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100-697: Gain a deep understanding of the inner workings of United States adversaries, develop unmatched knowledge of the battlespace, provide naval operating forces with sufficient over-match in wartime command and control, and project power through and across the network. The Information Warfare Community, originally known as the Information Dominance Corps , was created within the U.S. Navy in 2009 to more effectively and collaboratively lead and manage officers, enlisted, and civilian professionals who possess extensive skills in information-intensive related fields. This corps of professionals works, trains and

200-685: A media organisation and publisher founded in 2006. It operates as a non-profit and is funded by donations and media partnerships. It has published classified documents and other media provided by anonymous sources . It was founded by Julian Assange , an Australian editor , publisher, and activist , who is currently challenging extradition to the United States over his work with WikiLeaks. Since September 2018, Kristinn Hrafnsson has served as its editor-in-chief . Its website states that it has released more than ten million documents and associated analyses. WikiLeaks' most recent publication

300-414: A peer-to-peer platform for censorship -resistant communication, is a prime example of translating political thought and freedom of speech into code. Hacking as a form of activism can be carried out by a singular activist or through a network of activists, such as Anonymous and WikiLeaks , working in collaboration toward common goals without an overarching authority figure. For context, according to

400-697: A strategic level . Potential targets in internet sabotage include all aspects of the Internet from the backbones of the web, to the internet service providers , to the varying types of data communication mediums and network equipment. This would include: web servers, enterprise information systems, client server systems, communication links, network equipment, and the desktops and laptops in businesses and homes. Electrical grids , financial networks, and telecommunications systems are also deemed vulnerable, especially due to current trends in computerization and automation. Politically motivated hacktivism involves

500-423: A "DoS war" that nobody will win . In 2006, Blue Security attempted to automate a DoS attack against spammers; this led to a massive DoS attack against Blue Security which knocked them, their old ISP and their DNS provider off the Internet, destroying their business. Following denial-of-service attacks by Anonymous on multiple sites, in reprisal for the apparent suppression of WikiLeaks , John Perry Barlow ,

600-658: A U.S. helicopter crew. WikiLeaks has also published leaks such as diplomatic cables from the United States and Saudi Arabia , emails from the governments of Syria and Turkey , corruption in Kenya and at Samherji . WikiLeaks has also published documents exposing cyber warfare and surveillance tools created by the CIA , and surveillance of the French president by the National Security Agency . During

700-558: A US drone in the Strait of Hormuz . In addition to retaliatory digital attacks, countries can respond to cyber attacks with cyber sanctions . Sometimes, it is not easy to detect the attacker, but suspicions may focus on a particular country or group of countries. In these cases, unilateral and multilateral economic sanctions can be used instead of cyberwarfare. For example, the United States has frequently imposed economic sanctions related to cyber attacks. Two Executive Orders issued during

800-478: A charitable cause, they have still gained notoriety from the media due to the nature of their work mostly consisting of illegal hacking. Following the Paris terror attacks in 2015, Anonymous posted a video declaring war on ISIS , the terror group that claimed responsibility for the attacks. Since declaring war on ISIS, Anonymous since identified several Twitter accounts associated with the movement in order to stop

900-480: A claim made by the technology security company that it had identified members of Anonymous. Following this, the members of LulzSec targeted an array of companies and entities, including but not limited to: Fox Television , Tribune Company , PBS , Sony , Nintendo , and the Senate.gov website. The targeting of these entities typically involved gaining access to and downloading confidential user information, or defacing

1000-618: A company or group. The idea of a "cyber Pearl Harbor " has been debated by scholars, drawing an analogy to the historical act of war. Others have used "cyber 9/11 " to draw attention to the nontraditional, asymmetric, or irregular aspect of cyber action against a state. There are a number of reasons nations undertake offensive cyber operations. Sandro Gaycken  [ de ] , a cyber security expert and adviser to NATO , advocates that states take cyber warfare seriously as they are viewed as an attractive activity by many nations, in times of war and peace. Offensive cyber operations offer

1100-481: A cooperation agreement with the government." He served a total of one year and seven months and was charged a $ 1,200 fine. SiegedSec , short for Sieged Security and commonly self-referred to as the "Gay Furry Hackers", is a black-hat criminal hacktivist group that was formed in early 2022, that has committed a number of high-profile cyber attacks , including attacks on NATO , The Idaho National Laboratory , and Real America's Voice . On July 10, 2024,

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1200-703: A cyber attack on the Georgian government website, which was carried out along with Georgian military operations in South Ossetia. In 2008, Chinese "nationalist hackers " attacked CNN as it reported on Chinese repression on Tibet . Hackers from Armenia and Azerbaijan have actively participated in cyberwarfare as part of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict , with Azerbaijani hackers targeting Armenian websites and posting Ilham Aliyev 's statements. Jobs in cyberwarfare have become increasingly popular in

1300-407: A day in communication, they did not know one another personally, nor did they share personal information. For example, once the members' identities were revealed, "T-Flow" was revealed to be 15 years old. Other members, on the basis of his advanced coding ability, thought he was around 30 years old. One of the first notable targets that LulzSec pursued was HBGary , which was performed in response to

1400-546: A form of culture jamming . This term refers to the practice of subverting and criticizing political messages as well as media culture with the aim of challenging the status quo. It is often targeted toward subliminal thought processes taking place in the viewers with the goal of raising awareness as well as causing a paradigm shift. Culture jamming takes many forms including billboard hacking , broadcast signal intrusion , ad hoc art performances, simulated legal transgressions, memes , and artivism . The term "culture jamming"

1500-449: A founding member of the EFF , said "I support freedom of expression, no matter whose, so I oppose DDoS attacks regardless of their target... they're the poison gas of cyberspace...". On the other hand, Jay Leiderman , an attorney for many hacktivists, argues that DDoS can be a legitimate form of protest speech in situations that are reasonably limited in time, place and manner. WikiLeaks is

1600-479: A lack of internal transparency. Journalists have also criticised the organisation for promotion of false flag conspiracy theories, and what they describe as exaggerated and misleading descriptions of the contents of leaks. The CIA defined the organisation as a " non-state hostile intelligence service " after the release of Vault 7 . Perhaps the most prolific and well known hacktivist group, Anonymous has been prominent and prevalent in many major online hacks over

1700-472: A large variety of cheap and risk-free options to weaken other countries and strengthen their own positions. Considered from a long-term, geostrategic perspective, cyber offensive operations can cripple whole economies, change political views, agitate conflicts within or among states, reduce their military efficiency and equalize the capacities of high-tech nations to that of low-tech nations, and use access to their critical infrastructures to blackmail them. With

1800-748: A means of quickly and effectively organising smart mobs for political action. This has been most effective in the Philippines, where SMS media hacking has twice had a significant impact on whether or not the country's Presidents are elected or removed from office. Reality hacking is any phenomenon that emerges from the nonviolent use of illegal or legally ambiguous digital tools in pursuit of politically, socially, or culturally subversive ends. These tools include website defacements , URL redirections , denial-of-service attacks , information theft, web-site parodies, virtual sit-ins , and virtual sabotage . Art movements such as Fluxus and Happenings in

1900-485: A message to be seen by users of other sites as well, increasing its total reach. Media hacking is commonly employed for political purposes, by both political parties and political dissidents . A good example of this is the 2008 US Election, in which both the Democratic and Republican parties used a wide variety of different media in order to convey relevant messages to an increasingly Internet-oriented audience. At

2000-586: A multitude of threats towards a nation. At the most basic level, cyber attacks can be used to support traditional warfare. For example, tampering with the operation of air defenses via cyber means in order to facilitate an air attack. Aside from these "hard" threats, cyber warfare can also contribute towards "soft" threats such as espionage and propaganda. Eugene Kaspersky , founder of Kaspersky Lab , equates large-scale cyber weapons , such as Flame and NetTraveler which his company discovered, to biological weapons , claiming that in an interconnected world, they have

2100-518: A nation's electrical grid (230,000 customers, Ukraine, 2015 ) or affected access to medical care, thus endangering life (UK National Health Service , WannaCry, 2017 ) have not led to military action. In 2017, Oxford academic Lucas Kello proposed a new term, "Unpeace", to denote highly damaging cyber actions whose non-violent effects do not rise to the level of traditional war. Such actions are neither warlike nor peace-like. Although they are non-violent, and thus not acts of war, their damaging effects on

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2200-429: A policy perspective. Non-state actors can play as large a part in the cyberwar space as state actors, which leads to dangerous, sometimes disastrous, consequences. Small groups of highly skilled malware developers are able to as effectively impact global politics and cyber warfare as large governmental agencies. A major aspect of this ability lies in the willingness of these groups to share their exploits and developments on

2300-457: A protracted period of back-and-forth cyber attacks (including in combination with traditional military action) between warring states. To date, no such action is known to have occurred. Instead, armed forces have responded with tit-for-tat military cyber actions. For example, in June 2019, the United States launched a cyber attack against Iranian weapons systems in retaliation to the shooting down of

2400-426: A sense of power in the cyberactivism community . In order to carry out their operations, hacktivists might create new tools; or integrate or use a variety of software tools readily available on the Internet. One class of hacktivist activities includes increasing the accessibility of others to take politically motivated action online . Repertoire of contention of hacktivism includes among others: Depending on who

2500-463: A statement by the U.S. Justice Department, Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, plotted with hackers connected to the "Anonymous" and "LulzSec" groups, who have been linked to multiple cyberattacks worldwide. In 2012, Assange, who was being held in the United Kingdom on a request for extradition from the United States, gave the head of LulzSec a list of targets to hack and informed him that

2600-402: A system and could lead to the disruption of equipment. Compromise of military systems, such as C4ISTAR components that are responsible for orders and communications could lead to their interception or malicious replacement. Power, water, fuel, communications, and transportation infrastructure all may be vulnerable to disruption. According to Clarke, the civilian realm is also at risk, noting that

2700-444: A warfare-like intent." In 2010, the former US National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection and Counter-terrorism, Richard A. Clarke , defined cyberwarfare as "actions by a nation-state to penetrate another nation's computers or networks for the purposes of causing damage or disruption". The target's own cyber-physical infrastructure may be used by the adversary in case of a cyber conflict, thus weaponizing it. There

2800-824: A website of the FBI. Following the incident, the leader of LulzSec, "Sabu," was identified as Hector Xavier Monsegur by the FBI, and he was the first of the group to be arrested. Immediately following his arrest, Monsegur admitted to criminal activity. He then began his cooperation with the US government, helping FBI authorities to arrest 8 of his co-conspirators, prevent 300 potential cyber attacks, and helped to identify vulnerabilities in existing computer systems. In August 2011, Monsegur pleaded guilty to "computer hacking conspiracy, computer hacking, computer hacking in furtherance of fraud, conspiracy to commit access device fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and aggravated identity theft pursuant to

2900-404: Is a combination of computer network attack and defense and special technical operations." According to this perspective, the notion of cyber warfare brings a new paradigm into military doctrine. Paulo Shakarian and colleagues put forward the following definition of "cyber war" in 2013, drawing on Clausewitz 's definition of war: "War is the continuation of politics by other means": Cyber war

3000-491: Is a misnomer since no cyber attacks to date could be described as a war. An alternative view is that it is a suitable label for cyber attacks which cause physical damage to people and objects in the real world. Many countries, including the United States , United Kingdom , Russia , China , Israel , Iran , and North Korea , have active cyber capabilities for offensive and defensive operations. As states explore

3100-704: Is an attempt to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users. Perpetrators of DoS attacks typically target sites or services hosted on high-profile web servers such as banks, credit card payment gateways, and even root nameservers. DoS attacks often leverage internet-connected devices with vulnerable security measures to carry out these large-scale attacks. DoS attacks may not be limited to computer-based methods, as strategic physical attacks against infrastructure can be just as devastating. For example, cutting undersea communication cables may severely cripple some regions and countries with regards to their information warfare ability. The federal government of

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3200-403: Is an extension of policy by actions taken in cyber space by state or nonstate actors that constitute a serious threat to a nation's security or are conducted in response to a perceived threat against a nation's security. Taddeo offered the following definition in 2012: The warfare grounded on certain uses of ICTs within an offensive or defensive military strategy endorsed by a state and aiming at

3300-487: Is debate on whether the term "cyber warfare" is accurate. In 2012, Eugene Kaspersky , founder of Kaspersky Lab , concluded that " cyberterrorism " is a more accurate term than "cyberwar." He states that "with today's attacks, you are clueless about who did it or when they will strike again. It's not cyber-war, but cyberterrorism." Howard Schmidt , former Cyber Security Coordinator in the Obama administration , said that "there

3400-451: Is distinct from the term "cyber war". Cyberwarfare includes techniques, tactics and procedures that may be involved in a cyber war, but the term does not imply scale, protraction or violence, which are typically associated with the term "war", which inherently refers to a large-scale action, typically over a protracted period of time, and may include objectives seeking to utilize violence or the aim to kill. A cyber war could accurately describe

3500-410: Is educated in information, intelligence, counterintelligence, human-derived information, cyber, space, and oceanographic disciplines. It is tasked with developing and delivering dominant information capabilities in support of U.S. Navy, Joint and national warfighting requirements. The Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Dominance/Director of Naval Intelligence (OPNAV N2/N6) was designated as

3600-464: Is malicious, destructive, and undermining the security of the Internet as a technical , economic , and political platform . In comparison to previous forms of social activism, hacktivism has had unprecedented success, bringing in more participants, using more tools, and having more influence in that it has the ability to alter elections , begin conflicts, and take down businesses. According to

3700-448: Is no cyberwar... I think that is a terrible metaphor and I think that is a terrible concept. There are no winners in that environment." Some experts take issue with the possible consequences linked to the warfare goal. In 2011, Ron Deibert, of Canada's Citizen Lab , warned of a " militarization of cyberspace ", as militaristic responses may not be appropriate. However, to date, even serious cyber-attacks that have disrupted large parts of

3800-481: Is reading and understanding the code which represents the activity of the simulated reality environment (such as Matrix digital rain ) and also modifying it in order to bend the laws of physics or otherwise modify the simulated reality . Reality hacking as a mystical practice is explored in the Gothic-Punk aesthetics-inspired White Wolf urban fantasy role-playing game Mage: The Ascension . In this game,

3900-406: Is the earliest form of culture jamming as a way to subvert the social hierarchy at the time. Culture jamming is sometimes confused with acts of vandalism. However, unlike culture jamming, the main goal of vandalism is to cause destruction with any political themes being of lesser importance. Artivism usually has the most questionable nature as a form of culture jamming because defacement of property

4000-399: Is the use of cyber attacks against an enemy state , causing comparable harm to actual warfare and/or disrupting vital computer systems . Some intended outcomes could be espionage , sabotage , propaganda , manipulation or economic warfare . There is significant debate among experts regarding the definition of cyberwarfare, and even if such a thing exists. One view is that the term

4100-534: Is typically done in the form of war games . Hacktivist Internet activism , hacktivism , or hactivism (a portmanteau of hack and activism ), is the use of computer-based techniques such as hacking as a form of civil disobedience to promote a political agenda or social change. With roots in hacker culture and hacker ethics , its ends are often related to free speech , human rights , or freedom of information movements. Hacktivist activities span many political ideals and issues. Freenet ,

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4200-443: Is underreported to the extent they are known. According to McAfee's George Kurtz, corporations around the world face millions of cyberattacks a day. "Most of these attacks don't gain any media attention or lead to strong political statements by victims." This type of crime is usually financially motivated. But not all those who engage in cyberwarfare do so for financial or ideological reasons. There are institutes and companies like

4300-594: Is using the term, hacktivism can be a politically motivated technology hack , a constructive form of anarchic civil disobedience , or an undefined anti-systemic gesture. It can signal anticapitalist or political protest; it can denote anti- spam activists, security experts, or open source advocates. Some people describing themselves as hacktivists have taken to defacing websites for political reasons, such as attacking and defacing websites of governments and those who oppose their ideology . Others, such as Oxblood Ruffin (the " foreign affairs minister " of Cult of

4400-594: Is usually involved. Media hacking refers to the usage of various electronic media in an innovative or otherwise abnormal fashion for the purpose of conveying a message to as large a number of people as possible, primarily achieved via the World Wide Web . A popular and effective means of media hacking is posting on a blog , as one is usually controlled by one or more independent individuals, uninfluenced by outside parties. The concept of social bookmarking , as well as Web-based Internet forums , may cause such

4500-496: Is what they have been doing ever since. Coders infiltrated a number of levels of society in order to gather the greatest compilation of knowledge ever seen. One of the Coders' more overt agendas is to acclimate the masses to the world that is to come. They spread Virtual Adept ideas through video games and a whole spate of " reality shows " that mimic virtual reality far more than "real" reality. The Reality Coders consider themselves

4600-549: The 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign , WikiLeaks released emails from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and from Hillary Clinton's campaign manager , showing that the party's national committee had effectively acted as an arm of the Clinton campaign during the primaries , seeking to undercut the campaign of Bernie Sanders . These releases resulted in the resignation of the chairwoman of

4700-578: The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank . The rise of collectives, net.art groups, and those concerned with the fluid interchange of technology and real life (often from an environmental concern) gave birth to the practice of "reality hacking". Reality hacking relies on tweaking the everyday communications most easily available to individuals with the purpose of awakening the political and community conscience of

4800-618: The Israel Defense Forces targeted and destroyed a building associated with an ongoing cyber-attack. There is ongoing debate over how cyberwarfare should be defined and no absolute definition is widely agreed upon. While the majority of scholars, militaries, and governments use definitions that refer to state and state-sponsored actors, other definitions may include non-state actors, such as terrorist groups, companies, political or ideological extremist groups, hacktivists , and transnational criminal organizations depending on

4900-516: The Obama administration , EO 13694 of 2015 and EO 13757 of 2016, specifically focused on the implementation of the cyber sanctions. Subsequent US presidents have issued similar Executive Orders. The US Congress has also imposed cyber sanctions in response to cyberwarfare. For example, the Iran Cyber Sanctions Act of 2016 imposes sanctions on specific individuals responsible for cyber attacks. Cyber warfare can present

5000-431: The United States 2020–2022 Counterintelligence Strategy, in addition to state adversaries and transnational criminal organizations, "ideologically motivated entities such as hacktivists, leaktivists, and public disclosure organizations, also pose significant threats". Writer Jason Sack first used the term hacktivism in a 1995 article in conceptualizing New Media artist Shu Lea Cheang 's film Fresh Kill . However,

5100-934: The United States Navy responsible for the Navy's cyber warfare programs. Tenth Fleet is a force provider for Fleet Cyber Command. Naval Information Forces , formerly Naval Information Dominance Forces, is the Type Commander (TYCOM) for cryptology/SIGINT, cyber, electronic warfare, information operations, intelligence, networks, and space disciplines. The IWC is made up of Information Professional Officers (IP), Cryptologic Warfare (CW) officers, Intelligence Officers (INTEL), Oceanography Officers (METOC), Maritime Space Officers (MSO), Space Cadre, Aerographers Mates (AG), Cryptologic Technicians (CT), Intelligence Specialists (IS), Information Technicians (IT) and Navy civilians. Cyber warfare Cyberwarfare

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5200-542: The University of Cincinnati or the Kaspersky Security Lab which engage in cyberwarfare so as to better understand the field through actions like the researching and publishing of new security threats. A number of countries conduct exercise to increase preparedness and explore the strategy, tactics and operations involved in conducting and defending against cyber attacks against hostile states, this

5300-498: The 1970s created a climate of receptibility in regard to loose-knit organizations and group activities where spontaneity, a return to primitivist behavior , and an ethics where activities and socially engaged art practices became tantamount to aesthetic concerns. The conflation of these two histories in the mid-to-late 1990s resulted in cross-overs between virtual sit-ins, electronic civil disobedience , denial-of-service attacks, as well as mass protests in relation to groups like

5400-658: The DNC and caused significant harm to the Clinton campaign . During the campaign, WikiLeaks promoted false conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party and the murder of Seth Rich . WikiLeaks has won a number of awards and has been commended for exposing state and corporate secrets, increasing transparency, assisting freedom of the press , and enhancing democratic discourse while challenging powerful institutions. WikiLeaks and some of its supporters say

5500-823: The Dead Cow and Hacktivismo), have argued forcefully against definitions of hacktivism that include web defacements or denial-of-service attacks . Hacktivism is often seen as shadowy due to its anonymity, commonly attributed to the work of fringe groups and outlying members of society. The lack of responsible parties to be held accountable for the social-media attacks performed by hactivists has created implications in corporate and federal security measures both on and offline. While some self-described hacktivists have engaged in DoS attacks, critics suggest that DoS attacks are an attack on free speech and that they have unintended consequences . DoS attacks waste resources and they can lead to

5600-545: The General Staff of the British Army stated that this kind of attack from actors such as Russia "is a form of system warfare that seeks to de-legitimize the political and social system on which our military strength is based". Jowell and O'Donnell (2006) state that "propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers

5700-526: The Reality Coders (also known as Reality Hackers or Reality Crackers) are a faction within the Virtual Adepts , a secret society of mages whose magick revolves around digital technology. They are dedicated to bringing the benefits of cyberspace to real space . To do this, they had to identify, for lack of a better term, the " source code " that allows our Universe to function. And that

5800-580: The Regional Service of Judicial Police in Lille classified the young hacker as " the most wanted hacktivist in France " DkD[|| was a very known defacer in the underground for his political view, doing his defacements for various political reasons. In response to his arrest, The Ghost Boys defaced many navy.mil sites using the “Free DkD[||!!” slogan. In May 2011, five members of Anonymous formed

5900-433: The U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, according to current and former national security officials. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) has issued a public notice that warns that the electrical grid is not adequately protected from cyber attack. China denies intruding into the U.S. electrical grid. One countermeasure would be to disconnect

6000-475: The United States admits that the electric power grid is susceptible to cyberwarfare. The United States Department of Homeland Security works with industries to identify vulnerabilities and to help industries enhance the security of control system networks. The federal government is also working to ensure that security is built in as the next generation of "smart grid" networks are developed. In April 2009, reports surfaced that China and Russia had infiltrated

6100-595: The United States. The New York Times reported that American hackers from the United States Cyber Command planted malware potentially capable of disrupting the Russian electrical grid. Cyber propaganda is an effort to control information in whatever form it takes, and influence public opinion. It is a form of psychological warfare , except it uses social media , fake news websites and other digital means. In 2018, Sir Nicholas Carter, Chief of

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6200-425: The context of the work. Examples of definitions proposed by experts in the field are as follows. 'Cyberwarfare' is used in a broad context to denote interstate use of technological force within computer networks in which information is stored, shared, or communicated online. Raymond Charles Parks and David P. Duggan focused on analyzing cyberwarfare in terms of computer networks and pointed out that "Cyberwarfare

6300-528: The death of Mike Brown. Instead, on July 15, a Twitter account associated with Anonymous posted a series of tweets calling for a day of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. The Twitter account used the hashtag "#FridayofSolidarity" to coordinate protests across the nation, and emphasized the fact that the Friday of Solidarity was intended for peaceful protests. The account also stated that

6400-405: The desired intent of the propagandist" (p. 7). The internet is the most important means of communication today. People can convey their messages quickly across to a huge audience, and this can open a window for evil. Terrorist organizations can exploit this and may use this medium to brainwash people. It has been suggested that restricted media coverage of terrorist attacks would in turn decrease

6500-519: The distribution of ISIS propaganda. However, Anonymous fell under heavy criticism when Twitter issued a statement calling the lists Anonymous had compiled "wildly inaccurate," as it contained accounts of journalists and academics rather than members of ISIS. Anonymous has also been involved with the Black Lives Matter movement. Early in July 2015, there was a rumor circulating that Anonymous

6600-524: The economy and society may be greater than those of some armed attacks. This term is closely related to the concept of the " grey zone ", which came to prominence in 2017, describing hostile actions that fall below the traditional threshold of war. But as Kello explained, technological unpeace differs from the grey zone as the term is commonly used in that unpeace by definition is never overtly violent or fatal, whereas some grey-zone actions are violent, even if they are not acts of war. The term "cyberwarfare"

6700-519: The emergence of cyber as a substantial threat to national and global security, cyber war, warfare and/or attacks also became a domain of interest and purpose for the military. In the U.S., General Keith B. Alexander , first head of USCYBERCOM , told the Senate Armed Services Committee that computer network warfare is evolving so rapidly that there is a "mismatch between our technical capabilities to conduct operations and

6800-408: The foundation of modern economies," notes The New York Times . Stuxnet , while extremely effective in delaying Iran's nuclear program for the development of nuclear weaponry, came at a high cost. For the first time, it became clear that not only could cyber weapons be defensive but they could be offensive. The large decentralization and scale of cyberspace makes it extremely difficult to direct from

6900-581: The future of the Virtual Adepts, creating a world in the image of visionaries like Grant Morrison or Terence McKenna . In a location-based game (also known as a pervasive game), reality hacking refers to tapping into phenomena that exist in the real world, and tying them into the game story universe. There have been various academic approaches to deal with hacktivism and urban hacking. In 2010, Günther Friesinger, Johannes Grenzfurthner and Thomas Ballhausen published an entire reader dedicated to

7000-699: The governing laws and policies. Cyber Command is the newest global combatant and its sole mission is cyberspace, outside the traditional battlefields of land, sea, air and space." It will attempt to find and, when necessary, neutralize cyberattacks and to defend military computer networks. Alexander sketched out the broad battlefield envisioned for the computer warfare command, listing the kind of targets that his new headquarters could be ordered to attack, including "traditional battlefield prizes – command-and-control systems at military headquarters, air defense networks and weapons systems that require computers to operate." One cyber warfare scenario, Cyber-ShockWave , which

7100-673: The group announced that they would be disbanding after attacking The Heritage Foundation . SiegedSec is led by an individual under the alias "vio". Short for "Sieged Security", SiegedSec's Telegram channel was first created in April 2022, and they commonly refer to themselves as "gay furry hackers". On multiple occasions, the group has targeted right-wing movements through breaching data , including The Heritage Foundation , Real America's Voice , as well as various U.S. states that have pursued legislative decisions against gender-affirming care . Hacking has been sometime described as

7200-601: The group was unaware of any Day of Rage plans. In February 2017 the group took down more than 10,000 sites on the Dark web related to child porn. DkD[||, a French cyberhacktivist, was arrested by the OCLCTIC (office central de lutte contre la criminalité liée aux technologies de l’information et de la communication), in March 2003. DkD[|| defaced more than 2000 pages, many were governments and US military sites. Eric Voulleminot of

7300-430: The hacktivist group Lulz Security , otherwise known as LulzSec. LulzSec's name originated from the conjunction of the internet slang term "lulz", meaning laughs, and "sec", meaning security. The group members used specific handles to identify themselves on Internet Relay Channels, the most notable being: "Sabu," "Kayla," "T-Flow," "Topiary," "AVUnit," and "Pwnsauce." Though the members of LulzSec would spend up to 20 hours

7400-423: The immediate disruption or control of the enemy's resources, and which is waged within the informational environment, with agents and targets ranging both on the physical and non-physical domains and whose level of violence may vary upon circumstances. Robinson et al. proposed in 2015 that the intent of the attacker dictates whether an attack is warfare or not, defining cyber warfare as "the use of cyber attacks with

7500-458: The larger population. The term first came into use among New York and San Francisco artists, but has since been adopted by a school of political activists centered around culture jamming . The 1999 science fiction-action film The Matrix , among others, popularized the simulation hypothesis — the suggestion that reality is in fact a simulation of which those affected by the simulants are generally unaware. In this context, "reality hacking"

7600-451: The leader of the IWC in 2009, representing a transition in the evolution of naval warfare, designed to elevate information as a main battery of Naval warfighting capabilities and establish Naval prominence in intelligence, cyber warfare , and information management. CNO N2/N6 exercises administrative control of Fleet Cyber Command/Tenth Fleet. Fleet Cyber Command is an operating force of

7700-642: The media as cyber-terrorists, wreaking havoc by hacking websites, posting sensitive information about their victims, and threatening further attacks if their demands are not met. However, hacktivism is more than that. Actors are politically motivated to change the world, through the use of fundamentalism. Groups like Anonymous, however, have divided opinion with their methods. Cyber attacks, including ransomware, can be used to generate income. States can use these techniques to generate significant sources of income, which can evade sanctions and perhaps while simultaneously harming adversaries (depending on targets). This tactic

7800-589: The military. All four branches of the United States military actively recruit for cyber warfare positions. In a 2024 study on the use of military cyber operations during the Russo-Ukrainian War , Frederik A. H. Pedersen and Jeppe T. Jacobsen concluded that cyber operations in warfare may only be impactful on the tactical and operational levels in a war's beginning, when cyber and non-cyber operations can be aligned and complex cyber weapons can be prepared before war breaks out, as well as cumulatively on

7900-692: The most significant leaks of compromised material would come from the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, or the New York Times. "Hacktivism" is a controversial term with several meanings. The word was coined to characterize electronic direct action as working toward social change by combining programming skills with critical thinking . But just as hack can sometimes mean cyber crime, hacktivism can be used to mean activism that

8000-563: The number of terrorist attacks that occur afterwards. In 2017, the WannaCry and Petya (NotPetya) cyber attacks, masquerading as ransomware, caused large-scale disruptions in Ukraine as well as to the U.K.'s National Health Service, pharmaceutical giant Merck , Maersk shipping company and other organizations around the world. These attacks are also categorized as cybercrimes , specifically financial crime because they negatively affect

8100-554: The organisation's publications have a perfect record of publishing authentic documents. The organisation has been the target of campaigns to discredit it, including aborted ones by Palantir and HBGary . WikiLeaks has also had its donation systems disrupted by problems with its payment processors . As a result, the Wau Holland Foundation helps process WikiLeaks' donations. The organisation has been criticised for inadequately curating some of its content and violating

8200-479: The past decade. Anonymous is a decentralized group that originated on the forums of 4chan during 2003, but didn't rise to prominence until 2008 when they directly attacked the Church of Scientology in a massive DoS attack. Since then, Anonymous has participated in a great number of online projects such as Operation: Payback and Operation: Safe Winter. However, while a great number of their projects have been for

8300-420: The personal privacy of individuals. WikiLeaks has, for instance, revealed Social Security numbers , medical information , credit card numbers and details of suicide attempts . News organisations, activists, journalists and former members have also criticised the organisation over allegations of anti-Clinton and pro-Trump bias, various associations with the Russian government, buying and selling of leaks, and

8400-489: The places suffering blackout. Howard Schmidt , former Cyber-Security Coordinator of the US, commented on those possibilities: It's possible that hackers have gotten into administrative computer systems of utility companies, but says those aren't linked to the equipment controlling the grid, at least not in developed countries. [Schmidt] has never heard that the grid itself has been hacked. In June 2019, Russia said that its electrical grid has been under cyber-attack by

8500-469: The potential to be equally destructive. Traditional espionage is not an act of war, nor is cyber-espionage, and both are generally assumed to be ongoing between major powers. Despite this assumption, some incidents can cause serious tensions between nations, and are often described as "attacks". For example: Out of all cyber attacks, 25% of them are espionage based. Computers and satellites that coordinate other activities are vulnerable components of

8600-427: The power grid from the Internet and run the net with droop speed control only. Massive power outages caused by a cyber attack could disrupt the economy, distract from a simultaneous military attack, or create a national trauma . Iranian hackers, possibly Iranian Cyber Army pushed a massive power outage for 12 hours in 44 of 81 provinces of Turkey , impacting 40 million people. Istanbul and Ankara were among

8700-501: The same time, political dissidents used blogs and other social media like Twitter in order to reply on an individual basis to the presidential candidates. In particular, sites like Twitter are proving important means in gauging popular support for the candidates, though the site is often used for dissident purposes rather than a show of positive support. Mobile technology has also become subject to media hacking for political purposes. SMS has been widely used by political dissidents as

8800-435: The security breaches have already gone beyond stolen credit card numbers, and that potential targets can also include the electric power grid, trains, or the stock market. In mid-July 2010, security experts discovered a malicious software program called Stuxnet that had infiltrated factory computers and had spread to plants around the world. It is considered "the first attack on critical industrial infrastructure that sits at

8900-453: The subject. They state: Urban spaces became battlefields, signifiers have been invaded, new structures have been established: Netculture replaced counterculture in most parts and also focused on the everchanging environments of the modern city. Important questions have been brought up to date and reasked, taking current positions and discourses into account. The major question still remains, namely how to create culturally based resistance under

9000-545: The subversive use of computers and computer networks to promote an agenda, and can potentially extend to attacks, theft and virtual sabotage that could be seen as cyberwarfare – or mistaken for it. Hacktivists use their knowledge and software tools to gain unauthorized access to computer systems they seek to manipulate or damage not for material gain or to cause widespread destruction, but to draw attention to their cause through well-publicized disruptions of select targets. Anonymous and other hacktivist groups are often portrayed in

9100-450: The term is frequently attributed to the Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc) member "Omega," who used it in a 1996 e-mail to the group. Due to the variety of meanings of its root words, the definition of hacktivism is nebulous and there exists significant disagreement over the kinds of activities and purposes it encompasses. Some definitions include acts of cyberterrorism while others simply reaffirm

9200-427: The use of cyber operations and combine capabilities, the likelihood of physical confrontation and violence playing out as a result of, or part of, a cyber operation is increased. However, meeting the scale and protracted nature of war is unlikely, thus ambiguity remains. The first instance of kinetic military action used in response to a cyber-attack resulting in the loss of human life was observed on 5 May 2019, when

9300-573: The use of technological hacking to effect social change. Self-proclaimed "hacktivists" often work anonymously, sometimes operating in groups while other times operating as a lone wolf with several cyber-personas all corresponding to one activist within the cyberactivism umbrella that has been gaining public interest and power in pop-culture. Hacktivists generally operate under apolitical ideals and express uninhibited ideas or abuse without being scrutinized by society while representing or defending themselves publicly under an anonymous identity giving them

9400-478: The web as a form of arms proliferation. This allows lesser hackers to become more proficient in creating the large scale attacks that once only a small handful were skillful enough to manage. In addition, thriving black markets for these kinds of cyber weapons are buying and selling these cyber capabilities to the highest bidder without regard for consequences. In computing, a denial-of-service attack ( DoS attack) or distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS attack)

9500-494: The website at hand. LulzSec while not as strongly political as those typical of WikiLeaks or Anonymous, they shared similar sentiments for the freedom of information. One of their distinctly politically driven attacks involved targeting the Arizona State Police in response to new immigration laws. The group's first attack that garnered significant government attention was in 2011, when they collectively took down

9600-556: Was wargamed on the cabinet level by former administration officials, raised issues ranging from the National Guard to the power grid to the limits of statutory authority. The distributed nature of internet based attacks means that it is difficult to determine motivation and attacking party, meaning that it is unclear when a specific act should be considered an act of war. Examples of cyberwarfare driven by political motivations can be found worldwide. In 2008, Russia began

9700-500: Was calling for a Day of Rage protests in retaliation for the shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, which would entail violent protests and riots. This rumor was based on a video that was not posted with the official Anonymous YouTube account. None of the Twitter accounts associated with Anonymous had tweeted anything in relation to a Day of Rage, and the rumors were identical to past rumors that had circulated in 2014 following

9800-402: Was first coined in 1984 by American musician Donald Joyce of the band Negativland . However, some speculation remains as to when the practice of culture jamming first began. Social researcher Vince Carducci believes culture jamming can be traced back to the 1950s with European social activist group Situationist International . Author and cultural critic Mark Dery believes medieval carnival

9900-572: Was in 2021, and its most recent publication of original documents was in 2019. Beginning in November 2022, many of the documents on the organisation's website could not be accessed. WikiLeaks has released document caches and media that exposed serious violations of human rights and civil liberties by various governments. It released footage, which it titled Collateral Murder , of the 12   July 2007 Baghdad airstrike , in which Iraqi Reuters journalists and several civilians were killed by

10000-521: Was observed in August 2019 when it was revealed North Korea had generated $ 2 billion to fund its weapons program, avoiding the blanket of sanctions levied by the United States , United Nations and the European Union . Computer hacking represents a modern threat in ongoing global conflicts and industrial espionage and as such is presumed to widely occur. It is typical that this type of crime

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