DailyPost 83
HACKTIVISTS
To my repeated questions in my lectures on Cyber Security as to who is at the centre of the digital world , the answer is Hacker with an astounding regularity. This speaks of the psyche we are in. Hacktivism got added to this phraseology in recent years as the act of hacking for politically or socially motivated purposes. Hacktivists indulge in this type hacking. Hacking started with curiosity, then to crime of all types, national security and with method and practice of hacktivism added to this genre, hacking today represents the complete gamut of criminal activities of the physical world. Cyber is the world.
The impact of hacktivism has been earth shattering mainly to the governments the world over. The breach of NSA databases has been a watershed in the short but epoch making history of this trade, in which Edward Snowden has been the prima donna. He single handedly led to one of its kind embarrassment to the US government. The government duplicity to privacy and confidentiality will never be the same again.
From Julian Assange to Bradley Manning and with groups like Anonymous; potent as it is, demonstrated again and again, are writing a new history of political and social activism. The technical wizardry which they possess is the ultimate tool. Political duplicity is at its core. The world still is groping in the dark for find a fitting response to this challenge.
The technological precision, the social re-engineering, the timing, the capability to maintain ultimate secrecy and the selection of collaborators, as seen in the case of Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, can put the best government strategists to shame. The perseverance they possess is the real killing. The concept of all information in the public domain and their concept of justice, unconnected to laws and rules of the nation is their ultimate selling point.
HENCEFORTH ALL GOVT. STRATEGIES NEED TO FACTOR IN FORCED FREE INFORMATION REGIME.
Sanjay Sahay