LEARN MORE...

Discussion.edited

Content type

User Generated

Subject

Law

School

American Military University

Type

Homework

Uploaded By

Znqvanovyn099

Pages

Showing Page:

1/3

Discussion

Hello professor and class,

I believe hacktivism is a criminal activity that should be discouraged. The use of computers

and computer networks for political protest predates hacktivism; that is, hacktivism is social

protest and political activism that use hacking techniques and tools (Yar, 2019). Like hacking

conducted by other hackers with no political agenda, hacktivist incursions on the internet fall foul

of increasingly stringent computer crime laws and should thus, be discouraged and even punished

by lengthy sentences and substantial financial penalties. In 2011, Lulzsec and Anonymous

breached a database and published the addresses, passwords, and credit card information of

Stratfor Global Intelligence Service’s high-profile clients (Thompson, 2013). These hackers

claimed that they planned to use credit card information to donate money to charity. In such a case,

simply publishing publicly available information would not have been a criminal charge. However,

hacking into private databases and publicly posting confidential information from hacks like the

credit information spread by Anonymous should be discouraged.

On the other hand, I believe that cyberterrorism is merely a ‘phantom menace’. While the

media and governments repeatedly distribute information about cyberterrorism, there are barely

any actual cyber-attacks that result in injuries and deaths. Even though there have been few

incidents that could potentially result in grave consequences, cyber-threats have not materialized

as a national security threat and should thus, not be treated as a real danger. Even before 9/11,

various exercises identified vulnerabilities in the computer systems of energy sectors and the U.S.

military (Weimann, 2017). Following this incident, the security and terrorism discourse feature

cyberterrorism prominently. However, cyber fears that followed were exaggerated. Cyberterrorism

is certainly an attractive alternative for modern terrorists who value its anonymity, its media

Showing Page:

2/3

appeal, its psychological impact, and the potential to inflict massive damage. It is not uncommon

to have cyberattacks on important parts of the national infrastructure. However, none of the attacks

conducted have inflicted the kind of damage that would materialize it as cyberterrorism.

Cyberterrorism is thus, merely a ‘phantom menace’.

Additionally, I believe that there is a low possibility of curtailing the uses of the internet

by terrorist organizations for information gathering, recruitment, publicity, and financing. The use

of technological barriers to recruitment, gathering, and financing platforms increases the

complexity of curtailing terrorism-related activity by law enforcement personnel and intelligence.

Such restrictions may also be hampered by concerns about free speech. However much the content

may be illegal, the transnational nature of the internet makes it challenging to impose these

restrictions. Not to mention that technology is constantly evolving and terrorists will always find

one way or another to bypass any imposed restrictions. For instance, if strategies such as site

blocking or URL blocking are used as restrictive measures, terrorists could respond by shifting

their IP address to that of another country. Nonetheless, terrorists constantly look for new ways to

perform cyber-attacks. They adapt to their environment, creating workarounds and tools that

exploit existing vulnerabilities and leverage new weaknesses despite any imposed restrictions.

Showing Page:

3/3

Unformatted Attachment Preview

Discussion Hello professor and class, I believe hacktivism is a criminal activity that should be discouraged. The use of computers and computer networks for political protest predates hacktivism; that is, hacktivism is social protest and political activism that use hacking techniques and tools (Yar, 2019). Like hacking conducted by other hackers with no political agenda, hacktivist incursions on the internet fall foul of increasingly stringent computer crime laws and should thus, be discouraged and even punished by lengthy sentences and substantial financial penalties. In 2011, Lulzsec and Anonymous breached a database and published the addresses, passwords, and credit card information of Stratfor Global Intelligence Service’s high-profile clients (Thompson, 2013). These hackers claimed that they planned to use credit card information to donate money to charity. In such a case, simply ...
Purchase document to see full attachment

Tags: Financial penalties Security And Terrorism hacking techniques and tools private databases computer crime laws