Hack.lu 2016 A Network of Sorrows: Small Adversaries and Small Allies by Quinn Norton
Channel: Cooper
Date: 2016-10-19

State actors dominate our news coverage, with hyperbolic talk of “cyberwar” and APT. But the vast majority of the costs of our terrible security are paid by normal people in day-to-day life. For most, the real adversaries are schools, families, random malware, ex-partners, maybe the occasional local law enforcement. While the big issues of governmental intrusion contribute to a toxic security culture, the blood and tears and lost money mostly come out of pedestrian, even often solved, security problems.

Small adversaries are infinite – the internet will always make more ransomware, bad ex-boyfriends, and homophobic school administrations. But we aren’t using the best tool we have in the fight against malware and cybercrime: the billions of users who, together, have tremendous power. Right now network life is filled with sorrow and fear. But by building up our small allies, bringing tools and knowledge to them, we can build a better network.

Bio: Quinn Norton

Quinn Norton is a writer who likes to hang out in the dead end alleys and rough neighborhood of the Internet, where bad things can happen to defenseless little packets – they are also the places poetries and freedoms are born. She started studying hackers in 1995, after a wasted youth of Usenet and BBSing. She covers subjects from science and technology and law to social media and society, but she always comes back to hackers.