Hacktivism

Hacktivism uses the usual tools and strategies of hackers for explicit political ends. Hacktivists may target the Web sites of the organizations whose behavior, politics, or symbols they dislike. They can try to disrupt an organization's internal information networks, search for private information that will help a protest movement plan strategy or expose wrongdoing, or damage an organization by defacing or debilitating Web sites. Hacktivist goals can range from trying to spread the message of a social movement to trying to destroy a target organization's computing facility.

Some hacktivists use different kinds of viruses for political ends, constructing programs that copy themselves either independent of or related to a damaging instruction. For example, a hacker might write a quine virus program that generates complete copies of itself as part of its output, a worm virus program that reproduces itself across a network, or a wabbit virus program designed to perpetually duplicate itself, at least until the system crashes. In contrast to the wabbit's slow growth, a fork bomb quickly generates multiple copies itself. Other hacktivists might use a Trojan horse that carries a virus on as an infected program engages with other programs.

Whereas a hacker might use these kinds of viruses to propagate silently for some time before shutting down systems and generating cute messages, a hacktivist deliberately times viral activity to coincide with other staged political events, often making his or her political critiques clear through an overt message in the hack.

Hackers often target specific organizations—from firms to state agencies, the military, and non-profit charities—but hacktivists have an explicit ideological program that helps them justify their selection of targets. Unlike most hackers, they rarely work alone, and are by definition part of a broader ideological project. Just as an activist can come from any part of the political spectrum, hacktivists and their projects cover a wide range of political objectives.

Most hacktivists share the conviction that information is a public good, and feel that they have a political responsibility to use their skills to force the information they feel should be out of organizations and into the public sphere. In this sense, hacktivists are often described as informational Robin Hoods, who believe that governments and corporations control people by controlling the flow of information. Hacktivists believe that they have a responsibility to expose abuses of power and to redistribute informational resources.

For example, a frequent hacktivist objective is to protect the Internet from over-regulation. Hacktivists were involved with the battle over the Communications Decency Act of 1996, and more recently have played a role in international politics. Wars between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian hackers erupt through attacks on each other's Web sites and information infrastructures. When a Chinese fighter jet collided with an American spy plane in 2001, Chinese and American hacktivists defaced and aggressively attacked each other's Web sites. To protest globalization, hacktivists have stolen and broadcast the credit-card numbers and private financial information of world political leaders attending international conferences. In Mexico, a group called x-ploit hacked a government Web site and put up pictures of Emiliano Zapata, hero of the Zapatista rebels in the southern state of Chiapas. They threatened to continue their hacktivism by using their skills to expose government corruption, make the world aware of human-rights abuses within the justice system, and protest the treatment of Zapatistas in particular.

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