Mapping hacktivism: Mass Virtual Direct Action (MVDA), Individual Virtual Direct Action (IVDA) And cyber-wars

Hackers have been present in computer networks from the moment networks began to exist. Beginning as a term to describe those who wanted to find novel uses for computers and other technologies, by the early 1990s ‘hacker’ had come to refer in popular use to those who break into computers over networks. Until the mid-1990s, despite a 20-year history of hacking, there was little evidence of sustained political engagement by hackers. Rather, hackers were overwhelmingly focused on the manipulation and analysis of computers and networks. However, with the 1994 publication of the Critical Arts Ensemble’s manifesto The Electronic Disturbance and the emergence of pro-Zapatista mass denial-of-service attacks in 1998, a politically motivated hacking movement has emerged. It has been christened ‘hacktivism’. In 2001, this movement has become the focus of mass-media attention and moral panic, often desperately ill-informed. This article will briefly introduce and outline hacktivism’s main components, in keeping with the spatial understanding of the Internet as cyberspace, what follows is a mapping of hacktivism.