Top Hacker Shows Us How It’s Done
I just finished watching a Ted Talk for the second time. His name is Pablos Holman, and he is a successful hacker. The presentation was very informative, entertaining, funny, and kind of scary. He also had a message at the end that took me, and probably everyone else there by surprise.
His topic was about hacking, and he got right into his demonstrations, showing how hackers can get into seemingly anything they want if they so choose. His demonstration started out by showing how he could hack into his hotel room television through the remote control sensor. From that point, he was able to order movies, play games, etc.. at no charge. The scary part is how he was able to access the TVs of every other room, change their channels, monitor what the other rooms were doing. This type of demonstration continued for most of the presentation, with many other examples of everyday things that could be hacked.
Pablos had a very effective method of delivery, walking around the stage enough, but not too much. He used a laptop and a projector to provide a visual scope to what he was talking about. He used humor effectively, and asked a lot of questions, sometimes tying the two together (“Does anyone here ever use a credit card?”) The use of other props were effective and not overdone. He had a good flow, although seemed to be pressed for time. Overall it was a very good demonstration about hacking right up to the swerve.
The presentation led into a demonstration about how hackers pick apart things, codes, passwords, etc… to eventually gain the access they are looking for. He then put up a slide of a mosquito, and started talking about the malaria problem in Africa. It turns out that he, along with other hackers are part of a group that are tasked with solving the malaria problem in Africa and other places. The group is funded by the Gates foundation, and includes scientists from all different fields, and includes hackers. He explained that the mind of a hacker is able to look at a problem from a completely different perspective than most people. He then talked a little more about the group and the progress they were making in solving this problem.
Holding off on letting you know the actual topic until the very end was genius. By that point, the audience, including myself was very engaged with the hacking demonstrations. The message just came out of nowhere, but tied in perfectly with what he had been speaking about. I would highly recommend this to everyone.
