Jam Echelon Day, October 21st, 1999
October 21st, 1999 is "Jam Echelon Day".

Following some discussions on the Hacktivism mailing list, October 21st, 1999 was named "Jam Echelon Day". This was significant because it marks both the first large scale grass-roots effort to "jam up" the works of the global surveillance system operated by the US/UK/Australian/New Zealand Governments known as "Echelon" and because it co-incides with Stop Police Brutality Day. While the goal of "jamming up" Echelon is a lofty and likely unattainable one, is it not better to signal displeasure at being monitored than passively allow it to happen? We believe so. Privacy should not be something that's considered only after it's been breached.

This website was created with a dual purpose. The first is obviously to inform people about Echelon's existence and what things they can do (in theory) to "jam it up", either by sending widely-known "trigger words" or (better yet) not allowing themselves to be subjected to random, anonymous eavesdropping by foreign powers. The secondary purpose of the site is to provide links to information and software that does just that - allows people to secure their email, networks, and operating systems with good practice and cryptographic software of such strength that easy decryption in a reasonable timeframe is not possible for any eavesdropper.

View the original release about "Jam Echelon Day" here

The relevent part:

On October 21, 1999 , netizens around the globe are implored to send out at least one email with at least 50 keyword words. You need not be privy to knowing exactly what words Echelon uses. It is safe to assume that words such as "revolution" and "manifesto" and "revolt" [etc.] will work. Just be sure to sound as subversive as possible. [Try this]

The links of relevence to Jam Echelon Day are listed below, split into two sections:

  1. Echelon-related Links - information about Echelon (background, jamming etc)
  2. Privacy Software/Information Links - protect your privacy (encryption, other methods etc)

Echelon Links

Privacy/Cryptography Links
(Still being added)

As you'd imagine, running a site like this makes for a LOT of hits. To help us, please consider downloading this tarred and gzipped version of the site so you can place it on your own server. If you've already done this, email us here and we'll add you to a list of mirrors. Please note that we're likely to change the title graphic etc after October 21st to a more general "Jam Echelon" one. Download the file here (80k approx.)

Mirror sites:

[One], [Two], [Three], [Four], [Five], [Six] [Seven], [Eight], [Nine], [Ten], [Eleven], [Twelve], [Thirteen]

Page Credits:

2600 Australia (hosting), Robert Kemp (links), laslo (links), HackerNews (links), Dogcow (HTML)

Hosted by:
WireTapped.net