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CHAPTER 6 Hacktivist When you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss gazes into you. —FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE B: THE TIME that Snowden had begun hacking into NSA files in 2012, the alienated hacktivist battling to unlock the secrets of evil corporations and governments had become a stock hero of popular culture. For example, in the international best-selling Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Trilogy by Stieg Larsson, the heroine, a self-educated hacker in her twenties named Lisbeth Salander, steals incriminating documents from computers that provide the journal- ist Mikael Blomkvist with scoops that save from bankruptcy the pro- gressive magazine he edits. The journalists at the magazine accept her sociopathic behavior, which includes embezzling millions of dol- lars, extortion, maiming, and murder, because her hacking exposes crimes and abuses of power. In the real-world universe, hacktivists also use their skills to attempt to redress perceived abuses of power. For example, in December 2010, the group Anonymous, whose members, called Anons, often wear Guy Fawkes masks resembling those worn in the 2006 movie V for Vendetta, launched a success- ful denial-of-service attack called Operation Avenge Assange. It was | | Epst_9780451494566_2p_all_r1.z.indd 49 ® 9/29/16 5:51 Pa | | HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019537