack-Tic first started there was no public internet provider in Holland. Either you had to be a student at a local university or you had to have internet access at your place of business. So the hacker group became their own internet provider, their goal was to provide internet service for anyone at a reasonable price.

"From the first moment we had the ideal to expand networking into a new layer of society. So that eventually everybody can get access to the Internet. We started with a very small project with our UUCP network and then we started the system XS4ALL. Then after our last congress people came to us with ideas about a digital city, it's like a system everybody can use. With the Digital City you can get to know the internet." - Nonsenso

Hack-Tic organised the DDS (The Digital City) as a public service, anyone could have access to it. If you didn't have a computer you could go to one of the 6 or 7 public terminals located throughout the city of Amsterdam, there is one in city hall, one in the library, one in a hospital, one in a local cafe.

Hack-Tic has always had a political ideology. They call themselves techno-anarchists and believe in freedom of speech and freedom of data. They don't however believe that personal data should be available to anyone. Many times they have broken into systems that should have been secured, systems that contained bank details, or other personal data of individuals. When this would happen they would call the press and make it known. They believe that there is a danger in the commercialisation of the internet by corporations that don't care about the net but just want to make a profit out of it.

"I think hackers will have a role here in defending the network like it is today. The internet is very Anarchisticly built and to my favour should stay like this, it should not be a tremendous amount of companies playing net police or playing developer...so what you can do, and groups like EFF and maybe 2600 can do is lobbying for the Internet to say a public infrastructure." - Nonsenso

"I think that technology is a powerful weapon to be used for or against almost for any purpose. Technology is being used by government to keep tabs on the population, to set up better information systems, to keep track of the population better. To see them moving through airports, to see their cars and everything, and it's used by hackers to build networks that have no network control, that are completely self routing. The internet is intrinsically anarchistic. The strength of the internet is that it has no central control." - Rop, founder of Hack-Tic

For more information:
XS4ALL - information is provided in Dutch as well as English.

FoeBuD

"Well I got involved during the Gulf War when I found papers of the FoEbud BBS Bionic in a tent where activists met. I thought it was interesting to communicate over the network with people to think about solutions for a better world and so I bought my first modem and I got involved one week after that." Yens of FoeBuD

FoeBuD is an organisation in Beilefeld, Germany that grew out of an artist group Art D'ameublement in the 1980's when they invited some hackers from the Chaos Computer Club in Hamburg to do an instillation with them. FoeBuD is an amalgamation of technology and creativity, mixed with a social conscience.

"The most important thing as far as FoeBuD is concerned I think, it's not the classic computer club, like the Chaos Computer Club in Hamburg. It's more or less a club where computer and innovation meet. Many good ideas are formed here. You have people from very different sides of the society. Some do work in Yugoslavia, in the peace movement there, and some are pure technical hackers. I think this can be synthesized into something new something very special." - Christian of FoeBuD

One member of Foebud, Eric Bachman, went to Yugoslavia when the war started to help set up a BBS system in the war zone. The networks are routed through the USA and then via Beilefeld by video conference lines since there is often no power or electricity in the town and the phone lines have often been cut. Often petrol generators are needed to keep the BBS system running.

"In the former Yugoslavia, we have a very tense situation between the parties at war and the telephone lines between Serbia and Croatia have been cut, so the citizens of one part can't communicate with the citizens of the other part. People can't imagine that people in these places like Bosnia need Bulletin boards. Some people think that is's the last thing that they would need, but they need them very badly and they've got them now to organize the relief work and to organize things for refugees and also to get Peace groups from the different parts of the county in to touch." - Rena - FoeBuD

FoeBuD also organises Public Domain meetings once a month that take place at the Bunker Ulmenvald (also a famous jazz club). Each month hosts a different speaker. There have been a variety of topics including encryption, the German Intelligence Services, networking. The meeting are open to the public so that anyone can attend and give their opinion.

FoeBuD, like CCC and Hacktic also feel very strongly about publicizing security problems especially where personal data is involved.

"It must be forbidden for someone to see personal data, but the problem is if you make things public, you have many people who don't like this...the police or the german services don't like it, they get your name. And by making things public they know who you are and what you do. And the Secret Service says hackers are dangerous and so they persecute them, its a real persecution I think because you can be put in prison or get high fines when it comes to court. ..It's a problem with making such things public, but in general I think it's necessary." - Christian of FoeBuD

For more information:
FoeBuD
Chaos Computer Club

- END of ARTICLE - (Wow! Finally)
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