#hackivism

By: Mariam Rija

Hacker Group:

Who is Decocidio?

Decocidio is an anonymous, autonomous group of hackers responsible for the 2010 hack of European Climate Exchange (ECX) website. They are part of the radical environmental justice group “Earth First!” (founded in the American Southwest) which labels them as “hacktivists,” as does the website “Inside Climate News” (Feldman). They are also connected to “Climate Justice Action,” a European grassroots organization, and the Hackbloc collective (Quaid 2010; climatejusticeaction.net; hackbloc.org).

According to crabgrass.riseup.net, Decocidio is an “eco-anarchist tech collective supporting the radical green movement with information dissemination, digital direct hacktions and electronic ecotage.”   

The Register, a news website, says they are a “green hat” organization. This, apparently, has nothing to do with the environmental nature of their hacking, rather the fact that they are new to the trade, with green referring to being “fresh.” In terms I don’t understand, “a Green Hat Hacker thinks: * Hat (Plant)* Alternatives* New approaches* Everything goes (speculatif)” according to a hacker forum blog. 

The green logo does pay homage to their environmental cause, as does the Greek letter theta, which relates to the Ecology Flag used by American environmentalists (The Flag Research Center 2012). 

Public perception/reception:

According to numerous sources, Decocidio is among the hacking elite, placed in multiple notable top 10 and top 20 lists of hackers (OMICS International, The Hidden Wiki, engineeredhacker.blogspot.com, makeituse.com, quora.com, linkedin.com).  

The Daily Caller names them among one of “the hacker groups everyone’s watching right now,” in 2015, five years after their famous hack. 

John Leyden (2010) with The Register was less flattering, saying “Decocidio preposterously describes its attack as a public act of digital direct action...doubtless, as we speak, the perps are camped out in Epping Forest eating lentils and listening to 80s anarcho-vegitarian agitpop from the likes of Crass or Flux of Pink Indians,” mocking the group’s environmental cause.

Despite this, there is little information on the group, with the same blurb of information compiled on their Wikipedia page being recycled on every hacker website bringing up their name.  The only mention of them is their 2010 hack, which lasted 22 hours.  Based on this, it appears the group also formed in 2010 to pull off this hack. As soon as the hack went into play, they communicated to the public through environmental discussion groups.   

After the hack, The Guardian newspaper quoted Kelly Loeffler of the ECX saying  "We have no comment relating to the incident as there is nothing to report publicly," (Phillips 2010).   

The Hack: 

What happened?

Decocidio hacks with a purpose; they hack for a cause. In 2010, Decocidio comically defaced the European Climate Exchange (ECX) website with a silly font and stylized it in a manner usually reserved for phony pop-up ads. The humor they used can also be seen as a mark of a true hacktivist. The hack targeted the ECX website and exposed the harmful, dubious practice of “cap-and-trade,” otherwise known as carbon trading or carbon offsetting.    

The Register says the ECX website uses the Apache software on Linux operating system (OS). They say it is “it's unclear how the attack was carried out or whether any deeper compromise into databases or other sensitive information was achieved,” (Leyden 2010), which is always a sign of good hacking.

Why did they do it?

Author George Monbiot (2006) said carbon offsetting made it so people could "buy complacency, political apathy and self-satisfaction,” (Clark 2011). CheatNeutral, a parody website, described it best: "When you cheat on your partner you add to the heartbreak, pain and jealousy in the atmosphere," the website explains. "CheatNeutral offsets your cheating by funding someone else to be faithful and not cheat. This neutralises the pain and unhappy emotion and leaves you with a clear conscience," (Clark 2011).  

A Decocidio member anonymously explained their intentions: “We feel the EU Emissions Trading Scheme is not well understood by the general public or even within the environmental movement. It is a major fraud touted by the mainstream media, politics, industry and lobbyists as the main solution,” (Phillips 2010). 

After much research on the topic and numerous articles, I still find it hard to explain this practice. Decocidio boiled it down, explaining the scam sarcastically in a few bullet points.

Decocidio wanted to create awareness by doing the industry and organization as much trouble and damage as possible. Despite the denial by ECX spokesperson Kelly Loeffler, it is obvious that this hack had some impact, because if there was truly “nothing to report publicly” there wouldn’t be a news story nor a request for a comment, much less talk continuing five years later. Also, though the ECX tried to brush it off, it took an entire 22 hours to restore their site.    

What did we learn?

This was a wake up call. Since the inception and even before the start of cap-and-trade, there have been doubts and criticism. Yet due to the decrease in carbon emissions as a result of this policy, many complaints were brushed aside and the general public didn’t hear about it as with many backroom deals in politics. This hack exposed the reality, that at best this “solution” was a band-aid on a gaping wound. 

While this hack was led by hacktivists as a part of Earth First!, a black hat attack on the carbon-trading market by the “Black Dragon” exposed the corruption and theft when he almost secured millions of dollars. This was for personal gain, not for the environment, but if corporations won’t care about the environment, they might care about their pockets being swindled. The more hacks against this market, the more these companies may be forced to take a closer look at the system. So while cap-and-trade is still being practiced by governments after the Decocidio hack (and other protests and hacks), at least more people know it exists and may seek out the truth about the persisting environmental harms of pollution, despite governmental claims that carbon trading is keeping it under control.

Discussion:

I am surprised that a “green hat” group received such wide acclaim in the hacker community, especially if there is only one hack (or only one publicized hack). This is a testament to the effectiveness of the hack and that it was an impressive hack to pull off. 

It is skilled, talented hackers with hearts of gold like Decocidio that Keren Elazari advocates for in her TED Talk “Hackers: The Internet’s Immune System.” In her talk she delineates the public idea and subsequent demonization of hackers and how it differs from how they view themselves. One message of the talk was that regardless of your opinion, hackers are here to stay, so the world needs to make room. This is true and providing benefits and rewards for hackers (and hacktivists in particular) working for causes that contribute to society in a positive manner will promote a more egalitarian, equitable, transparent, and honest society.     

As Coleman (2013) says in her piece “Geeks are the New Guardians of Our Civil Liberties”, “an increasingly important subset [of hackers] rise up to defend their productive autonomy, or engage in broader social justice and human rights campaigns.” This piece also discussed the many ways hackers (and geeks that work with and alongside them) are very politically involved and are actively working to expose corruption as well as keep the internet a free place that everyone can access without fear of the government attacking them. Decocidio’s goal was to expose corruption to protect the environment and they did it using hacking too.

In the piece “Hacker Politics and Publics,” Coleman also challenges the stereotype of geeks and hackers as “malicious teenage boys, dwelling in their parents’ basement and raising Internet hell as they channel anger stemming from psychological isolation,” (Coleman, 2012). Labeling these groups as part of the “digital generation” isn’t nuanced enough either, Coleman argues (2012). A similarity between hackers and geeks is that they both view themselves of champions of free speech and privacy for the individual internet user. This happens, but the challenge and thrill are also motivations for messing with the system. In the case of Decocidio, the motivation wasn’t a broad ideological one like preserving freedom of speech, rather the environment and ending cap-and-trade, but this act was also “digitally based politics,” (Coleman, 2012).

References

Anon. 2016. “Climate Justice Action.” Climate Justice Action. Retrieved January 26, 2016 (https://climatejusticeaction.net/en/).

Anon. n.d. “Decocidio #ϴ - Groups - Crabgrass.”decocidio #ϴ - groups - Crabgrass. Retrieved January 26, 2016 (https://crabgrass.riseup.net/decocidio).

Anon. 2012. “Ecology Flag - Flags International.” Flags International. Retrieved January 26, 2016 (http://flagsinternational.com/2012/07/12/ecology-flag/).

Anon. n.d. “Engineered Hacker.” Engineered Hacker. Retrieved January 26, 2016 (http://engineeredhacker.blogspot.com/2014/06/list-of-hacker-groups-anonymous-group.html).

Anon. 2010. “European Climate Exchange (ECX) Target of Decocidio Hacktivists against Carbon Trading Scam.” Earth First! Retrieved January 26, 2016 (https://www.earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/24064).

Anon. n.d. “List Of Hacker Groups.” Open Access Articles- Top Results for List of hacker groups. Retrieved January 26, 2016 (http://research.omicsgroup.org/index.php/list_of_hacker_groups).

Anon. n.d. “List Of Hacker Groups.” The Hidden Wiki. Retrieved January 26, 2016 (http://zqktlwi4fecvo6ri.onion.link/wiki/list_of_hacker_groups).

Anon. 2014. “List Of Hacker Groups of the World.” Make It Use. Retrieved January 26, 2016 (http://makeituse.com/blog/list-of-hacker-groups-of-the-world/?ckattempt=1).

Clark, Duncan. 2011. “A Complete Guide to Carbon Offsetting.” The Guardian, September 16. Retrieved January 26, 2016 (http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/sep/16/carbon-offset-projects-carbon-emissions).

Coleman, Gabriella. 2013. “Geeks Are the New Guardians of Our Civil Liberties | MIT Technology Review.” MIT Technology Review. Retrieved January 26, 2016 (http://www.technologyreview.com/news/510641/geeks-are-the-new-guardians-of-our-civil-liberties/).

Coleman, Gabriella. 2011. “Hacker Politics And Publics.” Public Culture23(3 65):511–16.

Elazari, Keren. n.d. “Hackers: The Internet's Immune System.” TED conference. Retrieved (https://www.ted.com/talks/keren_elazari_hackers_the_internet_s_immune_system?language=en#t-8908).

Feldman, Stacy. n.d. “Decocidio.” Decocidio. Retrieved January 26, 2016 (http://insideclimatenews.org/topic/decocidio).

Funk, Mckenzie. 2015. “The Hack That Warmed The World.” Foreign Policy, January 30. Retrieved January 26, 2016 (http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/01/30/climate-change-hack-carbon-credit-black-dragon/).

Klisiaris, Dimitris. 2015. “Which Are the Best Hacker Groups in the World?” Quora. Retrieved January 26, 2016 (https://www.quora.com/which-are-the-best-hacker-groups-in-the-world#!n=12).

Leyden, John. 2010. “EU Climate Exchange Website Hit by Green-Hat Hacker.” The Register, July 26. Retrieved January 26, 2016 (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/07/26/climate_exchange_website_hack/).

Pollock, Richard. 2015. “These Are The Hacker Groups Everyone’s Watching Right Now.” The Daily Caller. Retrieved January 26, 2016 (http://dailycaller.com/2015/07/09/these-are-the-hacker-groups-everyones-watching-right-now/).

Naufal, Agil. 2012. “6 Hackers And Its Types.” hacker414s.blogspot.com. Retrieved January 26, 2016 (http://hacker414s.blogspot.com/2012/06/6-hackers-and-its-types.html).