Hacktivism

Occupy Wall Street protesters

Hacktivism is an interesting concept.  It used to be that in order to be an activist and protest something, you needed a physical presence.  For instance, rallies are held, like Occupy Wallstreet, or perhaps a boycott, like that of public transportation during the civil rights movement.  Today, this is not necessarily the case.

Take for instance the voluntary blackouts happening all across the internet tomorrow, including large sites like Imgr, Wikipedia and YouTube.  This is an extremely loud, clear and important message they are sending, and yet it is completely within the digital realm.  Let’s take this even a step, maybe two, further.

Flag for the group "Anonymous"

Hacktivism: using cyber space to creatively work around barriers in the architecture of computers and the internet to send a message.  This message does not necessarily need to be limited to dealings within cyberspace, either.  It can have much further reaching consequences.  The modern day example that first comes to mind is Anonymous.

The way the group itself works is extremely fascinating, but what is even more intriguing is that there are people out there with a wealth of computer knowledge trying that are using it to try and expose corruption and keep people honest all over the world, and in all different sectors.

For instance, Anonymous has been responsible for virtually attacking opponents of Wikileaks.  They have also tried to raise awareness of things posted on Wikileaks that had previously been overlooked by many, and they also attacked the government website of Zimbabwe after they censored Wikileaks.  Much of what they do is ‘in the name of freedom’

Anonymous' message to Sony

Besides Wikileaks they have also been named responsible for exposing potential fraud within Bank of America, and “punished” Sony for obtaining the ip addresses of anyone associated in any way with the Blog of George Holtz, a man they sued.  Finally (or at least the last thing I will mention here, since they have done many things over the past 7ish years) they lead a campaign against the “DarkNet” (which if you don’t know what that is you may want to read up a little bit, with the key point being ip addresses are obscured, and therefore very difficult to track) by taking down over 40 child pornography sites and handing over at least 1,500 names of frequent visitors to both the FBI and Interpol.

Of course, just as with the idea of superheroes, though I guess to a lesser extent here, we have to question if everything they do is “right”, and if they should be allowed to make those judgment calls.  There have been many arrests and investigations in search of members of Anonymous since not even half of what they do is legal.  Some might support it, but just because they have the power to get out their message, and maybe even the message of many, should they?

Though of shit like this starts showing up,
I think the choice is obvious

To be honest, I myself support much of what they have done.  Even though they are a leaderless society of people, they seem to have one over-arching goal they hold to; freedom of speech and information, and equality for everyone, everywhere around the world.  That is something I think we can all get behind.  Even if you do not entirely agree with their methods, at least they are getting a challenging voice out into the world and trying to keep people honest.

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I think I will be slightly on topic today, but more using the idea of hacktivism as a jumping of point.

Warning: some graphic content included

The ability of Anonymous to track down people using the "DarkNet" has gotten me thinking about the existence of something called the "Deep Web", of which the "DarkNet" is really just a smaller part.  You can check out a good explanation here, but the general idea is that there are sites out there that most everyone does not know exist.  These are secret communities, and not the cool kind.  They are often of a more disturbing nature.

This is not always the case, as the Deep Web is simply populated by anything not indexed in a standard search engine, but for those who are using it, this is generally what it is for.  These communities stay hidden, using code words and forums to pass messages along to those "in the know" about where they can go to find what they are looking for.  What are they looking for?  Things like child pornography and where to buy illegal drugs.  I would say these are probably the most prevalent usages, but there are many other out there.

(Check out this guy's experience)

The point of this little additional rant is to inform you.  I'm not asking anyone to necessarily take it upon themselves to do anything about it, or that their thoughts on the internet and cyber space should have their foundations shaken.  I simply seek to inform.  These things are out there.  These are issues that probably need addressing (*ahem* more important than SOPA in my opinion).  But nothing can happen if you're not informed.  And maybe we need a little more friendly hacktivist intervention.

So there you have it.