179 lines
8.7 KiB
Plaintext
179 lines
8.7 KiB
Plaintext
Title : The Fall of Hacker Groups
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Author : Strauss
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Date : April 4, 2014
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|=--------------------=[ The Fall of Hacker Groups ]=--------------------=|
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|=--------------=[ Strauss <strauss@REMOVEME.phrack.org> ]=--------------=|
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|=-----------------------------------------------------------------------=|
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--[ Contents
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1 - Introduction
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2 - Background
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3 - Nowadays
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4 - Conclusion
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5 - Shouts
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6 - Bibliography
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7 - Notes
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--[ 1 - Introduction
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The earlier, bigger part of hacking history often had congregations as
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protagonists. From CCC in the early 80s to TESO in the 2000s, through LoD,
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MoD, cDc, L0pht, and the many other sung and unsung teams of hacker heroes,
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our culture was created, shaped, and immortalized by their articles, tools,
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and actions.
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This article discusses why recently we do not see many hacker groups
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anymore, and why the ones we do, such as Anonymous and its satellite
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efforts, do not succeed in having the same cultural impact as their
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forefathers.
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--[ 2 - Background
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Hacking is, in its very essence, an underground movement. Those who take
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part on it have always been the ones who (ab)used technology in ways beyond
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the knowledge of the larger userbase. It is tightly linked to intense
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efforts in unveiling previously unknown information as well as in sharing
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these discoveries. These premises hold true for as long as we know hackers:
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since computers had barely no users up until the informatic massification
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of today.
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The nature of the hacker interests intrinsically poses difficulties:
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growing knowledge on anything is hard. It requires heavy research,
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experimentation, and can turn into an endless journey if objectives are not
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carefully set. Just like in any field of scientific studies, it calls for a
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good amount of colaboration, an attitude which, luckily for hackers, was
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greatly enabled by the advent of computer networks and, most notably, the
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Internet.
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Computer networks increasingly made it possible to transmit unlimited and
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uncensored information across their geographical extent with little effort,
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with little costs, and in virtually no time. From the communication
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development standpoint, one would expect that the events that followed the
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80s to our days would lead to a geometric progression in the number of
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hacker communities. In effect, hacking has arguably grown. Hacker
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communities, definitely not. So what went wrong?
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--[ 3 - Nowadays
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We live in days of limited creativity. Moreover, as contraditory as it may
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seem, it looks particularly rare for creativity to arise from groups or
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teams. Communities, rather than individuals, should be more intellectually
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empowered to create, but lately we have been watching the force of the
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solo, the age of the ego. That, of course, when we do see anything that
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catches our attention for originality, which is an ever scarcer pleasure.
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In "Time Wars" [1], Mark Fisher explains that post-fordism has taken us to
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this catatonic inability to innovate. Our nearly obsessive compulsion for
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work consumes not only our time, in the literal form of labor hours, but
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our minds, by distracting us from everything else we could be doing
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otherwise. These distractions include our unceasing connection to ubiquous
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media (e.g. the frequent checks for new e-mail, or accesses to social
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networks on mobile devices) as well as an increased concern with financial
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stability and provisioning, a concern that grows as welfare is invariably
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trimmed by both the governments and the private sector.
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It is important to note that our capitalist worries are more deeply rooted
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in us than might seem at first, even in the most politically diverse
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people. Supporting oneself is not easy, it does not come for free. Getting
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some education, finding a job, staying up-to-date... regardless of what
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your aspirations are, whatever you feel obliged to do is probably a lot,
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already. And it likely involves a prevalence of "minding your own
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business".
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The unsettlement created in our thoughts affects intellectual solidarity in
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even more severe ways than it does individual creation. Simply put, if it
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is already so difficult for one person to focus away from these
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"distractions" and into inspired productivity, let alone for a group to
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join in a true collective mind. The ties that bind collective-minded
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parties together take dedication to build, and our egotistical concerns do
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not help (see note "A"). Not only is commitment required for the actual
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work to be accomplished, but also to identify the shared values and goals
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that enable true human connectivity.
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Notice this does not concern _collaboration_ as much as it does
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_collectiveness_. Collaboration typically breaks down the creative process
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in a way it can be incrementally achieved with very self-sufficient,
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individualistic contributions. Such is the case in most open-source
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software projects. Roles are very well segregated so that a minimum of
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human integration is required, as far as most modern software development
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processes go, anyway. A true "hive mind" [2] cannot exist without the
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support from a stronger, more unisonant cognitive bond. Funny enough, the
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popular variants of LOIC, the DDoS tool used by "Anonymous", contain a
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"hive mind" feature (i.e. getting a target automatically from a given IRC
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server and channel and firing your packets against it). You wish it was
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that easy.
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The concept of the "conscience collective" was first established by Emile
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Durkheim who, in his 1893 book "The Division of Labor in Society",
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expressed 'that the more primitive societies are, the more resemblances
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(particularly as reflected in primitive religion) there are among the
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individuals who compose them; inversely, the more civilized a people, the
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more easily distinguishable its individual members', as put by R. Alun
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Jones [3].
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Well, following (or despite) the prosperous adoption of atheism and
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agnosticism as professed in the Internet and other popular media, it is
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understood that religious beliefs are in a low, taking a bit of what
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socities traditionally saw as a point of unity. In fact, there seems to be
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an ever growing search for uniqueness in the modern man, especially that
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from the apparently overpopulated metropolises (see note "B"). In this
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never-ending crowd of interesting, outstanding personas, we want to shine
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somehow, to prove ourselves different and original. In the end, it turns
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into a pointless battle, against God-knows-who, for apparent singularity.
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Instead of reaching for the fellow man, we want to set ourselves apart, and
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thus, remarkable.
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--[ 4 - Conclusion
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Modern life nearly conspires against the collective. We are tormented by a
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relentless flow of information as well as the daily worries of an eternally
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insecure, unwarranted life. Furthermore, we dread the thought of being
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alike, of sharing multiple views and opinions. As such, we are turning
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progressively judgemental of who we should be partnering with, on the basis
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that "they do not understand". In hacking, it yet implicates on the
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delicate subject of trust, which would require an essay on itself, given
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the undeniable importance the matter has acquired over the years.
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If our thoughts on creating hacker groups were to be summarized, this is
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how they would look: No one ever feels like we do. They are not to be
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trusted and we do not have the time for them. The only attitude consonant
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to our search for a comfortable, safe life is to constrain ourselves to our
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own limitations, ignore the intelligent life out there, and surrender to
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the mediocracy that our society has condemned our leisure time to.
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--[ 5 - Shouts
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My only acknowledgements go to whoever reads this through and puts his/her
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thoughts to it. I eagerly await for your comments.
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--[ 6 - Bibliography
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1 - "Time Wars", Mark Fisher - http://www.gonzocircus.com/xtrpgs/
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incubate-special-exclusive-essay-time-wars-by-mark-fisher/
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2 - "Collective Consciousness", Wikipedia -
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_consciousness
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3 - Excerpt of "Emile Durkheim: An Introduction to Four Major Works",
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Robert Alun Jones - http://durkheim.uchicago.edu/Summaries/dl.html
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--[ 7 - Notes
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A) In respect to social networks, while they are a valid community-building
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mechanism in nature, selfishness prevails in common usage, by means of the
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indulgent pleasure that fuels chronic "pluggedness", at times voyeur, at
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times exhibitionist and needy.
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B) It is arguably the case, though, that the globalizing aspect of the
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Internet has brought the feeling of upsetting commonality to the citizens
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of even the more unpopulated places.
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