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Internet activism, hacktivism, or hactivism, is the use of computer-based techniques such as hacking as a form of civil disobedience to promote a political agenda or social change. With roots in hacker culture and hacker ethics, its ends are often related to free speech, human rights, or freedom of information movements.
Bryce Case Jr., otherwise known as YTCracker, is an American rapper from La Mirada, California. His stage name derives from having formerly been a black hat hacker. Case is best known for his contributions to the hacking community along with nerdcore hip hop subculture.
Website defacement is an attack on a website that changes the visual appearance of a website or a web page. These are typically the work of hackers, who break into a web server and replace the hosted website with malware or a website of their own. Defacement is generally meant as a kind of electronic graffiti and, like other forms of vandalism, is used to spread messages by politically motivated "cyber protesters" or hacktivists. Website defacement can involve adding questionable content or removing or changing the content to make it questionable, or including nonsensical or whimsical references to websites or publicly editable repositories to harm its reputation. Methods such as a web shell may be used to aid in website defacement.
The Internet has a long history of turbulent relations, major maliciously designed disruptions, and other conflicts. This is a list of known and documented Internet, Usenet, virtual community and World Wide Web related conflicts, and of conflicts that touch on both offline and online worlds with possibly wider reaching implications.
globalHell was an American hacker group. They were one of the first hacking groups who gained notoriety for website defacements and breaches. The combined losses caused by the group were estimated to be ranged between $1.5m and $2.5m. The group was called a "cyber gang" as it had many of the same characteristics of a gang and carried out the same activities as a gang, including trafficking in stolen credit card numbers.
During the Russo-Georgian War, a series of cyberattacks swamped and disabled websites of numerous South Ossetian, Georgian, Russian and Azerbaijani organisations. The attacks were initiated three weeks before the shooting war began.
Cyberwarfare by Russia includes denial of service attacks, hacker attacks, dissemination of disinformation and propaganda, participation of state-sponsored teams in political blogs, internet surveillance using SORM technology, persecution of cyber-dissidents and other active measures. According to investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov, some of these activities were coordinated by the Russian signals intelligence, which was part of the FSB and formerly a part of the 16th KGB department. An analysis by the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2017 outlines Russia's view of "Information Countermeasures" or IPb as "strategically decisive and critically important to control its domestic populace and influence adversary states", dividing 'Information Countermeasures' into two categories of "Informational-Technical" and "Informational-Psychological" groups. The former encompasses network operations relating to defense, attack, and exploitation and the latter to "attempts to change people's behavior or beliefs in favor of Russian governmental objectives."
Anonymous is a decentralised virtual community. They are commonly referred to as an internet-based collective of hacktivists whose goals, like its organization, are decentralized. Anonymous seeks mass awareness and revolution against what the organization perceives as corrupt entities, while attempting to maintain anonymity. Anonymous has had a hacktivist impact. This is a timeline of activities reported to be carried out by the group.
NullCrew was a hacktivist group founded in 2012 that took responsibility for multiple high-profile computer attacks against corporations, educational institutions, and government agencies.
Lizard Squad was a black hat hacking group, mainly known for their claims of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks primarily to disrupt gaming-related services.
Ghost Security, also known as GhostSec, is a self-described "vigilante" group that was formed to attack ISIS websites that promote Islamic extremism. It is considered an offshoot of the Anonymous hacking collective. According to experts of online jihad activism, the group gained momentum after the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris in January 2015. The group claims to have taken down hundreds of ISIS-affiliated websites or social media accounts and thwarted potential terrorist attacks by cooperating with law enforcement and intelligence agencies. The group uses social media hashtags like #GhostSec - #GhostSecurity or #OpISIS to promote its activities.
The Islamic State Hacking Division (ISHD) or The United Cyber Caliphate(UCC) is a merger of several hacker groups self-identifying as the digital army for the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIS/ISIL). The unified organization comprises at least four distinct groups, including the Ghost Caliphate Section, Sons Caliphate Army (SCA), Caliphate Cyber Army (CCA), and the Kalashnikov E-Security Team. Other groups potentially involved with the United Cyber Caliphate are the Pro-ISIS Media group Rabitat Al-Ansar (League of Supporters) and the Islamic Cyber Army (ICA). Evidence does not support the direct involvement of the Islamic State leadership. It suggests external and independent coordination of Pro-ISIS cyber campaigns under the United Cyber Caliphate(UCC) name. Investigations also display alleged links to Russian Intelligence group, APT28, using the name as a guise to wage war against western nations.
Ghost Squad Hackers ("GSH") is a hacktivist group responsible for several cyber attacks. Former targets of the group include central banks, Fox News, CNN, the United States Armed Forces and the government of Israel. The group is led by a de facto leader known as s1ege, and selects targets primarily for political reasons. The group forms a part of the hacktivist group Anonymous.
Nulled is an online cracking forum. It was previously shut down July 4th, 2024, but as of August 2024, the website is back up.
The Ukrainian Cyber Alliance is a community of Ukrainian cyber activists from various cities across Ukraine and around the world. The alliance was formed in the spring of 2016 through the merger of two cyber activist groups, FalconsFlame and Trinity, later joined by the group RUH8 and individual activists from the CyberHunta group. These hacktivists united to counter Russian aggression in Ukraine.
Cyber Partisans is a Belarusian decentralized anonymous activist/hacktivist collective emerged in September 2020, known for its various cyber attacks against the authoritarian Belarusian government. The group is part of the broader Belarusian opposition movement.
Anonymous, a decentralized international activist and hacktivist collective, has conducted numerous cyber-operations against Russia since February 2022 when the Russian invasion of Ukraine began.
References
- 1 2 "A Teen Hacker Is Targeting Russian Sites as Revenge for the MH17 Crash". VICE Motherboard. March 5, 2016. Archived from the original on September 24, 2019. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
- ↑ "Это похоже на крик души. Но я не знаю, о чем он кричит Больше десяти лет кто-то присылает российским шахматисткам письма с использованными презервативами и порно. Мы нашли этого человека". Meduza (in Russian). Archived from the original on April 16, 2022. Retrieved December 27, 2022.
- ↑ Williams, Martyn (April 6, 2018). "Mischief with Our Nation website". North Korea Tech - 노스코리아테크. Archived from the original on May 12, 2019. Retrieved August 15, 2019.
- ↑ "North Korea error promotes fake Twitter account". BBC News. April 12, 2018. Archived from the original on April 19, 2018. Retrieved May 26, 2018.
- ↑ Whittaker, Zack. "A protester is spreading anti-Article 13 messages over exposed internet TVs". ZDNet. Archived from the original on June 15, 2018. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
- ↑ Batebi, Ahmad. "Interview with an Outraged, Grief Stricken Hacktivist". IranWire. Archived from the original on July 22, 2021. Retrieved February 17, 2020.