Sarah Leonetti

Professor Ferrara

English 1001

11 November 2021

Hire the Hackers! Rhetoric Analysis

Cybercriminals: the hardest to catch, and nobody can keep up. From Well-known

companies, like Fox News and Sony, to the government of Turkey and agencies like the CIA:

anything can and will be hacked. Misha Glenny, a British crime journalist, explores the

cybercriminal world in his TedTalk “Hire the Hackers!” and profiles six hackers for the audience

to get a better understanding of who these masterminds really are. Glenny has written many

books about the criminal underworld and Eastern Europe. Instead of funding billions of dollars

to fix these cyber issues, Glenny argues that the government could use these same hackers that

discovered the bug and use their skills to prevent similar issues from reoccurring. The TedTalk

platform is well-known across Europe and the United States, so Glenny was aware he could

reach a large audience. Additionally, being nominated to speak on such a large, honored platform

for the second time denotes authority; Glenny already established his credibility before stepping

on stage- this was his second TedTalk on crime. This speech was directed towards Western

governments that have not taken advantage of the cybercriminal superpowers they have at their

disposal; countries like Russia and China have already instituted this strategy of stabilizing

hackers for government use. The lecture was not only to convince lawmakers to amend the

punishment towards cybercriminals but for the public to support Glenny’s stance to make this

change easier. Overall, Glenny’s goal was to persuade his audience to reform these criminals for

public use, instead of locking them away. Glenny effectively establishes that hackers deserve to
be rehabilitated to solve government cybersecurity issues instead of being incarcerated, through

reasoning with the audience, appealing to their sense of sympathy and competition, and

supporting his stance with a credible source.

As Glenny profiles the six hackers, he finds two common themes among them to help

explain why hackers happen to turn to the dark side and how they become so manifested in their

field so the audience can better understand them. First, all six of the hackers developed their

skills in their childhood, giving them plenty of time to hone their craft and explore the cyber

world. However, this involvement at such a young age when their conscience was not fully

developed directed hackers off the beaten path and towards the immoral side of cybersecurity.

Secondly, Glenny noticed that most of the profiled hackers had a social handicap, which then

turned them to the internet. There, they could express other skills and gain confidence in a place

that involved no human interaction. This disconnect from the outside world leads them to be so

successful in their field. Furthermore, the speaker supports his point with another credible source

to emphasize how the hackers got involved in the cyberworld, and to showcase that the hackers

should not be viewed as horrible people just because of their crimes. Glenny provides evidence

from Sir Simon Baron-Cohen, a professor of Developmental Psychopathology at Cambridge,

that these traits observed in the hackers are similar to symptoms of Asperger’s: strong in STEM

and an intense focus but struggles with social cues (Glenny 00:16:32). Social handicaps and

disabilities like Autism are common in the cyberworld. Glenny argues that these hackers have

not had the treatment and help they deserve, so they do not deserve to be locked up because of it.

While explaining the background of the hackers, the lecturer heavily emphasizes on the

difficult childhoods some of the hackers had, along with social issues that elevated this burden.

Through this logic, the speaker is trying to appeal to the audience’s value of compassion. For
instance, Glenny uses hacker Renukanth Subramanian’s (Jilsi) story to speak to the audience on

a closer level and destroy their previous assumptions of hackers in general. He announces that at

eight years old, JiLsi had to flee his home country of Sri Lanka because his kind was being

threatened and killed. At the age of thirteen, JiLsi was sent to Britain as a refugee (Glenny

00:11:34). The bullying Subramanian faced due to his social handicap pushed him towards the

cyberworld: an escape from reality. Not only can the audience sympathize with the hacker, but,

in some cases, they could even relate to being bullied for their differences. Therefore, viewers

would find this tactic appealing to them if they were able to relate to Subramaniam. Furthermore,

by stating that JiLsi was introduced to hacking at a young age to escape the outside world, it

displays they never got the treatment needed to overcome his traumatic childhood. This

reasoning would also spark the listener’s compassion and lead them to be more understanding

towards why these people turned to crime. Therefore, by breaking down the view of hackers

being “criminals” and establishing them as socially handicapped, the audience will be more open

to rehabilitation.

Within his pathos appeal, Glenny was able to incorporate ethos, by citing different

experts of their perspective fields that supported his vision. In discussing the common trait of

Asperger’s in hackers, the speaker refers to the work of a famous British psychologist, Sir Simon

Baron-Cohen. Baron-Cohen recently received the rank of knighthood in England, to display his

hard work and honor in British society. He also won the Kane-Asperger medal in 2011, to

reward his significant accomplishments in the autism field (“Professor Sir Simon Baron-Cohen”

, 2021). Since Glenny was presenting in Scotland, he knew that his in-person audience would be

aware of Baron-Cohen’s status and credibility, along with many across Europe and the United
States. Therefore, by using an authoritative and familiar source, Glenny’s audience would be

more convinced of his argument.

By using both logos and pathos, the presenter sparks a feeling of inadequacy in the mind

of the viewers, by comparing them to their eastern counterparts. As mentioned earlier, the main

audience of this text is countries like the United Kingdom and the United States in the Western

hemisphere, that have not already taken advantage of Glenny’s proposal. In his speech, the

British journalist starts off this topic with the exact words, “let me be blunt about this” (Glenny

00:16:97). This depicts that what he is about to say next might tip the audience the wrong way,

but Glenny believes this information is crucial to support his point. Following that remark, he

mentions that Eastern powers like Russia and China recruit hackers before and after they have

become involved in crime to work for the state. At first glance, this statement can be seen as a

logical fallacy; convincing Western countries to copy what another group is doing can be seen as

an Ad populum/Bandwagon Appeal. However, after understanding the background of these two

countries, it is evident why this argument would persuade the audience. To clarify, both the U.S

and the U.K. along with many other Western countries, have unfavorable views about Russia and

China, concerning opinions on government and policies. All four of these countries are

considered some of the most powerful in the world as of now; the United States and the United

Kingdom refuse to be seen as inferior. Therefore, by making this statement, Glenny utilizes the

pathos appeal, while inspiring a competitive feeling in the audience to persuade them to support

Glenny’s position. Not only is this piece of evidence classified as pathos, but it can also be

considered as logos. The presenter was stating a fact: many other countries, like China and

Russia, have already instituted the policy of employing hackers for state use instead of jailing

them. In the FBI’s 2020 Internet Crime Report, it was reported that the U.S. had an increase of
300,000 cybercrime incidents from 2019 to 2020 (“IC3 Releases 2020 Internet Crime Report”

2021) . It is evident that the U.S. has not been able to decrease the number of internet crimes by

itself. Glenny sees this, hence persuading the Western countries to use the hackers to their

benefit.

Our world today is heavily impacted by the internet: who controls the internet can control

the world. Misha Glenny persuades the audience in his TedTalk to utilize hackers for the benefit

of the government, instead of paying billions in taxpayer dollars to repair these issues and

locking these masterminds away. Through the pathos technique, Glenny appeals to the

audience’s sense of sympathy; he profiles six hackers to highlight their background/mental

disabilities, breaking down the assumption that these cybercriminals are immoral people who

deserved to be jailed. Within this appeal, he was able to incorporate ethos by using the studies of

a famous physiologist to support his point. Finally, the speaker used both logos and pathos with

the speaker’s tone/diction to inspire a competitive feeling in the audience, along with using

context to reason with the listeners and eventually persuade them. Glenny did his job: informing

the public about a powerful technique to lower cybercrime. Now, it is in the hands of the people

to make an informed decision on how to stop such a fast-growing threat.

 Works Cited

“IC3 Releases 2020 Internet Crime Report.” FBI, FBI, 17 Mar. 2021,
https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-releases-the-internet-crime-
complaint-center-2020-internet-crime-report-including-covid-19-scam-statistics.

“Professor Sir Simon Baron-Cohen.” Autism Research Centre, Cambridge University, 4 Jan. 2021,
https://www.autismresearchcentre.com/staff/simon-baron-cohen/

Glenny, Misha. “Hire the Hackers!” Ted, uploaded by Ted Conferences, July 2011,
https://www.ted.com/talks/misha_glenny_hire_the_hackers?language=en#t-998118