Hackers For Charity Projects
Education and Training
As hackers, we believe that knowledge is power, and one of the best ways to empower those in need is to provide free educational resources and distinct learning paths.
We have worked for nearly a decade with several trusted partners to produce educational solutions that allow anyone, regardless of age, skill or internet connectivity access to quality job skill and technical resources.
These projects include offline education initiatives, security awareness training, computer training classrooms and centers, and STEAM and Maker Training Initiatives.
Read more about the resources we have used, the organizations we have worked with in this space, or get involved by joining our community.
Disaster Response and Relief
Hackers have donated their skills and resources to disaster relief for decades, often jumping in well before larger organizations can mobilize. We are agile, natural problem solvers with high-tech skills in many areas of technology well-suited to disaster response.
As we’ve organized, we’ve learned a thing or two about what works in disaster response and relief scenarios.
Read more about the resources we have used, the organizations we have worked with in this space, or get involved by joining our community.
Community Service
“Hacker” is not synonymous with “criminal”. The overwhelming majority of us are security professionals securing the resources you depend on every day. We are active members of our local communities and once word gets out that we are “computer people” we help our neighbors with our technical expertise as we troubleshoot and repair their tech gear and network setups.
As individuals, we frequently serve our communities in small ways, but as a group, we engage in community service on a larger scale.
We have performed community service projects worldwide. To get involved or learn more, join our community.
Leather Program
Our leather program started as a simple idea to provide job skills to Ugandans that had lost everything in a local village fire. Thanks to the support of the hacker community, we raised enough money to provide food for the victims and rebuild their homes. As donations continued to come in, we realized that our rebuild hadn’t helped long-term since many of the victims didn’t have jobs or skills.
Johnny and Jen used remaining donation money to purchase tools and equipment and they learned leather crafting using materials from a local tannery that had been exporting its leather. Eventually they learned enough to begin teaching and the program grew from there. The program is still in operation today. Read more about our program here.
Our Stories
Arise, Geek!
It's the day before DEFCON and I'm depressed. I'm going to miss DEFCON for the first time in I don't know how many years. These past months I've really started [...]
Crash
I knew the minute it hit the ground, that was it. Jen's MacBook fell the impossible distance from the table onto the concrete floor with such impossible force and with [...]
Signed copy of f0rb1dd3n on auction @ DEFCON!
Jayson Street has been a big supporter of HFC for a long time, and he's at it again. He's taking a copy of the latest edition of his book "Dissecting [...]
Wild ebay auction!
Monte has donated one of his rigs to the cause. See http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250665614014&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT#ht_1116wt_1137. It's really cool of him to donate all of the proceeds for this auction. Spread the word!
Kismet Drone Building Guide
The Kismet Drone is a very useful device for anyone responsible for monitoring a wireless network. They allow you a remote presence to sniff the air from anywhere on your LAN or over the internet using cheap and easily available embedded routers. The RenderLab has updated and rewritten the previous Kismet Drone guide for modern builds of OpenWRT and Kismet Newcore and decided to release it ahead of HOPE and Defcon for 30 days to the Informer.