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En bref

Anthropologist Gabriella Coleman defines a hack as “a clever technical solution arrived at through non-obvious means.” Hacking is more than rogue computer programming; it’s a rebellious solutionary spirit.

Broadly speaking, hacking is the use of technology to fulfill a goal. Governments and corporate baddies that hack often do so with malicious intent — say, espionage, theft, or any number of more seemingly modest privacy violations — against critics, activists, and even apolitical members of the general public.

Contemporary hacking emerged in communities of 1960s tech geeks at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and has since found its way into mainstream culture. Its impact for social change has been tremendous. In 2012, the biggest hack in world history wiped 35,000 computers and paralyzed the oil giant Saudi Aramco’s business for months. Cutting Sword of Justice claimed responsibility for the attack as an action against the royal authoritarian regime.

Hacking takes countless forms, many of them illegal and/or dangerous. Therefore, activist-hackers (or “hacktivists”) must consider the ethics and risks of their actions, and must be confident in their level of information technology expertise, before flipping any switch.