The Hacktivist Directory
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The Hacktivist Directory
The Hacktivist Directory
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The Hacktivist Directory
As the war for the internet heats up, more and more attention is being put on hacking groups around the world. Where once hacking was synonymous with crime it has now become a form of political expression with large groups orchestrating attacks on companies and governments that they deem to have acted immorally. These groups are often well intentioned, usually motivated by a belief in the freedom of information and a need to show the public how insecure organisations’ details can be, but others, coming com especially from China, can be state state-backed backed and fiercely nationalist. As the battles continue between governments and the hackers, fuelled along by SOPA and ACTA, with a constant stream of arrests and the mistreatment of Wikileaks, we take a look at a ‘who’s ‘ who’ introduction to hacking groups.
Anonymous
Probably the most mentioned hactivistist group currently around, definitely the least collected hacker collective around. Anonymous is a loose loose-knit knit network of people who strongly oppose censorship in any form. Known for the Guy Fawkes masks that members wear at protests, Anonymous is big on the everyday street protest scene (especially with the Occupy movement) in addition to its impressive list of government and corporate linked sites that they have soo far hacked. Anonymous has no leadership or membership structure; wanting to be a member is all you need to be a member. Time Magazine named Anonymous in its list of the most influential people in the world in 2012. Anonymous have launched co-ordinated ordinated at attacks tacks against the IFPI (who represent the worldwide recording industry), the Justice department, the FBI, Universal Music Group, the
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The Hacktivist Directory Recording Industry Association of America, the Motion Picture Association of America, Broadcast Music inc., a number of hidden child-porn sites, the Pentagon, News Corp, the website of the Australian Prime Minister, Sony, Amazon, PayPal, MasterCard, Visa, PostFinance, websites of the governments of Zimbabwe, Malaysia, Tunisia, Egypt, Syria and Libya, the Westboro Baptist Church and more.
LulzSec
Famed for the sarcastic messages they leave after attacks usually stating that they ‘do it for the lulz’, LulzSec have released user data from Sony accounts and claimed responsibility for the CIA website going offline. The group seemed to be on the way down after one of its founders was arrested in March this year and agreed a plea-bargain where he would help authorities track down the other members. After further arrests the group claimed to be breaking-up, though on the 18th of July came out of retirement to hack newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch and News corp. LulzSec is affiliated with Anonymous and shares much the same ideology, the only major difference being that LulzSec also say they hack some sites because they “find it entertaining”.
NCPH and Honker Union
These two are both China based nationalist groups. Generally thought to be backed by the Chinese authorities, they are known for attacks on US government sites and Tibetan activists. Said to be against American imperialism and Japanese militarism, these sites show us that hactivist groups are not just liberal, freedom lovers.
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The Hacktivist Directory TeaMp0isioN
Linked to Anonymous and its ideals, they see themselves as rivals of LulzSec which they claim do not have the hacking abilities to merit their media attention. TeaMp0isoN has leaked Tony Blair’s address book, attacked the Blackberry websites, released login details of U.N. officials and hacked 130 Facebook pages including those of Mark Zuckerberg, Nicholas Sarkozy and the EDL. Two suspected members were arrested in April.
UGNazi
A newer group who have already seen the arrest of their ‘leader’ in June. They are another group, whose ideology is based on opposition to censorship, although they have a somewhat more malicious tone to some of their attacks, often echoing LulzSec’s phrase ‘for the lulz’ but without the attached irony. They have claimed exploits against Twitter, Google, Washington Military Department, WHMCS, MyBB, 4chan and WePay. In June they launched a controversial attack against the website of the Wounded Warrior Project, a non-profit organisation dedicated to helping wounded veterans, and when asked for the reason they explained it was a personal attack against another hacker who they disliked.
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The Hacktivist Directory Cult of the Dead Cow
A media organisation for hacking started in the 80s. cDc mainly holds conventions and releases publications but is also a long time member of the hacking community, they even coined the term “hactivism”. A lot of cDc’s hacking has been aimed at attacking the Chinese government and sites that support or appease its internet demands.
Redhack
Slightly harder to find out about as anything you read tends to be in Turkish, they are a Marxist hacker group fighting the Turkish government and authorities. Many members have been arrested.
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The Hacktivist Directory Antileaks <No Logo> A USA based group who view Julian Assange as a “terrorist” and “coward”. They have been the other side of the wikileaks debate and have brought down the wikileaks site for days at a time. Their self-pronounced leader is named DietPepsi and according to a statement released on their twitter - “We are young adults, citizens of the United States of America and are deeply concerned about the recent developments with Julian Assange and his attempt at aslyum in Ecuador. Assange is the head of a new breed of terrorist.” A recently publicised group; there is still not a lot known about them. As we rely more and more on our computers the importance of our online security is not something to be taken lightly and we can thank some of these groups for the work they do to highlight weaknesses in companies that hold credit details. We can also thank them for the only real avenue we have for political dissidence anymore, protests that are not shut down are ignored so shutting down authorities websites seems a fitting retaliation. As new legislations to harm internet freedom are brought about it is a wonder who will win out; though a growing number of hackers are being arrested there seems to be ever replenishing generations ready to take their places.
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Editor: Bryony Cottam
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The Hacktivist Directory
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