[liberationtech] What were the first instances of hacking 4 Whisteblowing?

[Yosem Companys]

From: Gabriella "Biella" Coleman <enid.coleman at mcgill.ca>

Hi all,

I am writing a piece that is trying to historicize direct action
hacking/whistelblowing and am trying to pin point any early examples
of hackers hacking in order to access and then leak the
information/emails to expose wrong doing..

Obviously Anonymous popularized the tactic and prior to them there are
many examples of black hat groups
engaging in revenge hacking/doxing (and the leaked emails likely had
that sort of relevant information) but I am looking for examples that
pre-date Anonymous and that more explicitly follow the whistle blowing
mold, if this exists.

One of the earliest and only examples I have is a hack against the
Church of Scientology (which is very fitting but)...

Just to be clear too: I am not interested in early hacktivist
interventions per se, like DDoS, or web site defacements, or even
dumping of data like credit cards for politics sabotage, but only one
instance: whereby the hack led to evidence (via documents or emails)
of wrong doing.

Thanks!
Biella


-- 
Gabriella Coleman
Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy
Department of Art History & Communication Studies
McGill University
853 Sherbrooke Street West
Montreal, PQ
H3A 0G5
http://gabriellacoleman.org/
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