Many of us vaguely remember the word hacktivism from a decade ago.
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The activities of Anonymous would eventually lead major cybersecurity companies to characterize 2011 as the year of the hacktivist.
Soon, hacktivist groups were springing up across the world.
For instance, Anonymous took down dozens of theEgyptian governments websitesin 2012 during the Arab Spring protests.
Swartzdied by suicidein the lead up to his trial, bringing US cybercrime laws and theiraggressive enforcementinto question.
Nevertheless, cybercrime laws have onlyintensifiedin the years since, forcing hacktivists into a retreat.
Theyve used website defacements, often called internet graffiti, to scrawl political messages on targeted websites.
Hacktivists often call these virtual sit-ins.
But virtual sit-ins also have financial implications for the attacked organisations andsystems.
Hacktivisms revival?
Hacktivism never went away entirely.
Anonymous did in fact reemerge during the summer 2020Black Lives Matterprotests, targeting police forces websites with hacks.
Yet the stage seems set for a third wave of hacktivism.
