Hacktivism
Encyclopedia
Hacktivism is the use of computers and computer networks as a means of protest to promote political ends. The term was first coined in 1994 by a member of the Cult of the Dead Cow
hacker collective named Omega. If hacking as "illegally breaking into computers" is assumed, then hacktivism could be defined as "the nonviolent use of legal and/or illegal digital tools in pursuit of political ends". These tools include web site defacements, redirect
s, denial-of-service attack
s, information theft, web site parodies
, virtual sit-in
s, typosquatting
and virtual sabotage
. If hacking as "clever computer usage/programming" is assumed, then hacktivism could be understood as the writing of code
to promote political ideology: promoting expressive politics
, free speech, human rights
, and information ethics
through software development
. Acts of hacktivism are carried out in the belief that proper use of code will be able to produce similar results to those produced by regular activism
or civil disobedience
.
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. Hacktivismo
is an offshoot of Cult of the Dead Cow
; its beliefs include access to information as a basic human right. The loose network of programmers, artists and radical militants 1984 network liberty alliance
is more concerned with issues of free speech, surveillance
and privacy
in an era of inceased technological surveillance.
Hacktivism is a controversial term, and since it covers a range of passive to active and non-violent to violent activities, it can often be construed as cyberterrorism. 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, refraining from destruction.
As a principle of political activism, reality hacking takes advantage of the insight of linguists and sociologists who argue that post-twentieth-century popular culture
in the advanced world has become particularly impervious to either positive or negative rethinking of community. Negative assertions about community—in the form of negative news stories and mass political protest
s—tend to fall on ears overloaded by daily tragedy in the news, even when the causes and facts they relate are valid and deserving. Positive reimaginings of community—in the form of utopia
n havens, alternative religious
or political structures, or idealistic protest against the status quo—equally tend to fall upon unbelieving ears of busy individuals who have already accepted the standards, sacrifices, and limits of the reality in which they normally operate.
As an alternative to these dead ends of twentieth-century political activism, reality hacking tries to capture the attention of individuals in their normal course of regular information consumption. It may involve attracting mass media
attention to an attention-getting fringe political issue
more liable to generate rethinking of cultural norms than standard debates to which the public has already become jaded. Or it may involve harnessing the means of information dissemination itself, using online information sources to disseminate alternative definitions of commonly accepted facts
.
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. Within the hacking community, those who carry out automated attacks are generally known as script kiddie
s.
Critics suggest that DoS attacks are an attack on free speech; that they have unintended consequence
s; that they waste resources; and that they could lead to a "DoS war" that 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.
Following denial-of-service
attacks by Anonymous
on multiple sites, in reprisal for the apparent suppression of Wikileaks
, John Perry Barlow
, a founding member of the EFF
, said "I support freedom of expression, no matter whose, so I oppose DDoS attacks regardless of their target... they're the poison gas of cyberspace...".
Depending on who is using the term, hacktivism can be a politically constructive form of anarchic
civil disobedience or an undefined anti-systemic 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.
W O R M S A G A I N S T N U C L E A R K I L L E R S
_______________________________________________________________
\__ ____________ _____ ________ ____ ____ __ _____/
\ \ \ /\ / / / /\ \ | \ \ | | | | / / /
\ \ \ / \ / / / /__\ \ | |\ \ | | | |/ / /
\ \ \/ /\ \/ / / ______ \ | | \ \| | | |\ \ /
\_\ /__\ /____/ /______\ \____| |__\ | |____| |_\ \_/
\___________________________________________________/
\ /
\ Your System Has Been Officially WANKed /
\_____________________________________________/
You talk of times of peace for all, and then prepare for war.
in an innovative or otherwise abnormal fashion for the purpose of conveying a message to as large a number of people as possible, primarily achieved via the World Wide Web
. A popular and effective means of media hacking is posting on a blog
, as one is usually controlled by one or more independent individuals, uninfluenced by outside parties. The concept of social bookmarking
, as well as Web-based Internet forum
s, may cause such a message to be seen by users of other sites as well, increasing its total reach.
Media hacking is commonly employed for political purposes, by both political parties and political dissidents
. A good example of this is the 2008 US Election, in which both the Democratic
and Republican
parties used a wide variety of different media in order to convey relevant messages to an increasingly Internet-oriented audience. At the same time, political dissidents used blog
s and other social media like Twitter
in order to reply on an individual basis to the Presidential candidates. In particular, sites like Twitter are proving important means in gauging popular support for the candidates, though the site is often used for dissident purposes rather than a show of positive support.
Mobile technology has also become subject to media hacking for political purposes. SMS
has been widely used by political dissidents as a means of quickly and effectively organising smart mobs
for political action. This has been most effective in the Philippines, where SMS media hacking has twice had a significant impact on whether or not the country's Presidents are elected or removed from office.
tools in pursuit of politically, socially or culturally subversive
ends. These tools include website defacement
s, URL redirection
s, denial-of-service attack
s, information theft, web-site parodies, virtual sit-in
s, and virtual sabotage
.
Art movements such as Fluxus
and Happening
s in the 1970s created a climate of receptibility in regard to loose-knit organizations and group activities where spontaneity, a return to primitivist behavior
, and an ethics where activities and socially-engaged art practices became tantamount to aesthetic concerns.
The conflation of these two histories in the mid-to-late 1990s resulted in cross-overs between virtual sit-ins, electronic civil disobedience
, denial-of-service attacks, as well as mass protests in relation to groups like the International Monetary Fund
and the World Bank
. The rise of collectivies, net.art
groups, and those concerned with the fluid interchange of technology and real life (often from an environmental concern) gave birth to the practice of "reality hacking".
The 1999 science fiction-action film The Matrix
is most responsible for popularizing the simulation hypothesis
—the suggestion that reality
is in fact a simulation
of which those affected by the simulants are generally unaware—and "reality hacking" as reading and understanding the code which represents the activity of the simulated reality environment
but also modifying it in order to bend the laws of physics within simulated reality
.
Reality hacking as a mystical practice is explored in the Gothic-Punk
aesthetics-inspired White Wolf
urban fantasy
role-playing game Mage: The Ascension
. In this game, the Reality Coders (also known as Reality Hackers or Reality Crackers) are a faction within the Virtual Adepts, a secret society of mages whose magick
revolves around digital
technology. They are dedicated to bringing the benefits of cyberspace
to real space
. To do this, they had to identify, for lack of a better term, the "source code
" that allows our Universe
to function. And that is what they have been doing ever since. Coders infiltrated a number of levels of society in order to gather the greatest compilation of knowledge ever seen. One of the Coders' more overt agendas is to acclimate the masses to the world that is to come. They spread Virtual Adept ideas through video games and a whole spate of "reality shows" that mimic virtual reality
far more than "real" reality. The Reality Coders consider themselves the future of the Virtual Adepts, creating a world in the image of visionaries like Grant Morrison
or Terence McKenna
.
In a location-based game
(also known as a pervasive game), reality hacking refers to tapping into phenomena that exist in the real world, and tying them into the game story universe.
Reality hacking relies on tweaking
the every-day communications most easily available to individuals with the purpose of awakening the political and community conscience
of the larger population. The term first came into use among New York and San Francisco artists, but has since been adopted by a school of political activists centered around culture jamming
.
Hactivists
Supporters and Organizations
Other
Cult of the Dead Cow
Cult of the Dead Cow, also known as cDc or cDc Communications, is a computer hacker and DIY media organization founded in 1984 in Lubbock, Texas. The group maintains a weblog on its site, also titled "Cult of the Dead Cow"...
hacker collective named Omega. If hacking as "illegally breaking into computers" is assumed, then hacktivism could be defined as "the nonviolent use of legal and/or illegal digital tools in pursuit of political ends". These tools include web site defacements, redirect
URL redirection
URL redirection, also called URL forwarding and the very similar technique domain redirection also called domain forwarding, are techniques on the World Wide Web for making a web page available under many URLs.- Similar domain names :...
s, denial-of-service attack
Denial-of-service attack
A denial-of-service attack or distributed denial-of-service attack is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users...
s, information theft, web site parodies
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
, virtual sit-in
Virtual sit-in
A virtual sit-in is a form of electronic civil disobedience deriving its name from the sit-ins popular during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The virtual sit-in attempts to recreate that same action digitally using a distributed denial-of-service attack. During a virtual sit-in, hundreds of...
s, typosquatting
Typosquatting
Typosquatting, also called URL hijacking, is a form of cybersquatting, and possibly brandjacking which relies on mistakes such as typographical errors made by Internet users when inputting a website address into a web browser...
and virtual sabotage
Sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is...
. If hacking as "clever computer usage/programming" is assumed, then hacktivism could be understood as the writing of code
Code
A code is a rule for converting a piece of information into another form or representation , not necessarily of the same type....
to promote political ideology: promoting expressive politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
, free speech, human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
, and information ethics
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
through software development
Software development
Software development is the development of a software product...
. Acts of hacktivism are carried out in the belief that proper use of code will be able to produce similar results to those produced by regular activism
Activism
Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
or civil disobedience
Civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...
.
Hacktivist activities span many political ideals and issues. Freenet
Freenet
Freenet is a decentralized, censorship-resistant distributed data store originally designed by Ian Clarke. According to Clarke, Freenet aims to provide freedom of speech through a peer-to-peer network with strong protection of anonymity; as part of supporting its users' freedom, Freenet is free and...
is a prime example of translating political thought (anyone should be able to speak) into code. Hacktivismo
Hacktivismo
Hacktivismo is an offshoot of CULT OF THE DEAD COW , whose beliefs include access to information as a basic human right. It was founded in 1999....
is an offshoot of Cult of the Dead Cow
Cult of the Dead Cow
Cult of the Dead Cow, also known as cDc or cDc Communications, is a computer hacker and DIY media organization founded in 1984 in Lubbock, Texas. The group maintains a weblog on its site, also titled "Cult of the Dead Cow"...
; its beliefs include access to information as a basic human right. The loose network of programmers, artists and radical militants 1984 network liberty alliance
1984 Network Liberty Alliance
1984 Network Liberty Alliance is loose group of software programmers, artists, social activists and radical militants, interested in computers and networks and considering them tools to empower and link the various actors of the social movement around the world...
is more concerned with issues of free speech, surveillance
Surveillance
Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner...
and privacy
Privacy
Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively...
in an era of inceased technological surveillance.
Hacktivism is a controversial term, and since it covers a range of passive to active and non-violent to violent activities, it can often be construed as cyberterrorism. It was coined to describe how electronic direct action
Direct action
Direct action is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels. This can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action...
might work toward social change
Social change
Social change refers to an alteration in the social order of a society. It may refer to the notion of social progress or sociocultural evolution, the philosophical idea that society moves forward by dialectical or evolutionary means. It may refer to a paradigmatic change in the socio-economic...
by combining programming
Computer programming
Computer programming is the process of designing, writing, testing, debugging, and maintaining the source code of computer programs. This source code is written in one or more programming languages. The purpose of programming is to create a program that performs specific operations or exhibits a...
skills with critical thinking
Critical thinking
Critical thinking is the process or method of thinking that questions assumptions. It is a way of deciding whether a claim is true, false, or sometimes true and sometimes false, or partly true and partly false. The origins of critical thinking can be traced in Western thought to the Socratic...
. Others use it as practically synonymous with malicious, destructive acts that undermine the security
Computer security
Computer security is a branch of computer technology known as information security as applied to computers and networks. The objective of computer security includes protection of information and property from theft, corruption, or natural disaster, while allowing the information and property to...
of the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
as a technical
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
, economic
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
, 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
Direct action
Direct action is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels. This can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action...
. The other strand thinks that all protest should be peaceful, refraining from destruction.
As a principle of political activism, reality hacking takes advantage of the insight of linguists and sociologists who argue that post-twentieth-century popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
in the advanced world has become particularly impervious to either positive or negative rethinking of community. Negative assertions about community—in the form of negative news stories and mass political protest
Protest
A protest is an expression of objection, by words or by actions, to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations...
s—tend to fall on ears overloaded by daily tragedy in the news, even when the causes and facts they relate are valid and deserving. Positive reimaginings of community—in the form of utopia
Utopia
Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
n havens, alternative religious
New religious movement
A new religious movement is a religious community or ethical, spiritual, or philosophical group of modern origin, which has a peripheral place within the dominant religious culture. NRMs may be novel in origin or they may be part of a wider religion, such as Christianity, Hinduism or Buddhism, in...
or political structures, or idealistic protest against the status quo—equally tend to fall upon unbelieving ears of busy individuals who have already accepted the standards, sacrifices, and limits of the reality in which they normally operate.
As an alternative to these dead ends of twentieth-century political activism, reality hacking tries to capture the attention of individuals in their normal course of regular information consumption. It may involve attracting mass media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
attention to an attention-getting fringe political issue
Media prank
A media prank is a type of media event, perpetrated by staged speeches, activities, or press releases, designed to trick legitimate journalists into publishing erroneous or misleading articles. The term may also refer to such stories if planted by fake journalists, as well as the false story...
more liable to generate rethinking of cultural norms than standard debates to which the public has already become jaded. Or it may involve harnessing the means of information dissemination itself, using online information sources to disseminate alternative definitions of commonly accepted facts
Advocacy journalism
Advocacy journalism is a genre of journalism that intentionally and transparently adopts a non-objective viewpoint, usually for some social or political purpose. Because it is intended to be factual, it is distinguished from propaganda...
.
Controversy
Some people describing themselves as hacktivists have taken to defacingDefacement (vandalism)
In common usage, to deface something refers to marking or removing the part of an object designed to hold the viewers' attention. Example acts of defacement could include scoring a book cover with a blade, splashing paint over a painting in a gallery, or smashing the nose of a sculpted bust...
websites for political reasons, such as attacking and defacing government websites as well as web sites of groups who oppose their ideology
Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
. Others, such as Oxblood Ruffin
Oxblood Ruffin
Oxblood Ruffin is a Canadian hacker. He is a member of the hacker group Cult of the Dead Cow , for which he serves as "Foreign Minister." He is also the founder and executive director of Hacktivismo, an off-shoot of cDc....
(the "foreign affairs
Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs is an American magazine and website on international relations and U.S. foreign policy published since 1922 by the Council on Foreign Relations six times annually...
minister" of Hacktivismo), have argued forcefully against definitions of hacktivism that include web defacements or denial-of-service attack
Denial-of-service attack
A denial-of-service attack or distributed denial-of-service attack is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users...
s. Within the hacking community, those who carry out automated attacks are generally known as script kiddie
Script kiddie
A script kiddie or skiddie, occasionally skid, script bunny, script kitty, script-running juvenile or similar, is a derogatory term used to describe those who use scripts or programs developed by others to attack computer systems and networks and deface websites.-Characteristics:In a Carnegie...
s.
Critics suggest that DoS attacks are an attack on free speech; that they have unintended consequence
Unintended consequence
In the social sciences, unintended consequences are outcomes that are not the outcomes intended by a purposeful action. The concept has long existed but was named and popularised in the 20th century by American sociologist Robert K. Merton...
s; that they waste resources; and that they could lead to a "DoS war" that 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.
Following denial-of-service
Denial-of-service attack
A denial-of-service attack or distributed denial-of-service attack is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users...
attacks by Anonymous
Anonymous (group)
Anonymous is an international hacking group, spread through the Internet, initiating active civil disobedience, while attempting to maintain anonymity. Originating in 2003 on the imageboard 4chan, the term refers to the concept of many online community users simultaneously existing as an anarchic,...
on multiple sites, in reprisal for the apparent suppression of Wikileaks
Wikileaks
WikiLeaks is an international self-described not-for-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers. Its website, launched in 2006 under The Sunshine Press organisation, claimed a database of more...
, John Perry Barlow
John Perry Barlow
John Perry Barlow is an American poet and essayist, a retired Wyoming cattle rancher, and a cyberlibertarian political activist who has been associated with both the Democratic and Republican parties. He is also a former lyricist for the Grateful Dead and a founding member of the Electronic...
, a founding member of the EFF
Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit digital rights advocacy and legal organization based in the United States...
, said "I support freedom of expression, no matter whose, so I oppose DDoS attacks regardless of their target... they're the poison gas of cyberspace...".
Depending on who is using the term, hacktivism can be a politically constructive form of anarchic
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
civil disobedience or an undefined anti-systemic gesture; it can signal anticapitalist
Anti-capitalism
Anti-capitalism describes a wide variety of movements, ideas, and attitudes which oppose capitalism. Anti-capitalists, in the strict sense of the word, are those who wish to completely replace capitalism with another system....
or political protest; it can denote anti-spam
Spam (electronic)
Spam is the use of electronic messaging systems to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately...
activists, security experts, or open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
advocates. Critics of hacktivism fear that the lack of a clear agenda makes it a politically immature gesture, while those given to conspiracy theory
Conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...
hope to see in hacktivism an attempt to precipitate a crisis situation online.
Elements of hacktivism
A Haction usually has the following elements.- Political motivation
- A premium on humor, and often resembles a digital form of clowning
- Has a moderate "outlaw orientation" as opposed to severe
- Result of aggressive policy circumvention, rather than a gradual attempt to change a policy
- Capacity for solo activity: while most forms of political activism require the strength of masses, hacktivism is most often the result of the power of one, or small group.
- Most often carried out anonymously, and can take place over transnational borders.
Forms of hacktivism
In order to carry out their operations, hacktivists use a variety of software tools readily available on the Internet. In many cases the software can be downloaded from a popular website, or launched from a website with click of a button. Some of the more well-known hacktivist tools are below:- Defacing Web Pages: Between 1995-1999 Attrition.org reported 5,000 website defacements. In such a scenario, the hacktivist will significantly alter the front page of a company's or governmental agency's website.
- Web Sit-ins: In this form of hacktivism, hackers attempt to send so much traffic to the site that the overwhelmed site becomes inaccessible to other users in a variation on a denial of service.
- E-mail Bombing: Hacktivists send scores of e-mails with large file attachments to their target's e-mail address.
- Code: Software and websites can achieve political purposes. For example, the encryption software PGPPretty Good PrivacyPretty Good Privacy is a data encryption and decryption computer program that provides cryptographic privacy and authentication for data communication. PGP is often used for signing, encrypting and decrypting texts, E-mails, files, directories and whole disk partitions to increase the security...
can be used to secure communications; PGP's author, Phil ZimmermannPhil ZimmermannPhilip R. "Phil" Zimmermann Jr. is the creator of Pretty Good Privacy , the most widely used email encryption software in the world. He is also known for his work in VoIP encryption protocols, notably ZRTP and Zfone....
said he distributed it first to the peace movement. Jim Warren suggests PGP's wide dissemination was in response to Senate Bill 266, authored by Senators Biden and DeConcini, which demanded that "...communications systems permit the government to obtain the plain text contents of voice, data, and other communications...". WikiLeaksWikileaksWikiLeaks is an international self-described not-for-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers. Its website, launched in 2006 under The Sunshine Press organisation, claimed a database of more...
is an example of a politically motivated website: it seeks to "keep governments open". - Website Mirroring: is used as a circumvention tool to bypass censorship blocks on websites. It is a technique that copies the content of a censored website and posts it to other domains and subdomains that are not censored.
- Geo-bombing: a technique in which netizens add a geo-tagGeoTaggingGeotagging is the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media such as a geotagged photograph or video, websites, SMS messages, QR Codes or RSS feeds and is a form of geospatial metadata...
while editing YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
videos so that the location of the video can be displayed in Google EarthGoogle EarthGoogle Earth is a virtual globe, map and geographical information program that was originally called EarthViewer 3D, and was created by Keyhole, Inc, a Central Intelligence Agency funded company acquired by Google in 2004 . It maps the Earth by the superimposition of images obtained from satellite...
. - Anonymous blogging: a method of speaking out to a wide audience about human rights issues, government oppression, etc. that utilizes various web tools such as free email accounts, IP masking, and blogging software to preserve a high level of anonymity.
Notable hacktivist events
- The earliest known instance of hacktivism as documented by Julian AssangeJulian AssangeJulian Paul Assange is an Australian publisher, journalist, writer, computer programmer and Internet activist. He is the editor in chief of WikiLeaks, a whistleblower website and conduit for worldwide news leaks with the stated purpose of creating open governments.WikiLeaks has published material...
is as follows: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. [...] WANK penetrated machines had their login screens altered to:
W O R M S A G A I N S T N U C L E A R K I L L E R S
_______________________________________________________________
\__ ____________ _____ ________ ____ ____ __ _____/
\ \ \ /\ / / / /\ \ | \ \ | | | | / / /
\ \ \ / \ / / / /__\ \ | |\ \ | | | |/ / /
\ \ \/ /\ \/ / / ______ \ | | \ \| | | |\ \ /
\_\ /__\ /____/ /______\ \____| |__\ | |____| |_\ \_/
\___________________________________________________/
\ /
\ Your System Has Been Officially WANKed /
\_____________________________________________/
You talk of times of peace for all, and then prepare for war.
- The first public use of DDoS as a form of protest was the Intervasion of the UKIntervasion of the UK1994 electronic civil disobedience and collective action against John Major's Criminal Justice Bill which sought to outlaw outdoor dance festivals and "music with a repetitive beat". Launched by a group called The Zippies from San Francisco's 181 Club on Guy Fawkes Day, November 5, 1994, it...
orchestrated by a group called the Zippies on Guy Fawkes DayGuy Fawkes NightGuy Fawkes Night, also known as Guy Fawkes Day, Bonfire Night and Firework Night, is an annual commemoration observed on 5 November, primarily in England. Its history begins with the events of 5 November 1605, when Guy Fawkes, a member of the Gunpowder Plot, was arrested while guarding...
, 1994. - One of the earliest documented hacktivist events was the "Strano Network sit-in", defined "Netstrike", a strike actionStrike actionStrike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
directed against French governmentGovernment of FranceThe government of the French Republic is a semi-presidential system determined by the French Constitution of the fifth Republic. The nation declares itself to be an "indivisible, secular, democratic, and social Republic"...
computers in 1995. - The term itself was coined by techno-culture writer Jason Sack in a piece about media artist Shu Lea Cheang published in InfoNation in 1995.
- On the night of Monday, 30 June 1997, at 4:30am the PortuguesePortuguese peopleThe Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
hacking group UrBaN Ka0s hacked the site of the Republic of Indonesia and 25 other military and government sites as part of the hacking community campaign against the Indonesian government and the state of affairs in East Timor. This was one of the first mass hacks and the biggest in history. - The hacking group milw0rmMilw0rmmilw0rm is a group of "hacktivists" best known for penetrating the computers of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai, the primary nuclear research facility of India, on June 3, 1998...
hacked into the Bhabha Atomic Research CentreBhabha Atomic Research CentreThe Bhabha Atomic Research Centre is India's primary nuclear research facility based in Mumbai. It has a number of nuclear reactors, all of which are used for India's nuclear power and research programme.- History :...
(BARC) in 1998, replacing the center's website with an anti-nuclear message; the same message reappeared later that year in what was then an unprecedented mass hack by milw0rm of over 300 websites on the server of hosting company Easyspace. - In 1998, the Electronic Disturbance TheaterElectronic Disturbance TheaterRicardo Dominguez, Brett Stalbaum, Stefan Wray, and Carmin Karasic are collectively known as The Electronic Disturbance Theater or EDT for short. Taking the idea of the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, the EDT members always used their real names. They never concealed their identities...
conducted "virtual sit-inVirtual sit-inA virtual sit-in is a form of electronic civil disobedience deriving its name from the sit-ins popular during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The virtual sit-in attempts to recreate that same action digitally using a distributed denial-of-service attack. During a virtual sit-in, hundreds of...
s" on the Web sites of the Pentagon and the Mexican government to bring the world's attention to the plight of Indian rights in the Mexican state of Chiapas. A Mexican hacking group took over Mexico's finance department website in support of the same cause. - Another one of the more notorious examples of hacktivism, and the continuation of the 1997 attacks, was the modification of more IndonesiaIndonesiaIndonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n web sites with appeals to "Free East TimorEast TimorThe Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...
" in 1998 by PortuguesePortuguese peopleThe Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
hackers. - On December 29, 1998, the Legions of the Underground (LoU) declared cyberwar on IraqIraqIraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
and ChinaChinaChinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
with the intention of disrupting and disabling internet infrastructure. On January 7, 1999, an international coalition of hackers (including Cult of the Dead Cow, 26002600: The Hacker Quarterly2600: The Hacker Quarterly is an American publication that specializes in publishing technical information on a variety of subjects including telephone switching systems, Internet protocols and services, as well as general news concerning the computer "underground" and left wing, and sometimes ,...
's staff, PhrackPhrackPhrack is an ezine written by and for hackers first published November 17, 1985. Described by Fyodor as "the best, and by far the longest running hacker zine," the magazine is open for contributions by anyone who desires to publish remarkable works or express original ideas on the topics of interest...
s staff, L0phtL0phtL0pht Heavy Industries was a hacker collective active between 1992 and 2000 and located in the Boston, Massachusetts area.-Name:The second character in its name was originally a slashed zero, a symbol used by old teletypewriters and some character mode operating systems to mean zero...
, and the Chaos Computer ClubChaos Computer ClubThe Chaos Computer Club is an organization of hackers. The CCC is based in Germany and other German-speaking countries.The CCC describes itself as "a galactic community of life forms, independent of age, sex, race or societal orientation, which strives across borders for freedom of...
) issued a joint statement condemning the LoU's declaration of war. The LoU responded by withdrawing its declaration. - Hacktivists attempted to disrupt ECHELONECHELONECHELON is a name used in global media and in popular culture to describe a signals intelligence collection and analysis network operated on behalf of the five signatory states to the UK–USA Security Agreement...
(an international electronic communications surveillance network filtering any and all satellite, microwave, cellular, and fiber-optic traffic) by holding "Jam Echelon Day" (JED) on October 21, 1999. On the day, hacktivists attached large keyword lists to many messages, taking advantage of listservers and newsgroups to spread their keywords further. The idea was to give the Echelon computers so many "hits" they overloaded. It is not known whether JED was successful in actually jamming Echelon, although NSA computers were reported to have crashed "inexplicably" in early March, 2000. A second Jam Echelon Day (JEDII) was held in October 2000, however the idea never regained its initial popularity. JED was partly denial-of-service attack and partly agitpropAgitpropAgitprop is derived from agitation and propaganda, and describes stage plays, pamphlets, motion pictures and other art forms with an explicitly political message....
. - The Federation of Random Action calls for a virtual sit-in on Occidental Petroleum in support of the U’wa’s protest against drilling on indigenous land during 2001.
- The Electronic Disturbance Theater and others staged a week of disruption during the 2004 Republican National Convention2004 Republican National ConventionThe 2004 Republican National Convention, the presidential nominating convention of the Republican Party of the United States, took place from August 30 to September 2, 2004 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York...
in New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, conducting sit-inSit-inA sit-in or sit-down is a form of protest that involves occupying seats or sitting down on the floor of an establishment.-Process:In a sit-in, protesters remain until they are evicted, usually by force, or arrested, or until their requests have been met...
s against Republican web sites and flooding web sites and communication systems identified with conservativeConservatismConservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
causes. This received mixed reviews from the hacktivist community. - The Hackbloc collective started publishing Hack This Zine, a hacktivist research journal
- Hacktivists worked to slow, block, or reroute traffic for web serverWeb serverWeb server can refer to either the hardware or the software that helps to deliver content that can be accessed through the Internet....
s associated with the World Trade OrganizationWorld Trade OrganizationThe World Trade Organization is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , which commenced in 1948...
, the World Economic ForumWorld Economic ForumThe World Economic Forum is a Swiss non-profit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva, best known for its annual meeting in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland....
, and the World BankWorld BankThe World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
. - Throughout 2006, Electronic Disturbance TheaterElectronic Disturbance TheaterRicardo Dominguez, Brett Stalbaum, Stefan Wray, and Carmin Karasic are collectively known as The Electronic Disturbance Theater or EDT for short. Taking the idea of the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, the EDT members always used their real names. They never concealed their identities...
joined the borderlands Hacklab for a number of virtual sit-ins, against the massacre in Atenco, in solidarity with striking French students and against the MinutemenMinutemenMinutemen were members of teams of select men from the American colonial partisan militia during the American Revolutionary War. They provided a highly mobile, rapidly deployed force that allowed the colonies to respond immediately to war threats, hence the name.The minutemen were among the first...
and immigration laws. - On March 25, 2007, hacktivists organized the event freEtech in response to the O'Reilly Etech conference, and started a series of West coast hackmeetings.
- Electronic Disturbance Theater stages a virtual sit-in against the Michigan Legislature against cuts to Medicaid.
- On January 21, 2008, a message appeared on YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
from a group calling itself 'AnonymousAnonymous (group)Anonymous is an international hacking group, spread through the Internet, initiating active civil disobedience, while attempting to maintain anonymity. Originating in 2003 on the imageboard 4chan, the term refers to the concept of many online community users simultaneously existing as an anarchic,...
'. The group declared "Project ChanologyProject ChanologyProject Chanology is a protest movement against the practices of the Church of Scientology by members of Anonymous, a leaderless Internet-based group that defines itself as ubiquitous...
", essentially a war on The Church of ScientologyChurch of ScientologyThe Church of Scientology is an organization devoted to the practice and the promotion of the Scientology belief system. The Church of Scientology International is the Church of Scientology's parent organization, and is responsible for the overall ecclesiastical management, dissemination and...
, and promised to systematically expel The Church from the internet. Over the following week, Scientology websites were intermittently knocked offline, and the Church of Scientology moved its website to a host that specializes in protection from denial-of-service attacks. - A computer hacker leaks the personal data of 6 million Chileans (including ID card numbers, addresses, telephone numbers and academic records) from government and military servers to the internet, to protest Chile's poor data protection.
- Throughout early 2008, Chinese hackers have hacked the CNNCNNCable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
website on numerous occasions in response to the protests during the 2008 Olympic Torch Relay and claims of biased reporting from western mediaAnti-cnnAnti-cnn.com is a website established by Rao Jin, who was a 23-year-old Chinese student at the time, in response to what he identified as "the lies and distortions of facts from the Western media" concerning the 2008 Tibetan unrest and the People's Republic of China's national unity. The anti-cnn...
. The majority of the DDoS attacks took place between March and August, at a time where Chinese nationalistic pride was at an all time highHeart ChinaHeart China refers to an internet phenomenon in the People's Republic of China which arose following protests in London and Paris during the 2008 Olympic Torch Relay and prolonged calls for Tibetan independence in Western countries...
due to the 2008 Olympic Games. - Electronic Disturbance Theater and the Hacklab stage a virtual sit-in against the war on Iraq and biotech and nanotech war profiteers, on the 5 year anniversary of the war, in solidarity with widespread street actions.
- Intruders hacked the website of commentator Bill O'Reilly and posted personal details of more than 200 of its subscribers, in retaliation for remarks O'Reilly made on Fox News condemning the attack on Palin's Yahoo email account.
- In 2008 hacktivists developed a communications and monitoring system for the 2008 RNC protests called Tapatio.
- In early 2009, the Israeli invasion of Gaza2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflictThe Gaza War, known as Operation Cast Lead in Israel and as the Gaza Massacre in the Arab world, was a three-week bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israel, and hundreds of rocket attacks on south of Israel which...
motivated a number of website defacements, denial-of-service attacks, and domain name and account hijackings, from both sides. These attacks are notable in being amongst the first ever politically-motivated domain name hijackings. - During the 2009 Iranian election protests2009 Iranian election protestsProtests following the 2009 Iranian presidential election against the disputed victory of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and in support of opposition candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi occurred in major cities in Iran and around the world starting June 13, 2009...
, AnonymousAnonymous (group)Anonymous is an international hacking group, spread through the Internet, initiating active civil disobedience, while attempting to maintain anonymity. Originating in 2003 on the imageboard 4chan, the term refers to the concept of many online community users simultaneously existing as an anarchic,...
played a role in disseminating information to and from Iran by setting up the website Anonymous Iran; they also released a video manifestoManifestoA manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature. Manifestos relating to religious belief are generally referred to as creeds. Manifestos may also be life stance-related.-Etymology:...
to the Iranian government. - On August 1, 2009, the Melbourne International Film FestivalMelbourne International Film FestivalThe Melbourne International Film Festival is an acclaimed annual film festival held over three weeks in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1951, making it one of the oldest in the World....
was forced to shut down its website after DDoS attacks by Chinese vigilantes, in response to Rebiya KadeerRebiya KadeerRebiya Kadeer is a prominent Uyghur businesswoman and political activist from the northwest region of Xinjiang Autonomus Region of the People's Republic of China...
's planned guest appearance, the screening of a film about her which is deemed "anti-China" by Chinese state media, and strong sentiments following the July 2009 Ürümqi riots. The hackers booked out all film sessions on its website, and replaced festival information with the Chinese flag and anti-Kadeer slogans. - August 24, 2009, New Hacktivism: From Electronic Civil Disobedience to Mixed Reality Performance workshop at the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics led by Micha CárdenasMicha CárdenasMicha Cárdenas is a transgender performance and new media artist. Her work deals with the interplay of technology, gender, sex, immigration and biopolitics. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles.- Education :...
in Bogotá, Colombia. - In November 2009, computers of the Climate Research Unit of East Anglia University were hacked, and email purporting to expose a conspiracy by scientists to suppress data that contradicted their conclusions regarding global warming was made available on a Russian FTP server.
- On February 10, 2010, Anonymous DDoS-attacked Australian government websites against the Australian governments attempt to filter the Internet.
- On July 23, 2010, European Climate ExchangeEuropean Climate ExchangeThe European Climate Exchange manages the product development and marketing for ECX Carbon Financial Instruments , listed and admitted for trading on the ICE Futures Europe electronic platform. It is no longer a subsidiary of the Chicago Climate Exchange but rather a sister company...
's website was targeted by hacktivists operating under the name of decocidio #ϴDecocidioDecocidio #ϴis an anonymous, autonomous collective of hacktivists which is part of Earth First!, a radical environmental protest organisation, and adheres to Climate Justice Action. In their hacks the group shows affiliation with the autonomous Hackbloc collective.The logo of the collective is an...
. The website showed a spoofParodyA parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
homepageHomepageA home page or homepage has various related meanings to do with web sites:* It most often refers to the initial or main web page of a web site, sometimes called the front page ....
for around 22 hours in an effort to promote the contention that carbon tradingCarbon emission tradingCarbon emissions trading is a form of emissions trading that specifically targets carbon dioxide and it currently constitutes the bulk of emissions trading....
is a false solution to the climate crisisGlobal warmingGlobal warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
. - On December 8, 2010, the websites of both MastercardMasterCardMastercard Incorporated or MasterCard Worldwide is an American multinational financial services corporation with its headquarters in the MasterCard International Global Headquarters, Purchase, Harrison, New York, United States...
and Visa were the subject of an attack by hacktivist group AnonymousAnonymous (group)Anonymous is an international hacking group, spread through the Internet, initiating active civil disobedience, while attempting to maintain anonymity. Originating in 2003 on the imageboard 4chan, the term refers to the concept of many online community users simultaneously existing as an anarchic,...
, reacting to the two companies' decision to stop processing payments to the whistle-blowing site WikileaksWikileaksWikiLeaks is an international self-described not-for-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers. Its website, launched in 2006 under The Sunshine Press organisation, claimed a database of more...
, following a series of leaks by the site. Mastercard said the attack had no impact on people's ability to use their cards, though there were claims by an unnamed payment firm that their customers had experience a complete loss of service. Anonymous was later blamed for the DDoS attacks on om.nl and politie.nl (Dutch government websites). - In January 2011, the websites of the government of ZimbabweZimbabweZimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
were targeted by anonymous due to censorship of the Wikileaks documents. - In January 2011, AnonymousAnonymous (group)Anonymous is an international hacking group, spread through the Internet, initiating active civil disobedience, while attempting to maintain anonymity. Originating in 2003 on the imageboard 4chan, the term refers to the concept of many online community users simultaneously existing as an anarchic,...
launches DDOS attacks against the Tunisian government websites due to censorship of the Wikileaks documents and the 2010–2011 Tunisian protests. Tunisians were reported to be assisting in these denial-of-service attacks launched by Anonymous. Anonymous released an online message denouncing the government clampdown on recent protests. Anonymous has named their attacks as "Operation Tunisia". Anonymous successfully ddossed eight Tunisian government websites. They planned attacks on Internet Relay Chat networks. An unknown user subsequently attacked Anonymous's website with a ddos on January 5. - In January 2011, AnonymousAnonymous (group)Anonymous is an international hacking group, spread through the Internet, initiating active civil disobedience, while attempting to maintain anonymity. Originating in 2003 on the imageboard 4chan, the term refers to the concept of many online community users simultaneously existing as an anarchic,...
, in response to the 2011 Egyptian protests, attacked Egyptian government websites and voiced support for the people of EgyptEgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. - Google worked with engineers from SayNow and Twitter to provide communications for the Egyptian people in response to the government sanctioned internet blackout during the 2011 protests. The result, Speak To TweetSpeak To TweetSpeak To Tweet or speak2tweet is a communications service which allows users to leave a tweet on Twitter by calling a designated international phone number and leaving a voice message...
, was a service in which voicemail left by phone was then tweeted via Twitter with a link to the voice message on Google's SayNow. - During the Egyptian internet black out, Jan 28- Feb 2 of 2011, Telecomix provided dial up services, and technical support for the Egyptian people.
- On April 20 2011, hackers took down Sony's PlayStation Network. Anonymous was suspected of hacking PSN for their previous threats to Sony for suing Geohotz, who jailbroke the PlayStation 3 but they later claimed that they didn't. Afterwards, a group of hackers claimed to have 2.2 million credit card numbers from PSN users for sale.
- In June 2011, LulzSec and Anonymous launched Operation AntiSecOperation AntiSecOperation Anti-Security, also referred to as Operation AntiSec or #AntiSec, is a series of hacking attacks performed by members of hacking group LulzSec, the group Anonymous, and others inspired by the announcement of the operation. LulzSec performed the earliest attacks of the operation, with the...
, an enormous hactivist operation that a large number of hackers and hacking organizations have taken part in. It has included breaches of many companies and government agencies. - On November 5th 2011, a Fire Sale, made famous by the film Live Free or Die HardLive Free or Die HardLive Free or Die Hard , is a 2007 American action film, and the fourth installment in the Die Hard series. The film was directed by Len Wiseman and stars Bruce Willis as John McClane. The name was adapted from the state motto of New Hampshire, "Live Free or Die"...
, attempt was reportedly made but was a obvious failure but was still the first of its kind. A hacker called AnonymousPEF attempted this with a software acting virus.
Media hacking
Media hacking refers to the usage of various electronic mediaElectronic media
Electronic media are media that use electronics or electromechanical energy for the end-user to access the content. This is in contrast to static media , which today are most often created electronically, but don't require electronics to be accessed by the end-user in the printed form...
in an innovative or otherwise abnormal fashion for the purpose of conveying a message to as large a number of people as possible, primarily achieved via the World Wide Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
. A popular and effective means of media hacking is posting on a blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
, as one is usually controlled by one or more independent individuals, uninfluenced by outside parties. The concept of social bookmarking
Social bookmarking
Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to organize, store, manage and search for bookmarks of resources online. Unlike file sharing, the resources themselves aren't shared, merely bookmarks that reference them....
, as well as Web-based Internet forum
Internet forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...
s, may cause such a message to be seen by users of other sites as well, increasing its total reach.
Media hacking is commonly employed for political purposes, by both political parties and political dissidents
Dissident
A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When dissidents unite for a common cause they often effect a dissident movement....
. A good example of this is the 2008 US Election, in which both the Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
and Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
parties used a wide variety of different media in order to convey relevant messages to an increasingly Internet-oriented audience. At the same time, political dissidents used blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
s and other social media like Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
in order to reply on an individual basis to the Presidential candidates. In particular, sites like Twitter are proving important means in gauging popular support for the candidates, though the site is often used for dissident purposes rather than a show of positive support.
Mobile technology has also become subject to media hacking for political purposes. SMS
Short message service
Short Message Service is a text messaging service component of phone, web, or mobile communication systems, using standardized communications protocols that allow the exchange of short text messages between fixed line or mobile phone devices...
has been widely used by political dissidents as a means of quickly and effectively organising smart mobs
Smart Mobs
Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution is a book by Howard Rheingold dealing with the social, economic and political changes implicated by developing technology. The book covers subjects from text-messaging culture to wireless internet developments to the impact of the web on the marketplace...
for political action. This has been most effective in the Philippines, where SMS media hacking has twice had a significant impact on whether or not the country's Presidents are elected or removed from office.
Reality hacking
Reality hacking is a term used to describe any phenomenon which emerges from the nonviolent use of illegal or legally ambiguous digitalDigital
A digital system is a data technology that uses discrete values. By contrast, non-digital systems use a continuous range of values to represent information...
tools in pursuit of politically, socially or culturally subversive
Culture jamming
Culture jamming, coined in 1984, denotes a tactic used by many anti-consumerist social movements to disrupt or subvert mainstream cultural institutions, including corporate advertising. Guerrilla semiotics and night discourse are sometimes used synonymously with the term culture jamming.Culture...
ends. These tools include website defacement
Website defacement
A website defacement is an attack on a website that changes the visual appearance of the site or a webpage. These are typically the work of system crackers, who break into a web server and replace the hosted website with one of their own....
s, URL redirection
URL redirection
URL redirection, also called URL forwarding and the very similar technique domain redirection also called domain forwarding, are techniques on the World Wide Web for making a web page available under many URLs.- Similar domain names :...
s, denial-of-service attack
Denial-of-service attack
A denial-of-service attack or distributed denial-of-service attack is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users...
s, information theft, web-site parodies, virtual sit-in
Virtual sit-in
A virtual sit-in is a form of electronic civil disobedience deriving its name from the sit-ins popular during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The virtual sit-in attempts to recreate that same action digitally using a distributed denial-of-service attack. During a virtual sit-in, hundreds of...
s, and virtual sabotage
Sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is...
.
Art movements such as Fluxus
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
and Happening
Happening
A happening is a performance, event or situation meant to be considered art, usually as performance art. Happenings take place anywhere , are often multi-disciplinary, with a nonlinear narrative and the active participation of the audience...
s in the 1970s created a climate of receptibility in regard to loose-knit organizations and group activities where spontaneity, a return to primitivist behavior
Modern primitive
Modern primitives or urban primitives are people in developed nations who engage in body modification rituals and practices while making reference or homage to the rite of passage practices in "primitive cultures" These practices may include body piercing, tattooing, play piercing, flesh hook...
, and an ethics where activities and socially-engaged art practices became tantamount to aesthetic concerns.
The conflation of these two histories in the mid-to-late 1990s resulted in cross-overs between virtual sit-ins, electronic civil disobedience
Electronic civil disobedience
Electronic civil disobedience, also known as ECD or cyber civil disobedience, can refer to any type of civil disobedience in which the participants use information technology to carry out their actions. Electronic civil disobedience often involves the computers and/or the Internet and may also be...
, denial-of-service attacks, as well as mass protests in relation to groups like the International Monetary Fund
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...
and the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
. The rise of collectivies, net.art
Net.art
"net.art" refers to a group of artists who worked in the medium of Internet art from 1994. The main members of this movement are Vuk Ćosić, Jodi.org, Alexei Shulgin, Olia Lialina, and Heath Bunting...
groups, and those concerned with the fluid interchange of technology and real life (often from an environmental concern) gave birth to the practice of "reality hacking".
The 1999 science fiction-action film The Matrix
The Matrix
The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction-action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, and Hugo Weaving...
is most responsible for popularizing the simulation hypothesis
Simulation hypothesis
The Simulation Hypothesis proposes that reality is a simulation and those affected are generally unaware of this. The concept is reminiscent of René Descartes' Evil Genius but posits a more futuristic simulated reality...
—the suggestion that reality
Reality
In philosophy, reality is the state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or might be imagined. In a wider definition, reality includes everything that is and has been, whether or not it is observable or comprehensible...
is in fact a simulation
Simulation
Simulation is the imitation of some real thing available, state of affairs, or process. The act of simulating something generally entails representing certain key characteristics or behaviours of a selected physical or abstract system....
of which those affected by the simulants are generally unaware—and "reality hacking" as reading and understanding the code which represents the activity of the simulated reality environment
Matrix digital rain
Matrix digital rain, Matrix code or sometimes green rain, is the computer code featured in the Matrix series. The falling green code is a way of representing the activity of the virtual reality environment of the Matrix on screen. All three Matrix movies, as well as the spin-off The Animatrix...
but also modifying it in order to bend the laws of physics within simulated reality
Simulated reality
Simulated reality is the proposition that reality could be simulated—perhaps by computer simulation—to a degree indistinguishable from "true" reality. It could contain conscious minds which may or may not be fully aware that they are living inside a simulation....
.
Reality hacking as a mystical practice is explored in the Gothic-Punk
Goth subculture
The goth subculture is a contemporary subculture found in many countries. It began in England during the early 1980s in the gothic rock scene, an offshoot of the post-punk genre. The goth subculture has survived much longer than others of the same era, and has continued to diversify...
aesthetics-inspired White Wolf
White Wolf, Inc.
White Wolf Publishing is an American gaming and book publisher. The company was founded in 1991 as a merger between Lion Rampant and White Wolf Magazine, and was initially led by Mark Rein·Hagen of the former and Steve and Stewart Wieck of the latter. Since White Wolf Publishing, Inc. merged with...
urban fantasy
Urban fantasy
Urban fantasy is a sub-genre of fantasy defined by place; the fantastic narrative has an urban setting. Many urban fantasies are set in contemporary times and contain supernatural elements. However, the stories can take place in historical, modern, or futuristic periods...
role-playing game Mage: The Ascension
Mage: The Ascension
Mage: The Ascension is a role-playing game based in the World of Darkness, and was published by White Wolf Game Studio. The characters portrayed in the game are referred to as mages, and are capable of feats of magic...
. In this game, the Reality Coders (also known as Reality Hackers or Reality Crackers) are a faction within the Virtual Adepts, a secret society of mages whose magick
Magic (fantasy)
Magic in fiction is the endowing of fictional characters or objects with magical powers.Such magic often serves as a plot device, the source of magical artifacts and their quests...
revolves around digital
Digital
A digital system is a data technology that uses discrete values. By contrast, non-digital systems use a continuous range of values to represent information...
technology. They are dedicated to bringing the benefits of cyberspace
Cyberspace
Cyberspace is the electronic medium of computer networks, in which online communication takes place.The term "cyberspace" was first used by the cyberpunk science fiction author William Gibson, though the concept was described somewhat earlier, for example in the Vernor Vinge short story "True...
to real space
Real space
Position space denominates the space of possible locations of an object in classical physics.The real space coordinates specify the position of an object. For instance,...
. To do this, they had to identify, for lack of a better term, the "source code
Source code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
" that allows our Universe
Universe
The Universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space. Definitions and usage vary and similar terms include the cosmos, the world and nature...
to function. And that is what they have been doing ever since. Coders infiltrated a number of levels of society in order to gather the greatest compilation of knowledge ever seen. One of the Coders' more overt agendas is to acclimate the masses to the world that is to come. They spread Virtual Adept ideas through video games and a whole spate of "reality shows" that mimic virtual reality
Virtual reality
Virtual reality , also known as virtuality, is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds...
far more than "real" reality. The Reality Coders consider themselves the future of the Virtual Adepts, creating a world in the image of visionaries like Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison is a Scottish comic book writer, playwright and occultist. He is known for his nonlinear narratives and counter-cultural leanings, as well as his successful runs on titles like Animal Man, Doom Patrol, JLA, The Invisibles, New X-Men, Fantastic Four, All-Star Superman, and...
or Terence McKenna
Terence McKenna
Terence Kemp McKenna was an Irish-American philosopher, psychonaut, researcher, teacher, lecturer and writer on many subjects, such as human consciousness, language, psychedelic drugs, the evolution of civilizations, the origin and end of the universe, alchemy, and extraterrestrial beings.-Early...
.
In a location-based game
Location-based game
A location-based game is one in which the game play somehow evolves and progresses via a player's location. Thus, location-based games almost always support some kind of localization technology, for example by using satellite positioning like GPS."Urban gaming" or "Street Games" are typically...
(also known as a pervasive game), reality hacking refers to tapping into phenomena that exist in the real world, and tying them into the game story universe.
Reality hacking relies on tweaking
Tweaking
Tweaking refers to fine-tuning or adjusting a complex system, usually an electronic device. Tweaks are any small modifications intended to improve a system....
the every-day communications most easily available to individuals with the purpose of awakening the political and community conscience
Social connectedness
Social connectedness is a psychological term used to describe the quality and number of connections we have with other people in our social circle of family, friends and acquaintances. These connections can be both in real life, as well as online...
of the larger population. The term first came into use among New York and San Francisco artists, but has since been adopted by a school of political activists centered around culture jamming
Culture jamming
Culture jamming, coined in 1984, denotes a tactic used by many anti-consumerist social movements to disrupt or subvert mainstream cultural institutions, including corporate advertising. Guerrilla semiotics and night discourse are sometimes used synonymously with the term culture jamming.Culture...
.
See also
Ideologies- Crypto-anarchismCrypto-anarchismCrypto-anarchism expounds the use of strong public-key cryptography to bring about privacy and freedom. It was described by Vernor Vinge as a cyberspatial realization of anarchism. Crypto-anarchists aim to create cryptographic software that can be used to evade prosecution and harassment while...
- Culture jammingCulture jammingCulture jamming, coined in 1984, denotes a tactic used by many anti-consumerist social movements to disrupt or subvert mainstream cultural institutions, including corporate advertising. Guerrilla semiotics and night discourse are sometimes used synonymously with the term culture jamming.Culture...
- E-democracyE-democracyE-democracy refers to the use of information technologies and communication technologies and strategies in political and governance processes...
- Electronic civil disobedienceElectronic civil disobedienceElectronic civil disobedience, also known as ECD or cyber civil disobedience, can refer to any type of civil disobedience in which the participants use information technology to carry out their actions. Electronic civil disobedience often involves the computers and/or the Internet and may also be...
- Hacker cultureHacker cultureA hacker is a member of the computer programmer subculture originated in the 1960s in the United States academia, in particular around the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 's Tech Model Railroad Club and MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory...
- Patriot hackingPatriot hackingPatriot hacking is a term for computer hacking or system cracking in which citizens or supporters of a country, traditionally industrialized Western countries but increasingly developing countries, attempts to perpetrate attacks on, or block attacks by, perceived enemies of the state...
- Hacker ethicHacker ethicHacker ethic is the generic phrase which describes the moral values and philosophy that are standard in the hacker community. The early hacker culture and resulting philosophy originated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1950s and 1960s...
- Internet activismInternet activismInternet activism is the use of electronic communication technologies such as e-mail, the World Wide Web, and podcasts for various forms of activism to enable faster communications by citizen movements and the delivery of local information to a large audience...
- Open source government
- Reality hacking
- Tactical mediaTactical mediaTactical media is a term coined in 1997, to de note a form of media activism that privileges temporary, hit-and-run interventions in the media sphere over the creation of permanent and alternative media outlets. Tactical media describes interventionist media art practices that engage and critique...
Hactivists
- AnonymousAnonymous (group)Anonymous is an international hacking group, spread through the Internet, initiating active civil disobedience, while attempting to maintain anonymity. Originating in 2003 on the imageboard 4chan, the term refers to the concept of many online community users simultaneously existing as an anarchic,...
- Cult of the Dead CowCult of the Dead CowCult of the Dead Cow, also known as cDc or cDc Communications, is a computer hacker and DIY media organization founded in 1984 in Lubbock, Texas. The group maintains a weblog on its site, also titled "Cult of the Dead Cow"...
- JesterThe Jester (hacktivist)The Jester is a computer vigilante who describes himself as gray hat "hacktivist." He or she claims to be responsible for attacks on WikiLeaks, 4chan, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Islamist websites. He claims to be acting out of American patriotism...
- milw0rmMilw0rmmilw0rm is a group of "hacktivists" best known for penetrating the computers of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai, the primary nuclear research facility of India, on June 3, 1998...
- Chaos Computer ClubChaos Computer ClubThe Chaos Computer Club is an organization of hackers. The CCC is based in Germany and other German-speaking countries.The CCC describes itself as "a galactic community of life forms, independent of age, sex, race or societal orientation, which strives across borders for freedom of...
- 1984 network liberty alliance1984 Network Liberty Alliance1984 Network Liberty Alliance is loose group of software programmers, artists, social activists and radical militants, interested in computers and networks and considering them tools to empower and link the various actors of the social movement around the world...
- LulzSecLulzSecLulz Security, commonly abbreviated as LulzSec, is a computer hacker group that claims responsibility for several high profile attacks, including the compromise of user accounts from Sony Pictures in 2011. The group also claimed responsibility for taking the CIA website offline...
- HEC
Supporters and Organizations
- 2600: The Hacker Quarterly2600: The Hacker Quarterly2600: The Hacker Quarterly is an American publication that specializes in publishing technical information on a variety of subjects including telephone switching systems, Internet protocols and services, as well as general news concerning the computer "underground" and left wing, and sometimes ,...
- Citizen LabCitizen LabThe Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, Canada. Founded Professor Ronald Deibert, the Citizen Lab focuses on advanced research and development at the intersection of digital media, global security, and human...
- HackThisSiteHackThisSiteHackThisSite.org, commonly referred to as HTS, is an online hacking and security website. The organization has a userbase of well over 1,300,000. The actual number of active members is believed to be much lower, as most accounts are never used, or are only used shortly after creation...
Other
- Project ChanologyProject ChanologyProject Chanology is a protest movement against the practices of the Church of Scientology by members of Anonymous, a leaderless Internet-based group that defines itself as ubiquitous...
- Script kiddieScript kiddieA script kiddie or skiddie, occasionally skid, script bunny, script kitty, script-running juvenile or similar, is a derogatory term used to describe those who use scripts or programs developed by others to attack computer systems and networks and deface websites.-Characteristics:In a Carnegie...
- CypherpunkCypherpunkA cypherpunk is an activist advocating widespread use of strong cryptography as a route to social and political change.Originally communicating through the Cypherpunks electronic mailing list, informal groups aimed to achieve privacy and security through proactive use of cryptography...
Further reading
- Joseph Menn. "They’re watching. And they can bring you down." Financial Times, September 23, 2011
External links
- Hacktivismo's Projects Page
- Hacktivism and the Future of Political Participation Political science dissertation on the history and political significance of hacktivism
- Hackbloc Home of the hacktivist zine "HackThisZine"
- What is Hacktivism?
- Hacktivism and Politically Motivated Computer Crime History, types of activity and cases studies
- Wikileaks defended by Anonymous hacktivists BBC News, 7 December 2010.
- www.telecomix.org
- The Reality Hacker
- realityhacking.com
- Fravia's Reality Cracking Lab