Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Interview With A Hacktivist

Neon Black | 19.02.2008 19:35 | Free Spaces | Technology | Liverpool

I recently conducted an interview with 'Shai', Liverpool's resident hactivist. He's organising a hactivism evening at the city's social centre, Next To Nowhere, on Wednesday 5th March. I talked to him about his plans for the event, his ideas for improving activists' use of technology, and asked what's so damned exciting about all those zeroes and ones anyway...



What are you planning for your hacktivism event?

On March the 5th members of the BrB are doing a gig at the Liverpool Social Forum, which is located on Bold Street in the city. It will be held in the free space, or Next to Nowhere as it's known. The free space itself is under the Next to Nowhere book store (hence the name). We'll be kicking off at about 7pm and it finishes about 10 ish. At the gig we'll be presenting an introduction to the world of hackers and hacktivism. It's not just two hours of technical babble, as a matter of fact it's easy to understand no matter what your technical knowledge. We'll also be doing some demonstrations. A good defence starts with knowing how your attacker works, hence the demos. We're careful not to break the law here, people don't have to worry about the legality of the event.

What is the biggest mistake that activists make?

Tough one. Not having much experience in activism myself they could show me a million things I don't know! However I would say, not being aware of the risks posed by technical monitoring by third parties. Eavesdropping if you like. We'll be exploring this on the night. It's essential that people understand how and why 3rd party's snoop on things, otherwise you have no hope of protecting yourself and your right to privacy. It also frightens me that there is such an apathy towards it, a kind of "it won't happen to us, we're just a small group not doing anything" attitude. It's nothing new. Individuals often say that their not bothered if, say, their home computer was broken into; perhaps because they think there is no sensitive information there. This is a very naive attitude, there are many reasons why they should be bothered. How would they feel about a knock on the door at 4am because unknown to them their home computer has been taken over by a pirate who is using it to distribute child pornography? Oh right. Sudden change in attitude.

How do activists react when they find out you are a hactivist?

Varies. Some are put off at first as they link hacking with criminal activity, I can't blame them it's a false stereotype the media have churned out for years now. Once your over that people get curious and really very interested, there's always that 'question they've wanted to ask a hacker'.

Were you a hactivist before you were an activist? How did you become interested in hactivism?

I was, yes. I became interested in it after I read about China's national firewall policy.

Why is computer technology so important to you?

In itself it's not. It's important to realise that it's no more than a tool. It's what you do with that tool. You can apply the philosophy of hacking to many different situations. You hack to learn rather than learn to hack. Computer technology is a tool for learning, it's the learning that's important for me.

What potential does communications technology have from an activist point of view?

Huge. And it's going to get bigger and bigger. There's no avoiding it. One of the key elements of activism is communication. But there's the old adage - it's not what you've got, it's how you use it.

email gigs@faze.demon.co.uk for advice. http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=27810532 http://faze.demon.co.uk:90

Neon Black
- Homepage: http://dreaming-neon-black.blogspot.com

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech