Men in Gorilla Suits Ep. 122: Last Seen…Hacking Things

Last week, friend of the Gorillamen, Rick Coste, had his site for the Evolution Talk podcast hacked. Rick half-joked that an upcoming episode of Men in Gorilla Suits should be about hacking and hackers, so...here it is!

We begin the episode by talking about the first instance of hacking -- whether real or fictional -- that we remember seeing. After that, it's confession time: find out if we've ever hacked anything (or known people who have).

There's a lot behind hackers and the reasons they do what they do. We take some time to discuss what makes someone become a hacker, and then devote time to chatting about why even people who despise hackers are often fascinated by stories about hacking things. Next, we ask if there's ever a good reason to hack something.

"Hack" has become a word applied to many other things. Find out what we think about lifehacking and other so-called types of hacks.

We've talked about technology at length before, and we return to tech talk for a moment when we talk about whether or not we're concerned about hacking as we begin creating computer-controlled implants, like some pacemakers. How secure is a controlled heartbeat in the big city? Keeping in the spirit of things very big to people that can be hacked, we know voting machines can be hacked -- we talk about whether or not we think we'll see a major election stolen from hacking...or if it's happened already.

Groups like Anonymous are sometimes praised and often scorned for their efforts. Find out where we stand on groups like that. Also find out if we've ever been hacked or had personal data compromised.

With so much national infrastructure relying on technology, how has hacking become a weapon for some nations? (Find out how we feel about this.)

There's no denying that technology will only get more complex, and that people will figure out ways to compromise the integrity of systems and items. Find out if we think we'll ever stop hackers.

As always, we'd love to know how you feel about anything from this week's episode on the comments section.