Lecture 12 - Hacktivism Flashcards
What are the three key elements of hacktivism available in studies according to Romagna?
There are three key elements traditionally present in studies on hacktivism:
1. The need of supporting an ideology or cause that has its bases in sociopolitical struggles
2. The Internet (and cyberspace) both as necessary infrastructure that allows the activity and as target of an attack
3. The desire for any group or single individual to promote a sociopolitical agenda that should either lead to a change in society or to keep the status quo.
What are the two schools of thought on hacktivism?
- Created by Jordan and Taylor (2004), takes a broad approach, and it mainly focuses on hacktivism as a form of resistance to neoliberal globalization, dividing it in two categories:
a. Mass action hacktivism; a combination of politics and technology. It is the closest form of traditional mass protests taken online
b. Digitally correct hacktivism; represents instead “the political application of hacking to the infrastructure of cyberspace”. It focuses on the right of any person to get access to information. - (Most Important)The second, created by Samuel (2004), is based on the combination of types of actors (hackers, programmers, artists), methods (defacements, DDoS, data theft), and orientations (transgressive or outlaw). Hacktivism is divided into three categories:
a. Political cracking; the most aggressive form of hacktivism, making use of website defacements, cyber trespasses, website redirects, and DDoS attacks.
b. Performative hacktivism; performative hacktivism consists of legally vague actions like virtual sit-ins and website parodies.
c. Political coding; described as the creation and development of software meant for political uses, for instance, to avoid censorship or to remain anonymous on the Internet.
What is the new way of conceptualizing hacktivism?
Toward a New Way of Conceptualizing Hacktivism
Although Samuel’s (2004) taxonomy remains the most important in the field, other scholars have suggested different approaches to hacktivism
- Asenbaum (2018) speaks of cyborg activism, focusing on the fact that the cyborg element defines the individual as a hybrid of biology and technology.
- Wong and Brown (2013, p. 1015) take a different angle, depicting hacktivism as a form of e-banditry. Hacktivists represent a sort of modern “Robin Hood, resisting the power that […] threaten the desire to keep the Internet free…
What is the Distinction between cyberterrorism and hacktivism?
According to more critical voices belonging mainly to the security industry and to governmental organizations, some hacktivists’ actions are thinly distinguished from cyberterrorism, prompting the criminal justice sector to potentially implement harsher punishments.
The distinction among hacktivism and cyberterrorism should be researched in the combination of three elements that differentiate the two phenomena:
1. The existence/lack of physical harm or at least of a severe disruption against a vital infrastructure.
a. Should the malware directly or indirectly physically harm another individual, then the hacktivism label would be abandoned, and, depending on the final aim, the cybercrime or terrorist one would be applied.
2. The presence/absence of fear in the victim of the attack and in other individuals or organizations that might be influenced by it.
a. Fear is intrinsic in terrorism. Hacktivists, instead, refuse the use of physical violence and do not aim to create fear in their targets.
3. The different use of a preset label to identify the nature of the action.
a. The distinction among hacktivism and cyberterrorism became more blurred because of media and governments’ interests. To use a parallelism taken from studies in terrorism, in the eyes of a hacktivist, these operations are seen as legitimate forms of protest, while in the view of the condemner (usually the state), they are unjust and unjustifiable forms of criminal activity or terrorism.
What is state-sponsored hacktivism?
state-sponsored hacktivism, which represents an intricate “interaction between hacktivists that voluntarily embrace the national cause and governments that subsidize, support and motivate them to hack”.
- The main problem with state-sponsored hacktivism is given by the difficulty to draw a line between spontaneous hacktivists’ actions and hacktivists’ operations launched with a massive support of governmental resources
What are the organizational aspects of hacktivist?
- Hacktivists’ operations are traditionally and more commonly linked to groups or network actions which provide better opportunities and likely higher chances of success.
This feeling of belonging to a group, sharing the same identity, and being at the same level are important aspects of hacktivism.
- Hacktivism seems to adopt a horizontal and networked approach which emphasizes the autonomy and the role of the individual within the group, in a manner that mirrors the nodal structure of cyberspace.
While there is evidence of leaderless groups that use a democratic procedure to take decisions, there are also some strong personalities that tend to take a leading role within the team
What are the Hacktivist techniques?
Hacktivists techniques
- DOS
- DDOS
o The virtual sit-ins
A virtual sit-in consists always and necessarily of a DDoS attack, because its aim is to block or hinder a certain target using the combined action of more devices
3 Categories
* Requires the participation of hundreds or better thousands of protesters who rapidly, manually, and individually reload a specific web page on a targeted server, overloading it.
* Using a specific software pre-installed on the user’s device that reloades a web page.
* Makes use of voluntary botnets to launch the attacks. This means that a person offers his or her device to voluntarily become part of a botnet.
- Cyber Trespass
o Cyber trespass is the first step for many other actions and consists of accessing a computer or any other device or system network to obtain control of it, or to steal information, or to install malicious software.
- Website Defacements
o Consist of accessing a web server and replacing a web page with a new page bearing a socio-political message.
Defacements enable hacktivists to post messages and images in which they state their ideologies and beliefs while simultaneously gaining status among the hacktivists and hacker community.
- Data Theft/Leak
o Data and information theft has become another important tool of protest for hacktivists, especially after the rise of Anonymous.
Data theft has traditionally been considered an illegal and unacceptable form of protest and has often taken the shape of vigilant hacktivism rather than sociopolitical one.
- Website Redirect
o A website redirect is a technique that normally involves two phases:
The usually illegal access to a website.
The modification of its address.
o If a visitor digits that specific address, he/she will land in another, tailor-made website different from the original.
What are the phases of hacktivism throughout history?
- Characterized by an activist approach usually linked to leftwing ideologies.
a. Hackers were discovering that hacking could be used to achieve different goals than the simple manipulation of computers and software.
b. Can be divided in two subphases: The pre-web phase and web phase. - Identified with the popularization and increased visibility of hacktivism, thanks to groups such as Anonymous.
a. Anonymous transformed hacktivism from marginal skirmishes launched by sporadic cell based groups of techno-savvies to transnational and decentralized networks of hackers who try to intervene regularly into the real-world struggles. - Phase 3: Represents the current phase of hacktivism.
a. A rise of many cause-based hacktivist cells which work independently or in small networks.
What are the 4 aspects of hacktivism according to Samuel 2004
Hacktivism is a meeting point of four aspects (Samuel, 2004):
1. Online activism
a. Conventional (standard form of activism) or transgressive (involving a violation of moral or social boundaries)
2. Civil disobedience
a. Offline or online
3. Cyber terrorism
a. Violent or transgressive
4. Hacking
a. Political or apolitical
What are the 3 modes of hacktivism according to samuel (2004)
- Political cracking (not seen as hacktivism by Jordan & Taylor)
o Using illegal methods to promote political goals. - Performative hacktivism (called ‘mass action hacktivism’ by Jordan & Taylor)
o Offline activism based on protests, arts, without using any form of illegal action. - Political coding (called ‘digitally correct hacktivism’ by Jordan & Taylor)
o Measures to avoid political surveillance.
What is Romonga’s taxonomy of hacktivism
In the taxonomy performative activism, hacktivism and political coding are all different forms of cyber activism.
- Cyber terrorism is seen as entirely seperate from hacktivism
What are the three elements of taxonomy according to Romogna?
- Vigilante
a. People that undertake law enforcement in their community without legal authority, typically because the legal agencies are thought to be inadequate. F.e. war on pedophiles. - Patriotic
a. Supporting one’s country through hacking. - Socio-political
a. Pursuing a socio-political goal
Why do Hacktivism, hacking, online activism and cyber terrorism differ?
They differ in degree of politicization, technicality, if disruption-aimed and if fear aimed.
Should hacktivism be criminalized?
- So should hacktivism be criminalized?
o This depends on morals and techniques used. Website defacements are something else than doxing.
What is the definition of hacktivism according to Samuel (2004) and Vegh (2003)
- According to Samuel (2004) hacktivism is the nonviolent use of illegal or legally ambiguous digital tools in pursuit of political ends.
- According to Vegh (2003) hacktivism is a politically motivated single incident online action, or a campaign thereof, taken by non-state actors in retaliation to express disapproval or to call attention to an issue advocated by the activists.
What are the differences between Hacktivism and cyber terrorism
What is SIMCA?
SIMCA
The Social Identity Model of Collective Action (SIMCA) illustrates how people can be sparked to collective action, and therefore become a hacktivist
- Our morality ( moral values) affect our identity and how we identify others.
- If these values are violated, (group-based) anger might rise and we take part in collective action.
- If group efficacy, so a group’s shared belief in its conjoint capabilities to organize and execute, is triggered, collective action might also happen.
