Hacktivism Morally Justified Summary

As the world becomes ever more involved within the digital realm, it is important to asses acts that may be morally questionable. Such acts like that of a hacker, Hack, and her unauthorized intrusion into a hospital database done purely for personal pleasure. It is my goal to prove that doing so is morally wrong. The proponent of this act, Mickey Soft, lists it as morally permissible for the following reasons:

The word hacking, usually associated with information technology, is a term used for the development of creative solutions for a problem by someone in a non-professional environment. With the introduction of personal computers and the internet, anyone could create solutions to problems in computer science. This led to the emergence of “hacker culture”, leading to the decentralization of computer industry (Hicks, 2014).

Ex: Hacking is a digital crime, whether it be for status quo, pleasure or criminal intent, all aspects of hacking is considered a digital crime. Most hackers, hack for status quo or pleasure, and feel as if they are not committing a crime as no harm is done. While some computer and of digital communication intrusion is caught, there are much that goes un-noticed, and unpunished. Leaving Hackers in the mindset that their criminal acts are acceptable and correct, as their needs are satisfied, and their criminal acts go unpunished.

There are many civil disobedient that have shown impatience with the process of democracy. The Bill of Rights provides many opportunities for demonstrations to stimulate sentiment, to dramatize issues, and to cause change. These rights are subject to limitations of time and place so as to secure the rights of others. Also, the demonstrations must not be disguised as a right because it defeats its purpose. As the civil disobedient violates a law, and voluntarily submits to its sanctions, he breaches the law but not the peace. To indulge civil disobedience is to bring on anarchy, and the permissive arbitrariness of anarchy is less tolerable than the repressive arbitrariness of tyranny. Too often the license of liberty is followed by the loss of liberty. The disobedient act of conscience doesn’t enhance democracy; it gradually destroys democracy. The non-violent acts of disobedience will give rise to more civil riot. Van Dusen said, even the noblest act of civil disobedience assaults the rule of law. Although limited to method, motive and objective, it has the effect of inducing others to engage in different forms of law breaking characterized by methods unsanctioned and condemned by classic theories of law violation. Once the civil disobedient disobeys one law, he repeatedly subverts all

Brilliantly put by what many deem to be America’s greatest president of all time, Abraham Lincoln, “Let every man remember that to violate the law is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the charter of his own and his children’s liberty.” Civil disobedience is defined as the refusal to comply with certain laws as a form of political protest. Although many may argue that this is the sole way to keep the government in check and to make minorities heard, rational people will realize that it is not this disrespect of the law that proves the democracy of our nation.

In Himma’s terms, “hacktivism will be understood as involving unauthorized digital intrusions for the purpose of protesting some injustice or advancing some political agenda.” (Himma 14) An unauthorized digital intrusion is the manipulation of computers and networks belonging to someone else who in turn has their property rights violated. (Himma 1) Himma argues hacktivism is morally impermissible if and only if it harms innocent people or if the hacktivist stays anonymous in relation to the act, through three premises in Hacking as Politically Motivated Digital Civil Disobedience: Is Hacktivism Morally Justified? In this paper I am going to explore Himma’s argument and object to his premise that the amount of harm that is produced by an act of hacktivism depends on the moral nature of the attack and the moral standing of the victims.

The film Killswitch was about the government trying to monopolize and control user traffic on the internet. Whether it is for security purposes or financial gain, our system of democracy is being compromised at a technological level. Several speakers including Tim Wu, expressed how “hacktivism” was a revolutionary tool used to take a stand against government interference.

18. Instead of being motivated by a desire to prove their art, hackers today are motivated by ____ and political ends.

By the lawmakers and law followers of society, civil disobedience is to spit upon their words and then ignore them, in favor of upholding their own virtues. However, it is not just laws, but even unfair, undocumented processes that are not labeled for also undisclosed reasons. Civil disobedience does not simply take the form of silent action, such as sit-downs and area occupation, or even protests, but can be acts of exposure that are tirades against the government and display to the people the laws they abide under or the surreptitious acts of authority, and is positive in showing hidden injustices. In recent, modern day news, Edward Snowden, a name that goes down in both infamy and legend in the United States, has currently spoken on Russian

Civil disobedience, the deliberate breaking of laws, is one of those struggles that free society needs. When society has fallen ill to corruption, to immoral legislation, to injustice, it is the duty of the citizens to stand up and speak (or scream,

At this very moment, millions of Americans are engaging in peaceful resistance to the new Trump administration. Many more have turned to violent displays of opposition. In such a divisive time it is clear that we must all defend each other’s right to civil disobedience. William A. Haviland, author of "The Essence of Anthropology," defines civil disobedience as “the refusal to obey civil laws in an effort to induce change.” This resistance to laws is a necessary part of any true democracy. Henry David Thoreau defends this idea when he says, “If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.” As one of the first and most acclaimed advocates of civil disobedience, Henry David Thoreau hit the nail on the head. If government is behaving in an oppressive manor, then it is not only the right, but it is the duty of her citizens to oppose what is unjust. Thus, peaceful resistance to

The ethical issues surrounding hacking, stem from several sources mainly dealing with order and control, and information ownership. What is difficult to decipher from all the media hoopla surrounding the terms, "hacker" and "hacking" is both the simultaneous sensationalism and the condemnation of said activities. Of course just recently, even a movie was made and was appropriately called Hackers. The term and all that it implies has truly entered our popular consciousness when Hollywood has made a box office movie on it. As the advancement of computer technologies and systems of information become increasingly more and more complex in today's fast paced modern world and said technologies become an integral

Hacking is the process of gaining unauthorized access to information through various means like systems or computers. In the context of computer security, a hacker is that person who looks for weakness in a system so that they can gain access to unauthorized information. They are motivated by various reasons like protest, profits or evaluating the entire system weaknesses.

Almost 90 percent of our society now depends on complex computer based system. With the increasingly use of computer and explosive growth of the Internet has brought many good things: electronic commerce, online banking, e-mail, video conferencing etc. The improvement of systems security to prevent criminal hacker has become an important concern to society. There are many ways to protect those information systems; it seems that the Ethical Hacking is a better way. Therefore, whether to teach or not teach the "Ethical Hacking" as a course in Tertiary education has become an interesting argument. In this article will analysis the ethical, legal, and ethical implications of this issue.

As the world becomes more and more reliant on computers the computer hacking industry is greatly rising. With people such as Kevin Mitnick, who is known as a "computer terrorist" (Kjochaiche 1), computerized information isn't safe any more. Kevin is known as "the most high-profiled computer criminal and responsible for more havoc in the computer world today."(1) He considered this a fun and easy task. He got caught and thrown into prison, but once he got out nothing changed. Kevin stated that as long as the technology is there it just calls to people to break into it. Computer hackers usually start off young, thinking that it is nothing but a little harmless fun. But as they get older, they realize it has turned into