The new age of hacktivism

[William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>]

http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2651320,00.html

By Robert Lemos, ZDNN
November 8, 2000 4:11 AM PT

Politicians may not pander to them and experts may discount their
opinions, but online vandals are getting the message out about what
they think is important: Increasingly, that's politics.

On the eve of the U.S. elections, vandals defaced the home pages of
the Republican National Committee, placing a spirited pro-Gore
diatribe in its place. The Democratic National Committee said its site
was subjected to repeated attacks. The defacements followed a spate of
similar online graffiti posted by pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian
activists over the past month.

The trend will continue, said Karen Worstell, vice president of
venture and security consulting firm Atomic Tangerine's Trust Group.
"It's becoming a very effective medium, so it's going to be used
more," she said. "It's accomplishing its purpose -- it's getting a lot
of media attention."

That publicity, and the idea of hacking for a higher purpose, is
attracting new recruits to online activism, or hacktivism.

"We have been in the world of hacking for more than two years," said
two Pakistani defacers, who call themselves "m0r0n" and "nightman," in
a recent e-mail interview. "But we have been defacing for only about
two months, and it feels great that we hack for a reason."

Hacking for a higher purpose Citing concerns for their Muslim cousins,
the duo has defaced Israeli-affiliated sites such as Banyan Systems,
Automated Transaction Systems, Yizrael Valley College, and Shenkar
College. Another Pakistani "hacktivist," known as Doctor Nuker, struck
at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee last week.

In over six weeks of violence, more than 180 people -- most of them
Palestinian -- have lost their lives in the Middle East. The groups
supporting either side online have mainly limited their activities to
defacements and denial-of-service attacks against Web sites affiliated
with the Palestinian movement or Israeli nationalists.

Their styles vary from the online verbal bludgeoning and graphic
images of the six-member group GForce Pakistan to the polite -- almost
apologetic -- statements of m0r0n and nightman.

"Sorry Mr. Administrator, but your site has been hacked by m0r0n and
nightman!" stated the two in a recent defacement of the Banyan Systems
site. "Everyone seeing this -- either Muslim or non-Muslim -- please
note that we (are) not evil or unethical. Our motto is simple and
clear and that is to create global awareness ... so that everyone
would come to know of the atrocities done to Muslims all around the
world."

Medium may hurt the message Hacktivism became popular during the
Zapatista guerrilla uprising for greater democracy and Indian rights
in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas in 1994. Others defaced Web
sites to get information out about violence in the Balkans. In the
past few months, another Web vandal known as "Pimpshiz" has defaced
several hundred Web sites in support of the music-swapping service
Napster.

"We are going to start seeing this sort of thing for a whole range of
issues," including animal rights and other fringe causes, said Kent
Anderson, a data security expert with international business-risk
consulting firm Control Risks Group. Increasingly, the targets are
companies, he said.

Yet, others believe that the medium -- defaced sites -- is hurting the
message.

"I can understand that someone with limited means and limited power
who feels strongly about a particular issue might resort to
hacktivism, but ultimately, it is a sign of weakness," said Ken
Bricker, spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee,
which was defaced almost a week ago.

Heroes or villains? "The organization that controls the site is placed
in the role of the victim, which defeats the attacker's purpose --
that works against the hacktivist, who becomes a villain in the mind
of the general public," Bricker said.

In addition, most of the new breed of hacktivists are still kids and,
seemingly, have little to add to the discussion, said Brian Martin, a
staff member with security information site Attrition.org.

"Even the people who are making the news now have little to say and
are mostly incoherent," he said.

"Do these kids think that by defacing some Web sites, it's going to
make the country change? I understand what they are doing, but they
are deluding themselves if they think it is going to help," Martin
said.


*==============================================================*
"Communications without intelligence is noise;  Intelligence
without communications is irrelevant." Gen Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
================================================================
C4I.org - Computer Security, & Intelligence - http://www.c4i.org
*==============================================================*

ISN is hosted by SecurityFocus.com
---
To unsubscribe email LISTSERV () SecurityFocus com with a message body of
"SIGNOFF ISN".