Hacktivism vs. Cyberterrorism

With the advent of new media, a new type of crime has emerged to challenge us – cybercrime – and because cyberspace is not so easy to define spatially and legally, it is not exactly easy to identify what exactly can be categorised as a cybercrime. Most of the time hackers commit fraud for various agendas, such as to learn and explore, but these days hackers have come up with a a more grandiose agenda - political involvement and intervention.

Hackers from the late 90s became more political and they started a new trend of using the Internet as a means of achieving political goals which in turn will result in social and political changes in the world. These activities are called hacktivism and cyberterrorism.

Hacktivism

In essence, hacktivism is the combination of hacking and activism. It is the intention of achieving activist goals hoping that it will produce social and political changes in the world. Hacktivists aim to bring political awareness through disrupting normal operations by temporarily blocking access (e.g. a virtual sit-in) without using violence or causing any serious damage. It is a form of electronic civil disobedience, a movement inspired by Gandhi’s civil disobedience, a non-violent way of challenging injustice. Hacktivists use four main methods to achieve their goals: virtual blockades, e-mail attacks, hacking and computer break-ins; and computer viruses and worms. Having said that, hacktivism primarily occurs in the form of website defacement. Some examples of hacktivism are:

• X-Ploit hacked Mexico’s finance ministry Website, replacing it with the face of revolutionary hero Emiliano Zapata, in sympathy with the Zapatista rebellion in the Chiapas region in southern Mexico
• The Portuguese group Kaotik Team hacked 45 Indonesian government Websites, altering Web pages to include messages calling for full autonomy for East Timor
• The New York Times had its Website replaced with a long screed calling for the release of jailed hacker Kevin Mitnick
• Political activists took over an Indian government Website and posted messages and photos calling attention to alleged government-sponsored repression and human rights violations in the contested northern Indian state of Kashmir.
• Nike.com was “hijacked” and visitors were redirected to an Australian labour rights site.
• Milw0rm hacked the Web site of India’s Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC) to protest nuclear weapons testing

Cyberterrorism

It is important to distinguish the difference between hacktivism and cyberterrorism to avoid offending hacktivists! The latter has far more destructive repercussions and has been known to disrupt communications at an airport control tower in Worcester and block 911 calls in Sweden. Cyberterrorism has been defined by the American FBI as the “the premeditated, politically motivated attack against information, computer systems, computer programs, and data which result in violence against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents." Although the act of cyberterrorism itself is not violent, one could argue that death and violence in the physical world can be a direct result of cyberterrorism. For example, the spread of disinformation by cyberterrorists can spark riots and protests. There have been very few political cyberterrorisms reported but it is a threat with potentially disastrous outcomes for many nations. Several organizations such as Interpol are already actively working to prevent worldwide cyberterrorism and the potential risks they pose.

Activism, Hacktivism, and Cyberterrorism: The Internet as a Tool for Influencing Foreign Policy - An academic paper by Professor Denning, of the Department of Defense Analysis Naval Postgraduate School, which helped me understand the political outcomes of activism and hacktivism and the potential outcomes of cyberterrorism.

Cyberterrorism: How Real Is the Threat? - An article by Gary Weimann which cleared up my questions in regards to differentiating hacktivism and cyberterrorism.