Dr Lee Salter, University of Sussex





What do we mean when we speak of ethics?
What sort of hacking do we mean?
How does that question impact upon the
conceptualisation of ethics?
Hacktivism isn’t necessarily ethical. How does
that question impact on the conceptualisation of
ethics?
“Ethical hacking” – hacking with permission. The
notion of a certified ethical hacker, certified by
the International Council of E-Commerce
Consultants – such hackers are given permission
and report back to the company.




Do no harm; protect privacy; waste not want not
(computing as communal resources)
Exceed limitations (break conventional morality,
break unjust laws, be a disloyal employee…to fight
oppression);
Fight threats to freedom of communication
Fight the power: “It's a moral imperative to use
hacking as the equivalent of 'jujitsu,' allowing the
individual to overcome larger, more impersonal, more
powerful forces that can control their lives. If
governments and corporations know they can be
hacked, then they will not overstep their power to
afflict the citizenry.” (Steven Mizrach ‘Is there a
Hacker Ethic for the 90s Hackers?’)

But these ethical principles are of a political
nature.
◦ For example, the principle of “waste not want not”
supposes an “unrealistic” notion of ownership of
computing resources… but one of the questions is
the to which ethics consist in “is” or “ought”


Moreover, is there a single set of ethics to
cover all hacktivists?
Dependent on circumstance = substantive
ethics

Dan Schiller, How to Think About Information

Giorgio Agamben, State of Exception

Sarah Braman, Change of State

Digital society/analogue politics – the state as
the manager of potentiality
◦ Information economy in context of declining rate of
profit
◦ The state of exception has today reached its maximum
worldwide deployment. The normative aspect of law can
thus be obliterated and contradicted with impunity by a
governmental violence that – while ignoring international
law externally and producing a permanent state of
exception internally – nevertheless still claims to be
applying the law
◦ exclusionary corporate control over information as
private property is predicated on interweaving police
powers throughout the tissue of social life


The Washington Post celebrated Wikileaks
because it ‘targets regimes in Asia, subSaharan Africa and the Middle East…It's
significant that their emphasis seems to be
on relatively closed societies rather than the
U.S. or Europe, that have a rather robust
media sector‘(10/01/07)
The Sidney Morning Herald : ‘“Your country's
support for the underdog and for a fair go is
showing through,” a spokeswoman said’
(20/01/07)
Private security agencies Palantir, HBGary and Berico tech sought to
 Feed the fuel between the feuding groups. Disinformaton.
Create messages around actions to sabotage or discredit the
opposing organizaton. Submit fake documents and then call out
the error.
 Create concern over the security of the infrastructure. Create
exposure stories. If the process is believed to not be secure they
are done.
 Cyber attacks against the infrastructure to get data on document
submitters. This would kill the project. Since the servers are now
in Sweden and France putting a team together to get access is
more straightforward.
 Media campaign to push the radical and reckless nature of
wikileaks actvites. Sustained pressure. Does nothing for the
fanatics, but creates concern and doubt amongst moderates.
 Search for leaks. Use social media to profile and identify risky
behavior of employees.

U.S. Army Counterintelligence:
◦ WikiLeaks 'use(s) trust as a center of gravity by
protecting the anonymity and identity of the
insiders, leakers, or whistleblowers. The
identification, exposure, termination of
employment, criminal prosecution, legal action
against current or former insiders, leakers, or
whistleblowers could potentially damage or destroy
this center of gravity and deter others considering
similar actions from using the Wikileaks.org Web
site'.



'the Guardian's in murky waters where those love
their country should not go‘ The Daily Mail
August 21
'The Guardian has produced a "handbook" that
will help fanatics strike at will', Daily Mail,
October 8
"'Guardian has handed a gift to terrorists', warns
MI5 chief: Left-wing paper's leaks caused
'greatest damage to western security in history'
say Whitehall insider“ Guardian had presented "a
gift" "UK-based extremists", a "'guide book' for
terrorists“ Daily Mail, October 8




The idea that we either can or would want to operate
intensive scrutiny of thousands is fanciful. This is not East
Germany, or North Korea. Knowing of an individual does
not equate to knowing everything about them (Head of
MI5 in Daily Mail)
'catastrophic loss to British intelligence ever… He said it
was “pretty much inconceivable” that Russian and Chinese
intelligence agencies had not hacked into Mr Snowden’s
computers and copied the material he had taken from the
US‘ Telegraph (11/11/13)
'Clegg: Guardian Snowden leaks 'gifted' terrorists ability
to attack', amplifying his claim on LBC Radio, that the
leaks 'would have been immensely interesting for people
who want to do us harm‘ Telegraph (10/11/13) – recall
G.W. Bush’s speech in Atlanta No 8 2001.
'Paedophiles may escape detection because highlyclassified material about Britain’s surveillance capabilities
have been published by the Guardian newspaper, the
government has claimed' (Telegraph 6th Nov)



Prestigious, flagship news magazine
Hosted by Kirsty Walk, interviewing Glenn
Greenwald
12 minute interview, took place on night of October
4 2013 following months of intense news coverage


Context BBC Backgrounder on spying: “A History
of government spying”: Rome, France, East
Germany and the USA,
No mention of British spying past 1844, no
mention of any domestic surveillance in the UK or
USA.
◦ ‘Behind the Cold War's Iron Curtain, surveillance of the
population was an everyday part of life. Nowhere was
this more prevalent than in East Germany, where for
nearly 40 years the Stasi intelligence service monitored
and reported on the activities of its citizens, using the
information to stifle unrest’.

Noteworthy that the BBC refers to the scandal as
the "Spy Scandal" and the NSA leaks, focusing
almost exclusively on the NSA and USA.


KW: is it right for a journalist to decide what
is in the public interest in respect of "national
security“? (mirrored in the Daily Mail piece
about 'those who love their country').
KW: "for a majority of the population,
perhaps, it actually might be quite reassuring.
They might actually feel quite safe?'
[00:03:39.26].


KW 'But people want to know. I'll tell you why
people want to know. They want to know, I
suppose, that how can you guarantee that the
material you have you can keep safe?'
[00:05:04.08].
GG: 'The only thing we've informed people of
is that the spying system is aimed at them',
trying to associate with citizens’.


KW ‘So it is very possible that you, actually,
by your actions, make it easier for terrorists
to understand how to evade all the checks
that are made on them online’ [00:01:47.00].
KW ‘how can you be sure that your actions
have not made it easier for terrorists to
operate’ [00:02:55.17]


GG: ‘The idea that terrorists didn't know, excuse
me, that the United States and UK governments
were trying to monitor their communications is
laughable. Of course every terrorist who's
capable of tying their own shoes has long known
that the U.S. and U.K. governments are trying to
monitor their communication’ [00:02:16.13].
Greenwald notes the ridiculousness of the task of
proving no leaks and then offers that spying on
Brazilian oil companies does not fit with Wark's
assertions [00:03:54.23].


‘and how do you know, more importantly,
whether [Snowden] hasn't had to give up
secrets if he's under Russian protection?'
[00:10:56.00]
Snowden ‘has been through China, obviously
in Hong Kong, and he's in Russia now. You
can't be sure that he hasn't had to give up
something’ [00:11:33.27].


GG ‘unlike the U.K. government and the U.S.
government, Mr Snowden's statements have
proven to be completely true in every single
instance’ [00:11:08.22].
GG: ‘you should be aware that simply because
the government makes a claim, especially
when they're making that claim in the middle
of a lawsuit while they're being sued for
violating the law, one should not go around
assuming that claim to be factually true’
[00:06:27.08].


GG: ‘I would hope that we've learned the
lesson after the Iraq War that government
claims are not tantamount to the truth’
[00:01:06.29].
GG: ‘I see a government like the UK barge
into the newsroom of the newspaper with
which I work and demand that they destroy
their computers, something that you would
expect to hear in Iran or Russia or China’
[00:08:55.10]





Hacking for the state is ethical, resting on
assumption that the state is an ethical actor
The state is “the people” homogenised interests
State hacking defends “us” from “terrorism”,
“Russia”, “China”, Snowden; answer is “security”
Hacking against the states is unethical – “the
people” are victims of hacking by Snowden rather
than by GCHQ!
Discursive exclusions rather than inclusions
frame these understanding…

Hacking as system improvement
◦ Breaking unjust laws, being a disloyal employee,
fighting oppression







British/US imperialism
Informational transformations
Recent atrocities (Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo)
Domestic political surveillance of activists
State of exception
Ultimately distinctions in hacking ethics are
substantively political and hegemonically
understood
Case speaks of denial of potential and actual
transformations in power relations