Tech Learning Collective

Technology education for radical organizers and revolutionary communities.

Hacking with Mr. Robot

Due to the loss of our physical venues during the COVID-19 pandemic, Tech Learning Collective course enrollment is paused. While you can still begin the enrollment process, please be aware that no future cohorts are scheduled at this time. Instead, we encourage you to participate in an a la carte workshop. View and subscribe to our events calendar to learn about upcoming virtual workshops.

Apply for pre-enrollment in SEC101

Let Mr. Robot teach you how to hack—and how to stop hackers from hacking you! In this course, we will use “Mr. Robot,” a TV show dramatizing the lives of rogue hackers in NYC with unparalleled technical accuracy, as a sort of introductory syllabus. Through discussion of the show, students will receive a contextualized introduction to how the tools, techniques, and procedures showcased in the TV episodes actually work in real life. During class, students will also have the opportunity to install the security tools depicted on screen to their own machines, as well as learn how to use those tools in “live-fire” lab environments against practice targets and fellow classmates. The course will cover all of Season 1, by which time students will have gotten a hands-on tour of various tools in the Kali Linux penetration testing distro, along with a better sense of how to separate fiction from reality in contemporary hacking dramas in pop culture.

Please note that this television show contains graphic and potentially triggering content.

As a supplement (or taste test) of the SEC101 course intensive, consider attending one or more of the following related workshops. These are stand-alone free, by-donation, or low-cost events that are either derived from or augment this course’s material. Since they are taught by the same instructor(s) as this course, these workshops provide a low-commitment way to get a feel for the fuller course itself as well as offer a chance for you to meet some of our teaching team.

Learn more about Tech Learning Collective workshops from our Workshops and Webinars FAQ.