#3. Hacktivism and leaks

Stealing money – either by directly accessing bank accounts or by stealing confidential data – is not the only motive behind security breaches.  They can also be launched as a form of political or social protest, or to undermine the reputation of the company being targeted. One of the weapons of choice for those who have an ax to grind is the DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack.

Hacktivist activities included attack on the U.S. Department of Justice, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and the web sites of various governments – including Poland, Greece, Singapore, Indonesia and Australia. Those who are part of the ‘Syrian Electronic Army’ claimed responsibility for hacking the Twitter account of Associated Press and sending a false tweet reporting explosions at the White House. It’s clear that our dependence on technology, together with the huge processing power built into today’s computers, means that we’re potentially vulnerable to attack by groups of people with diverse motives. So it’s unlikely that we’ll see an end to the activities of hacktivists or anyone else choosing to launch attacks on organizations of all kinds.

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