Denis Periša
Denis Periša (born July 23, 1983) is a political activist, whistle blower and computer hacker from Šibenik, Croatia. He was convicted and criminally charged[1][2][3][4] in September 1999. He was forbidden to use any form of computer systems or the internet for hacking the e-mail of politician Veselin Pejnović while planting a backdoor to his network. He founded the computer security website Jezgra.org in 1997. In 2005, he founded ŠI-WIFI wireless, an organization that was formed for his town.[5][6]
Denis Periša | |
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Born | Denis Periša July 23, 1983 |
Nationality | Croatian |
Citizenship | Croatian |
Occupation | computer hacker • whistle blower |
Known for | Hactivism |
Movement | Anonymous |
Relatives | Tina Periša (sister) |
Website | www |
Activism
During the COVID-19 pandemic, as part of a group, Periša made 3D-printed face shields for the local hospitals in Drniš and Knin.[7][8][9][10][11][12]
Law and order
Beginning in 2017, Periša worked on cases for local police and DORH (the state attorney) by coming across and prosecuting online bullies and people spreading hate with possible use of physical violence towards others. He spoke about how to report such crimes on national television.[13][14][15][16] Shortly after that, he was threatened and was put under police protection.[17][18] Later on, he searched for fugitive Ivica Todorić and the servers Todorić used.[19]
Political standoff
In August 2010, Periša claimed that he blew the whistle on the Social Democratic Party (SDP) for overspending the local municipal budget on a wireless network.[20] He informed the city mayor privately,[21] to which the mayor replied roughly with no interest.[22] Periša then publicly confronted city Mayor Ante Županović[23] to accuse him of stealing public money.[24]
He turned out to be right in 2013 after a local news paper tested out the existing wireless network and concluded it was not working.[25] After the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) took power, Periša was appointed to rebuild and maintain the local city wireless, which he did in late 2014.[26]
Anonymous group
After a decade of claiming to lead hacking groups, Periša claims he finally joined the Anonymous group firstly fighting against ACTA and similar acts.[27] He encourages people to use Linux OS for lower power consumption and better power saving, if for no other reason.[28] On June 4, 2015, Periša appeared on a Skype interview for the Alter EGO show talking about the internet and anonymously representing himself as one of the internet freedom fighters.[29]
Innovations and Technology
LoRaWAN
In January 2019, Periša built and installed a new type of sensor network for the town of Šibenik. The technology is LoRaWAN and it's based on an 868Mhz version for this part of the world. Grad Šibenik was the first town to do such a thing in this part of the world.[30][31][32][33]
Biohacking
On 7 October Periša implanted an xNT NFC chip in his hand and was the first to speak about it on national television and other media.[34]
Wireless
Periša was the founder and president of the ŠI-WIFI organization from 21 July 2005 until 20 November 2017, when it was closed and a new city network was established.[35]
Periša built a free town wireless network with city funds in April 2014. The network was placed on 10 public nodes with 30 public antennas and access points.[36][37]
Public appearances
In 2014 Periša began appearing at conferences, giving a guest lecture at the Split Film Festival (STFF) on the subject of "Hacking and (Privacy) Protection".[38][39][40] He was interviewed about the same subject by H-Alter magazine with the subject "Table to table via smartphones", commenting on his previous work and the WikiLeaks arrests which had taken place shortly before that.[41]
In the summer of 2014, Periša was invited to do a video presentation on the island of Prvić with the subject of hacking and creative thinking.[42]
Periša conducted a live hack on the RTL television channel and did a demonstration of an MITM attack on 14 May 2019.[43][44][45][46]
In November 2019[47] Periša gave a live presentation and lecture on "Potrošači Digitalnog Doba" in Split, Croatia, on the subject of personal protection and Internet news, hacks and biohacking.[48][49][50]
References
- Večernji list, September 17, 1999 "Sixteen-year-old hacker broke in to personal computer and network of Veselin Pejnović"
- Jutarnji list, September 18, 1999 "Hackers are thieves"
- Slobodna Dalmacija, September 18, 1999 "Break in program of Veselin Pejnović was accidental"
- Slobodna Dalmacija, September 19, 1999 "Šibenik hacker gets criminally charged"
- Slobodna Dalmacija, May 23, 2014 "Šibenik city core covered by WIFI"
- Metro Express, March 15, 2007 (local) "They use WIFI to wirelessly network whole town of Šibenik"
- "Denis plans to make face shields for the local hospital" sibenik.in, March 24, 2020
- "Drniš hospital gets 3D-Printed face-shields donation" Radio Drniš, April 8, 2020
- "First 3D-Printed faceshields went to Murter" sibenik.in, March 26, 2020
- "Denis plays his part in coronavirus outbreak" sibenik.in, March 24, 2020
- "3D printers work day and night for hospitals" Slobodna Dalmacija, March 26, 2020
- "Computer experts and designers in fight against coronavirus" morski.hr, March, 2020
- HRT (Croatian National Television), about how to report hate speech HRT (national television), April 10, 2017
- Denis in Labirint on HRT about working with state attorney (available on demand) Labirint, HRT (national television) April 10, 2017
- "DarkMan files report on guy endorsing killing" Slobodna Dalmacija, March 30, 2017(local)
- Working with DORH 100posto.hr, March 29, 2017
- "Day after reporting Denis ended up under police protection" prvi.hr March 30, 2017
- The following day, Periša needed and received police protection. republika.eu, March 30, 2017
- "In a few minutes I found the location of Todorić server" 100posto.hr, October 26, 2017
- "City gave money to their local Social Democratic Party member for nothing" Šibenski List, August 14, 2010
- Correspondence with city Mayor which Periša sent prior to building wireless network PDF
- Correspondence – city mayor replies to Denis Scanned letter
- "Ante Županović – new city Mayor" T-portal, June 15, 2009
- "With 50.000kn I could network three towns, not just one" Slobodna Dalmacija, August 11, 2010
- "City wireless is non-working" Novi Tjednik, September 25, 2013
- "Denis covers city core with wi-fi signal" Slobodna Dalmacija, May 22, 2014
- "Anonymous are modern Robin Hoods" sibenik.in, February 22, 2012
- "Savings: Denis advices switch to Linux" mok.hr, November 04, 2010
- Alter EGO 04.06.2015 Alter_EGO, June 04, 2015
- "Sibenik just entered the future of the Internet" sibenik.in, March 17, 2019
- "Sibensko Kninske Kronike 08" youtube.com, February 24, 2019
- "Sibenik and LoRaWAN future" sibenski.slobodnadalmacija.hr, March 03, 2019 (local)
- "Official The Things Network Sibenik Site" TTN Network, Jan, 2019
- "First Croatian Cyberfinger" Jutarnji.hr, Oct, 2019 (local)
- official document
- "Mother of all networks" sibenskiportal.rtl.hr, April 27, 2014 (local)
- "City covered with wifi network" sibenskiportal.rtl.hr, May 23, 2014
- "Hacking and (Privacy) Protection – lecture". splitfilmfestival.hr. September 4, 2014.
- "Denis Periša is giving lecture on hacking on Split Film Festival" sibenik.in, September 04, 2014
- Organizer mentioning Denis Periša as a guest speaker of STFF in local newspaper Slobodna Dalmacija, September 13, 2014
- "Table to table via smartphones" H-Alter, September 19, 2014
- "In search of lost communication" tris.com.hr, October 10, 2014
- "DARKMAN shows how to hack mobile phone or some profile" RTL TELEVISION, May 14, 2019
- "At 16 he hacked a politician and is now working for police" sibenik.in, May 14, 2019
- "Croatian hacker showed how he can hack your mobile phone" POSLOVNI.hr, May 14, 2019
- "Hrvatski haker pokazao kako vam može provaliti u mobitel". index.hr (in Croatian). May 14, 2019.
- "Udruga Zvonimir" Udruga Zvonimir, November 27, 2019. (local)
- "Potrošači digitalnog doba conference" hup.hr, November 25, 2019
- "Famous hacker on lecture in Split" Slobodna Dalmacija, November 26, 2019
- "Central Consumers Portal Croatia" Središnji portal za potrošače, November 2019