The Chaos Computer Club, often abbreviated as CCC, is one of the most influental hacker organisations in Europe.
It describes itself more poetically as a galactic community of life's beings, independent of age, sex, race or societal orientation, which strives across borders for freedom of information [...].
The CCC became world famous when they hacked the German "Bildschirmtext" (a Minitel-/Videotel-like system) and succeeded in getting a local bank to pay DM 134,000 into their bank account. The money was returned the next day in front of the press.
In 1989, the CCC was peripherally involved in the first cyberespionage case to make international headlines. A group of West German hackers led by Karl Koch (who was loosely affiliated with the CCC) were arrested for breaking into US government and corporate computers and selling operating-system source code to the Soviet KGB.
The CCC publishes the quarterly magazine Datenschleuder.
Famous members: