Welcome to this week’s Six Secrets where we peer into the fog of cyber war - a new era of digital action where hackers are on the front line and conflicts and humanitarian aid are funded by NFTs.
Hacktivism
Digital vigilantes are opening up a new cyber front - and not just in the Russia-Ukraine war. Hacker activists first emerged in the ‘80s with groups like Worms Against Nuclear Killers but the mix of hacktivism and war is an unnerving development. Where is it all headed? SPYSCAPE tracks the rise of hacktivism through 10 notorious groups.
The shadowy hacker collective known as Anonymous declared cyber war on Russia, claiming to have disrupted Russia’s Federal Security Service website, hacking the Ministry of Defense database, and interrupting broadcasts and streaming services. So who is leading these digital renegades and how do they operate?
We believe there’s a superhero in each of us - so we’re launching our annual True Superheroes awards to celebrate people who’ve overcome adversity, made amazing contributions to society, and inspired others to do the same. We’ll nominate people in art, design, music, tech, science and many other fields. This week we share a few of our many nominees from Hollywood.
Matt Devost was the first person to hack into an aircraft carrier’s systems while it was at sea. Same with a nuclear submarine. He even changed the intelligence picture while a battlefield commander was deciding where to deploy tanks. Basically, Matt’s a hacker for hire and if he wants to find you badly enough, there’s virtually nowhere to hide.
When NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden sold his NFT artwork Stay Free for $5.4m in 2021, many people were scratching their heads trying to figure out what NFT even meant. Now non-fungible tokens are being used to fund everything from Julian Assange’s legal bills to Ukraine’s conflict. So what are NFTs all about? Here’s our simple guide.
Hackers break protocols, exploit networks, and communicate in complex languages - and not all of it is in code. Master the lingo with SPYSCAPE’s glossary written by authentic hackers and security experts. If you want to hold onto your secrets and identity, you’ll need good OpSec.
The final phase of every successful hacking attack is ‘clearing the tracks’, getting rid of the trail of breadcrumbs left behind during the break-in. Done correctly, the attacker can cover their tracks to avoid being traced and caught. But what happens when things don’t go according to plan?
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