Denis Periša

Denis Periša (born July 23, 1983) is a political activist, whistle blower and computer hacker from Šibenik, Croatia. He was convicted and criminally charged in September 1999. He was forbidden to use computer systems or internet for hacking e-mail of politician Veselin Pejnović and planting backdoor to his network. He founded the computer security website Jezgra.org in 1997 that is still active today. Founder of ŠI-WIFI wireless organization for his town in late 2005. Later in his life he became politically involved and was accused but never proven that he was working with local police and Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). Denis is also a DJ, a photographer and recently a writer writing book called "My first suicide".

Childhood

Periša was raised in the Šibenik , Croatia, with his sister Tina. Periša became interested in computers at an early age, programming in Basic by age thirteen doing small games on Commodore 128, and forming hacking groups at age fifteen in local computer club.

Medical condition

In early childhood he had medical condition with right lung. After surgery he was unable to vaccinate against common illness and shortly after he got Tetanus after a cat scratched him. He was saved by former military officer of Yugoslav army (JNA) who ordered military helicopter for him to be sent from Šibenik to Zagreb for emergency and life saving medical care. After many years he fully recovered but physical scars of surgery and Tracheotomy on his neck is left as a reminder of near death experience. As he lost most of his childhood due to hospitalization he became almost autistic and acquired very asocial behavior due to lack of socialization.

Education

He often skipped school and didn't like to attend it for they had nothing to teach him. After he was arrested his mom was delighted that he shows interest in computer science and called local firm "Ciam" which said "we cannot teach your son anything more, he could train our technicians". He went to numerous of schools and was never tied to any craft. He found photography to be most interesting skill he could learn and he attended two-year of high school. When he had nothing more to learn he dropped out and never attended public school again.

Music

Denis has a lifelong interest in hip-hop music, performing as DJ in band some the years back in 2006. Later on he was DJ in few near towns and co-founder of "Zadar Muzika" with many hosted events. Denis also started making his own rap songs and doing hip-hop production with former Yugoslavia countries.

Computer security

Denis founded the computer security website Jezgra.org at age 15. Throughout his life he was involved in public speaking and hacktivism along with activism.
Local media claimed he was the first Croatian hacker. He was in constant conflict with those who did not want to speak truth or wanted to censure the Internet. Denis got very dark reputation but for local media once stated "I'm not as bad as they say".

He was often guilty for various online scandals like for hacking folk music websites. But also his computer skills were recognized after building firmware that could improve wireless strength of device (SE515 by Siemens) that was popular and very spread out in Croatia and that part of Europe.

He was often critical about Croatia secret services that they have no clue what is going on and are not prepared for current century.

Political standoff

On August 2010, Denis publicly whistle blew Social Democratic Party (SDP) for overspending local city budget on town wireless network saying that they are throwing away money and giving it to their party member and it will all be for nothing. He privately mailed city Mayor on which Mayor replied rough with no interest. That gave Denis steam to publicly confront city Mayor Ante Županovićand said they are stealing money.

He turned out to be right in 2013 after local news paper tested out existing wireless network and concluded it was not working. After local political scene changed to Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) it became apparent that Denis will be next man in charge of rebuilding and maintaining local city wireless as most competent. So he did just that in late 2014.

Anonymous

After decade of leading hacking groups Denis finally joined Anonymous group firstly fighting against ACTA and similar acts. He endorse and motivate people to start using Linux OS if nothing then for lower power consumption and better power saving. On June 4, 2015 Denis appeared on skype interview for "Alter EGO" show talking about internet and anonymous representing himself as one of internet freedom fighters.

Atheism

Denis is declared atheist and is strongly opposed to Catholic church. Lately Denis introduced himself to public as one of atheist activist in his home town. -"Atheist wing of Croatia in starts its branch in town Šibenik"

ACTA

In early 2012 Denis was strongly against ACTA and similar acts claiming that if we start to censor Internet, we can say goodbye to democracy.

STFF (SpliT Film Festival)

In 2014 Denis started public speaking on some conferences. He was first invited to lecture in Split, Croatia on STFF (Split Film Festival) as a guest speaker with subject "HACKING AND THE (PRIVACY) PROTECTION" lasting two hours. After which he gave interview with same subject to H-Alter magazine with subject "Table to table via smartphones" where he commented all his previous work along with recent WikiLeaks arrests.

KDFV (Creative Days of Faust Vrančić)

On summer 2014 Denis was invited to do another video presentation public speaking, this time on island Prvić with subject of hacking and creative thinking.

Photo lecture (Domald)

Another video presentation public speaking, this time in public caffe bar "Domald" in Šibenik with subject of basic and advanced photography.