WHY2025

Chris van 't Hof

Chris is one of the co-founder of DIVD and Managing Director since 1 January 2022. He entered cyber security through his experience as researcher and wrote two books on Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure: “Helpful Hackers” (2016) and “Cyberellende was nog nooit zo leuk” (2021). With his unusual background in electrical engineering and sociology, he analyzes how human and electronic networks interact. As presenter he took the stage over 700 times and organized and hosted many talk shows, such as Hack Talk (2017-2022). Combining these experiences and skills he also provides cyber crisis management training to a broad range of organizations. You may say this is not a typical background for a Managing Director, but it works for DIVD. Chris perceives himself not as the boss, but rather a translator who explains to the outside world how hackers can help and aims to provide nerds a safe space to do their thing. At previous camps he was Team Lead Music and radio host.


Session

08-10
15:00
50min
Hack the Grid. Disclosing vulnerabilities to help prevent blackouts
Chris van 't Hof

The European electricity network has become a ‘smart grid.’ This offers many opportunities for sustainability but also makes our energy system more vulnerable to digital attacks. DIVD has been conducting research into vulnerabilities in charging stations, solar panel inverters, home batteries, and Energy Management Systems. In this talk, we will demonstrate how we could have generated power outages using these zero-days and how we prevent this by disclosing them responsibly.

Hacking
Andromeda