IBM X-Force specialists have published a study on the collapse of the hacktivist movement in recent years. As a result, hacktivist activity has decreased by 95% compared with 2015, when 35 incidents of this type were recorded. Already in 2017, only five incidents of this type had been recorded, two in 2018, and none in the first months of this year.
Researchers believe these changes are due to two main factors: the “death” of Anonymous and the particular attention paid to law enforcement, which has recently reduced the ranks of hacktivists quite substantially.
According to IBM X-Force, the hacker collective Anonymous was previously responsible for nearly 45% of all hacktivist attacks, meaning it was far ahead of its closest competitors, the groups Lizard Squad and DownSec.
In early 2010, Anonymous hacked various companies and government networks for a variety of social reasons, but the Anonymous name began to appear more and more in connection with various political campaigns that started around 2016: #OpKKK (exposing KKK members), #OpParis (detecting ISIS members banned in the Russian Federation), #OpISIS (detecting ISIS members banned in the Russian Federation and their websites), #OpWhale (hacking websites of the Japanese and Icelandic governments in connection with illegal whaling). According to IBM, such activity diverted many hacktivists away from Anonymous.
In addition, there were more cases in which, on behalf of Anonymous, stolen data from political organizations was dumped onto the network, and often this data was false. As a result, there even emerged something called fake Anons (“fake anonymous”), meaning people were defending their own interests under the Anonymous name or trying to make money this way. Analysts note that the name of the famous hacktivists also concealed the secret services of various countries around the world, promoting political propaganda and not only.
As a result, in the absence of a leader and a unified ideology, the hacktivist camp became real chaos, and the movement split into several subgroups, whose attacks were sometimes ineffective, harmed innocent people, and drew only contempt and ridicule.
In addition, law enforcement agencies in various countries around the world have taken hacktivists seriously. According to IBM, at least 62 hacktivists have been arrested in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Turkey since 2011 (and these are only the arrests the general public knows about).
“We are not saying that the era of hacktivism is coming to an end,” says Camilla Singleton, analyst at X-Force IRIS. – Acute social justice issues, broader organizational opportunities among hacktivist groups, and the notable shift toward areas beyond the reach of law enforcement could radically change the face of hacktivism in a relatively short period. Most likely, we are currently observing only a lull in hacktivist activity, but this is not the end. “
Camilla Singleton, analyst at X-Force IRIS
