Demystifying the cyberhackers

Ben Sixsmith

Ben Sixsmith is The Critic’s online editor WHEN I WAS TEACHING English as a foreign language — in Poland, where I still live — I had a student who loved video games. Every week he would talk about video games, video games, video games. It was getting rather dull. “Tell me, Mateusz,” I asked, “Don’t you have some other hobbies?” “Well,” he mused, “Sometimes I hack into people’s email accounts and read their emails.” “So!” I said, brightly, “Video games …” Hackers, Scott Shapiro writes in Fancy Bear Goes Phishing, disturb us with special force because their misdeeds defy our comprehension. It’s easy to imagine what goes into burgling a house: wait till everybody is asleep, find a dodgy window, prise it open and you’re in (apologies to any burglars who…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, July 2023

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