Interesting viewing for those (like me) who dont have a clue who these activist hackers are about whom we so often read about in the news, when another government or corporation has been hacked.
This documentary portrays one of the most colourful and legendary activist hackers of the past and it is one heck of a wild ride!
The so called legendary "CommanderX" hacker got (in)famous for the first time when he was protesting against a law which criminalised sleeping in public parks in Santa Cruz, California. While being (voluntarilyy) homeless himself, this computer hacker decided the best protest would be to attack the website of the local county in Santa Cruz, who arrested homeless people. The hack was announced beforehand. No harm was intended. No information was stolen. And the attack only lasted 30 minutes.
Many other similar or even bigger hacker protests followed and some are mindboggling HUGE, like the Arab Spring revolution in the Middle East, when millions of people revolted against their dicactor and a legendary group of American hackers called "Anonymous" (among which CommanderX) would guarantee the Arab protesters (from faraway America behind their laptops) with communications when the Arab dictatorship did everything in their power to (unsuccesfully) lock the internet down.
Supporters have called the Anonymous hacker group "freedom fighters" and digital Robin Hoods, while critics have described them as "a cyber lynch-mob. In 2012, Time magazine called Anonymous one of the "100 most influential people" in the world.
In this documentary about CommanderX we get to see how his legendary infamy (or fame?) came about. We also get to see how he fled to Mexico, asking for asylum. Shortly after this documentary was made CommanderX was arrested by the FBI and he now faces 15 years in jail.
The director of this documentary stated that he didnt want to glorify the status of hackers like CommanderX, but I guess he unintentionally somehow did...
Fascinating watch!
