My Final thoughts

Firstly, I wanted to start this final blog saying how much I really enjoyed everything in this class from the topics, discussions and even the people in the class. To be honest I was very skeptical at the beginning of the semester about the class topic itself and I only chose it because it was the only core elective that fit my schedule, but the more classes I attended the more I started to enjoy the class and stared to understand the Ideas behind it. Plus I enjoyed the way DR. Keith Lawson chose and presented the topics to us and how he gave us the freedom to discuss and share our opinion. In short it was an awesome class and I am very glad that I was in it.

Secondly, I wanted to comment on the blogging experience. This was the first time for me to ever create and write in a blog and I honestly understand the purpose of the blog I was interdicted to the assignment in the class, but things came clearer with time. When our group chose hacktivism  as a topic to blog and present about I had no clue what was it all about . but since we had to post 10 blogs each and present about the topic we had to research and dig deeper to learn about the topic . we also had to be unique in our posts in order to duplicate any of the posts , which made it harder to do. And this is when I understood the idea behind blogging is to force the blogger to research   the topic from all aspects to avoided copying each other. For that reason I believe that blogging was a genius even though I didn’t like it, but it got the job done and these are some of the blog titles :

·         Is there a Definition to Hacktivism?

·         How do the General Public feel about Hacktivism?

·         Types of Hacking

·         Hacking: Hollywood vs. Reality

·         Why Hacktivisim?

·         Tips on protecting your system from hackers

·         How Social Media (Twitter) drives Hacktivism

And there are more in the blog that all related to hacktivisim in a way or another 

Finally, I just wanted to thanks all the people who attended and participated in our presentation and the people who helped the class discussions to go on with all type of ideas and opinions. And a final thanks for our prof dr Lawson who made that class possible and gave us the chance to express our opinions and ideas. So thank you all .

One final Post - A wrap up and Conclusion

Firstly, thanks to everyone who has stuck with our blog and ready what we have had to say. It has been great researching and learning about Hacktivism and Hacktivist's, staying updated with current events, and writing this blog.

Some of the concepts we have included;

- Definition of Hacktivism
- Current Events

- Things to Watch
        - We are Legion
        - Occupy Unmasked


It has been a lot of fun providing some great information on the web. It is kind of cool that people from China and the Philippines have even looked at our blog. The networked world is getting so complex, and this blog has strict relation to many of the advantages and disadvantages of Hacking in the networked world. One thing is for certain, there is only more information being put on the web every day which equals more information to hack into.

As the world becomes more networked, things will continue to get interesting when it comes to Hacktivist's, and what they are actually able to do.

Thanks a lot everyone.

Daniel Rankin

Hacktivist group threats Bank of America's website in September

A hacktivist group may be behind the sporadic issues that affected Bank of America's website, causing a lag in access for customers in earlier September 2012. The group called, “cyber fighters of Izz ad-din Al qassam,” posted a message in Pastebin claiming the attacks, allegedly launched Tuesday, were meant to target “properties of American-Zionist capitalists.”

A planned attack on the New York Stock Exchange was also mentioned in the message, though no news has surfaced of technical issues affecting its operations. In an email to SCMagazine.com Wednesday, Mark Pipitone, a Bank of America spokesman, said that the situation was now “stable,” and that most customers were successfully able to access online banking services on the first attempt “with near 100 percent success rates.”

While the majority of customers did not experience issues yesterday, Pipitone did make reference to the “slowdown.”

“As for what triggered the slowdown, while I can't address that directly, I can assure you that our customer and client information, our online banking platform and the related systems remain safe and secure,” he said.

NYSE did not immediately respond for comment regarding attack attempts by an outside group.

- Pretty crazy article that I stumbled on. Hacktivist's have no boundaries, making threats on the stock exchange through the Bank of America's website must take some serious guts!

Daniel Rankin

How Social Media (Twitter) drives Hacktivism

Here is an example of the power of Social Media in todays Networked World. 

The social networking power involved with twitter is something that has never been seen before which is what Twitter has added to the networked world. Twitter’s extreme social power was displayed in June 2009 during an election in Iran. Officials of the U.S State Department reached out to Twitter and asked them to delay a network upgrade that was scheduled for that following Monday night. The reason of this was to protect the interests of Iranians using the service to protest the presidential election that took place on June 12^th (Grossman, 2009). Twitter was being called the “Medium of the Movement” and essentially blew up. The fact that it is so easy to use makes it practically ideal for a mass protest movement (hard for authorities to control, easy for citizens to use).

“Twitter did not start the protests in Iran, nor did it make them possible. But there’s no question that it has emboldened the protestors, reinforced their conviction that they are not alone and engaged populations outside Iran in an emotional, immediate way that was never possible before” – Lev Grossman Time Magazine - CNN

Now, this example may not have a direct connection to Hacktivism, but it provides a very good example of how powerful Twitter actually is. Twitter in todays world is the best form of News, it can allow us to find out information, and Hacktivist's themselves use Twitter to find out information. 

Grossman, L. (2009, June 17). Iran's Protests: Why Twitter Is the Medium of the Movement - TIME. Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews - TIME.com. Retrieved September 28, 2012, from http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1905125,00.html

Midway Post

I just wanted to take a few minutes and ask what you guys who have been reading our blog think?

Is there any topics that we should be covering on Hacktivism that you want us to talk about, or is there any questions you want answered. 

After researching this topic and studying it for a couple of months, we hope that we can help provide answers to any questions. We may not be experts, but are looking to learn as much as you are when it comes to the topic. 

Thanks, 

And please leave us some comments so we know what you think of our posts!

Tips on protecting your system from hackers

we use our computers every day to do everything therefore it is important that we keep them protected from viruses and hackers who could steal or damages our systems. here are some tips that could  help achieve that :

• Always update your OS with the last security patches : OS developers always discovering and updating their systems to fix bugs and  security threats therefore, its very important to keep your OS up to date.
• Always make sure that your anti virus  is update: anti virus providers are always updating their system's data base with the new virus to be able to detect and clean them.And having an out of date anti virus program is useless.
• Do not always stay connected to the internet : even though its hard to do , being always connected to the internet make the chances of the system being hacked high and easy to do .
• Read before accepting anything prompt on the screen  or before installing any application .
• Do not open emails from unknown sources : these mails my have spyware and viruses that are design to infect your system and steal your information.
• Use complex and hard to guess passwords   : passwords that have a combination of alphabetical and numerical charterers are a good example of hard to guess password (P@$$w0rd)
• make sure that any one who share the system with knows how to use it.   

source :
http://www.wcu.edu/10572.asp

How some people might feel about Hacktivism - A different approach.

Has anyone ever had any doubts as to whether Hacktivism serves a purpose at all? Or whether it is just one of those "Astro turf" movements. Here are some possibilities;

Some people other than Hacktivist's might feel that Hacktivism is a good thing, and that it really does serve a purpose.

However, there are also other people other than the FBI that feel that Hacktivism is a big waste, there is no point, and that it is just a Fad. When it comes to Hacktivism, people have different thoughts, just like politics on whether they liked Romney over Obama. Anyways, is Hacktivism really just a fad? I mean, the fact that Anonymous is strictly anonymous and there is no group leader, and no one really knows who is in their group must take away some of their credibility. Do these "Hacktivist's" just put on that mask and protest, or rally, or hack, or partake in illegal activities just to feel like they have power. 

This can bring up one of the negative aspects of Hacktivism, where there may be people partaking in activities where they may not have any hacking skill or experience, and they may not believe in the cause that they are supporting. Some Hacktivist's with great computer knowledge may just be too young to have a job, or not have any hobbies at all therefore therefore they feel like they fit in with a group like Anonymous. These are all just possibilities as to why Hacktivism can be seen as a false topic, or a fad in the networked world we live in today.

Hopefully this post doesn't get hacked by Anonymous! But one would think that they have bigger fish to fry.

Thanks, 

Daniel Rankin

Found an Article on Hacktivism, check it out.

Hey Guys,

Check this out, I found it while doing some research on Hacktivism.

http://www.thehacktivist.com/whatishacktivism.pdf

Somebody made a website and posted a PDF file that defines Hacktivism. This does a great job on helping us define the topic, and also adds on to some of the key points that we have already discussed.

Check it out and let us know how you would define Hacktivism.

- Daniel Rankin

Why Hacktivisim?

we live in the word of media and information where everything is being completely  or partiality visa the internet . and for that there was the need to be able to make a stand and sent political messages via that medium. The increase reliance on the internet to spread political ideology is one of the reasons that made hacktivism cool and popular.

Hacktivist groups such as Anonymous started targeting big companies and exploiting their security weakness such as (Sony ,CIA)  making them even more popular to the people . finally the open course moment that started with Unix then grow to thousands of projects that is being used in the present time then came the Wikipedia project and the wikileaks which was supported and protected by the hacktivism concept and groups  is what give a great indicator that hacktisivim is the new way to protest and fight corruption and it will keep growing as governments and companies increase their use and reliance on the internet .

Ethical Hacking

Ethical hacking is done by the white hatters where computers experts use their knowldge to try and finds bugs and exploit systems to be able to improve it and make it more secure for the user. while black hatters do the same things but for totally different reasons. some of them do that for criminal reasons the others to make money by discovering bugs and vulnerabilities then selling them to the highest bidder.

Being a white hatter is a respective where a lot of these people work for security  and software development companies while they still do hacking but its done for the good guys. some of the black hatters get hired by companies after they get cough and serve some jail time which some how prove how good are they in doing what they do , converting them to white hatters who are working for the good guys. and with the increase of internet use for business and other sensitive stuff companies started to grow more concern about system and internet security creating a lot of honest jobs for those who have the skills to hack and give the the opportunity to do what they do best but in a legal environment.



source :
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-ethical-hacking.htm   

All Good Things Must Come To An End - The Final Post

As they say, "all good things must come to an end" and I write to the interwebs with my last and final blog post of the semester. In this blog, I am going to reflect on the course, my time studying hacktivism and try to conclude with a few insightful remarks.

Firstly, I will be the first to admit I was very skeptical coming into this class. Although I knew course title, the subject matter encompassed a vast amount of information. Thus, I was unsure how such a course would be taught and structured. After successfully completing the course, I can affirmatively say that I accomplish and learned a lot. I now have a much deeper understanding of the networked world, where is currently stands and how it will change in the future.

Secondly, when giving this assignment to create a blog around a given topic, Diaa chose that we would study hacktivism. Prior to researching the topic initially  I had ZERO background knowledge on what hacktivism was. I have heard the term 'hacking' before but never 'hacktivism'. After creating this blog and researching the topic for our presentation, I consider myself almost an expert in the field. As a result, I have a vast knowledge of the subject including key terms, notable hacktivism events, forms of hacktivism and how to proactively protect myself and my computer.

Finally, I am going to conclude with where I see hacktivism going in the future. Within the past 10 years, hacktivism has really emerged as an issue for law enforcement  Everyday the world experiences more and more hacktivism events, whether they release it or not, and they are not going away any time soon. Society is constantly witnessing this battle between notable hacktivism groups like Anonymous, and law enforcement agencies. Both are battling. One group wants the information to be freely distributed and one group has no interest in such an action. Within the next few years, we are going to see more and more pushes for internet privacy to be upgraded. As a society, it is important that we can every bit of information as a grain of salt and not overlook it. Never forget to check your sources. Never forget to question. Never forget that not everything is true. As a society, we need to protect ourselves so that hacktivism groups can carry on their everyday work and we can live simultaneously, living as one.

Thank you to everybody that read our blog, it has been a pleasure. Signing off,

Matthew Dicker

Why Did Anonymous Choose The Guy Fawkes Mask?

Ever since I have started my research on hacktivism and moreover Anonymous  I have always noticed members of their group wearing the same mask. No matter where they were in the world, the mask has been incredibly symbolic of the entire Anonymous movement. I decided that I wanted to learn more about the mask and try and figure out why this mask became representative of the movement. Here is what I discovered:

• The mask is known as the Guy Fawkes mask, best known as a member of the Gunpowder Plot which was an attempt to blow up the House of Lords
• The mask exploded in popularity with the creation of V for Vendetta, which started as a book and became a movie
• In the series, the antagonist wears the mask to disguise his identity
• I find it interesting that when wearing the mask, people try and disguise their identity, but in turn create another identity for themselves 
• The mask became attached to the Anonymous movement in a 2008 rally against the Church of Scientology
• The church was known to harass its critics, thus anonymous used the masks so they were unable to identity themselves
• Ever since than, the mask has became synonymous with the movement

There ya go, with a little bit of research I was able to find out all about the mask! Until next time

-MD

Book Review: Hacktivism And Cyberwars - Rebels With A Cause?

I recently read apart of a hacktivism book, co-authored by Tim Jordan and Paul A. Taylor. The authors described themselves as ex-hackers who used to be a part of a few notable hacktivism groups. The book starts by the duo describing their experiences "within" hacktivism. They share numerous amount of intimate, behind the lines stories that really get the book reader interested in the topic at hand. Taylor tells the story of how he was working with Annonymous to hack a government website. I found it really interesting as he actually described what it took to hack into the secure network and take over the database.

 

After their stories, the book starts to raise a few interesting points about hacktivism. During our term test, we were asked to compare and contrast the opposing views of hacktivism groups and law enforcement agencies. I recently wrote about this in a past blog. The group again bring up this poiunt and really question if hacktivism groups actions are justiable. From what I read, Taylor sees their actions as determinetal to society and only harming the world. This the reason he cites that he left hacktivism and the groups he was involved in. Jordan, who left for different reasons, one he cites being his family, beleives that hacktivist groups actions are politically correct as the public must be informed as to what their own government is doing.

I am starting to find this point to be a reoccurring theme in the hacktivism world. Are hackers actions ethical? Do they really bring out the best in the world?

TELL ME!!

Protecting Your Computer And Your Business

Throughout our blog we have talked alot of hacktivism, various groups within hacktivism and hacktivism events that have defined the industry. In this post, I am going to discuss a few ways that indivduals and organizations can protect themselves against hacktivists.

The first way, probably the most obvious one is to be smart while on the internet. All too often have I seen my Facebook friends and people I communicate over email with fall dumb to another, very obvious scam. For a general rule of thumb, don't click anything that looks at all suspicious. Always aire on the side of caution and if you don't know, DON'T OPEN IT!!!

Secondly, install a free piece of anti-virus software onto your computer. Often, when visiting a normal website, your computer is communicating with the website and transmitting millions of pieces of information instantly. During that transfer, your computer is sifting through the information and trying to differentiate important pieces of information from dangerous ones. However, your computer is not always good enough to sort through this information so quickly. There are lots of great, free anti-virus software avaliable, find one and download it onto your computer so you are not at harm.

Finally, make sure that when your surfing the internet you are using a secure network. Preferably, use a network that is protected by a WPA encryption  like the Dalhousie internet is. This type of encryption is generally the safest and should always be used when surfing the web.

Those are a few tips that should protect you against people trying to obtain your information about you knowing. By taking the proper steps and being proactive, you can always safety surf the internet and not worry about your expensive computer getting a virus.