Hacker Wars: E-Collaboration by Vandals and Warriors

Abstract

This article develops an analytical framework for new forms of information warfare that may threaten commercial and government computing systems by using e-collaboration in new ways. The framework covers (1) strategic model, (2) strategic arena, (3) e-collaboration, and (4) ethics and law. The framework then is used to compare two recorded instances of major hacker wars that erupted in the shadow of kinetic conflicts. In both cases, the hacker war appears to have been a grassroots collaborative enterprise by loosely organized civilians with neither government control nor permission. Collaborating across networks to coordinate their attacks, such hacker wars can attack both government and commercial computer networks without warning. The analysis shows how hacker wars demonstrate characteristics found in the frameworks and that there are forms of e-collaboration that represent a potentially difficult new source of threat for globalized information systems.