hacktivism

com 327april 18 2013

schedule1.LAST QUIZ!!

2.Discussion: - Favorites / least favorites

3.Mini-lecture: - Hackers & the public good

4.Discussion/group work

Qu. 1

1. “Protections for _________ speech are vital to democratic discourse.”(Coleman, p. 513) a) anonymousb) freec) digitizedd) Socratic

Qu. 2

Coleman discusses the different but overlapping “politics” of two groups: a) Republicans and Democratsb) goths and emosc) hackers and geeksd) corporations and entrepreneurs

Qu. 3

The 4chan random topics section populated by, as Dibbell says, "gleeful online troublemakers" is called what?

a) /random/b) /b/c) /c/d) /awesome/

Qu. 4

"Roughly 90 percent of all messages on 4chan are posted under the site’s default identity, "______" (Dibbell).

a) mootb) LOLcatc) User1d) Anonymous

Qu. 5The first postulate from the Anonymous Manifesto, “A society must be allowed to share information unrestricted and uncensored if it  is to maintain cultural and technological evolution and uphold the rights and liberties of its citizens,” is taken from what source? a) Magna Cartab) UN Universal Declaration of Human Rightsc) US Constitutiond) Urban Dictionary

327: A Retrospective

Hacking & the public good

• Mainstream visions of hacking (1980s – present)

• What does Anonymous DO?

• What is “political” about hacking?

Steven Levy (1984)Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution

1970’s: Model Railroad club at MIT broke into “the” computer room (massive IBM)

“Hack”:“a project undertaken or a product built to fulfill some constructive goal, but also with some wild pleasure taken in mere involvement.” (Levy, p. 9)

what does this early definition of “hacking” remind you of?

Values: collaboration, individualism, meritocracy

Origins of hacking

Depictions of hackers in pop culture

• who are they? (age, gender, ethnicity)

• what’s most important to them?

• are they aware of the consequences of their actions?

WarGames (1983)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAcEzhQ7oqA

WarGames and moral panic

Computer Fraud and Abuse Act:50 years in prison for Aaron Swartz

“As soon as it was released in June 1983, the movie, starring Matthew Broderick as a teenage hacker who broke into NORAD's mainframe and nearly ignited World War III, electrified Capitol Hill and kicked off an anti-hacker panic...

the original purpose of the CFAA: to lock up, for a very long time, extremely destructive hackers who might try to disrupt the banking system or tunnel into the U.S. military's classified mainframes”

“From 'WarGames' to Aaron Swartz: How U.S. anti-hacking law went astray”D. McCullagh, CNET.com, March 13 2013

The Net (1995)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46qKHq7REI4

Swordfish (2001)

http://www.criticalcommons.org/Members/ccManager/clips/swordfishtechno3dhackingdrama.mp4

The Social Network (2010)

http://www.criticalcommons.org/Members/ccManager/clips/socialnetworkhackinghiring.mp4

http://www.theonion.com/articles/fasttalking-computer-hacker-just-has-to-break-thro,32000/

1. Writing & distributing software for free

2. Making infrastructures that allow sensitive information to be disclosed without compromising the individual

3. Setting up web forums & servers to automatically delete logs

What makes each of these activities “political?”

“[some] geeks and hackers have no desire to act politically, even going so far as to disavow politics, but the technology they make and configure embodies values, and thus acts politically” (Coleman, 511)

What does Anonymous do?

Groups of 5:

Choose 1 story & describe briefly what happened/when

Was this against an organization? individual? institution?

Describe the rationale.

Did this serve a “public good” or not?

https://docs.google.com/a/ncsu.edu/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmP_FQLV5u1kdFoyWUEzVHZ3V0d1X1lYNEY1NUV0NFE#gid=0

Sarah Palin email (September 2008)No Cussing Club (January 2009) Visa/Mastercard/Paypal (2010)HBGary Federal (February 2011)Sony Online (March/April 2011)