Running head: HACKING TO HACKTIVISM:

Hacking to Hacktivism: Evolution of Hacktivism and its Impact on Society

Moral, Ethical, and Legal Dilemmas
Vasanth Kumar Gudiseva
Wilmington University

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Abstract
Freedom of expression is a virtue of any democratic setup, where all the citizens have right to
protest and express their resentments. Cyberspace and technology are being increasingly used by
activists to express themselves and to fight socio-political causes. Proponents of hacktivism are
believed to be effectively using various hacking techniques like Denial of Service attacks to
support and propagate their ideologies. This paper will argue against hacktivism, as it is
trespassing several moral, ethical, and legal aspects and affecting the society adversely.
Keywords: phreaking, hacker ideologies, denial of service attack

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Hacking to Hacktivism: Evolution of Hacktivism and its Impact on the Society

Moral, Ethical, and Legal Dilemmas
Introduction

The recent security breaches indicate that innocent people are affected by hacktivist
attacks, though those attacks were not directly targeted at them. When hacking, backed up with a
social or political cause, is used as a tool to protest against an individual, organization, or a
nation is often referred to as hacktivism. While some view hacktivism as ethically correct and an
ideal tool to fight a social or political cause, in this paper, I will argue that as a society, we should
oppose collectively, as it is illegal and affects innocent people.
Evolution of Hacktivism and their Ideologies
Davis (2012) defines hacktivism as cyber-enabled social activism. According to him,
hacktivist activities, which have ideological motives rather than profit making intentions, range
from peaceful protests to highly damaging criminal activities. Hacktivists are a group of hackers
who share some common ideologies. Their objective is either to garner more support to their
ideology or to inflict damage to their target.
The terms hacking and hacktivism have evolved over a period of time. Bowles (2012)
writes that hacking was born out of curiosity to learn in 1970s and 1980s. He adds that the first
hackers, who were brilliant individuals, were called phreakers and phreaking was the most
notable beginning of the hacking revolution. According to him, the hacker groups of early 1980s
significantly contributed to the advancement of computer security, in fact the internet what we
use today is the result of the role played by them. While discussing the importance of revisiting

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the ethical issues concerning to computer hacking, Thomas (2005) observes, while general
principles of right and wrong remain fairly constant, the perspective and context in which
behaviors are judged often shift. According to him, though the general principles of good and
bad remain constant, the issues pertaining to computer hacking change with time and prevailing
sociocultural, technological, and political conditions. He writes that the golden age of hacking
ended and hacktivism emerged in 1998.
Hacker Beliefs and Themes
Steinmetz and Gerber (2015) analyzed forty one issues of a zine, 2600: The Hacker
Quarterly. Based on their analysis they provided insights into the hackers perspectives on
privacy and related issues. According to them the primary belief of the hackers is that
information wants to be free, restrictions on access to information are not acceptable. This
belief could be the reason why they breach into computer systems. The second belief, according
to the writers is, that the hackers desire to be engaged in an active manner. This allows them to
learn, which in turn helps to either improve or manipulate the systems. The authors termed the
hackers final belief as technological utopianism, which means that technology is the solution
for many social problems. Further in their analysis, the authors identified some major and minor
themes of the hackers. The four major themes include dualisms, responsibility, ubiquity, and the
role hackers play. They further explained the dualism concept, where the government and
businesses are viewed as privacy protectors and threats themselves. The second theme,
responsibility, according to the authors, implies that it is the responsibility of an individual or an
entity to protect the information they possess and if someone successfully gets that information
the responsibility transfers. According to the authors, the third and fourth themes, imply that

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government is encroaching into the privacy of individuals and hackers can protect the privacy by
exploring the systems, social and technical, for vulnerabilities.
Hackers beliefs and themes are very radical in nature. Taylor (2005) while explaining the
evolution of hacktivism observes, with its close ties to the politics of globalization, marks the
beginning of a significant new chapter in radical technological politics. Jorgensen (2011)
categorizes hacktivist under bad guy category. He writes, Their goals may occasionally be good,
but their methods for achieving them are often questionable, mischievous and costly.
Impact on the Society
When the Ashley Madison security breach was reported for the first time, the first
impression one gets is that, it is one another hacking event where three parties are involved,
namely the hackers, the customers, and the dating website company. It is generally visualized
that the hackers, with some nefarious motive, hacked a seemingly unethical dating website and
stole the personal and financial details of some immoral people. If someone is not involved in
that event, they will safely assume that it is totally irrelevant and inconsequential to them.
However, subsequent readings and other findings of the security breach will totally change their
perceptions.
Baird (2015) in her blog writes that, even if someone who is not in the list of stolen
database may also get affected. She mentions that, millions of e-mail addresses, home addresses,
and other information were there in the stolen database and it is possible that someone might sign
up with fake credentials. She further adds that, the home addresses and other personal
information which tend to change hands, will put innocent people at risk of being targeted by
identity thieves. . Miller (2015) reported that one customer used British prime minister, Tony

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Blairs work e-mail to set up an account. Thus, even if one assumes that hacktivists have a good
motive behind their attack, it is possible that people whom they are not targeting also may get
affected.
Hacktivism with a particular social or political cause may result in unintended effects on
individuals and organizations. Media reports claim that the hackers, who identify themselves as
Impact Team, wanted the website to go offline permanently and delete all the user data free of
charge. This demand clearly indicates that this a case of hacktivism, wherein the hackers main
intent is a cause and not a financial gain. Hern (2015) reported that the hackers alleged that the
company is lying. He quoted the hackers alleging, Users almost always pay with credit card;
their purchase details are not removed as promised, and include real name and address, which is
of course the most important information the users want removed. It was also widely reported in
the media that, as the company, their target, didnt accede to their demands the user data is being
released on internet. By doing so, hacktivists certainly seem to have made a major impact on the
company and part of their objective is achieved. The damage to the company includes reputation
damage, disclosure of sensitive information, loss of business and customer base, and additionally
involvement of huge costs to deal with the attack. However, the users whom they were actually
trying to protect got badly affected along with other innocent people who were dragged into this
issue.
Moral, Ethical, and Legal Dilemmas
According to Horner, J (2003), morality refers to a set of deeply held, widely shared, and
relatively stable values within a community. Ethics as a philosophical enterprise involves
the study of values, and the justification for right and good actions. Law is comprised of
concrete duties established by governments that are necessary for maintaining social

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order and resolving disputes, as well as for distributing social resources according to what
people need or deserve. [Abstract]
Thomas (2005) writes that hacktivists perceive hacking as noble. He quotes an
anonymous hacker, whether you know it or not, if you are a hacker, you are a revolutionary.
[D]ont worry, youre on the right side. (Doctor Crash, 1986, emphasis added). According to
Gresty, Taylor, and Lunn (2005) cyber activists use Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, as a form of
protest, on their victims. DoS attacks ensure that the target computer system is flooded with
several requests from thousands of compromised computers and thus disabling them to address
genuine requests. All the genuine users who wish to use the services from the victims systems
will be deprived of service. According to the authors, morals are set of standards and norms that
are considered appropriate in a given society. The authors agree that freedom of expression is
the norm of internet. However, they suggest that a group of hacktivists, trying to promote their
aims before the detriment of the society, cannot be ethically right. The authors also mentioned
that, most of the countries including UK and US consider DoS attacks as illegal.
Brodkin (2009) reported that, even ethical hackers, who track down computer criminals,
are at the risk of being prosecuted. The author quoted a panelist, who was discussing on the legal
risks of ethical hacking: "Frequently, we find it's possible to break the law while doing
something ethical, and conversely fouling the law doesn't necessary ensure that you are acting
ethically." This once again makes one believe that hacktivism, while focusing more towards
achieving the objectives, might be overseeing legal frameworks under which those objectives are
accomplished. This argument is supported by The Federal Bureau of Investigation. It considers
any form of cyber intrusion as illegal, irrespective of what the actual intensions behind those
intrusions are. Though there is a little scope for further debate on ethical and moral aspects

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pertaining to hacktivism, legally its unlawful and hence law abiding citizens should not resort to
this form of activism.
Conclusion
Hacktivism has evolved over a period of time as a potent tool of protest in the hands of
some technological geeks. The changing sociocultural, technological, and political environments
seem to have impacted the concept of computer hacking from a mere curiosity based intrusion
into computer systems to a much wider cause based cyber activism. While hacktivists seem to be
successful up to a large extent in attracting wide attention of the society and garnering some
support for their ideologically motivated actions, there seems to be much wider resentment from
a larger part of the society. Some of the recent hacktivist actions were also acclaimed by a
section of people as being good, but the ethical and moral proponents argued that the methods
used to achieve those means are not acceptable. The law enforcers clearly indicated that
hacktivism as an illegal activity. Hacktivism, like any other criminal activity should be
condemned before larger section of the society is affected.

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