The Chaos Computer Club is probably not adequately characterized as a 'hacker group'. It was founded in 1981 as a computer club and, while hacking has always been their most prominent activity, they have grown not only into a nation-wide association of about 3000 members, but into an influential civil rights organization as well. Their expertise in matters of IT security is frequently called upon by public media in Germany. The CCC is well respected even by many politicians and their expertise was cited more than once by former Ferderal Minister of the Interior Gerhart Baum during the trial that ended last year with the Verfassungsgericht (federal constitutional court)'s finding that the federal anti-terror law that obliged providers to retain all telecommunications data for six months was unconstitutional. The CCC organizes the annual Chaos Communication Congress that Slashdot readers might remember as being the event where some major hacks were presented to the public: http://it.slashdot.org/story/11/01/02/0231242/detailing-the-security-risks-in-pdf-standard [slashdot.org] http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/12/29/204253/Playstation-3-Code-Signing-Cracked-For-Good [slashdot.org] http://it.slashdot.org/story/09/12/28/1931256/gsm-decryption-published [slashdot.org] http://games.slashdot.org/story/05/12/16/2157217/hacking-the-xbox [slashdot.org] The CCC is also well know for Project Blinkenlights, which grew out of the CCC but is now an independent project.