In the modern day, technology is advancing at an incredible pace. With new changes come new trends and tendencies in society. The Internet connected people all around the globe and changed the face of the society forever. The Web is an integral part of governmental activities, business, and social life. The advent of the networking technology gave way to new forms of social activism, protests, and plain hooliganism. In the modern day, the hacker subculture uses the Internet as a battlefield against everything they perceive as unjust, as well as a tool to mock, prank and abuse people. This report will discuss the origins and the modern state of the hacker subculture and try to explain why people join it.
The Nature of Hacking
The hacking first started as a subculture in M.I.T back in the 1960s. A group of enthusiasts searched to test the limits of programmable systems, including those of society itself. The hobby originally was aimed at achieving unique and clever results and was not associated with anything malicious. Their activities included tinkering with computers to increase their performance, creating some of the first computer games and playing small pranks on people, like placing fake signs (Kushner, 2014). The term “hacker” in its modern day meaning originated from that group. However, with the development of the computer networks, the meaning of the term started to change. The modern day concept of hacking is closely associated with criminals who compromise the security of computer networks for personal gain. However, the members of the subculture do not associate themselves with cybercriminals sometimes calling them “crackers” in an attempt to differentiate. They claim to believe in curiosity, responsibility and working for the public good.
Fighting for Justice and Freedom of Information
Modern era hackers are a vast and poorly connected subculture. The basis of hacker philosophy consists of several ideas, some of which were borrowed from the original hackers of 1960-70s, who also resented bureaucracy and limitations imposed by the government (Gehring, 2004). The hackers supposedly fight for the freedom of information, against dictatorship and injustice. They admire inventiveness and creativity and detest limitations and bureaucracy. Their campaigns include attacks on government and company websites, dissemination of various information and even personal attacks on people. The most prolific hacker movement today is called Anonymous. It originates from the website 4chan – an anonymous forum which gathered the most irreverent crowd of the entire Internet. The Anonymous movement was born of that crowd. The most outspoken activists among 4chan users started to form groups and work together. Those groups were disorganized and worked without any coordination going on crusades as much as trying to simply sow chaos for the sake of it.
Collectively they became known as Anonymous. The collective came into the media spotlight in 2008, after attacking the Church of Scientology. The organization accused the Church of censorship after it tried to take down a copyrighted video of Tom Cruise speaking about his beliefs. Anonymous used various means to shut down Church’s websites and disrupt its operation, including parades outside its offices in various countries around the world (The Economist, 2008). The religious organization remained largely unharmed but preferred to leave the video alone to prevent any future trouble. Another famous act by the hacktivist group was a coordinated attack on the websites of music and film companies. The Distributed Denial of Service attacks were declared to be the retaliation against the companies who tried to shut down websites hosting pirated content (BBC, 2010). Since then the Anonymous have carried out various campaigns aimed against authoritarian regimes of the Middle East, companies that have incurred the group’s ire and even terrorist organizations, like ISIS. The effects of these actions are hard to discern. Since DDoS attacks cannot take down sites for long periods of time the permanent damage done by them from the network security standpoint has been minimal.
Just for Fun
However, not all hackers act claiming to fight injustice. While one of the key principles of the original hacking subculture was to “do no harm” (Kushner, 2014) modern day hackers often act simply trying to have fun at the expense of others. Members of the Anonymous offshoot named LulzSec stole personal data and took down sites to have fun and attract the public attention. They targeted mostly videogame and television websites and did not claim to act against any sort of evil. Their actions lead to personal data being leaked to the internet and various services being disrupted (CNN, 2011). This example shows the chaotic nature of the hacker movement. Hackers do not have any clearly set goals or agenda. They act on their personal whims and desires. It is hard to discern what makes a hacker a hacker, aside from the general rebelliousness, denial of authority, and minimal technical knowledge.
The Allure of Hacking
What draws people to this movement? That is not as hard of a question as one might think. The hackers have an incredible allure created by the media. They are mysterious, powerful, and dangerous they can really change the world. Movies and books like Johnny Mnemonic and Neuromancer bread the image of a hacker as a type of modern wizard. A lot of people are drawn by that imagery and seek an easy and accessible way to achieve similar powers. And organizations like Anonymous offer the way for anybody willing. Just download a couple of simple programs and you can be a part of something huge and powerful, you can be one of the legendary cyberwarriors. The fact that many activities of the hacktivists are illicit only adds to the thrills, especially for those under the age of actual legal responsibility. Aside from that, many members of the hacker movements actually believe in their cause. They want to support absolute freedom of information or help to fight authoritarian regimes. Being part of an activist group online helps those people to become more closely involved in the struggle, without risking much.
Famous Hackers
The hacker movement has its own celebrities. Christopher Doyon is one of the most outspoken hacktivists who have been on a social justice crusade since the mid-1980s. He was one of the pillars of a Peoples Liberation Front, a vigilante organization supporting protesters from M.I.T. and Harvard (Kushner, 2014). The organization was funded by drug money and Doyon went to jail after selling LSD to a DEA agent in 1992, so his relationship with the law was never good. Returning from prison, he went on to participate in a DDoS attack against copyright organizations. In 2010, Doyon joined forces with one of the Anonymous groups on the behest of his long time friend who went by the alias Commander Adama.
He used the hacktivists’ enthusiasm to tear down a local government website. He was promptly arrested after the fact and got his laptop confiscated. Doyon was not discouraged and continued his activities with fervor, He followed the Anonymous activities and tried to use the organization to advance his own crusade. He executed DDoS attacks against various company and government websites until he was finally arrested and charged with causing damage to a protected computer. After his arrest, he revealed himself to be CommanderX – a name already well known amongst Anonymous groups. After his arrest, he was released to await trial but decided to flee to Canada.
However, Doyon’s acts of civil disobedience are child’s play compared to the activities of probably the world’s most famous hacker – Jullian Assange. He started his hacking activities in 1987 using the alias Mendax. Assange’ early exploits include the hack of the national terminal of Nortel company and alleged participation in anti-nuclear NASA hack (Khatchadourian, 2010). The name Jullian Assange became known to people all over the world after his project WikiLeaks published top secret governmental report, causing one international scandal after another. The first publication which caused an outrage was the record of 2007 Baghdad airstrike. It showed US military killing 2 Iraqi journalists. The case was kept under covers for three years before the WikiLeaks publication in 2010. After that, the site has caused a lot of controversy. Some consider Assange a crusader for freedom of information, others consider him a traitor publishing top secret materials and jeopardizing the national security of the US. The activist faces a likely death sentence in the US, which caused him to seek asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. The exploits of Assange can be viewed differently, but there is no doubt they cause a huge resonance in media and politics.
Conclusion
The hacker subculture has grown immensely in the last 15 years. The mass media has created an idealized image of a hacker over the last 30 years. With the advent of Anonymous and growing availability of readymade hacking tools more and more people join in. They all act on their own whims and desires. Some want to fight for freedom of information and against restrictions and bureaucracy, others just seek to satisfy their sociopathic tendencies. All of them flock together into disorganized groups pursuing widely different goals. Famous hacktivists have emerged over the years. Many of them became known for petty hooliganism but others, like Jullian Assange, managed to affect the whole world.
The hacktivism can be viewed differently. For some people hackers are heroes. However, for me, it is hard not to view the hacker subculture as a mix of sociopaths and internet hooligans. Most of their activities are limited to minor civil disobedience and abuse of others. No matter, what their reasons are it is hard to sympathize with people who hack strobe lights into the website dedicated to epilepsy (Kushner, 2014). Most of the hacks performed by the groups like Anonymous have very limited effects. Only large-scale, well-organized projects, for example, WikiLeaks, have an adverse impact on society. Overall, the hacktivism seems like inefficient and dangerous forms of social protest. You hardly achieve anything by participating and risk finding yourself misguided
Online everybody claims to pursue a noble goal. But before you jump onto an opportunity to go on a social justice crusade, you should stop and ask yourself: what will I achieve by doing it?
References
BBC. (2010). Activists target recording industry websites. BBC News. Web.
CNN. (2011). Hackers pirate PBS website, post fake story about Tupac still alive.CNN. Web.
Gehring, V. (2004). Internet in Public Life. Lanham, ML: The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group.
Khatchadourian, R. (2010). No Secrets. Julian Assange’s mission for total transparency. The New Yorker. Web.
Kushner, D. (2014). The Masked Avengers. How Anonymous incited online vigilantism from Tunisia to Ferguson. The New Yorker. Web.
The Economist. (2008). Fair game. An online onslaught against Scientology. The Economist. Web.