Hacktivism

The word hacktivism is a combination of hacking and activism. A hacktivist is someone who uses system penetration to propagate a political, social, or religious message. The targets of such individuals are mostly high profile Web server environments where as many people as possible see their message.

The level of such a hacktivist is often that of the script kiddy. Because the whole exercise is done to promote the message and not to attack the system, the process of penetration itself is not of particular interest to the hacktivist.

This holds true for most hacktivism. Lately, especially in the conflicts between the United States and China, hacktivism obtained a new face. Hacker groups or individuals ranging from script kiddies and crackers to Black Hats started attacking and defacing Chinese Web sites. The Web pages of political organizations in Afghanistan became targets for hundreds of attackers after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon in September, 2001.

Read more: Hacktivism and Professional Attackers