# What is Hacktivism?

> Hacktivism is a motive-based label for cyber activity carried out to promote, oppose, or draw attention to a political, social, religious, or ideological cause.

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## Content

The activity may include disruption, website defacement, unauthorized disclosure, or information campaigns. The label does not identify a particular technique, capability level, organization, legal status, or reliable connection to the cause invoked.

Participants can range from loosely coordinated individuals to established groups, and activity may intensify around conflicts, elections, court decisions, or public events. Some actors exaggerate impact, reuse others’ claims, or adopt activist language to conceal criminal or state-aligned objectives. Defenders should assess observed behavior and consequences separately from stated identity or motivation.

### Key points

- **Evidence:** Preserve claims, timestamps, affected assets, traffic and account evidence, and independently observed impact; distinguish an actor’s statement from verified access or disruption.
- **Risk reduction:** Protect public-facing services, administrative identities, domain and content-management accounts, data stores, and recovery paths; prepare communications for high-visibility but technically limited incidents.
- **Analysis:** Track objectives, target selection, timing, repeated techniques, infrastructure, and confidence levels without treating ideology as proof of authorship or sponsorship.
- **Important limitation:** “Hacktivist” is an analytic description, not a legal finding. Laws differ, lawful digital advocacy exists, and technical evidence alone may not establish motive, membership, direction, or responsibility.

### Related terms

[Cyberwarfare](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/cyberwarfare/>) · [Cyber espionage](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/cyber-espionage/>) · [Cyber threat intelligence (CTI)](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/cyber-threat-intelligence/>) · [Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/distributed-denial-of-service-attack/>) · [Botnet](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/botnet/>)

### Sources

[ENISA Threat Landscape 2025](https://www.enisa.europa.eu/publications/enisa-threat-landscape-2025) · [Canadian Centre for Cyber Security: An Introduction to the Cyber Threat Environment](https://www.cyber.gc.ca/en/guidance/introduction-cyber-threat-environment)

## Attribution and scope

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