Internet is a battlefield

Internet is a mirror of the world we live in. Anyone can be present on the net regardless of age, sex, religion, political views or geographical location. In case of an international crisis that divides the world, like the Iraqi war, it is only natural that people with different views meet on the net. Some discuss the issue in a more or less civilized way. Some use hacking or viruses to express their opinion, or even strike against the virtual enemy. Internet usually becomes a secondary battlefield when something big is going on.

“Hacktivism” is a new form of protest that has emerged in the Internet. People, mainly young, use their computer skills to express their opinions. This can take the form of viruses that carry messages or web server defacements. Another form of hacktivism is direct attacks against servers or organizations that are seen as the enemy. And the Internet is a powerful tool for these kinds of demonstrations. Viruses and worms can carry the message around the world in hours and reach millions of users. Hackers can break into computers anywhere in the word with more or less malicious intent.

Who are these hacktivists? There is a wide range of underground groups and individuals that write viruses and hack computers. This activity goes on all the time regardless of what’s happening in the world. Many kids have learned to use a free net without rules. This kind of activity has become an exciting hobby despite the fact that it is illegal in many countries. These youngsters do perhaps not even realize that their actions really are illegal. Or if they do, they judge the risk of getting busted as low. Large scale events that cause strong feelings are often triggers that make people form groups and express their feelings together. This is true for the hackers as well. Their natural way to express themselves is through the computer systems. And these hackers do not see the law as a restriction. Any possible way to get the message through is acceptable, even if it is illegal or harms innocent computer owners and operators.

The Iraqi war is a recent example of a big event that caused protests. Three distinct categories of hacktivists could be seen during this war. One of the categories is the American patriotic hackers. These are guys that for some reason can’t participate in the actual war but think that they support the coalition by spreading pro-US material in the net. Another category is the Islamic hackers that are against USA. These guys may come from any Arab country or other country with a significant number of Muslims and feasible infrastructure. The third, and perhaps biggest, category is the pacifists. These hacktivists are neither against the US nor Iraq, but resist the war in general. Many of these hackers, regardless of which group they represent, are people who are into hacking in any case. But there are also new names on the scene. The new hacktivists are people who know how to hack but do not practice it regularly. They are maybe a little bit older and have passed the stage of hacking just for fun. But they still can’t resist the temptation to use hacking as a means of protest.

But who are the victims? Are the hacktivists’ attacks targeted or not? Both yes and no. Some of the attacks are definitively targeted against a virtual enemy. It’s easy to find examples of targeted hacktivism during the Iraqi war. Anti-US hackers naturally see US governmental or military sites as the primary target. These sites receive a high number of attacks. Another example of targeted hacktivism is the faith of Qatar-based TV-network Al-Jazeera. Al-Jazeera’s web servers were taken off-line using distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) and they were defaced several times.

But the targeted hacktivism is just a part of the big picture. Most of the web server defacements during the war were made against random targets. These hackers just want to spread their message and any server anywhere in the world will do. Geographical location, nationality or religious orientation does not matter. The hacker just seeks to deface as many servers as possible, preferably well-known servers with a lot of visitors. That way they maximize publicity for their message. This is done very systematically. Entire top-level domains are searched for possible targets and several hosts in the same organization may be hacked at once. This actually means that no-one is safe. It doesn’t help to stay neutral in the conflict. You may be hacked anyway. The hacker is not after you, he just wants to borrow space on your web-server.

Virus writers is another category that may become involved in hacktivism. They also have a powerful channel for spreading the message of their choice. Virus writers can use a large-scale event that gets a lot of media attention in several ways. One strategy is to use media hype to boost the virus’ replication. The other option for virus writers is of course to let the virus carry a message. A message may be displayed to the user, included in an e-mail message or hidden inside the virus. This message can contain anything that is on the virus writer’s mind, from job applications to anti-war protests.

But is this hacktivism just a harmless protest or a real threat? It is true that most of the protests are pure defacements that can easily be undone. Some of the hackers even apologize for the intrusion in their defacement messages. This is a good indication that the victims are chosen randomly, the hacker just wants visibility. But even a pure defacement can be harmful. An e-business system may be down for some time while the problem is fixed. This causes lost revenues in addition to the work needed to restore the system. And the owner’s image can suffer from the defacement. The successful attack proves that the system is inadequately protected. This is especially embarrassing for organizations that should be able to keep their systems clean, such as authorities and security-related companies. So the conclusion is that hacktivism can’t be seen as harmless graffiti. Hacking is a crime in most countries, for a good reason. That makes hacktivism a crime, even if the hacktivists just want to express their opinion.


Author: Mikael Albrecht, Manager, Product Management


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