Keren Elazari

Early Life

Keren Elazari was born in 1981 and grew up in Tel Aviv, Israel. Her father, Ami Elazari, is the CEO of an electric company and a former member of Unit 8200, the intelligence arm of the Israel Defense Forces. Her mother works for an airline. Internet access arrived in Tel Aviv when Elazari was around eleven or twelve years old, and she has described learning English and discovering hacking through online chat rooms during that period. In 1995, at age fourteen, she saw the film Hackers, whose portrayal of young hackers as heroic figures she credits as a formative inspiration for pursuing a path as a white-hat hacker.

Education and Military Service

Elazari was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces and requested a role in information security. She served for a total of ten years — in both the standing army and the reserves — as a cybersecurity officer in the intelligence arm. She subsequently attended Tel Aviv University, earning a Bachelor of Arts in history and philosophy of science and ideas, followed by a Master of Arts in security studies. She also holds the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification, which she obtained in 2007.

Career

Elazari holds a position as a senior researcher at Tel Aviv University's Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center, where her research focuses on cyberwarfare and politics. She served as a teaching fellow at Singularity University in California from 2012 through at least 2018. Outside academia, she has worked as a security consultant and white-hat hacker, and has held roles including security specialist and industry analyst at Gigaom Research, as well as adviser to the cryptocurrency technology company Epiphyte.

Elazari organizes BSides Tel Aviv, a hacking and cybersecurity research conference, and runs a professional meetup for women in cybersecurity. In 2004, she co-organized Y2hack4, the second Israeli hackers conference, alongside Neora Shem-Shaul.

Notable Work and Speaking

Elazari is perhaps best known for her 2014 TED Talk, titled "Hackers: The Internet's Immune System," in which she argued for the positive role hackers play in strengthening cybersecurity and discussed the ethics of hacking and the importance of constructive engagement between hackers, governments, and private companies. The talk made her the first Israeli woman to give a TED Talk. That same year, she spoke at DEF CON 22, delivering a presentation titled "Empowering Hackers to Create a Positive Impact." In 2015, she spoke at the Atlantic Security Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Elazari has written for publications including Scientific American and Wired, and contributed to the 2016 book Women In Tech: Take Your Career to the Next Level with Practical Advice and Inspiring Stories, published by Sasquatch Books.

Recognition

Elazari's 2014 TED Talk brought her significant international visibility and established her as a prominent public voice on the constructive potential of hacker culture. Her milestone as the first Israeli woman to give a TED Talk has been noted in coverage of her work, including a 2015 profile in Haaretz.