hacktivist

English

Alternative forms

• hactivist

Etymology

Blend of hack +‎ activist, a portmanteau coined in 1994 by a member of the Cult of the Dead Cow hacker collective.

Noun

hacktivist (plural hacktivists)

1. A person who engages in hacktivism.
   • 2014, Deborah Gonzalez, Managing Online Risk: Apps, Mobile, and Social Media Security, page 66:

     One type of badvocate, sometimes identified as a troll, is a hacktivist..

   • 2023 March 22, Christian Wolmar, “Cybersecurity concerns highlight a range of potential risks”, in RAIL, number 979, pages 32–33:

     However, there remain many cybersecurity concerns about the railways. For example, and perhaps more pertinently, 'hacktivists' - hackers with a political rather than a financial motive - in Belarus were reported to have taken breached computers that control rail movements in the country in an effort to delay Russian supplies to their front line in the early stages of the war against Ukraine.

Related terms

• hacker

Translations

a person who engages in hacktivism

• French: hacktiviste (fr) m or f

See also

• artivist
• ecoteur