Hacktivism: a label associated with movement of people that use their hacking/cracking know-how to carry out their personal view of justice.
Purpose: The purpose of this blog is to identify who fits within the hacktivist label, and how do they affect professional/personal internet interactions?
Today's Topic: How/why is there a difference between bad hackers and hacktivist?
To me this goes back to the old stories about Robin Hood. Look at Robin's motive. Steal from the rich and give to the needy. His motive wasn't to make tons of money for himself. He had a mission remained outside the scope of personal profit and greed. Hacktivists are cut from this cloth. Sometimes their actions are spread around the world in the news and social media. Sometimes their success is not popular and even goes unnoticed. Bad hackers, or blacks hats are the opposite. They focus on their "number one." They are in it for the money, and we have all felt their activities.
We have heard and felt the touch of black hat hackers. Those of us who bank with USAA get a new debit card every once in a while. Everyone that shopped at Target a couples years ago and got their PINs stolen, that too was by a black hat. Black hats are the greedy ones that are in it for personal gain. Their motives seem to be easy to identify. They gain profit directly by stealing assets, or indirectly by garnering money by hackers another. They can sell stolen information on the web with no care.
Hacktivists have been seen around the world fighting ISIS by various means. We have seen them provide details on corrupt government officials when two tourists were illegally accused and sentenced to death. One of the more recent ones covers the the Flint water crisis. While these acts don't give money to the poor they uncover those "dirty little secrets." However, just like Robin Hood these folks are still breaking the law. The difference between their actions and the actions of black hats is that they don't seek a personal gain, they break the law to carry out their personal view of justice.
Articles to check out:
http://www.ibtimes.com/anonymous-thailand-hacks-justice-websites-over-koh-tao-murder-verdict-declares-2261698
http://www.ibtimes.com/anonymous-thailand-hacks-justice-websites-over-koh-tao-murder-verdict-declares-2261698
Future Items of Interest:
-Notable hacktivist people/groups?
-Is hacktivism a good thing?
-Is hacktivism legal?
-What are the repercussions of being a hacktivist?
-What seem to be the most common exploits or attacks hackers and hacktivists use?
-How do hacktivists choose their target? When they choose a target what is the typical information targeted?
Great post Christopher. Hacktivists may have good intentions but everything about them is wrong. You are right that the difference between them and the black hats is they don't do it for personal gain but they kind of do. They are pushing their personal beliefs on they people they attack and some that aren't involved in the attack. Just because I say everything about them is wrong doesn't mean I don't like when they attack groups or people like ISIS.
ReplyDeleteHey thanks pal, I was talking with some none IT'ers lately and they didn't really understand the difference between these guys. Hopefully this breaks it all down and makes a bit of sense.
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