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.