Security threats explained: Hacktivism

25.06.2012
In this series, Computerworld Australia examines some of the information security threats facing small businesses and larger enterprises today. We've looked at and and continue the series by speaking to security experts about the problem of hacktivism.

Hacktivism, according to Quest Software, is politically motivated hacking conducted by groups such as Anonymous and LulzSec. For example, in May 2012, Anonymous claimed it had the United States Bureau of Justice Statistics and released 1.7 gigabytes of data including internal emails and database information.

In a statement, the group said it was releasing the data to "spread information, to allow the people to be heard and to know the corruption in their government."

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According to IDC Australia senior market analyst, Vern Hue, while some hacktivists were out to prove a political statement, the majority of hacktivists did not have an intended target or cause, and retrospectively justified the hack once they had success infiltrating a website.