HACKTIVISM: AN ANALYSIS OF THE MOTIVE TO DISSEMINATE CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council of Texas State University-San Marcos in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of SCIENCE by Warren V. Held, B.A. San Marcos, TX December 2012 HACKTIVISM: AN ANALYSIS OF THE MOTIVE TO DISSEMINATE CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION Committee Members Approved: ______________________________ Jay D. Jamieson, Chair ______________________________ J. Pete Blair ______________________________ Jeffrey M. Cancino Approved: ____________________________ J. Michael Willoughby Dean of the Graduate College COPYRIGHT by Warren V. Held 2012 FAIR USE AND AUTHOR’S PERMISSION STATEMENT Fair Use This work is protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States (Public Law 94-553, section 107). Consistent with fair use as defined in the Copyright Laws, brief quotations from this material are allowed with proper acknowledgment. Use of this material for financial gain without the author’s express written permission is not allowed. Duplication Permission As the copyright holder of this work I, Warren V. Held, authorize duplication of this work, in whole or in part, for educational or scholarly purposes only. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the family members, friends, professors, and others who have lent support, assistance, and guidance throughout the course of my education. This manuscript was submitted on October 26th, 2012. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................ v LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. ix LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................................x CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................1 II: LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................................10 Expansionists and Instrumentalists ............................................................10 Hackers ......................................................................................................12 Hacktivists..................................................................................................19 Cyber Terrorists .........................................................................................20 Government Profiles ..................................................................................23 III: HISTORY ........................................................................................................28 IV: PROBLEM AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS ...............................................73 V: METHODOLOGY ...........................................................................................76 Stages 1 & 2: Data Sourcing and Transcription – Creating the Basis for Qualitative Analysis .................................................................78 Stage 3: Unitization – Choosing the Unit of Analysis and Dividing the Material into Coding Units ............................................................78 Stage 4: Categorization – Developing a Scheme of Categories Relevant to the Research Problem ...............................................................80 Stage 5: Coding – Assigning Category Codes to Text Units .....................82 VI: ANALYSIS .....................................................................................................83 Stage 1 & 2: Data Sourcing and Transcription ..........................................83 Stage 3: Unitization....................................................................................92 vi Stage 4: Categorization ..............................................................................94 Stage 5: Coding ..........................................................................................97 Analysis of Final Output ..........................................................................100 VII: DISCUSSION ..............................................................................................109 Research Questions ..................................................................................109 Expansionists and Instrumentalists ..........................................................110 Hackers and Hacktivism ..........................................................................112 Cyber Terrorism and Policy Implications ................................................112 VIII: CONCLUSION ...........................................................................................114 APPENDIX ......................................................................................................................117 Appendix A: X Factor Leaked Contestants Database..........................................118 Appendix B: Untitled [Fox Hack]........................................................................119 Appendix C: [LulzSec] Fox.com leakage phase 0/1/2/3 .....................................120 Appendix D: [ATM leak] ~LulzSec ....................................................................122 Appendix E: LulzSec hates Sony too...................................................................124 Appendix F: LulzSec Hack PBS.ORG ................................................................125 Appendix G: Re: "LulzSec Exposed" ..................................................................127 Appendix H: Sownage ........................................................................................128 Appendix I: Fuck FBI Fridayâ„¢ (FFF) ...............................................................130 Appendix J: RE: Unveillance...............................................................................132 Appendix K: Sownage 2 .....................................................................................133 Appendix L: Bethesda Internal Data ....................................................................134 Appendix M: LulzSec versus Bethesda & Senate.gov ........................................136 Appendix N: LulzSec - 1000th tweet statement .................................................138 Appendix O: Operation Anti-Security .................................................................140 Appendix P: LulzSec 2011 census released .........................................................141 Appendix Q: Snitches getting various stitches ....................................................143 Appendix R: Chinga La Migra ............................................................................144 Appendix S: 50 Days of Lulz...............................................................................145 Appendix T: Antisec01 ........................................................................................147 Appendix U: Chinga La Migra II.........................................................................148 Appendix V: Chinga La Migra III .......................................................................150 Appendix W: Turkish Takedown Thursday ........................................................151 Appendix X: Fuck FBI Friday II: IRC Federal ....................................................153 Appendix Y: Military Meltdown Monday: Mangling Booz Allen Hamilton ......154 Appendix Z: A message to PayPal, its customers, and our friends .....................158 Appendix AA: Fuck FBI Friday III: ManTech Mayhem .....................................159 Appendix BB: Shooting Sheriffs Saturday ..........................................................161 Appendix CC: Corrupt Brazil (Satiagraha) .........................................................164 Appendix DD: Fuck FBI Friday IV – Vanguard Defense Industries ..................167 Appendix EE: Texas Takedown Thursday: Chinga La Migra IV .......................169 vii Appendix FF: Fuck FBI Friday V: IACS Cybercrime Investigators Owned ......172 Appendix GG: International Association of Chiefs of Police Owned .................174 Appendix HH: AntiSec teaser 12/26....................................................................178 Appendix II: AntiSec teaser 12/29 (legit) ............................................................181 Appendix JJ: AntiSec teaser 12/29 ......................................................................183 Appendix KK: CSLEA Hacked/Defaced or some rubbish, happy new year ......186 Appendix LL: Puckett & Faraj Lawfirm – Hadidtha ...........................................195 Appendix MM: Boston Police Department Defacement .....................................197 Appendix NN: FTC JACKHAMMERBUTTRAEPD BY ANONYMOUS ANTISEC .....................................................................................198 LITERATURE CITED ....................................................................................................201 viii LIST OF TABLES Table Page Table 1: Intercoder Consistency Comparisons ................................................................. 94 Table 2: Final Category Hierarchy Scheme ...................................................................... 95 Table 3: Example of Assigning Thought Units a Category .............................................. 97 Table 4: Intercoder Consistency-Matrix ........................................................................... 99 Table 5: High and Mid Level Categories Frequencies ..................................................