Hacktivism: Securing the National Infrastructure
Mark Milone · 2017
The foundations of modern society—communications, power, transportation, banking, water supply, and public institutions—depend on interconnected computer systems to operate properly. Hostile groups threaten this "National Infrastructure" by exploiting the strengths and weaknesses intrinsic in its architecture. Activists who utilize networked forms of organization, doctrine, and strategy to protect civil liberties and spread democratic values in cyberspace present an invaluable resource in securing these systems. These "hacktivists," however, must be provided with the appropriate incentives and protections to encourage coordination with government actors. Many have studied the potential effect that attacks on critical systems pose to national security. Netwar&s;s organization differs from previous conflicts in that it is "networked". Like netwar, the unifying element of the new activist is the use of networked forms of coordination, policy, and technology. When such activism manifests itself in the form of surreptitious computer access or the dissemination of potentially disruptive and/or subversive software, it is called "hacktivism".