Stieg Larsson would have loved it: Hacktivism
Chris: “In Stieg Larsson’s universe Lisbeth Salander is portrayed as having an almost superhuman ability to hack any computer. We also see that character-type sometimes in Hollywood movies… but I don’t recall a hacker-character being this popular before. Are hackers in realistic films and books such as The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo the new ‘legitimate’ superheroes that people are ‘allowed’ to identify with, if they still don’t feel ‘cool’ about reading Marvel comics or watching science fiction films?”
Lars: “Without comparing to Marvel comics or science fiction, I should say that hacking is a part of life in the 21st. Century. It is a mysterious activity and strange secrets may be found. In this context it is obvious that hacking has literary qualities. There have been many hacker characters in the thriller genre since the 1980s. I remember seeing the movie Wargames back in the day. The hacker character has actually become a cliché. Even though hacker characters may in some way resemble super heroes there is no direct cultural connection. Real-life super heroes like in the movie Kick-Ass is the 21st Century development within the super hero sub-culture. However, it must be said the Guy Fawkes masks worn by the Anons protesting against Scientology derrives from Alan Moore’s poltical activist super hero comic book V for Vendetta.”
Chris: “:) As always, there’s more to ‘comic books’ than meets the eye … a shame that they still seem to be viewed as ‘second rate culture’ (or third rate!) by many. Last question for now – and thank you very, very much for sharing with us your insights on hacktivism by the way: If you had the super hacking skills of Lisbeth Salander or someone similar and could hack virtually anyone, anytime, for any reason – who would you hack and why would you do it? And would you do it as … hacktivism? 
”
Lars: “I think I’d do what any sane person with awesome powers would do. I would fight for a good cause and eventually become the problem I was fighting against when the corruption sets in. 
”
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Categories: Books, Themes
5 Comments » (Including 2 Discussion Threads)
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March 24th, 2010 at 10:45 AM
Hacktivism, or the use of downloaded programs (etc) to hack, isn’t felt to be real hacking by the community. The examples mentioned aren’t “real hacking”, as DDos attacks are akin to a massive brute force attack, which requires little intelligence (and a botnet) to use. People who do this sort of stuff are mostly black hats who are in it for the money, or script kiddies.
Wwebsites such as milw0rm.com, where absolutely anyone can download these programs and use them, are resources for what hackers call script kiddies (people who use scripts / programs to hack for them). Script kiddies are generally characterized as juvenile, incompetent, too stupid to write their own code and in it to impress friends / gain credit with the community, without a real understanding of how the systems they’re breaking into works. (More details here: http://everything2.com/index.pl?node=script+kiddie)
Black hat hackers are real hackers who are intent on breaking into security systems, using more sophisticated methods (which they normally develop themselves). Metaphorically, this is like using a set of fine tools to gain entry rather than the script kiddie’s sledgehammer. They’re regarded as a lower form of hacker by the white hats, who use their own skills to try to try protect security systems. The names white hat and black hat come from old spaghetti westerns.
March 29th, 2010 at 9:35 AM
@name: Interesting. Can you give examples of Black Hats who’ve used their skills to do something fitting the definition of hacktivism? (Or will they have to kill you if you tell?)
April 1st, 2010 at 12:45 PM
A well known recent example is the report that Chinese hackers attacked the Dalai Llama’s email system, which is reported here (http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/techreports/UCAM-CL-TR-746.html).
April 1st, 2010 at 2:40 PM
Stieg Larsson definitely would not have loved that! But good example, thanks. I wonder, though, supposing that these hackers were acting in the interests of the Chinese state – either directly controlled or by their own volition – would they qualify as ‘hacktivists’? In a broader sense, yes, it is hacking and it is for political purposes. I’m quite sure, though, that a lot of the more or less organised hacktivists affiliated with the political left and/or liberal democracies in general wouldn’t see it that way
But knitpicking definitions is probably best left to researchers like Lars, so I’ll spare you all for more.
Anyone else have good examples?
April 1st, 2010 at 5:22 PM
Anonymous’s internet harassing of scientologists (the so-called Project CHANology) probably counts too.