Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/hLBfAVyeMBs

Throughout history, authorities have struggled to manage individuals’ urges to speak out against injustice and malpractice. IT has given us new means to obtain and publish data that others may wish to protect or even conceal. To some, those who hack and leak are heroes. To others, they are criminals. In an era of mass leaks and high-profile whistleblowing, who decides whether data thieves and hackers are to be protected or prosecuted? And are the old rules still fit for purpose in the digital age? This lecture will discuss these questions and will consider the moral case for stealing data.

This lecture was recorded by Victoria Baines on 20th May 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.

Victoria is IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology.

Victoria is a Senior Research Associate of the Intellectual Forum at Jesus College, Cambridge, a Senior Research Fellow of the British Foreign Policy Group, and a Fellow of the British Computer Society. She is also Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University’s School of Computing, a former Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University, and was a guest lecturer at Stanford University in 2019 and 2020. She is a graduate of Trinity College, Oxford and holds a doctorate from the University of Nottingham. She serves on the Safety Advisory Board of Snapchat, the Advisory Board of cybersecurity provider Reliance Cyber, and is a trustee of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation.

The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/moral-case-stealing-data

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