Hacktivism

A portmanteau of hack and activism, hacktivism is the term coined to describe activists who choose to make their stand via the computer. Often hacktivists are portrayed neutrally, occasionally even sympathetically by the media, with a clear distinction made between “hacktivism” and “cyberterrorism”. This is most probably due to the issues many hacktivists hack against. Often the media and the hacktivist will find themselves on the same side, notable cases being the defence of WikiLeaks [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11935539], the rebellion in Egypt [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41407082/ns/technology_and_science-security/], and many other key political issues.

Due to the media’s previous history of vilifying all forms of hackers and hacking, hacktivists are treading new, uncertain territory. For a while now hacking and the cyberworld have been changing the way wars are fought, introducing the acts of data warfare, secret stealing, and cyberfighting. Yet these hacktivists are also changing who these wars are fought by. Hacktavists aren’t exclusively versed hackers. Often versed hackers will create and upload hacking tools and programmes, programmes that can be downloaded and used by anyone, turning any computer into a hacktivist device, and anyone into a basic little hacktivist. Below is a copypasta list of the most common tools used by hacktivist;

 

1. 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.

2. 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.

With the advent of geotagging and the ability to geo-bomb Google Earth with YouTube videos, an alternative definition of a web sit-in can be the targeting of a particular locale such as a government building with an overwhelming amount of geo-tagged videos.

3. E-mail Bombing Hacktivists send scores of e-mails with large file attachments to their target’s e-mail address.

4. Code Software and websites can achieve political purposes. For example, the encryption software PGP can be used to secure communications; PGP’s author, Phil Zimmermann 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…”. WikiLeaks is an example of a politically motivated website – it seeks to “keep governments open”.

5. 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.

6. Geo-bombing is a technique in which netizens add a geo-tag while editing YouTube videos so that the location of the video can be displayed in Google Earth.^[8]

7. Anonymous blogging is 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. [Wikipedia]

 

There are many different forms of hacktivists, hacktivists who hack for their homeland, hacktivists who hack against oppression, hacktivists who hack for one issue, and one issue alone. More recently however we have seen the rise of online, mass hacktivist groups, the most notable being the group called Anonymous.

 

 

 

 

Hacking/Cracking Term Controversy

One of the most prevalent attitudes in the media is that hacking can be used for financial gain. A lot of the traditional, paper and TV media outlets, and several of the technological, new media channels brashly claim that hackers are the ones who decode websites, sneak around, and steal you identity. However the reality of the situation is quite different.

 

“In common usage, a hacker is a stereotypical person who breaks into computers and computer networks, either for profit or motivated by the challenge. The subculture that has evolved around hackers is often referred to as the computer underground but is now an open community.

Other definitions of the word hacker exist that are not related to computer security. They are subject to the long standing hacker definition controversy about the true meaning of hacker. In this controversy, the term hacker is reclaimed by computer programmers who argue that someone breaking into computers is better called cracker, not making a difference between computer criminals (“black hats”) and computer security experts (“white hats”). Some white hat hackers claim that they also deserve the title hacker, and that only black hats should be called crackers. None of this controversy has gained any relevance in mainstream media, TV and movies, however.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_(computer_security)

 

As this quote explains, the media’s portrayal of cyberthiefs as hackers, as seen in coverage of the Lush data theft [http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/4662025/Kiwi-online-shoppers-details-stolen] and the Morgan Stanley data breach [http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2029564/morgan-stanley-network-hacked].

This term controversy should play a vital part in the media portray of hacking, as if the media were to utalise the correct terms, all those examples of data fraud and information theft wouldn’t be examples of hacking, but of cracking instead.

Below is a copypasta list of the different types of hackers, and the terms used by educated media outlets to describe them.

 

 

 

White hat

A white hat hacker breaks security for non-malicious reasons, for instance testing their own security system. This classification also includes individuals who perform penetration tests and vulnerability assessments within a contractual agreement. Often, this type of ‘white hat’ hacker is called an ethical hacker. The International Council of Electronic Commerce Consultants, also known as the EC-Council has developed certifications, courseware, classes, and online training covering the diverse arena of Ethical Hacking.^[10]

Black hat

A black hat hacker, sometimes called a cracker, is someone who breaks computer security without authorization or uses technology (usually a computer, phone system or network) for malicious reasons such as vandalism, credit card fraud, identity theft, piracy, or other types of illegal activity.^[10][11]

Grey hat

A grey hat hacker is a combination of a Black Hat and a White Hat Hacker. A Grey Hat Hacker may surf the internet and hack into a computer system for the sole purpose of notifying the administrator that their system has been hacked, for example. Then they may offer to repair their system for a small fee.^[4]

Elite hacker

A social status among hackers, elite is used to describe the most skilled. Newly discovered exploits will circulate among these hackers. Elite groups such as Masters of Deceptionconferred a kind of credibility on their members.^{[12]:86,90,117} Elite (e.g. 31337) gives the term leet speak its name.

Script kiddie

A script kiddie is a non-expert who breaks into computer systems by using pre-packaged automated tools written by others, usually with little understanding of the underlying concept—hence the term script (i.e. a prearranged plan or set of activities) kiddie (i.e. kid, child—an individual lacking knowledge and experience, immature).^[11]

Neophyte

A neophyte, “n00b”, or “newbie” is someone who is new to hacking or phreaking and has almost no knowledge or experience of the workings of technology, and hacking.^[4]

Blue hat

A blue hat hacker is someone outside computer security consulting firms who is used to bug test a system prior to its launch, looking for exploits so they can be closed. Microsoftalso uses the term BlueHat to represent a series of security briefing events.^[13][14][15]

Hacktivist

A hacktivist is a hacker who utilizes technology to announce a social, ideological, religious, or political message. In general, most hacktivism involves website defacement or denial-of-service attacks. In more extreme cases, hacktivism is used as tool for cyberterrorism. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_(computer_security)]