Until recently, many of us thought we were safe online and that the Internet provided a safe haven to share ideas and democratize information with the security of privacy.
But then headlines emerged with stories of Wikileaks, Snowden and the NSA.
Guardians of the New World introduces us to the world of hacker culture. Emerging from the 70’s counterculture around conceptions of personal freedom, decentralisation of power and sharing, hacking really came to prominence with the emergence of the Internet as a ubiquitous public forum from the late 90’s onwards.
Hackers have emerged as both a threat to government and civilian security, or its saviour, often depending on your point of view.
Governments are starting to see the dangers presented both from outside their borders and within from this subculture of devoted keyboard warriors and are responding with force.
In the USA the authorities do their best to keep up with those suspected of online subversion, while other governments have threatened to switch off the Internet all together.
Far from being safe behind their screens, the new digital revolutionaries are being thrown behind bars, or in some countries like Syria tortured, while hackers in other countries do their best to support them, and keep their networks secure.
Guardians of the New World gives context to this often misunderstood subculture. For behind closed doors, in bedrooms and living rooms across the world, a war is being fought that will affect us all, and the battlefield is online.