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Hacktivism, which is derived from the words ‘Hack’ and ‘Activism’, is the act of hacking or breaking into a computer system for political or social reasons. A hacktivist is defined as someone who engages in hacktivism. The hacktivist who does such acts as defacing an organization’s website or disclosing that organization’s information intends to send a message and raise awareness for a cause they support.
Who Do Hacktivists Target?
Hacktivists frequently target government organizations, multinational corporations, or any other entity deemed ‘evil’ or ‘wrong’ by the hacktivist group or individual. Of course, acquiring illegal access to any organization’s assets through such operations is a criminal offense, regardless of the aim.
What motivates hacktivists?
Hacktivism is mostly motivated by an individual’s or group’s perspective of what they regard to be ‘wrong’ or ‘unjust’, which motivates them to take action. Revenge, political or social incentives, ideology, protest, a desire to disgrace certain organizations or persons inside those organizations, and even pure vandalism are all possible motivations.
In general, hacker groups seek to question, confront, and criticize governments, institutions, and businesses that contradict their moral beliefs.
Who is ‘Anonymous’?
There are numerous hacktivist groups throughout the world, each working toward a different, but sometimes shared, objective of disrupting or revealing the inner workings of government or commercial institutions in the name of transparency and the public good. The most well-known of these hacktivist groups is ‘Anonymous’.
The ‘Anonymous’ hacktivist group, founded in 2008, sprang to prominence after a video starring Tom Cruise was leaked on YouTube, exposing the Church of Scientology organization. Following attempts from Church of Scientology executives to remove the video, Anonymous followed with a Distributed Denial of Service attack, which knocked down the Church’s website.
Since then, the organization has continued their campaigns of nonviolent online demonstrations with a steady stream of DDoS attacks, including targeting the terrorist group ISIS in their quest to deliver their brand of justice to the globe.
Hacktivism in the News
Anonymous has been responsible for some of the largest hacktivist attacks in recent history, with 2011 seeing a significant increase in acts against the threat to internet transparency. The group also successfully broke into a number of corporations and security agency servers, disabled government security sites, stole sensitive information such as credit card numbers, and defaced commercial websites. They were not carrying out these crimes for the perpetrator’s own financial or personal gain, but for the greater good, demonstrating opposition to internet censorship and control.
Additional prominent groups include LuzSec, a spinoff of the Anonymous group, which carried out operations against Fox.com, the Sony Playstation Network, and the CIA, stealing important passwords and private user data and taking networks offline.
In 2012, the political whistleblower website Wikileaks retaliated against Amazon, PayPal, Visa, and Mastercard, who had been pressured by the US government to suspend services in order to discourage supporters from giving to the hacktivist movement. The retaliation took the form of DDoS attacks, which shut down these sites and caused significant economic losses.
Despite global government attempts, hacktivism has evolved into a formidable force capable of causing widespread damage.
