Target?

[Bronc Buster <bronc@2600.com>]

[: hacktivism :]


I am happy to see such lively people on this list, and glad to see such 
meaningful threads being talked about. Ok, now on with my post.


People have been talking about diffrent ways hacktivism is related to
activism and online disobidence<sp>. I liked the post earlier about the
fact that the flood net was going to fill the logs of their targets server
with the names of people, but the fact that no one would ever see those
names because the simple fact no one sees those logs but the server
admins. They most likely won't even look, just delete them and keep on
going. 

Federal laws say (condenced) that a Denial of Service attack, using
US phone lines are illegal. It doesn't mention DoS'ing a target outside
the US, or anywhere for that matter, just that the act of doing it inside
the US is illegal. I think it is dangerous posting to a public list
telling the world when, how, why and who, regarding a crime.

That said, whats has the target has activism always been? To fight for
some cause, or change something? Well sort of. The main reason people
gather in places, or put up signs, or march or anything else is so other
people would take notice. If enough people take notice, maybe then the
wheels of change will start turning. This is why I had a problem with that
flood net. No one will 'see' it, or take notice. If the average person
decided to visit that site during the flood net, they would most likely
not get there, or it would be very slow. What message would this convay to
them that the flood net hoped to deliver? Maybe a few people who knew what
was going on would know, but that's about it. 

I think hacktivism should be about delivering a message, just like good
old grass roots activism. It shouldn't be about doing damage to someone
else network, or taking away their right to express their views. We just
want to make a fuss so people will pay attention to what the message is we
wish to deliver. Sometimes laws must be bent, or sometimes broken to
deliver it, but I feel as long as the message  gets out, and no major
harm, or damage is done to your target (besides brused egos maybe or a pie
in the face), then the goal was reached. Hacktivism should be like a
revamped version of activism, adjusted for online and this new digital
era.

Think of the internet as reverse TV, where you do not send your message
out to millions of TVs, but having one TV where everyone comes to see one
show. Think of how you can change the message on that one TV, or how you
can distract people attention away from that one TV. Simply 'turning off'
that TV (with DoS attacks) won't have any effect, because there are a
million other TVs they can go look at, and they will.

Ok, my rambleing is over. It was alate night and I am sure when I get this
post and read it, I am going to kick myself in the butt, but here it is.

regards,
   Bronc Buster
  bronc@2600.com




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