WeMedia and Democracy Case Study Examples - Hacktivism

Hacktivism - HISTORY A combination of hacking and social activism, hacktivism is defined as the use of digital tools in pursuit of political ends. The earliest example dates back to 1999, when the loose network known as Cult of the Dead Cow created “Hacktivismo,” an organization espousing that freedom of information was a basic human right. The group designed software to circumvent censorship controls on the Internet that some governments used to prevent citizens from seeing certain content. RECENT EXAMPLES: In December 2010, a group of nearly 3000 activists under the name “Operation Payback” launched online attacksagainst PayPal, MasterCard, and Visa, briefly knocking the three financial services’ sites offline and attempting to prevent consumers from accessing their online banking services. The activists retaliated against the three companies for severing ties with WikiLeaks, an online repository for whistleblower data that had recently included thousands of secret communications from the U.S. State Department and other world governmental agencies. Nine months later more than a dozen people--most between the ages of 19 and 24--were arrested in connection with these denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, even as new attacks were hitting corporate, military, and government sites worldwide OTHER RECENT EXAMPLES: Sony is another prime example of the ripple effect that hacktivism can cause. In 2010, teenage researcher George Hotz reverse-engineered the Sony private key and published it online, thereby allowing almost anyone the opportunity to rewrite the firmware and, by declaring themselves a developer on the Sony network, gain free access to any of Sony’s online games. This action fits the hacker philosophy that all information--even proprietary information--should be free. Sony subsequently sued Hotz, and as a result attracted the attention of hacktivists. The company then suffered many embarrassing DoS attacks and a data breach, including the exposure of 12 million customer credit card numbers. Sony Pictures had 75,000 “music codes” and 3.5 million “music coupons” exposed. Sony has estimated its total losses to be $173 million, including increased customer support, incentives to welcome customers back, legal costs, loss of sales--and better security. POLITICAL HACKTIVISM: Some politically motivated data breaches have inspired full-blown revolutions. In the spring of 2011, protestors, often young, took to the streets in the Middle East, rallying against their governments, some of which had been in power for decades. They were emboldened by, among other things, technology. For some, WikiLeaks and a decentralized online organization known as Anonymous created the environment that gave rise to the “Arab Spring” by posting secret government documents online. About the same time, Anonymous split and formed a smaller group called Lulz Security, or LulzSec. That group allegedly attacked an affiliate of the FBI because it was investigating Anonymous, and later it attacked the Arizona Department of Public Safety because the group disagreed with Arizona’s immigration policy. After 50 days, LulzSec rejoined with Anonymous, although in mid-July the group split off once again with the express purpose of attacking Rupert Murdoch’s News International, ostensibly protesting that organization’s alleged celebrity cell phone hacks by posting Murdoch’s email online. Already one former member of Anonymous regrets his involvement. In an interview with Cisco Security, “SparkyBlaze” said he was “fed up with [Anonymous] putting people’s data online and then claiming to be the big heroes.” He goes on to say: “Getting files and giving them to WikiLeaks, that sort of thing, that does hurt governments. But putting user names and passwords on a pastebin doesn’t [affect governments], and posting the info of the people you fight for is just wrong.” SOURCE: http://www.pcworld.com/article/239594/how_hacktivism_affects_us_all.html