Topic 2, Post 3: Hacktivism in 1999 and early 2000's

Topic 2, Post 3: Hacktivism in 1999 and early 2000's

Introduction

This article addresses the cDc once more as it evolves into several other facets of hacktivism. It explores the birth of a new group spawned from the cDc, but considered separate, Hacktivismo. Hacktivismo was created as a “special-ops” group to fight nations inflicting censorship and internet oppression on their people. The group was committed to “digitally correct” hacktivist actions. They created several software projects geared towards helping all people to be able to communicate without government officials monitoring them and allowed for the transfer of data they may not be able to view online, in an encrypted form, allowing news and information to flow freely to all. Finally, Peekabooty is discussed. This project initialized under Hacktivismo, but was taken over by a now former member to complete development.

Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc)

Topic 2, Post 2, featured information regarding the Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc) and their role in early hacktivism. The cDc continues to have an impact regarding this subject and, as time has gone on, have more clearly defined what they stand for: anti-censorship on the internet. In this section, notable projects launched by cDc in late 1999 through the early 2000's will be discussed.

Hacktivismo

In late 1999, the cDc announced the launch of a new group they were forming in an effort to eliminate internet censorship, Hacktivismo. The purpose of Hacktivismo was to come up with new ways to eradicate internet censorship(Garman). The stance they take is the belief that privacy and information access is a human right and any attempts to minimize either should be stopped (Hacktivismo). Their mission statement is as follows:

“To conduct and publish scientific research in the areas of information technology, communications and electronic media; and, to assist (where possible) non-governmental organizations, social justice groups and human rights entities in the use of advanced information technologies for the furtherance of their works. We also intend to have fun doing this. Turn it up. Way up. (Hacktivismo)”

There are many opinions on the cDc and Hacktivismo regarding the types of projects they are responsible for and what types of hackers they are: white, gray, or black; however, the clearly state they are not in anyway “black hat” hackers, they merely create software and involve themselves in projects meant to protect our rights.

The founders of Hacktivismo created a document entitled “The Hacktivismo Declaration,” that further explains what they stand for beyond their mission statement. They wrote it in response to the growing number of corporations and governments attempting to censor the web. It directly quotes basic international human rights as defined by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), offering several examples how, internationally, there are many in violation.

The Projects

Following the creation of “The Hacktivismo Declaration,” the group focused their efforts on developing software to fight cyber censorship. Many countries, including China and Singapore, limit the types of sites they can browse or news sources they can view. Hacktivismo's goal became to help fight such censorship by constructing open-source programs called Camera/Shy, Six/Four, and ScatterChat.

Firstly, Hacktivismo created a steganographic toolkit program called Camera/Shy, releasing the first version in July of 2002. Digital steganography is a method used to hide information from third party's on the internet, typically, within images or sound byte files. The goal of Camera/Shy is to automatically scan for such hidden information and reveal it to the user (Hacktivismo); however, it also allowed the user to embed encrypted messages into a gif format and share with others, undetected (BBC). Some features of the software include a user-friendly Internet-Explorer interface, built-in automatic clearing of cache and history, and an executable file – no need to install the program onto your computer.

Secondly, the group developed the Six/Four System, “a virtual private network aimed at subverting national firewalls.”(Jordan, 109) The system is designed to tunnel information, permitting anonymous and secure access to material that is publicly located on the internet obtainable to anyone (Tuttle). Six/Four is named after June 4th, the date of an attack on peaceful demonstrators in Tiananmen Square by the Chinese army, killing thousands of citizens (Tuttle). The creation of this software was comprised in memory of those unarmed protesters, primarily students, killed in that demonstration (Tuttle). Six/Four permits users to establish their own, private network, only visible to its members. The network is invisible to all firewalls and filtering systems administrations utilize to obstruct entry to areas of the web they deem unfit (BBC).

Thirdly, ScatterChat, launched 2006, is instant messaging software that provides complete encryption over Tor, a network of virtual tunnels that allows for greater security over the internet (Infoshop). Similar to previously discussed Hacktivismo projects, ScatterChat is designed for the hacktivist or protester forced to communicate through servers that could be infiltrated by oppressive governments. It is also geared towards individuals residing in countries where their government has chosen to spy on its occupants for better security.

Peekabooty

The first version of Peekabooty was released to the public in July of 2002. It started as a project for Hacktivismo, but the need for the projects completion was so important that Paul Baranowski, known as “Drunken Master,” quit his job to work on it full-time (COW). The purpose for the software, as in all of the projects originating through Hacktivismo, was to aid in the fight against censorship and government oppression.

Hacktivismo came across and article written regarding China and the internet and posted it to their webpage. The article exposed US corporations conspiring with the Chinese government, installing censoring and surveillance devices into the Chinese networks that connect to the internet (Jordan). It also revealed that Cisco met the demands of the Chinese government by building special technology to block and monitor anyone who accessed the internet in that country (Jordan). It also exposed that Yahoo! allowed censorship of chat rooms and obstructed searches for certain keywords. The release of this article is likely the push Baranowski needed to make this project a priority.

Peekabooty has a few key components that make its launch important in the fight against internet censorship. It uses a distributed network, rapidly circulating messages, handled by different connections that cross, making this network really hard to shut down (Jordan). It also uses stenography to conceal its messages via secure socket layer protocols (SSL). SSL encrypts the data in order to hide it and validates the server it is being sent to (Jordan). Peekabooty also uses anonymous connections to prevent anyone from mapping its origination.

Peekabooty has some societal impacts, however, as good as it is for those being monitored for no other reason than government power, there is potential for it to be used by some we may wish did not have access to such privacy tools. It was released as open-source, so everyone has access to it, actual criminals and terrorists too. An article featured in Businessweek stated, “While criminals might use Peek-a-Booty to evade detection, the skirting of censorship that it promises could be far more valuable to the U.S. and its allies.(BloomsbergBusinessweek)” I think this is true, we have more power as a nation by empowering those who are victims of oppression.

Conclusion

The early 2000s were quite huge for hacktivist growth. The topics covered in this article do not come close to touching on all the groups that formed during this time period, but the impact the chain of groups that started with the cDc had on our country has been substantial. Not all agree with what they do or the software and systems they have created to fight censorship, but from my research, they have at least been consistent in what they stand for. They do not wish to reek havoc on the world, but to uphold human rights as the technologies have evolved. They believe in open-source and they believe that information and data, not personal and private data, but data nonetheless, should be available to all. They also believe, even when the message is not something you agree with it should not be hidden.

Of course, not everyone agrees with that assessment. The government worries about confidental and classified information being exposed by hacktivists and rightfully so, since it has. But the cDc and Hacktivismo do not seem to be interested in that. Every hacktivist group differs in their mission, but Hacktivismo's seems pure. In the Hacktivismo Declaration, they mention “ the importance to fight against human rights abuses with respect to reasonable access to information on the Internet” and pleads to other hackers to fight information rights violations (Hacktivismo). In this declaration, they also directly address the need to have some limitations on expression, explicity stating their not condoning release of classified information, accessing personal information, engaging child pornographic activities, etc (Hacktivismo).

Works Cited

"BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Hackers target web censorship." BBC News - Home. N.p., 15 July 2002. Web. 30 May 2013. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2129390.stm>.

BloomsbergBusinessweek. "Skirting the Great Firewall of China - Businessweek." Businessweek - Business News, Stock market & Financial Advice. N.p., 22 July 2002. Web. 1 June 2013. <http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2002-07-22/skirting-the-great-firewall-of-china>.

COW, CULT OF THE DEAD. "CULT OF THE DEAD COW: "PEEKABOOTY UPDATE" by Oxblood Ruffin." CULT OF THE DEAD COW. N.p., 7 Feb. 2002. Web. 1 June 2013. <http://w3.cultdeadcow.com/cms/2002/02/peekabooty-upda.html>.

Frontline. "Roundtable - China And The Internet | China In The Red | FRONTLINE | PBS." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 June 2013. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/red/roundtable/internet.html>.

Garman, Tabetha. "We Are Legion Civil Disobedience in the Cyber Age." The Honors Conference Anthology of the Northeast State Community College Honors Program presented April 20, 2012.

"Hacking Group Plays Peekabooty with Censorship." Network Security. 2001.5 (2001): 2-3. Print.

"Hacktivismo: Board of Advisors." Hacktivismo: News. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 May 2013. <http://www.hacktivismo.com/about/index.php>.

Infoshop News. " Hacktivismo launches ScatterChat - Infoshop News." Infoshop News - Anarchist and libertarian news, opinion and analysis. N.p., 23 July 2006. Web. 31 May 2013. <http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20060723131509395&query=scatterchat>.

Jordan, Tim, and Paul A. Taylor. Hacktivism and cyberwars: rebels with a cause?. London: Routledge, 2004. Print.

Tuttle, Harry . "Hacktivismo releases Six/Four - Infoshop News." Infoshop News - Anarchist and libertarian news, opinion and analysis. N.p., 18 Mar. 2003. Web. 30 May 2013. <http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=03/03/18/2660472>.

Zittrain, Jonathan, and Benjamin Edelman. "Empirical Analysis of Internet Filtering in China." Berkman Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 June 2013. <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/filtering/china/>.