RESEARCH LESSONS FROM HARDWARE HACKING.

The article focuses on computer hardware hacking and the methods and rationales for this practice. A computer hardware hacker operates in a mode that is the opposite of an academic researcher, the author argues. The author focuses on the hacking work of Andrew Huang while he was a Ph.D. candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Huang worked on taking apart the hardware of Microsoft's original Xbox game device in 2001. His work identified potential security vulnerabilities of the device and gave Microsoft insight into what computer hackers may choose to do with such devices.