HACKEED.ES

It's an online store for hardware specialized in cybersecurity, hacking, pentesting, software-defined radio and maker development. Gadgets… to learn, understand, investigate and build networks or computer systems.

But this post isn't about that. It's about the why of that.

We live in a time where we use services every day without having any idea what they do with our data. We accept cookies, give away email addresses, hook our entire lives into platforms we don't control and to companies we owe nothing to... It's simply designed that way... It's not your fault, probably "fault" is just a human invention (...and you know it; a subtle bug in humanity's source code).

It has to be easy. So you don't ask. So you don't think...

Cybersecurity isn't about hooded hackers after 3 AM

It's knowing what happens when you connect to a public WiFi. It's understanding why you shouldn't use the same password everywhere. It's being aware that your phone emits more information than you imagine. It's having the ability to decide what you share and what you don't… It's trying to understand what your internet traffic does when it goes through one and what it does when it doesn't.

It's asking, why is Terraform a declarative language and not imperative? And what makes it better or more convenient for infrastructure as code (IaC) projects.

Or why does Bash, more than 40 years on, remain the standard for scripting and automating GNU/Linux machines?; All those questions and many more… many, many more, are the ones cybersecurity asks.

Privacy is a right

And what is a right? Closing the door of your house? Not being followed down the street with someone noting everything you do and who you do it with?... Doing it digitally doesn't make it any less invasive, it makes it easier to ignore and normalize.

Privacy is the foundation of freedom. It's the right to decide what you share, with whom and under what conditions. That nobody decides for you what you can do with your life, your money or your sexuality. It doesn't matter if you're a man, woman, trans, a salaried worker, a millionaire by birth, a cyber-soldier or a gay lieutenant. What you do in your private sphere shouldn't be anyone's business but your own.

Digital sovereignty

Sounds like a political manifesto. But in practice it's something super simple: owning your infrastructure and your data.

I'm not going to tell you to delete your accounts or meta-accounts, to de-Google yourself, or to go live in a cave or a cabin with an encrypted server in the basement. What I am telling you is that every tool you learn to use, every concept or protocol you understand, every conscious decision you make about your technology… is a step toward something better.

- Why?

- No idea, pure intuition. When in doubt, and only if you want to, follow it.

Why HACKEED exists

Because that knowledge should be accessible. Because the tools to understand how the network works, how a signal is intercepted, how a system is audited or how a communication is protected shouldn't be exclusive or elitist. They should be transparent for everyone.

If you're interested in cybersecurity, free hardware, wifi signals, radio; pentesting or you just want to better understand the digital world you inhabit… take a spin around Hackeed... If you want, if not no big deal. But at least now you know there's another way of doing things.