Hacktivist culture and dark‑net activities described in a 2022 oversight document

70 CHAPTER EIGHT Hacktavist . “When you gaze long into an abyss the abyss gazes into you”. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche By 2012, the alienated hacktavist battling to unlock the secrets of evil corporations and governments had become a stock hero of popular culture. For example, in the prize-winning Gir/ with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy by Stieg Larsson, which sold 90 million copies, the heroine, a self- educated hacker in her twenties named Lisbeth Salander steals incriminating documents from computers that provides journalist Mikael Blomkvist with scoops that save the progressive magazine he edits from bankruptcy. Her sociopathic behavior, which includes embezzling millions of dollars, extortion, maiming and murder, is accepted by the journalists at the magazine because her hacking exposes crimes and abuses of power. In the realm of non-fiction universe, hacktavists also use their skills to attempt to redress perceived abuses of power, For example in December 2010, the group “Anonymous,” whose members called “Anon” often wear Guy Fawkes masks resembling those worn in the 2006 movie V Js For Vendetta, launched a successful denial of service attack called “Operation Avenge Assange,” It was aimed at paralyzing companies, including PayPal and MasterCard that refused to process donations for Wikileaks because these “anons” believed that these companies were stifling the freedom of the Internet by hindering the money flow to Wikileaks. Since hacktavists often use illicit means to redress their grievances, such denial of service attacks, theft of passwords and hacking into computers, they must conceal their true identities to avoid the retribution of the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. This requires them to operate on the dark side of cyber space which has become known as the dark net. | Fortunately for hacktavists, the dark net is accessible to anyone. It is a place frequented by those that want to avoid laws, regulations and government surveillance. Its denizens include cyber saboteurs, industrial spies, purveyors of illegal contraband, spammers, pranksters, identity thieves, video pirates, bullies, slanderers, drug dealers, child pornographers, money launderers, contract killers, inside traders, anarchists, terrorists, and the intelligence services of many countries. Sue Halpern writing about it in the New York Review of books noted: “My own forays to the dark Net include visits to sites offering counterfeit drivers’ licenses, methamphetamine, a template for a US twenty-dollar bill, files to make a 3D-printed gun, and books describing how to receive illegal goods in the mail without getting caught. There were, too, links to rape and child abuse videos “ To operate effectively on the dark net, a mask of anonymity is often necessary. But it is not easy to completely hide enes tracks in cyber space. The way that the Internet ordinarily works is that whenever an individual sends emails, instant messages, or visits a websites, his or her identity can be referenced by the IP address assigned to him or her by their internet service provider. The problem is that if dark side users’ IP address is discoverable, they obviously cannot remain HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020222