Hacktivists or Cyberterrorists?: Webactivists as Political Actors
Hacktivists or Cyberterrorists?: Webactivists as Political Actors

Summary/Abstract: As internet began to impact on public consciousness in last years, we can see how political activists are using digital technologies as extremely effective tools. Internet profoundly affected the way how people communicate, now it is much easier to co-ordinate campaigns or to expose governments and corporations to public ridicule. As activists become computerized, we are going to see an increase of hacktivist operations, like virtual sit-ins and blockades, e-mail bombs, computer viruses and worms, web hacks and computer break-ins. Hacktivism combines political activism and hacking techniques. But where is the difference, the border between hacktivism and cyberterrorism? Many people believe, that these tactics could be used to enhance real-world attacks. Is the only difference, that hacktivism operations have not claimed lives or caused much more than nuisance and financial loss? For the abovementioned reasons it is necessary to properly define and describe these two categories. It can help us in the future better understand and epistemologically sort continuously growing numbers of “innovative” on-line activities of different kinds of political activists.

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