I have a confession to make: I’m not a hacker. At no point have I attempted to hijack my way onto someone else’s network or manipulate someone into giving me their password. Nor do I associate with people who do, or at least not to my knowledge.It’s clearer than ever: electric cars are the future. At this year’s Frankfurt Motor Show we saw brand new, desirable EVs from Audi and Porsche, and other viable ones from smaller companies such as Tesla and Thunder Power. If the Motor Show was anything to go by, the electric vehicle market is going to be an exciting and innovative place to be.However, amidst the buzz around the Audi, Porsche and Thunder Power stands, one word cut through the optimism: range.Electric cars give us freedom and zero emissions from the exhaust pipe, but their very power source – the battery – is also their biggest weakness.

Microsoft has announced that Windows 10 will come with a number of multi-platform features, signalling a move towards greater integration with Apple and Android devices.The new Cortana apps for Android and iPhone will work as a companion to Cortana on Windows 10, and everything stored in Cortana’s notebook will be made available across all devices.This comes alongside news that Windows 10 will feature a Phone Companion app that allows you to sync files and content on your PC with Windows, Android and Apple phones.With the OneDrive app set up on your phone, every picture you take will automatically show up on your Windows 10 PC. The updated Music app will similarly allow you to store and access music on OneDrive on your phone for free.

There will be a number of differences between Cortana on a Windows phone and the Cortana app. The Cortana app won’t be able to access system settings on Android and iOS, and you won’t be able to summon the assistant by saying "Hey Cortana”. A heated argument between Siri and Cortana is therefore unlikely.The move is clearly aimed at enticing Apple and Android users to Windows 10, although in a more general sense this level of cross-platform integration between competitors shows that collaboration isn’t to be sniffed at. The increasing sophistication of virtual assistants alongside the rising interconnectedness between PCs, laptops, phones and watches makes it highly likely that we’ll see more overlap in the future. And that can only be a good thing for the consumer.The thrill of cracking security, and of striking a symbolic blow against the establishment, can seem irresistible to tech-savvy British youngsters – but it’s an addiction that can end in a prison sentence. Welcome to the risky world of hacktivism.

Hackers with an axe to grind were 2011’s internet subculture stars.Hacktivism came to mainstream prominence three years ago, as the likes of Anonymous and spin-off LulzSec nabbed headlines with their "operations” against companies and government departments; "Operation Payback” targeted PayPal and MasterCard for not accepting payments for WikiLeaks, for example. Hackers with an axe to grind were 2011’s internet subculture stars.Their moment in the spotlight was short, however. Attacks against the FBI and the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) provoked the authorities into action, and they clamped down on hacktivists with a series of arrests and punishing prison sentences.It was 1am when the police burst into James Jeffery’s West Midlands home on a tip-off from fellow hacktivist (and now FBI informant) Sabu, more officially known as Hector Xavier Monsegur. They caught him red-handed – his laptop lay open with hacking programs running.

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"They took the door off – it was surreal,” Jeffery said. "I was in bed watching Family Guy and doing some hacking. I was using my laptop without a hard drive and was hacking things at the time."From all the noise and banging, I thought someone was robbing the house, so I jumped out of bed and ran down the stairs, and there were the police pointing tasers at me. I didn’t have the sense to pull the plug on the laptop because I didn’t realise it was the police, so I was caught with all this stuff on my computer.”Within days, Asperger’s sufferer Jeffery found himself in Wandsworth Prison; he was refused bail, to prevent him from covering his tracks or hacking further targets.He was eventually sentenced to 32 months for hacking the website of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), defacing it and stealing sensitive patient details. Although he didn’t follow through on threats to release the data, Jeffery accepts that his choice of target resulted in unnecessary grief for innocent people.

"The abortion clinic was the only thing [they] charged me with and that was the big thing. I started the operation because I didn’t agree with abortion,” he said. "I know now it was wrong to do what I did. It could have caused a lot of problems for people, especially if I’d gone public.In a way, I was happy that I was stopped before it went on to bigger things and I ended up with a longer sentence."I did deserve to get punished for that. At the time I was suffering with depression and drinking too much; my actions were becoming more reckless. In a way, I was happy that I was stopped before it went on to bigger things and I ended up with a longer sentence.”He added: "I didn’t expect such a harsh punishment, though.”

He’s not the only former hacktivist to show remorse, or to realise that attacks targeting large corporations often hurt individuals, since it’s the individuals’ data that’s being posted online. "There are regrets, not over the actions, but for the collateral damage caused to innocent people, those whose passwords were leaked,” said former LulzSec member Ryan Cleary, speaking at a Royal Court Theatre event to promote a new play depicting hacktivism, Teh Internet is Serious Business."They trusted their personal data to companies with disgustingly bad security. When those companies [were] targeted their stuff got leaked, so they got hurt more than the company,” he said. "You have to feel sorry for them and the way their accounts were abused.”However, at the time of the attacks, personal motivations overcame such concerns. "When you release something like ‘I defaced a US site’, it’s a nice feeling – a real adrenaline buzz that you’ve got the media attention,” said Jeffery. "You almost feel like you’re guarding the moment, because if you can access something you feel as if you could do anything you want.”

The acclaim and the buzz were what led Jeffery to more outrageous targets. "Towards the end, I was focusing more on how much I enjoyed the attention and I was doing bigger things to get more attention,” he said."It was still to do with my political feelings or causes, but the bigger the target – such as with government stuff – the bigger the thrill.”"It was still to do with my political feelings or causes, but the bigger the target – such as with government stuff – the bigger the thrill.”While Jeffery’s final target may have been misguided, he shares the feelings of other hacker group members in that he doesn’t regret taking part in operations that promoted causes or exposed truths.Participants in such online attacks feel the web and their skills give disaffected youngsters a platform to confront authorities, believing their actions can highlight issues and causes that aren’t covered in the mainstream media."I think hacktivism is a way for the public to have a voice. Anonymous was a global collaboration of hackers with the same interests, most of the time,” Jeffery said. "The only way to get the government to listen is to expose what it’s doing.

"Let the public see the truth. Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, Bradley Manning – they’re all heroes, risking their freedom and lives to expose the truth. Morally and ethically, that’s the correct thing to do. It’s in the public interest. If the government won’t tell you the truth, then take the truth.”While that may sound naive, some of the "operations” run by LulzSec and Anonymous did have a positive impact on the wider world. At the Royal Court Theatre event, four other convicted former LulzSec members underlined the group’s intentions to do "good things”, seeing themselves as modern-day Robin Hoods.

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One LulzSec operation that exemplifies more worthwhile goals was conducted in February 2011, when the team wrote code to disrupt international government attempts to restrict social media during civil unrest. "Countries such as Tunisia and Zimbabwe were censoring parts of the internet, especially activists on Facebook, and spying on them and taking their login details,” said Jake Davis (better known as Topiary)."We wrote a piece of code that countered their governments’ codes so people could still access the web. It would override the censorship and give them free use of the web,”"We wrote a piece of code that countered their governments’ codes so people could still access the web. It would override the censorship and give them free use of the web,” said Davis. "And we set up chatrooms, which they could use as a platform to share videos and thoughts.”The team was most proud of that operation because it was a collaborative form of support for the protesters, and "nothing illegal happened – it wasn’t hacking; it was just code writing”.

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