Hacktivism—A Cyberattack? Meaning, Types, and More

When people use civil disobedience to bring awareness to an issue, they may orchestrate a sit-in. In this kind of protest, because dozens or hundreds of people are physically sitting inside an area, the business that has to be carried out there has to stop. Because the conduct of business is forced to halt, the activists gain the attention of the public.

Hacktivists use a similar method when they engage in a DoS attack. Although they do not change any of a website’s content, they can flood the site with requests, clogging its server and rendering it useless to regular visitors.

Doxing involves making sensitive or embarrassing documents public. Often, the targets are people with a lot to lose if the public becomes aware of their private activities. Examples include government officials, company executives, the military, or law enforcement. Depending on the types of documents being made public, doxing may result in anything from embarrassment to compromising military strategies if secret plans are revealed.

Hacktivists leak information not just to go after an organization or person who stands against their beliefs but also to generate publicity. When accurate information is released, news agencies are quick to publish it. If a news story gives credit to a hacktivist group, movement, or publication, like WikiLeaks, that movement gains power, recognition, and respect.

RECAP is software that enables users to find copies of documents you would otherwise have to pay the U.S. Federal Court to access. In this way, hacktivists provide a service for free, removing a barrier they feel should not be there in the first place.

Often, bloggers can convince people they are telling the truth—as well as making valid social statements—even without publishing their real names. Because the blogger is anonymous, the target cannot go after them.

In geo-bombing, a hacktivist uses the geo-location feature to allow the viewers of a video to know where it was shot. This is often used to let viewers see where political prisoners or human rights activists are being held.

When a website gets censored, hacktivists may copy the content of the site and publish it under a different Uniform Resource Locator (URL). Because the second URL is not blocked by the censoring entity, the content is still available to the public.

DoS attacks do not affect the content of the target website, but when hacktivists change a website's code, either a message or an error pops up for visitors. In this way, they can redefine the image and message of an organization, engaging in a form of “definition hacking” as they attempt to change how the public perceives the company. To gain access to the site’s administrator credentials, the hacker may use keylogger software or fake websites to steal login information until they are able to impersonate an admin and alter the code.

One of the most effective techniques hacktivists use is DoS attacks. In these attacks, a website is inundated with so many fake attempts until it no longer has the processing power to serve legitimate users. This renders the site useless to visitors who may be customers or business partners, thus costing the organization considerable money. 

Whether a DoS attack comes from a hacktivist or another cyber criminal, the Fortinet FortiDDoS tool can help prevent it. FortiDDoS can analyze behavior to identify threats instead of relying on signature files. This not only catches numerous legitimate threats but it also eliminates false positives that are likely to consume valuable resources. FortiDDoS can ascertain whether website requests are legitimate or the result of a DoS attack, preventing your organization’s website from being locked up by hacktivists and others.

If hacktivists feel they can profit off capturing an organization’s resources—or if they decide that something or someone in a company opposes their beliefs—they may go after it (or them) with a ransomware attack. The Fortinet Security Fabric allows organizations to protect their data and resources from ransomware. It safeguards the company's various attack surfaces, from company-issued computers to personal devices or endpoints employees introduce to the network through a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy. 

The Fortinet Security Fabric uses threat intelligence to find and respond to attacks by hacktivists and other opportunists who capitalize on a network’s vulnerabilities to “kidnap” computers. It makes use of a variety of tools, including intrusion prevention systems (IPS), that protect a range of network architectures, from software-defined wide-area networks (SD-WANs) to virtualized networks.

Hacktivism occurs when political or social activists use computer technology to make a statement supporting one of their causes.

In many cases, such as malware attacks, hacktivism is unethical because it involves breaking the law. In other situations, such as organizing protests using the internet, it can be argued that hacktivism is ethical.

Anonymous is not an official group, so there is no way you can join it.

Hacktivists target people or organizations that represent beliefs that contradict their own.

Each hacktivist is driven by unique motivations. However, many seek respect from other hackers, money, fame, or to further a social perspective.