Keren Elazari

Keren Elazari
קרן אלעזרי
Keren Elazari in 2016
Born1980 or 1981 (age 42–43)[1]
Tel Aviv, Israel
EducationTel Aviv University (BA, MA)
OccupationSecurity researcher
Websitewww.k3r3n3.com

Keren Elazari (Hebrew: קרן אלעזרי; born 1980 or 1981[1]), also known as k3r3n3,[2] is an Israeli cybersecurity analyst, writer, and speaker.[3][4] She is a senior researcher at the Tel Aviv University Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center.[3][5]

Early life and education

Elazari was born in 1980 or 1981[1] and grew up in Tel Aviv, Israel.[2] Her father is Ami Elazari, the CEO of an electric company and a former member of the Israel Defense Forces intelligence group, Unit 8200. Her mother works for an airline.[4] Internet became available in Tel Aviv when Elazari was eleven or twelve years old, and she says she learned English and learned about hacking in online chat rooms.[2][4] In 1995, when she was 14, she saw the film Hackers.[2][1] She said the story, which portrayed a young group of hackers as heroes, served as inspiration for her to become a white-hat hacker.[2][6][7]

Elazari was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces, where she asked to be placed in a role relating to information security. She ultimately served in the army for a total of ten years, both in the standing army and later in the reserve, and was a cybersecurity officer in the intelligence arm.[4] She attended Tel Aviv University, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in history and philosophy of science and ideas and her Master of Arts in security studies.[4][8] She also has the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification,[8] which she earned in 2007.[4] In 2004, she organized with Neora Shem-Shaul Y2hack4, the second Israeli hackers conference. [9]

Career

Elazari is a senior researcher at the Tel Aviv University's Cyber Research Center.[3][10] She was also a teaching fellow at Singularity University in California from 2012 until at least 2018.[8][4] Her areas of research include cyberwarfare and politics.[6] Outside of academia, Elazari was a white-hat hacker, and continues to work as a security consultant.[7][5] In the past she has worked with various companies and organisations, including as a security specialist and industry analyst with Gigaom Research,[11] and as an adviser to the cryptocurrency technology company Epiphyte.[1]

Elazari runs BSides Tel Aviv, a hacking and cybersecurity research conference in Tel Aviv.[2] She also runs a professional meetup for women in cybersecurity.[4]

Elazari has given several talks about the positive impact of hackers,[12][6] and has spoken and written about the dynamic between hackers, the government, and private companies.[5] In 2014, Elazari gave a popular[12][5] TED talk titled "Hackers: The Internet's Immune System". She spoke about hackers, the ethics of hacking, and the importance of engaging with hackers to improve cybersecurity.[2][13] She was the first Israeli woman to give a TED Talk.[4] She spoke at DEF CON 22 in 2014, delivering a talk titled "Empowering Hackers to Create a Positive Impact",[1] and has spoken at other conferences including the Atlantic Security Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2015.[6] Elazari has written articles in publications including Scientific American[14] and Wired.[15]

Publications

  • Wheeler, Tarah (2016). Women In Tech: Take Your Career to the Next Level with Practical Advice and Inspiring Stories. Chang, Angie; Cunningham, Katie; Elazari, Keren; Johnson, Miah; Smith, Kristin Toth; Taylor, Kamilah; Wu, Brianna (Contributors). Sasquatch Books.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Elazari, Keren (31 December 2014). Empowering Hackers to Create a Positive Impact (Video). DEF CON 22.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Elazari, Keren (1 August 2019). "The Importance of Hackers: Analyst Keren Elazari" (Podcast). Business Lab (Interview). Interviewed by Bramson-Boudreau, Elizabeth. MIT Technology Review.
  3. ^ a b c "Israel cyber authority says it warned hosting company it was vulnerable to hack". The Times of Israel. Agence France-Presse. 31 October 2021. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Hirshorn, Yuval (3 January 2018). ""I Don't Want To Be An Anecdote"". Forbes Israel. Retrieved 12 November 2021.[unreliable source?]
  5. ^ a b c d Janofsky, Adam (7 June 2018). "Adopt Hacker Mentality to Fight Fire with Fire". Wall Street Journal. ProQuest 2171135678.
  6. ^ a b c d Mancini, Melissa (16 April 2015). "Cybersecurity expert Keren Elazari lauds 'good hackers' at Halifax conference". CBC.ca. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  7. ^ a b Kamping-Carder, Leigh; Hand, Kevin (8 October 2020). "Hackers Eye Their Next Targets, From Schools to Cars". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. ProQuest 2449264454. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  8. ^ a b c "Keren Elazari". Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center. Tel Aviv University. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  9. ^ why to hack?, Maariv, October 17, 2004
  10. ^ "Keren Elazari on the importance of hackers". MIT Technology Review. 1 August 2019. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  11. ^ Elazari, Keren (2 June 2014). "Keren Elazari on the Web at 25: biocomputing mechanisms". Wired UK. ISSN 1357-0978. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  12. ^ a b Hiltner, Stephen (22 September 2018). "For Hackers, Anonymity Was Once Critical. That's Changing". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  13. ^ Reissman, Hailey (20 March 2014). "Some hackers are bad. But a lot are good: Keren Elazari at TED2014". TEDBlog. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  14. ^ Elazari, Keren (April 2015). "How Cybersecurity Became Your Problem". Scientific American. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  15. ^ Elazari, Keren (7 January 2020). "You need to start making home cybersecurity a big priority". Wired. Archived from the original on 12 February 2021. Retrieved 12 November 2021.

Further reading

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