The “hacker in a hoodie” stereotype is getting old. And associating hackers with only cyber warfare and crime is no longer accurate. Some, like Pablos Holman, are putting their superpowers to good use but still like to be referred to as hackers.
Holman believes that all of our computers and devices have already been hacked. “Most desktop computers have already been taken over by some kind of virus. We don’t have very good detection for that so you don’t know that your computer has been taken over but it’s already been compromised,” he told BloombergQuint.
But, Holman is not just a hacker. He’s a futurist and inventor at Intellectual Ventures Lab, a research laboratory run by former Microsoft Corp.’s chief technology officer Nathan Myhrvold.
In fact, he doesn’t work on security problems anymore. His current job requires him to invent next generation technologies. One of the most popular things he’s helped come up with is something Bill Gates asked them to invent, a laser gun that zaps malaria-causing mosquitoes. Among other things, the laboratory has also invented 3D printers that can print food and a TerraPower nuclear reactor that he claims is safer and more efficient than most nuclear reactors.
We are trying to solve the biggest problems we can. We do invention at a very large scale and what we try to do is take on a problem, bring a bunch of different kind of experts to it from different areas of science and technology and we try to come up with ideas that you wouldn’t get if you were working in that industry.Pablos Holman, Hacker & Inventor
But Holman admits that the cyber security threat is real and says the best way to safeguard yourself from it is to avoid becoming the “low hanging fruit” for hackers by being as diligent as possible. To that effect, there’s a maxim he chooses to follow - “if you’re being chased by a bear, you don’t have to be able to run faster than the bear. You just have to be able to run faster than your friends.”
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
POPULAR