hacktivism
Sign in to savethumbnail|upright=1.2|Anarchist hacker village at a Hackers On Planet Earth (HOPE) conference, 2018 Hacktivism (or hactivism; a portmanteau of hack and activism) is the use of computer-based techniques such as hacking as a form of civil disobedience to promote a political agenda or social change. A form of Internet activism with roots in hacker culture and hacker ethics, its ends are often related to free speech, human rights, or freedom of information movements.
Article
20 sectionsContents
- Origins and definitions
- Forms and methods
- Controversy
- Notable hacktivist events
- Notable hacktivist people/groups
- WikiLeaks
- Anonymous
- DkD[||
- LulzSec
- SiegedSec
- Related practices
- Culture jamming
- Media hacking
- Reality hacking
- In fiction
- Academic interpretations
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
thumbnail|upright=1.2|Anarchist hacker village at a Hackers On Planet Earth (HOPE) conference, 2018 Hacktivism (or hactivism; a portmanteau of hack and activism) is the use of computer-based techniques such as hacking as a form of civil disobedience to promote a political agenda or social change. A form of Internet activism with roots in hacker culture and hacker ethics, its ends are often related to free speech, human rights, or freedom of information movements.
Hacktivist activities span many political ideals and issues. Hacking as a form of activism can be carried out by a singular activist or through a network of activists, such as Anonymous and WikiLeaks, working in collaboration toward common goals without an overarching authority figure. For context, according to a statement by the U.S. Justice Department, Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, plotted with hackers connected to the "Anonymous" and "LulzSec" groups, who have been linked to multiple cyberattacks worldwide. In 2012, Assange, who was being held in the United Kingdom on a request for extradition from the United States, gave the head of LulzSec a list of targets to hack and informed him that the most significant leaks of compromised material would come from the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, or the New York Times.