Cyber specialists wonder: where have the hackers gone?

An IBM research discovered that the activity of hackers who use their hacking abilities to express political, ecological and social messages has declined by 95% over the previous four years. This is due to the decrease of the Anonymous movement and the worsening of cyber criminal punishment. There are many kinds of hackers, and one of the interesting kinds is the activists-attackers who use their abilities to express political and social messages. A research conducted by X-Force, the cyber division of IBM, shows that these hackers are disappearing-and that their activity has decreased by 95 percent since 2015; in this year, the activists carried out around 35 cyber campaigns, in 2016 were fewer than 25, in 2017 the number was five, and last year only two were identified



The Lizard team, which was liable for 9 percent of the assaults, was the most successful group after Anonymous in the last four years. A host of other hacker terrorist organisations, between 2015 and 2018, were behind 2% to 4% of each of the assaults. There have been quite a few arrests of militants in Europe and the United States in latest years, who in some instances have been heavily punished with up to 10 years in prison, as well as fines of up to half a million bucks. There is no question that there was a reduction in the amount of militants due to the powerful penalty and its activation against the militants.


Since it should be carried out in the name of any organisation or organisation in order for an activist to be efficient, it is simple to see that severe penalty will result in a huge decrease in the use of cyber instruments in social struggles. During the 2016 election campaign, the cyber phenomena observed resulted to enhanced monitoring and penalty in the sector. An activist who wants to protest against a local phenomenon or does not alter the world order may believe twice if he wants to risk extended imprisonment for a tree to be rescued or laboratory mice released


And despite everything, activist activity may grow slightly this year, IBM says. At this point, after Julian Assange was expelled from her London embassy, only anti-service attacks were seen against Ecuadorian government computers, as well as assaults by pro-Iranian hackers against Saudi newspapers. The rising tension between China and the U.S. and Iran and the West may evoke dormant demons and return to the work of cyber-political professionals who have apparently been fired in the cyber world of criminal or government.