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Gustaf Björksten

Chief Technologist

Gustaf has been gaining professional experience as a technologist and information security specialist since 1994, most recently in the area of surveillance technology. He has worked in many different ICT environments and reckons he has seen just about everything. He has worked for dot com startups, led from the front during the internet boom, and endured the dot com bust. He has worked for small companies, rapidly growing companies, and very large corporations in the computer games, education, ISP, pharmaceutical, telecoms, and financial sectors. From 2001-2005 he founded and ran a hackerspace in Melbourne, Australia that housed over 150 computers of every size, description and platform. That hackerspace was also the base from which anti-net-censorship, no-net-tax, anti-war, and other activist campaigns were fought. He is glad to be given the opportunity to apply his technical experience to defend and extend digital human rights for all people.

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Closing the backdoor to Australia

27 Sep 2017

No government should make it any easier to breach encrypted systems.

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Closing the backdoor to Australia
27 Sep 2017
Closing the backdoor to Australia

Join Access Now’s team: Systems Admin and Sub-Saharan African Policy Analyst

26 Jan 2017

Are you the right person for one of these roles? Take a look and apply!

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Join Access Now’s team: Systems Admin and Sub-Saharan African Policy Analyst
26 Jan 2017
Join Access Now’s team: Systems Admin and Sub-Saharan African Policy Analyst
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We can’t let governments hack away our human rights

8 Sep 2016

Governments across the globe have gone rogue with hacking. We need to put legal limits in place to protect people, or we’ll see the damage continue to escalate.

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We can’t let governments hack away our human rights
8 Sep 2016
We can’t let governments hack away our human rights
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Zero rating: a global threat to the open internet

4 Jun 2016

We discuss two primary models for “zero rating” — both of which are a form of network discrimination and harm human rights.

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Zero rating: a global threat to the open internet
4 Jun 2016
Zero rating: a global threat to the open internet
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Vietnam blocks Facebook and cracks down on human rights activists during Obama visit

23 May 2016

Vietnam has blocked Facebook during U.S. President Obama’s visit to the country and cracked down on human rights activists.

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Vietnam blocks Facebook and cracks down on human rights activists during Obama visit
23 May 2016
Vietnam blocks Facebook and cracks down on human rights activists during Obama visit
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Tor under threat in France

11 Dec 2015

Why banning Tor is a terrible idea for human rights and privacy.

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Tor under threat in France
11 Dec 2015
Tor under threat in France
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Facebook implements strong encryption, fortifies the platform for human rights

16 Oct 2015

Facebook has made security and privacy enhancements to its platform, implementing strong encryption for its email notifications.

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Facebook implements strong encryption, fortifies the platform for human rights
16 Oct 2015
Facebook implements strong encryption, fortifies the platform for human rights
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Defending users at risk from DDoS attacks: An evolving challenge

3 Sep 2015

Gustaf Björksten discusses the evolving challenge of helping Digital Security Helpline clients fight off Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.

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Defending users at risk from DDoS attacks: An evolving challenge
3 Sep 2015
Defending users at risk from DDoS attacks: An evolving challenge
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A Torifying Tale: Our experiences building and running Tor servers

18 Aug 2015

Gustaf Björksten presents “A Torifying Tale,” discussing five things Access Now has learned by running Tor exit nodes.

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A Torifying Tale: Our experiences building and running Tor servers
18 Aug 2015
A Torifying Tale: Our experiences building and running Tor servers

As Istanbul protests continue, government turns off live camera feeds from Taksim

1 Jun 2013

As Istanbul’s Taksim Square swelled with protesters on Friday night, local authorities seemingly disabled livestreams from the municipality’s ‘Turistik Kameralar,’ or Tourist Cameras, that showed views of the plaza. By scraping the feed, Access was able to identify when the camera was disabled, as well as evidence that seems to prove that the feeds were disabled deliberately, rather than collapsing under ‘viewer load.’

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As Istanbul protests continue, government turns off live camera feeds from Taksim
1 Jun 2013
As Istanbul protests continue, government turns off live camera feeds from Taksim