<nettime> Hacktivism: A Week of Electronic Disruption

[Ricardo Dominguez <rdom@thing.net>]

[Update on one of the multi_layered e-actions during the RNC. While we were all
over NYC doing actions on the streets...the old hacktivist krews were tapping
on the URLs of Bush and his gang (Oh and tapping into the RNC credit cards) -
enjoy. -r]


- Original Message ----------------------------
   Subject: Hacktivism: A Week of Electronic Disruption during the Republican
     National Convention From:    "Aaa Sadff" <rainbowskies@truthmail.com>
   Date:    Sun, September 5, 2004 2:52 am
   To:      rainbowskies@truthmail.com
   --------------------------------------------------------------------------



   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

   Hacktivism: A Week of Electronic Disruption during the Republican National
   Convention

   Hacktivists have launched a campaign of electronic civil disobedience to
   coincide with the demonstrations against the  Republican National
   Convention. Joining millions of protesters who took to the streets of New
   York to say no to the Bush  agenda, hacktivists have taken to the net to
   explore a new medium of protest: the internet. Various tactics include
   staging  financial disruption against major credit card corporations,
   disrupting various right-wing fascist groups, and an electronic sit- in
   against Republican websites.

   Credit card numbers stolen from major news corporations have been used by
   anti-RNC hacktivists to make $2600 in  donations to various humantarian
   and civil rights organizations. In a statement posted to the NYC
   Independent Media Center,  the hacktivists declared "either the credit
   card corporations are going to have to spend tens of thousands of dollars
   in lawyer  and investigation fees to track down and retrieve a mere few
   hundred dollars per account, or these humanitarian  organizations are
   going to get their donations. We’ll have to see whether Corporate America
   is heartless enough to take  money away from hungry children, AIDS victims
   and the homeless and give it straight to law enforcement, attorneys and
   the  banks". The hacktivists have claimed that they have hundreds of
   additional credit card numbers spread out over an  underground network of
   hackers and will continue to make $2600 in donations a month until all
   military troops are pulled out  of Iraq.

   A right-wing fascist organization known as ProtestWarrior was also hacked
   and defaced a week before the convention began.  In a statement condemning
   the group's defense of the occupation of Iraq and support for the Bush
   agenda, the hacktivists  spoke, "by infiltrating and crashing legal,
   peaceful assemblies, the ProtestWarriors are fighting against the
   democratic process  while claiming to uphold the 'core values of this
   country'". The cell/home phone numbers, names, addresses, and passwords
   of the site's lead organizers along with the email addresses of all
   ProtestWarrior members were posted to the site and emailed  out to every
   member. Major components of their website remained down for the remainder
   of the day.

   The hacktivists have also staged a mainstream electronic sit-in on various
   Republican websites during the convention. In a  document sent to
   thousands of hackers, activists, press people and email lists, the group
   provided the means to disrupt  Republican webservers, email accounts,
   phone and fax systems. These actions were joined by the Electronic
   Disturbance  Theatre, who have launched similar successful actions against
   the World Economic Forum, the Mexican Surpeme Court, and  more. The flood
   scripts allowed users to combine their bandwidth to overload RNC servers
   with so much traffic that it would  be unable to serve any more requests.
   Although the RNC websites remained online for the majority of the
   convention, many  users along with web monitoring company AlertSite have
   reported periods of slowdown and complete disruption on  September 2nd as
   George W. Bush was nominated as the presidential candidate for the
   Republican Party.

   Hacktivists are defending the attacks on right-wing and corporate systems
   as a legitimate protest tactic. "When the machinery  of law is working
   towards acts of injustice, then the people have not only the right but the
   duty to break the law to combat  tyranny and oppression". Following in the
   footsteps of Henry David Thoreau, Thomas Jefferson and other famous
   revolutionaries, these hacktivists are exploring the internet as a new
   medium of civil disobedience. "Electronic civil  disobedience does not
   cause any physical damage to people or property: it is merely the shifting
   of data around in such a  manner as to mock or disrupt the injustices of
   the corporate machine".

   Through the redistribution of wealth to charities, disruption of
   right-wing fascist groups, and flooding Republican websites  and
   communication systems, this sort of non-violent electronic civil
   disobedience is setting new standards for online  protests.

   ** distribute widely **


   The campaign website and all email addresses have been knocked offline,
   but it will not erase the memories of what has  happened.

   For press inquiries, email all of the following addresses(:

   rdom@thing.net
   rainbowskies@wowmail.com
   rainbowskies@truthmail.com
   crimethinc@bhcnetworks.com

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