Canada’s Flipper Zero ban: once again, politicians show they know nothing about technology
Following the lead of countries like Brazil and platforms such as Amazon, now Canada has banned the Flipper Zero, a multi-functional digital device that has generated fascination and controversy in the tech world. This decision, driven by concerns related to car security, garage doors and hacking in general, raises fundamental questions about the balance between technological innovation and protecting society.
The Flipper Zero, described by its creators as a Swiss Army Knife for hackers, has a wide range of features, from RFID card emulation to interaction with a range of wireless systems, and is fully open source. Designed as a pentesting tool for technology enthusiasts, its criminal potential cannot be ignored. I bought mine when I read the first article about it more than two years ago: in my innovation course, I study hacking (people skilled in a given technology achieving their goals by non-standard means) as one of the fundamental aspects of innovation and innovative cultures, and having a Flipper Zero made it possible for me to go one step further from my usual practice of lock-picking (Yes, lock-picking. And yes, in a business school classroom. And if you don’t get it, it means you know nothing about teaching innovation :-)
