Hacktivismo is an offshoot of CULT OF THE DEAD COW (cDc), whose beliefs include access to information as a basic human right. It was founded in 1999. Oxblood Ruffin, the director of Hacktivismo, has argued forcefully against definitions of hacktivism that include web defacements or denial-of-service attacks.

The group's beliefs are described fully in The Hacktivismo Declaration, which seeks to apply the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to the Internet.

Hacktivismo has also authored its own software license agreement, the Hacktivismo Enhanced-Source Software License Agreement, which is source available (but not open source).

Projects

Camera/Shy

Camera/Shy was the first Hacktivismo project released. It debuted in 2002 at the H.O.P.E. 2k2 convention in New York City. Camera/Shy is a steganographic tool that scans for and delivers decrypted content directly from the world wide web. It is a stand-alone, Internet Explorer-based web browser. It interprets and displays hidden information stored in the junk bits in .gif files.

The Six/Four System

The Six/Four System is one of Hacktivismo's products. It is a censorship resistant network proxy. It works by using "trusted peers" to relay network connections over SSL encrypted links. As an example, the distribution includes a program which will act as a web proxy, but where all of the connections will be hidden until they reach the far end trusted peer.

Hacktivismo and the cDc further gained notoriety in 2003 when the Six/Four System became the first product of a hacker group to receive approval from the United States Department of Commerce for export of strong encryption.

Sources

1. Six/Four System Protocol Specs, mixter@hacktivismo.com
2. The Six/Four System; A Decentralized Anonymous Peer-To-Peer Network Infrastructure With Trust, README file in Six/Four distribution.

External links

• Hacktivismo homepage
• Hacktivismo's Projects Page