The Good Tech Companies - Cypherpunks Write Code: Eva Galperin Against Stalkerware

Episode Date: November 25, 2024

This story was originally published on HackerNoon at: https://hackernoon.com/cypherpunks-write-code-eva-galperin-against-stalkerware. Eva Galperin, who has been a strong advocate for privacy and freedom of speech online, can be considered a cypherpunk. Check more stories related to web3 at: https://hackernoon.com/c/web3. You can also check exclusive content about #cypherpunks, #stalkerware, #eff, #cypherpunks-write-code, #cypherpunk-rebellion, #electronic-frontier-foundation, #obyte, #good-company, and more. This story was written by: @obyte. Learn more about this writer by checking @obyte's about page, and for more stories, please visit hackernoon.com. Eva Galperin is an advocate for privacy and freedom of speech online. She was born in Latvia to Jewish parents, who sought political asylum in the US. She has been working for the Electronic Frontier Foundation since 2007.

This audio is presented by Hacker Noon, where anyone can learn anything about any technology. Cypherpunks Writecode, Eva Galperin Against Stalkerware, by Obite. Cypherpunks are advocates for privacy who develop and use open cryptographic tools to resist surveillance and censorship globally. Not all of them participated in the first mailing lists in the 90s, but they're still very much partaking in the same fight, with the same ideals. Eva Galperin, who has been a strong advocate for privacy and freedom of speech online, can be considered one of them. She was born in Latvia to Jewish parents, which was not exactly good news before 1990. Latvia belonged to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, USSR, back then, and the state itself practiced anti-Semitism.

Galperin's family sought political asylum in the US when Jewish people were allowed to freely emigrate, so they relocated to San Francisco, California, around 1980. Her interest in computers began early, inspired by her father, a computer security specialist. At just 12 years old, she received a custom Unix Solarize desktop and quickly became involved in online communities, discussing science fiction and playing interactive text games. Her cypherpunk-related ideologies would come much later. As she grew older, Galperin balanced her technical interests with academic pursuits. She studied political science and international relations at San Francisco State University while working for several companies as a Unix system administrator in Silicon Valley.

Before joining the Electronic Frontier Foundation, F, in 2007, Galperin also worked at the Center for U.S.-China Policy Institute. There, she organized conferences and researched Chinese energy policy. At the Electronic Frontier Foundation, F. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, F., is a renowned international non-profit dedicated to digital rights, which was founded in 1990 by another cypherpunk, John Gilmore. It tackles a wide range of issues, from fighting government surveillance and defending encryption to advocating for net neutrality and battling against corporate overreach. Through legal action, policy work, and education, the F ensures that the rights of individuals are

respected in an increasingly digital world. Galperin has been working for the F since 2007, taking on different roles. As he described, she started taking calls from people looking for the legal assistance the F provides, but she eventually moved to the activism team. In 2013, she was their International Freedom of Expression coordinator. By 2015, she launched a whole campaign with Gillian York, current EFF's Director for International Freedom of Expression, to raise awareness about the risks of enforcing real names online, especially for journalists, activists, and individuals in authoritarian regimes who rely on anonymity to stay safe. This has been a common point in all of her career, cybersecurity education and help for vulnerable people. As she called them, those who aren't in

the room, greater than, the kind of security work I am passionate about starts with the people that I greater than want to protect. It starts with thinking about who is left out of the greater than conversation or who's not in the room. I also get to use my technical skills, greater than reverse malware, demonstrate harm, or eventually yell at a company but I greater than always start with the people. She was promoted to director of cyber security in 2017 and leads the EFF's threat labs since 2019. This group investigates how surveillance technologies target vulnerable communities and individuals. It examines issues like state-sponsored malware, stalkerware, and privacy risks from police data collection, aiming to protect privacy

rights. Coalition Against Stalkerware. It's truly alarming how many people would want to spy on their loved ones as a form of abusive control, especially in the case of couples. The so-called stalker wear was created exactly for that. This is malicious software designed to secretly monitor and track a person's activities on their phone or other devices without their knowledge. It's often used by abusive partners or individuals to spy on victims, accessing private information like messages, calls, location, and browsing history. Typically installed without consent and hidden, it can lead to further harassment or physical abuse. https://youtube.com.bzltfocw16z0.feature="shared and embeddable equals true by April 2019. Galperin managed to convince

the cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab to include stalkerware as a detectable threat in their antivirus products for Android. She also asked Apple to do the same in the App Store for iOS, and even called for the authorities to ban this kind of software and close the companies that produce it. As she said, it would be nice to see some of these companies shut down. It would be nice to see some people go to jail. Galperin didn't stop there, though. In November 2019, she co-founded the Coalition Against Stalkerware, supported by several cyber security entities and anti-violence organizations. They offer training, technical guidance, and educational resources for victims, advocacy organizations, and security professionals. Additionally, the coalition works to improve the

detection and prevention of stalkerware by setting best practices and enhancing the capacity of support services. Partly thanks to this awareness effort, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission started to pay more attention to stalkerware as a real threat to victims. They banned the spyware maker Support King in 2021 and considered applying criminal sanctions for this type of company and its executives. Galperin considered it Amahor victory for the cause. Privacy is on us too. There are people like Eva Galperin fighting against censorship and surveillance worldwide, creating and providing digital resources for us to preserve our privacy and online freedom. Although, as she's also commented, the fight should start with ourselves. Greater than, I think the growth of the digital rights scene is amazing. We're not alone greater

than in this fight, there are so many allies in every corner of the globe. But that greater than also means we have to be strident in standing up for all of our rights and greater than not compromise. By using the digital resources available to protect our online privacy, we can take control of our personal data and safeguard our freedom. This can be as simple as adopting encrypted communication, using VPNs, or exploring decentralized platforms. These tools help you resist unwanted tracking and censorship, ensuring that your voice and activities remain private and secure. One powerful tool in this space is Obite, a decentralized platform built on a directed acyclic graph, DAG, structure. Unlike blockchains, Obite offers a censorship-resistant crypto ecosystem where users can move funds and

store data safely, without middlemen or restrictions. Its design offers secure transactions in a fully decentralized network, providing an open space for anyone top ARTicipate. Besides, developers using Obite to build new apps can contribute to a more private, secure, and free digital environment. Tip Read More from CypherPunks RightCode Series. Tim May & Crypto Anarchism. Wei Dai and B Money.

Nick Sabo and Smart Contracts. Adam Back and Hashgash. Eric Hughes and Remailer. Saint Jude and Community Memory. Julian Assange and Wikileaks. Hal Finney and RPOW. John Gilmore and EFF. Satoshi Nakamoto and Bitcoin.

Gregory Maxwell and Bitcoin Core, Vinay Gupta and Matterium, David Cham and eCash, Bram Cohen and BitTorrent, David D. Friedman and Machinery of Freedom, Tornado Cash Founders, Len Sassaman and Remailers, Peter Todd and Bitcoin Core. Info featured vector image by Gary Killian, free pic photograph of Eva Galperin by F. N. Thank you for listening to this Hackernoon story, read by Artificial Intelligence. Visit hackernoon.com to read, write, learn and publish.