DOCSLIB.ORG

Internet Communication: Heading Down the Tube?

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Internet Communication: Heading Down the Tube? Ross Bender PHIL 308 2009-11-13 Final Revision Internet Communication: Heading down the Tube? The invention of the internet is undeniably something that has affected almost everyone in the United States, let alone the rest of the world. Since the mid-90s, when its use exploded, it has become a place that many people rely on in countless aspects of their lives. They don’t think twice about shopping or paying bills online. However, the internet is used for much more than that. As the name implies, it is essentially a huge network of connected computers. What do people gain from being “plugged in” to this network? One main answer is the ease of communication. The internet has many functions, but the largest ones all revolve around how people interact with each other. People play games, read breaking news stories, and post on forums or blogs about an array of topics. YouTube, arguably the internet’s largest website for watching user-posted videos, understands the role of the internet in communication. YouTube describes itself as a “premier destination to watch and share original videos worldwide through a Web experience” (“Company History”). The more one stops to think about it, the more he or she realizes that the internet truly does revolve around communication. But why does this matter? What does communication through the internet have to do with people and their interaction as a whole? Bender - 2 The fact is that communication on the internet varies in many ways from other types of human collaboration. Almost all interaction with other people online can be done anonymously. Anonymity in itself is certainly not bad, nor is it always a bad thing on the internet. Parents certainly want to make sure their children aren’t giving away too much information about their real identities, but how far does this anonymity extend? To what extent should someone on the internet be able to hide behind a simple username (or less)? Does this concealment affect communication with others online? Let’s look at some examples where anonymity plays a role in how people “network.” When people think of “bad” internet usage, almost everyone can think of a few examples of fraud or identity theft. There are certainly many such cases of illegal activity on the web. People even go as far as committing cyberterrorism. Michael Quinn, in his book Ethics for the information age, defines cyberterrorism as “a politically motivated attack against the information technology resources of a government or its people in order to inflict damage, disrupt services, or generate fear” (Quinn, p.285). An example Quinn uses to illustrate cyberterrorism is the WANK worm that attacked NASA computers in October 1989. WANK, one of the first worms to have a political aim, has been described as a program that “takes advantage of poor password management, modifies .com files, creates a new account, and spreads to other systems” (“CERT Advisory CA-1989-04 WANK Worm On SPAN Network”). As one can see, anonymous criminal activity using the internet is something that has been around for quite some time. Perhaps one of the most well-known cases in which anonymity in communication resulted in something regarded as “bad” is 4chan, a heavily visited, but relatively Bender - 3 unknown imageboard website, that is, a place where users can discuss and post pictures. 4chan does not require users to register before posting either images or comments on images. The site’s idea of anonymity is so popular that from it has formed Anonymous, which Jessica Parral and James Clark of CityOnAHillPress.com describe as “a group of people banded together by the Internet” (Parral and Clark). Anonymous is more than a fixed group of people, however. Parral and Clark continue, “It is more of a blanket term than a monolithic group for members of the Internet culture.” Anonymous is described in even more detail by Chris Landers, a Baltimore City Paper writer: While it is possible to use internet nicknames on 4chan, it is generally frowned upon, so posts listing the author as "Anonymous" are the norm, especially in the site's chaotic "random" forum. Anonymous became the name for the users of the site as a whole—a sort of hive mind of popular opinion (Landers). Why would 4chan and Anonymous be considered bad examples of anonymity? In each case, there is more than meets the eye. 4chan, as mentioned above, is a heavily trafficked site. While there are many different categories on the imageboard, the most popular by far is its “/b/” board, where random images and discussions are posted. Taryn Sauthoff describes /b/ as a place where its 5.3 million users “fill the board with vile material, from pornographic images to incredibly racist and misogynistic comments” (Sauthoff). Sauthoff even goes so far as to label 4chan (in the title of her article) as “The Rude, Raunchy Underbelly of the Bender - 4 Internet.” Nick Douglas, writer for Gawker.com, says that “reading /b/ will melt your brain” (Douglas). What does the history of 4chan’s content have to do with anonymity? It is pretty clear that since users do not have to register, but can simply post any material under any alias or leave the field blank and have it automatically attributed to “Anonymous,” users will easily post a different, cruder type of material than they otherwise would. The founder of the site, known as “moot,” also keeps tight wraps on his real identity. moot, in an interview with TIME Magazine’s Lev Grossman, said, “My personal private life is very separate from my Internet life…there's a firewall in between" (Grossman). Clearly, 4chan’s founder sees the difference in interaction once people are not required to reveal their identity. But 4chan exists only in an online world, right? Does anonymity in communication really make any difference if it’s only in a virtual world? However, the group Anonymous, which sprung from 4chan, has evolved past the internet into the real world. What all has the group been accused of doing? Though it might seem harmless compared to some other pranks, Anonymous is probably most well-known for Project Chanology, the group’s protest against the Church of Scientology. Starting with the Church’s attempt to censor a Tom Cruise interview video, Anonymous has since responded (and continued to do so) in retaliation against it. Parral and Clark say that Anonymous has been responsible for “[bombarding Scientology centers with] threatening phone calls and e-mails, as well as envelopes of a white powdery substance in the mail.” The group has also been involved in multiple protests (in Bender - 5 various cities around the United States) against the Church of Scientology. Michael Sherman, writer for the Leader-Post in Regina, Saskatchewan, speaks of Anonymous “demonstrations at Scientology centres around the world at which protesters donned masks (the Guy Fawkes variety from the movie V for Vendetta)" (Sherman). Why the masks? For the sake of anonymity. This is a perfect demonstration of how not being identified with an action can change a person’s behavior. In this case, it caused people to stand up for their thoughts and act differently than they normally would. John Forrester, who spoke with protestors at a demonstration, writes that “five of six people interviewed refused to give their names, saying they feared retribution from Scientologists” (Forrester). The group Anonymous, though it deals with communication in the physical world, shows how secrecy that starts on the internet can grow to something more. But this privacy in the online world isn’t something that always spirals out of control and results in protests on the streets. Let’s take a look at a few other scenarios of anonymity online, with some of which I have personal experience. The [H]ard|Forum [sic], known simply as “the [H]” to its users, is one of the largest forums on the internet. According to the statistics on its main page, the forum had over 119,000 members as of May 7, 2009 ([H]ard|Forum). What is [H] all about and why is it so popular? The [H] is a computer hardware enthusiast site. With over thirty sub-forums (parts of the forum organized by topic) ranging from “Virtualized Computing” to “General Gaming,” thousands of new posts are submitted daily. What do thousands of people find to post about computers? While some forums keep people Bender - 6 up-to-date on the latest technologies and releases, the vast majority of threads involve people simply asking questions about their computers. These range from broad to very specific, dealing with a certain computer component or an isolated software question, and users answer them. Most of the [H]’s reason for continuous growth and the stability of the community is the fact that many knowledgeable people use the forum, helping out when possible. But what does this have to do with anonymity? [H] does require all users to register before posting any material. However, a username itself doesn’t reveal much. Beyond a person’s “tag” could be a specialist holding an IT job, an IT professor, or—in my case—a high schooler. That’s correct: I used to be a frequent poster on the [H], and still am (to some extent). I would spend multiple hours there daily, answering questions where I knew the answers and asking them when I came across problems to which I couldn’t find a solution. The [H] turned out to be a great learning tool, a place where I could learn not only by asking, but also by teaching.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Marble Hornets, the Slender Man, and the Emergence Of
    DIGITAL FOLKLORE: MARBLE HORNETS, THE SLENDER MAN, AND THE EMERGENCE OF FOLK HORROR IN ONLINE COMMUNITIES by Dana Keller B.A., The University of British Columbia, 2005 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Film Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) December 2013 © Dana Keller, 2013 Abstract In June 2009 a group of forum-goers on the popular culture website, Something Awful, created a monster called the Slender Man. Inhumanly tall, pale, black-clad, and with the power to control minds, the Slender Man references many classic, canonical horror monsters while simultaneously expressing an acute anxiety about the contemporary digital context that birthed him. This anxiety is apparent in the collective legends that have risen around the Slender Man since 2009, but it figures particularly strongly in the Web series Marble Hornets (Troy Wagner and Joseph DeLage June 2009 - ). This thesis examines Marble Hornets as an example of an emerging trend in digital, online cinema that it defines as “folk horror”: a subgenre of horror that is produced by online communities of everyday people— or folk—as opposed to professional crews working within the film industry. Works of folk horror address the questions and anxieties of our current, digital age by reflecting the changing roles and behaviours of the everyday person, who is becoming increasingly involved with the products of popular culture. After providing a context for understanding folk horror, this thesis analyzes Marble Hornets through the lens of folkloric narrative structures such as legends and folktales, and vernacular modes of filmmaking such as cinéma direct and found footage horror.
    [Show full text]
  • Meeting Your Monstrous Self Thesis Proposal
    Vashti Tacoronte University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus College of Arts and Sciences Department of English Meeting your Monstrous Self: Fractured Identity and Duality in the Slender Man Mythos as Seen Through EverymanHYBRID By Vashti Tacoronte Cruz © Thesis Proposal Master of Arts in English Education Vashti Tacoronte Introduction In this hybrid thesis project, I will analyze how the internet figure of Slenderman, created by Eric Knudsen under the alias of Victor surge on the Something Awful forums for a photoshop contest on June 8th 2009, and his portrayal in series like EverymanHYBRID, Marble Hornets, and Tribe Twelve exemplify the fears and anxieties modern society has towards mental illnesses like depression and bipolar disorder, as well as the feelings of loss of control that accompany these disorders. This hybrid thesis will also explore how series like EverymanHYBRID, Marble Hornets, and Tribe Twelve use the character of Slender Man as a metaphor to effectively represent mental illness, the fracture in the Self -produced through meeting the bogeyman figure of Slender Man-, and its consequent creation of duality in the form of a horrific other, because of their reliance on multimodal media that allows them to reach an audience that lives digitally. The analysis of this video series will be guided by the theoretical lens of gender studies and will present Helene Cisoux’s theory of binary opposition as the primary approach to understanding the duality present in these series, with scrupulous emphasis given to the character of Evan in EverymanHYBRID. In addition to this, the analysis will also employ a structuralist theoretical lens, noting the work of important theorists such as Claude-Levi Strauss and Michel Foucault, in order to understand the structures shaping the view of madness in society.
    [Show full text]
  • Beware the Slender Man: Intellectual Property and Internet Folklore Cathay Y
    Florida Law Review Volume 70 | Issue 3 Article 3 Beware the Slender Man: Intellectual Property and Internet Folklore Cathay Y. N. Smith Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/flr Part of the Internet Law Commons Recommended Citation Cathay Y. N. Smith, Beware the Slender Man: Intellectual Property and Internet Folklore, 70 Fla. L. Rev. 601 (). Available at: https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/flr/vol70/iss3/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by UF Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Florida Law Review by an authorized editor of UF Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Smith: Beware the Slender Man: Intellectual Property and Internet Folklo BEWARE THE SLENDER MAN: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND INTERNET FOLKLORE Cathay Y. N. Smith* Abstract Internet folklore is created collaboratively within Internet communities—through memes, blogs, video games, fake news, found footage, creepypastas, art, podcasts, and other digital mediums. The Slender Man mythos is one of the most striking examples of Internet folklore. Slender Man, the tall and faceless monster who preys on children and teenagers, originated on an Internet forum in mid-2009 and quickly went viral, spreading to other forums and platforms online. His creation and development resulted from the collaborative efforts and cultural open-sourcing of many users and online communities; users reused, modified, and shared each other’s Slender Man creations, contributing to his development as a crowdsourced monster. This Article uses Slender Man as a case study to examine the online creation and production of Internet folklore and cultural products and to explore how intellectual property law treats these types of collective creations.
    [Show full text]
  • • Articles • Using the Library of Congress' Web Cultures Web
    PAGE 1 • Articles • Using the Library of Congress' Web Cultures Web Archive: Archiving Digital Expressive Culture and Building Collections TREVOR OWENS, NICOLE SAYLOR, and JESSE A. JOHNSTON U.S. Library of Congress Abstract: The development of the Web brought with it a proliferation of new forms of vernacular culture and folklife. In this context, it is essential for archives focused on collecting, and preserving vernacular culture to archive web content. This essay introduces the American Folklife Center's Web Culture's Web Archive as a case study for how institutions working to ensure long-term access to records of folklife and vernacular culture can make progress in this area. The essay provides context for the development of the archive followed by examples of three research use cases supported by the archives. These include an example of close reading across multiple sites to explore the mythic creature Slender Man, analysis of change over time in trending topics on the homepage of Know Your Meme, and an example of engaging in distant reading of data associated with fifty thousand images archived from the site Memegenerator.net. The essay closes with discussion of the value of further engagement and partnerships between researchers studying vernacular culture online and archivists working to document that culture. The U.S. Congress established the American Folklife Center (AFC) through legislation in 1976 (P.L. 94-201) with the mission to "preserve and present" folklife. The law defined folklife as expressive culture, generally shared among various groups, which may manifest in a "wide range of creative and symbolic forms." This definition signaled a departure from the widely-held view that the United States was a melting pot where different ethnic groups would homogenize as "Americans," and instead celebrated the diversity of traditions and cultural ideas.
    [Show full text]
  • Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: the Story of Anonymous
    hacker, hoaxer, whistleblower, spy hacker, hoaxer, whistleblower, spy the many faces of anonymous Gabriella Coleman London • New York First published by Verso 2014 © Gabriella Coleman 2014 The partial or total reproduction of this publication, in electronic form or otherwise, is consented to for noncommercial purposes, provided that the original copyright notice and this notice are included and the publisher and the source are clearly acknowledged. Any reproduction or use of all or a portion of this publication in exchange for financial consideration of any kind is prohibited without permission in writing from the publisher. The moral rights of the author have been asserted 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Verso UK: 6 Meard Street, London W1F 0EG US: 20 Jay Street, Suite 1010, Brooklyn, NY 11201 www.versobooks.com Verso is the imprint of New Left Books ISBN-13: 978-1-78168-583-9 eISBN-13: 978-1-78168-584-6 (US) eISBN-13: 978-1-78168-689-8 (UK) British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the library of congress Typeset in Sabon by MJ & N Gavan, Truro, Cornwall Printed in the US by Maple Press Printed and bound in the UK by CPI Group Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY I dedicate this book to the legions behind Anonymous— those who have donned the mask in the past, those who still dare to take a stand today, and those who will surely rise again in the future.
    [Show full text]
  • 2. the Root of All Memes
    You Are Here 2. The Root of All Memes Published on: Apr 27, 2020 License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0) You Are Here 2. The Root of All Memes Very little sunlight makes it to the redwood forest floor. Even on clear days, but especially when it’s cloudy, a grayness suffuses. The grayness is dark but also green. It’s veiled but casts no shadow. It’s a quality of light but clings to your skin as a mist. In the grayness, in the greenness, mist melts into branch, and branch into trunk, and trunk into dirt. All pours onto the redwoods’ woven roots, as much above ground as below, tangled and tumbling off the sides of embankments, jutting up from fallen old growth, crisscrossing like veins across the trail. There’s a sense, in the forest, that what happens over there, beyond this tree line or gully, has everything to do with the here where you’re standing. Biologically, it does. Dense networks of fungi and roots link this tree to that tree to another and another with such efficiency, and such robust energetic exchange, that distinguishing one tree from the next becomes mere semantics. They are, in every way that matters, the same tree. What happens right here is what happens over there. Connection to the point of unity. The internet as we know it is designed to enable precisely the intertwine seen in the redwoods. Information seeping from here to there with ambient ease is the point; content flowing from amateurs to professionals then back again is the point; expression spanning the globe in previously unimaginable ways is the point.
    [Show full text]
  • Crisis Memes: the Importance of Templatability to Internet Culture and Freedom of Expression
    AJPC 2 (2) pp. 253–271 Intellect Limited 2013 Australasian Journal of Popular Culture Volume 2 Number 2 © 2013 Intellect Ltd Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/ajpc.2.2.253_1 sean rintel The University of Queensland Crisis memes: the importance of templatability to internet culture and freedom of expression abstraCt Keywords Crisis memes are the ghoulish and satirical posts that spread through social media crisis concurrently with serious journalistic reportage. They are folk productions that memes respond to challenging events based on thematic and structural templates of popu- image macro lar online image macros. This article explores how templatability is relevant to the templatability underpinnings, development, structure and value of crisis memes. The combination Internet culture of frivolity and ghoulishness that is typical of crisis memes may be criticized for social media not being reasoned discourse, reinforcing cultural divides and making use of copy- visual communication righted content without permission and in ways that the copyright holder may not freedom of expression wish. However, the value of crisis memes lies not in their content but rather their place as a public voice that sidesteps the constraints of traditional media and as an illustration of freedom of expression that may be threatened by increasingly restrictive copyright regimes. 253 AJPC_2.2_Rintel_253-271.indd 253 10/18/12 7:13:14 PM Sean Rintel introduCtion When natural disasters, political feuds, terrorist attacks and other crises arise, ghoulishly humorous posts created by users spread concurrently with seri- ous professional reportage. By the day after the Mail Online (9 August 2011) published a mobile phone picture of a hooded man defiantly displaying a bag of looted basmati rice, the image spread from Facebook (EgonAllanon, 2011) to Reddit (okanagandude 2011) accompanied by the text ‘I don’t always loot/but when I do, its cuz I need some basmati rice’ (Figure 1).
    [Show full text]
  • Durham E-Theses
    Durham E-Theses The Slender Man Mythos: a structuralist analysis of an online mythology ASIMOS, VIVIAN,MARIE How to cite: ASIMOS, VIVIAN,MARIE (2019) The Slender Man Mythos: a structuralist analysis of an online mythology, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/12962/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 The Slender Man Mythos: a structuralist analysis of an online mythology Vivian Asimos Durham University For PhD Department Theology and Religion 2018 Asimos | ii Table of Contents Table of Figures ..................................................................................................................................... vi Table of Diagrams and Tables .............................................................................................................. vii Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • The Oxygen of Amplification Better Practices for Reporting on Extremists, Antagonists, and Manipulators Online
    The Oxygen of Amplification Better Practices for Reporting on Extremists, Antagonists, and Manipulators Online By Whitney Phillips PART 1 In Their Own Words Trolling, Meme Culture, and Journalists’ Reflections on the 2016 US Presidential Election CONTENTS Introduction ......................................................................................... 3 On Assessing the “Alt-Right” ........................................................... 10 The 4chan Connection ...................................................................... 14 The Troll-Trained Versus Not Troll-Trained Distinction..................... 19 An Inferno of Far-Right Extremism ................................................... 23 On Seeing Wolves, But Not Seeing Trolls ........................................ 26 Internet Literacy and Amplification: A Foreshadowing ................... 31 Acknowledgments .............................................................................. 35 Endnotes................ .............................................................................. 36 Works Cited........... .............................................................................. 40 Author: Whitney Phillips; PhD 2012, English with an emphasis on folklore, University of Oregon This report is funded by Craig Newmark Philanthropies and News Integrity Initiative, with additional programmatic and general support from other Data & Society funders. For more information, please visit https://datasociety.net/about/#funding. Access the full report at http://datasociety.net/output/oxygen-of-amplification/
    [Show full text]
  • FCJ-158 Tits Or GTFO: the Logics of Misogyny on 4Chan's Random
    The Fibreculture Journal issn: 1449-1443 DIGITAL MEDIA + NETWORKS + TRANSDISCIPLINARY CRITIQUE issue 22 2013: Trolls and the Negative Space of the Internet FCJ-158 Tits or GTFO: The logics of misogyny on 4chan’s Random - /b/ Vyshali Manivannan Rutgers University Abstract: The decentralised, anonymous imageboard 4chan is decried for its discursive construction of gender, particularly on its Random - /b/ board. However, /b/’s misogyny demonstrably results from an internal moral panic about cultural exclusivity. New users unbalance 4chan’s anti-normative, anti-celebrity, and anti-leader ethic by posting self-photographs primarily featuring women. These users are strategically targeted and trolled based on their exposed identity aspects. While this practice is untenable offsite, viewing misogynistic discourse as a strategic, regenerative practice onsite is necessary as /b/ occupies an extreme point on the genealogical continuum bridging the transgressive cultures of bulletin-board systems, shock sites, and hacker culture. Introduction: The adoption of ‘cumdumpster’ On June 15, 2008, a 4channer identified as female using the colloquial portmanteau ‘femanon’, posted an erotic photograph of herself on the Random - /b/ board, and requested advice regarding a recent breakup, a marriage proposal, and whether she could easily commit marital infidelity. She asserted that the marriage would be for love but simultaneously 109 FCJ-158 fibreculturejournal.org FCJ-158 Tits or GTFO: The logics of misogyny on 4chan’s Random - /b/ stressed the money and government insurance she would receive by marrying an Air Force man. [1] Six minutes into the thread, moderators began editing the post, transforming the original poster’s (OP) request into an ad hominem self-assassination and banning her for authoring it.
    [Show full text]
  • Organizing the Anonymous Online Community
    Insurgency on the Internet: Organizing the Anonymous Online Community Author: Felipe Gorenstein-Massa Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:104073 This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2013 Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. BOSTON COLLEGE Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts INSURGENCY ON THE INTERNET: ORGANIZING THE ANONYMOUS ONLINE COMMUNITY A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the Doctorate of Philosophy in Organization Studies By: Felipe G. Massa [email protected] Committee in charge: Candace Jones (chair) Michael G. Pratt Siobhán O'Mahony June 2013 Copyright © 2013 Felipe Gorenstein Massa All rights reserved 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ....................................................................................................................... 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................... 5 ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................... 7 KEY WORDS: ................................................................................................................................... 7 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 8 2 THEORY: RE-CASTING COMMUNITY IN A
    [Show full text]
  • Employing Expert Hackers to Combat Cyber Terrorism
    Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law Volume 15 Issue 1 Issue 1 - Fall 2012 Article 6 2012 Hacking for Lulzi: Employing Expert Hackers to Combat Cyber Terrorism Swathi Padmanabhan Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/jetlaw Part of the Computer Law Commons Recommended Citation Swathi Padmanabhan, Hacking for Lulzi: Employing Expert Hackers to Combat Cyber Terrorism, 15 Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law 191 (2020) Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/jetlaw/vol15/iss1/6 This Note is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Vanderbilt Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law by an authorized editor of Scholarship@Vanderbilt Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Hacking for Lulzi: Employing Expert Hackers to Combat Cyber Terrorism ABSTRACT Because hacking collectives Anonymous and LulzSec have routinely breached supposedly secure computer networks-including Visa, MasterCard, and the Central Intelligence Agency-the threat of cyber terrorism has become more prominent. Many US industries and companies depend on online communication and information storage. If terrorists compromise these capabilities, they could cripple the US economy and perhaps even cause widespread fatalities. Members of Anonymous and LulzSec lack the necessary intent to be prosecuted as cyber terrorists because they hack not to cause fear, but rather to create laughter. Their method of posting all necessary instructions and information regarding intended targets on online message boards could, however, serve as a model for terrorists seeking to cause harm. Indeed, the Anonymous and LulzSec model permits an unknown number of hackers to anonymously participate in attacks.
    [Show full text]