As you scroll through your news feed, take notice all the articles on hacktivist groups and activities. Through issues like the Sony and Ashley Madison breaches and the release of U.S. military personnel information by ISIS supporters, hacktivism has earned a place in our daily vocabulary. After almost any big “real-world” event, you can now expect “cyber” action from these hacktivist groups. They are hailed as “heroes” by some, and “terrorists” by others. It only took a couple of days for Anonymous and Ghost Security Group, two hacktivist groups, to respond to ISIS after the Paris attacks. But who are these so-called hacktivists? More importantly, why does it seem like law enforcement organizations only take action against them when their activities affect governmental interests, and not when their activities target the ‘bad guys’?
Attacks directed at Corporate or Government Interests
There have been numerous law enforcement operations and legal action taken against members of Anonymous. In May 2014, two Australian nationals and alleged members of Anonymous were arrested for hacking government computers in Australia and Indonesia, ABC news reported. In October 2013, a federal grand jury indicted thirteen members after the group allegedly targeted financial institutions who refused to process payments for WikiLeaks, according to Yahoo News. In March 2012, “top members” of Anonymous, and another hacktivist group, LulzSec, were arrested in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the United States, according to an article in the Daily Mail. In July 2011, sixteen suspected Anonymous members were arrested after the group attacked PayPal over its action against WikiLeaks, Fox News reported. The trend shows that action against members of these groups usually follow cyber operations against entities in which governments have an interest in — WikiLeaks is the prime outlet for revealing leaked government secrets, and is a target of a criminal investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI, according to an article by the Guardian.
Attacks directed at “bad” Actors
It seems that law enforcement organizations largely remain silent, however, when these groups use the very same cyber tools to conduct operations against extremist groups. In January 2015, Anonymous launched #OpISIS, an operation to take down websites it claimed to be jihadist sites supporting ISIS, as well as websites it claimed to be used by ISIS for recruiting purposes, the Telegraph reported. Even so-called ‘lone wolf’ hacktivists have joined the fight against extremists online. An example of a lone wolf hacktivist is The Jester who has reportedly taken down 170 Jihadist websites since 2010, according to an NBC 5 interview, (More on The Jester can be found here). More recently, as stated above, Anonymous and another hacktivist group, GSG, have declared war against ISIS following the attacks on Paris. GSG, itself, claims to provide intelligence to “federal governments and the intelligence community”, according to the group’s website. So far, however, there have been no law enforcement action (that I can find) taken against these groups after they conduct these types of cyber-vigilanté activities.
Are governments willing to turn a blind eye to some types of activities, but not to others, even when both are being carried out by the same actors? Could this ‘acquiescence’ be construed as legitimization by governments of such groups? More importantly, how does one differentiate between these cyber-vigilantés and actual national security threats?
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