Monday, March 12, 2012

Back in the day: startup CEO

I recently came across the audio from a talk I gave at Def Con 9, July 2001 in Las Vegas: itunes; Def Con (couldn't get the video to work). Very interesting to hear myself forecast the future over a decade ago.

I wonder how many people have spoken at Def Con and also given technical briefings in the bowels of Langley ;-)

When I visited China after starting (and exiting) SafeWeb, I thought I might have an unpleasant surprise waiting for me when entering the country. But luckily this cloak and dagger stuff is overblown.

SafeWeb's Triangle Boy: IP spoofing and strong encryption in service of a free Internet

SafeWeb is an encrypted (SSL) anonymous proxy service, used approximately 100 million times per month by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. Triangle Boy is an Open Source program that lets volunteers turn their PCs into entry points into the SafeWeb network, thereby foiling censorship in countries like China and Iran. Triangle Boy uses IP spoofing and innovative packet routing to minimize the load on volunteer machines. I discuss SafeWeb's goals and technologies, its involvement with the CIA through In-Q-Tel (the agency's venture fund) and the Internet as a catalyst for social transformation in China.

Stephen Hsu is the CEO and co-founder of SafeWeb.
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4 comments:

  1. LaurentMelchiorTellier7:55 AM

    Or maybe Chris and I are red agents luring you into complacency. Ever wondered why my forum icon shows me in COMMUNIST CHINA as a CHILD? Mua mua mua.

    As an aside, actually both Langley and Maryland actually have a proud tradition of nakedly recruiting at defcon, those capitalist running do- I mean, those heroic, noble gentlemen.

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  2. Jean Huiskamps3:34 PM

    Cool! I never knew. I thought you were "just" a physics professor, but you are a hacker too! Respect! BTW: I never associated the hacker mentality with physics research, but that is probably just my shortsightedness. I always thought that physics - especially the modern mathematical physics - was a very structured and orderly affair. Not the "let's see if we can break this" attitude of the creative hacker.

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  3. steve hsu5:47 PM

    Fermi was the first hacker :-)

    http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2009/01/age-of-computing.html

    Feynman's mentality was hacker-like as well, of course.

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  4. Edwin10:27 PM

    Did  you take formal CS courses  or are you a self taught hacker?

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