Cyberactivismo

White Paper

Hacktivism
Cyberspace has become the new medium for political voices

By François Paget, McAfee Labs™

What is hacktivism? It combines politics, the Internet, and other elements. Let’s start with the political.
Activism, a political movement emphasising direct action, is the inspiration for hacktivism. Think of
Greenpeace activists who go to sea to disrupt whalingcampaigns. Think of the thousands of activists
who responded to the Adbusters call in July 2011 to peacefully occupy a New York City park as part of
Occupy Wall Street.

Table of Contents
The Anonymous Movement

4

Origins

4

Defining the movement

6

WikiLeaks meets Anonymous

7

Fifteen Months of Activity

10

Adding the online activity of hacking (with both good and badconnotations) to political activism gives
us hacktivism. One source claims this term was first used in an article on the filmmaker Shu Lea Cheang;
the article was written by Jason Sack and published in InfoNation in 1995. In 1996, the term appeared in
an online article written by a member of the American group Cult of the Dead Cow.1 In 2000, Oxblood
Ruffin, another member of CDC, wrote thathacktivists use technology to defend human rights.2 At
times citing libertarian ideals (a desire to preserve free enterprise, individual freedoms, freedom of
speech, and freedom to circulate information), many activists also argue that the Internet should be free.
The Anonymous movement is the epitome of hacktivism. Focusing initially on actions to uphold their
notion of the Internet, they haveexpanded their activities from web actions to struggles that are also
happening in the streets.

Arab Spring

10

HBGary

11

Lulz Security and denouncements

11

Green rights

13

Other operations

14

AntiSec, doxing, and copwatching

15

Key Dates in the Origins of Hacktivism

Police responses

16

Date

Comment

Anonymous in the streets

18

September 12, 1981The Chaos Computer Club forms in Berlin.3

Manipulation and pluralism

19

1984

The book Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, by Steven Levy, is published.

Operation Megaupload

20

January 8, 1986

The Hacker Manifesto, by Loyd Blankenship (a.k.a. The Mentor), is first published.

20

October 16, 1989

Using the DECNET protocol, a worm spreads through a NASAcomputer network in Maryland.
Named WANK (Worms Against Nuclear Killers), one of its objectives is to broadcast a message
denouncing the evils of nuclear tests.4

November 5, 1994
(Guy Fawkes Day)

The Zippies, a group in San Francisco, launches a distributed denial of service (DDoS) and mail
bombing campaign against British government servers to protest a law prohibiting outdoor musicconcerts with a repetitive beat.5

December 21, 1995

In Italy, the Strano Network decides to block French websites to protest against nuclear testing
in Mururoa.6

February 9, 1996

John Perry Barlow publishes A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace.

June 30, 1997

The Portuguese hacker group UrBan Ka0s attacks around 30 Indonesian government sites to draw
attention to theoppression of the people of Timor.7

January 29, 1998

In support of Zapatista guerrillas, a virtual demonstration is held in response to a massacre committed
by paramilitary forces in a village in Chiapas, Mexico.8

November 1999

Toywar: an act of resistance against the toy distributor eToys Inc., which had sued a group of artists
under the pretext that its domain name was too close totheirs.9

December 3, 1999,
4pm GMT

The Electrohippies Collective organizes a virtual sit-in, asking all of its supporters to visit World Trade
Organization web pages to block the final communiqué of the Seattle, Washington, conference from
being issued.10

June 20, 2001

To protest against the use of Lufthansa airplanes to deport undocumented migrants out of Germany,
two German...