Hacktivist-Activism is immoral and a criminal injustice even when
done with the thought of helping someone or something. The Definition of
hacktivism is to literally do an act of justice by hacking into or attacking an
account. This is however punishable by law seeing as it is a criminal offense
and breach of one’s fourth amendment rights.
If we take into account the situation of the Ashley Madison
website scandal, it’s an immoral offense. Exposing someone’s private
information even when they are committing infidelity is a breach of privacy to
that person’s account. We also have situations where someone’s account
information is released to the public eye, which can lead to one’s identity
being stolen or impersonated. Identity theft is a result of hacking and
Hacktivist-Activism.
There is currently a hacktivist group that has declared war on the
ISIS terrorist group. They go by the name of Anonymous. They use the Mask of
Guy Fawkes to conceal their identities from the public eye. Their slogan is "We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not
forgive. We do not forget. Expect us" ( USA Today). That slogan is there
to give one fear when this group is at foot. Their actions “frequently include hacking into and disseminating
information that purportedly belongs to people in power, in order to discredit
or embarrass them” (USA Today). That being said, they have recently started
attacking communications in ISIS through media access points. They
have currently taken down over 100 websites, 100,000 Twitter accounts, and
6,000 propaganda videos (refer to graph). Granted what they’re doing is a good
thing, it is still a criminal offense because it is a breach into private
accounts.
Personally Hacktivist-Activism is morally wrong and can cause
multiple legal issues if caught. Even if someone is doing something of
suspicion, it doesn’t mean that their secrets should be revealed and or hacked
illegally.
Picture edited on Pixlr
Works Cited