A JOINT STATEMENT BY 2600, THE CHAOS COMPUTER CLUB, THE CULT OF THE DEAD COW, !HISPAHACK, L0pht Heavy Industries, PHRACK AND PULHAS

The hacker groups 2600, Chaos Computer Club, the Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc), !Hispahack, L0pht Heavy Indusries, Phrack and Pulhas feel the need to comment on recent announcements of a group calling themselves the "Legion of the Underground" (LoU).

The LoU has declared that they will attempt to damage and sabotage the cyberspace infrastructures of Iraq and China. They cited the human-rights issues in those countries as the reason for this action.

Though we may agree with LoU that the atrocities in China and Iraq have got to stop, we do not agree with the methods they are advocating. They are short-sighted and potentially counterproductive. One cannot legitimately hope to improve a nation's free access to information by working to disable its data networks.

Without doubt, the human rights situation in China, Iraq and many more countries on this planet is very bad. Hacktivism - using the skills and tools of hacking to advance progressive causes - could in the eyes of some of the signatories sometimes be a legitimate way of bringing public attention to this issue.

But we strongly oppose any attempt to use the power of hacking to threaten or destroy the information infrastructure of any country, for any reason. Declaring "war" against anyone, any group of people, or any nation is a most deplorable act. This only reduces the hacker to the level of the group or country that they are attacking. This has nothing to do with hacktivism or the hacker ethics and is nothing a hacker can be proud of.

Governments all over the world are trying to establish cyberspace as the new battleground for their artificial conflicts. What the LoU has done inadvertently legitimizes this agenda. If hackers are establishing themselves as a weapon, hacking in general will be seen as an act of war. And hackers themselves will undoubtedly be seen as legitimate targets of warring countries.

As we see it, LoU is doing things that governments worldwide do not want to do officially or publicly. These preparations for Information Warfare in the US and elsewhere are at a point where real-world cases are needed to justify the assigned budgets.

The LoU is providing this real-world case now. We believe the LoU should carefully investigate whether the idea of declaring "war" against China and Iraq was not given to them by someone with different interests in mind than advancing the human rights issue.

The signatories are asking all the hackers on planet earth to reject anything that has to do with damaging the information infrastructure of any country. Don't support ANY acts of "Cyberwar"; keep the networks of communication alive: they are the very nervous system of our planet.

All hackers and hacker-groups are welcome to sign, please direct your submission to hacktivism@berlin.ccc.de.