Surveillance, Security and old-school hackers in the Covid era

Government demands for increased surveillance to track Covid exposure have dramatically accelerated clashes between the authorities and tech companies, notably Apple and Google, which are resisting sharing personal information. At the same time, the boom in remote work and conferencing software from the likes of Zoom have intensified concerns over hacking and end-to-end encryption. One thing tying both debates together is the role played by prominent hackers who learned from leaders of the Cult of the Dead Cow, the most influential U.S. hacking group and one chronicled in a just-updated book by Reuters investigative journalist Joseph Menn.

Joseph Menn, Reuters
Matt Suiche, (Founder at Comae & OPCDE)

Joseph Menn is the author of the bestseller ”Cult of the Dead Cow: How the Original Hacking Supergroup Might Just Save the World,” which is out in an updated paperback June 2, 2020. It among other things revealed that presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke belonged to the oldest surviving and most influential group of U.S. hackers. The New York Times Book Review called it ”a hugely important piece of the puzzle for anyone who wants to understand the forces sha ping the internet age.” It was named one of the 10 best nonfiction works of the year by Hudson Booksellers. Menn is an investigative reporter specializing in technology issues for Reuters, having previously worked at the Financial Times and the Los Angeles Times. Menn also wrote the 2010 bestseller ”Fatal System Error: The Hunt for the New Crime Lords Who Are Bringing Down the Internet,” a real-life thriller that brought the modern face of cybercrime to a mainstream audience. Fatal System Error revealed collaboration between major governments and organized crime, and was placed on the official reading list of the US Strategic Command, while the New Yorker magazine compared it to the novels of Stieg Larsson. Menn speaks regularly at security conferences including Def Con, Black Hat and RSA.