Hacktivism

[Julian Assange <proff () IQ ORG>]

> > For years, a few small groups of socially conscious hackers have used
> > their skills to advance social causes. The practice can be traced to
> > 1998, when a group called the Electric Disturbance Theater conducted
> > "virtual sit-ins" on the Web sites of the Pentagon and the Mexican
> > government to bring the world's attention to the plight of Indian
> > rights in the Mexican state of Chiapas.
>
> Not to put too fine a point on it, but 'hactivism' isn't that new.  I can
> remember hacks from at least as far back as '96 that were executed for the
> purpose of condemning governmental policies.

96? `real' hacktivism is at least as old as October 1989 when DOE,
HEPNET and SPAN (NASA) connected VMS machines world wide were
penetrated by the anti-nuclear WANK worm, which changed the system
announcement banner to be:

        W O R M S    A G A I N S T    N U C L E A R    K I L L E R S
      _______________________________________________________________
      \__  ____________  _____    ________    ____  ____   __  _____/
       \ \ \    /\    / /    / /\ \       | \ \  | |    | | / /    /
        \ \ \  /  \  / /    / /__\ \      | |\ \ | |    | |/ /    /
         \ \ \/ /\ \/ /    / ______ \     | | \ \| |    | |\ \   /
          \_\  /__\  /____/ /______\ \____| |__\ | |____| |_\ \_/
           \___________________________________________________/
            \                                                 /
             \    Your System Has Been Officically WANKed    /
              \_____________________________________________/

       You talk of times of peace for all, and then prepare for war.

In our book, Suelette Dreyfus and I track the source of the worm to
Melbourne, Australia. At the time there was considerable anti-nuclear
sentiment in the country. Australia had (and still has) a number of US
spy, early warning and nuclear submarine communications bases, most of
which were first and second strike soviet targets (Australia would not
otherwise be a nuclear target).

Additionally in 1984, New Zealand, a country with which Australians
feel a special affinity, had under Labour pri-minister David Lange,
made NZ a nuclear free territory, precluding the admission of nuclear
armed or powered warships into NZ ports. The US in response rescinded
its defence treaty obligations to NZ, cut intelligence ties (or at
least pretended to, see Nicky Hager's excellent book ``Secret Power''
for futher details) and instigated a number of trade sanctions against
the country.

But New Zealand's nuclear woes were not to end there. At 11:59pm on
the night of July 10 1985 the Greenpeace flag-ship ``Rainbow
Warrior'', docked in Auckland harbour preparing to sail in three days
time to Mururoa Atoll to demonstrate against French nuclear tests, was
blown up by amphibious DGSE (French Secret Service) agents, killing
Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira. Within days, two DGSE agents
Alain Mafart and Dominique Prieur were arrested, following an
investigation by Australian journalist Chris Masters, plead guilty to
manslaughter and were sentenced by the NZ high court to 10 years. The
other DGSE agents escaped via a French Nuclear sub off the NZ
coast. The French, a significant NZ trade partner, immediately
instigated trade sanctions against the country. In June 1986, a
political deal was struck; France would lift sanctions, pay a few
million in blood money, and the two agents would be transferred to Hao
Atoll, a French military base in the pacific, where they would
supposably serve out the remainder of their sentences. However, by May
1988 both had been smuggled back to France.

Examination of the WANK worm source code show specific instructions
to avoid infecting New Zealand.

More information on the WANK worm, the DGSE, the rise and fall of the
Australian and international computer underground, can be found in
mine and Suelette Dreyfus's book, _Underground_,
http://www.underground-book.com/

Julian.
--
 Julian Assange        |If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people
                       |together to collect wood or assign them tasks
 proff () iq org          |and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless
 proff () gnu ai mit edu  |immensity of the sea. -- Antoine de Saint Exupery

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