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Stories for "hackers"

Internet access is a basic human right: A Q&A with Keren Elazari

Internet access is a basic human right: A Q&A with Keren Elazari

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Two weeks ago, hours after Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowed to “wipe out” Twitter, his government blocked access to the platform across the country. It was just weeks before a hotly contended election, and Erdoğan was upset about tweets accusing him of corruption. A judicial ruling in Turkey called for Twitter to take []

6 unexpected historical figures with the civic hacker mindset

6 unexpected historical figures with the civic hacker mindset

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Hacking has always been an important component of healthy democracies. Despite the bad connotation the word often has these days — indicating rogue criminals breaking into computer systems, stealing identities, spying or worse — hacking is really just any amateur innovation on an existing system. And that “system” doesn’t have to be a technical one. []

My City: Why Shanghai is the ultimate hackerspace

My City: Why Shanghai is the ultimate hackerspace

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In 2005, at the start of my first visit to Shanghai, the city clothed itself in a growling thunderstorm. When dusk fell and neon began to score the sky, the city was more Blade Runner-y than I thought a real place possible to be. I remember diving into a luxe spa for a post-train massage, []

TED Radio Hour: Hacking our way to a better world

TED Radio Hour: Hacking our way to a better world

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This week’s TED Radio Hour examines the hacker, a term often associated with computer crime. But, as host Guy Raz tells us, “All of our TED speakers today are hacking for good — hacking into our brains, into the environment, even into the DNA of extinct animals — hackers trying to save the world.” First []

How to spy on hackers: James Lyne at TED2013

How to spy on hackers: James Lyne at TED2013

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Cybersecurity specialist James Lyne takes the TED2013 stage to show us some of the newest and nastiest creations that cybercriminals have designed to steal data, make off with billions of dollars, watch people through their webcams and target power and utility companies. Every day, he says, about 250,000 new pieces of malware are created and 30,000 websites infected. “People think []

Peeking behind the curtain at Anonymous: Gabriella Coleman at TEDGlobal 2012

Peeking behind the curtain at Anonymous: Gabriella Coleman at TEDGlobal 2012

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Anthropologist and academic Gabriella Coleman starts her talk with a simple-sounding question: “Who is Anonymous?” She promptly confesses that even after “exhilarating and extremely frustrating” years of studying the group, she still finds this question difficult to answer. First of all, it’s not an organization with one or even a few leaders at the helm. It’s a []