70 CHAPTER EIGHT Hacktavist . “When you gaze long into an abyss the abyss gazes into you”. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche By 2012, the alienated hacktavist battling to unlock the secrets of evil corporations and governments had become a stock hero of popular culture. For example, in the prize-winning Gir/ with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy by Stieg Larsson, which sold 90 million copies, the heroine, a self- educated hacker in her twenties named Lisbeth Salander steals incriminating documents from computers that provides journalist Mikael Blomkvist with scoops that save the progressive magazine he edits from bankruptcy. Her sociopathic behavior, which includes embezzling millions of dollars, extortion, maiming and murder, is accepted by the journalists at the magazine because her hacking exposes crimes and abuses of power. In the realm of non-fiction universe, hacktavists also use their skills to attempt to redress perceived abuses of power, For example in December 2010, the group “Anonymous,” whose members called “Anon” often wear Guy Fawkes masks resembling those worn in the 2006 movie V Js For Vendetta, launched a successful denial of service attack called “Operation Avenge Assange,” It was aimed at paralyzing companies, including PayPal and MasterCard that refused to process donations for Wikileaks because these “anons” believed that these companies were stifling the freedom of the Internet by hindering the money flow to Wikileaks. Since hacktavists often use illicit means to redress their grievances, such denial of service attacks, theft of passwords and hacking into computers, they must conceal their true identities to avoid the retribution of the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. This requires them to operate on the dark side of cyber space which has become known as the dark net. | Fortunately for hacktavists, the dark net is accessible to anyone. It is a place frequented by those that want to avoid laws, regulations and government surveillance. Its denizens inc