Business | Technology
Forget hacktivists, they are nerdorists
If there's ever been a word that the internet security companies of the world need to bury in their backyards and forget ever existed, it's hacktivists.
- By Scott Schuey, Chief Reporter
- Published: 00:00 June 7, 2008
- Image Credit: Gulf News
- Scott Schuey is the chief business reporter for Gulf News.
If there's ever been a word that the internet security companies of the world need to bury in their backyards and forget ever existed, it's hacktivists.
It's been in the headlines a lot recently. Hacktivists are people who hack websites and edit the content to display a social and/or political message.
Apparently, denial of service (DoS) attacks, where websites are knocked off the web because the computers they sit on can't handle a massive surge in artificially created traffic, are apparently not the hacktivist's preferred weapon of choice.
They'd rather get their own word out than block someone else, but this tactic is certainly still an option.
I hate the word hacktivist. It implies a bunch of geeks with an issue and the knowledge to break into a web server are really modern-day Robin Hoods. They're not. They're just people with a grudge who have discovered a really good - and usually illegal - way to tell people about it.
Why don't we call them something that sounds less like a badge of honour? I'm thinking nerdorists (nerd + terrorist)?
Like it or hate it, nerdorism is on the rise, and in the next few months, people are probably going to see more of it.
Justin Doo, the regional managing director for TrendMicro, one of the world's largest internet security companies, agrees.
"From out perspective, this is something that is happening," he said. "This is something we've noticed a marked increase in, and, realistically, we need to raise awareness because right now a great many people think [nerdorism] is almost harmless. But what would happen if it stopped being harmless, and what would happen if it started being malicious?" Nerdorism is my word, by the way, not Doo's.
Target Olympics
A lot of people are expecting things to get malicious this August when the Beijing Olympics kick off. A few months ago, Steve Chang, the CEO of TrendMicro, told me he was expecting something big this year.
Doo said Trend was now looking at something big going down in the next three months. When asked if it was the Olympics, he said, "You've got to think the threat level is going to be high."
High is probably an understatement. Human rights issues. Tibetan monks. Piracy issues. China has a fair number of enemies in both social and business circles.
The Olympics may offer a perfect storm for so-called nerdorists. There will be millions of people logging in to watch the Olympics via the internet, yet the official anti-malware company for the event is a home-grown security company, Jiangmin.
The company is China's largest internet security company, but they are largely unknown outside of their home country.
What could make matters worse is if the cybercriminals of the world, the real hackers who distribute keyloggers and bots, get involved.
People feeling sympathetic to websites that get hacked for political reasons could find themselves actually viewing webpages designed to download malware on to their computers.
That's when nerdorism goes from being "harmless" to a real, bonafide threat to everyone.
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