Read_Me. . Conference - Grapevine - H2K2-HOPE Hackers on Planet Earth

Afterimage, Sept-Oct, 2002 by Are Flagan

An eme rging term that borrows from its hacker roots is hacktivism. Broadly it covers activities that primarily use the Internet, although technology in any form qualifies, to stage demonstrations. Treating cyberspace as a public arena, activists turned hacktivists seek to engage issues over the network, just like people have assembled and marched in the streets to voice their opinions or misgivings.

In a presentation entitled "digital Demonstrations: DDoS Attack or Cyber Sit-in?," Maximillian Dornseif offered a thoughtful and balanced overview of this kind of action. The benefits of moving protest online, as he presented them, were the increased visibility of the protest to a larger number of people; no need for a physical presence (anyone with the inclination and an Internet connection can take part); increased anonymity for those involved; and a reduced investment with regards to time and money. Although "demonstrators" are not easily counted online, advertising the actions in advance can compensate for th is shortcoming, and consequently attract hungry-for-novelty media attention to these new forms of protest. The agenda is inadvertently reported even if the format feeds the story. Many online demonstrations have already taken place, and Dornseif gave technical beta on how demos have occurred in the past (mainly through service overloads generated by reloading Web sites repeatedly or seeking processing that exhausts the system resources). But he stressed that the future of online protests should take other users into account and avoid denial of service attacks. The point is to make a case, not to damage it. Among the technical scenarios he offered, the prospects of "communicating slowly" seemed the most promising. By communicating with the server one character at a time, the system resources are slowed to a painful crawl. Comparing the plan to one where, for example, office workers "strike" by doing their duties in slow motion, these protests could be explained legally within already existing guidelines and in keeping with more traditional forms of demonstration. Protesters would as a result be less prone to become victims of persecution and prosecution.