In the past 2 years, we have observed a significant surge in hacktivism activity due to ongoing wars and geopolitical conflicts in various regions. Since the war against Ukraine began, we have witnessed a notable mobilization of non-state and state-backed actors alike, forming new groups or joining existing hacker collectives. We understand hacktivism as a form of computer hacking that is done to further the goals of political or social activism_1. While _activism describes a normal, non-disruptive use of the Internet in order to support a specific cause (online petitions, fundraising, coordinating activities), hacktivism includes operations that use hacking techniques with the intent to disrupt but not to cause serious harm (e.g., data theft, website defacements, redirects, Denial-of-Service attacks). Cyber operations that inherit a willingness or intent to cause harm to physical property, severe economic damage or loss of life would be referred to as _cyberterrorism,_2, 3 The lines between conducting cyber operations under the term of hacktivism and engaging in hostilities and causing severe damage and harm are becoming more and more blurry. With ongoing wars and conflicts, cyberspace has become messier than ever. We see a new leveling of the physical and cyber battlefields, resulting in a very thin line between physical (war) and cyber (hacktivism)4. As Dr Vasileios Karagiannopoulos and Professor Athina Karatzogianni put it: "Contemporary events show us that hacktivism…Read More
A New Age of Hacktivism
