Policy Making: What’s All About?BySydney Butler-July 30 2019.185 While entire books have been written on the topic, I would like to summarize some thoughts on hacking politics and help people who do not have the time to look more deeply into the subject in order to better understand those dynamics.
The misuse of “Hacker”
.186.186 This word has not been given much consideration by the larger society. So when I’m thinking about “hackers” here it means hackers and crackers alike. In any case, the ethical continuum of hacking is better understood. We’ve come up with different “hats” that hackers wear over the time. That explains how they hack, and sometimes why.
Hacker Ethics
Hackers do not serve a uniform community. In the community of jargon-insider hackers into three large categories. Black Hat Hackers use their computer technology know-how to enrich themselves. These are the people who are stealing data for sale. They write crash systems for malware, and take money to do damage. White Hat Hackers use their skills to deter cybercrime from discovering flaws in the network, so that they can be patched and are the good guys in general. Hackers with grey hats are more common. Usually these guys report when they find vulnerabilities in systems that are looking for a reward. The problem is they are not requesting permission to go exploring. If the company in question rejects them, they could go ahead and publicly reveal bugs they discover. And while they can do harm they don’t appear to be actively malicious. Obviously real people aren’t classified that easily. And applying certain definitions to the specific activities is more sensible. For example, writeing malware is clearly a black hat operation. Unwanted penetration-testing is in the domain of the grey hat. Clearly, a given hacker may wear any hat at any time, although some may find themselves to be specifically one of these categories. The
.188.188 Anarchist Myth So all hackers share similar policies? Obviously the answer should be no but there is a stigma attached to the group of hackers that sees them as forms of left-leaning anarchies. Groups like AnonymousAntifa. In fact there may be just a few things all hackers have in common when it comes to personal political beliefs. Any hacker in question could be on the middle left or right of the political spectrum. Hacking at the grassroots is almost exclusively anti-authoritarian. Which could in certain ways skew the whole political spectrum of the hacker universe. After all, you will have a hard time being a hacker of any stripe if you have a respect for authority and rules. In one way or another hackers try to learn about the gaining power in the world and then change it somehow. This is something known as hacktivism, the most explicit form.Hacktivism may already be past its golden age, but since 2015 it has fallen by a staggering 95%. Still one can expect the right type of threat to bring the hacker community again together.
Academic Government Hackers and the Modern Cyber Politics
The greatest shake-up in cyber politics has come in the form of actual politicians engaging in hacking. When computer systems became globally relevant governments would inevitably start engaging in warlike acts on digital systems. Malware such as Stuxnet could in reality physically damage equipment and facilities. Crippling financial and institutional military systems can be as destructive as war or chemical weapons.
Hacking Politics: More complex than ever
As the world moves toward one where cyber warfare is just as important as politics becomes much more complicated in a more regular way. New technologies such as deep-fake videos and intelligent apps that can function in much more sophisticated ways add to the hacker arsenal a new generation of instruments. It is a pretty dark planet already. With a vocabulary of its own. I have world-views and practices that may be peculiar to it. Yet breaching computer systems will become a method of regular attack and defence. It remains to be seen how this plays into political causes and goals.