Hacktivism: Overview : SBS Insight

Overview

Next on Insight - a rare chance to hear hackers and ‘hacktivists’ talk about what they do and why.

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They're hacking into computers and defacing or crashing websites.

‘LulzSec’ made headlines earlier this year when it claimed to have hacked into Sony accounts, compromising the personal data of thousands of customers. ‘Anonymous’ says it was behind attacks on Australian Government websites during debates over internet censorship.

But little is known about the hackers themselves and what propels them to act.

This week, Jenny Brockie speaks directly with hackers and hacktivists – some of them wearing masks, disguises and using voice distortion devices – to ask them how they choose their targets, and where they draw the line.

Meet the Guests

‘Bobby Tables’

‘Bobby Tables’ is a member of Anonymous – a loose community known for civil disobedience online while staying hidden. Bobby says he joined Anonymous after Visa, MasterCard and PayPal decided to remove their services from WikiLeaks. He says he’s been involved in a number of global operations, including in the Middle East and the United States, under the Anonymous banner.

‘Charrie Wong’

‘Charrie Wong’ says he’s the leader of the Wongz – a group which he says hacks for fun as well as to embarrass governments and expose big corporations. The 15 year old says it’s fun to know that someone his age can hack into protected websites. Charrie says he sometimes joins with other hacktivist groups if their causes appeal to him.

Grant Edwards

Commander Grant Edwards runs the Cybercrime Operations Unit for the Australian Federal Police. Grant joined the AFP in 1985 and supervises investigations into cybercrimes such as hacking and denial of service attacks.

Suelette Dreyfus

Suelette Dreyfus is a journalist, writer and a research fellow at Melbourne University. She’s also the author of Underground: Tales of Hacking, Madness and Obsession on the Electronic Frontier which looks at the underground world of hackers in Australia. WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, helped Suelette research the book.

Jody Melbourne

Jody Melbourne is an IT security specialist and says he is a self-taught, ‘ethical hacker’. He says he spent his teenage years practicing his hacking skills from a computer at home. His illegal hobby landed him a job in an IT security firm. Jody is employed by HackLabs where he specialises in ‘penetration testing’ – breaking into clients’ security systems to warn them of potential security breaches.