Politically Motivated Hacking: Analysis, Examples and Defence

2018
Cybercrime
Politically Motivated Hacking

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction............................................................................................................................. 2
Analysis of Politically Motivated Hackings and their Purpose..................................................3
Examples of politically motivated hackings..............................................................................4
Defence against politically motivated cyber attacks................................................................6
Effectiveness of defences against politically motivated cyber attacks.................................7
Conclusion................................................................................................................................ 9
References..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
The number of online users has increased rapidly with the popularity of social media sites
and ease of internet access. The increasing rate of online users provides a great business
opportunity for businesses to reach a wider audience and expand their market share. Due to
its advantages, the number of corporations which rely on the internet has increased rapidly
over the past few years. Along with businesses, other organisations such as government
agencies, political parties and others use the internet to perform their activities. However,
there are many issues relating to the internet as well which resulted in negatively affecting
the organisations which use the internet. One of the most common threats while using the
internet is the risk of cyber-attacks or hacking. The internet is a global and open platform
due to which cybercriminals across the globe can attack others in order to hack their
systems (Zhang et al., 2011). The number of cyber-attacks is increasing continuously which
require corporations to increase their investment in the cyber security infrastructure.
However, the organisations cannot protect themselves from cyber-attacks just by increasing
the investment in cyber security infrastructure. Many factors contribute to increasing the
cyber security of an enterprise. The number of politically motivated cyber-attacks has
increased in past few years as the number of political parties on the internet increases
(Yilmaz and Gonen, 2018). The purpose of these hackers in these attacks is to demolish the
reputation or economic position of a political organisation. Recent media has clearly
highlighted that the number of cyber-attacks which are politically based has increased, but
still, organisations are not taking appropriate actions to protect themselves from these
attacks. This report will focus on analysing the growth of politically motivated cyber-attacks
and their impact on organisations. This report will evaluate different examples of cyber-
attacks by analysing recent media articles. Finally, various defences against these attacks
and their effectiveness will be discussed in the report.

ANALYSIS OF POLITICALLY MOTIVATED HACKINGS AND THEIR
PURPOSE
Along with the number of online users, the threat of cyber-attacks has increased rapidly.
Cyber criminals focus on hacking into the system of individuals or companies in order to
collect their private data. They use these data to blackmail the uses or collect money from
them. In case of cyber-attacks, the purpose of the hackers is to gain an unfair advantage or
to collect money from the party. However, in the past few years, the number of cyber-
attacks which are politically motivated has increased which are different from other cyber-
attacks. In these attacks, the cyber criminals focus on collecting the data of corporations or
individuals in order to cause harm to them rather than gaining profits (Howard et al., 2010).
These attacks are termed as Hacktivism attacks, and the criminals who conduct these
attacks are called hacktivists. The Hacktivism attacks have become mainstream, and they
affect millions of lives across the globe. Hacktivists consider their actions as “hacking for a
cause”, and their main objective is to fulfil such purpose which is relating to a political
matter. The internet not only provides a platform to businesses for marketing their products
and reaching a wider audience, but it also provides cyber criminals a platform to hack into
the system of individuals and organisations. The hacktivists especially target politicians or
political parties in order to prove their point or fulfil their objective.
The main reason for the increase in politically based cyber-attacks is because it provides a
large platform to cyber criminals to attack political organisations across the globe and
humiliate them worldwide. For example, cyber criminals can hack into the system of a
political party in the United Kingdom while operating from China. Most organisations also
avoid implementing effective cyber security infrastructure or taking basic security measures
to protect themselves from the cyber-attacks (Himma, 2005). It makes it easier for cyber
criminals to attack their system and hack into their data. The cybercriminal also gets global
coverage when they attack a political party because the media cover each aspect of such
attack. Cyber-attacks on businesses are more common, and they did not get as much media
coverage as compared to others. Another reason the number of cyber-attacks is growing is
that the cyber criminals wanted to show the world about the illegal operations conducted