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Results show that 70 percent of people do not know what hacktivism is, the remaining 30 percent are mostly in favour of their actions.
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Hacking may be an everyday term, but in the mid-1990s, a newer term emerged from popular culture: Hacktivism. This means the act of hacking for political or social purposes in the name of a “greater good.”
As popular hacktivist groups make headlines (such as Anonymous declaring cyberwar against Russia), the line between hacker and hacktivist is getting more blurred. This year – 2022 – has experienced a rise in hacktivism activity from many well-known groups.
New data from security experts at NordVPN , discussed with Digital Journal, looks at the level of awareness of hacktivism and the groups associated with it across U.S. society. This was based on a national online survey of 1,002 U.S. consumers, ages 18 and over.
Results show that 70 percent of people do not know what hacktivism is, the remaining 30 percent are mostly in favour of their actions.
Furthermore, with those who are aware, only 27 percent of people view their actions as negative, and only 17 percent of the sample disagree with allowing hacktivism to be the equivalent of a peaceful protest. In other words, this cohort see hacktivism as an extension of free speech.
With the proportion who are aware, 43 percent state that they know the differences between a hacker and a hacktivist, with 48 percent defining hacktivism according to its accepted definition.
Of the hacktivist groups that are hitting the headlines within the technology news arena, how many are known to the public at large? The survey also explores this.
Another group of young New York hackers, Masters of Deception, have a book written about them, which may be why nearly 1 in 5 of the sample (19 percent) have heard something about them.
A smaller proportion, at 18 percent, have ever heard about a group of people, who call themselves Chaos Computer Club, of those, only 30 percent knew they were famous for hacking into Apple and Samsung phones using a photograph to spoof fingerprint and iris recognition security access.
Following this, 17 percent have heard about a group of people, who call themselves Lizard Squad, who arethe hackers that targeted video game services, taking the networks of both PlayStation Network and Xbox. The group LulzSec could only be identified by 14 percent. LulzSec claimed responsibility for well publicized attacks at FoxNews, the website of Sony Pictures and the CIA.
Whether many famous groups perform data breaches are for good intentions, there are still a lot of bad actors out there that want a piece of the data. This is why a focus on cybersecurity continues to remain important.
Dr. Tim Sandle is Digital Journal’s Editor-at-Large for science news. Tim specializes in science, technology, environmental, and health journalism. He is additionally a practising microbiologist; and an author. He is also interested in history, politics and current affairs.
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