New Tricks For Old Security Attacks: 8 Q2 Trends To Watch

All you have to do is look at the latest news headlines to know that political hacktivism — hacking conducted to issue political statement or protest governments or organizations — is alive and well.

During the second quarter, the hacker group LulzSec morphed back into the global hacker collective Anonymous, which carried on the legacy of politically motivated hacks, researchers at Kaspersky Lab highlighted in a Q2 threat report.

As with LulzSec, Anonymous was not interested in money, but rather in sending a particular message. The groups also relied on social media such as Twitter as well as community bulletin boards such as pastebin.com to disseminate their message.

Some of the most notorious hacks this quarter include Sony, the CIA, the Italian Cybercrime Division, and the Arizona Department of Public Safety.