An Evaluation of Cyber Threat Taxonomies in the framework of Cyber Activism

Abstract

The billions of new media platforms available online allow people to represent themselves and meet like-minded people. Thus, a human-based, lively and dynamic public opinion is formed in cyberspace as well. A free and egalitarian representation should be given to all groups in order to ensure the democracy of cyberspace. The states and users who carry the current power struggles to the cyber space restrict cyber democracy. In this study, which is handled within the framework of new media and cyber activism, the motivation of hacktivism, which is a marginal and aggressive type of cyber activism, is accepted as proving its existence and power in the cyber field. DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service)attacks are one of the most preferred attack types by hackers, who are the representatives of the struggle for power and public administration in cyberspace. The aim of the study is to help determine the criteria to distinguish cyber activism from other cybercrimes. The criteria used in DDOS taxonomies are presented in the literature. In order to distinguish cyber activism from other cybercrimes, cyber attacks affecting the public in Turkey were examined and a table containing the messages of hackers and findings were presented. As the result, it has been proposed to include the determining criteria in DDOS taxonomies by making hacktivism motivations visible.