Harvard Science Book Talk: Bruce Schneier, in conversation with Hiawatha Bray, "A Hacker's Mind: How the Powerful Bend Society's Rules, and How to Bend Them Back"

Date: 

Friday, March 31, 2023, 6:00pm

Where Science Center, Hall D. Please note: this is an in-person ticketed event!
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When March 31, 2023 @6:00PM ET
Organization/Sponsor Harvard Division of Science, Harvard Library, and Harvard Book Store
Speaker(s) Bruce Schneier (Harvard) and Hiawatha Bray (Boston Globe)
Cost Free admission (ticket only) or $31.00 (book included)
Contact Info science_lectures@fas.harvard.edu

A hack is any means of subverting a system’s rules in unintended ways. The tax code isn’t computer code, but a series of complex formulas. It has vulnerabilities; we call them “loopholes.” We call exploits “tax avoidance strategies.” And there is an entire industry of “black hat” hackers intent on finding exploitable loopholes in the tax code. We call them accountants and tax attorneys.

In A Hacker’s Mind, Bruce Schneier takes hacking out of the world of computing and uses it to analyze the systems that underpin our society: from tax laws to financial markets to politics. He reveals an array of powerful actors whose hacks bend our economic, political, and legal systems to their advantage, at the expense of everyone else.

Once you learn how to notice hacks, you’ll start seeing them everywhere―and you’ll never look at the world the same way again. Almost all systems have loopholes, and this is by design. Because if you can take advantage of them, the rules no longer apply to you.

Unchecked, these hacks threaten to upend our financial markets, weaken our democracy, and even affect the way we think. And when artificial intelligence starts thinking like a hacker―at inhuman speed and scale―the results could be catastrophic.

But for those who would don the “white hat,” we can understand the hacking mindset and rebuild our economic, political, and legal systems to counter those who would exploit our society. And we can harness artificial intelligence to improve existing systems, predict and defend against hacks, and realize a more equitable world.

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Bruce Schneier is a renowned security technologist, called a “security guru” by the Economist. He has written more than one dozen books, including the New York Times bestseller Data and Goliath (2014) and Click Here to Kill Everybody (2018). He teaches at the Harvard Kennedy School and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Hiawatha Bray is a technology columnist for The Boston Globe business section. He has contributed to a number of newspapers and magazines including Wired, Fast Company and Black Enterprise. He received an Overseas Press Club award for his series on the Internet in Africa.

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A Return to In-Person Events

To ensure the safety and comfort of everyone in attendance, the following Covid-19 safety protocols will be in place at all of our Sanders Theatre events until further notice:

  • All attendees are encouraged to wear masks. Performers may be unmasked.
  • All attendees must attest to their current health status (e.g., no current infection, symptoms or recent exposure to others with COVID-19)
  • All attendees must self-attest to the following:
    - I am fully vaccinated against COVID-19 using a vaccine authorized by the FDA or WHO and have received my booster (if eligible), or
    I qualify for exemption based upon age, a medical contraindication, or firmly held religious belief.
    - I also agree to immediately share with Harvard University Health Services any proof of my vaccination status if I am identified as an exposed person through public health contact tracing efforts.
    - If not fully vaccinated, I have received a negative COVID-19 PCR or antigen test result in the last 24 hours.

For more information and videos of Harvard Science Book Talks, see https://science.fas.harvard.edu/book-talks