Digital Culture Blog 2

Digital Culture Blog 2:

Hacktivism

In the Internet age, activism and political discussion has shifted in a radical new direction. “Networks and Netwars: the Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy”, a book written by John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt refers to the concept of “hacktivism” as actions taken by individuals or groups on the internet to draw attentioerating is known simply as “Anonymous”. Anonymous had carried out many cyber attacks on ideologies that they disagree with or that they deem dangerous. One such example is Anonymous’s cyber attack on the church of scientology. According to liveScience.com, Anonymous hacked scientologist fax machines and web servers as attempts to smear and hinder scientology members (Wolchover, Natalie, page 2). This attack caused panic and confusion amongst scientology members, but ultimately did little damage to their organization. Not all hacktivist activities are innocent pranks, some can be quite sinister and cause massive panic.

In 2014, Sony pictures inc. came under attack from a massive malware virus and web attacks that leaked information of employees as well as financial information. According to TrendMicro.com, this cyber attack was the work of North Korea, who attacked Sony pictures as an attempt to prevent the release of the film “The Interview”. This is consider a hacktivist attack because it is an example of North Korea attempting to silence opposition to its own ideologies (The Hacks of Sony Pictures, page 1). North Korea succeeded in their virus attack as the movie went unreleased in theaters. This example shows how truly powerful hacktivist efforts can be. Other hacktivists campaign in righteous motives, with desires to uncover dangerous secrets.

Hacktivist Aaron Swartz fought for freedom of information when he attempted to leak documents from a legal database known as PACER. According to TheVerge.com, Swartz believed that by uncovering and releasing information and documents to the public, that he was fighting dangerous levels of governmental control (Bishop, Brian, Aaron Swartz’s Battle, Page 1). These leaks by Swartz lead to lengthy legal action, and sadly, to Swartz taking his own life. Swartz’s efforts and death lead to the authoring of multiple books and motivation of other information focused hacktivists.

The concept of hacktivism is a tricky and convoluted one. The Internet already legally provides wonderful research tools for activists looking to reach more people with their ideas. According to Networks and Netwars, the use of hacking can lead to terror attacks and a great deal of crime and suffering and has more often been used for terror than for any other reason (Arquilla, page 244). Hacktivism could be used for so called “noble” causes, however when hacktivism causes more suffering and harm than is necessary to advocate a certain message, it is not worth condoning. As we move further into the Internet era, we will see how hacktivist actions develop.

Works cited:

Denning, Dorothy E. "Activism, hacktivism, and cyberterrorism: The Internet as a tool for influencing foreign policy." Networks and netwars: The future of terror, crime, and militancy 239 (2001): 288.

Bishop, Bryan. “Aaron Swartz's battle to free the PACER legal document database.” The Verge, The Verge, 8 Feb. 2013, www.theverge.com/2013/2/8/3968824/aaron-swartzs-battle-to-free-the-pacer-legal-document-database.

“The Hack of Sony Pictures: What We Know and What You Need to Know.” The Hack of Sony Pictures: What We Know and What You Need to Know - Security News - Trend Micro USA, www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/news/cyber-attacks/the-hack-of-sony-pictures-what-you-need-to-know.

Wolchover, Natalie. “Best Hacks by the Hacktivist Group 'Anonymous'.” LiveScience, Purch, 11 Nov. 2011, www.livescience.com/33599-best-hacks-anonymous-hacktivism.html.