'Hack Back,' by Joyce Lee

With clapping back an official thing on social media, Oakland, Calif.-based "design researcher" Joyce Lee has tentatively titled her grant-winning "zine" publication "Hack Back," with a focus on the human aspects of cybersecurity. The zine is intended to educate and foster security awareness, including "accessible instructions for risk mitigation." (At last!)

Lee will use "Hack Back" to focus on cryptography, passwords, account management, and social engineering attacks with content that is "both playful and practical, activating cybersecurity awareness by directly engaging readers in provocative exercises," the CLTC grant winner says.

"Hack Back" will be published in a paper workbook format. Lee says the medium may not seem like the best choice to discuss digital security, but that paper's "antithetical nature is surprisingly appropriate for imagining alternative realities as well as reshaping security-related decision-making and behaviors," she wrote in her proposal. Lee pointed to paper publications such as "The Whole Earth Catalog," which in her view helped to shape early tech culture.

Lee will use her funding to bring the security-themed zine to Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Chicago, Toronto, and New York. She will distribute "Hack Back" at DIY events, workshops, libraries, bookstores, and other outlets. By leveraging public events, Lee seeks to empower those concerned with the effects of surveillance and ubiquitous computing but who may lack the technical literacy to identify threats and fashion a defense. Lee's zine format may be just the ticket for improved security for the masses.