Interview with cybersecurity expert Keren Elazari: What are “friendly hackers”?
No time right now?
The Israeli cybersecurity expert Keren Elazari describes herself as a “friendly hacker”. In an interview, she explains what that means, what role bug bounty programs play for her community and why passwords should be abolished.
Keren Elazari is sitting in the dark in Tel Aviv. Power failure. Her face is only dimly lit by the faint glow of her screen. In her lectures, the cybersecurity expert repeatedly warns against cyber attacks that can also hit the physical world. In this case, however, construction workers accidentally cut off the power supply rather than hackers. We talk to each other as long as your battery lasts. Elazari, born in 1982, was 13 years old when Angelina Jolie wowed her in the movie “Hackers”. When she had to do military service at the age of 18, she said to the officer on duty: “I’m a hacker and want to work in IT security.”
And it worked – she was assigned to a communications security unit, she says, and laughs. She learned a lot during this time and made important contacts. It was the “ticket to the traditionally male-dominated networks”. That’s how she got her first jobs. your Ted Talk about hackers as the immune system of the internet then made it known internationally to a wide audience in 2014. Today Elazari researches cybersecurity at the University of Tel Aviv, advises companies and organizes the cybersecurity community event BSidesTLV and the network Leading Cyber Ladies.
t3n: Ms. Elazari, you describe yourself as a friendly hacker. What skills do you think hackers are capable of? Do you need more than just certain tech skills?
Keren Elazari: First and foremost it is about the right attitude and only then about the skills. Most important is curiosity. In his Hacker Manifesto from the 1980s, Loyd Blankenship aka The Mentor writes at the moment of his arrest: “Yes, I am a hacker, yes, I am a criminal, guilty of the crime of curiosity.” hackers are trying to unearth the truth, showing the world the flaws in the technology we all depend on.
t3n: Are you therefore asking companies to only collect data if they can protect it?
Right, I can’t say that enough. We live in the information age and everyone is talking about the value of data. Most of them are unaware of what is happening to it. Many of us are content with simply being consumers or end users of a product or service. In many cases, we blindly consent to pay for seemingly free services with our data and privacy. If our data is hacked, it is a crime for us; at the same time, we voluntarily leave our data to billions of companies. It’s hackers who show us what that means.
t3n: For example?
The US telecommunications company Comcast has launched a smart remote with a built-in microphone. Researchers have managed to hack this remote control and turn the microphone into a bug. Incidentally, not via the Internet connection, but via the radio frequency. Science hackers provide the proof of concept, forcing companies to develop better, safer products. As consumers, we have to realize that while companies are keen to collect as much data as possible, they don’t always want to protect that data.
