Thanks to the movie We Are Legion I obtained an interest in the online organization known as CULT OF THE DEAD COW (cDc). In the movie a member of the cDc was noted as the original coiner of the term “hacktivism.” This sparked my interest because hacktivism is a term that is now frequently heard in every setting, from scholarly works to everyday news, however I’ve never heard of the cDc. I wanted to learn more about the cDc and the establishment of hacktivism in their organization. This desire to learn about cDc led me to their website, http://w3.cultdeadcow.com/cms/.
The cDc’s website is quirky to say the least, it has a lot of backhanded and sarcastic remarks filled with puns typical of many online environments. It appealed greatly to me because I like creative and unorthodox manners in business of which the cDc do very well. On their website there are such side boxes with the titles such as “Memsphere Poopfest” and “Legal Crap.” As I was looking through their website I found out that they were founded in 1984 and produced both “the first internet publication” and freeware based internet privacy and security tools. I also found sub-sections of the cDc that are known as “Hacktivismo” and “Ninja Strike Force.” I went to the sub-section of Hacktivismo because as I said above I wanted to know more of hacktivism in the cDc.
Hacktivismo is the appropriately named sub-section of the cDc associated with hacktivism. On their website they still utilize the same unorthodox approach seen on the the main cDc website with job titles such as “George Foreman Grill Specialist” and “Lederhosen Enthusiast and Charter Member.” According to the Hactivismo website their mission is, “To conduct and publish scientific research in the areas of information technology, communications and electronic media; and, to assist (where possible) non-governmental organizations, …” I believe that this statement portrays a very strong component of what is now known as hacktivism in that they assist exclusively non-govenment organizations. Also on the Hacktivismo website there are links to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), The Hacktivismo Enhanced-Source Software License Agreement (HESSLA) and lastly the Hacktivismo Declaration.
After reading the Hactivismo Declaration it is clear why they have the links to the ICCPR and UDHR, they try to apply these doctrine to the world of the internet. The declaration was written in a very respective manner that clearly and simply outlined the purpose of Hacktivismo. What I found suprising on the Hacktivismo website was the use of legality. In the declaration they boldly and explicitly state, “THAT WE RECOGNIZE THE RIGHT OF GOVERNMENTS TO FORBID THE PUBLICATION OF PROPERLY CATEGORIZED STATE SECRETS, CHILD PORNOGRAPHY, AND MATTERS RELATED TO PERSONAL PRIVACY AND PRIVILEGE, AMONG OTHER ACCEPTED RESTRICTIONS…” This was surprising to me because I’m use to the idea of hacktivism to pertain to DoS or other illegal manners to wreak havoc which is illegal in all situations. This is the first time that I’ve seen hacktivism in a positive light. They are only using their abilities for the betterment of humanity, this is clearly seen in the HESSLA. The HESSLA is the very legal and special software licencsing utilized by Hacktivismo. In a nut shell it limits the use of its freeware to prevent it from being utilized in a manner that would otherwise go against the mission of Hacktivismo. As far as I could gather HESSLA greatly limits the ability of government agencies from utilizing Hacktivismo’s freeware to spy on its users.
The research into hacktivism, the cDc and ultimately Hacktivismo has enlightened me to a new version of hacktivism. I intend to look more into the specific projects and freeware that Hacktivismo has produced. This group seems to be a very forward thinking organization that as stated in their mission statement have fun doing it.