What is Hacktivism?
Hacktivism, according to Wikipedia is defined as “the use of computers and computer networks to promote political ends, chiefly free speech, human rights, and information ethics”. As with any technology, “hacking” and therefore hacktivism can be a force for good or evil.
The term was coined in 1994 by a Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc) member known as "Omega" in an e-mail to the group. Some definitions include acts of cyberterrorism while others simply re-affirm the use of technological hacking to affect social change. Unlike Hacking which is often considered destructive in nature, Hacktivism is considered constructive.
Early Attacks
There have been various organisations which have been targets. Two of the most widely known groups are Anonymous and Lulz Security (more commonly abbreviated to LulzSec) that are the most active. One of Anonymous's earliest targets was the Church of Scientology. The initial attack consisted of making prank telephone calls to the organisation and sending black sheets of paper by facsimile transmission.
Different kinds of Hacktivism
Denial-of-service attack
This involves sending multiple simultaneous requests for information to the target website, causing it to crash. It is not done by an individual but a group of networks called ‘bot nets’. The main aim is at disrupting the server and causing it to block server. Although a DoS attack does not usually result in the theft of information or other security loss, it can cost the target person or company a great deal of time and money.
Example : Arab Spring cyber warfare (2011) - While mainstream media was slow to tune in to the revolutionary drumbeat that has been rising in the Arab world, Anonymous was present from the beginning. In 2011 the websites of the Government of Tunisia were targeted by Anonymous due to censorship of the WikiLeaks documents and the Tunisian Revolution. The group took down at least eight government websites.
Site defacement
Changing the content/visual content of the website by getting hold of the website URL. Also known as electronic graffitti. The term "website defacement" refers to any unauthorized changes made to the appearance of either a single webpage, or an entire site.
Example : After the terrorist attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, hackers claiming to be affiliated with Anonymous launched a defacement campaign dubbed #OpCharlieHebdo, which was followed by a counter-campaign by Islamist hackers. These attacks are so common that there’s a whole site dedicated to archiving them.
Website Redirects
It involves website redirects where the website redirected to will have a counterview or critique of the original website.
Example : Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) Pro government a group of computer hackers first surfaced online in 2011. The hackers claimed to be acting in support of President Bashar al-Assad saying they sought to counter "fabricated news" broadcast by Arab and Western media. The SEA has carried out surveillance to discover the identities and location of Syrian rebels, using malware (including the Blackworm tool), phishing, and denial of service attacks.
Virtual sit-ins
Almost similar to DOS attacks, multiple requests are sent to the site but these are done by individual protestors (keep on reloading the same page, so that website can't handle so much traffic).
Example : Ricardo Dominguez, a Professor at University of California carried on a virtual protest over Transparency issues at the University. He triggered a software program that continuously reloaded the home page of UC President Mark G. Yudof's website. "Transparency", hundreds of protesters wrote, over and over again, in the search box of the home page. The jammed website responded with an error message: File not found. The protester's message for the protest was: Transparency doesn't exist in the UC system.
Website Mirroring
When some websites are censored, some content of that website is made available on a different website, but URL changes.
Example : Sites such as Netscape that offer copies or updates of popular software often set up mirror sites to handle the large demand that a single site may not be able to handle.
To see all the acts of Hactivism carried out by the Anonymous group, visit their Wikipedia Page : Anonymous Group Wiki Page
