[Announcement] Hack 0x04 Dance Charity Stream!
By: Mitch Edwards
Tags: Live Streaming, Hacking, Information Security, Twitch, Charity

It’s been a long, long time since I posted a blog, but this announcement is worth a blog post!

As some of you may know, I did educational hacking streams back in the day, where I would write code or hack intentionally vulnerable machines (legally) on Twitch. The series was incredibly successful, both in terms of viewership and monetary gain, but because life got busy… I dropped it.

Well, good news! I’m bringing the hacking streams back from the dead. Starting next week, I’ll be streaming information security content Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 4PM-7PM CST or later.

Which brings me to the much bigger announcement… I’m doing another charity stream! Last month I did a 24 hour charity gaming stream to benefit the Thirst Project clean water initiative, a global initiative to bring clean water wells to those in need. It went incredibly well: through 24 hours of streaming video games, with so many supporters and donors, we raised over $1,100 for clean water in Africa.

But this stream is even more personal to me, and I have even higher hopes!

My wonderful sister in law, through her own non-profit named Leaps of Faith, has been teaching ballet to at-risk young ladies in her home town for quite some time now. She has been a fantastic leader and teacher in the lives of these girls, donating countless hours (with a full-time job) and often her own hard-earned money to teach the girls how to dance, while counseling them through difficult home situations, family sickness and the struggles of growing up.

The charity work has been ongoing for years, but funding is hard to come by. The girls are doing public performances in tights with holes in them, dance shoes are wearing out faster than they can be replaced, and most importantly, they don’t have a formal practice facility! These girls are practicing in church gyms and performing on street corners at public events, without facilities to call their own. These girls and their ever-patient teachers are growing together as friends and as dancers, but don’t have shoes, uniforms or a “home” to call their own.

This Friday starting at 4:00 CST I will be starting a 24-Hour educational information security stream (likely with a little gaming added in the mix) where 100% of the proceeds go toward buying new shoes, tights and equipment for my sister’s class. I’m launching a GoFundMe that can be used for donations throughout the week, but will also accept donations through the stream as well.

Thank all of you for your support. Let’s come together as a community and do some good! Come hang out on stream with me this Monday and Wednesday, donate at the GoFundMe, and join me Friday at 400PM CST for the 24 Hour Hack 0x04 Dance Livestream!

What is Twitch?

Twitch.tv is the world’s most popular live streaming platform, primarily used for professional and amateur gaming streams, but also used for charity streams, educational streams, podcasts and vlogs. The stream is live and organized by content, divided into categories based on games played or type of stream, and chat, donation links and subscriptions are also available on the site.

I’ve been streaming gaming and educational content for over a year and do it part time, mainly as a hobby and alternative revenue source. If you “Follow” me on Twitch, you will get an email whenever I go live. If you “Subscribe”, a portion of a monthly payment goes to me, while donations through my “Donations” link go toward me (and, this week, the Leaps of Faith charity) in full.

What are you doing on stream?

As some of you know, my 9–5 is in professional information security work. When I stream “hacking” content, I am “targeting” machines that I own to hack into them to show (and learn) how to do it. None of the content is illegal, and the content therein is entirely for educational purposes.

That sounds super boring… can I just donate?

To most people outside of my industry, it probably is boring… Which is why there’s a GoFundMe!

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Follow me on Twitch:

twitch.tv/YaBoiiViking

Follow me on Twitter:

twitter.com/YaBoiiViking (Streaming)

twitter.com/Viking_Sec (“Professional”)

Find the Leaps of Faith Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/leapsoffaithms/