Hacktivism: Passion In History

( 2 Votes ) “It is not the manifest destiny of mankind to rule, but to lead.”

- Attributed to Pontifex Archabus Venn, executed heretic, 553.M39

The Bell Tolls

The hacker is one of the most misunderstood figures of history. On one side of the spectrum, the more commonly heard tainted auspex; we see an image of theft, deceit, and treachery. On the other side of the spectral perception, we see a portrait of enlightenment, virtue, and progress. Where does the antithesis bland the thesis of this paradox? Why are we taught not to question what the majority say is right? What instincts hold humans within the bounds other supposed higher authorities say is sound and just? Perhaps the tragedy in this is not the misunderstanding of the word hacker, but the misuse of its lessons. The bittersweet note of a legacy unrecognized, unvindicated, and unwanted by society. Yet despite all these truths, hackers continually strive for progress, to not be judged as a whole for what the few do, to push humanity past the limits and beyond. The war against mediocrity is not easily won. It is one of attrition and will be determined by the actions of the individual, not the collective. These facts are not only supported by this writer, but also thousands of truest hacker. The purpose of this essay is to help the readers see, understand, and resonate with that. “The view of the air belongs to no one. Those silences and fractious parklands constantly retreat from one another, like ordinary people desperate for privacy (Revell, 18).”

There is much meaning to be derived from the citation above. People are so full of fear and paranoia in this era. They have been ingrained with this mindset to fear what cannot be controlled. They squabble for security and a peace that never sees fruition due to their own superstitions. It is only natural for them to despise the nature of the hacker. What is that nature; it is one of curiosity and possibilities. “There are varying points of view when it comes to theoretically conceptualizing curiosity and exploration. Research findings seem to be dependent on the theoretical orientation of the theorist and the emphasis lies on internal or external stimulus conditions, primary-inborn or secondary-acquired drives, and homeostatic-biogenetic versus nonhomeostatic-psychological motivations (Edelman, Sec.II).”

Of course if we assume that curiosity according to Edelman is a vector dependent on the environment of the entity, and the biological properties within, then we must also be ready to speculate that accepted innovation must play a role in these situations as well. What is accepted innovation? It is merely the open recognition and in some cases exultation of a particular development in cognitive human history. For example we can all agree that the invention of the wheel eventually led to the development of more advanced machinery like the motor vehicle. Like a snowball effect, or even more rudimentary terminology that is conducive for the application of effective communication skills.

Now with that data in mind we can look at the more pressing matter within this mode of reasoning. If the wheel did indeed lead to automobile production then does the word hacker need to define atrocity? Secondly, if humans are naturally curious, why are they spontaneously opposed to an entity that epitomizes such a trait? “History is laughing all the time, shaking the little bridges between itself and the islands of freedom, the remote tribes there talking themselves into a frenzy, forgetting the one history lesson that matters (Revell,38).”

What the author meant by this statement is that our perception of historical record is based on a hand me down account. The trouble with such ways of telling memories is that often people give their own spin upon them. They do not impassively orate or publish the facts. For example an actual victim of the Holocaust would relay their history differently than an educated person researching the matter. The most important lesson of history is not in the presentation of its facets. It exists within the individuals that experienced firsthand the consequences imposed upon them by that history. Similarly, hackers should know, better than anyone else, including the media, government, and public body; just who they are and where they come from.

Mediocrity Holds Sway

We can delve into the story of Kevin Mitnick to prove this accusation many times over. Many people know the ‘fugitive’ Kevin Mitnick or so they think. “A year ago we told stories of Kevin Mitnick and Robert Zinn, two hackers who had been sent to prison. It was then, and still is today, a very disturbing chain of events: mischief makers and explorers imprisoned for playing with the wrong toys and for asking too many questions. We said at the same time it was important for all hackers to stand up to such gross injustices. After all, they couldn’t lock us all up (Goldstein,493).”

Mitnick was captured by authorities on February 15, 1995 in Raleigh, North Carolina. He was made out by the media and authorities to be a part of some elaborate plot to harm the American people. This however was far from the case. Firstly, Kevin did not take away data of essential value. The reality is he just copied thousands of computer files, which was rather easy to do then as is the same case today. Mitnick also made no effort to hide that he did so, even revealing to the organizations himself what was done and needed to be addressed by applying updates to the security networks tested. The only warrant the authorities had on him was for a parole violation; however with the introduction of the media and what appears to be an overzealous police authority, many things were over extrapolated when it came to this hacker. He was simply curious and was made an example of by people who not only water down the standards of human ingenuity, but also those who would see it completely monitored and regulated. They neglected to mention that Mitnick never profited nor planned to profit from the twenty thousand credit card identities copied. He was falsely accused of a number of crimes. Kevin Mitnick due to these circumstances was held for three years without bail or fair trial. Not one person save for those within the hacker community lifted a finger in protest of this injustice. At best he was an annoyance for pointing out flaws in a system which previously had already been ignored.

Furthermore if the information was so valuable then why was it accessible via public record? You are left with three answers. One the accusers did not care about the security of the material in question, of course until someone copied it. Two, there was no real value to the data because it was not secured and also available to the public. Finally is the basic public misunderstanding or if you prefer ‘hysteria’ of what technology can actually achieve. The notion that any piece of technology can be turned into some mass chaos causing device with the snap of a finger is nothing but superstition and sadly a tool of propaganda the authorities used and are still using today.

There is also the matter of the seven hundred fifty thousand dollar book deal, which was signed shortly after his arrest, by the informants of Mitnick’s captors that would draw themselves as heroes. We could expand upon how months earlier Mitnick had refused to do a book with the very same individuals due to their grandiose vision of painting him as a blazing terrorist rebel. Yet that in itself would be overdose.

The perverse manipulation by the government, the exaggeration by the media, and then the greed incorporated to cash in on his misfortune by people Kevin once considered colleagues. What is the crime here? The undeniable fact that Kevin Mitnick was held without bail or fair trial for three years. It certainly cannot be the openness of Mitnick; in which he pointed out the flaws of a system that refused to adapt until it had a scapegoat. Unfortunately we are dealing with a situation that features [Kevin Mitnick vs. The World], and the world won by method of treachery. Mitnick had not physically harmed anyone, he did not profit from the data he acquired, and he committed no crime save for not checking in with his parole retainer. Does parole violation warrant, legally or otherwise; being held for three years without fair trial or bail?

We have gone through the example of Kevin Mitnick with unerring fervor. He is but one example of an entire generation persecuted for warring against mediocrity. Even so, the governmental concerns are not entirely without merit. Conceivably speaking it is not impossible for one person to gain access to records with the purpose of mal-intent. It has been done a number of times with and without the use of technology such as the computer. Persons who do this however have been mistakenly labeled “hacker” by the government, media, and ever gullible public. Real hackers, the individuals that work for progress, call people who perform such acts of malice crackers. “There is another group of people who loudly call themselves hackers, but aren't. These are people (mainly adolescent males) who get a kick out of breaking into computers and phreaking the phone system. Real hackers call these people ‘crackers’ and want nothing to do with them. Real hackers mostly think crackers are lazy, irresponsible, and not very bright, and object that being able to break into a computer security system doesn't make you a hacker any more than being able to hotwire cars makes you an automotive engineer. Unfortunately, many journalists and writers have been fooled into using the word ‘hacker’ to describe crackers; this irritates real hackers to no end (Raymond,Sec.II). What about the other side of this controversy? Let’s examine it thoroughly.

The Rape of Innovation

Vladimir Levin is a name that will forever be championed as a justification for hacker incarceration. In 1994 not long after hackers were brought into the mainstream light, Levin gained access to the bank revenue of several large corporations using their dial-up modems from CitiBank. You would also know this as a 56K modem or a telephone line connection. With three other accomplices he distributed a speculated 10.7 million via wire transfers to accounts in the countries of Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Israel, and the United States. At the time he was reported by the media to be a well versed mathematician with a degree in biochemistry which was later proved to be false.

Since Vladimir was of Russian birth and working under a software company in St. Petersburg as an administrator, the United States could not extradite him. This was due to there being no extradition treaties at the time covering “cyber crimes.” He was intercepted during a period of flight transfer from Moscow to London. Levin was taken into custody by Scotland Yard at Stansted Airport and soon after extradited to the United States September of 1997, following his lawyers failed attempt at appeal to the British House of Lords in June of the same year.

Vladimir was trialed in the United States District Court of Southern New York, where he admitted to only stealing 3.7 million and conspiracy to defraud. The original charges were including but not limited to: conspiracy to defraud, theft, identity fraud, computer fraud, identity theft, and in a more outrageous back lash, espionage. Going off on a slight tangent, at least Vladimir received a fair trial. Ironic that you have to be guilty to receive a trial let alone a plea bargain when it comes to “cyber crimes.” Levin was sentenced to three years in prison, with following probation, and to pay a restitution of 240,015 (USD). His accomplices were also apprehended but strangely records of their trials or subsequent convictions are nowhere to be found. Even more unusual is the lack of interrogation records available even after the statute of limitations expired on such documents for public reference in 2005.

What scrutiny can be applied to this particular scenario? Firstly, the fact the media once again heavily exaggerated the criminal in question. Levin had neither a degree in biochemistry nor was a distinguished mathematician. In fact the only association he had with the computer programming world was with AO Saturn in St. Petersburg. It wasn’t until 2005 that the bare facts were laid out, when his court proceedings were released for public review and the real minds that engineered the method stepped forward to be heard.

In 2005 his case records revealed that he himself had no part in the creation of the data or programs that allowed him to gain access to the corporate accounts of CitiBank. Both case records and actual engineer of the data going under the alias “ArkanoiD” point towards Levin’s simple execution of abilities already created by the original group of hackers. The original engineers of the data that Levin acquired and used penetrated CitiBank’s network and essentially floated around installing games and playing with the system tools. The original progenitors never intended to use this method to steal currency and made it clear they didn’t attempt to as it would jeopardize their own safety. According to “ArkanoiD” and case statements made by Levin, Vladimir himself was just a network administrator for AO Saturn. He didn’t have the technical “know how” to create such an opportunity for himself within CitiBank’s network. Levin basically just came across the data and he allegedly purchased it for the sum of one hundred dollars from an unknown provider. Then, using the acquired asset, executed a basic plan in which he was of course caught. A primitive attempting to use tools he barely understands. With this view in mind we can disprove Levin being a hacker. Furthermore, what of his accomplices? There are too many unknowns about this case. He was essentially labeled a hacker when in fact he was far from one. At best he was a cracker and that’s stretching it, ‘considerably’.

The Iron Cage

What is it that alienates the hacker from conventionality and the norms society niches into itself? What is the proverbial (Spirit of the Information Age) that Pekka Himanen once referred to in the philosophical exploratory work “The Hacker Ethic”. Is this spirit one to be quelled beneath skepticism and the tendencies of convenience? Linus Torvalds, the mind behind the Linux kernel which would later become the operating system LINUX, once wrote: “the computer itself is entertainment.” Likewise it is a short leap to the statement (Pekka) made to reiterate Linus’s: “the hacker programs because he finds programming intrinsically interesting, exciting, and joyous.” This philosophy even holds fast for Eric Steven Raymond, a long time advocate of the open source movement and maintenance guru of the Jargon files, a system of tutorials and projects that keep free software available on the web updated and continually useful. This system also introduces new projects into the World Wide Web, and allows for any programmer to contribute in their development or testing, UNIX. “You need to care. You need to play. You need to be willing to explore (Raymond, Sec.III).”

This state of awareness does not just apply to the digital level. It can also be applied to any science or art as Raymond once motioned in (How To Become A Hacker) The hacking culture itself, essentially is illuminated by a host of examples given by the occupants of the community, which ironically is a form of leadership, a very minute representation of it, and one strictly based on example not influence. It is a way of leading by example not force. To represent this the community provided itself with an anthem of all things, or as close to a unifying tune the ‘hacker’ will have. It has been coined as “The Free Software Song”

Free Software Song (1993)

Artist: Richard Stallman

Join us now and share the software;

You'll be free, hackers, you'll be free.

x2

Hoarders may get piles of money,

That is true, hackers, that is true.

But they cannot help their neighbors;

That's not good, hackers, that's not good.

When we have enough free software

At our call, hackers, at our call,

We'll throw out those dirty licenses

Ever more, hackers, ever more.

Join us now and share the software;

You'll be free, hackers, you'll be free.

x2

Melody of Sadi Moma, a Bulgarian dance tune.

(Dash means previous note continues; there are seven beats per measure.)

D-CB-A- B-CBAG- G--A--B C--B-BD A--A--- CDCB---

D-CB-A- B-CBAG- G--A--B C--B-BD A--A--- A------

What makes it difficult for the hacker to not be an icon of malice? Some have speculated to the early days of the Cold War as one source of biased against hackers. During the tenuous times of that era, government secrecy and policy was at astounding lengths. It was said that the world as we know it could have ended by the push of a button. How are the events of the Cold War relevant to the ‘hacker’ of today? Well if we look at the practices hackers stand by along with the paranoia of the time, is it not so hard to perceive that hacking was viewed and still is looked at by non-hackers, as but another form of communism or socialism. Both ways of thinking create a shared culture and a mentality of no possessions. However there are key aspects which common analysts overlook and require closer scrutiny. “Specifically, hackerdom is what anthropologists call a gift culture. You gain status and reputation in it not by dominating other people, nor by being beautiful, nor by having things other people want, but rather by giving things away. Specifically, by giving away your time, your creativity, and the results of your skill (Raymond,SecIV)”

Considering the above statement, it is very easy to misconstrue the way of hacktivism to the practices of communism and the socialist order the latter employs. Even with Stallman’s Free Software Song, the imagery that hackers are nothing but a form of neo-communist/socialist is grossly effortless to point out. Precisely the case in point, hackers do not operate on a ‘system’ of ‘order.’ Raymond’s and Stallman’s quotes may at first sound like communism or utopianism, but by looking closer at the evidence already presented before the two citations we can see that it is in all actuality, neither. Despite the antiauthoritarian or if you wish to get more specific anti capitalist tone, hackers themselves do not oppose capitalism that much. Hackers interpret hacktivism as a form of free speech, not free merchandise.

The hacker ethic does not oppose making money; it does however vehemently oppose acquiring fortunes by closing off information from others. “Could there be a free market economy in which competition would not be based on controlling information but on other factors, an economy in which competition would be on a different level, and of course not just in software, but other fields too (Pekka,60).” What Pekka meant by this was that hackers play on an entirely different mindset than what the other niches of ecology follow. Ecology as we know it is the existence of various systems for which both most humans and animals abide by. Unfortunately what most of the ecologically illiterate tend to not understand is that it’s a ‘system.’ A system by nature can be altered, manipulated, changed, and even destroyed given enough time. To live within the system is one thing; to live ‘by’ it is a different matter entirely. “It is not really communism: communism involves a centralized authority model, communism is a form of statist economy, and that is alien to hackers. In addition, when the hacker opposes capitalism’s work centeredness, it also opposes the same feature in communism. One must remember that despite their major differences, both capitalism and communism are based historically on the Protestant work ethic (Pekka,61).” The Protestant work ethic itself is what all hackers strive to dismantle, for it is a centralized barrier in the freedom of thought and information. (The iron cage that must be cracked.)

Mea Culpa

What is the Protestant work ethic? One way to look at this social phenomenon is the distinction between the academy and the monastery. Hackers, surprisingly enough, thrive on academia, as pretentious and limiting as it can be. In academia there is (or at least should) always (be) time to question, there is always space for change, and there is always innovation. Within the monastery, you must question within bounds, you may change within ‘dictated reason’, and you can only innovate what the centralized deity deems right. Can we provide a real time example of the protestant model? If we look upon the Christian, Judeo, and Muslim interpretations of existence, all three hold one particular commonality. “Thou shall not question.”

What is it the monasteries, synagogues, and mosques do not doubt? Their centralized authority figure, their deity, a ‘god.’ This is what alienates hackers from the rest of the world essentially. Not god in the literal sense, but the model of a ‘god’ in every facet of society. The god of your job is your boss. The god of your quality of life is money. etc. It is this mindset, of prostrating yourself to something without question that hackers can only naturally despise. For it is in the nature of the hacker to innovate, to question, and to explore. This is the biggest difference between hacktivism and simple cyber punks. Cyber punks are slaves to their own desires; hackers are slaves to no one, not even themselves or the label ‘hacker.’

Secher Nbiw

Perhaps the coherent choice can be made with the definition of a simple word, honor. What is honor to a hacker? Well you need look no further than this citation “Honor, my friends. Your leaders say its name many times, but few of them truly know what it means. Honor comes from pledging yourself to something beyond yourself, and then fulfilling that pledge. Not for glory, not for reward, but for the sake of redeeming your word. Honor comes from conducting yourself with grace and restraint in times of crisis. Honor comes from setting a good example for others. Honor comes from helping those in need. Honor comes from respecting your comrades (Sally, SecVI).” Every last hacker shares this bond with their craft, to the letter. They have the inherent need and knowledge to progressively distribute vast amounts of thinking. Hackers seek to be understood or to be left alone, if this world allows anything of them to survive. Some hackers are good at helping others see, others like this author may have a long way to go before they attain such wisdom.

“We are, always have been, and hopefully always will be, about the freedom of information and satisfying our curiosity. In the fights for freedom and justice that we always seem to be in the midst of, we must never forget who we are and what we stand for. The second we do, we’ve lost the battle (Goldstein,531).” The hacker is not only an individual; the hacker is a state of mind. Hacking itself is the art of expressing that awareness on multiple levels of thought. As Goldstein himself once stated: “Being a hacker is a state of mind and this is what the media could never understand.” This is the reality to the realm of hackerdom and the majority just can’t accept that due to ignorance, indifference, or anger.

What is typed here will most likely have little to no effect on the mass opinion of the hacker. Including the perceptions of whoever reads this. The fact remains though that evidence was presented to the contrary of popular thought and the conceptual accusations of the majority body were refuted with multiplicity. What the hacker truly is was never an opinion to begin with. Hacking itself is based on the most primal of instincts we humans possess, the will to explore and evaluate new frontiers. The trait we all have to innovate and create new ways of thought, no doubt, the same attributes that brought us to our current state of evolution in the first place. The same characteristic that is being watered down by not only our various societal systems, but our very lifestyles. With or without the ‘world’s’ approval, ‘hacker’ will continue to exist, and perhaps someday we can learn that the most important gifts we can give each other are not in empty affections, materialistic gains, and comforting misinformation. The greatest things we can ever give our descendants are examples.

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