About Cabal

The principal mission for Cabal [a.k.a LaBac] is to fight dystopia.

Cabal was founded on the principles of

• ​ free software
• ​ safe spaces
• ​ shared information, and ultimately:
• ​ shifting technology forward to better protect the underprivileged and underserved.

Currently, our Discord server is the latest iteration of cabal. It is the homebase for our community of hackers, programmers, lawyers, librarians, anthropologists, journalists, soldiers, spooks, et. al. who all believe that we can combat the misuse and abuse of technology.

Rules of the Road

• Be kind
  • ​Zero tolerance for bigotry and prejudice.
  • Treat other members with respect and empathy.
  • Engage in good faith.
• Consensual Communications
  • Act with consent.
  • Seek permission, not forgiveness.
  • What is said in this chat stays in this chat. It does not matter if disclosure was intentional or unintentional.
  • Please, no forwarding or screenshots.
  • If the party/parties involved have all given consent, then exfiltration may be settled on a case-by-case basis.
• Administration
  • Admins take on the role of moderators for the group.
  • Admin tasks may include tasks like organizing content, structuring a conversation, and inviting new members.
  • Admins are appointed via a plurality vote by all members. There should always be at least 3 at one time.
  • Most decisions can be brought to a vote with a quorum of at least half the chat membership.
  • Decisions may pass with a simple plurality; Bans and suspensions of members require a majority.

Inviting new friends

Notify in #nominations that you'd like to invite someone, which starts a request for comments period. This period is typically enough time for people to see your post and send whatever comments they need (3-6 hours). While you wait, please send them a link to this code of conduct.

Sometimes it helps by providing context about the person (i know them from ... or here is their twitter ...). If no objections are raised, you are clear to invite them in!

What you get by joining the Cabal

• a global professional network of folks who understand the importance ethics in technology
• a safe space to discuss your work and ideas
• a place to ask questions and get answers

Brief history of Cabal

cabal started as a Signal group chat of friends who hacked stuff and wanted a better future for each other. We wanted a safe space where we could more freely share things without the toxicity we felt existed in existing tech and security meetups.

Today we continue to be a community for each other, but also to be a resource to the community.

The our most active initiatives currently are:

• ​supporting cyber sexual abuse survivors
• serving on the New York Cyber Abuse Taskforce
• ​tracking hate groups, their infrastructure, and their behavior online
• ​compiling a record of notable incidents and artifacts that document technology's abuses
• ​managing a shared library of resources, job postings, and technology
• archiving important material and evidence for later use by researchers

A selection of accomplishments:

• Dozens of successful takedown requests of non consensual imagery operations
• Assistance to sex workers on the protection of their copyrighted material
• Security incident response to dozens of severe abuse cases
• Technical subject matter expertise supporting the NYC Cyber Abuse Taskforce
• The development of the Non-Consensual Imagery Database (NCIDB)
• Research and monitoring into distribution sites and forums
• The development of chanscan, a tool for understanding toxic internet culture
• The development of submit.policetapes.live, which has archived thousands of videos documenting police brutality around the USA
• Creation of our VPN services, which have protected:
  • activists and journalists through the summer of 2020
  • protestors in Cuba
  • protestors in Venezuela
• Distribution of thousands of PPE kits during NYC protests in 2020
• Secure communications assistance for 5 major protest organizers in NYC
• ​Press coverage:
  • PimEyes (Washington Post)
  • Clearview AI (NYTimes, Gizmodo)
  • Phunware (Vice News)
  • Tinder photo market place (Gizmodo)
• ​ Selection of Acknowledgements, Conferences and Speaking Engagements of Cabal Members
  • Binary Golf Grand Prix 2023
  • Objective by the Sea 2023
  • Defcon (31, 30, 29)
  • Hushcon (2023, 2022)
  • REcon (2023, 2022)
  • SkyTalks 2022 @ DEFCON 30
  • PancakesCon 2021
  • Summercon (2022, 2021, 2020, 2019)
  • Diana Initiative
  • 2600 Magazine