Hactivism as described by EBSCO Host Points of View

THIS IS COPY PASTED FROM THE EBSCO HOST POINTS OF VIEW DATABASE WHICH IS AVAILABLE TO MANY UNIVERSITY STUDENTS. WHEN THEY GO TO "HACTIVISM" THEY LEARN ABOUT IT AND THEN CAN READ MORE ARTICLES AND WRITE AN ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY. THE HISTORY OF HACKTIVISM SECTION ENDS WITH A FULL PARAGRAPH ABOUT KY.


Introduction

"Hacktivism" is a portmanteau of the words "hack" and "activism" used to describe a modern form of protest that combines high-tech computer hacking with more traditional forms of political activism. Hacktivists typically support nonviolent protests to advance the causes of social justice, information access, and freedom of speech. Some hacktivists may use techniques such as distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks to shut down corporate or government websites, while others might use technology to circumvent government censorship or communication blockades during times of political unrest. Sometimes hacktivist activities do not even require special computer skills; instead, they use basic technology such as file- and video-sharing applications to bring attention to important issues across the globe.

In reality, many well-known hacktivist groups are hardly even groups at all; instead, they are loosely organized collectives composed of individuals pursuing a common goal under a common banner. Most group members choose to remain anonymous and hide their identities both online and during real-life protests. This may protect individuals from danger when engaging in illegal activity or in areas where reprisals may be common, but it also reinforces the common ideal that the hacktivist collective is more significant than the individual.
Understanding the Discussion

Distributed denial of service (DDoS): An attack in which hackers flood a website with traffic to the point where the targeted website becomes so overwhelmed that it shuts down.

Hacktivist: An activist who uses computer hacking techniques to bring awareness to a political or social justice cause.

Internet relay chat (IRC): A form of text-based online chat that can connect users to each other either through servers or directly.

IP spoofing: A method for hiding computer-identifying information when accessing the Internet.
History

Throughout history, technology has been used to advance important causes. For example, during World War II, scientists and engineers built systems to intercept enemy communication and decipher encrypted transmissions.

The rise of the Internet brought new tools for computer-savvy activists to share information and make critical transmissions from behind communication blockades. For example, during the Gulf War in the Middle East in 1991, military personnel and civilians on the ground used internet relay chat (IRC) to transmit key information from conflict zones. IRC also played a role in the August 1991 coup that briefly overthrew President Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union. Because IRC creates connections through private servers, or even directly between clients, communication can often continue in these channels even in the face of media blackouts, government censorship, and fears of spying.

From the earliest days of the Internet, hackers took advantage of the increased connectivity--and often lax security practices--to break into computer systems for fun, profit, or spite. But as the Internet gained in popularity, larger groups began to see its potential for something more than entertainment or revenge. This led to the rise of "hacktivism," a form of protest that combines high-tech hacking skills with low-tech protests to share information and bring about social change.

One of the best-known hacktivist groups refers to itself simply as Anonymous. Its origins are usually traced to the 4Chan.org image board around 2003. Members of the group (referred to as "Anons") initially hacked primarily for entertainment purposes. Over time, however, some Anons decided to coordinate their high-tech knowledge and capabilities--and anonymous, encrypted identities--to help further social justice causes, especially those surrounding issues of censorship, suppression of information, and freedom of speech.

In 2008, Anonymous undertook its first major campaign, Project Chanology. The blog Gawker had posted a Church of Scientology video in which Tom Cruise, a celebrity member of the Church of Scientology, praised the religion. When the Church of Scientology threatened Gawker with a copyright infringement lawsuit for posting the video, Anonymous launched Project Chanology to fight what they believed was bullying and inappropriate suppression of information. Anons initiated distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on the Church of Scientology's website and used IRC and YouTube to recruit others to join in both online and real-life protests. Like many of Anonymous' projects, there were no specific orders issued. For example, the "recruitment" video for Project Chanology did not tell anyone how to protest, but rather it pointed them toward what to protest and why; the specifics were left up to the individual.

Project Chanology brought attention to Anonymous and its activities, but not all of it was positive. Nonaffiliated members of related image boards received unwanted attention and scrutiny in their corner of the web. Journalist Mark Bunker, a longtime critic of the Church of Scientology, expressed concern that many of Anonymous' activities were illegal and hurting the efforts of other groups who were lawfully protesting against the Church of Scientology.

In 2010, Anonymous continued its protests with Operation: Payback. This operation initially targeted organizations such as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), allegedly for restricting access to other people's creative works for their own profit. By November 2010, the WikiLeaks whistleblower site came under intense pressure for publishing top-secret US diplomatic cables, leading businesses such as Amazon, PayPal, MasterCard, and Visa to freeze donations or cut ties with the organization. In December, Anonymous expanded its operation to attack these companies' websites and disrupt their business. They succeeded for several hours at a time; PayPal estimated the damages cost it around $5.5 million and turned over the IP addresses of the one thousand most-active hackers in the DDoS attacks to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Fourteen Anons were arrested, and in December 2013, thirteen of them pleaded guilty to the attacks.

As the concept of hacktivism spread across the world, tech-savvy hackers assisted on-the-ground activists during protest movements such as the Arab Spring in 2011. As part of Operation Egypt, Anonymous teamed up with another activist organization known as Telecomix to restore full access to censored websites, circumvent media blackouts, and regain Internet and mobile services that had been shut off by the Egyptian government. Additionally, a key part of Operation Tunisia used file sharing and YouTube to help Tunisian dissidents share videos of their experiences with the world and supplied protesters with the software and instructions needed to encrypt their information and avoid proxy interception. These actions brought widespread attention and support to the revolution underway in the Middle East, even before the mainstream media caught on.

Anonymous also played a role in 2011's Occupy Wall Street movement, which started in New York City and spread across the United States. Some activities simply used Twitter and other forms of social media to spread the message and gather support, while others used that same vast network to help identify a member of the New York Police Department who allegedly sprayed mace into the faces of peaceful protesters. Once again, Anonymous hackers supplemented the real-life protests with minor DDoS attacks on the websites of law enforcement agencies, corporations, and even the New York Stock Exchange.

Another high-profile Anonymous operation was launched after the failure of local police to adequately investigate the alleged rape of a sixteen-year-old girl by several members of the high school football team in Steubenville, Ohio. An Anonymous member known as KYAnonymous established an Anonymous subgroup called KnightSec and enacted Operation Roll Red Roll, which obtained and publicized videos, photographs, and tweets allegedly providing evidence of the rape and pointing to the perpetrators, and detailing the school's attempted cover-up of the rape. KnightSec also helped organize real-life protests to pressure local law enforcement to properly investigate the incident, which ultimately resulted in two convictions. However, the FBI eventually discovered KYAnonymous's real identity and raided his home, seizing his computers, storage devices such as hard drives and portable thumb drives, and even his Xbox.
Hacktivism Today

Hacktivist "groups" tend to be loosely organized collectives united by general principles rather than formal organizations with clear directives. These principles usually include the importance of free speech and information access, as well as other social justice causes.

As a result of this informality, any individual or subgroup can engage in hacktivist activities and claim to be acting as part of the collective. While this openness is a distinct ethos of many hacktivist groups, the ability of anyone to claim membership can distract from the group's core mission or draw negative attention to the collective. Unfortunately, clashing ideologies can lead to conflicting messages and dissent within the group: for example, one subgroup of Anons hacked the Vatican website to protest alleged corruption within the Roman Catholic Church, while another hacker claiming ties to Anonymous attempted to hack the records of an abortion clinic and threatened to publicize the names of women who had used its services.

Also, many types of hacking are illegal, which creates trouble for anyone claiming affiliation with a group and sometimes draws the attention of law enforcement. This can lead to situations such as the arrests of twenty-five alleged members of the Anonymous-affiliated hacker group Sector 404 by police in Europe and South America in February 2012, following attacks on the website of the international police force Interpol. This kind of attention can endanger anyone who claims affiliation with the group, even if they were not directly involved in the activity in question. Despite wearing their signature Guy Fawkes masks to real-life protests and spoofing their IP addresses while hacking, police can and do find and arrest the people behind these anonymous identities.

The pursuit of activism also causes disagreement within groups, as some individuals want to use their skills to further causes, while others prefer to hack for entertainment purposes. Similarly, some believe these two can be combined, while others worry that entertainment and revenge hacks damage the group's credibility for social and political activism. Illegal hacktivist activities raise even further debate over whether it is acceptable if in pursuit of a "higher cause." Unsurprisingly, it is difficult to define "higher cause," especially when individuals within a collective disagree on key issues.

Despite the positive contributions hackers have made to social causes, law enforcement agencies in the United States (such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation) and internationally (such as Interpol) worry about privacy violations and property damage. Therefore, they continue to track down and arrest the members of these collectives. Meanwhile, the individuals that make up the collectives continue to strive for anonymity and hack in pursuit of their cause, their entertainment, or some combination of the two.

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