The digital world is an extension of the real world and a clear example of this is hacktivism, let’s take activism for example, this is an intrinsic practice in the human being since living in society, but during the last two decades this practice has been extended to cyberspace and is commonly practiced by the vast majority of users, when making demands or requests through social networks, for example. But hacktivism goes much further.
Well, hacktivism is nothing more than a form of protest carried out by amateurs or computer security professionals known as Hackers for the purpose of claiming rights, promulgating political ideas or complaints from society in general, making use of security flaws. of government entities or systems. That is, it emerges as a new phenomenon whose ideological basis is the exchange and opening of knowledge and the violation of intellectual property rights that imprison the development of knowledge.
These are motivated by a political or social purpose, hacktivists appear, who personally or collectively carry out actions against the security of the systems to write codes that promote political ideologies, freedom of expression, human rights and ethics of information. say they aim to produce results similar to those of any other form of social activism, such as protests or civil disobedience, and a great and clear example of this would be the group known as Anonymus.
Anonymous, who, for more than a decade, have defended, in their own words, freedom of expression. Without going any further, the motto of the Anonymous group is: “Knowledge is free. We are anonymous. We are legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Wait for us! ”
Their hallmark is the use of the mask from the movie ‘V for Vendetta’ in the videos they post on the net. The organization has targeted groups like Scientology and the Islamic State, governments, and even law enforcement agencies like the Chicago and Minneapolis police.
Hacktivism in the network will not stop increasing and its defense or condemnation will always be the subject of debate since, as is well known, some defend it while others promote it to criminality. Among all the unknowns and moral issues that revolve around this practice, there is a certainty, and that is that in the same way that there have been historical revolutions that have changed society.
Other interesting reads:
What is cyberwar or technological warfare
Who are the White Hat Hackers?
