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In this lesson, we are going to discuss

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everything you need to know about hacktivists.

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Now, hacktivists are individuals or groups

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that use their technical skills to promote a cause

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or drive social change instead of personal gain.

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Hacktivists perform hacktivism,

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which is a term that comes from combining

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hacking and activism to create the term hacktivism.

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Hacktivism simply refers to the activities

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in which the use of hacking and other cyber techniques

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is used to promote or advance a political or social cause.

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When it comes to hacktivists and hacktivism,

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you should remember that they use cyber attacks

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to achieve their ideological or political beliefs.

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To accomplish their objectives,

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hacktivists use a wide range of techniques

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to achieve their goals, including website defacement,

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distributed denial of service attacks,

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doxxing, and leaking of sensitive data.

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Website defacements are essentially

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just another form of electronic graffiti,

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and is usually treated as an act of vandalism.

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Next up, denial of service attacks.

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When a hacktivist attempts to launch

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a distributed denial of service attack,

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they are attempting to overwhelm

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the victim's systems or networks

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so that they cannot be accessed

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by the organization's legitimate users.

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Third, doxxing.

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Doxxing is another hacktivist technique,

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but doxxing involves the public release

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of private information about an individual or organization

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such as their name, home address, phone number, or email

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in hopes that someone will take

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the real-world actions against the victim.

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Another technique used by hacktivists

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is attacking an organization, stealing its sensitive data,

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and then releasing that sensitive data

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to the public at large over the internet.

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While the technical capabilities of hacktivists

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can vary widely, hacktivists tend to demonstrate

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a fairly high level of sophistication.

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Some hacktivist group include individuals

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with advanced technical skills who can create custom exploit

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to attack vulnerabilities,

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well-defended systems, and networks.

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Unlike most cyber threat actors,

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hacktivists are primarily motivated

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by their ideological beliefs

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rather than trying to achieve financial gain.

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Hacktivists really want to draw attention to their cause

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in order to drive social or political change,

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or they may be using their hacktivism

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to protest against some kind of perceived injustice

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or unethical practices used by the targeted organization.

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These hacktivists target organizations or individuals

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that they perceive are acting out against their cause,

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which can include governments, corporations,

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or other entities that they believe

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are involved in censorship, human rights abuses,

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environmental damage, or other controversial activities.

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Probably the most well-known hacktivist group

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is known as Anonymous.

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Anonymous is a loosely affiliated collective

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that has been involved

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in numerous high profile attacks over the years

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for targeting organizations

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that they perceive are acting unethically

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or against the public interest at large.

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For example, back at 2010,

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Anonymous launched their Operation Payback campaign

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by launching a DDoS attack against various organizations

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involved in digital anti-piracy efforts,

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including the Motion Picture Association of America

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and the Recording Industry Association of America.

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LulzSec is another famous hacktivist group.

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Back in 2011, LulzSec launched a series of attacks

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known as 50 Days of Lulz

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that targeted various organizations, including Sony,

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the Central Intelligence Agency,

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and the Federal Bureau of Investigations, or the FBI.

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While their actions were partly motivated

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by a desire for chaos,

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as their name, a combination of lulz and security suggests,

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the group also expressed political motivations,

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like an opposition to censorship and surveillance

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as part of the reason for their attacks.

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So remember, hacktivism is the act of hacking

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or breaking into computer systems

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for a politically or socially-motivated purpose,

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often to promote, repeat, or protest

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against specific issues or actions.

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A hacktivist on the other hand

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is an individual who engages in hacktivism

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using cyber tools and techniques

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to promote a social or political cause.

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It's important to remember

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that a hacktivist conducts hacktivism

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to advance their own ideological agendas.

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This helps determine which organizations

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they will target with their attacks.