Patriotic hackers in cyberspace operations : independent or sponsored cyber actors?

Abstract EN

Technological advances have allowed actors other than states to engage in cyber activities and even conduct cyber-attacks.

Examples of these actors include hacktivists, cyber criminals, and patriot hackers.

Each one of these actors has a specific aim to achieve, in some cases it could be gaining money or fame or defending social causes and in other cases it could be acting out of nationalism to protect the interests of their state which is the case of Patriot Hackers.

This paper examines how relatively new non state actors have come about in the cyber domain, more specifically patriot hackers, understanding who they are, their role in the cyberspace, the reason why they engage in cyber activities and most importantly whether they conduct these cyber acts independently or rely on a certain party to do so, i.

e.

their role in assisting states in the cyber domain, whether or not they have any affiliation with their government and if this latter is using them to conduct cyber-attacks to avoid attribution.