Hacktivism Ethics
A Practical Ethical Assessment of Hacktivism
Sergio Caltagirone
The University of Idaho scaltagi@acm.org Abstract
Hacktivism is the very recent adaptation of computer hacking by political activists to achieve their goals. It presents society with a new problem because of the current fear of cyber terrorism, and the difficulty of telling them apart. This work attempts to ethically assess hacktivism using the classical consequential and deontological theories as well as to address hacktivist claims of civil disobedience. In the end, the classical theories present may problems while attempting to translate them to the informational and virtual real. A new framework is developed so that it may be possible to tell the difference between ethical and unethical acts of hacktivism so that they are no longer dangerously confused with cyber terrorism.
Introduction
It is very difficult to argue with the statement that ethics and morals are an important facet of our individual person as well as our collective society. Individuals as well as organizations, such as companies and governments, are faced with decisions that require an ethical analysis everyday. Because of the importance and regularity of these decisions, it is not surprising that philosophers have spent millennia attempting to formulate useful and consistent ethical theories.
However, even with the existence of some very successful theories, the theories cannot be static. They must be continually revised and updated (or new ones developed) so that we can act consistent with our morals in new situations. This becomes especially true when rapid changes occur to our environment such as the growth and ubiquity of information technology in the past decades. The technology we now use everyday has created wholly new ethical challenges that must be considered.
Several of these ethical challenges can be addressed using some of the well-developed classical theories, while others require an
Sergio Caltagirone
The University of Idaho scaltagi@acm.org Abstract
Hacktivism is the very recent adaptation of computer hacking by political activists to achieve their goals. It presents society with a new problem because of the current fear of cyber terrorism, and the difficulty of telling them apart. This work attempts to ethically assess hacktivism using the classical consequential and deontological theories as well as to address hacktivist claims of civil disobedience. In the end, the classical theories present may problems while attempting to translate them to the informational and virtual real. A new framework is developed so that it may be possible to tell the difference between ethical and unethical acts of hacktivism so that they are no longer dangerously confused with cyber terrorism.
Introduction
It is very difficult to argue with the statement that ethics and morals are an important facet of our individual person as well as our collective society. Individuals as well as organizations, such as companies and governments, are faced with decisions that require an ethical analysis everyday. Because of the importance and regularity of these decisions, it is not surprising that philosophers have spent millennia attempting to formulate useful and consistent ethical theories.
However, even with the existence of some very successful theories, the theories cannot be static. They must be continually revised and updated (or new ones developed) so that we can act consistent with our morals in new situations. This becomes especially true when rapid changes occur to our environment such as the growth and ubiquity of information technology in the past decades. The technology we now use everyday has created wholly new ethical challenges that must be considered.
Several of these ethical challenges can be addressed using some of the well-developed classical theories, while others require an
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