Thus Says the Real Trinity

Become a hacker, become powerful! This is a message Keren Elazari has for women. As she adds, she got into hacking because she wanted to be like (unknown, back then) Angelina Jolie in the movie Hackers. Some fifteen years later, there is still a lot of cyberpunk heroines that can inspire: Trinity from Matrix, the Girl with a Dragon Tattoo and so on. However, the real reason women should get into hacking is empowerment, says Elazari.

Hacking yields asymmetric power which means, for instance, that the smaller country can defeat a bigger one if it has couple of talented hackers on hand. Moreover, hacking is fun because it allows you to “get the system do what you want it to do,” mentions Elazari yet another take on power that comes with mastering cyberspace.

Few hackers are pure good or evil, most of us fall into a grey category adds Elazari, taking edge of the term that to many has a negative connotation.

Speaking of the good done by hackers, she mentions her involvement with Singular University that explores how technologies will change just about “everything”. It is a big task, Elazari admits, but the challenge we are facing at the moment is just as big. For instance, the concept of intellectual property seemed to be suitable for the 20^th century but make prove itself to be a huge obstacle for further development – at least in its current form – in the 21^st century. Thus, the concept needs to be rethought.

Women can – and should – be part of all of this, says Elazari. The opportunity sure exists. While there might be some bias to female hackers for instance at conferences, cyberspace itself does not give away and does not care about gender, race and so on.

It is time to get hacking, ladies!