Information AboutHacktivism |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT HACKTIVISM | |
| activism | |
| hacking computer security | |
| politics and technology | |
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Hacktivist activities span many political ideals and issues. Freenet is a prime example of translating political thought (anyone should be able to speak) into code. Hacktivist.net is an example of hacktivism in action. Surveillance and Privacy in an era of increased technological surveilance and widescale use of propaganda and mind control by governments and corporations (where it is called advertising). Hacktivism is a controversial term. Some argue it was coined to describe how electronic Direct Action might work toward Social Change by combining Programming skills with Critical Thinking . Others use it as practically synonymous with Malicious , Destructive acts that undermine the Security of the Internet as a Technical , Economic , and Political Platform . Essentially, the controversy reflects two divergent philosophical strands within the hacktivist movement. One strand thinks that malicious cyber-attacks are an acceptable form of direct action. The other strand thinks that all protest should be peaceful and non-violent. CONTROVERSY Some people describing themselves as hacktivists have taken to Defacing websites for political reasons, such as attacking and defacing government websites as well as web sites of groups who oppose their Ideology . Others, such as Oxblood Ruffin (the " Foreign Affairs minister" of Hacktivismo), have argued forcefully against definitions of hacktivism that include web defacements or Denial-of-service Attack s ( {Link without Title} ). Critics suggest that DoS attacks are an attack on free speech; that they have unintended consequences; that they waste resources; and that they could lead to a "DoS war" which nobody will win. In 2006, Blue Security attempted to automate a DoS attack against spammers; this led to a massive DoS attack against Blue Security which knocked them, their old ISP and their DNS provider off the internet, destroying their business. {Link without Title} Depending on who is using the term, hacktivism can be a politically constructive form of Anarchist civil disobedience or a no defined anti-systemical gesture; it can signal Anticapitalist or political protest; it can denote anti- Spam activists, security experts, or Open Source advocates. Critics of hacktivism fear that the lack of a clear agenda makes it a politically immature gesture, while those given to Conspiracy Theory hope to see in hacktivism an attempt to precipitate a crisis situation online. NOTABLE HACKTIVIST EVENTS
"Hacktivism is at least as old as October 1989 when DOE, HEPNET and SPAN (NASA) connected VMS machines world wide were penetrated by the anti-nuclear WANK worm, which changed the system announcement banner to be:
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